Chapter 31
Review and Discussion
Explain the reasons for the Soviet Union’s economic success
during the 1930s
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Stalin’s goal
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First Five-Year Plan
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was used to ensure an adequate food supply
Turned small private farms into collective farms
Collectivization transformed Soviet rural society, imposing an urban-industrial
way of life on the peasantry.
Rebellion among the kulaks resulted in widespread starvation and hardship
because they burned their crops and killed their livestock
Second Five Year Plan (1933-1937)
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increased Soviet military and industrial might by developing electric power and
heavy industry (iron, coal, steel, and machinery)
Collective agriculture
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Transform the USSR into an industrial nation and increase the power of the
communist party (not to produce consumer goods for mass production)
After Nazi Germany’s rise to power, the Second Five-Year Plan abandoned its
goal of producing consumer goods and focused instead on military expansion.
In spite of the terror of purges and persecutions, economic expansion continued.
Women in particular entered employment and careers formerly denied them.
The Depression in the 1930s was the deepest and most
widespread economic collapse in history. What were its
international economic and political consequences?
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Stock market crash of 1929
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Smoot-Hawley tariff
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Highest import duty in American history
In retaliation, other countries raised their tariffs
resulting in decreased export industries and additional reductions in world trade.
Effects of the depression on nations
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Consumption and production of manufactured goods around the world declined.
Unemployment rose drastically.
American banks called in overseas loans to offset their losses.
Nations deeply in debt from war loans or reparation payments could not afford early
repayment, and panic spread.
France and Britain were to some extent insulated from the world economy by their
overseas colonies.
Those colonies, particularly India, also fared well. Nations that were heavily dependent on
imported food and raw materials suffered the most from the Depression.
Japan and Germany suffered much more because they relied on exports to pay for imports
of food and fuel
South Africa’s economy boomed because Depression made gold more valuable
Radical reforms and leaders
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Widespread economic distress had profound political consequences.
United States enacted sweeping New Deal legislation, and radical politicians came to
power in Germany, Italy, and Japan.
Explain the rise of fascism in Europe and the events
leading up to the Second World War.
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Fascism
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was a direct result of the social and economic instability caused by World
War I and the Depression.
Opportunistic politicians used wartime propaganda techniques to appeal
to disgruntled Europeans.
Those politicians promised prosperity, the prevention of communism,
territorial conquests, and a cure for social problems.
Mussolini and Hitler
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Benito Mussolini and Adolf Hitler, both of whom appealed to unemployed
veterans and violent youths.
Economic well-being outweighed a loss of liberty
Il Duce (the leader) became prime minister after threatening to march on
Rome. Installed Fascist party members in all government jobs and
crushed all opposition
Hitler became chancellor in 1933; Fuhrer (leader) 1934
Mussolini invaded Ethiopia 1935, while Germany reentered the
Rhineland and annexed Austria and portions of Czechoslovakia.
Hitler also emphasized Aryan racial superiority (Germans, Britons,
Scandinavian) and blamed Jews for Germany’s postwar troubles.
Warning signs
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Hitler tested French and British resolve by
repeatedly violating the Treaty of Versailles.
In 1933 Hitler withdrew from the League of Nations
 In 1935 Hitler built and army and created an air
force
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Britain and France responded with
The “appeasement” of the Munich Conference in
1938 revealed a lack of British and French resolve.
Allowed Hitler to annex Czechoslovakian territory
 War seemed imminent after Munich, as Germany
invaded Czechoslovakia, made an alliance with the
Soviet Union, and invaded Poland in 1939.
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Briefly compare and contrast the military aspects of the
First and Second World Wars.
Similarities
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They were both fought around the globe and resulted in tremendous
numbers of casualties as well as physical and environmental damage.
Both wars took advantage of technological innovations that altered the
face of warfare.
Differences
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World War II was larger in both geographic and human scope, taking
place in practically every corner of the world; it also resulted in far more
casualties.
Whereas deaths from World War I were primarily confined to the military,
there were far fewer military than civilian deaths in World War II.
Huge bombing raids on cities and intentional assaults on civilians,
especially the Holocaust (6 million Jews), were responsible for many of
those deaths. World War I was a defensive war fought in trenches; World
War II was an offensive war of blitzkriegs (lighting war), tanks, carpet
bombing, and aircraft carriers.
World War I was a war of steam and coal; World War II was a war of oil
and internal combustion engines.
Massive landings of men and material on Pacific and European beaches
dwarfed anything previously imagined. Practically the entire industrial
output of the world was devoted to military production.
What were some of the technological advances during
World War II that made it a “war of science”?
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Existing technology underwent considerable improvement during World War
II.
Airplanes were larger and faster, flew farther, and dropped many tons of
bombs each.
Jet planes appeared for the first time.
Heavily armored tanks ruled the battlefields. New inventions also began to
dominate warfare.
Synthetic rubber and oil reduced the dependence on foreign imports and the
control of the seas.
Aircraft carriers and submarines made battleships obsolete.
