Deck 27: The Deepening of the European Crisis: World War II

Question 1

Hitler settled on acquiring German Lebensraum in the east in Russian territory in part because of his racist belief that

A)the Slavs were an "inferior" people now governed by impotent Jews among the Bolsheviks and worthy of enslavement.
B)the weakened Aryan "race" could only be rejuvenated and made better through war against the ancient enemies of the Fatherland.
C)the Anglo-Saxons were a decadent race and would never come to the aid of eastern Europeans.
D)Germany must conquer all of Europe before the great American race dominated the globe.
E)there would be no opposition to the German takeover of Russian territory, as the inferior Slavs would eagerly welcome their racial superiors.

Answer 1

the Slavs were an "inferior" people now governed by impotent Jews among the Bolsheviks and worthy of enslavement.

Question 2

Because of fear of the ferocity of the SS and other Nazi groups, there was almost no resistance to German rule in World War II, either in the conquered countries or in Germany itself.

Answer 2

False

Question 3

Hitler's unilateral repudiation of the disarmament clauses of the Versailles Treaty in 1935 resulted in verbal condemnation but no concrete responses from either Britain or France.

Answer 3

True

Question 4

In 1946, former British prime minister Winston Churchill declared that "an iron curtain" had "descended across the continent" of Europe.

Question 5

One advantage that the Nazis had in the Battle of Britain was their radar system, which gave them early warning of British attacks on Germany.

Question 6

On the eastern front, the turning point in World War II was the Battle of Kursk.

Question 7

At the Munich Conference in 1938, Hitler demanded the right to annex the German-speaking area of

A)Poland.
B)Austria.
C)Russia.
D)Czechoslovakia.
E)Belgium.

Question 8

Japan's attack on Manchuria resulted in condemnation by the League of Nations and Japan's withdrawal from the League.

Question 9

The Anti-Comintern Pact of 1936 included the Soviet Union, Germany, and Italy.

Question 10

Which one of the following did NOT occur after Hitler's unilateral 1935 announcement of German rearmament?

A)France condemned Germany and warned against future aggression.
B)Britain condemned Germany and warned against future aggression.
C)Italy praised Germany and counseled more such behavior in the future.
D)Britain signed the Anglo-German Naval Pact later in the year, acquiescing to Hitler's growing military might.
E)The British began to appease Hitler.

Question 11

The policy adopted by Neville Chamberlain at Munich in 1938 in response to Hitler's demand for Czechoslovakia's Sudetenland is known as "appeasement."

Question 12

Among the factors that led to World War II was

A)the aggressive foreign policy of the United States following World War I.
B)the inability of Britain and France to agree on the terms of the Versailles treaty.
C)the inability of the Soviet Union to oppose Germany.
D)the failure of efforts of collective security such as the League of Nations and treaties.
E)All of these are correct.

Question 13

In Asia, the turning point in World War II was the Battle of Midway.

Question 14

The idea of Lebensraum maintained that

A)a nation's power depended on the amount and kind of land it occupied.
B)only large populations could maintain a powerful country.
C)authority must be dictated from a powerful leader.
D)air power was the key to a successful military.
E)a pure race was necessary for national survival.

Question 15

Hitler took Poland in 1939

A)despite interference by the Soviet Union.
B)in a long protracted struggle that cost Germany dearly.
C)upon Poland's request for a restructured government.
D)using "lightning war" tactics and with active support from Joseph Stalin.
E)peacefully, with the reluctant acquiescence of Britain and France.

Question 16

Most of the Holocaust death camps were in the Sudetenland.

Question 17

Hitler's "Diplomatic Revolution" between 1933 and 1936 included all of the following EXCEPT

A)the Anglo-German Naval Pact of 1935.
B)withdrawing from the Geneva Disarmament Conference in 1933.
C)publicly announcing the creation of a new air force in 1935.
D)seizing leadership of the League of Nations in 1933.
E)introducing a military draft that would expand Germany's army from 100,000 to 550,000 troops.

Question 18

Integral to Germany's plans for blitzkrieg was

A)tanks.
B)mobile artillery.
C)mechanized infantry.
D)air power.
E)All of these are correct.

Question 19

Hitler's first act of aggression took place in 1936 when the Germans occupied

A)Austria.
B)Sudetenland.
C)Bavaria.
D)Rhineland.
E)East Tyrol.

