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VICModern HistoryQuick questions
Unit 1: Change and conflict (1918 to 1939)
Quick questions on Impact of WWI and the Treaty of Versailles: VCE Modern History Unit 1 Year 11
15short Q&A pairs drawn directly from our worked dot-point answer. For full context and worked exam questions, read the parent dot-point page.
What are wilson's Fourteen Points?Show answer
Wilson had proposed (January 1918) a post-war settlement based on: - Open diplomacy. - Freedom of the seas. - Free trade. - Self-determination for nations.
What are the League of Nations?Show answer
The League was Wilson's central proposal, intended to prevent future wars through collective security. Its key features:
What are collapse of empires?Show answer
Four major empires fell: - German Empire (Kaiser Wilhelm II abdicated November 1918). - Russian Empire (collapsed 1917, replaced by Bolshevik Soviet government). - Austro-Hungarian Empire (broke up into Austria, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia, parts to Romania and Italy).
What is human cost?Show answer
Around 9 million military dead, 7 million civilian. The "Lost Generation" of young men shaped European demography and culture for decades.
What is economic devastation?Show answer
Belligerent economies were strained or shattered. Britain and France borrowed heavily from the United States. Germany lost industrial regions and reserves.
What is political transformation?Show answer
Universal suffrage extended in most Western democracies (often including women, partly in recognition of war contributions). New republics emerged. Old aristocratic orders weakened.
What is war Guilt?Show answer
Germany accepted sole responsibility for causing the war.
What are reparations?Show answer
132 billion gold marks (announced 1921). The figure was set deliberately high.
What are territorial losses?Show answer
Germany lost about 13 percent of European territory: - Alsace-Lorraine to France. - West Prussia and Posen to Poland (the Polish Corridor). - Eupen-Malmedy to Belgium.
What is disarmament?Show answer
Army limited to 100,000 (volunteers only); no tanks, submarines, military aircraft; navy limited to 6 battleships; conscription banned; Rhineland demilitarised.
What is no Anschluss?Show answer
Union of Germany and Austria forbidden.
What is hyperinflation?Show answer
Germany defaulted on reparations; France occupied the Ruhr; Germany responded with passive resistance funded by printing money. Hyperinflation collapsed savings.
What is resentment?Show answer
All German political parties opposed the treaty. The treaty became the central grievance fueling Nazi propaganda.
What is wilsonian moment broken?Show answer
US isolationism returned. The League without American membership was weaker.
What are successor states?Show answer
Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia, Poland, the Baltic states emerged. National minorities were widespread; future flashpoints (Sudetenland in Czechoslovakia, German minority in Poland) were planted.