Wayground logo

Free Printable Worksheets

Font size

S
M
L
XL
Worksheets

The U.S. Enters World War II

Total questions: 38

Worksheet time: 10hrs 30mins

Name
Class
Date
1.

What term describes a new form of dictatorship in which the government aimed to control the political, economic, social, intellectual, and cultural lives of its citizens?

a)

totalitarian

b)

monarchy

c)

imperial

d)

socialist

2.

What term was used to describe a political philosophy that advocated a strong, centralized, nationalistic government and glorified the state above the individual?

a)

militancy

b)

socialism

c)

democracy

d)

fascism

3.

Hitler argued that Germany’s Weimar government betrayed the German people when it signed the “War-Guilt Clause” in the

a)

Nuremberg Laws.

b)

Dawes Act.

c)

Treaty of Versailles.

d)

Atlantic Charter.

4.

Because Great Britain and France agreed to Hitler's seizure of the Sudetenland in Czechoslovakia, what policy did the Munich Conference become associated with?

a)

appeasement

b)

containment

c)

interventionist

d)

the Five Year Plan

5.

The Munich Conference in 1938 became a symbol of appeasement because

a)

Britain and France pressured the United States into entering the war after the conference.

b)

Britain and France entered into a formal defense alliance after the conference.

c)

Britain and France declared war on Germany.

d)

Britain and France submitted to Hitler’s demands in order to avoid conflict.

6.

What did Hitler call his "lightening war"?

a)

detente

b)

containment

c)

blitzkrieg

d)

nightmare war

7.

What is one reason the League of Nations didn't act to halt Japan's conquests in the Pacific and Hitler's conquests in Europe?

a)

Japan and Germany voted against intervention.

b)

The League couldn't count on the support of the U.S.

c)

The League no longer existed by 1929.

d)

The League was not powerful enough to halt them.

8.

What, more so than anything else, probably helped pull the U.S. out of the Great Depression?

a)

the CCC, WPA, and PWA

b)

WWII spending

c)

Roosevelt's First Hundred Days

d)

the Emergency Banking Act

9.

When WWII broke out in Europe, the U.S. passed a series of neutrality acts established __________ policy.

a)

an imperialist

b)

an isolationist

c)

a socialist

d)

a fascist

10.

What U.S. foreign policy did Roosevelt confirm when he turned his back on the London Economic Conference in 1933?

a)

imperialism

b)

isolationism

c)

interventionism

d)

containment

11.

Which of the following DID NOT reveal the U.S.'s adherence to an isolationist policy on the eve of World War II?

a)

Its Neutrality Acts were designed to keep the U.S. out of the war.

b)

The U.S. maintained a "peace-at-any-price" logic that kept them out of war.

c)

Rather than get involved, the U.S. even let Spain fall to Franco, who was supported by Hitler.

d)

The U.S. began to arm merchant ships and sent some $50 billion worth of arms to the Allies.

12.

Regardless of its isolationist policy, the U.S. Congress appropriated $37 billion to war preparation, which was five times larger than any New Deal budget, following which of the following events?

a)

Hitler's and Mussolini's backing of Franco in the Spanish Civil War

b)

the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor

c)

France's fall to Nazi Germany in June of 1940

d)

Nazi Germany's invasion of Poland in September of 1939

13.

The United States wanted to support the Allies without becoming directly involved in the conflict so they "sent guns, not sons" with the

a)

Atlantic Charter.

b)

Lend-Lease Act.

c)

Munich Conference.

d)

Nuremberg Laws.

14.

"Japan’s war machine in the Pacific depended upon American supplies of steel, scrap iron, oil, and aviation gasoline, but under the U.S. embargo, Japan’s oil reserves dwindled. They were forced to either clear out of China or launch an attack on the oil supplies of Southeast Asia and face the U.S. militarily."

Which of the following events was a direct effect of the events referred to in the excerpt above?

a)

the Spanish Civil War

b)

the Battle of Midway

c)

the Battle of Britain

d)

the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor

15.

Why was the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor considered only a short-term victory for Japan?

a)

The U.S. maintained its isolationist policy.

b)

The Japanese destroyed much of the American fleet.

c)

The Japanese were forced to clear out of China.

d)

The bombing united the American people behind the war effort.

16.

Which of the following was an effect of the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor?

a)

The U.S. maintained its isolationism regardless of the attack.

b)

Some 110,000 Japanese-Americans were forced to relocate to internment camps.

c)

Japanese Americans were drafted into military service as punishment.

d)

Nazi Germany decided to ally with Japan against the U.S.

17.

Which of the following were the big four powers that made up the Allied forces of WWII?

a)

Germany, Austria, Hungary, the Soviet Union

b)

Great Britain, France, the Soviet Union, and the U.S.

c)

Great Britain, the Soviet Union, Switzerland, and Germany

d)

Germany, Italy, Japan

18.

Which of the following make up the major Axis powers of WWII?

a)

Great Britain, France, the Soviet Union, and the U.S.

b)

Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Soviet Union

c)

Great Britain, France, Switzerland

d)

Germany, Italy, Japan

19.

