World War II: Its Causes, Course, and Aftermath

Question 1

Lebensraum

Answer 1

living space for Germans, ideology behind Hitler’s expansion into…

• Poland
• Austria
• Czechoslovakia

Question 2

League of Nations

Answer 2

Ineffective; did not stop Hitler
Instances when it did not intervene:
-1931: Japan invasion of Manchuria
-1935: Hitler began rebuilding forces, Mussolini attacked Ethiopia- the League issued ineffective sanctions
-1936: Hitler occupied the Rhineland
-1937: Sino- Japanese war, Japan committed atrocities against China
-1938: Hitler engineered the Anschluss (forced union of Germany and Austria)

Question 3

Axis Powers

Answer 3

Germany, Italy, Japan

Question 4

ghettos

Answer 4

where Jews were confined to living, poor conditions

Question 5

blitzkrieg

Answer 5

massive air strikes directed at enemy lines, followed by a reinforced rapid massive (quick) mechanized attack at the point of the air strike. German strategy used when invading Poland, defeated France

Question 6

Nonagression Pact

Answer 6

between Hitler and Stalin, cleared the way for Hitler’s invasion of Poland (1939)

Question 7

Gestapo

Answer 7

the secret police of Germany

Question 8

Red Army

Answer 8

soviets

Question 9

Battle of Britain

Answer 9

air war for supremacy of the skies of England, nightly bombings of England - “the Blitz”

Question 10

Luftwaffe

Answer 10

German air force

Question 11

Royal Air Force (RAF)

Answer 11

Great Britain’s air force

Question 12

Atlantic Charter

Answer 12

• a pivotal policy statement issued in August 14, 1941
• defined the Allied goals for the post-war world
• was drafted by the leaders of Britain and the United States, and later agreed to by all the Allies.
• stated the ideal goals of the war: no territorial aggrandizement; no territorial changes made against the wishes of the people; restoration of self-government to those deprived of it; reduction of trade restrictions; global cooperation to secure better economic and social conditions for all; freedom from fear and want; freedom of the seas; and abandonment of the use of force, as well as disarmament of aggressor nations.

Question 13

Auschwitz-Birkenau

Answer 13

infamous extermination camp

Question 14

Erwin Rommel

Answer 14

the Desert Fox, pushed the British deep into Egypt

Question 15

Big Three

Answer 15

Stalin, Churchill, Roosevelt

Question 16

D-Day Invasion

Answer 16

1944, Invasion of the French coast at Normandy, marked the beginning of the end of Nazi domination

Question 17

Yalta Conference

Answer 17

February 1945
plan for postwar settlement
-Eastern Europe (Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Poland, and Romania) would be set up w/ coalition governments of communists and non-communists until elections could be held
-Germany would be partitioned into four zones (American, British, French, and Russian)
-Russia would enter the war against Japan in return for territories in Asia
-set up the United Nations (see United Nations)

Question 18

United Nations

Answer 18

has a General Assembly to represent all member nations and a security council of fifteen members dominated by five permanent members (China, US, Britain, France, and USSR) each with veto rights

Question 19

Potsdam Conference

Answer 19

• July 1945 (Truman replaced Roosevelt)

- tensions rose between Western democracies and Communist Russia

Question 20

superpowers

Answer 20

emerged strongest after the war, US, USSR

Question 21

Third World

Answer 21

• newly independent nations

- countries that weren’t on a side

Question 22

Iron Curtain

Answer 22

• described by Churchill

- Stalin’s expansion of communist totalitarianism

Question 23

Marshall Plan

Answer 23

• gave financial aid to any country devastated by the war who wanted it
• symbolized the line between capitalist nations who accepted it and those who didn’t

Question 24

Spanish Civil War

Answer 24

Franco (supported by Hitler and Mussolini) vs. Republicans (supported by Stalin)
Franco and his Falangists (Fascists) won

Question 25

Anti-Comintern Pact

Answer 25

1937, Germany, Italy, and Japan signed it to oppose international communism - marked the beginning of their alliance

Question 26

Munich Conference

Answer 26

ceded the Sudetenland (part of Czechoslovakia that had been German territory) to Germany; pinnacle of appeasement

Question 27

sitzkrieg

Answer 27

• time from the fall of Poland to April 1940

- French sat behind their Maginot Line and the Germans prepared secretly for a spring offensive

Question 28

Vichy Regime

Answer 28

• France fell to Germany in 1940
• Philippe Petain controlled the south and North African possessions
• Charles De Gaulle led the Free French, fighting the Nazis from the inside of the government

Question 29

Teheran Conference

Answer 29

1943, the Big Three would only accept unconditional surrender from all three Axis Powers, after the war Germany would be occupied