Intro to WWII

While the United States was pushing through the Great Depression, what was the rest of th world going through?  This webquest will allow students to look at the causes of WWII and what was happening during the 30's in Europe. 

Task

Why did World War II happen? Your job today is to analyze the different factors that caused WWII. As you travel through your webquest, record your answers to the essential questions on the worksheet provided. This must be turned in by the end of class today.

Essential Questions:

• Who were the Axis Powers?
• Who were the Allied Powers?
• What were the main causes of WWII?
• Which event causes war to break out in Europe?

Process

Follow the links below to discover the main causes of WWII.  You must read the information on each page to identify a specific cause and why that cause was important.

Cause 1: How does Hitler respond to Germany being blamed for WWI? What does he do about it?

Cause 2: What are the Totalitarian Government up to in the 1930's?

Cause 3: How Great Britain deal with Hitler and Nazi Germany? Does it work?

Cause 4: Wasn't there an organization that was supposed to keep world peace? What happened to it? Why didn't it prevent WWII?

WWII Begins: What event triggered the start of WWII?

Evaluation

You will receive a class grade today based on the following:

1. completion of the webquest in the time allowed (20 points)
2. correctly answering the essential questions worksheet (20 points)
3. staying on task (10 points)

Conclusion

What did you find out today about the causes of WWII?  How does this change your perspective of WWII?

Thank you to Anna Cope, Chestnut Oaks Middle School for providing the structure of this lesson.

Slight modifications were made to the original to update urls that no longer worked. 

Enjoy