The Origins & Outbreak of the Second World War (AQA GCSE History: Wider World Depth Study (Paper 1: Section B)): Flashcards

Stalin prepared the USSR by focusing on rapid industrialisation to make the USSR stronger and more prepared for war.

Hitler felt justified in breaking the Treaty of Versailles because some terms had already been reversed and other countries had not kept their promises, such as disarming.

Hitler took Germany out of the League of Nations in November 1933.

Hitler used the World Disarmament Conference, held in Geneva 1932-1934, as an excuse to leave the League.

Rearmament is the rebuilding and expanding of a country's armed forces.

By 1939, there were around 1.4 million men in the German armed forces.

The 1935 'Rally of Freedom' at Nuremberg reintroduced compulsory military service.

The Austrian Chancellor assassinated in the 1934 Dollfuss Affair was Dollfuss.

In the 1935 Saar plebiscite, over 90% voted to rejoin Germany.

True.

The League followed the Treaty of Versailles' 15-year time limit when holding the Saar plebiscite.

Hitler remilitarised the Rhineland in 1936.

Germany built the Siegfried Line along the French border after 1936.

After the Rhineland invasion, Hitler signed a 25-year non-aggression pact with France and Britain that he had no intention of keeping.

Historians see the Rhineland remilitarisation as significant because it was the League's last opportunity to stop Hitler without a world war.

German rearmament helped the Nazi economy by reducing unemployment, which fell from 4.8 million in 1933 to 300,000 by 1939.

The treaty of friendship signed by Germany and Italy on 25th October 1936 was called the Rome-Berlin Axis.

In April 1935, Britain, France and Italy signed the Stresa Front to stand up to Hitler.

The 1935 agreement between Britain and Germany that undermined the Stresa Front was the Anglo-German Naval Agreement.

The Anglo-German Naval Agreement allowed Germany a navy 35% of the size of Britain's navy.

False.

It was a treaty of friendship, not an official alliance.

The two countries that first signed the Anti-Comintern Pact in November 1936 were Japan and Germany.

The aim of the Anti-Comintern Pact was to help each other in the fight against communism.

Italy joined the Anti-Comintern Pact in 1937.

The Anti-Comintern Pact became a military alliance in May 1939 through the Pact of Steel.

The country angered by the Anti-Comintern Pact that might retaliate was the USSR.

Italy and Germany began to pursue closer relations by 1936 because both had little respect for the League and pursued an aggressive foreign policy.

The Anti-Comintern Pact reminded people of the First World War because it recreated a complex, formal alliance system like the one that started that war.

Anschluss was the union of Austria with Germany, which Hitler achieved in 1938.

Hitler was born in Austria, giving him a personal reason to want Anschluss.

Around 98% of Austrians spoke German, which increased support for Anschluss.

Hitler had united Austria with Germany unopposed by March 1938.

Anschluss helped Hitler achieve his foreign policy aim of Grossdeutschland (Greater Germany).

Stormtroopers affected the Anschluss vote in Austria by intimidating Austrian voters at the polling stations.

False.

France was going through political chaos and could not react.

After Anschluss, Czechoslovakia feared Hitler would invade Czechoslovakia itself next.

Anschluss made Hitler more powerful because he gained Austria's army and resources, expanding his armed forces.

Untermenschen means 'subhumans'; the term Hitler used for groups like the Slavs of Czechoslovakia.

The 1934 Dollfuss Affair had shown the Austrian Nazi Party's willingness to use violence.

Anschluss made Hitler more confident to take bigger risks because Austria had never been part of Germany, so he was now making Germany bigger than before the First World War.

Appeasement is the policy of giving in to a country's demands to avoid war.

The two countries that followed the policy of appeasement in the 1930s were Britain and France.

The British Prime Minister most associated with appeasement was Neville Chamberlain.

Chamberlain became British Prime Minister in 1937.

The strongest opponent of appeasement was Winston Churchill.

False.

Winston Churchill strongly opposed it.

Chamberlain was personally determined to avoid another war because he and the public had been horrified by the First World War; his brother was killed in 1915.

Churchill attacked appeasement with the quotation 'An appeaser is one who feeds a crocodile, hoping it will eat him last.'

Appeasement made war more likely because it encouraged Hitler to keep expanding, as he saw Britain and France would not stop him.

By the time Britain and France abandoned appeasement, Germany had already grown too powerful.

Appeasers used diplomacy and treaties to make allowances for aggressive nations.

The Sudetenland was a region of Czechoslovakia where many ethnic Germans lived.

Over 3.5 million Germans lived in the Sudetenland.

One resource reason Hitler wanted the Sudetenland was its rich minerals and the Skoda armaments factory.

The four countries that attended the Munich Conference in 1938 were Germany, Italy, Britain and France.

False.

Czechoslovakia was not invited, and the USSR was excluded too.

The Munich Agreement (30 September 1938) gave Hitler the Sudetenland.

Chamberlain famously called the Munich Agreement 'peace for our time'.

After the Munich Agreement, Czechoslovakia felt let down and betrayed by Britain and France, and left defenceless.

The Munich Agreement angered Stalin because the USSR was excluded, deepening his distrust of Britain and France.

In March 1939, Hitler broke his promise and marched into the Czech capital, Prague.

Hitler could not justify taking the rest of Czechoslovakia in March 1939 because there was no German-speaking population in the land he seized.

Hitler's occupation of Czechoslovakia ended the policy of appeasement; Chamberlain said he could no longer trust Hitler.

The three 1938 meetings about the Sudetenland were held at Berchtesgaden, Godesberg and Munich.

The Nazi-Soviet Pact was signed on 23 August 1939.

The Nazi-Soviet Pact is also known as the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact.

The two leaders behind the Nazi-Soviet Pact were Hitler and Stalin.

False.

Hitler was a fascist (far right); Stalin was a communist (far left).

The Nazi-Soviet Pact was a non-aggression pact lasting 10 years.

The secret clause of the pact agreed to partition Poland between Germany and the USSR.

Besides Poland, Stalin was to gain Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia and Finland.

Taking Soviet land eventually served Hitler's foreign-policy aim of Lebensraum (living space).

One reason Stalin signed the pact was to gain land and buy time to prepare, delaying war.

The pact made war more likely because it removed the fear of Soviet interference, clearing the way for Hitler to invade Poland.

Germany invaded Poland nine days after signing the pact.

The pact shocked Britain and France because two ideological enemies had unexpectedly agreed to cooperate.

After Hitler took Czechoslovakia, Britain and France thought he would target Poland next.

On 31 March 1939, Britain and France guaranteed to protect the borders of Poland.

The Polish Corridor was a strip of land (from the Versailles Settlement) giving Poland sea access and cutting Germany in two.

The formerly German free city inside Poland that Hitler demanded back was Danzig.

Germany invaded Poland on 1 September 1939.

Britain declared war on Germany on 3 September 1939.

False.

He was surprised, as they had let him get away with earlier invasions.

Hitler believed he could invade Poland safely because Britain and France had appeased his earlier moves, so he expected no serious response.

The harsh peace treaty seen as a long-term cause of the Second World War was the Treaty of Versailles.

The failure of the League of Nations helped cause the war because its weakness over Manchuria and Abyssinia encouraged Hitler to take risks.

Hitler's aims of Grossdeutschland and Lebensraum drove his expansion eastwards.

The Nazi-Soviet Pact helped cause the war because it gave Hitler the conditions to invade Poland, knowing he would only face Britain and France.