Unit 6 – Review Sheet (RS)

World War II and Cold War (World War II and Its Aftermath)

Text Chapter 15s4, 16, 17, and 19s3-4

Enduring Understandings

1. Nationalism and propaganda played a role in mobilizing civilian populations in support of their nation’s goals.

2. Changes in the post-war world created a new world order and new world conflicts.

3. Industrialization has the capacity for both progress and destruction.

4. Improvements in technology created a paradox in which there existed the potential for advancement and/or decline.

6. Global conflict leads to attempts at international cooperation and determining accountability (League of Nations, U.N. Nuremburg Trials).

Review Questions

PART 1 – WWII and the beginning of the Cold War

  1. Why and how did the world drift towards a second major war? Address the actions of Japan, German and Italy.
  2. Describe appeasement. Why did WWI, the League of Nations, the Great Depression and the Kellogg-Briand Pact together lead to the appeasement policy?
  3. Why did Hitler want to take over European countries such as Austria, Czechoslovakia, and Poland? What was the motivation behind the aggression of Italy and Japan?
  4. Describe the examples of the expansion of the Third Reich and why the Munich Conference is still seen today as the example of why appeasement is a bad idea.
  5. Why did the Nazis and Soviets sign a non-aggression pact? In what ways does this agreement mirror the Schlieffen Plan from WWI?
  6. Describe how Hitler utilized the blitzkrieg strategy in both eastern and western Europe
  7. Describe the parallels between WWI and WWII in terms of the strategies and method of war?
  8. What should Hitler have learned from Napoleon, but clearly had not?
  9. Describe the Atlantic Charter and its importance in the future of the world.
  10. Why did Japan attack Pearl Harbor?
  11. Describe the turning point in the Pacific War.
  12. How did the allies go on the offensive?
  13. Why did the Nazis persecute Jews and other ethnic groups?
  14. How did Jews respond to the increases in Nazi violence ?
  15. Describe the purpose, methods and results of the “Final Solution” and how it is the ultimate example of genocide.
  16. What role did regular people play in the holocaust?
  17. In what ways can the Battle for Stalingrad be compared to the Battle of Midway?
  18. How did WWII affect the homefronts?
  19. Describe how the Allies were able to defeat Germany.
  20. Was the dropping of the atomic bomb necessary to end the war?
  21. Describe the results of WWII on Europe and Japan politically, socially and economically.
  22. What was the purpose for the Nuremberg Trials and what new judicial principle was created there?
  23. How does WWII compare to other wars in terms of technology, destruction, size and consequences?
  24. Identify cases of inhumanity during WWII, the reasons for them, and the reaction to them (Holocaust, Nanking, terror bombing, atomic bomb, etc.)
  25. Analyze both the Axis and Allied Alliances. Why did these countries cooperate and what conclusions can you draw about the nature of cooperation and conflict between countries?
  26. Why was the United Nations created? How was the UN different from the League of Nations that it replaced? Why did the UN succeed where the League of Nations failed?
  27. What is the legacy of World War II? How was the world forever changed by this conflict?

Why is World War II considered a major turning point in history?

  1. Define and explain the importance of the following terms:

  1. Atlantic Charter
  2. Appeasement
  3. Midway
  4. Stalingrad
  5. Auschwitz
  6. Treblinka
  7. Molotov-Ribbentrop Non-aggression pact
  8. Blitzkrieg
  9. Battle of the bulge
  10. Island-hopping
  11. D-day
  12. Axis Powers
  13. Munich Conference
  14. Operation Barbarossa
  15. Bataan Death March
  16. Guadalcanal
  17. Genocide
  18. Ghettos
  19. Nuremberg Trials
  20. Demilitarization
  21. Hitler
  22. Franco
  23. Mussolini
  24. Rommel
  25. Churchill
  26. Eisenhower
  27. Montgomery
  28. Yamamoto
  29. Hirohito
  30. MacArthur

Unit 6 – Review Sheet (RS)

World War II and Cold War (World War II and Its Aftermath)

Text Chapter 15s4, 16, 17, and 19s3-4

Enduring Understandings

1. Nationalism and propaganda played a role in mobilizing civilian populations in support of their nation’s goals.

2. Changes in the post-war world created a new world order and new world conflicts.

3. Industrialization has the capacity for both progress and destruction.

4. Improvements in technology created a paradox in which there existed the potential for advancement and/or decline.

6. Global conflict leads to attempts at international cooperation and determining accountability (League of Nations, U.N. Nuremburg Trials).

PART 2 - The Third World and the Fall of Communism

Review Questions

  1. Explain the fundamental differences between the U.S. and Soviet positions regarding the future of Eastern Europe when World War II ended in 1945.
  2. Explain the agreements made at the Yalta and Potsdam Conferences and how these meetings helped to cause the Cold War.
  3. Explain the fundamental differences between Soviet Communism and the capitalist and democratic system of the United States. How did these difference lead to tensions between the two countries?
  4. What was the Cold War? For what reasons can the Soviets be blamed for the Cold War? For what reasons can the United States be blamed for the Cold War?
  5. Explain the goals, results, and Soviet response of each of the following. How does each reflect the policy of containment?

a. The Truman Doctrine

b. The Marshall Plan
c. NATO

d. The Berlin Airlift

  1. Explain the origin of the term “iron curtain.” Where was the “iron curtain” located?
  2. Why were the Chinese Communists able to win the Chinese Civil War?
  3. How did the Soviet Union and US respond to the Communist victory in China?
  4. Describe Mao’s policies that he enacted to turn China into a Marxist socialist country.
  5. Evaluate the effects of the Great Leap Forward.
  6. Why did the Cultural Revolution occur and what were the results?
  7. Why did the Korean War occur and what were the long-term effects?
  8. How does colonialism lead to war in Vietnam?
  9. Describe the domino theory and how it relates to containment.
  10. Why did the US lose the war in Vietnam?
  11. How did the War in Vietnam have consequences on Cambodia and what were these consequences?
  12. What are non-aligned nations and the third world?
  13. How did the Cold War affect Iran and lead to the Iranian Revolution?
  14. Evaluate the effect the Iranian Revolution had on the United States and the rest of the Middle East including the situation in the Middle East today.
  15. How did the Cold War affect Afghanistan? How does the war in Afghanistan compare to the war in Vietnam?
  16. Why does the Cold War calm down a bit in the 1950s even as the Soviets repress Eastern European countries?
  17. Why was there a split between the Soviets and the Chinese Communists?
  18. Describe the history of Détente. What was the idea and what were its effects? Why did détente end?
  19. Describe the goals, details and results of the Gorbachev policies of Glasnost, Perestroika and Democratization.
  20. Why did communism end in Poland, Hungary and East Germany? With what did these countries replace communism?
  21. Why was the fall of the Berlin Wall the symbol of the end of the Cold War?
  22. Describe how the Soviet Union ceased to exist.
  23. Why was Shock Therapy a good policy in theory but have bad consequences?
  24. How did the end of the Cold War and the fall of communism in Yugoslavia lead to military conflict in the Balkans? Why were NATO members concerned about conflict in the Balkans? (Think back to previous units.)
  1. Terms and people to identify:

  1. Nikita Khrushchev
  2. Mao Zedong
  3. Ho Chi Minh
  4. Vaclav Havel
  5. Lech Walesa
  1. Boris Yeltsin
  2. Daniel Ortega
  3. Fidel Castro
  4. Mikhail Gorbachev
  5. Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlevi
  1. Mohammad Mossadeq
  2. Ruhollah Khomeini
  3. Khmer Rouge
  4. Warsaw Pact