Chapters 16 & 17 – World War II
Chapter 16 – World War Looms
Chapter Objective: To trace the rise of dictators, the beginnings of war, and the American response in the 1930s.
Section 1: Dictators Threaten World Peace
Main Idea: The rise of rules with total power in Europe and Asia led to World War II.
Objective: Identify the types of governments that took power in Russia, Italy, Germany, and Japan after World War I.
Questions:
1. In what countries did totalitarian governments come to power?
2. What were the factors that led to the rise of fascist dictators in Italy, Germany, and Spain?
3. What was the goal of the militarists who took control in Japan?
4. How did the League of Nations respond to aggression?
Objective: Describe the details of America’s turn to isolationism in the 1930s.
Questions:
5. What type of foreign policy did the United States adopt after World War I?
6. What actions did Congress take supporting this foreign policy?
7. Why did many Americans have difficulty with a policy of neutrality?
Section 2: War in Europe
Main Idea: Using the sudden mass attack called blitzkrieg, Germany invaded and quickly conquered many European countries.
Objective: Explain Hitler’s motives for expansion and how Britain and France responded.
Questions:
8. What foreign policy actions did Hitler take after he came into power?
9. How did Britain and France respond to Germany’s actions?
10. What was appeasement and why did Winston Churchill oppose it so strongly?
Objective: Describe the blitzkrieg tactics that Germany used against Poland.
Questions:
11. What action freed Hitler to invade Poland?
12. What new tactics did Germany use in attacking Poland?
13. What was the “phony war”?
14. How did Hitler rationalize the German invasion of Denmark and Norway?
Objective: Summarize the first battles of World War II.
Questions:
15. What happened to France after the “phony war?”
16. What was Britain’s situation at the end of 1940?
17. What was the result of the Battle of Britain?
Section 3: The Holocaust
Main Idea: During the Holocaust, the Nazis systematically executed 6 million Jews and 5 million other “non-Aryans.”
Objective: Explain the reasons behind the Nazis’ persecution of the Jews and the problems facing Jewish refugees.
Questions:
18. What did the Nazis do to the Jews after taking power?
19. Why was it almost impossible for Jews to escape from Germany?
Objective: Describe the Nazis’ “final solution” to the Jewish problem and the horrors of the Holocaust.
Questions:
20. What was the goal of the “final solution”?
21. What actions did the Nazis take to carry out the “final solution”?
22. How did the United States respond to Jewish refugees?
Objective: Identify and describe the profound and lasting effects of the Holocaust on survivors.
Questions:
23. What other brutalities took place in concentration camps?
24. How have Holocaust survivors been affected by their experience?
Section 4: America Moves Toward War
Main Idea: In response to the fighting in Europe, the United States provided economic and military aid to help the Allies achieve
victory.
Objective: Describe the U.S. response to the outbreak of war in Europe in 1939.
Questions:
25. What did the United States do after World War II began in Europe?
26. How did the formation of the Axis alliance affect the United States?
Objective: Explain how Roosevelt assisted the Allies without declaring war.
Questions:
27. How did Roosevelt help the Allies?
28. Why were some Americans opposed to providing aid to the Soviet Union?
29. What did Germans do that threatened Roosevelt’s lend-lease program?
Objective: Summarize the events that brought the United States into armed conflict with Germany.
Questions:
30. Why was the Atlantic Charter significant? What promises were secretly made between Churchill and Roosevelt?
31. How did the United States end up in an undeclared war with Germany?
Objective: Describe the American response to the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.
Questions:
32. Why was Japan on a collision course with the United States?
33. What event precipitated America’s entry into World War II?
Chapter 17 – The United States in World War II
Chapter Objective: To understand the military campaigns, political decisions, and efforts on the home front that won
World War II.
Section 1: Mobilizing for Defense
Main Idea: Following the attack on Pearl Harbor, the United States mobilized for war.
Objective: Explain how the United States expanded its armed forces in World War II.
Questions:
34. What was the Selective Service System and how did it help the United States meet manpower needs?
35. What contributions did women and minorities make to the military effort?
Objective: Describe wartime mobilization of industry, labor, scientists, and the media.
Questions:
36. How did American industry contribute to the war effort?
37. How did scientists help the war effort?
38. How did the mass media contribute to the war effort?
Objective: Trace the efforts of the U.S. government to control the economy and deal with alleged subversion.
Questions:
39. How did the federal government act to control the economy?
40. How did government actions affect everyday life?
Section 2: The War for Europe and North Africa
Main Idea: Allied forces, led by the United States and Great Britain, battled Axis powers for control of Europe and North Africa.
Objective: Summarize the Allies’ plan for winning the war.
Questions:
41. To what did Roosevelt and Churchill agree early in the war?
42. Why was winning the Battle of the Atlantic so crucial to the fortunes of the Allies?
Objective: Identify events in the war in Europe.
Questions:
43. Why was the Battle of Stalingrad so important?
44. What happened in the war in North Africa?
45. What happened after the Allies invaded Italy?
Objective: Describe the liberation of Europe.
Questions:
46. What was D-Day?
47. What happened at the Battle of the Bulge?
48. What did Allied troops find in Germany?
Section 3: The War in the Pacific
Main Idea: In order to defeat Japan and end the war in the Pacific, the United States unleashed a terrible new weapon, the atomic
bomb.
Objective: Identify key turning points in the war in the Pacific.
Questions:
49. How extensive were the Japanese conquests?
50. What American actions surprised the Japanese?
51. What happened at the Battle of Midway and why is it considered the turning point of the war?
52. Describe the U.S. Pacific strategy of “island hopping.”
Objective: Describe the Allied offensive against the Japanese.
Questions:
53. What were kamikazes?
54. Why did the Japanese fight so hard on Iwo Jima?
55. Why did the Allies believe Okinawa was a foretaste of an invasion in Japan?
Objective: Explain both the development of the atomic bomb and debates about its use.
Questions:
56. What was the Manhattan Project?
57. How did scientists view using the atomic bomb?
58. When and where was the atomic bomb used?
Objective: Describe the challenges faced by the Allies in building a just and lasting peace.
Questions:
59. What decisions did Roosevelt, Churchill, and Stalin make at the Yalta Conference?
60. What did the United States do with the surviving leaders of Germany and Japan?
Section 4: The Home Front
Main Idea: After World War II, Americans adjusted to new economic opportunities and harsh social tensions.
Objective: Describe the economic and social changes that reshaped American life during World War II.
Questions:
61. How did the war affect American workers?
62. How did the growth of the defense industry affect American population patterns?
63. How did wartime activities affect families?
Objective: Summarize both the opportunities and the discrimination African Americans and other minorities
experienced during the war.
Questions:
64. How were African Americans treated at home and in the military?
65. Why were Japanese Americans placed in internment camps?
66. How were Japanese Americans compensated for internment?
Historic Supreme Court Cases – Korematsu v. United States (1944)
Objective: To analyze the Supreme Court case of Korematsu v. United States in its historical context and to understand
the legal reasoning used to decide the case.
Questions:
67. What was the key conflict in the Korematsu case?
68. What role did the military play in the Court’s decision?
69. How did the Court rule in the Korematsu case?
70. What did Justice Murphey base his dissent on?