Writing Assignment 3 - Causes of WWII...
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Writing Assignment #3: Causes of World War II DBQ Historical Background: On June 28, 1919, the Treaty of Versailles was signed by the Allied nations of Great Britain, France, and the United States and by a defeated Germany. The framers of this treaty hoped that it would stabilize Europe and ensure that another catastrophic war would never happen again, but just over two decades later, the flames of war consumed Europe. While World War II was the result of a number of overlapping causes, some were of especially great importance. Prompt: What were the primary causes of World War II? Directions: Read and annotate (highlight/underline and write comments in the margin) each document. Answer the questions that follow each document. Then, complete the graphic organizer for putting your paragraph together. Lastly write a Step Up to Writing paragraph answering the prompt. You must type your response. The Documents Document A Source: Map of German territorial losses from the Treaty of Versailles, 1919. Map created from various sources. 1. What territories did Germany lose due to the Treaty of Versailles? Document B Source: Excerpt from Adolf Hitler, Mein Kampf, 1924 It should scarcely seem questionable to anyone that… the restoration of the frontiers of 1914 could be achieved only by blood. Only childish and naïve minds can lull themselves in the idea that they can bring about a correction of Versailles by wheedling and begging…No nation can remove this hand from its throat except by sword. 2. How does Hitler suggest Germans should respond to the Treaty of Versailles?
Transcript of Writing Assignment 3 - Causes of WWII...
Writing Assignment #3: Causes of World War II DBQ
Historical Background: On June 28, 1919, the Treaty of Versailles was signed by the Allied nations of Great Britain, France, and the United States and by a defeated Germany. The framers of this treaty hoped that it would stabilize Europe and ensure that another catastrophic war would never happen again, but just over two decades later, the flames of war consumed Europe. While World War II was the result of a number of overlapping causes, some were of especially great importance. Prompt: What were the primary causes of World War II? Directions: Read and annotate (highlight/underline and write comments in the margin) each document. Answer the questions that follow each document. Then, complete the graphic organizer for putting your paragraph together. Lastly write a Step Up to Writing paragraph answering the prompt. You must type your response.
The Documents Document A Source: Map of German territorial losses from the Treaty of Versailles, 1919. Map created from various sources.
1. What territories did Germany lose due to the Treaty of Versailles? Document B Source: Excerpt from Adolf Hitler, Mein Kampf, 1924
It should scarcely seem questionable to anyone that… the restoration of the frontiers of 1914 could be achieved only by blood. Only childish and naïve minds can lull themselves in the idea that they can bring about a correction of
Versailles by wheedling and begging…No nation can remove this hand from its throat except by sword.
2. How does Hitler suggest Germans should respond to the Treaty of Versailles?
Document C Source: Article 231 of the Treaty of Versailles, which is also known as the War Guilt Clause.
The Allied and Associated Governments affirm, and Germany accepts the responsibility of Germany and her allies for causing all the loss and damage to which the Allied and Associated Governments and their nationals have been subjected as a consequence of the war imposed upon them by aggression of Germany and her allies.
3. What is the main idea of Article 231 of the Treaty of Versailles? Document D Source: Laurence V. Moyer, Victory Must Be Ours: Germany in the Great War 1914-1918, 1995.
4. How did most Germans feel about the Treaty of Versailles? 5. According to historian Laurence Moyer, why did many Germans admire Adolf Hitler? Document E Source: Joseph Goebbels, chief of Nazi propaganda, 1930.
6. What misinformation does Goebbels say about the Jews? 7. How can such anti-Semitic views affect public opinion?
Document F Source: (Chart and text) Reinhart and Rogoff, “European Debt After the Great War,” Guggenheim Investments, 2012.
8. According to the chart, which country had the greatest amount of debt in 1921? The least in 1921? Which country had the greatest amount of debt in 1929? The least in 1929? 9. Which country appeared to have borrowed most heavily against its Gross Domestic Product (GDP)? Why might this be important? 10. What different ways did Germany respond to its growing financial difficulties?
Document G Source: “The Effect of the Depression on Europe,” various sources. 11. What year seemed to show the largest increase in unemployment? 12. According to this map, which of the major combatants of WWI showed the largest decline in production? 13. Which country appears to have had the largest numbers of unemployed? 14. Overall, who seemed hardest hit by the Depression and why?
Document H Source: “The Covenant of the League of Nations,” Paris Peace Conference, signed June 28, 1919.
15. What is the main idea of Article 10? Article 16? 16. Who wanted to create the League of Nations? Who did not? Document I Source: Leonard Raven-Hill, “The Gap in the Bridge,” Punch Almanack, 1919
17. How does this image of the keystone illustrate the importance of the United States to the League of Nations?
