History Exam Study Guide

Steven Zhao
1a) Socialism: An economic system where property, capital, and assets are commonly shared and a
body, usually a democratically elected council, decides how these would be best put to use (as opposed
to capitalism which entails supply and demand). As well, private ownership of businesses/industries is
also possible under this.
1b) Fascism: The political ideology that puts the needs of the state before the needs of the people.
Fascist leaders like Mussolini (who came up with the term) felt individuals only had value so long as they
provided necessary things to the state. Many fascists ruled with an iron-fist, and tolerated no opposition
or criticism.
1c) Communism: Theoretically it seems to be the perfect political system where everything is
shared amongst the citizens, but it doesnt work when put into practice due to corruption. It advocates
the abolishment of the class-system and industry (all jobs and production) being controlled by the state
Communist countries usually end up being led by a dictator-like ruler.
1d) Democracy: Democracy is the political system where people can select their own government
(literally a government by the people for the people), and one makes decisions for the interests of the
majority.
2) The United Nations (UN for short) was a collection of countries brought together in 1945 (after
WW2) and was to replace its ineffective predecessor, The League of Nations. The purpose of this group
was to allow countries to come to a peaceful conclusion to any problems they had instead of open
conflict (so as to avoid the outbreak of another world war essentially).
3) EVENTS THAT LED TO WORLD WAR TWO
-Hitler started to re-arm Germany and broke the treaty of Versailles by doing so. (1934)
-Hitler invaded Austria on March, 1938.
-Hitler marched into the Rhineland, which was a buffer zone created between France and Germany.
He was testing the waters/ wanted to see what the reaction would be from the Allies surrounding
him. (March 1936)
- The Roman-Berlin axis was created allying Germany and Italy in October 1936.
- Hitler invades Sudetenland in September 1938, which was a largely German part of Czechoslovakia.
In the Munich agreement that followed, France and Britain said that Germany was to stop further
takeover of Czech territory.
- Hitler took over the rest of Czechoslovakia in March 1939. Britain and France, after saying not to
during the Munich agreement, did nothing at all. All they did was promise to defend Poland should
Hitler decide to invade.
- The Soviet-Nazi non-aggression pact was established In August 1939. This allied the communist
USSR with Nazi Germany and ensured Stalin wouldnt get in the way of Hitlers invasion of Poland. It also
stated that Poland would be divided amongst the two nations.
-Hitler demanded Poland give him the landmass that separated East Prussia from the German
mainland. He also wanted Danzig, a mineral-rich area of Poland. After refusing his demands, Poland was
invaded on September 1st 1939. Russia also invaded keeping good on their deal with the Germans. This
also ended France and Britains lenient ways, and they declared war. World War Two had begun.
CAUSES THAT LED TO WORLD WAR TWO
-The failure of Democracies to respond to the aggression of fascist dictators. A fine example of this
would be the Appeasement policy. To a point, Britain and France simply let Hitler do whatever he
wanted to do and literally agreed to all his demands in hopes of preventing war. What this truly did was
allow Hitler to rearm Germany and expand until it was too late.
-The aggression of fascist dictators was, of course, an extremely large part of WW2 emerging. The
imperialistic aims of Germany for European domination and Japans desire for Pacific expansion
pressured the democracies and Russia to take action (eventually).
-At the end of World War Two, the Treaty of Versailles was established. In the process of giving
Britain, France, and Russia what they wanted, Germany was crippled. This is a large part of what sparked
Hitlers passion for vengeance and building an empire. As well, the discontent of the Germans caused
by it fueled Hitlers campaign/rise to power.
-The Great Depression meant that countries were desperate and many turned to fascist leaders
offering quick solutions to economic problems.
4) CAUSES LEADING TO THE COLD WAR
-Beliefs: The USSR was led by a dictator who had a communist grip on the nations. Stalin infamously
had little to no care when it came to human rights and the significance of the lives he ruled over. On the
other hand, America was a capitalist democracy that valued freedom over all else.
-Aims: Stalin wanted to cripple Germany even more than it already had been for invading Russia. In
addition to that, Stalin also wanted to create a buffer zone of communist countries around Russia for
protection in case of future invasions. Once again, Britain and America had aims the exact opposite of
Stalin. They wanted to protect the democratic influence, and protect Germany in fear of having WW3
start because of the same reasons WW2 did. Also, they were worried about the fact that Russia wanted
to expand, even if they called it a buffer-zone (as it entailed the expansion of communism).
