WWII Flashcards
Economic effects of WWII
Total cost of war - $350 billion
- paying for war meant high taxes and lower standard of living
Social effects of WWII
10 million soldiers killed and 20 million wounded.
Millions of civilians died at war, famine, and disease (6.8 million)
World left with hatred
Political effects of WWII
The U.S became a world power
Which nations became a dictatorship?
Russia, Italy and Germany
Which new nations arose?
Poland and Czechoslovakia
Which three major nations lost their monarch?
Austria, Prussia and Russia
Fascism is on which part of the political spectrum?
The right, where they want things to go to the past
Which part is communism in the political spectrum?
The left, where they want a new future
What is communism?
The totalitarian way of industrializing a backward society
What is fascism?
The totalitarian way of solving conflicts within an individually more advance society
Who organized the fascist movement in Italy?
Benito Mussolini
What is the famous quote Benito Mussolini said?
“The people are nothing, the state is everything.”
What was fascism against?
Democracy and communism
What was fascism for?
Dictatorship and extreme nationalism.
How do fascist rise?
Through economic issues
How did fascism rise in Italy?
People in Italy were poor
High inflation
Heavy taxes
Widespread unemployment
The rich feared communism
What was Mussolini’s military group called?
Black shirts
When did Mussolini seize control over the Italian government?
In 1922
What were the black shirt’s slogan?
“Believe, fight, obey.”
The German kaiser fled to which country? (William II)
Belgium
What government did Germany establish?
A democratic government
What was the democratic German government called?
The Weimar Republic
What did the Weimar Republic have?
A weak president
Bi-cameral legislative called the Reichstag
A chancellor (prime minister)
How long did the the Weimar government last?
From 1919-1933
What was the bi-cameral legislative of Germany called?
The Reichstag
What did Adolf Hitler form?
The national socialist worker party or nazi party
How did the nazi’s come to power?
Germany had an economy with a lot of inflation
6 million Germans were out of work
Fear of communism
They hated the Treaty of Versailles
- wanted colonies back
- wanted to rearm
- claimed Germans had been “stabbed in the back”
- thought they were the master race
The Weimar republic had too many political parties
How many Germans were out of work in 1932?
6 million
True or false:
Communists and nazi’s had less votes than political parties in the middle?
False: they had more
What was the name of the book Adolf Hitler wrote and what was it about?
“Meinkampf” - he outlined his ideas for Germany
What was the name Hitler’s army was called?
Storm troopers - used to control people
What did Hitler try to do in 1923?
Overthrow the government
What happened first:
Nazi’s gain power or
Hitler becomes dictator of Germany
Nazi’s gain power first in 1929 and Hitler becomes dictator in 1933
What was the Gestapo?
Secret police under Hermich Himmler
What was Hitler’s foreign policy?
1933 - Hitler takes Germany out of League of Nations
1935 - Saar valley goes back to Germany
1936 - re-arms the Rhineland
The allies refuse to act
Put these in order
Claims atrocities against Germans
Form a nazi party
Create a crisis
Demand a German solution
- ) Form a Nazi party
- ) Claim atrocities against Germans
- ) Create a crisis
- ) Demand a German solution
Then: Germany mobilizes
True or false: the treaty of Versailles forbade the union of Germany and Austria
True
What did the annexation of Austria mean?
A common border with Italy
Encircle the Czech Republic
Hitler claims Czechoslovakia is a “dagger armed at the heart of Germany”
What was the Western Rimis called?
Sudetenland
Who did Czechoslovakia ask for help?
France and England (they didn’t help)
When did the Munich conference occur and who represented who?
September 1938
Neville Chamberlain - England
Adolf Hitler - Germany
Benito Mussolini - Italy
What did Hitler want at the Munich conference?
Only the Sudetenland (he took the rest of Czechoslovakia in 6 months)
What policy did the Allies give to Hitler?
The policy of appeasement
Put in order the countries Hitler took over:
Czechoslovakia
Austria
Poland
- ) Austria
- ) Czechoslovakia
- ) Poland
What did hitler want in Poland?
A corridor through the Polish corridor
What kind of war did Hitler use on Poland?
A blitzkrieg
How many days did Poland fall after Hitler’s blitzkrieg?
Three days
What countries did the Nazi army overrun and who lead it?
Denmark and Norway led by Vidken Quising
How did the Nazi conquer France?
By invading flat plains of Belgium
Where did the Nazi’s push the allied armies to?
Dunkirk on the Atlantic Ocean
- allies pick their troops from beached back to England
What was the Battle of Britain?
German Luftwaffe attacked England by Royal Air Force fought back
Why did Germany attack Russia?
For farmland and oil
Where in Russia did the Nazi’s attack?
Moscow and Leningrad
How did Russia respond to Germany attacking them?
Scorched earth tactics
What was Hitler’s new order?
Europe would be a single nation run by Berlin
Russian slaves would feed Europe
What was the Battle of Stalingrad? (Turning point)
Lasted six months
- Hitler ordered troops to “fight to the death”
- German surrenders
What was the attack Japan had on the U.S?
Pearl Harbor
When the allies invaded France from Britain, what was this called?
Operation Overload or D-Day
What was the Battle of the Bulge?
Hitler drives a wedge into Belgium but is defeated
What is V-E Day?
Victory in Europe
Dunkirk was the scene of what?
The rescue of 300,000 French and British troops.
Hitler tried to defeat Britain by what?
Bombing British industrial centers and non strategic centers
When WWII broke out the United States what?
Declared its neutrality
During WWII the allied invasion of France on D-Day was significant because it what?
Forced Germans to fight a two-front war
