Week I Review Sheet
This review sheet previews all questions that will appear on the exams. It contains
questions from lecture and textbook, which overlap but the textbook usually goes
into more depth.
List of Eligible Key Terms:
Eurocentricism, Global History, Objectivity, Churchill, Iron Curtain
Speech, Iron Curtain Speech, Truman Doctrine, Vernichtungskrieg (war of
annihilation), 1944 Bretton Woods Conference, The United Nations (UN),
The International Monetary System, World Bank (IBRD), Marshall Plan
(ERP), Nuremburg Tribunals, International Law, Universal Declaration of
Human Rights, The Potsdam Conference, Yalta Conference, Atlantic
Charter, First Berlin Crisis 1948-49, Berlin Airlift, Grand Alliance, Tehran
Conference.
Introductory Lecture
1. In what ways has our world become more ‘global’ since 1945?
2. Provide a few examples of how global integration has reshaped the physics
of history in the sense that the experience of peoples is now more connected
than in previous decades?
3. To what extent is Canadian history ethnocentric. How is national history
looking at the past different than how a global historian would?
4. How has our understanding of the ‘world’ changed since the 19th century?
5. How did Glenn’s 1962 orbital flight mark a defining moment in global
history and our perception of our world?
6. How does the geopolitical map we often use as a symbol for our “world”
obscure the gap between rich and poor?
7. In what ways were 19th century world histories, despite being universal in
ambition and planetary in scope, still Euro-Centric and even racist?
8. What are some of the biases that shape the average Canadian’s worldview
relative to the global majority that is poor, non-Western and non-white?
9. In what ways is the teaching of Canadian history biased? How does world
history seek to subvert national myths?
10.Why history not perfectly objective; how is world history approach to the
past shaped by the idea of perspective (what you see depends on where you
stand)?
11.How has mass abundance transformed human society since 1945 and
reshaped human desires and expectations?
12.Globalization has accelerated since 1945, but how has it integrated the world
unevenly?
13.How does the scale of analysis put global events like World War II and
globalization in a new light?
14.How do global historians approach the past differently from national and
international historians?
Pillars of the Postwar World
1. In the annals of warfare, World War II is often considered ‘novel’. What made
this struggle so unique and the suffering so unprecedented?
2. Why did World War II prove to be such a ‘shock’ to previous world system? In
what ways did it transform the postwar world?
3. What was the significance of the Atlantic Charter in terms of shaping
international perceptions during the war and expectations after it?
4. Why was the viewpoint of contemporaries so grim in 1945 even though the war
had finally come to an end?
5. Why were the Nuremburg Tribunals important in terms of shaping the postwar
international system?
6. What was the purpose of the Bretton Woods Conference and what was its
outcome?
7. What were the ideals underlying the foundation of the UN in 1945? Why did the
UN struggle to fulfill its collective security mandate after World War II?
8. Review the textbook and the diagrams so that you can identify and distinguish
the pillars of the postwar international system.
9. To what extent did postwar reformers succeed in creating a new international
system based on human rights, multilateralism and democracy, or did their effort
fall short?
Origins of the Cold War
1. What beliefs and attitudes did Stalin, Churchill, and Roosevelt bring to the Yalta
Conference, what were each of their objectives in 1945, and to what extent did
they realize them? In your view did the ultimate agreement reached reflect a fair
compromise? What was the principal bane of contention at Yalta? What was the
principal agreement that came out of this conference?
2. Why did so little come out of the nearly three weeks long 1945 Potsdam
Conference? Why couldn’t the Big Three reach a deeper consensus at Potsdam on
the structure of postwar Europe?
3. What did Stalin do in 1945-1946 that angered his Western allies and made them
suspicious about Soviet intentions and skeptical about maintaining their
partnership? What specifically was the danger that Churchill was warning about in
his 1946 iron curtain speech? How did Stalin dispute Churchill’s to his charges?
4. Deconstruct the Iron Curtain metaphor. Why did this image capture the popular
imagination?
5. How did George Marshall play a critical role in terms of pushing for a
permanent postwar settlement for Europe? What specifically was Truman
advocating for in his speech delivering before a joint session of Congress on March
12, 1947? How did the Soviets perceive this policy?
6. How did the Truman doctrine propose to address the threat of communism?
7. What events between 1945-1948 poisoned the relationship between the USSR
and the West?
8. What event brought about the Berlin Crisis to a head in 1948-1949, and how was
it resolved?
9. The Berlin Crisis is often seen as the official beginning of the Cold War. Was
this outcome inevitable or did both sides contribute to a rising of tensions from
1945-1948?
10. How did the Berlin Crisis reshape Europe and pave the way for the Atlantic
partnership?
