Effects of the Second World War (1939–45)
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Flip to reveal answersWhat were the Yalta and Potsdam conferences (1945)?
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Question
What were the Yalta and Potsdam conferences (1945)?
Answer
Meetings of the Big Three (USA, USSR, Britain) to plan the postwar world — Yalta in February and Potsdam in July–August 1945.
Question
Who were the 'Big Three' at Yalta?
Answer
Roosevelt (USA), Stalin (USSR) and Churchill (Britain).
Question
When and why was the United Nations founded?
Answer
In October 1945, to replace the failed League of Nations and keep world peace — with the USA as a founding member.
Question
How was Germany changed territorially after WWII?
Answer
Divided into four occupation zones (US, British, French, Soviet); Berlin was also split four ways.
Question
What happened to Poland's borders?
Answer
The whole country shifted westward — it lost eastern land to the USSR and gained German land in the west.
Question
Define 'superpower'.
Answer
A nation with overwhelming military, economic and global power — after WWII, the USA and the USSR.
Question
How did WWII start the Cold War?
Answer
With Hitler defeated, the USA and USSR — capitalist versus communist — became rivals over a divided Germany and Soviet-controlled Eastern Europe.
Question
What was the Marshall Plan (1948)?
Answer
About 13 billion dollars of US aid to rebuild Western Europe, revive trade, and keep those countries out of communist hands.
Question
How did WWII affect the role of women?
Answer
Women filled men's jobs in factories, farms and services; though many were pushed back home after, it advanced arguments for equality.
Question
What was the human cost of WWII?
Answer
An estimated 50–70 million or more deaths, the majority civilian, including around six million Jews in the Holocaust.
Question
What were the Nuremberg Trials (1945–46)?
Answer
Trials of leading Nazis for war crimes and crimes against humanity — establishing that leaders could be held personally responsible.
Question
How did WWII accelerate decolonisation?
Answer
It exhausted and bankrupted European empires and inspired independence movements, e.g. India's independence in 1947.
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Topic 16.3 hub
Effects of war
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