World War II Webquest
Directions: Create a good doc and share it with me at shipdog65@gmail.com
Use the websites below to complete the webquest about World War II.
1. Read about the after-effects of World War I and the Treaty of Versailles
a. How many people were killed?
b. Who were the big three?
c. The four areas of the Treaty of Versailles
Section 2: Timeline
2. Go to the following site and scroll through the timeline.
a. What year did Adolph Hitler become the leader of the Nationsl Socialist Nazi Party?
b. Go to 1925. Click on Mein Kampf. What does Mein Kampf mean?
c. What is an Aryan, according to Hitler?
d. What year did the Nazis hold a book burning? List some examples(3) whose works were destroyed.
e. Scroll down to 1941. Look at December. What happened on December 8 and December 11?
f. Scroll to the very end. Click on the “statistics of World War II”.
a. Which country had the most fatalities?
b. Which country lost the largest percentage of its population?
c. How many countries were involved in WWII?
Section 3: The Battlefield
3. Go to http://www.pbs.org/perilousfight/ Click on the section that says, “Pearl Harbor” on the left.
a. What did President Roosevelt do in 1941 and how did the government know there might be an attack?
b. What happened on December 7 and how much damage was done?
c. What did the enemy think the Pearl Harbor attack would do?
d. Why did the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor fail to defeat the United States?
e. What happened on December 8th?
4. Click on the section that says, “Doolittle Raid and Midway” on the left.
a. What happened on April 18, 1942, and what was the mission? Was it successful?
b. What was the psychological effect of the Doolittle Raid on both the Americans and the Japanese?
c. Read the last 2 paragraphs. What happened at the Battle of Midway?
5. D-Day - http://news.bbc.co.uk/cbbcnews/hi/find_out/guides/world/d-day_/newsid_3754000/3754731.stm
a. What was D-Day?
b. Why was it called D-Day?
Section 4: Psychology of War
a. Define Internment.
b. What was the purpose of internment camps?
c. Where were most of these camps in the United States?
6.Concentration Camps – go to this site that has a map of all the concentration and extermination camps. http://history1900s.about.com/library/holocaust/blmap.htm
a. What was the camp to the furthest point north?
b. Where was the first camp built?
c. Which country had the most camps?
Look at this site: http://fcit.usf.edu/holocaust/resource/gallery/gallery1.htm
d. After looking at the photo galleries for Auschwitz-Birkenau and Dachau, explained what disturbed you the most.
Look at this site where th chart shows you all of the camps, concentration and extermination. http://history1900s.about.com/library/holocaust/blchart.htm
e. What was the difference?
f. How many did the United States shut down?
7. The Atomic Bomb - http://www.pbs.org/perilousfight/ Click on the section that says, “Atomic Option” on the left.
a. Truman said that “the atomic bombs were the most terrible weapon in history.” Why was he right?
b. What were some reasons why people wanted to drop the atomic bomb, and what are some reasons why people thought it was unnecessary?
Click on “Disbelief of Atrocities” on the left.
c. Why did President Roosevelt refuse to bomb Auschwitz or the train tracks leading to it?
d. Click on “Mental Toll” on the left.
e. Compared to previous wars, what are some reasons why World War II a more difficult war?
8. Click on “African-Americans” on the left.
a. Why was there some acceptance of African-Americans in the 1940s?
b. What was it like on the home front for African-Americans and what was Executive Order 8802?
c. Click on the section that says, “Asian Americans” on the left.
Click on the section that says, “Women” on the left.
d. Read the first 3 paragraphs. Write a small paragraph explaining why women were important during World War II.
9. Navaho Code Talkers http://www.infoplease.com/spot/aihmcode1.html
a. Who came up with the idea to use the Navajo?
b. Why?
c. Why were the code talkers heroes?
Section 6: Post-War https://history.state.gov/milestones/1945-1952/japan-reconstruction
a. What was the benefit of rebuilding Japan and Germany after WWII?
b. What happened to the former colonial possessions of Europe?
c. How did the end of WWII set the stage for the Cold War?


