World Wars I and II

Unit Review Sheet

Facts and Definitions

Lesson 1: World War I Begins

• World War I lasted from 1914 to 1918 and was fought in Europe. The United States was involved in the war only near its end.
• World War I was fought by the Central Powers of Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Turkey against the Allied Powers of Great Britain (and parts of the world that were dominions of Great Britain such as Canada), France, the United States, Russia, Italy, and Japan.
• A primary source is a source created at the time of a historical event or by people who experienced that event. Examples might include a letter, photograph, diary entry, or newspaper clipping from the time that an event was happening.
• A secondary source is a source of information created after a historical event by people who were not at the event. An example might be a book written by a historian or an article in a modern magazine.
• Sometimes resources combine primary and secondary sources. For example, Where Poppies Grow includes secondary information written by Linda Granfield, the book's author, but it also includes a number of primary sources including photographs, examples of postcards, and letters written by soldiers during World War I.

Lesson 2: In the Trenches and on the Homefront

• Propaganda is information designed to sway people's emotions and attitudes either in support of or in opposition to a particular cause.
• During wartime, soldiers were not the only people who sacrificed and worked for victory. People on the homefronts of all of the countries involved in the war also supported the efforts to win World War I.

Lesson 3: The End of World War I

• During World War I, soldiers had to be careful about what they wrote in their letters home because of the possibility that their correspondence would be intercepted.
• Be familiar with Wilson's Fourteen Point Plan and how it was similar to and different from the Treaty of Versailles.
• Know the objections that different countries had to parts of the Treaty of Versailles, which ended World War I.

Lesson 4: World War II Before U.S. Involvement

• Adolf Hitler's Nazi Party came to power in Germany in 1932, promising a return to economic prosperity and the rejection of the Treaty of Versailles. Many of his policies enabled the abuse or death of those who opposed him and of people whom he considered inferior, most notably Jews, whom he blamed for Germany's troubles.
• Know what blitzkrieg was and how it differed from the warfare of World War I.
• Understand the differences among democracy, fascism, and communism.

Lesson 5: Mobilizing for War

• On December 7, 1941, Japanese forces attacked U.S. forces in the Pacific, leading the United States to declare war on Japan. The other Axis powers — Germany and Italy — declared war on the United States soon after.
• In addition to joining the armed forces, Americans could support the war effort in a variety of ways on the homefront.

Lesson 6: Wartime Skills

• It was important for both sides to maintain secrecy during the war. If the enemy knew in advance about troop movements, plans for invasions, or other details, they could act on that information and many lives could be lost. Both Axis and Allied forces used spies, saboteurs, and secret codes throughout the war.
• The German Enigma machine and the Japanese diplomatic code (Purple) were just two of the codes that Allied code breakers deciphered to aid in the war effort.
• The code used by the Navajo code talkers proved unbreakable by the Axis powers.
• The number of women working outside the home in the U.S. rose by 50% during World War II.

Lesson 7: War in the Pacific and North Africa

• With the aid of code-breaking intelligence that gave U.S. naval officers information about Japanese strategies, Admiral Nimitz led his U.S. forces to victory in the Battle of Midway (June 4-7, 1942) and proved how critical air power would be to war in the Pacific. This victory and the Allied victory at Guadalcanal shifted the balance of power in the Pacific to the United States and its allies.
• Operation Torch, led by U.S. General (and later President) Eisenhower on November 8, 1942, landed over 65,000 troops on the northern coast of Africa, setting the stage for an invasion of Italy from this base position on the Mediterranean Sea.
• Scientific researchers for both the Allies and the Axis powers raced to be the first to develop an atomic bomb. The United States Army Corps of Engineers project devoted to this effort was called the Manhattan Project, and it successfully detonated a test weapon on July 16, 1945.

Lesson 8: War in Europe

• Operation Avalanche was the full-scale Allied invasion of Italy launched on September 9, 1943.
• D-Day was the Allied invasion of German-occupied France on D-Day, June 6, 1944.
• The Battle of the Bulge was Germany's last major offensive advance, designed to divide Allied forces.
• Know the locations and significance of all of the events listed on your map at the end of the lesson.
• Be sure that you know the vocabulary terms from Activity 3 thoroughly.

Lesson 9: The End of World War II

• May 8, 1945 was known as V-E Day (meaning Victory in Europe).
• Emperor Hirohito of Japan announced the Japanese surrender on August 15, 1945, which was celebrated as V-J Day (Victory in Japan).
• While the end of World War II brought a welcomed peace, it did not resolve all conflict among nations. In fact, it was closely followed by a period of hostile relations between the United States and the Soviet Union and their respective allies that is known as the Cold War.

Final Project: A World War II Board Game

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