World War II and Cold War Study Guide Answers

1.  What event in 1929 began the Great Depression in the United States? The stock market crash

2.  What were some causes of the worldwide depression after WWI? Great loss of life, property damage, no money to repay war debts, and inflation

3.  What were reparations? Payments made for losses or damages

4.  Who was the leader of the Nazi Party in Germany? Adolf Hitler

5.  Why did the German people like Hitler and the Nazi Party? Promised to restore Germany’s economy, rebuild their military power, and take back land lost due to the Treaty of Versailles

6.  What race of people did Hitler and the Nazi Party blame for many of the economic problems in Germany? Jews

7.  What was the Holocaust? The murder of more than 6 million Jews by Hitler and the Nazis from 1933-1945

8.  What is genocide? The planned killing of a race of people

9.  What was the alliance of Germany, Italy, and Japan in WWII called? The Axis Powers

10.  What were the major countries that made up the Allied Powers in WWII? Great Britain, France, US, and Soviet Union

11.  What action by Hitler caused France and Great Britain to declare war on Germany and begin WWII? Invasion of Poland

12.  What major event caused the United States to enter WWII? bombing of Pearl Harbor by Japan

13.  What country was created by the United Nations in 1948 as a homeland for the Jewish people? Israel

14.  What is NATO? North Atlantic Treaty Organization- an alliance of 12 western European nations and the US and Canada

15.  What was the Cold War? A period of distrust and misunderstanding between communist and capitalist countries (US vs USSR)

16.  What country was the leader of the Eastern Bloc? Soviet Union

17.  What country did the Allied Powers divide into four sections after WWII? Germany

18.  Why did they divide this country? to create occupation zones as they rebuilt Germany

19.  What was the Iron Curtain? The division between Western Europe (Democratic/Capitalism) and Eastern Europe (Communist)

20.  Who built the Berlin Wall? The Communists

21.  Why was the Berlin Wall built? To separate the city and keep people in East Germany

22.  What Soviet leader helped to end the Cold War? Mikhail Gorbachev

23.  What marked the end of the Cold War? The fall of the Berlin Wall