-Resentment about History: There was obviously a lot of tension between the democratic countries
of the West and the growing communist powers in the East. A lot of this came from the fact that
America tried to stop the communist revolution. Stalin also felt the West didnt help enough on the
Eastern front in World War Two. In USAs mind, Russia was unpredictable and a general menace to
society. They drew this mainly from the Nazi-Soviet pact Stalin signed with Hitler in August 1939,
something they could not forgive nor forget.
EVENTS LEADING TO THE COLD WAR
- Yalta (February 1945) Russia joins UN, Germany is split, Nazi war-criminals punished, reparations
committee created.
-Potsdam (July 1945) Members openly disagreed about the details of how Germany should be split,
German reparation size, Russian expansion policy in Eastern Europe (spreading influence/buffer-zone).
-Salami Tactics (1945-48) Russia slowly taking over Eastern countries slice by slice.
-Fulton Speech (March 1946) Churchill said Eastern-Europe had fallen under a shadow which cut the
free world off with an Iron Curtain. He became the first to stop pretending to be allies with Russia.
-Greece (February 1947) Britain couldnt afford to keep soldiers in Greece (which was trying to stop
communism from reaching Greece). America stepped in to pay for the soldiers (As America had become
the new super-power).
-Truman Doctrine (March 1947) stated it is the duty of democracies to defend people from
communism, and started the containment policy against Russia/Communism (Truman essentially didnt
want to destroy Russia, but to instead contain its expansion).
-Marshall Plan (June 1947) In hopes of stopping poor European countries from turning to
Communism, General Marshall recommended America provide money to them (17 billion in total).
-Cominform (October 1947) Stalin called for all communist countries and parties to join together. He
also forbade the use of Americas Marshall Plan/ accepting Democratic aid. This allowed Stalin to further
control communists in Europe.
-Czechoslovakia (February 1948) when the Czechs fell to communist hands, American congress
voted pro-Marshall aid.

5)
FLQ/OCTOBER CRISIS: The FLQ (Front de liberation du Quebec) were a Quebec-separatist group that
was intent on gaining Quebecs sovereignty by employing extremist/ terrorist means; their actions
caused the October Crisis which was (October, 1970) when the FLQ kidnapped a Quebec cabinet
minister and a British Trade Commissioner, leading to the Quebec government seeking federal help and
leading to PM Trudeau invoking the War Measures Act (which granted the federal government
emergency power to use law enforcement and to arrest anyone without legal procedures). The crisis
ended with the death of the minister and release of the commissioner. After this, the FLQ disbanded
(even the sovereignty seeking Quebec residents saw what they did as disgusting)
SUPERPOWERS: Nations that were/are considered superpowers are those who have extremely large
influence, political and military power, and own a vast amount of land. The Superpowers of todays age
are the USA, China, and perhaps even Russia still. The Superpowers during the World Wars would be
Russia, USA, Germany, Britain, and France.
MIDDLE POWER STATUS: A middle power country is one that is just a rung below that of a
Superpower. Canada was a middle power nation during the World Wars because of its prosperous
economy, sizable military and large industry. All-in-all, middle power nations are well-off, but arent one
of the premier military or economic powers of the world.
NORAD: Standing for North American Air Defence system, it was created to detect Russian air assets
like bombers and nuclear missiles.
NAFTA: Mexico wanted to become close trading partners with Canada and the U.S, so the FTA (Free
Trade Agreement) was changed to the NAFTA (North American Free Trade Agreement). It came into
effect in 1993.
PROPAGANDA: Propaganda is information, especially of a biased or misleading nature, used to
promote or publicize a particular political cause or point of view. Propaganda is used often during times
of war, especially during WW1 and 2, where North American posters tried to convince people to join the
war effort by creating a heroic image of allied fighters, and a demonic image of the Germans who,
according to the posters, needed to be stopped.
MULTICULTURALISM: As a policy, multiculturalism means that a nation accepts and openly allows
its citizens (ranging from any culture) to practice any culture. Canada had, and still has, a multicultural
policy.
