AP Chapter 20

AP Chapter 20: World War II


Learning Objectives:

  1. How did World War I sow the seeds to World War II?

  2. In what ways was World War II a “total” war?

  3. What was the Holocaust?

  4. What impact did World War II have on European society?

  5. How did the Allies prepare for a postwar Europe?


Chapter Outline:

  1. Again the road to war (1933-1939)

  2. World War II (1939-1945)

III. Racism and the Holocaust

  1. The Domestic Fronts

  2. Preparations for Peace

  3. In perspective


    Anschluss(748)     blitzkrieg(754)                  Luftwaffe(756)     appeasement(746)              Holocaust(768)    Third Reich(758)    Axis(745)            lebensraum(744)

    Chapter 20 Review Questions

    Again the Road to War (1933-1939):

    1. What were Hitler’s foreign policy aims? Was he bent on conquest, or did he simply want to return Germany to its 1914 boundaries?

    2. Why did Britain and France adopt a policy of appeasement in the 1930s? Did the West buy valuable time to rearm at Munich in 1938?

    World War II (1939-1945):

    1. How was Hitler able to defeat France so easily in 1940? Why did the air war against Britain fail? Why did Hitler invade Russia?  Could the invasion have succeeded?

    2. Why did Japan attack the United States at Pearl Harbor? How important was American intervention in the war? Why did the United States drop atomic bombs on Japan?  Was President Truman right to use the bombs?

    The Domestic Fronts:

    1. How did experiences on the domestic front in Britain differ from those in Germany and France? What impact did “The Great Patriotic War” have on the people of the Soviet Union?

    Racism and the Holocaust:

    1. What was Hitler’s “final solution” to the Jewish question? Why did he want to eliminate Slavs as well? To what extent can it be said the Holocaust was the defining event of the twentieth century?


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