Nations worsened the economic conditions

Answer each question with three or four sentences.

1.

At the onset of the Great Depression, what actions by nations worsened the economic conditions? What steps could these nations have taken to improve conditions?

2.

What was the New Deal? In what ways did it succeed, and in what ways did it fail?

3.

What was the difference between totalitarianism in the Soviet Union and in Germany?

4.

How did Stalin’s reforms of Soviet society transform the lives of Soviet women?

5.

What were some of the problems Italy had to deal with before World War I? Did any of these problems change with the war?

6.

Who had the more totalitarian government, Benito Mussolini or Joseph Stalin?

7.

How did Hitler and the Nazi Party use propaganda to gather support? What kinds of propaganda did they use?

8.

What kinds of Germans were critical of Nazism?

9.

What made the Grand Alliance such a powerful adversary against Hitler and Nazi Germany?

10.

Why did Japan lose the war in the Pacific? Was there a turning point in the fighting?

Answer Key

1.

Answer would ideally include:
 
· Nearly every country responded to the Great Depression in two ways: high tariffs to protect domestic production and reducing government spending. John Maynard Keynes believed that governments should have run up large deficits to stimulate their economies instead. The more the government spent, the lower the unemployment rate would be. If unemployment went down, people would have more money to spend on products, and the economy might improve.

2.

Answer would ideally include:
 
· The New Deal was President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s reform of the American economy. Roosevelt used a series of government interventions to stimulate the economy and lift some of the burden for recovery from the individual. The relief programs included the Agricultural Adjustment Act, which fixed farm prices; the Works Progress Administration, which hired unemployed Americans to construct public buildings, bridges, and highways; a national social security system, old-age pensions, and unemployment benefits; and the National Labor Relations Act, which protected unions and collective bargaining. The New Deal did not lift the United States out of the depression entirely, however; unemployment remained high until World War II broke out.

3.

Answer would ideally include:
 
· The difference was essentially about attitudes toward private property. In the totalitarianism of Stalinist Russia, there was no such thing as private property. All property belonged to the state, and there was no distinction by class, at least ideally. In the totalitarianism of Nazi Germany, private property was not nationalized and classes remained. Both states were totalitarian, meaning that their governments had total control over all aspects of state and society.

4.

Answer would ideally include:
 
· In 1917, Russian women had been granted equal legal rights with men and were urged to work outside the home. Stalin continued to urge women to work outside the home in factories, heavy industry, construction, and on farms. Women were also encouraged to have advanced degrees, particularly in science and technology. At the same time, Stalin also encouraged women to still marry, have children, and support traditional family values.

5.

Answer would ideally include:
 
· Italy had many problems before the war: poverty, opposition of conservative Catholics and landowners to middle-class lawyers and politicians who ran the country for their own benefit, and tensions between the church and state. Italy had fought on the side of Britain and France in World War I and hoped to acquire land, especially from the Austro-Hungarian Empire. But at Versailles, Italy was largely ignored. Many Italians felt betrayed by the war; being on the victorious side neither solved nor alleviated prewar problems. The result was a political tug-of-war between socialists (popular with workers and peasants) and conservatives (landowners).

6.

Answer would ideally include:
 
· Totalitarianism is defined as a dictatorship that has complete political power and control over all aspects of society. Totalitarian states are also able to mobilize their societies for large-scale actions. Students could answer this with either Stalin or Mussolini, discussing the five-year plans under Stalin, the land reform in Italy, and the suppression of the press. Both men placed their societies completely under the control of the ruling party, Communist or Fascist, and both had a secret police to enforce the state’s single-party plan. The book notes, however, that Mussolini’s state was much less ruthless and did not persecute political prisoners the way that Stalin did.

7.

Answer would ideally include:
 
· Hitler and the Nazi Party used all forms of propaganda, from film to posters to books. The most effective method was Hitler’s speeches; Hitler would use his charisma to manipulate the crowd, using emotive words such as references to the Versailles treaty, Jews, and Germany. These phrases would have elicited strong emotions in the audience. Hitler also tailored his speeches to specific classes and groups, such as middle- and lower-class groups. Hitler’s Mein Kampf was also a propaganda tool.

8.

Answer would ideally include:
 
· Critics of Hitler and the Nazis included competing political parties, such as the Communists and Socialists. Catholic and Protestant groups also objected to the secularism of Hitler’s Germany. Some high-ranking army officers also complained. Under the Nazi regime, critics of the Reich were arrested and imprisoned, and great numbers were executed.

9.

Answer would ideally include:
 
· The Grand Alliance linked the United States, Britain, and the Soviet Union. Individually, they each possessed most of the resources necessary to defeat Nazi Germany; collectively, their victory seems ensured. The United States had a large population and industry; Britain had a strong economy and was completely mobilized for war; the Soviet Union had the factories, a large population, and the supplies. All three nations had the support of the masses, which also prepared them to defeat Germany.

10.

Answer would ideally include:
 
· Several factors contributed to Japan’s loss to the Allies: America could read Japan’s secret code; American industry could produce twice as many aircraft as Japan; Japan’s empire was overextended and easy to break up piecemeal; and the American island-hopping campaign showed their determination to defeat Japan. The turning point might be either the Battle of Midway, in which the Americans established naval equality with Japan, or the Battle of Leyte Gulf, a four-day battle that devastated the Japanese navy.