F.

3 History
Revision Worksheet 2
Background of the Second World War

Name: ____________（ ）Class: ＿＿ Date: ＿＿＿＿＿ Marks:＿＿＿＿/29

I Causes of the Second World War(1939-45)

1 Legacy of the First World War

Discontent of Germany
➢ The terms of the (1)________________ were very harsh to Germany. Germany
was discontent that it had to bear the sole responsibility of the First World War,
Germans wanted to take revenge on the victorious countries.
➢ The Germans refused to support the democratic government of Germany as it
accepted the harsh treaty, all the above led to the rise of (2)________________.
➢ European countries, especially Germany, had to face post-war economic
difficulties. As a defeated country, Germany was forced to pay heavy indemnity
and give up many territories, as a result, (3)________________ in Germany
dropped seriously; (4)__________________ rose sharply and there was serious
(5)__________________.

Discontent of Italy
➢ Italy was a member of (6)_______________before First World War, however, it
joined the Allied Powers later on as Britain and France promised to give it some
land after the war.
➢ However, the victorious powers were discontent with the performance of Italy
during the war. Italy failed to get what it wanted at the Paris Peace Conference.
Therefore, Italy was very discontent with the settlement made by the victorious
powers.
➢ The War destroyed the economy of Italy seriously, and many people turned to
support (7)______________.

2 Great Depression (1929-1933)

➢ After the First World War, the United States became very rich. It was the largest
(8)____________ and (9)____________ in the world.
➢ (10)_________ lent a large sum of money to Britain and France and to Germany
to help it pay the war indemnity.
 ➢ In late October 1929, the stock market in (11)___________ crashed and this led to
the (12)_____________________________. The US stopped making overseas
investments, but also demanded its debtors to repay their loans. More than
(13)_________ million people were unemployed, people turned to support
(14)_____________.
➢ Britain and France failed to receive indemnity from Germany, trade stopped. In
order to focus on recovering their economies, Britain and France adopted an
(15)____________________ towards Germany and Italy.
➢ At the same time, the US adopted (16)_________________ as to focus on
recovering its economy.

3 Rise of totalitarianism
What is totalitarianism?

Feature Description
One-party - There was only one ruling party.
dictatorship - The leader played the role of national hero.
Supremacy of the - The government or the party controlled the mass media like
state; control of life radio, television, film and newspapers.
and thinking - There was no freedom of speech, assembly and religion.
- The ruling party could revise the law at any time.
- Labour unions, clubs and entertainments were supervised,
controlled or even banned by the government.
- Children and youngsters were brainwashed in order to
make them obedient to their national leader.
Military rule and - Secret police sought for dissidents and threatened them
foreign aggression with violence.
- War was employed as the final way to solve foreign
problems.
Complete control of - National resources and productions were arranged to
the economy facilitate the country’s foreign expansion policy.
- All commercial activities and unions were under the
government’s control.

Italy: (17)___________________(1922-1943)
Germany: (18)_____________________(1933-1945)
Japan: (19)_______________________(1932-1945)
Fascism in Italy

➢ (20)____________ formed a political

party in 1921 and led a march to
(21)__________ to seize power in 1922,
and started invading other countries such
as Africa.

Nazism in Germany

➢ Hitler promoted Pan-Germanism and would like to unite all brilliant

(22)______________. He also adopted genocide policy on the (23)__________.
➢ In 1933, Hitler became the Chancellor of Germany and became the (24)_________
(leader) in the next year. He ignored the (25)_______________ and abolished the
Treaty of Versailles, and started invading foreign countries.

Militarism in Japan

➢ Japan adopted an (26)______________ policy after the Meiji Modernisation,

during the First World War, Japan expanded its influence to the markets in China
and Southeast Asia.
➢ The economic disruption caused by the 1929 Great Depression facilitated the rise
of the (27) ___________ and Japan gradually adopted overseas expansion as a
means to save its economy.
➢ Japanese militarists made plans to invade first the
(28)________________________ of China and then the whole country, and to
build a (29)______________________ in the Pacific region.