World War 2 Dates

Question 1

What was the status of the USA after the First World War and it occurred during which period?

Answer 1

the USA emerged as the dominant global economic power. Its economy enjoyed an economic ‘boom’ in the 1920s

Question 2

However this upward spiral of growth and prosperity began to slow down in USA. When?

Answer 2

in 1929

Question 3

When Wall Street crashed. Thousands of American companies went bankrupt and shareholders were ruined. This had a knock-on effect and American banks collapsed.

Answer 3

in October 1929

Question 4

The Great Depression spread quickly around the world as many other nations’. What were the effects?

Answer 4

International trade slumped. Factories closed down and millions of people lost their jobs. As unemployment grew, the domestic market for goods fell further. Many nations were now caught in a vicious downward spiral

Question 5

The Great Depression threatened international cooperation and peace. HOw?

Answer 5

Government introduced protective tariffs on imports to try to foster a recovery in their own industries and increase demand for goods produced at home by making foreign goods more expensive.

Question 6

The Depression also caused great social problems as mass unemployment and poverty grew. What happened?

Answer 6

Many people blamed the weakness of their government for their suffering and more extreme political parties gathered support. Radical political parties seemed to offer salvation, where liberal democracies had failed.

Question 7

What was the effect of the great depression on Japan?

Answer 7

Japan had been dependent economically particularly on the export of the luxury fabric, silk. Its main market for silk
had been the USA. Fifty percent of Japan’s factories closed and its peasants starved.

Question 8

Germany and Japan, and to some extent Italy, were increasingly jealous of the British and French overseas empires during the Depression. whY?

Answer 8

because the British and French could offset some of the effects of the global slump by increasing trade with their empires.

Question 9

How did the Great Depression proved that the LEague of Nations was very weak?

Answer 9

The League’s one key tool to enforce its resolutions was economic sanctions. But after the Great Depression took hold globally, member states were even more reluctant to impose sanctions that might damage further their already devastated economies.

Question 10

In Europe, Hitler had come to power in?

Answer 10

1933

Question 11

The Nazis’ aims included the?

Answer 11

revision of the Treaty of Versailles, rearming Germany, unifying all Germans - including Ansch/uss (union) with Austria and gaining ‘living space’ (Lebensraum) in the east. The Nazis wanted! to create Lebensraum for the development of the ‘Aryan race’

Question 12

When Hitler announced publicly in a huge rally his rearmament plans and reintroduced conscription?

Answer 12

1935

Question 13

When Hitler marched a German army into the Rhineland. This was set down as a demilitarized zone.

Answer 13

March 1936

Question 14

When Hitler made alliances with both Italy and Japan. These agreements would develop into the Axis Pact,

Answer 14

In November 1937

Question 15

What excuse/reason Hitler gave for marching a German Army into Rhineland?

Answer 15

Hitler claimed that this was to protect Germany from the new agreement for mutual assistance signed between France and the USSR.

Question 16

Hitler sent military assistance to General Franco in the Spanish Civil War in 1937 despite being a member of the Non intervention Committee, why?

Answer 16

to test out their new arms, their new aircraft and their new tanks and to give their troops invaluable training and experience in a real-life battlefield. blitzkrieg tactics were tested.

Question 17

When Hitler sent his army into Austria and declared Ansch/uss- unification of Germany and Austria.

Answer 17

In March 1938

Question 18

When Hitler announced that he was prepared to invade the Sudetenland to ‘protect the German population’ from persecution by the Czechoslovak government

Answer 18

in September 1938

Question 19

the British, French, Italians and Germans met to discuss the crisis over the Sudetenland- when did this happen?

Answer 19

In a series of meetings between 15 and 29 September,

Question 20

When in line with the Munich Agreement, Hitler marched his troops into the Sudetenland.

Answer 20

October

Question 21

When Hitler sent troops over his new border to seize and occupy the rest of Czechoslovakia.

Answer 21

in March 1939, Hitler went beyond mere revision of the treaty. For the first time he invaded a sovereign state with no claim to be ‘saving Germans’

Question 22

When Hitler pulled off one of the most significant diplomatic coups of the twentieth century: Nazi-Soviet Pact and why?

Answer 22

In August 1939 with the guarantees given by Britain
and France to Poland he could face a two-front war and USSR would feel very threatened by a German invasion of territory on its border thus planning to attack

Question 23

As a result of revolutionary reforms, by when Japan was able to compete with the west?

Answer 23

By 1900,

Question 24

When some army officers demanded the overthrow of

the democratic government in a military coup in Japan?

Answer 24

in 1930

Question 25

When did Japan military army conquer Manchuria China

Answer 25

in 1931

Question 26

Whe the army had control over Manchuria and also the military seized more control domestically- what was the impact?

Answer 26

By 1932. undermined the credibility of the country’s liberal democratic government. Japan’s foreign policy became more expansionist

Question 27

With its newly strengthened army, Japan launched a full-scale invasion of China in? How did USA respond?

Answer 27

1937. The Americans decided to try to contain Japan’s expansion into China by limiting the supply of materials to it.

Question 28

Japan invaded Inda-China when and why? What was America’s reaction?

