How did the United States and the European states respond to this crisis

Answer each of the following questions in a few paragraphs. Include specific examples that support your thesis and conclusions.

1.

In the late 1920s and early 1930s, the world suffered through the Great Depression. What were the causes of the economic collapse? How did the United States and the European states respond to this crisis? How effective were their responses? What were the consequences of the Great Depression?

2.

Describe Stalin’s “revolution from above.” What factors prompted Stalin’s actions, and what were his goals? How successful was the revolution?

3.

Some have argued that strong actions by England and France in the mid-1930s would have prevented World War II and that appeasement merely whetted Hitler’s appetite. How accurate is this statement?

4.

The most horrifying aspect of Hitler’s ideology and his regime was its anti-Semitism, culminating in the Final Solution, which claimed over 6 million lives including millions of Jews. Describe Nazi policies toward the Jews of Europe, being sure to indicate the basis of Hitler’s anti-Semitism. Were ordinary Germans Hitler’s willing accomplices?

5.

What factors contributed to the Grand Alliance’s military success? What were the turning points in the Allies’ march to victory?

Answer Key

1.

Answer would ideally include:
 
· The cause of the Great Depression was the U.S. stock market crash of 1929, itself caused by a stock market boom; people bought stocks with borrowed money, and when prices started falling, people began to sell their stocks, and a financial panic followed. There were many long-term contributing factors to the Great Depression, including the Dawes Plan. After World War I, America loaned money to European countries to pay their debts to each other, which often meant this money was used to pay America for other loans. The circular flow of money indicated a fragile world economy. The spread of the Great Depression was increased by nationalistic economic policy, such as high tariffs on imports. In addition to tariffs, each country had its own way of dealing with the Great Depression. Scandinavia ran up a large deficit to fund public works and keep money in circulation. The consequences of this economic depression include the immediate effect of mass unemployment and decreases in production; related to those two were personal crises of loss of morale and a loss of homes and disruption of families. The long-term consequences were a shift in governmental policies in some countries toward more government aid and spending. In the United States, Roosevelt’s New Deal—including the National Recovery Administration, Works Progress Administration, and the Agricultural Adjustment Act—attempted to reform and reinvigorate the economy. Political consequences included the increased popularity of Fascist, Socialist, Communist, and Radical Parties; these parties blamed governments for the depression and offered solutions to the ongoing economic crisis. The years of the Great Depression are considered to be when the stock market crashed in 1929 to 1943 when World War II industrial production brought the depression officially to an end.

2.

Answer would ideally include:
 
· The “revolution from above” refers to Stalin’s efforts to transform the Soviet Union: collectivization, centralized planning (especially the five-year plans with their emphasis on heavy industry), and political propaganda and terror, including the purges. Stalin’s reforms were responding to several problems (from Stalin’s point of view). One of Stalin’s biggest problems were the peasants of the Soviet Union. Following the revolutions of the early twentieth century, the peasants finally owned their own land. Stalin was convinced that over time they would start to think like capitalists, and therefore, he set out to destroy them as a class. This he achieved through the collectivization process. Collectivization did not produce any agricultural surpluses, but it did break the peasants as a class. Stalin also believed that the Soviet Union needed to industrialize quickly in order to catch up to the productive capacity of the West. The five-year plans of Stalin set out to rapidly industrialize, with a focus on heavy industry. This was very successful and involved the assistance of American engineers. Stalin may have viewed his “revolution from above” as a success, but its accompanying purges were brutal and led to the imprisonment and deaths of millions.

3.

Answer would ideally include:
 
· Hitler’s appetite was not the only cause of World War II, although it was an important aspect. Other factors include lingering German resentment about the Versailles settlement, ardent German nationalism, and the sense that German national interest had been violated. At the same time, there were factors that encouraged appeasement in the West, including post–World War I war weariness, pacifism, fear of the Soviet Union, and British guilt over the Versailles settlement. While it is probable that Hitler’s appetite was unappeasable, it is also likely that given the other factors involved, England and France were unable to take a stronger stand against Hitler’s demands.

4.

Answer would ideally include:
 
· Hitler’s anti-Semitism was something he learned from extreme nationalists in Austria. It was based on Social Darwinism and the idea of the superiority of Germanic races and inferiority of the Jews. As he amassed more power, Hitler instituted a series of legal restrictions and segregations of Jews. The Nuremberg Laws of 1935 defined a Jew as anyone with three or more Jewish grandparents and stripped all Jews of German citizenship. In 1938 the persecution of Jews escalated in Kristallnacht, in which Jewish houses, businesses, and synagogues were attacked. Much of the violence was done by German civilians, which indicates a level of willingness of the German people to participate in Hitler’s anti-Semitic violence. There were also restrictions on Jews leaving Germany. The violence and persecution culminated in the Holocaust, the systematic extermination of the Jews as a people. Few German citizens protested these actions of violence and persecution, another sign of the willingness of the German people to participate in the anti-Semitic violence. How many Germans knew of the extent of the Holocaust as it occurred is unknown.

5.

Answer would ideally include:
 
· Members of the Grand Alliance possessed key factors that contributed to the Alliance’s success: a large population, high productive capacity, plentiful natural resources, control of the seas, and sound leadership. At the same time, the Axis powers had definite inherent weaknesses: unstable leadership and shortages of natural resources. There were various turning points in the war: Coral Sea, Midway, El Alamein, Stalingrad, Normandy, and Hiroshima and Nagasaki. A good essay would indicate how Allied victories in these turning points reflected the strengths of the Allies and the weaknesses of the Axis powers.