Deck 6: The Crisis Deepens: the Outbreak of World War II

Question 1

Hitler unilaterally repudiated the Versailles Treaty in 1935 when he did which of the following?

A)Invaded Czechoslovakia
B)Announced that Germany had rearmed
C)Occupied the Sudetenland

Answer 1

Announced that Germany had rearmed

Question 2

How did World War II began in Europe on September 1, 1939?

A)A German invasion of Austria
B)An Italian assault on Greece
C)A German attack on Poland

Answer 2

A German attack on Poland

Question 3

In mid-1935, the Soviet Union's Joseph Stalin announced that in the future the Soviet Union would pursue which of the following policies?

A)Declare war on Nazi Germany.
B)Oppose any cooperation with capitalist nations against Hitler.
C)Form Popular Fronts with capitalist democratic nations.

Answer 3

Form Popular Fronts with capitalist democratic nations.

Question 4

What happened to France after its defeat in June 1940?

A)It was annexed as part of Germany.
B)Half of it was occupied and the other half was ruled by a puppet regime based in Vichy.
C)It became neutral until the allied liberation in 1944.

Question 5

In 1940, 330,000 mostly British troops were evacuated from Dunkirk, resulting in which of the following?

A)Britain's being effectively knocked out of the war
B)Britain retaining the capability to fight
C)German defeat in France

Question 6

How is Japan in the 1930s best described?

A)It was spared the disaster of the Great Depression.
B)The influence of militarists and extreme nationalists increased.
C)Shidehara diplomacy guided the country to a much stronger regional position.

Question 7

After the Nazis took more territory in central Europe in early 1939, the British committed to defend which state?

A)The Soviet Union
B)France
C)Poland

Question 8

Nazi totalitarianism included all except which of the following?

A)Mass demonstrations
B)Racial laws directed against Jews
C)The outlawing of the Christian churches, both Protestant and Catholic

Question 9

What was the outcome of the 1936-1939 Spanish Civil War?

A)A nationalist victory and the installation of a military dictator
B)A bloody stalemate that lasted into the 1970s
C)A victory for the republican forces thanks to Soviet help, and neutrality in World War II

Question 10

In September 1935, the new racial laws announced at Nuremberg to settle the "Jewish Question" had what intent?

A)To pave the way for Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union
B)To enable Hitler to assume dictatorial power
C)To exclude Jews from German citizenship and forbid marriage between Jews and non-Jews

Question 11

U.S. military strategy in the Pacific during World War II was known as which of the following?

A)Massive retaliation
B)Island hopping
C)Saturation bombing

Question 12

The Nazi defeat in the Battle of Britain resulted in part from which new technology?

A)The V-1 and V-2 rockets
B)Undersea mines
C)Radar

Question 13

By 1939, the only two major democratic states in Europe were which of the following?

A)Poland and Spain
B)France and Great Britain
C)France and Spain

Question 14

In 1931, the Japanese claimed that Chinese troops attacked a railway near which city?

A)Nanjing
B)Yan'an
C)Mukden

Question 15

In Mein Kampf, Hitler declared that future German expansion must target which lands?

A)Those to the east of Germany, meaning war against Russia
B)Those to the southeast of Germany, meaning war in the Balkans and against Turkey
C)Those to the west of Germany, meaning war against France and the Low Countries

Question 16

At Munich, Hitler threatened war unless he was given which of the following territories?

A)Austria
B)The Sudetenland
C)All of Czechoslovakia

Question 17

In 1935, Mussolini welcomed Hitler's support when the French and British opposed his invasion of which country?

A)Egypt
B)Greece
C)Ethiopia

Question 18

What was Hitler's first act of foreign policy aggression?

A)Annexation of Austria
B)Reoccupation of the Rhineland
C)Seizure of the Sudetenland from Czechoslovakia

Question 19

Japan allied with Germany in the late 1930s, largely in expectation that they would join in waging war against which enemy?

