Unit 10
Interwar Era and World War II
Documents selected for instruction may include but are not limited to:
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Textbook and Primary Sources
Kagan, The Western Heritage. Ch: 27, 28
Benito Mussolini, “The Doctrine of Fascism”
Adolf Hitler, Mein Kampf”
Joseph Stalin, “Problems of Agrarian Policy in the USSR: Soviet Collectivization”
Secondary Sources
DocPkt – 4 Nazi Propoganda & Nazi Power
Visual Sources
• Unemployment and Politics in the Weimar Republic
• Unemployment During the Great Depression, 19301938
• Nazi Mythology – Richard Spitz
• Socialism Realism – K.I. Finogenov
• Authoritarianism and Totalitarianism 19191937
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Unit Focus
Economic and political disorder in the aftermath of World War I
The Soviet Union’s far-reaching political and social experiment
Mussolini and The Fascist seizure of power in Italy
French determination to enforce the Versailles Treaty
First Labour government and general strike in Britain
The development of authoritarian governments in all the successor states to the Austrian
Empire except Czechoslovakia
Reparations, inflation, political turmoil, and the rise of Nazism in the German Weimar Republic
Financial collapse and depression in Europe
The emergence of the national Government in Great Britain and the Popular Front in
France in response to the political pressures caused by the depression
The Nazi seizure of power, the establishment of a police state, and the imposition of racial laws in Germany
Planned industrialism, agricultural collectivization, and purges in the Soviet Communist
Party and the Soviet army under Stalin
Name: ______________________ Hour: ____ AP European History – Mr. W.B. Brooks
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Assignment Title
Kagan Chapter(s) – Readings & Multiple Choice Questions
Vocabulary & Review Questions
Early Modern Art
Rise of Nazi Power
World War II
Midyear War Projects
DBQ – “Weimar Failure”
Unit Reading Journal (Completed By 3rd Day of Unit)
Reading Groups (Done In Class On Day Before Unit Exam)
Reading Quiz (Only Over Textbook Chapters)
Unit Summative / Exam (MC, FRQ, DBQ – Possible Formats)
Due
Date
Points
Possible
Second Semester Unit III: Midwar Years & WWII Calendar
Reading: Text
Day
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Topic of the Day
Midwar Years Introduction: PPT/Start Projects
Midwar Years: “WWII in Colour: The Gathering Storm”
Midwar Years Projects; Midwar Years PPT
Midwar Years PPT/BBC Video “Helped Into Power”—Block Day
Midwar Years PPT/BBC Video “Helped Into Power”—Block Day
Work on Presentations/Weimar Interactivity
Presentations Due at the beginning of class
Finish Presentations; WWII PPT
Chart on Communism & Fascism; WWII; Review
Test on the Midwar Years & WWII
Second Semester, Unit V: The World Between the Wars/WWII
Enduring Understandings
Although the Allies had won WWI, their economies were in shambles and most were faced with political instability.
The isolation of the US forced Europeans to solve their own political & economic problems in the 1920’s & 1930’s.
The eschewing of the USSR by W. European allies led to resentment and distrust of the Western powers by Stalin.
Communism and Fascism are vastly different systems, even though they appear alike at first glance.
Differing motives led some Europeans to favor the appeasement of Hitler while others favored the popular front movement.
Worldwide economic problems hastened the rise of totalitarian regimes in Germany and Italy during the mid-war years.
Anti-Semitism threatened the security & lives of German Jews by the mid-1930’s, eventually culminating in the Holocaust.
There were two main theaters of WWII, each with differing causes.
The various steps in the appeasement of Hitler were actually steps toward the outbreak of war.
Although the US, W. Europe, and the USSR were allies during the war, there was a great deal of distrust among them.
Important decisions made at Yalta and Potsdam and the use of the atomic bomb had important impacts on the development
of cold war tensions.
Essential Questions
1. How did the apparent victory of democracy in WWI deteriorate into the totalitarian regimes of the 1930’s & what
accounted for the setbacks to democracy in many parts of Europe? (Specifically what were the reasons for the
rise of Hitler and Mussolini?)
2. What are the similarities and differences between fascism and communism? (Be Specific)
3. Describe the political, social, and economic situation in France, Britain, Italy, and the USSR between 1918 and
1929.
