US History Quiz: The Beginning of WW2

Part One: Short Answer

Answer each of the following questions in the space provided.

1. What was the Maginot Line supposed to do?

2. Who is President of the United States during this time?

3. What was Lebensraum?

4. What happened during the Anschluss?

5. What did the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact accomplish?

6. Who was Prime Minister of Britain when Hitler invaded Poland?

7. Who was Albert Speer?
8. Who was in charge of the Luftwaffe?
9. Who was the Nazi Minister of Propaganda?
10. Who was the Nazi Chief Diplomat?
11. Who was the head of the SS?
12. What happened during the Night of Long Knives?

13. What was Kristallnacht?

14. There were two reasons the other major European powers were unwilling to threaten Hitler
after his annexation of Austria. What were they?

15. Who was Francisco Franco?

16. Why did Hitler send his troops to fight in the Spanish Civil War?

17. How long did it take the Germans to conquer France?

18. Why did Hitler terminate Operation Sea Lion?

19. Why did Mussolini invade Greece?

20. How did Otto Skorzeny invade Crete?
21. Who became Prime Minister of England after the German invasion of Norway?

22. Who were the members of the Axis Powers?

23. What was the major difficulty with a German invasion of Britain?
Part Two: Essay Questions

Answer the following questions in short essay format (1-2 paragraphs each)

1. The United States was suffering from several immediate political problems during this time
period. What were they, and why did they make our nation unwilling to involve ourselves in
another European conflict?
2. What was the purpose of Lebensraum? What was Hitler trying to accomplish by conquering the
parts of Europe he targeted? Why did he want to invade Norway, and what was the purpose of
invading France?
3. Most of the focus of the early war has been on Italy and Germany. This is because those
members of the axis were close to each other and had similar goals. Why do you think that
Hitler signed a treaty with Japan? The nation is far away and has entirely different goals than
either Germany or Italy. What are the benefits of such a seemingly pointless alliance? Explain
your reasoning.
4. One of the reasons that the USSR signed the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact was so it could secure an
alliance with another major European power. Why do you think no other nation would deal with
Russia, even though they were willing to deal with Hitler? What made Stalin so much less
popular to them? Explain your reasoning.