Deck 21: The Second World War

Question 1

_____ were the "revisionist" powers in the interwar period that were not content with the status quo after the First World War.

A) The United States and Britain
B) Italy, Japan, and the U.S.S.R.
C) France and Spain
D) Belgium and France

Answer 1

Italy, Japan, and the U.S.S.R.

Question 2

The western European democracies supported policies of appeasement because of:

A) the increasing belief that the Treaty of Versailles was unfair.
B) the enormous number of wartime casualties, especially in France.
C) the spread of Keynesian ideas.
D) the increasing belief that the Treaty of Versailles was unfair and the enormous number of wartime casualties, especially in France.

Answer 2

the increasing belief that the Treaty of Versailles was unfair and the enormous number of wartime casualties, especially in France.

Question 3

With the rise of Hitler in 1933, the Soviets changed their foreign policy and:

A) discouraged Communist parties from working with socialists.
B) joined the League of Nations.
C) allied with Poland and Romania.
D) sought to ally with Germany.

Answer 3

joined the League of Nations.

Question 4

In March 1936, Hitler violated the Versailles treaty and moved troops into the demilitarized Rhineland. Why did the Allies fail to respond even though they knew the weakness of the German army?

A) Hitler promised to allow the French to keep military bases in the Rhineland if they acquiesced to his moves.
B) The divided French government was unwilling to act without Britain, and the British would not risk war to keep German troops from occupying German soil.
C) Britain was willing to intervene, but the French were not willing.
D) The French would not risk war to keep German troops from occupying German soil.

Question 5

Mussolini's war against Ethiopia succeeded because:

A) the League of Nations lacked an army.
B) the League of Nations refused to take any action against Italy.
C) France supported Italy.
D) Britain feared that if sanctions became too effective, by refusal of oil or by closure of the Suez Canal, Italy might be provoked into a general war.

Question 6

The Spanish Civil War was caused by:

A) a right-wing victory at the polls that provoked a leftist revolt in the Spanish navy and air force.
B) ideological conflicts among the parties of the Left.
C) the electoral victory of the Popular Front followed by an anti-government insurrection of the Spanish army.
D) the Soviet Union's refusal to send military equipment to support the republicans.

Question 7

During the Spanish Civil War, all of the following occurred except:

A) that England and France forbade the shipment of war materials to Spain.
B) that Germany and Italy sent military equipment and troops to support Franco.
C) that the Soviet Union sent military equipment to support the republicans.
D) that the United States supported the democratically elected government of Spain, allowing it to import arms for self-defense.

Question 8

Hitler demanded that Czechoslovakia cede the Sudetenland to Germany because the Sudetenland:

A) had been part of the German Empire before 1918.
B) had a small German minority.
C) was almost all German.
D) suffered cruelly under the repressive Czech government.

Question 9

During the 1938 Munich crisis, the Soviet Union:

A) signed a secret alliance with Germany.
B) urged a firm stand against Hitler's demands.
C) was unwilling to render assistance to Czechoslovakia.
D) strived to isolate itself from the major western European states.

Question 10

All of the following help explain why Britain and France caved in to Hitler's demands during the 1938 Munich crisis except:

A) that they had little confidence in Soviet military strength and its ability to assist Czechoslovakia.
B) that British Prime Minister Chamberlain was acquiesced to Hitler's plan.
C) that the British and French lagged behind Germany in military preparedness.
D) that Germans inside Czechoslovakia had the right to join Germany according to the principle of national self-determination.

Question 11

One of the reasons for the failure of the negotiations between the U.S.S.R. and Britain to form an anti-German alliance was that:

A) the Soviets feared they were being maneuvered into bearing the brunt of a Nazi attack.
B) the French were hostile to the Soviets and pressured the British into refusing the alliance.
C) Britain was unwilling to allow Soviet armies within its borders.
D) Britain signed a treaty of nonaggression and friendship with Nazi Germany.

Question 12

Germany's military success in France rested on:

A) France's defensive military psychology.
B) the unpreparedness of French armies in terms of mechanized warfare.
C) an openly defeatist group of leaders in France.
D) All of these are correct.

Question 13

Which of the following occurred shortly after the defeat of the French armies in 1940?

A) Germany garrisoned Europe with its soldiers.
B) Germany overthrew the Norwegian Fascist Party.
C) Germany formed alliances with Greece and Britain.
D) Germany formed alliances with Spain and the U.S.S.R.

Question 14

After the fall of France, Hitler controlled almost exactly the same geographical area in Europe as did:

A) Louis XIV.
B) Napoleon.
C) the Ottoman Empire.
D) the Habsburg Empire.

Question 15

With Great Britain standing alone against Hitler, the United States:

A) adopted the Lend-Lease policy.
B) sent Great Britain a small shipment of arms.
C) gave Great Britain 50 overage destroyers.
D) All of these are correct.

Question 16

An important factor in the success of the British Royal Air Force against the Germans in the 1940 battle of Britain was:

A) the availability of new radar devices.
B) Germany's preoccupation with pushing its borders westward.
C) the superiority of the British bombers.
D) Hitler's dispute with Stalin over eastern Europe.

Question 17

Hitler attacked the Soviet Union in 1941 for all of the following reasons except:

A) that he was irritated by the Soviet annexation of the Baltic states.
B) that he disliked the Soviet's expansion toward the Balkans.
C) that he wanted to gain the wheat harvests of the Ukraine and the oil wells of the Caucasus.
D) that German spies in the Kremlin informed him that the U.S.S.R. was unprepared for war.

Question 18

After the German failure to capture Moscow in 1941, Hitler:

A) fully mobilized the German economy.
B) renewed the attack on Moscow in 1942.
C) shifted the main attack to the Caucasus.
D) fully mobilized the German economy and shifted the main attack to the Caucasus.

