(^194) › STEP 4. Review the Knowledge You Need to Score High
Rapid Review
Europe in the 1920s was characterized by a fluctuating economy built on debt and specu-
lation. With the Stock Market Crash of 1929, credit dried up, and the Great Depression
ensued. The economic problems added to a climate of social and cultural uncertainty and
disillusionment. Political parties of the center lost support to socialists on the left and fas-
cists on the right.
In the late 1930s, Adolf Hitler came to power in Germany and embarked on a policy
of rearmament and expansion. France and Great Britain responded initially with a policy
of appeasement, but when Hitler invaded Poland in September 1939, the Second World
War began. Initial German success in the war was reversed in stages by three crucial turn-
ing points:
• Great Britain’s victory in the Battle of Britain in 1940
• Hitler’s decision to abandon an invasion of Great Britain and invade the Soviet Union
instead
• The entry of the United States into the war following the Japanese attack on Pearl
Harbor on December 7, 1941
Germany surrendered on May 7, 1945, and as did Japan on September 2, 1945,
following the dropping of two atomic bombs on the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in
August. In the end, between 50 and 60 million people lost their lives in the Second World
War, including six million Jews, who were murdered in the Holocaust. The traditional
powers of Europe—Great Britain, France, and Germany—gave way to two new superpowers:
the United States and the Soviet Union.KEY IDEA22_Bartolini_Ch22_181-194.indd 194 27/04/18 1:56 PM