1) What was the significance of the Sino-Japanese War for China? For Japan? Why? Was its impact of lesser or greater importance than the later Russo-Japanese War? Why?
2) What were the causes and consequences of the Russo-Japanese War? For Japan? For Russia? For China?
3) Considering the possible causes and events, was World War I inevitable? Why or why not? If inevitable, from what date or from what event was there no turning back?
4) Were the Russian Revolutions of 1917 inevitable? Why or why not?
5) What did "the winners" win in the Great War? And what did they lose?
6) Could Gandhi's non-violence and civil disobedience have succeeded against Hitler's Germany or Stalin's Soviet Union? If so, how? If not, why not?
7) Would Marx, or Lenin, or Stalin have approved of Mao's "road to socialism"? Why and/or why not?
8) Generally speaking, how did the early twentieth century transform the status of women in the countries considered in this chapter? To what degree were these transformations enduring changes? In what ways did tradition continue to shape the female status in the various societies?
9) Compare and contrast the authoritarianism of Stalin's Soviet Union with that of Hitler's Germany. What are the similarities and what are the differences between the two regimes? Was one more totalitarian than the other? Why and how?
10) Why were militarists able to gain and exert so much power in Japan in the 1930s? Did their control of government make the Pacific phase of World War II inevitable? Explain.
11) What were the underlying causes of World War II, and what specific steps taken by Nazi Germany and Japan led to war? What were the main events of World War II in Europe and Asia? What was the crucial year in determining the outcome of World War II, and why?