Question 20

British statesmen who followed a policy of appeasement believed Germany served as a powerful bulwark against

A)the French Republic.
B)Fascist Italy.
C)Soviet communism.
D)Franco's Spain.
E)nationalism in the Balkans.

Question 21

Chief among the reasons for Japanese expansion in the 1930s were

A)an expanding population and severe lack of natural resources on the island nation.
B)intense hatreds for the Chinese and Chinese culture.
C)desires by ruling military leaders to test their newly developed and newly organized armed forces.
D)beliefs among the Japanese that they were a "master race" destined to rule all of Asia.
E)fear of Chinese imperial aggression unless the Japanese struck first.

Question 22

The Nationalist leader of China in the 1930s was

A)Mao Tse-tung.
B)Chiang Kai-shek.
C)Chou En-lai.
D)Liu Shao-ch'i.
E)Sun Yat-sen.

Question 23

At the Battle of Stalingrad

A)Stalin's forces suffered their most devastating defeat.
B)Hitler demonstrated the unstoppable force of Blitzkrieg.
C)Hitler realized that he could not defeat the Soviet Union.
D)the United States made a significant contribution to the defense of a key Soviet city.
E)Germany and the Soviet Union were unable to defeat one another and quietly withdrew their forces to meet another day.

Question 24

Hitler's plan for defeating Britain relied on

A)the support of Soviet troops in a massive amphibious invasion.
B)Germany's Luftwaffe gaining control of the skies.
C)V-2 rockets to destroy British industrial power.
D)a submarine assault in the English Channel.
E)the support of Irish fifth-columnists.

Question 25

In the Nazi New Order, the Germans established civil administrations in which of the following states?

A)Norway.
B)France.
C)Poland.
D)Lithuania.
E)Latvia.

Question 26

The Grand Alliance was cemented by the agreement of the Allies to

A)divide their resources between the war in Europe and the war in the Pacific equally.
B)fight until the Axis powers surrendered unconditionally.
C)find ways to resolves their political and ideological differences while they pursued their military operations against the Axis powers.
D)defeat Japan first before launching an invasion of Europe.
E)All of these are correct.

Question 27

The turning point of the North African campaign came

A)at El Alamein where the British stopped Rommel in the summer of 1942.
B)when South African troops crossed the Sahara and overwhelmed Rommel.
C)with the revolt of the Vichy French in North Africa.
D)when the Italians joined the Allied cause in 1942.
E)when Cairo and the Suez Canal were recaptured by the British and the Americans.

Question 28

After the attack on Pearl Harbor, the main priority for the United States was

A)defeating Japan as quickly as possible.
B)recovering the Hawaiian Islands.
C)defeating Germany first and then turning its great naval war machine against Japan.
D)to remain neutral, while buying time to build up industrial and military supplies.
E)defending "Fortress America" from the expected combined Japanese and German invasion of the United States.

Question 29

By 1941, the Japanese Empire included all of the following, EXCEPT

A)Korea.
B)Manchuria.
C)Australia.
D)Formosa (Taiwan).
E)Marshall islands.

Question 30

War broke out between Russia and Germany in 1941 when

A)Germany launched a surprise attack on Russia.
B)Russia launched a surprise attack on Germany.
C)Russian agents assassinated Hitler's nephew.
D)Russia refused to sign the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk.
E)Japan staged a fake attack in eastern Russia, making it look like a German offensive.

Question 31

Between April and June of 1940, Nazi Germany successfully invaded all of the following countries EXCEPT

A)the Soviet Union.
B)Norway.
C)France.
D)Belgium.
E)the Netherlands.

Question 32

It can be argued that this key decision early in the war by Adolf Hitler made the defeat of Germany inevitable:

A)abandoning the Battle of Britain.
B)dividing France into a zone of German occupation and a French national puppet government at Vichy.
C)immediately declaring war on the United States after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.
D)snubbing British proposals for an armistice in 1941.
E)invading Scandinavia.

Question 33

Following the Allied evacuation at Dunkirk, France

A)soon surrendered, and the Vichy government was set up as a German puppet state.
B)went on the offensive and bogged Germany down in Normandy.
C)benefited when Italian forces assisted Allied defenses, giving France time to regroup.
D)established a "Free France" government in Spain.
E)constitutionally became a temporary part of the British Empire.

