HISTORY 102: Foundations of Western Civilization II

Study Guide V

[FINAL EXAMINATION]

1. The Treaty of Versailles is often seen as a major reason for the Second World War. Do you agree? Why?

2. Discuss the situation in Soviet Russia in the interwar period. What were the opposing viewpoints regarding U.S.S.R.=s future course in the world? Who won this struggle and what was the impact on the Soviet Union?

3. What were the circumstances under which Mussolini rose to power in Italy? What were his goals and tactics? Refer to his domestic and foreign policies during the 1920s and 1930s.

4. Many Germans in the 1920s and 1930s viewed Hitler as a reformer. What were his ideas about the problems and the future of Germany?

*5. J. Kelly Sowards titled the collection of readings on Adolf Hitler as AAdolf Hitler: Nightmare of Our Century.@ Based on the three selections on this subject, discuss this theme.

6. Discuss the causes of the Great Depression and its economic and political impact on European political life.

7. What was the Spanish Civil War, and who was involved in it. What did each of the participants gain from their involvement.

8. Describe the Munich Conference of 1938 and Chamberlain's policy of appeasement. Why were so many British willing to appease Hitler? What was the result of the Munich Conference?

9. Describe Hitler's foreign and military policy up to 1938. Was there enough evidence of aggression to convince the world that Hitler was dangerous?

10. Describe German-Soviet relations between 1939 and 1941. Was war between the two inevitable?

11. Why did Nazi Germany invade the Soviet Union? Why did the invasion ultimately fail? Could it have succeeded? Discuss.

12. What was the "final solution of the Jewish question"?

13. Why did Japan attack the United States at Pearl Harbor? What was the significance of American intervention in the war? Why did the United States drop atomic bombs on Japan? Did the U.S. President Harry S. Truman make the right decision when he ordered the bombs used?

14. Describe the dispute between the United States and the Soviet Union at the end of World War II. How and why did it escalate into a "cold war"?

*15. The Soviet dictator Josif Stalin has a unique place in Soviet and world history. Based on the readings in Sowards, discuss the role of this individual in the events of his time, and especially in the origins of the Cold War.

16. How did Europe come to be dominated by the United States and the Soviet Union after 1945?

17. The years 1956 and 1962 were crucial years in the global cold war antagonism. Discuss what were the events in question, who were the participants, and how were these crises resolved.

18. How did the United States become involved in Vietnam?

The following names, terms, institutions, etc., are from your readings and lectures. Be prepared to identify, give historical significance, and place them in the proper context (who, what, when, where, and historical significance).

Balfour Declaration; Leon Trotsky; Cheka, AWar Communism@; kulaks; The N.E.P.; ASocialism in One Country@; Josif Stalin; Comintern; Benito Mussolini; Fascism; Lateran Treaty; Spartacists; AStabbed in the back@; Adolf Hitler; Brown shirts; Mein Kampf; Lebensraum; Heinrich Himmler; Kristallnacht; Joseph Goebbels; Léon Blum; New Deal; Franklin D. Roosevelt; Falange; Francisco Franco; Spanish Civil War; International Brigades; Neville Chamberlain; Great Depression; Rome-Berlin Axis; appeasement; Anschluss; Nazi-Soviet Pact; Blitzkrieg; "Final Solution"; Winston S. Churchill; the Iron Curtain; the Cold War; containment; Harry S. Truman; Truman Doctrine; Marshall Plan; Berlin Blockade; Cominform; Korean War; Nikita S. Khrushchev; Gamal Abdel Nasser; Aswan Dam; Suez Crisis; Imre Nagy; Hungarian Revolution; John F. Kennedy; Cuban Missile Crisis; Charles de Gaulle; Vietnam War; Richard M. Nixon; European Union.