Answer 28

In 1941, Japan invaded Inda-China in an attempt to gain more resources. Roosevelt responded by banning all trade, including oil supplies to Japan

Question 29

Japan launched a massive attack on the US naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. Why and when? What was the reaction?

Answer 29

to prevent the USA entering the war in Asia. On 7 December 1941, following day, Roosevelt called the attack ‘dastardly’ and declared war on Japan.

Question 30

When Germany simultaneously invaded Norway and occupied Denmark, and the war began in earnest?

Answer 30

On April 9, 1940

Question 31

German forces swept through Belgium and the Netherlands in what became known as “blitzkrieg,” or lightning war- When?

Answer 31

May 10 1940

Question 32

When did Germany invade France? (France was subsequently divided into two zones, one under German military occupation and the other under French government)

Answer 32

June 14 1940

Question 33

When did the Battle of Britain happen and what was the result?

Answer 33

German planes bombed Britain extensively beginning in September 1940 until May 1941. The Royal Air Force (RAF) eventually defeated the Luftwaffe (German Air Force). Hitler postponed his plans to invade

Question 34

When Hitler ordered the invasion of the Soviet Union, codenamed Operation Barbarossa.

Answer 34

On June 22, 1941. Though Soviet tanks and aircraft greatly outnumbered the Germans’, Russian aviation technology was largely obsolete, and the impact of the surprise invasion helped Germans get within 200 miles of Moscow by mid-July. Soviet counteroffensive and the onset of harsh winter weather prove to be the downfall of Germany’s war effort.

Question 35

When did this happen that after the battles of Stalingrad and Kursk in Russia, Germany was forced into a full-scale retreat.

Answer 35

November 1942. The approach of winter, along with dwindling food and medical supplies, spelled the end for German troops there, and the last of them surrendered on January 31, 1943.

Question 36

When the United States and Japan engaged in a series of naval battles, climaxing in the Battle Of Midway

Answer 36

In late spring of 1942, Battle Of Midway on June 3–6, 1942 in which Japan suffered a catastrophic defeat.

Question 37

How and by when Allied forces were closing in on Germany from both east and west.

Answer 37

by early 1945. During the course of 1944, the Germans were slowly but steadily forced completely out of Soviet territory, after which the Russians pursued them across eastern Europe and into Germany itself in 1945.

Question 38

When British and American forces launched the D-Day Invasion which made the German army forced into retreat from the West side as well?

Answer 38

In 6 June 1944, British and American forces launched the D-Day Invasion, landing in German-occupied France via the coast of Normandy

Question 39

When did Germany surrender?

Answer 39

May 8 1945, shortly after the suicide of Adolf Hitler.

Question 40

Guadalcanal, one of the southern Solomon Islands, the Allies also had success against Japanese forces in a series of battles from?

Answer 40

August 1942 to February 1943, eventually force the Japanese out of the Solomons for which they were fighting and then pursue them from various other Pacific island chains that the Japanese had earlier seized.

Question 41

In response to D-Day invasion Hitler poured all the remaining strength of his army into Western Europe, ensuring Germany’s defeat in the east. Hitler gathered his forces to drive the Americans and British back from Germany in the Battle of the Bulge which lasted from?

Answer 41

(December 1944-January 1945), the last major German offensive of the war.

Question 42

United States dropped two Atomic Bombs on the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Stunned by the unexpected devastation, Japan surrendered a few days later.- When

Answer 42

Early august 1945.

Question 43

In North Africa, British and American forces had defeated the Italians and Germans. An Allied invasion of Sicily and Italy followed, and Mussolini’s government fell in

Answer 43

July 1943.

Question 44

Fighting continued throughout the Pacific . As they neared Japan proper, the Allies began heavy bombing campaigns against major Japanese cities

Answer 44

in 1944 and early 1945

Question 45

When was Japan totally defeated militarily

Answer 45

August 2945.

Question 46

When was the Treaty of San Francisco signed and what did the USA do with Japan meanwhile?

Answer 46

The Americans occupied Japan until a treaty was finally signed in 1952. The USA had total control over Japan until this was signed, and so was not limited by the conditions of an armistice or a treaty that had been signed quickly at the end of the war.

Question 47

Who led SCAP (Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers - the control commission), and had unlimited power.

Answer 47

General Douglas MacArthur

Question 48

Japan became a close ally of the USA in the Pacific and adhered to which article as a part of its new constitution and what did the article say?

Answer 48

Article 9 of its new constitution, outlawing war as a means of settling disputes with another nation.

Question 49

What all territory did Japan lost as per the treaty?

Answer 49

lost all the territory it had conquered during the Second World War. It also lost its control over Korea and Taiwan. The Bonin Islands and the Ryukyu Islands, including Okinawa, could be under American influence.

Question 50

Which countries had to receive billions of dollars of reparations and by who in the San Francisco Treaty?

Answer 50

All assets from the Japanese government, companies, and private individuals. China, Korea, and Taiwan were to receive these expensive reparations, even the occupied territory Indo-China. Allied prisoners of war were to receive compensation too. The total reparation bill was finally agreed at 1.03 trillion yen

Question 51

The USA demilitarized Japan- what all was demilitarised/

Answer 51

The entire Japanese military was disbanded and its weapons were destroyed. All armaments factories were closed down. development of armed forces was forbidden.