World History Quiz

World War 1 (1914 to 1918) and World War 2 (1939 to 1945)

The two world wars are the central events of twentieth-century history and the most heavily examined topic in world history. The First World War (1914 to 1918) grew out of the rivalries of the European powers and ended the old empires; the Second World War (1939 to 1945) grew in large part out of the unfinished business of the first and became the deadliest conflict in history. These notes give the causes, course and consequences of each war, the treaties and organisations that followed, and the links between them, at the factual level that examinations test. A 20-question practice set follows.

The First World War: Causes and Outbreak

The First World War is usually explained by four long-term causes and one immediate trigger. The long-term causes are conveniently remembered by the word MAIN: militarism, alliances, imperialism and nationalism. Decades of arms racing, rival alliance blocs, competition for colonies and nationalist tension in the Balkans made a general war likely; a single assassination set it off.

Militarism: a naval and military arms race, above all the dreadnought battleship race between Britain and Germany.
Alliances: Europe was divided into two armed camps, the Triple Alliance of Germany, Austria-Hungary and Italy, and the Triple Entente of Britain, France and Russia.
Imperialism: competition for colonies and markets sharpened rivalry between the great powers.
Nationalism: especially in the Balkans, called the powder keg of Europe, where Slav nationalism strained Austria-Hungary.
The trigger: on 28 June 1914 Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to Austria-Hungary, was assassinated at Sarajevo by Gavrilo Princip, a Bosnian Serb linked to the Black Hand society.
Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia; the alliance system then dragged in Russia, Germany, France and Britain within weeks, and the war began in the summer of 1914.
The two sides became the Allied Powers (Britain, France, Russia, later Italy and the United States) and the Central Powers (Germany, Austria-Hungary, the Ottoman Empire and Bulgaria).

The First World War: Course and End

Germany's plan for a quick victory failed, and the western front settled into four years of trench warfare and stalemate. New weapons made the fighting enormously costly, and the war was finally decided by blockade, attrition and the entry of the United States.

The Schlieffen Plan, Germany's scheme to knock out France quickly then turn on Russia, failed at the First Battle of the Marne in 1914, producing the deadlock of the western front.
Trench warfare stretched from the North Sea to Switzerland. Major battles included Verdun and the Somme in 1916, where casualties ran into the hundreds of thousands.
New weapons: the machine gun, poison gas, the tank (first used by Britain at the Somme in 1916), submarines and aircraft.
At sea the Battle of Jutland in 1916 was the main fleet action; German unrestricted submarine warfare, including the sinking of the Lusitania in 1915, helped bring the United States into the war in 1917.
In 1917 Russia left the war after the Bolshevik Revolution and signed the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk with Germany in 1918.
The arrival of fresh American troops turned the balance; Germany's final offensives failed and the Central Powers collapsed.
The fighting ended with the armistice at 11 a.m. on 11 November 1918. About nine to ten million soldiers had died.

Between the Wars: Versailles and Its Failures

The peace settlement and the failure to enforce or sustain it are the direct bridge to the Second World War. The harshness of the treaty on Germany and the weakness of the new international order created the conditions for a second, greater conflict.

The Treaty of Versailles of 1919 punished Germany: it accepted sole guilt for the war under the war-guilt clause, lost territory and all its colonies, had its army strictly limited, and was made to pay heavy reparations.
Germans bitterly resented the treaty as a dictated peace, and this resentment was exploited by later extremist politics.
The League of Nations, founded in 1920 to keep the peace, was fatally weakened because the United States never joined and it had no army to enforce its decisions.
The Great Depression, beginning with the Wall Street Crash of 1929, brought mass unemployment and helped extremist parties to power.
In this climate dictatorships rose: Benito Mussolini and Fascism in Italy, Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party in Germany from 1933, and militarism in Japan.
Hitler broke the treaty step by step: rearmament, the reoccupation of the Rhineland in 1936, union with Austria (the Anschluss) in 1938, and the seizure of Czechoslovakia.
Britain and France followed a policy of appeasement, seen at the Munich Agreement of 1938, hoping to avoid war by concession; it only encouraged further aggression.

The Second World War: Course and End

The Second World War was truly global, fought in Europe, North Africa, the Atlantic and across Asia and the Pacific. It began with rapid German conquests, turned on three great campaigns in 1941 and 1942, and ended with the defeat of Germany and then Japan.