A)China
B)The Middle East
C)The Soviet Union

Question 20

Which best describes the British and French diplomatic response to Hitler's demands at Munich?

A)Containment
B)Appeasement
C)Nonaggression

Question 21

What was the Mukden incident?

Question 22

The modern totalitarian state can be characterized by all except which of the following?

A)It made use of modern technology to control their subjects.
B)It included only right-wing but never left-wing governments.
C)It was led by a single leader.

Question 23

What was the goal of the Beer Hall Putsch in 1923?

Question 24

How is the "Final Solution" best described?

A)It was a Nazi policy that envisioned the emigration of Jews to the island of Madagascar and elsewhere.
B)It was a plan for the "Thousand-Year Reich" enunciated by Hitler when he became chancellor of Germany in 1933.
C)It was the final phase of the holocaust, during which millions of Jews and others were murdered in purpose-built Nazi death camps.

Question 25

What was the outcome of the Spanish Civil War?

Question 26

Why did some Southeast Asian nationalists initially welcome the Japanese?

A)They thought their peoples would be incorporated into a prosperous East Asian Empire.
B)They thought they would be able to obtain Japanese citizenship.
C)They thought the Japanese would free them from Western colonial rule and grant independence.

Question 27

How did Hitler become chancellor?

Question 28

On June 22, 1941, despite a nonaggression agreement, Nazi Germany invaded which country?

A)France
B)The Soviet Union
C)Belgium

Question 29

The United States gained naval superiority in the Pacific at which battle?

A)Pearl Harbor
B)The Coral Sea
C)Midway

Question 30

On Europe's eastern front, the turning point in World War II was at which battle?

A)Moscow
B)Stalingrad
C)Leningrad

Question 31

Why did Mussolini initially ally with the Italian Liberal Party?

Question 32

After conquering much of Southeast Asia and the western Pacific, Japan proclaimed the organization of which occupation policy?

A)Great East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere
B)Asia for the Asians
C)Monroe Doctrine for Asia

Question 33

Which of the following describes an important difference between the new totalitarian states and traditional authoritarian monarchies?

A)Totalitarian states outlawed all but the single authorized established religion.
B)Totalitarian states demanded the active loyalty and commitment of the citizens.
C)Totalitarian states demanded that its adherents wear distinctive uniforms.

Question 34

How is the Battle of Berlin best described?

A)It was a drawn out, bloody fight between Soviet and German troops.
B)It was a quick victory thanks to overwhelming allied numbers.
C)It was mostly an aerial bombardment as no allied troops ever reached Berlin.

Question 35

Why did Hitler initiate German rearmament?

Question 36

The Yalta agreement provided for the creation of which of the following institutions?

A)NATO
B)The United Nations
C)The World Bank

Question 37

Why did Czechoslovakia not become an authoritarian state?

Question 38

The meeting of the allied leaders at Yalta discussed all except which of the following?

A)Stalin's desire to obtain economic resources and to establish spheres of Soviet influence in eastern Europe
B)Roosevelt's aim that there would be free elections in eastern Europe
C)Stalin's refusal to join the war against Japan

Question 39

The United States dropped atomic bombs on which Japanese cities?

A)Hiroshima and Tokyo
B)Nagasaki and Hiroshima
C)Nagoya and Nagasaki

Question 40

Which of the following describes a reason why allied forces chose to attack Japan in the way that they did?

A)Chinese nationalist forces did not make as much progress against the Japanese as allied war planners had hoped.
B)A lack of Soviet participation made issues of supply and logistics impossible to overcome.
C)Allied commanders thought that, by 1945, Japan would be unable to resist a direct invasion.

Question 41

Why did the Germans become involved in fighting in North Africa?

Question 42

How did World War II start?

Question 43

Why did Germany withdraw from the League of Nations in 1933?

Question 44

What was the Sudetenland?

Question 45

How did Mussolini come to power in Italy?