Question 19

In 1942, the Axis powers accomplished all of the following except:

A) penetrating Egypt to within 70 miles of Alexandria.
B) launching a heavy air raid on the American naval base.
C) invading the Philippines and attacking Guam, Midway, Hong Kong, and Malaya.
D) conquering Spain.

Question 20

An immediate repercussion of the Allied conquest of Sicily in July-August 1943 was that:

A) Hitler ordered German troops to occupy the Italian peninsula.
B) Hitler arrested Mussolini and imprisoned him in northern Italy.
C) Mussolini declared total war, conscripting young boys and old men into the army.
D) Mussolini fell from power, and Italy was recognized by the Allies as a "cobelligerent."

Question 21

The planning for the Allied invasion of Nazi-occupied France did not include:

A) assuring huge accumulations of supplies and troops.
B) planting false intelligence reports.
C) landing simultaneously at Calais and Normandy.
D) getting the help of men and women in the underground Resistance movements.

Question 22

General Eisenhower's decision to halt the Anglo-American drive toward Berlin at the Elbe was due to all of the following except:

A) the need for a clear line of demarcation from the Russians.
B) a desire to show goodwill toward the Russians.
C) the Americans' overextended supply lines.
D) a desire to break the Western-Soviet coalition.

Question 23

The Holocaust:

A) was not a concerted strategy to kill Jews and other minorities.
B) was organized and approved at the highest level of Nazi leadership.
C) was conducted without the knowledge of most Nazi followers.
D) All of these are correct.

Question 24

America's decision to drop an atomic bomb on Japan in 1945 resulted in:

A) approximately 100,000 people being immediately killed.
B) the surrender of Japan.
C) the introduction of an unprecedented threat to human existence.
D) All of these are correct.

Question 25

The demand for the "unconditional surrender" of the Axis powers:

A) was unanimously agreed upon by Stalin, Churchill, and Roosevelt at the Tehran Conference.
B) was adopted at Casablanca at an American initiative and without much thought to possible political implications.
C) was insisted upon by Stalin and grudgingly accepted by the Americans and British.
D) was adopted in order to justify the payment of reparations.

Question 26

At Yalta, the Big Three reached agreements, at least formally, on:

A) Poland and eastern Europe.
B) the future of Germany.
C) the war in Asia.
D) All of these are correct.

Question 27

The most difficult issue to resolve at Yalta was:

A) Poland and eastern Europe.
B) the price of Russia's entry into the war with Japan.
C) the future division of Germany.
D) the disagreement over German reparations.

Question 28

One of the promises of the Yalta agreement of February 1945 was that _____.

A) the Russian-Polish boundary was to be moved away from the Curzon line
B) the countries liberated from the Nazis were to be permitted provisional governments that were "broadly representative of all democratic elements in the population"
C) international observers were to monitor the elections in eastern Europe
D) eastern Europe was to be divided into American, British, and Soviet spheres of influence

Question 29

Which of the following agreements was made at Yalta with regard to the Far East?

A) The Soviets were to receive only half of the territories and rights that tsarist Russia had lost to Japan in the Russo-Japanese war of 1904-1905.
B) Russia was to receive control of Manchuria under a UN trusteeship.
C) The Soviets were to be given Japan's Kurile Islands.
D) Russia was to attack Japan the day Germany surrendered.

Question 30

Clement Attlee replaced Churchill as Britain's representative at the Potsdam Conference because Churchill:

A) had suffered a stroke.
B) left the conference after Stalin and Truman refused to accept his views on a European peace settlement and repeatedly criticized the British Empire.
C) lost his position as the prime minister when the Labour Party defeated Churchill's Conservative Party at the polls.
D) decided to retire.

Question 31

At the Potsdam Conference of July 1945, the Allies agreed on all of the following except:

A) the "denazification" of Germany.
B) German disarmament.
C) the punishment of Nazi war criminals.
D) the terms of the final peace treaty with Germany.

Question 32

Evaluate Hitler's foreign policy between 1933 and 1939. Why did he enjoy so many successes?

Question 33

Appeasement was a long-standing and often useful diplomatic device. Why did it fail in the 1930s? At what point should statesmen like Neville Chamberlain have recognized that appeasement was not a viable policy?

Question 34

Outline the grand strategy of the Western Allies during the Second World War. Why did Stalin object to this strategy?

Question 35

What was the military turning point in the Second World War, the point after which the Allies steadily advanced and the Axis could no longer hope to win?

Question 36

Describe the agreements made at the Yalta conference in 1945. Why did Roosevelt make controversial concessions at Yalta?

Question 37

What were the major provisions of the peace settlements made with the Axis powers after the Second World War?

Question 38

In 1942, German forces controlled nearly all of Europe. Where would Hitler's opponents attempt to weaken his hold on the continent?

Question 39

Why did Hitler decide to attack Stalingrad?

Question 40

What was the central position of the United States during the Second World War with respect to the European and Pacific theaters?

Question 41

How did the resources of Europe's colonies influence the course of the Second World War?

Question 42

Where was the toll of the Holocaust on European Jews greatest outside of Germany and Poland? Compare both the total numbers and percentages of the total Jewish population in your answer.

Question 43

What weaknesses plagued western Europe, the United States, and Russia as fascist dictators came to power elsewhere during the 1930s?

Question 44

What set off the Spanish Civil War? How did the conflict divide the world?

Question 45

What led to France's fall in 1940? How did the French react to defeat?

Question 46

How and why did the United States eventually join the war?

Question 47

Describe the strategy of the final Allied offensive in 1944-1945.

Question 48

What was Germany's "Final Solution" to the so-called "Jewish problem" in the view of Nazi planners such as Heinrich Himmler?

Question 49

How was the United Nations originally organized? What were its responsibilities?