4. What were the reasons for the rise of anti-Semitism in Europe during the 1930's and 1940's? Why did the
Holocaust occur? Besides the Jewish population, what other groups were targeted during the holocaust by the
Nazis?
5. How did the general mood of the 1930’s compare with that of the 1920’s?
6. Is it possible to “outlaw war as an instrument of international policy?” (Evaluate the Kellogg-Briand Pact).
7. How did economic problems affect the politics of the mid-war years? Give some specific examples.
8. What were the reasons for the appeasement of Hitler by the British and the French prior to the outbreak of
WWII? Why did the popular front movement fail in France?
9. Why is the Munich crisis considered to be an important turning point in the impending outbreak of WWII?
10. What were the major goals of the Nazi party? To what extent did the Nazis achieve their goals between 1933
and 1945?
11. Describe the foreign policy moves of Hitler and Mussolini prior to the outbreak of WWII. List in order the steps
that both took that led to WWII.
12. How did decisions made at the Yalta and Potsdam Conferences affect the post-war world?
13. How did the world deal with post-war European social and economic problems, such as poverty, refugees, and
general political and economic disorganization?
Assignment #3
Sources:
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Questions:
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PowerPoint: "Early 20c European Modern Art."
PowerPoint: "Europe in the 1920s."
What were some of the major ethnic, social, and religious conflicts that dominated the newly independent
countries of Eastern Europe and the Balkans?
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Which Eastern European country became a model of democracy in the 1920s and 1930s? Why?
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Why did the German government resort to military force in early 1919 that badly damaged its new
democracy?
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Why was inflation such a huge problem facing the newly created Weimar Republic [see doc. on pg. 853]?
5.
Why were the the political extremes in Germany growing at the expense of the political center in the 1920s?
6.
What was the major governmental focus in both France and Britain during the "Roaring
20s?" Why wasn't this decade so "roaring" in Europe?
7.
How did most of Ireland finally gain its independence from Britain? What areas still remain united to Britain
today?
8.
In regard to international relations, how did the period 1924-1930 reflect some of the idealism of the Paris
Peace Conference?
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What was the Dawes Plan? How successful was it in resolving the debt crises of the mid-1920s?
10. Identify the various methods [treaties, negotiations, agreements, etc.] used by the European powers and the
United States to established and maintain peace and military disarmament during the 1920s. Why might
some of those methods be considered politically naive?
11. Why can it be said that World War I "ushered in a new era?" What "new" political, economic, social,
military, conditions dominated Europe by the end of the 1920s?
Assignment #4
Sources:
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Questions:
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Document packet: "Why the Nazis Came to Power?" Document packet: "Nazi Propaganda."
What were the major characteristics of modern dictatorship or totalitarianism? the limitations of totalitarian
rule?
2. Who were Hitler's political and cultural targets?
3. What were Hitler's basic racist and political views? How were these views a reflection of some 19c and early
20c political and scientific thinkers [see doc. on pg. 888]?
4. Which groups in Germany society were the biggest supports of the Nazis? Why?
5. Why did the Weimar Republic collapse in the early 1930s?
6. How did Hitler and the Nazis actually come to power?
7. What were some of the impressive economic successes of the early Nazi years? How was Hitler able to
accomplish this in the midst of the global depression?
8. What Nazi policies were focused on women and children? How did Nazi propaganda make all Germans feel
that they were part of a great cultural struggle?
9. How did the Nazis deal with the Christian churches in Germany?
10. Why were Jews primary targets of Nazi hatred? How was Nazi ideology reflected in the Nuremberg Laws?
Assignment #5
Sources:
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PowerPoint: "World War II."
Questions:
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What was the blitzkrieg form of attack? Why was it so successful?
Why could World War II have ended quickly on the beaches of Dunkirk?
Why did France fall to the Germans so quickly? How did the Germans divide and govern France?
What military mistake did Hitler make in regard to England?
Why did the Germans invade the Soviet Union, even though they had a non-aggression pact with Stalin?
How did Stalin's appeal to Russian patriotism contradict traditional Marxist views?
Why did the United States enter World War II at the end of 1941? Why could it be said that the United
States was really a combatant nation early in 1941?
Why was the Battle for Stalingrad [Volgograd] a turning point in the war on the Eastern front?
How did the Allied forces regain control of the Mediterranean in 1942?
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