World Wars I and II - GED Social Studies

The Potsdam Conference took place in occupied Germany during the waning days of the Second World War. It was attended by all the Allied Powers, although focus tends to go towards President Truman, representing the United States, Josef Stalin, representing the Soviet Union, and Prime Ministers Winston Churchill and later Clement Attlee, representing Great Britain. The Allied Powers met to decide how to punish Germany and how to rebuild the world after the war.

The Triple Entente, entente meaning "friendship" in French, was cemented by the signing of the Anglo-Russian Entente in 1907. The French and Russians had already entered into an alliance in 1894, while the UK and Frace had put an end to centuries of imperial animosity in 1904. In addition to ending competition between the three constituent powers, the alliance that formed on the basis of the agreements provided for military cooperation as well. The Triple Entente also came about as a geo-political counterweight to the power wielded over Central Europe by the Triple Alliance of Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Italy. The web of alliances that spread over most of Europe has long been thought to have been one of the precipitating factors that led to the spread of war across the continent in WWI.

The Treaty of Versailles was signed in 1919 between Germany and the Allied powers. It represents the end of World War One. Aside from ending World War One, it is notable for creating the circumstances that led to World War Two; by imposing punishments and blame that were too stringent on Germany, The Treaty of Versailles created the conditions that led to the rise of Nazism in Germany.

The Nobel Peace Prize was first given out in 1901, so Abraham Lincoln is immediately disqualified, regardless of his wonderful accomplishments. The correct answer is that Woodrow Wilson was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1919, for his work in founding the League of Nations in the years immediately after World War One.

Decolonization, in which the majority of European powers lost most of their foreign colonies, either willingly or unwillingly, took place in the years immediately after World War Two. Primarily this took place from 1946 to 1966. It was a time period that witnessed Britain and France in particular, but all the European powers, abandoning their massive imperial landholdings and returning to small nation-states. The primary motivating factors were the declining wealth and influence of European powers following the horrors of World War Two; the increased importance placed on individual and national rights in the second half of the twentieth century; and pressure from the United Nations and the United States.

The GI Bill was issued in 1944 as part of an extended program to help returning World War Two veterans reintegrate into American society. It provided, among other things, housing loans and grants for access to higher education. It is considered a very important factor in the creation of the massive American middle class.

The correct answer is "Isolationism." Put simply, the US was rather gun shy after the first world war. The unequaled level of destruction and loss of life of the first world war really put war into perspective, for both citizens and government, and led to a brief period of isolationism. In addition to the fact that WWI had just ended, the fact that the beginning of the second world war took place entirely in Europe (exactly like WWI) led isolationists to believe that intervention was the worst possible course of action. Thus, isolationists counseled avoidance of conflict at all cost.

This is reflected in the preface of the "Neutrality Act" of 1935 (reproduced above). Note that the Act utterly and totally prohibits the export of arms to any belligerent, regardless of whether they were friend or foe.

"Atomic Bomb" is the correct answer. The United States became the first country to employ an atomic bomb in warfare, to great--if very controversial--success. The bombs dropped by the Enola Gay (the plane carrying both bombs) cause unprecedented destruction and eventually led to the surrender of the Japanese Empire, and the complete end of WWII.

In the first half of the twentieth century there were competing ideologies about how best to govern a nation—democracy, fascism, and socialism. Fascism— particularly as seen in Spain under Franco and Italy under Mussolini—is defined by an extreme form of nationalism in which the media is under complete control of the state and individual rights are limited. It also generally features a totalitarian leader whose authority cannot be questioned.

All of these countries were ruled by Fascism at some point in the twentieth century except Russia, which transitioned first from monarchy to socialism, and then towards the end of the twentieth century (with the fall of the Soviet Union) to limited democracy.

A government or military policy of deliberately killing a group of people based on social, religious, ethnic, or national reasons is called genocide. Genocides have occurred throughout human history but were particularly prominent in the twentieth century. The Holocaust was a genocide of Europe's Jews and Romani perpetrated by Nazi Germany. Hersey is speaking out against organized religious doctrine; to be ostracized means to be banished or sent away from a community; excommunication is a form of banishment carried out by the Catholic Church where individuals, or whole communities, can be shut off from the salvation provided by and through the Church.

The Balfour Declaration was published in 1917 and proposed to create a new nation for the Jewish people in the territory of Palestine. This nation would come to be called Israel. It represents a massive milestone in the Zionist movement to achieve an independent Jewish nation.

The Atlantic Charter was an agreement signed between the United States and Great Britain in 1941. It proposed the ideal manner in which the war and the post-war world should be conducted and shaped. It was later supported by the other allied powers and led to the creation of the United Nations.

The League of Nations was an idea proposed by Woodrow Wilson in the aftermath of World War One. It was part of Wilson’s Fourteen Points, which he published with the aim of preventing a large scale international conflict from breaking out in the future.

Despite being the brainchild of American President Woodrow Wilson, the United States never formally entered the League of Nations. This is because Congress did not ratify American membership in the league. In United States law any treaties or foreign-relations decisions taken by the United States President have to be approved by Congress before they can be enacted. Many historians believe that America’s failure to join the League of Nations contributed to its ineffectiveness and swift decline.

For the majority of the nineteenth century, United States’ foreign policy, particularly with Europe, revolved around the belief that America should not involve itself in any international conflicts or disputes. This policy is called "isolationism." It faded from preeminence towards the beginning of the twentieth century, when the United States ascended as a world power and began to embark on its own path of imperialist conquest. Isolationism has occasionally resurfaced throughout American history, such as around the time of World War One and of World War Two.

The correct answer is "Japanese Internment." Executive Order 9066 (partially reproduced above) authorized the military to forcefully relocate and corral, well, anyone-it was completely discretionary. Of course, it was used almost solely to relocate those of Japanese descent and place them into "internment" camps; essentially, it was the forced relocation and detainment of those of Japanese descent, in large part a response to the bombing of Pearl Harbor (December 7, 1941).

The Russian Revolution took place in 1917 and witnessed the decline of the longstanding Russian monarchy to be replaced with a communist government. The primary cause for the Russian revolution was the extended suffering of the Russian people during World War One. The Russian Revolution caused Russia to withdraw from World War One and precipitated the rise of the Soviet Union.

Czar Nicholas II was the last monarch of Russia. When the Russian monarchy fell during the Russian Revolution of 1917, Nicholas and his family were executed. Czar Alexander II abolished serfdom and is therefore sometimes known as Alexander the Liberator. Josef Stalin presided over the Soviet war effort during World War Two.