PIERRE ELLIOT TRUDEAU: He was the Prime Minister of Canada in 1968. He was also the one who
invoked the WMA during the October Crisis in 1970. He was a very flamboyant figure, and extremely
popular with the crowds; so much that his reign was dubbed Trudeaumania. Trudeau also made
Canada bilingual (with the official languages act making French and English equal status by law
everywhere), brought home the Canadian constitution with the Constitution Act of 1982 (meaning
Canada no longer required the amending process to be approved by the British Parliament),
incorporated a Charter of Rights and Freedoms into the Constitution, created Petro Canada and a
controversial National Energy Program, appointed the first woman to the supreme court of Canada and
the first female governor general.
LESTER PEARSON: Prime Minister in 1963, reigning in power for four years, PM Pearson built the
Social Safety Net. This included welfare, employment insurance, Canada pension plan, introduced
Universal Health care and the Canadian student loan system, and Bilingualism.
CUBAN MISSLE CRISIS: The Cuban missile crisis was when the USA found out Russia was keeping
nuclear assets on Cuba (close enough to launch a direct attack on the USA) and put their air forces on
red alert/ prepared to attack Cuba. After Fidel Castro and his communist forces overthrew the Cuban
government and accepted the USSRs aid/supplies, the Americans installed a blockade around Cuba, and
any/all ships were ordered to stop and to be inspected. Though Russia agreed to remove their missiles,
this is when the world truly realized that the age of destruction had arisen; all-out nuclear war was but a
breath away during the Cuban missile crisis especially.


l. Baby Boom: Is a period of time in which a large amount of people were born. This occurred after
WW2 between 1945 and 1960. The U.S had experienced a drop in unemployment after the war, and the
economy experienced vigorous growth. As well, people wanted to go back to the old ways of life which
they hadnt seen in nearly half a century due to war (and that was having a family and settling down).
The boom caused baby product manufacturers to expand their industries along with the creation of toy
companies that targeted the youth audience. The youth culture also, after the war during the baby
boomer generation, was one of counter-culture. The youth saw the decades of war that had occurred
before they were born and thought that they wouldnt let another war happen like their parents did by
not keeping to their parents conventional ways of life. This also led to the expansion of suburbs as
families were more prominent.
m. Royal Commission on the Status Women: Examined the status of women and recommended
steps that the Government could undertake to ensure equal opportunities for men and women. The
commission commenced on February 16 of 1967 as an initiative by Lester Pearson. The Commission
determined the following, only 4% of women were managers, eight out of ten provinces had equal-pay
laws and yet women were still paid less than men for the same work. The commissioners led by Florence
Bird recommended a number of solutions. They recommended many things but a few were, employed
women would be granted eighteen weeks of unemployment benefits for maternity leave, gender and
marital status could not be used as grounds for discriminations by employers, and that the Federal
government was to name more women judges to all courts within its jurisdiction.
n. Iron Curtain: the Iron Curtain was a phrase used by Winston Churchill to describe how the
U.S.S.R had blocked off the NATO countries from the Eastern Bloc (Communist Europe).
o. Korean War: Began on June 25 1950, ended July 28 1953. It was a war between South Korea and
North Korea which was the first armed conflict to rise from the Cold War. North Korea received
communist assent from the USSR and China, while South Korea ended up receiving help from the United
Nations. The main causes were: the cold war, as Truman realised the USA was in competition for world
domination with the USSR (and that communism was getting more powerful in Far East Asia too) so he
felt the need to intervene, Japan, as Truman was worried that in the end, the communists would
capture Japan, and the Domino Theory, as he believed if one country fell to communism, others would
follow suite. As well, the declared armistice of the Korean War marks the first major peace keeping
success of the United Nations.
p. Red Scare: The Red Scare occurred in the 1950s. Americans began to fear communism, mainly
because of the rise of the USSR and Communist China. The Red Scare was sparked mainly by Joseph
McCarthy, an American Senator. He began accusing government officials and other people of being
communists while possessing a list of known communist spies in the USA. His doing so increased his
approval rating and gained him a powerful national following but ruined the lives of countless numbers
of people (both socially, economically, and physically).
q. Igor Gouzenko: A Soviet spy who defected in September 1945 and revealed numerous Soviet
espionage documents to the government. Gouzenko exposed many of Stalins plans to steal nuclear
secrets and plant sleeper agents in Canada.
