World History II
SOL Review
Great Depression – Cold War
Great Depression - Causes
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German reparations
Buying on credit
Overproduction – high supply + low demand
= low prices for farm goods and manufactured
goods
Protective Tariffs – countries passed tariffs
(taxes on imports) to make people buy goods
produced and food grown in their country
(foreign goods were more expensive)
Stock Market Crash (October 1929)
Great Depression - Results
High unemployment
 Bank failures + collapse of credit
 Collapse of prices in world trade
 Growth of Fascism (extreme
nationalism) in Italy and Germany
 Nazi Party blamed Jews for the economic
collapse
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Adolf Hitler
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Germany
Came to power because of inflation and Great
Depression (legally came to power)
Anti-Semitism
Extreme nationalism (fascist)
Nazi Party
Challenge to world power – sent troops into
the Rhineland (demilitarized zone according
to Versailles treaty)
Benito Mussolini
Italy
 Fascist (1st fascist leader)
 Wanted to restore the glory of the
Roman Empire
 Challenge to world power – invaded
Ethiopia
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Tojo
Japan
 Militarist
 Japan’s industrialization – need for raw
materials and markets
 Challenge to world power – invaded
Korea, Manchuria, and rest of China
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World War II - Causes
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Aggression by totalitarian power (Hitler,
Mussolini, and Tojo)
Nationalism (Fascism – extreme nationalism)
Failures of the Versailles Treaty
Weakness of the League of Nations
Appeasement – Munich Conference (gave Hitler
the Sudetenland to avoid war)
Isolationism/Pacifism in United States and
Europe
World War II – Major Events
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Began – German invasion of Poland
France fell (Britain left alone to fight the Axis
Powers)
Battle of Britain – bombing of London
Operation Barbarossa – German invasion of
the Soviet Union
U.S. entered war after Japan attacked Pearl
Harbor
U.S. dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima
and Nagasaki to end war with Japan
World War II – Major Leaders
Franklin D. Roosevelt – President of the U.S.
 Harry Truman – replaced Franklin Roosevelt as
president/dropped atomic bomb on Japan
 Dwight D. Eisenhower – Allied commander in Europe
(D Day)
 Douglas MacArthur – U.S. General in the Pacific
 Winston Churchill – Prime Minister of England
 Joseph Stalin – dictator of Soviet Union
 Hirohito – Emperor of Japan
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Outcomes of World War II
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European powers loss of empires (ex. Japan lost
territory gained by the war)
Two super powers emerged – U.S. and Soviet
Union
Nuremberg Trial – tried Nazis for war crimes
Division of Europe – Iron Curtain
(capitalist/democratic vs.
communist/totalitarian)
United Nations
Outcomes of World War II
NATO (North Atlantic Treaty
Organization) – military alliance that
included U.S., Canada, and western
Europe
 Warsaw Pact – Soviet Union and
Eastern Europe
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Holocaust
Genocide – the systematic and
purposeful destruction of a racial, political,
religious, or cultural group
 Elements leading to the Holocaust –
history of anti-Semitism, defeat in World
War I and Great Depression blamed on
the Jews, Hitler’s belief in a master race,
and Final Solution (death camps)
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Examples of Other Genocides
Armenians by leaders of the Ottoman Empire
Peasants, government and military leaders, and
members of the elite in the Soviet Union by
Joseph Stalin (Great Purge)
 The educated, artists, technicians, former
government officials, monks, and minorities by
Pol Pot in Cambodia
 Tutsi minority by the Hutu in Rwanda
 Muslims and Croats By Bosnian Serbs in
Yugoslavia
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Post World War II - Japan
U.S. occupation of Japan led by
MacArthur
 Improved economy
 Brought democracy to Japan –
constitution/elections
 Japan can only have a military for defense
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Post World War II – Germany
Division of East (Soviet Union) and West
(U.S., France, and Great Britain)
 Division of Berlin (East and West)
 Democratic government in West
Germany
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Early Cold War
Yalta Conference - meeting of three main
allied leaders (Roosevelt, Stalin, and Churchill) +
planned "the whole shape and structure of
post-war Europe“ + Stalin had the right to
control the governments of Eastern Europe
(Soviet troops were already stationed
throughout Eastern Europe as they pushed
toward Germany)
 Democracy and Capitalism vs. Dictatorship and
Communism
 Truman Doctrine – contain communism (not
let it spread)
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Marshall Plan
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Rebuild Western Europe (aid and
assistance) – prevent the spread of
communism
Berlin Wall
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Surrounded city of West Berlin so that
people would not escape to West
Germany
Korean War
Cause – North Korea invaded South
Korea
 Result – North Korea and South Korean
still divided along 38th parallel
 China supported North Korea and U.S.
supported South Korea
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Vietnam War
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Cause - Ho Chi Minh encouraged communist rebels
to overthrow South Vietnamese government
Results - U.S. troops left Vietnam + unification of
Vietnam (communist country)
Vietnamization  Nixon's administrations policy of
building up South Vietnamese forces while gradually
withdrawing American troops
Domino Theory  If Vietnam became a communist
country, the countries adjacent to (surrounding)
Vietnam would also become communist countries
Cuban Missile Crisis
Cause – Soviet Union places nuclear
missiles in Cuba
 Results – Soviet Union removed missiles
and U.S. promised not to invade Cuba
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Collapse of Soviet Union
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Communism failed!! - increasing Soviet military
expenses to compete with the United States +
economic inefficiency
Gorbachev and President Reagan – key leaders
Eastern European countries (communist block) wanted
independence  U.S. encouraged dissidents (people
who wanted independence) in communist countries
(Poland)
Some Warsaw Pact countries joined NATO after
collapse of Soviet Union – expansion of NATO
Collapse of Soviet Union
Establishment of
independent states in
Eastern Europe and the
breakup of the Soviet
Union
 Movement toward a
free market economy
 Fall of Berlin wall and
reunification of
Germany
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