The war in Europe began on 1 September 1939 when Germany invaded Poland; Britain and France declared war on 3 September. It followed the Nazi-Soviet Pact of August 1939, a non-aggression agreement.
Using blitzkrieg, or lightning war, Germany overran Poland, then Denmark, Norway, the Low Countries and France in 1940. Britain held out in the Battle of Britain, an air battle won by the Royal Air Force.
The sides were the Axis (Germany, Italy, Japan) and the Allies (Britain and its empire, the Soviet Union from 1941, the United States from 1941, and China).
Turning points: Germany invaded the Soviet Union in June 1941 (Operation Barbarossa) and was stopped and then broken at the Battle of Stalingrad in 1942 to 1943; Japan attacked Pearl Harbor on 7 December 1941, bringing in the United States, and was checked at the Battle of Midway in 1942.
The Allies landed in Normandy on D-Day, 6 June 1944, opening the western front in France; the Soviets advanced from the east.
The Holocaust: the Nazi regime systematically murdered about six million Jews, along with millions of others, in the genocide known as the Holocaust.
Germany surrendered on 8 May 1945 (Victory in Europe Day) after Hitler's suicide. Japan surrendered after the United States dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki on 6 and 9 August 1945, ending the war with victory over Japan in August 1945.
The Second World War killed an estimated 70 to 85 million people, the deadliest conflict in human history.

Consequences and Comparison

The two wars together destroyed the old European order, created new global institutions, and set the shape of the second half of the century. Learn what each war changed and how the second grew from the first.

The First World War destroyed four empires: the German, Austro-Hungarian, Russian and Ottoman, and redrew the map of Europe and the Middle East.
The Second World War left the United States and the Soviet Union as rival superpowers, beginning the Cold War, and split Europe, symbolised later by the division of Germany.
The United Nations was founded in 1945 to replace the failed League of Nations, with a Security Council able to act more effectively.
The war accelerated decolonisation, as exhausted European powers gave up their empires in Asia and Africa in the following decades.
The Holocaust and the war led to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948 and the crime of genocide entering international law.
Direct links between the wars: the harsh Treaty of Versailles, the weak League of Nations, the Great Depression, and the policy of appeasement all connect the first war to the second.
Both wars saw huge technological change, from tanks, aircraft and submarines in the first to radar, jet aircraft, rockets and the atomic bomb in the second.

Key Terms

MAIN causes: The four long-term causes of the First World War: militarism, alliances, imperialism and nationalism, which created the tension that the assassination at Sarajevo in 1914 finally ignited.
Treaty of Versailles: The 1919 peace settlement that ended the First World War, imposing war guilt, territorial losses, disarmament and reparations on Germany. Its harshness fed the resentment that helped cause the Second World War.
Blitzkrieg: Lightning war, the German tactic of fast, concentrated attacks by tanks, aircraft and infantry that overran much of Europe in 1939 and 1940.
Appeasement: The policy by which Britain and France gave in to Hitler's demands in the 1930s, most notably at the Munich Agreement of 1938, in the failed hope of avoiding another war.

