You must answer TWO of the following prompts in the following combination: EITHER one prompt from Part I and one prompt from Part 2 OR one prompt from Part II and one prompt from Part III.
Each answer must be labeled with the number of the prompt and between 450 and 550 words, apart from the footnotes. The use of sources apart from lectures and assigned readings will be penalized.
You may use “short form” footnote references to individual lectures by date. Example:
1 Michael Collins, 8 March 2022.
Works Cited: Collins, Michael. History 118B Lectures. California State University, Sacramento. Spring 2022.
For comprehensive descriptions and examples of footnotes and works cited entries for this course, click here.
Each answer is worth 35 points: 10 for explaining the key terms and 25 for the remaining subject content that directly answers the prompt in an organized fashion. See attached rubric below.
To borrow a helpful idea from one of your fellow students, the key to an effective answer is not to just regurgitate all of the information you know, in this case rewriting your notes, but instead to connect the prompt to the overall theme in each part of the exam within the limited space you are allowed.
Part I: Causes Why did the Second World War occur? Answer ONE of the following:
#1.) Explain how the territorial ambitions of the Nazis caused the Second World War in Europe. Describe the historical significance of the Sudetenland and Lebensraum in your answer.
#2.) Explain how the Japanese failure to obtain the resources they wanted from China propelled the Japanese toward conflict with the United States. Describe the historical significance of the Greater East Asian Co-Prosperity Sphere and the attack on Pearl Harbor in your answer.
Part II: Conduct Why did the Axis lose and the Allies win? Answer ONE of the following:
#3.) Describe two important advantages the Axis enjoyed during their 1941 invasion of the Soviet Union, and how the Allies learned to successfully adapt to them during the second half of the war. Explain the historical significance of Blitzkrieg and the Battle of Stalingrad in your answer.
#4.) Explain two important ways Nazi anti-Semitism shaped the victimization of European civilians in total war, and how the Nazis explained their intentions in doing so. Describe the historical significance of Zyklon B and the idea of racial nationalism in your answer.
#5.) Describe two important ways that the later campaigns in the Pacific in 1944 and 1945 differed from the earlier naval and island combat the U.S. faced in 1942 and 1943. Explain the historical significance of the Battle of Guadalcanal and the Tadamichi Kuribayashi in your answer.
Part III: Consequences What were the legacies of the war? Answer ONE of the following:
#6.) Describe how the postwar fate of Germany was an important source of rivalry between the United States and the Soviet Union. Explain the historical significance of the Potsdam Protocol and the Marshall Plan in your answer.
#7.) Explain two reasons why U.S. policy makers decided to employ atomic weapons against Japan. Moreover, describe at least one long-lasting consequence in Japanese society as a result of their use. Provide the significance of Operation Meetinghouse and the hibakusha in your answer.
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