World War II – Study Guide 7.4
Causes
1. Identify the causes of World War II. Start reading under the title “Origins of World War II” and STOP at “Total
War: The World Under Fire”.
A good answer will include careful notes on the class presentation.
Course
European and Pacific Theaters:
2. Describe the process that led to the Soviet Union and the United States entering World War II. Start reading
under the title “Total War: The World Under Fire” and STOP at “Defeat of the Axis Powers”.
A good answer will include: Poland, Blitzkrieg, fall of France, Battle of Britain, Operation Barbarossa, Soviet
industry, Stalingrad, United States, supplying the British, Japan, southeast Asia, embargo, Pearl Harbor, declared
war, Churchill, Singapore, Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere, conquest and brutal occupation
3. Explain the defeat the Axis Powers. Start reading under the title “Defeat of the Axis Powers” and STOP at “Life
During War Time”.
A good answer will include: personnel reserves and industrial capacity, Red Army, advanced into Romania,
Hungary, Poland, Berlin (East Germany), D-day, bombing, May 8, 1945, aircraft carriers, island-hopping,
kamikaze, refusing to surrender, firebombing, atomic bombs, Hiroshima, Nagasaki, September 2, 1945
Impact on Civilians:
4. Describe civilian life during World War II. Start reading under the title “Life During War Time” and STOP at “The
Holocaust”.
A good answer will include: Japan, Manchukuo, puppet governments, Hitler, Greater Germanic Empire, Vichy,
slave labor, treatment of POWs, medical experiments, collaboration, means to gain power, resistance, harassed
and disrupted
5. Explain the development of the Holocaust as a genocide. Start reading under the title “The Holocaust” skip “How
the Past Shapes the Future” skip “Sources from the Past” and STOP at “Women and the War”.
A good answer will include: Holocaust, long history of persecution, anti-Semitism, Einsatzgruppen, final solution,
concentration camps, mass extermination, Auschwitz, Jewish resistance
6. Discuss the experience of women in World War II. Start reading under the title “Women and the War” skip
“Connecting the Sources” and STOP at “The Cold War”.
A good answer will include: resistance groups, jobs in factories, temporary, joined military (in which nations did
the most women join?), sex trafficking, comfort women, shame
Consequences
7. Explain the origin of the Cold War. Start reading under the title “The Cold War” skip “What’s Left Out” and STOP
at “Globalization of the Cold War”.
A good answer will include: Cold War, United Nations, Security Council, 5 permanent members, conference at
Yalta, Soviet domination of Eastern Europe, Truman Doctrine, containment of communism, Marshall Plan, 13
billion, COMECON, NATO, Warsaw Pact, divide Germany, West Berlin, airlift, refugees, Berlin Wall, concerns about
the spread of communism, McCarthy, Pasternak