Section outline

  • THEMATIC FOCUS

    Governance GOV
    A variety of internal and external factors contribute to state formation, expansion, and decline. Governments maintain order through a variety of administrative institutions, policies, and procedures, and governments obtain, retain, and exercise power in different ways and for different purposes.

    LEARNING OBJECTIVE

    Unit 7: Learning Objective G
    Explain similarities and differences in how governments used a variety of methods to conduct war.

    HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENTS

    KC-6.2.IV.A.ii
    World War II was a total war. Governments used a variety of strategies, including political propaganda, art, media, and intensified forms of nationalism, to mobilize populations (both in the home countries and the colonies or former colonies) for the purpose of waging war. Governments used ideologies, including fascism and communism to mobilize all of their state’s resources for war and, in the case of totalitarian states, to repress basic freedoms and dominate many aspects of daily life during the course of the conflicts and beyond.

    KC-6.1.III.C.ii
    New military technology and new tactics, including the atomic bomb, fire-bombing, and the waging of “total war” led to increased levels of wartime casualties.