World History Homework Twelve Answers - Student Seventeen

Jonathan R.

1. World War II: when, where, who and why? Explain. The war started in 1939 when France and Britain declared war on Germany. The sides consist of the Allied Powers: England, Australia, Canada and New Zealand, France and its colonies, and potentially the United States and the Soviet Union. The Axis Powers consisted of Japan, Germany and Italy. The reason for the war was the violation of the Treaty of Versailles and Hitler’s tendency to violate any and all types of treaties (don’t make a deal with the devil).

Superb, may use as a model, but also mention when the war ended (1945).

H7. (Counts as two answers) Explain the mathematics of how the Enigma was broken (decoded) including (if you like) some words about the field of cryptology today. The actual code of the Enigma is very hard to write about and understand in any meaningful way, so I will try to make as much of it as possible comprehensible. When you press a letter (e.g. L), the machine alters it up to nine times (with a minimum of seven) using a set of wheels with the alphabet on them that move much like a standard car odometer (with every 26 letters typed, the next wheel moves to the next spot.). And it must be remembered that the moving of at least one wheel, for every new letter typed, introduced a new set of circuits for each new letter. In addition, if you pressed one key over and over, you would get a different letter each time, but if you hit that same key 16,900 (26 x 25 x 26) times, the pattern would repeat. Cryptologists use a method of code breaking that uses common letter patterns to their advantage: letter and pattern frequency, where the cryptologist would give an educated guess as to what common letter a repeated character is. Also, some letters will appear frequently alongside each other. The most obvious example in the English language is TH as in 'the' or 'that'. By combining these two weapons, the code breaker could make a reasonable guess that where a single letter appeared repeatedly after the T which he had already recovered from letter frequency, the unknown letter was probably H, particularly if the next letter that had already been recovered was an E.

Wow, terrific explanation!!! Will definitely use as a model!

3. Why do you think Hitler and his supporters killed so many people? Explain. Hitler led Germany with an extremely violent form of nationalism which was instilled within each individual German. This makes everyone think of their nationality as being better than all others, and makes them willing to kill off the other nationalities (especially the Jewish, whom they blamed for their troubles).

Correct.

5. Describe any aspect of the Cold War or the Korean War or the Spanish Civil War (with reference to Orwell, if you like). It’s interesting how the Cold War advanced weaponry ten-fold with atomic bombs, H-bombs, and not to mention missile defense systems, but neither side used this technology during the war.

Right.

6. How did technological advances or insights help the Allied forces? Be specific. The development of the atomic bomb was the deciding element on the outcome of the war. It had power: the equivalence of nearly 20,000 tons of TNT; it also had an emotional effect that no other weapon could compare to.

Excellent point about the emotional effect.

7. Should the United States have entered World War II in Europe? Discuss. I think it was right to enter. The United States was considering staying out of the war to leave England, France, and Italy to solve their arguments. When the U.S. Navy to begin escorting British ships that carried American arms, a German U-boat (submarine) shot and sank an American ship, and the Americans fired back, and unofficially entered the war.

OK, but keep in mind that we officially entered the war due to the attack on Pearl Harbor (Japan and Germany were allies).

Because this is the last standard homework of the class:

H1. Why did genocide tragically kill so many more people in the 20th century than in the rest of world history combined? The reason genocide kills so many people is that it's very easy to spot the "enemy" because they're of a different nationality. This, mixed with an evil leader (Hitler) with no conscience, can cause a tragic loss of life without any reason (not that there is a "reason" to kill).

Good analysis, but it was just as easy to "spot" the enemy before the 20th century, so I don't think you've fully addressed the question.

Terrific final homework! Your effort throughout the class was superb, but your final homework was even better than your high standard. Each week you had tremendous new insights, among the best in the class, and your last homework included extra effort. 80/80. Well done!