Question 34

President Truman and his advisers chose to use the atomic bombs against Japan because

A)they wanted to scare Joseph Stalin.
B)they wanted to test the bombs in a combat situation.
C)they were unaware of how deadly the bombs would truly be.
D)they became convinced that American troops would suffer heavy casualties in an invasion of Japan.
E)All of these are correct.

Question 35

Who became the new prime minister of Great Britain in May 1940?

A)Neville Chamberlain
B)David Lloyd George
C)Winston Churchill
D)Stanley Baldwin
E)Benjamin Disraeli

Question 36

The naval battle in the Pacific that is considered the turning point of the war and established U.S.Naval supremacy in the area was

A)Guadalcanal.
B)Coral Sea.
C)Siam.
D)Midway.
E)Dutch Harbor.

Question 37

Immediately following the fall of Poland

A)France and Britain declared war and started an offensive against Germany.
B)France and Britain decided to continue to appease Hitler.
C)France and Britain declared war, but remained relatively inactive militarily.
D)Germany turned on its Russian allies.
E)France was invaded by Franco's Spain.

Question 38

The Nazi rule of Europe was most ruthless in

A)Eastern Europe because the Slavs were considered racially inferior.
B)France due to the long rivalry between France and Germany.
C)Norway, Denmark, and the Netherlands due to their close proximity to Germany.
D)Italy because the Italians were generally considered to be disloyal.
E)Greece and Yugoslavia, because of the strategic nature of the Balkans region.

Question 39

Demonstrating again that ever-higher military technology was crucial to the conduct and outcome of World War II, the greatest tank battle of all time was fought in this conflict at

A)Stalingrad.
B)Moscow.
C)Leningrad.
D)Kursk.
E)Kiev.

Question 40

In order to open up a "second front" in Western Europe, the Allies

A)quickly advanced through Italy into France in 1943.
B)invaded Normandy in June 1944, carrying out the greatest naval invasion in history.
C)landed on the Iberian peninsula and advanced through southern France.
D)lured German forces south to Italy and invaded the north German coast.
E)secretly landed a large invading force in the Baltic States of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania.

Question 41

Following World War II, Germany was

A)divided into two zones of occupation: east and west.
B)separated into twenty small security districts policed by the United Nations.
C)divided into four zones of occupation under U.S., British, French, and Russian administration.
D)dismembered and replaced by three new smaller states determined by the ethnicity of their inhabitants.
E)ruled and controlled by a single Allied government entity.

Question 42

Hitler's "Final Solution" to the Jewish problem called for

A)the extermination of all European Jews.
B)the forced deportation of the Jews to Madagascar.
C)the resettlement of Jews in ghettos, isolated from other Europeans.
D)breeding "Jewish genes" out of the Jewish population itself.
E)the expulsion of the Jews from Germany and the rest of Central Europe.

Question 43

The Nazi Einsatzgruppen were

A)corrupt German journalists who worked to fill European newspapers with pro-Nazi propaganda.
B)special commando units sent to infiltrate Britain.
C)special strike forces used in eastern Europe that proceeded to round up and kill Jewish men, women, and children.
D)highly mobile tank forces used to fight against Russian tank armies.
E)an internal police force that kept order among Germany's restless population.

Question 44

In the Allied bombing strategy in Europe, Americans participated

A)primarily in the nighttime saturation bombing of civilian populations.
B)only when British bomber wings needed reinforcements.
C)primarily in daytime, precision bombing of German strategic targets.
D)primarily as fighter pilots assigned to guard British bomber wings.
E)in bombing only belligerent nations, but never occupied territories.

Question 45

Besides the Jews, another group singled out by the Nazis for extermination were the

A)Poles.
B)Ukrainians.
C)Gypsies.
D)Czechs.
E)Belgians.

Question 46

A major source of resistance to the Nazis came from

A)the German people, who became effective at internal sabotage of Nazi plans.
B)Communists throughout Europe, especially after the German invasion of Russia in 1941.
C)the Vichy regime in France.
D)the Austrians, who felt that they should be the leaders of the Aryan race in Europe.
E)escapees from the internment camps who organized resistance movements against the Germans.