The Japanese believed they had no choice but to bomb Pearl Harbor because

a)

the U.S. had bombed Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

b)

the U.S. embargo withheld needed oil supplies from Japan.

c)

the U.S. was forcing Japanese Americans into internment camps.

d)

the U.S. had threatened to invade Japan if they didn't pull out of China.

20.

Which of the following was NOT a new role for women during WWII?

a)

They served in noncombat positions in the WAACS and WAVES.

b)

They worked in factories in the war industries.

c)

They filled active combat roles on the front lines.

d)

They served as nurses in the war.

21.

Which of the following statements best shows that WWII's effect on women has been exaggerated?

a)

Two-thirds of women employed in war work left the labor force at war's end, many forced out by employers and unions.

b)

Most of the women employed in war work remained in the labor force after the war ended.

c)

Rosie the Riveter became the face of female war workers.

d)

Nearly 15 million enlisted in the armed services throughout WWII, and 6 million never-before-employed entered the work force.

22.

Which of the following statements best describes the effect of WWII on African Americans?

a)

African Americans achieved full civil rights during WWII.

b)

WWII marked a period of advancement in finding better jobs, especially in the war industries.

c)

African Americans remained tied to sharecropping agriculture in the South.

d)

Millions of African Americans found economic freedom on the western frontier.

23.

Which of the following inventions led to the demographic shift out of the South of five million African Americans in the three decades following WWII?

a)

the combined reaper thresher

b)

the cotton gin

c)

the mechanical cotton picker

d)

atomic energy

24.

Thousands of __________ found war work off the reservations in the cities, some 25,000 served in the armed forces, and the __________ were instrumental in creating an undecipherable code for the U.S. military.

a)

Native Americans / Navajo "code talkers"

b)

American women / "Rosie the Riveters"

c)

Japanese Americans / interment campers

d)

African Americans / supporters of the Harlem Renaissance

25.

How did the Office of Price Administration, the War Labor Board, and the War Production Board change the role of the federal government?

a)

The federal government became more responsible for environmental protection.

b)

The federal government gained more control over the economic life of its citizens.

c)

The federal government was hindered in its ability to wage war.

d)

The federal government became more able to institute draft policies.

26.

The US program to develop an atomic bomb for World War II was known as

a)

the Manhattan Project.

b)

Operation Rolling Thunder.

c)

Operation Overload.

d)

the Dawes Plan.

27.

Who was named Supreme Commander of Allied forces in Europe and the orchestrator of the invasion at Normandy was?

a)

Douglass MacArthur

b)

George Patton

c)

George Marshall

d)

Dwight D. Eisenhower

28.

What was the name given to the Allied invasion of Nazi-occupied France at Normandy?

a)

the Battle of the Bulge

b)

the Battle of Midway

c)

the D-Day invasion

d)

Operation Rolling Thunder

29.

Which of the following marked Germany's last offensive push?

a)

the Battle of Midway

b)

the Battle of the Bulge

c)

the Battle of Britain

d)

the Battle of Stalingrad

30.

The Battle of Midway Island gave the U.S. naval superiority in the Pacific against the Japanese, and American soldiers moved closer to mainland Japan following victories at Leyte, Iwo Jima, and Okinawa. This movement, which cost thousands of American lives, came to be called

a)

kamikaze fighting.

b)

island hopping.

c)

the Bataan Death March

d)

the American Blitzkrieg

31.

What was the term given to Japanese pilots who committed suicide by crashing their planes into American targets?

a)

Bataan Death

b)

Axis Authority

c)

Tora Tora pilots

d)

kamikaze pilots

32.

What was President Truman's main argument in his decision to drop atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki?

a)

to flex the political muscle of the U.S.

b)

to seek revenge on Japan for its bombing of Pearl Harbor

c)

to convince the Soviet Union to join the war effort

d)

to avoid thousands of American casualties with the invasion of mainland Japan

33.

What was the Soviet Union promised in return for joining the war against Japan?

a)

political authority in Poland as a buffer state

b)

war reparations from Germany

c)

independence from Great Britain

d)

the release of Soviet prisoners of war

34.

At the cost of over 13 million lives, _____ transformed _____ from a rural nation into the world’s second largest industrial power using his “Five Year Plans."

a)

Hitler / Germany

b)

Stalin / the Soviet Union

c)

Mussolini / Italy

d)

FDR / the United States

35.

Nazi Germany killed six million _____ and 5 million others in the Holocaust.

a)

Jews

b)

communists

c)

Catholics

d)

political opposition

36.

The deliberate extermination of a specific racial or ethnic group as seen in Hitler's "Final Solution" is called

a)

communism.

b)

social engineering.

c)

dictatorship.

d)

genocide.

37.

Nazi defendants at the Nuremberg Trials frequently justified their actions by claiming that they were

a)

willing participants in the Holocaust.

b)

merely following orders.

c)

threatened to do so under penalty of death.

d)

heroes because Germany had to be protected from the Jews.

38.

One of the long-term consequences of the Holocaust and the wide-spread persecution of the Jews led to a Zionist Movement and the controversial founding of the

a)

NATO.

b)

the Iron Curtain.

c)

state of Israel.

d)

United Nations.