Practice Quiz — 20 Questions

correct out of 20

The First World War was fought during the years:
- A.1912 to 1916
- B.1914 to 1918
- C.1918 to 1922
- D.1910 to 1914
B. 1914 to 1918 — The First World War ran from 1914 to the armistice of 11 November 1918.
The four long-term causes of the First World War are remembered by the word:
- A.MAIN
- B.FANG
- C.WARS
- D.ALLY
A. MAIN — MAIN stands for militarism, alliances, imperialism and nationalism.
The immediate trigger of the First World War was the assassination at Sarajevo of:
- A.Kaiser Wilhelm II
- B.Archduke Franz Ferdinand
- C.Tsar Nicholas II
- D.Otto von Bismarck
B. Archduke Franz Ferdinand — Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to Austria-Hungary, was assassinated by Gavrilo Princip on 28 June 1914.
In the First World War, Germany, Austria-Hungary and the Ottoman Empire were known as the:
- A.Allied Powers
- B.Central Powers
- C.Axis Powers
- D.Entente Powers
B. Central Powers — These, with Bulgaria, formed the Central Powers, opposed to the Allied Powers.
The German plan to defeat France quickly and then turn on Russia was the:
- A.Schlieffen Plan
- B.Marshall Plan
- C.Barbarossa Plan
- D.Maginot Plan
A. Schlieffen Plan — The Schlieffen Plan failed at the First Battle of the Marne in 1914, leading to trench warfare.
The tank was first used in battle by Britain in 1916 at the:
- A.Battle of Verdun
- B.Battle of the Somme
- C.Battle of Jutland
- D.Battle of the Marne
B. Battle of the Somme — Britain first deployed tanks at the Battle of the Somme in 1916.
The First World War ended with the armistice on:
- A.11 November 1918
- B.28 June 1919
- C.1 September 1918
- D.8 May 1918
A. 11 November 1918 — The armistice took effect at 11 a.m. on 11 November 1918.
The treaty that ended the First World War and punished Germany was the:
- A.Treaty of Brest-Litovsk
- B.Treaty of Versailles
- C.Treaty of Trianon
- D.Treaty of Rome
B. Treaty of Versailles — The Treaty of Versailles of 1919 imposed war guilt, reparations and disarmament on Germany.
The international body set up after the First World War to keep peace was the:
- A.United Nations
- B.League of Nations
- C.Warsaw Pact
- D.European Union
B. League of Nations — The League of Nations was founded in 1920 but was weakened because the United States never joined.
The policy of giving in to Hitler's demands in the 1930s to avoid war was called:
- A.Containment
- B.Appeasement
- C.Isolationism
- D.Détente
B. Appeasement — Appeasement was seen at the Munich Agreement of 1938.
The Second World War in Europe began when Germany invaded which country in 1939?
- A.France
- B.Poland
- C.the Soviet Union
- D.Belgium
B. Poland — Germany invaded Poland on 1 September 1939; Britain and France declared war on 3 September.
The German tactic of fast, concentrated attacks in 1939 and 1940 was called:
- A.Trench warfare
- B.Blitzkrieg
- C.Attrition
- D.Guerrilla war
B. Blitzkrieg — Blitzkrieg, or lightning war, used tanks and aircraft to overrun opponents quickly.
Germany, Italy and Japan in the Second World War were known as the:
- A.Allied Powers
- B.Central Powers
- C.Axis Powers
- D.Entente
C. Axis Powers — The Axis Powers were opposed by the Allies, chiefly Britain, the Soviet Union, the United States and China.
The German invasion of the Soviet Union in June 1941 was code-named:
- A.Operation Overlord
- B.Operation Barbarossa
- C.Operation Sea Lion
- D.Operation Torch
B. Operation Barbarossa — Operation Barbarossa was halted and then reversed, decisively at Stalingrad in 1942 to 1943.
The attack that brought the United States into the Second World War was on:
- A.Midway
- B.Pearl Harbor
- C.Okinawa
- D.the Philippines
B. Pearl Harbor — Japan attacked Pearl Harbor on 7 December 1941, bringing the United States into the war.
The Allied landings in France on 6 June 1944 are known as:
- A.V-E Day
- B.D-Day
- C.the Blitz
- D.the Battle of Britain
B. D-Day — D-Day, the Normandy landings, opened the western front against Germany.
The Nazi genocide of about six million Jews during the Second World War is called the:
- A.Holocaust
- B.Pogrom
- C.Purge
- D.Final Solution only
A. Holocaust — The systematic murder of about six million Jews is known as the Holocaust.
The Second World War in Europe ended with Germany's surrender on:
- A.8 May 1945
- B.11 November 1945
- C.2 September 1945
- D.6 June 1944
A. 8 May 1945 — Germany surrendered on 8 May 1945, celebrated as Victory in Europe Day.
Japan surrendered in 1945 after atomic bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and:
- A.Tokyo
- B.Nagasaki
- C.Osaka
- D.Kyoto
B. Nagasaki — The bombs fell on Hiroshima on 6 August and Nagasaki on 9 August 1945.
The organisation founded in 1945 to replace the League of Nations was the:
- A.NATO
- B.United Nations
- C.European Union
- D.Warsaw Pact
B. United Nations — The United Nations was established in 1945 with a more effective Security Council.

References

Imperial War Museums, First and Second World War histories — https://www.iwm.org.uk/history
Encyclopaedia Britannica, World War I — https://www.britannica.com/event/World-War-I
Encyclopaedia Britannica, World War II — https://www.britannica.com/event/World-War-II
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Holocaust Encyclopedia — https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/
United Nations, history of the UN — https://www.un.org/en/about-us/history-of-the-un