Name ________________________________________ Date ______________________________ Block _____
World War II Test Study Guide
(USII.7a,b,c)
1)
The two main causes of World War II were:
(1) political instability and economic devastation in Europe resulting from World War I and
(2) the rise of totalitarianism.
2)
Worldwide depression, high war debt owed by Germany, high inflation and massive unemployment were all
economic problems facing Europe after World War II.
3)
Fascism is a philosophy in which total power is given to a dictator, individual freedoms are denied, and
nationalism, and often racism, are emphasized.
4)
Adolf Hitler of Germany, Benito Mussolini of Italy, Hideki Tojo of Japan and Joseph Stalin of the Soviet Union
were all dictators during World War II.
5)
Germany (led by Hitler), Italy (led by Mussolini) and Japan (led by Tojo) were the main countries in the
Axis Powers.
6)
The democratic leaders during World War II were Franklin D. Roosevelt and later Harry S. Truman of the United
States and Winston Churchill of Great Britain.
7)
The United States (led by Roosevelt and then Truman), Great Britain (led by Churchill), and the Soviet Union
(led by Stalin) were all part of the Allied Powers.
8)
The legacy of World War I and the Great Depression caused the United States to seek a policy of neutrality and
isolationism.
9)
Cash and Carry and Lend-Lease were two forms of economic aid that was given to the Allies by the United
States.
10)
Japanese aggression in East Asia (taking over other territories) led to rising tension between the United States
and Japan.
11)
The surprise Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii happened on December 7, 1941.
12)
On the very next day after the attack on Pearl Harbor, the United States ended their policy of
isolationism and declared war on Japan.
13)
Germany then declared war on the United States.
14)
Germany, with the help of the Soviet Union, attacked, invaded and occupied Poland, thus starting the European
fighting during World War II on September 1, 1939.
15)
Germany invaded and occupied France, leading to Great Britain being all alone in the war.
16)
Hitler used the warfare tactic of the blitzkrieg to attack other countries during WWII.
17)
In the Battle of Britain, the German Luftwaffe bombed London every night for two months, but Great Britain
never surrendered and Hitler ended his mission to take over Great Britain.
18)
During the Lend-Lease program, the United States gave Britain war supplies and old naval warships in return for
military bases in Bermuda and the Caribbean.
19)
The Allied Powers capture Iwo Jima and Okinawa from Japan.
20)
The United States victory over Japan in the Battle of Midway was the turning point in the war in the Pacific.
21)
The Navajo Code-Talkers used their traditional language as a military code against the Japanese.
22)
The turning point of the war in Eastern Europe was when the Soviet Union, after being invaded by Germany,
defeated the Germans at the Battle of Stalingrad.
23)
When American and other Allied troops landed in Normandy, France, on D-Day (June 6, 1944), the liberation of
Western Europe began.
24)
During the Battle of the Bulge, Hitler wanted to stop Great Britain and the United States before they invaded
Germany; the Germans’ losses actually sped up Germany’s defeat.
25)
The dropping of two atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan by the United States brought about
Japan's surrender and ended World War II in the Pacific.
26)
Anti-Semitism is the prejudice, discrimination, hatred and violence against the Jewish people.
27)
Hitler believed Aryans (blond hair, blue eyes) to be the superior or supreme race.
28)
The Holocaust was the systematic attempt to rid Europe of all Jewish people.
29)
During the Holocaust, the Nazis used threats, segregation, the boycotting of Jewish stores and the
imprisonment and killing of Jewish and others in concentration camps and death camps.
30)
The Jewish, gypsies and people with disabilities were among the groups that the Nazis targeted during the
Holocaust.
31)
Hitler's "Final Solution" was his policy of killing all Jewish people in Europe.
31)
Allied forces (United States, Great Britain, and Soviet Union) liberated the concentration camps.
32)
The Great Depression ended with the involvement of the United States in World War II.
33)
Factories and workers were needed to produce goods to win the war.
34)
Rosie the Riveter represented the thousands of women who took jobs in defense plants during the
war.
35)
Americans conserved and rationed resources at home to support the war.
36)
The temporary need for workers (in defense plants) broke down racial barriers in the workforce for African
Americans but they still faced discrimination.
37)
Many Japanese-Americans served in the armed forces during the war but others were
and prejudice by the United States government and placed in internment camps.
treated with distrust