World War II Study Guide

1. What are Status Quo Powers? Who were the Status Quo Powers during WWII?

A status quo power is a great power that aided in founding the way countries should function on an international scale. They tried to maintain a type of system or guide for how the distribution of resources as well as power should work and be upheld throughout the international community. During the Second World War, the Status quo powers were Great Britain, the Soviet Union, France, and the United States. All of these countries had their ideologies on how power should work around the world and did not want to change much.

2. What are Revisionist Powers? Who were the Revisionist Powers during WWII?

A revisionist power is the contrast to a Status Quo power, these powers wanted to change how international distribution of power and resources should work. These countries would advocate that the current system maintained by the Status Quo powers did not embody their current power or their goals as countries. These countries were Germany, Italy, and Japan.

3.

How do self-determination, popular sovereignty, and free trade advance Wilsonian Idealism?

Woodrow Wilson advocated for world peace and after his famous Fourteen Points his ideas on how world peace is achieved was pretty obvious. The principles for Wilsonian Idealism are the promotion of democracy, the spread of capitalism, and the opposition of non-intervention. So self-determination and popular sovereignty were almost one in the same for Woodrow Wilson. His Wilsonianist foreign policies were driven by the freedom for a country to advance itself, the ability of the people to determine what happens in their state as well as the freedom of trade. So all of these concepts made up what Wilsonian Idealism

is.
4. What were the roles of the Truman Doctrine and Containment Theory in the Cold War?
The communist ideologies of the Soviets were creeping into a lot of Eastern Europe, this spread of communism was a threat to many of the great powers. Great Britain could no long afford to combat and resist communist rebel groups. So it was up to the United States to take a stance against growing communism. In 1947 President Harry Truman established the Truman Doctrine which states that the United States would provide assistance to all democratic countries that were being pressured by communist forces. The assistance would come in the form of political, economic, and military aid to fight of exterior and internal forces. The role was to help countries resist these ideologies and reduce the spread of communist influences. The containment theory had the same foundation to stop the spread of communism however it went more abroad to stop the spread beyond Eastern Europe.
5. What was the function of the Marshall Plan in the Cold War?
Many European countries were suffering economic crises after the war which exposed them to be more vulnerable to communist influences. What the Marshall Plan did was that it funded reindustrialization within these countries and moved the economy along so that economic crises would not be a reason for these countries to succumb to the growing communism.
6. What does Laissez-Faire economics entail?
Laissez-Faire economics advocates that a countries’ economic system should be free from intervention from the government as well as supervision from the government. Going from this the economic system should be left up to the forces of the market. This is often referred to as “let it be economics”. Advocates of Laissez Faire economics argue that economic growth and prosperity happen the most when businesses and people are freely capable of buying/selling their products without government moderation. Essentially they are promoters of a free market capitalist system.
7. What does Keynesian economics entail?
Keynesian economics is an economic theory in which the economic output of a country is dependent on the spending of a state which would come from demand, investment, exports and government spending. A major part of Keynesian economics was that if the country was not stimulating the economy the government should interfere. Advocates of Keynesian economics believe that markets that are left unattended lead to instability of the state, therefore they must interfere for the prosperity of their people. Keynesian economics also argue that the labor system should not be left up to the people completely guided by whatever happens in the market. In summation, Keynesian economics is a more restricted economic policy that operates on the basis that without restriction the entire political aspect of the state is threatened.
8. How did the ideologies of the United States and the Soviet Union influence anti-colonial struggle?
During the Cold War the United States and the Soviet were undergoing a power struggle, each side wanted to exert their political influence across the globe. For the Soviets it was the spread of communism and for the Americans it was the promotion of democracy. After the Second World War new independent countries were trying to establish their governments. Both superpowers tried to spread their influence and offer guidance on how they should execute their political policies in order to be successful. One of the things communism did was that it was very convincing to these countries that communism was necessary in order to stay away from colonial ties and dependency. The United States on the other hand was based on the ideals of popular sovereignty and the power of the people and pushed for more liberal styles of government for these countries that just wanted to be strong independent nations.
9. What is a multi-polar international system? How was the international system multi-polar prior to WWII?
A multi polar international system is where the distribution of power is spread throughout more than two powers that have similar economic and political standings and influence. Prior to the Second World War, the system was multi-polar, the great powers that made up this system were the United States, Great Britain, the Soviet Union, Germany, Japan, Italy, and France.
10. What is a bi-polar international system? How was the international system bi-polar after WWII?
A bi-polar international system is when just two powers share the hegemon power of the world. After the Second World War many countries had suffered a lot of economic and military hardships. The United States entered the war late and never fought any battles on American soil so after the war they were able to emerge as one of the two major powers after the destruction of the war. The second major power was the Soviet Union. These two powers went into conflict over who had more power and political influence which led to the cold war.