Question 46

What was the holocaust, and whom did it target?

Question 47

Why did Japan attack the U.S. fleet at Pearl Harbor?

Question 48

What did the Japanese hope to get out of their occupied territories?

Question 49

How did Hitler come to control the German state?

Question 50

Italian fascism included all except which of the following planks?

A)Support for traditional roles for women
B)Abolition of the monarchy
C)Giving the government the power to rule by decree instead of with a parliamentary majority

Question 51

Why were the Soviets the first to reach Berlin?

Question 52

Benito Mussolini came to power in 1922 after which of the following?

A)Winning an election with historically low voter turnout
B)Threatening to march on Rome
C)Being nominated as the successor to the Italian throne

Question 53

How Nazi officials spread their racist ideologies across Germany? What evidence exists that the Nazis were effective in instilling Nazi values in many Germans by 1938?

Question 54

Why did the allies invade Italy in 1943?

Question 55

What were the origins of the Nazi Party? From where did they get their membership, and why were people attracted to them?

Question 56

What was the object of Japan's invasion of East Asia?

Question 57

What conditions facilitated the rise of authoritarian regimes across central and eastern Europe during the interwar period?

Question 58

What was achieved at the Yalta conference?

Question 59

Why did the United States drop two atomic bombs on Japan and not just one?

Question 60

What was the Grand Alliance?

Question 61

How did the U.S. Navy end up taking back control of the Pacific? What battles, tactics, and other factors were the most instrumental to the American campaign?

Question 62

For what reasons did the Japanese withdraw from the League of Nations in 1933?

Question 63

How was France defeated in 1940? How did the Nazis administer the defeated France?

Question 64

To what extent was the Spanish Civil War representative of the European tensions of the interwar period?

Question 65

Why is the Soviet war effort considered to be the most significant to winning the war in Europe?

Question 66

How did Japan begin its conflict with China? How did the rest of the world's response bolster or hamper Japan's efforts?

Question 67

In the nineteenth century, European Jews experienced which of the following?

A)They were increasingly forced to live in segregated ghettos.
B)They were ruled under a separate legal system which was to reinforce their "inferiority."
C)They were increasingly granted legal equality.

Question 68

How were the Anschluss and the annexation of the Sudetenland accomplished? What was the rationale for the allied response to each?

Question 69

How did Nazi racial ideology shape German occupation policy? How did it facilitate the perpetration of the holocaust?

Question 70

How did Japanese occupation affect the territories and societies under their control? How successful were Japanese occupation policies? Discuss at least two countries in your response.

Question 71

What role did U.S. production play in ensuring allied victory in World War II?

Question 72

Why did the United States drop two atomic bombs on Japan? What did allied leaders feel about this decision at the time? How do historians now view this decision?

Question 73

After the failed Beer Hall Putsch, Adolph Hitler decided to do which of the following?

A)Overthrow the Weimar government by rallying an army of ex-soldiers.
B)Attempt to come to power through constitutional means.
C)Infiltrate the German army and have the army replace the Weimar government.

Question 74

Why was the Soviet Union not defeated in 1941, despite the significant losses caused by a quick German advance?

Question 75

What was one way that Hitler encouraged Germany's economic recovery?

A)Issuing new currency to replace hyperinflated marks
B)Balancing the budget and raising taxes
C)Trying to jump-start the economy through public works projects

Question 76

Why did Britain and France follow the policy of appeasement toward Hitler? To what extent did this policy achieve its goals before 1939?

Question 77

Why is 1942 commonly thought to be the turning point of the war?

Question 78

On what points did Stalin and Truman fall out? Why? What was the result?

Question 79

How is the Nazi Party's growth best described?

A)It did not succeed in becoming a mass political movement in the 1920s.
B)It succeeded in winning support in the 1920s, but only grew significantly as the result of the Great Depression.
C)It was entirely a product of the economic crisis resulting the Great Depression.