Road to WW2 / WW2 Flashcards

1
Q

Lightning war / Blitzkrieg

A

Fast-moving war, very strategically using air and ground troops, to attack and overwhelm and surprise enemy troops as swift as possible

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2
Q

Why was Italy dissatisfied after WW1 even though they were on the victorious side?

A
  • Their promises of territorial gains were not fulfilled and indeed very slim
  • The interwar period was marked through inflation, economic difficulties and unemployment
  • Unstable political system
  • they felt cheated because they didn’t get the territorial gains that they wanted to from france and GB
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3
Q

How did Mussolini succeed in founding the national facist party?

A

-He used the discontent of the people and made capital out of it

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4
Q

What was italy’s ideological developments after ww1?

A
  • The facist party was started
  • ## Benito Mussolini was the prime minister (highest in room)
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5
Q

Why did Italy not join the axis power in the war from the beginning?

A
  • Because Mussolini was hesitant of what the costs would be of such a war and wanted to wait and see who the victors were going to be, however they were pressured by Nazi Germany and eventually joined them in the war
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6
Q

What were the political developments in Russia?

A
  • Trotzky vs Stalin
  • Authorian regime of Stalin
  • Soviet Union Joins League of Nations
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7
Q

What were the economical developments in Russia?

A
  • Nationalization of the agricultural sector (grouped farmland under state control)
  • wanted to transform the agrarian economy into industrialized
  • forced industrialization to catch up with the west
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8
Q

Ideological developments in Russia?

A
  • Stalinism (centralized control, authoritarianism, father of nations, cult like)
  • Communism, marxism-leninism
  • Atheism (stalin wanted to replace religion with ideology)
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8
Q

Road to WW2 in Russia?

A
  • Stalin recognized danger of Nazi Germany
  • Forced industrialiation
    -Centralized state
  • Defensive alliances with France
  • Germany and Soviet Union sign non-aggression pact
  • With german invasion, entered WW2
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8
Q

Attitude towards potential war in Russia?

A
  • Initially anti-war but then were invaded by Germany
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9
Q

What is the 5 year plan of Soviet Union?

A
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9
Q

What were Germany’s feelings after WW1?

A
  • They were humiliated, frustrated, weakened democratic regime, wanted revenge and back into the sun
  • Versaille Treaty (Lost Territory, demilitarize rhineland, no airforce, war reparations
  • Great depression, blamed the state for their state, were angry, searched for ways to make germany great again
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10
Q

What were the ideological and political beliefs? Germany

A
  • They wanted a pure german race “the arians”, additionally they wanted all Germans to be in one place, they were antisemitic (holocaust),
  • In politics this was portrayed with the national socialism party (NSDAP) and because the german politics system was weakened it was easy to enter the parliament for smaller parties.
  • NSDAP under Hitler promised to make Germany great again, they promoted dicatorship with the führer prinzip, anti-communism, antisemitism, white supremacy
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11
Q

What was the economic strategy? Germany

A
  • Job creation through government work: worked
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12
Q

Road to WW2 Germany

A
  • Hitlers rise to power, breaking treaty of versaille, aggressive expansion, invasion of poland, war
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13
Q

Germany’s attitude towards war?

A
  • They saw war as necessary to reach their goals and justified it with just wanting to reunite their people
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14
Q

Japans exonomical developments

A
  • banking crisis, fincancial instability, chronic depression
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15
Q

ideological developments japan

A
  • Emperor was on top of everything else, empereor-based ideology, patriotism, totalitarianis, radical right wing
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16
Q

Japan’s attitude towards ww2

A
  • Tempting opportunities
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17
Q

UK economic developments

A
  • WW1 was very expensive fo rUK, unemployment
18
Q

UK polotical developments

A
  • labour party first time majority
19
Q

Uk Ideological

A
  • anti facism
  • appeasement strategy
20
Q

UK Road to WW2

A
  • APPEASEMENT, no action from UK against Germany, didn’t intervene, only intervened when they invaded Poland because of treaty of UK with Poland
21
Q

UK attitude towards war

A
  • DID NOT WANT WAR BY ANY MEANS, traumatized from WW1§
22
Q

USA attitude towards war

A
  • Isolationist approach (didn’t want to be involved) but when war evolved supported allies and entered WW2 with Pearl Harbor attack
23
Q

Appeasement policy

A
  • Strategy of France but mostly UK to try and prevent war, not further enrage britain by stepping in, appeasing hitler, went into the wrong direction and fueld hitler
24
Q

