Unit 7 DBQs
DBQ 1: Causes of World War IPrompt: Evaluate the extent to which militarism, alliances, imperialism, and nationalism contributed to the outbreak of World War I.
Document Set:

1. Excerpt from Kaiser Wilhelm II’s speech on German militarism (1913)
2. British newspaper cartoon depicting the European alliance system (1914)
3. Excerpt from the Treaty of Berlin (1885) on European imperialism in Africa
4. Serbian nationalist newspaper article (1914) on Slavic unity and Austria-Hungary
5. Report on European military spending between 1890 and 1914
6. Excerpt from a letter between French and Russian diplomats discussing alliances (1907)
7. Austrian declaration of war on Serbia (July 28, 1914)

DBQ 2: Conduct and Consequences of World War IPrompt: Evaluate the extent to which World War I represented a total war, and how its outcomes reshaped global politics and diplomacy.
Document Set:

1. Excerpt from German war economy plans (1916)
2. British propaganda poster encouraging total war participation (1917)
3. U.S. President Woodrow Wilson’s Fourteen Points speech (1918)
4. Treaty of Versailles, Article 231 (War Guilt Clause) (1919)
5. League of Nations covenant (1919)
6. Testimony from a soldier describing trench warfare conditions (1915)
7. Map of Europe before and after World War I, showing territorial changes

DBQ 3: Interwar Period – Economic Crisis and TotalitarianismPrompt: Evaluate the extent to which the Great Depression contributed to the rise of totalitarian regimes in the interwar period.
Document Set:

1. Stock market crash report from The New York Times (1929)
2. Unemployment statistics in Germany, Britain, and the U.S. (1930–1935)
3. Excerpt from Hitler’s speech blaming democracy for economic failures (1932)
4. Soviet propaganda poster promoting Stalin’s Five-Year Plans (1933)
5. British economist John Maynard Keynes on the failures of laissez-faire policies (1936)
6. Excerpt from a Japanese imperial decree on economic expansion in Manchuria (1931)
7. League of Nations report on global economic conditions (1932)

DBQ 4: Causes and Conduct of World War IIPrompt: Evaluate the extent to which appeasement and expansionist policies contributed to the outbreak and conduct of World War II.
Document Set:

1. Excerpt from British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain’s speech on appeasement (1938)
2. German propaganda speech justifying the invasion of Poland (1939)
3. League of Nations response to Japanese invasion of Manchuria (1931)
4. Map showing Nazi and Japanese territorial expansion (1936–1942)
5. Excerpt from Winston Churchill’s speech condemning appeasement (1938)
6. Memoirs of a U.S. diplomat on the Munich Conference (1938)
7. Soviet-German Non-Aggression Pact (1939)

DBQ 5: The Holocaust and Other GenocidesPrompt: Evaluate the extent to which World War II-era genocides were influenced by ideological, political, and racial factors.
Document Set:

1. Excerpt from Adolf Hitler’s Mein Kampf on racial ideology (1925)
2. Nuremberg Laws text restricting Jewish rights (1935)
3. Survivor testimony from the Auschwitz concentration camp
4. Memo from a Nazi official regarding the “Final Solution” (1942)
5. Map showing Jewish population decline in Europe (1939–1945)
6. UN report on the Armenian Genocide’s historical precedent (1948)
7. Eyewitness account of the Nanjing Massacre (1937)

DBQ 6: The Postwar World – United Nations and Cold War BeginningsPrompt: Evaluate the extent to which the creation of the United Nations and early Cold War tensions shaped global politics after World War II.
Document Set:

1. Charter of the United Nations (1945)
2. Excerpt from U.S. President Truman’s speech on the Truman Doctrine (1947)
3. Soviet response to the Marshall Plan (1947)
4. British leader Winston Churchill’s “Iron Curtain” speech (1946)
5. Map of divided Germany and Berlin (1949)
6. CIA report on Soviet influence in Eastern Europe (1948)
7. UN Declaration of Human Rights (1948)