Question 47

The total monetary cost of World War II has been estimated at

A)$500 billion.
B)$1 trillion.
C)$4 trillion.
D)$10 trillion.
E)$100 trillion.

Question 48

At the Conference at Tehran in 1943, the Allies

A)debated the use of the atomic bomb on Germany.
B)planned a united Pacific strategy.
C)decided on an American-British invasion of the Continent.
D)set the boundaries for Poland and other eastern European states.
E)All of these are correct.

Question 49

All of the following is true of the home front in the United States EXCEPT

A)the Great Depression continued, although the worst effects of it were alleviated.
B)massive amounts of government money financed new industries.
C)the chemicals and electronics industries developed significantly.
D)the government created a new Office of Scientific Research and Development.
E)traditional social mores often broke down in the transformation of small towns into big cities.

Question 50

What were Hitler's major goals and policies from 1933 to 1939? How did other European powers respond to those goals and policies, and why did they lead to war?

Question 51

At the conference at Yalta in 1945, Roosevelt called for postwar policy to be guided by

A)a system of unilateral action.
B)spheres of influence.
C)exclusive alliances.
D)self-determination.
E)the restoration of all governments in place at the start of the war.

Question 52

The cost of the Manhattan Project was

A)$1 million.
B)$200 million.
C)$500 million.
D)$900 million.
E)$2 billion.

Question 53

What percentage of the Jewish population of Poland, the Baltic countries, and Germany were exterminated in death camps?

A)50.
B)60.
C)70.
D)80.
E)90.

Question 54

Civilian bombing was done mainly

A)to reduce the number of people available to participate in war.
B)to exact revenge on the people.
C)to break the will of a people to resist.
D)by the Germans and was never an Allied strategy.
E)to test new weapons.

Question 55

The only country to use women as combatants in World War II was

A)Germany.
B)the Soviet Union.
C)Japan.
D)Britain.
E)Italy.

Question 56

The nation that experienced the greatest population losses in World War II was

A)the Soviet Union.
B)Nazi Germany.
C)the United States.
D)Great Britain.
E)France.

Question 57

Atomic bombs were dropped on the Japanese cities of

A)Osaka and Kyoto.
B)Kyoto and Tokyo.
C)Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
D)Osaka and Kobe.
E)Nagoya and Yokohama.

Question 58

Allied bombing raids on German civilians

A)contrary to expectations, produced stubborn resistance from the German people.
B)destroyed the average German's will to fight.
C)were only done to retaliate for German bombing.
D)occurred mostly by accident when bombing strategic targets.
E)never occurred.

Question 59

The chief argument between Truman and Stalin at Potsdam in July of 1945 was over

A)free elections in eastern Europe.
B)the numbers of tanks Americans and Russians could keep in Europe.
C)what to do with German prisoners of war.
D)whether or not the Soviet Union would be in the United Nations.
E)whether the Soviet Union would join the war against Japan.

Question 60

When Germany went to war in 1939

A)the populace was euphoric as in 1914.
B)the populace was apathetic, and many feared that it would spell disaster for Germany.
C)consumer goods were cut in favor of war materials.
D)war production was tripled.
E)there was an immediate highly organized secret attempt to assassinate Hitler, but unfortunately it failed.

Question 61

Who bears responsibility for the enactment of the "Final Solution"?

Question 62

How do you account for the early successes of the Germans from 1939 to 1941? To what degree did Blitzkrieg play a role in these successes?

Question 63

How did Germany's strategy in World War II differ from that of World War I? In what ways did Germany's strategic failures in World War I shape its plans for the prosecution of World War II?

Question 64

How important was the United States in determining the outcome of the war in Europe?

Question 65

Did the outcome of World War II guarantee that a "cold war" would occur? Why or why not?

Question 66

Compare and contrast the war in Europe with the war in the Pacific.What ideas about race and ethnicity informed both conflicts?

Question 67

How did the Nazis attempt to establish a New Order in Europe after their military victories? What were the results of their efforts?

Question 68

When and why did the initiative in World War II pass out of Germany's hands?

Question 69

What political, economic, and social motives account for Japanese aggression in the 1930s and 1940s?

Question 70

Compare the home fronts of Great Britain, the Soviet Union, the United States, and Germany.What differences and similarities do you find? How did the organization of each home front affect the outcome of the war?