US isolationism

A
  • After WW1 the US didn’t want any part in other countries problems, they focused on themselves and their own problems, especially since the rise of facism in europa
25
Q

German-Soviet-non-agression-pact

A
  • Was singed by Germany and Soviet union to not attack each others countries and strivings for expansion in order for hitler to avoid a 2-front war
  • was later broken by hitler and was what brought SU into war
26
Q

Japanese Militarism

A
  • Japan got more and more militaristic, wanted to expand by force –> invasion of china and entry into ww2
27
Q

Munich Agreement

A
  • Between britain, france, italy and germany
  • agreed to let hitler annex to the sudetenland if he stops his territorial expansions
  • didn’t work obvi
  • part of the appeasement strategy
28
Q

Battle Of Britain

A
  • When Germany firstly directly attacked the GB and from the air but GB persevered and conquered, destroying the German air fleet, so they had to retreat
29
Q

Crusade against Bolshevism

A
  • When Germany broke the non-aggression pact between Germany and Soviet Union, they marched into Soviet Union with the goal of completely eradicating the “Bolshevists” (Russian Communist Party).
  • It wasn’t just territorial, their goal was annihilation
  • But soviets persevered and with the help of temperature and tactics like scorched earth, they decided the battle for them
30
Q

Strategy of Scorched Earth

A
  • Russian strategy of when they evacuated places before German troops reached them, they completely burnt down and destroyed everything –> Germans couldn’t use infastructure, food, etc
31
Q

D-Day

A

Allied invasion in Normandy France
- marked the beginning of the liberation of western europe
- added another front of war for germany –> pivotal moment in ww2

32
Q

Goals of Germany

A
  • Hegemony in Europe
  • More Living Space
  • Annihilating jews and communism
  • Uniting all Germans in their Living space
33
Q

Goals Of USA

A
  • Complete and utter destruction of Nazi ideology and surrender of Germany
34
Q

Goals Of Great Britain

A
  • Unconditionnal surrender of Germany
  • Occupation of Germany
35
Q

Goals of Soviet Union

A
  • Expand their influence
  • Fight back against Germany
36
Q

Goals Of Italy

A
  • New living space, territorial gains
37
Q

Goals of Japan

A
  • Hegemony in the Pacific (against China and USA)
38
Q

Why did the allies win the war?

A
  • Winston Churchill didn’t negotiate, he was incredibly determined
  • Incredibly strong weaponery of USA (produced more arms in this time than all the other countries together)
  • Crusade against Bolshevism was unplanned and not thought through –> lead to two-front war
  • Hitler was incredibly full of himself, überschätze himself total
  • Axis powers didn’t give up when they should’ve
  • atomic bombs
  • failure in battle of britain
  • pearl harbour attack (to bring united states into war)
  • Germany declaring war on USA??? was completely unnecessary
  • lack of unity axis, they all wanted their own things, didn’t fight together for one cause
39
Q

three phases of ww2 and important battles

A
  1. Inital Victories (Blitzkrieg), Battle of Britain, Crusade against Bolshevists
  2. Turning of the tides (pearl harbor brought USA into war, axis forces surrender in north africa, stalingrad (couldn’t take stalingrad)
  3. Towards Defeat (D-Day Normandy, atomic bombs)
40
Q

Did Switzerland behave properly (economic aspects) YES

A
  • they traded arms with both sides
  • could’ve been invaded if they didn’t trade
  • needed money to keep the country running
41
Q

Did Switzerland behave properly (economic aspects) NO

A
  • illegal, immoral gold trade (stolen from the jews)
  • exported weapons to Germany until 1944
  • supported Germany by trading with them
42
Q

Did Switzerland behave properly (refugee aspects) YES

A
  • in the beginning they helped the jews
  • fear of Germany if they knew they helped the jews
43
Q

Did Switzerland behave properly (refugee aspects) NO

A
  • they stamped a big fat J on them
  • did not help them actively, basically said (all to their own, own people should help their own)
  • not willing to take the jews
44
Q

Character of the North Africa Colony War

A
  • always mobile, no fortifications were built
  • because you can’t really occupy “nothing” like desert, it was just patrolling and occasional attacks to get the others to “leave”
45
Q

why did the north africa war matter?

A
  • italy wanted to get all mediterranean africa under control
  • uk wanted to defeat italy, economic necessities (suez canal), needed to show good strong leadership
  • hitler began to invest more and more men into war even though at the beginning they weren’t even invested in the war, once they protected libya they realized they could be quite successful and were powerhungry