Radar warned of aircraft attacks.
Code breakers and intelligence specialists predicted enemy attacks.
Guided missiles delivered unstoppable offensive attacks.
The antibiotics used in World War II resulted in a significant drop in mortality
among wounded soldiers.
In the war’s ultimate technological achievement, the United States
committed enormous resources to develop the atomic bomb in a race
against Germany.
Compare the lives of civilians on the home front in the United
States during World War II with the experiences of civilians in
Europe and Asia. (Holocaust)
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Effects on the civilian population
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Final Solution
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The civilian populations of Europe and Asia suffered the depredations of invading
armies, disease, starvation, and exposure to the elements.
Millions abandoned their homes or watched them being destroyed.
In World War II more civilians were killed than soldiers. Many of these deaths
were deliberate murder.
Nazis attempted to achieve their policy of eliminating entire races of people.
Jews were deprived of citizenship and legal rights and forced into ghettoes.
In 1942 the “final solution” started the systematic extermination of human beings.
Concentration camps such as Auschwitz were created for the sole purpose of
extracting work and killing prisoners.
Holocaust
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It is estimated that over 6 million Jews lost their lives. In addition, 3 million Polish
Catholic elite were killed. Special targets of the Nazis included homosexuals,
Jehovah’s Witnesses, Gypsies, the disabled, the mentally ill, and Communists.
Compare the lives of civilians on the home front in the
United States during World War II with the experiences of
civilians in Europe and Asia. Hiroshima
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Hiroshima (August 1945)
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was the site where the United States dropped the first atomic bomb,
killing approximately 200,000 people.
Three days later, another atomic bomb destroyed Nagasaki.
Led to Japanese surrender in September 1945
U.S.
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Japanese Internment camps; result of the bombing of Pearl Harbor
The war pulled the United States out of the last stages of the
Depression, eliminating unemployment and improving nutrition and
health.
Women in the United States entered industry in large numbers, and the
booming economy had long-lasting positive consequences for American
society.
What was the source of conflict between Japan and China
from 1931 to 1945?
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Depression
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economic dislocation of the Great Depression and growing militarism in Japan led to this
military confrontation.
When the Great Depression hit, China and the United States erected tariff barriers against
Japanese imports.
The collapse of demand for rice and silk ruined Japanese farmers; to survive, many sold
their daughters into prostitution while their sons flocked to the military.
nationalists viewed a colonial empire as a solution to Japan’s dependence on foreign trade.
Although most of Asia’s potential colonies had been claimed, China with its vast population
and resources was not colonized.
Japanese conquest
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The confrontation of the Second World War began with the Japanese seizure of Manchuria
by junior officers in the military.
They renamed the region Manchukuo.
When Chinese students, workers, and housewives boycotted Japanese goods, Japanese
troops briefly took over Shanghai and the area around Beijing.
During the next few years the Japanese sped up their rearmament, especially the building
of warships.
In 1937, Japanese leaders once again considered options for solving Japan’s economic
problems. Some proposed conquest of China while others advocated war with the Soviet
Union.
But once again, junior officers took matters into their own hands. On July 7, 1937,
Japanese troops attacked Chinese forces near Beijing.
Within weeks, Japanese troops seized Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai, and other coastal cities,
and the Japanese navy blockaded the entire Chinese coast.
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The United States and the League of Nations denounced the Japanese atrocities, but
were too preoccupied with economic problems and events in Europe to risk military
confrontation.
The Chinese armies were large and fought bravely, but they were poorly led and
armed and lost every battle.
Japanese planes bombed Nanjing, Hankou, and Canton while on the ground soldiers
broke dikes and burned villages, killing thousands of civilians.
In spite of Japanese organizational and fighting skills, the attack on China did not
bring the victory Japan had hoped for.
The Chinese continued to resist. Japan’s periodic attempts to turn the tide by
conquering more of China only pushed Japan deeper into the quagmire.
For the Japanese people, life became harsher and more repressive as taxes rose,
food and fuel became scarce, and more young men were drafted.
Japanese leaders realized that the war with China was a drain on the Japanese
economy and manpower and that their war machine was becoming increasingly
dependent on the United States for steel and machine tools and for nine-tenths of its
oil.
Warfare between China and Japan was incredibly violent.
In the winter of 1937-1938, Japanese troops took Nanjing, raped 20,000 women,
killed 200,000 prisoners and civilians, and looted and burned the city.
Communism in China
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Mao Zedong (1893-1976)
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communism founded in 1921 was a radical departure from
the traditional ideology
Goal was to use the peasantry, not industrial workers to
redistribute land from the wealthy to the poor people
Advocated women’s equality; but leadership position belong
to men
Civil war in China and communist victory
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After Japanese surrender in 1945 the Guomindang and
communist forces began a civil war that lasted until 1949
On October 1, 1949, Mao Zedong announced the founding
of the People’s republic of China and Chiang Kai-shek’s
Guomindang forces were driven off the mainland to Taiwan