1. How did the system of European alliances escalate the scope of World War I?

2. Why was the Balkans referred to as the 'powder keg of Europe' and what role did Serbian nationalism play?

3. How did the arms race among European great powers increase the likelihood of war?

1. How did fascism represent an extreme form of nationalism and what role did it play in World War II?

2. Why was the weak response of Western democracies to German militarism significant in launching World War II?

3. What were Japan's imperial ambitions in Asia and how did they lead to conflict with the United States?

1. How did the Industrial Revolution change the nature of imperial competition from resource control to market control?

2. What role did economic factors play in conflicts such as the Opium Wars and the Sino-Japanese Wars?

1. How did Japan's desire for natural resources in Asia lead to the attack on Pearl Harbor?

2. How did the Great Depression contribute to the rise of populist leaders like Adolf Hitler?

1. What technological advances made 20th-century warfare deadlier to both combatants and civilians?

2. What specific policies and weapons caused unprecedented civilian deaths during global conflicts in the 20th century?

1. How did the Mexican Revolution reflect broader demands for political and economic reform?

2. What were the different outcomes of the revolutions that toppled the Ottoman and Russian empires after World War I?

3. How did resentment of the Treaty of Versailles contribute to the rise of totalitarian regimes in Germany and Italy?

1. How did Woodrow Wilson's advocacy for self-determination influence colonial independence movements after World War I?

2. Why did colonies with small foreign settler populations gain independence more peacefully than those with large settler populations?

3. How did India achieve independence and what were the consequences of the partition of the Indian subcontinent?

1. Why did the United States emerge as a world power after World War II while Western Europe declined?

2. How did the emergence of the Soviet Union as a superpower reshape the global balance of power?

1. According to Friedrich Hayek, how did economic policy decisions lead to the development of totalitarianism?

2. How did Hayek view the relationship between socialism and fascism?

1. How did Carl Friedrich and Zbigniew Brzezinski explain the origins of totalitarianism differently from Hayek?

2. What role did nationalism and the global depression play in the rise of totalitarian rulers according to Friedrich and Brzezinski?

1. How did William Shirer trace the origins of Nazism to Germany's historical past?

2. Why did Shirer argue that no other country could develop the same form of Nazism as Germany?

1. What patterns did Barrington Moore identify in comparing countries that became democracies versus dictatorships?

2. According to Moore, what two vital steps were necessary for countries to develop into democracies?