r. John Diefenbaker: The 13th Prime Minister of Canada, from 1957-1963. He believed that Ottawa
should ensure the well-being, prosperity, and right of all Canadians. Diefenbaker raised old-age pensions
and set up a winter-works program to create construction jobs. Diebaker had a vision for Canadas
North. He wanted to unlock the rich resources of the Canadian Shield and Arctic. In his plans were
massive oil and mineral explorations, new town sites for the north, huge programs to build roads to
resources, and increased government services for the Yukon and Northwest territories. This vision
failed however as the recession caused the cost of resources to go down while the price of development
grew higher.
s. Joey Smallwood: A politician from Newfoundland who was the responsible for bringing
Newfoundland into Confederation in 1949.
t. The Great Depression: Was a sustained economic downturn that occurred between 1929 and
1939. There were 5 main causes of depression
Stock Market Crash: Two months after the original crash in October, stockholders had lost more
than $40 billion dollars. All the money people invested suddenly vanished and companies lost value and
couldnt afford to employ anyone, so they too shut down.
Natural disasters: The dust bowls caused a drought that made it impossible for farmers to grow
crops. As a result, they could not make any income nor provide enough food for the markets.
Multiplier Effect: The growing number of problems in Canada created even more issues. For
example: the farmers that could no longer make crops now had no reason to hire transportation for
delivering food. Those transportation people now no longer have customers and go under. They now
have no reason to buy any more vehicles or equipment so the secondary companies that develop those
materials go under as well. This continues on and literally multiplies the number of problems.
Over-reliance on credit: Many people were buying things like houses and cars (expensive products)
on credit and banks were giving credit out to literally everyone. With no liability from the banks, when
they closed down, no one could pay back what they owed.
High Tariffs: Originally to encourage domestic trade, the high tariffs caused trade to slow down with
other nations and prolonged the great depression (as imports were more expensive and trade
decreased with outside nations).

u. Treaty of Versailles: The Treaty of Versailles was a treaty to make peace between the Allied
(entente) powers and the Central powers (alliance). It was generally unfavorable to Germany and they
had no say in the negotiations. France pushed for hard war reparations against Germany so they would
not be able to start another war. Some of its terms were that Germany had to pay large sums of money
in reparations, it had to give up much of its land, and that it had to diminish its military forces.The
discontent created by the treaty also paved the way for Hitlers rise to power and the rise of Nazi
Germany.
v. Appeasement: A police undertaken by Britain and France in which they allowed Nazi Germany to
have what they wanted/agreed to all its demands (literally to appease) in hopes that Hitler would be
cease his aggressive policies. Appeasement did not work as Hitler was only left with a greater appetite
every time he conquered a piece of land and ended up allowing him to rearm/expand Germany until it
gained all its strength back.
w. Policy of Containment: A U.S policy to attempt to contain the spread of Communism in Europe
through any means necessary short of all-out war. They achieved this by assisting poor or weak
countries in Europe to help them resist communist influence. This policy further thickened the tension
between the U.S and the U.S.S.R.
x. War Measure Act: The WMA was a statute of the Parliament of Canada that allowed for
Emergency powers to be given to the Canadian Government during times of war. The act allowed police
to arrest and detain individuals without placing any formal charges/ without any legal procedures.
y. Western Alienation: The notion that the Western Provinces of Canada (BC, Alberta,
Saskatchewan, Manitoba) were excluded from mainstream political affairs in Canada in favour of the
Central Provinces. A notable example is when Pierre Trudeau introduced the National Energy Program in
1979 which called for the redistribution of Canadas oil production. It was unpopular in Western Canada
because that is where most of the oil in Canada is produced and they felt that the Federal government
was intruding on provincial jurisdiction by taking their natural resources.
z. Constitution Act: Prior to 1982, the constitution was a British Act and Canada had to apply to the
British Parliament whenever it wanted to amend the constitution. The Constitution act of 1982 removed
the need for Britain in this process, thus Canada could change it without permission. The 1982
Constitution also included the "Charter of Rights and Freedoms" which outlined the individual rights
each citizen had. It was enacted by Pierre Trudeau in 1982.
/. Globalization: The process of international integration arising from the interchange of world
views, products, ideas, and other aspects of culture.