• Colonies renewed their independence efforts.
• European world dominance ended.
• A new international peace organization, the United Nations , was created in 1945, with the United
States among its key members.
• International dominance remained in the hands of two superpowers––the United States and the
Soviet Union.
Rapid Review
The forces of nationalism, imperialism, and militarism combined with entangling defense alliances
produced the first global war of the twentieth century. Postwar peace settlements created new nations
without consideration of ethnic differences within those nations. The Treaty of Versailles left
Germany economically and militarily devastated and humiliated by the war guilt clause. The costs of
war ruined regional economies and world trade, creating a depression that reached most regions of
the world. Out of the despair of the Great Depression arose new political institutions, including
fascism in Germany and Italy and military rule in Japan. The world found itself at war for the second
time in the twentieth century. Millions died in the Holocaust, while the atomic age was launched with
the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The lessons of war created an attempt at a new world order
that included a stronger international organization, the United Nations.
Review Questions
1 . World War I was considered a global conflict because
(A) it involved battles on every continent
(B) it was fought in both European and Pacific theaters
(C) the warring powers held colonies that participated in the war
(D) it began in Europe, whose culture dominated the globe in the early twentieth century
2 . Russia’s role in twentieth-century global conflicts included all of the following EXCEPT
(A) an ethnic-based alliance with Serbia
(B) providing opportunity for Germany to turn its attention to France
(C) participation in the formation of the League of Nations
(D) creating opportunities for postwar influence in Eastern Europe
3 . Spain did not participate in World War II because
(A) its republican government feared a Fascist coup
(B) it was still recovering financially from World War I
(C) it feared Communist domination
(D) it had just endured a civil war
4 . The Allied policy toward Hitler in the 1930s can best be described as one of
(A) confrontation
(B) appeasement
(C) containment