Unit: The World at War

Suggested Content Overview

The Essential Standards and Common Core Standards for Social Studies focus on skills and concepts and do not specify content; however, common expectations regarding academic vocabulary and background knowledge may better facilitate the students’ mastery of key concepts and skills. To that end, consider including the following information while covering this unit.

Vocabulary:

• Adolf Hitler
• Allies
• Anti-Semitism
• Archduke Franz Ferdinand
• Armistice
• Axis
• Battle of Britain
• Benito Mussolini
• Blitzkrieg
• Bolshevik Revolution
• Central Powers
• D-Day
• Dictator
• Fascism
• Fourteen Points
• Franklin Delano Roosevelt
• Great Depression
• Holocaust
• Josef Stalin
• Kristallnacht
• League of Nations
• Manchuria
• Marshall Plan
• Militarism
• Nazi Party
• Neutrality
• Pearl Harbor
• Propaganda
• Spanish Civil War
• Superpowers
• Totalitarianism
• Treaty of Versailles
• Trench Warfare
• Triple Alliance
• Triple Entente
• U-boats
• Vladimir Lenin
• Weimar Republic
• Western Front
• Winston Churchill

Student Understandings:

• The continued competition for resources and power led to the creation of divisive alliances in Europe in the early 20^th Century.
• In 1914, after the assassination of the Archduke of Austria-Hungary, war broke out.  Nations quickly came to each other’s side and created a war that engulfed Europe and spread to other parts of the globe as well.
• The war ended shortly before Russia departed and the United States joined, leaving behind millions of casualties, a new political map in Europe and fragile economic conditions around the world.
• Out of these troubled times, dictators rose to seize power in countries like the newly formed Soviet Union, Germany, Japan and Italy.
• Aggression by these nations led to a renewal of hostilities and the spark of another war.  This war would eclipse the 1^st World War in terms of both devastation and treasure.
• The war ended with the defeat of the Axis Powers and the creation of a fragile relationship between the United States and the Soviet Union, two nations who had been allies during the 2^nd war.

Mapping Skills:

On a map, students should be able to identify: