NY Regents 10.5: Global Conflict 1914–1945

This is Sarajevo, the capital of modern Bosnia and Herzegovina — a city nestled in a mountain-ringed valley along the Miljacka River, deep in the Balkan Peninsula where Central Europe grades into the…

This is Ypres, a city in West Flanders, Belgium — sitting on the flat coastal plain of northwestern Europe, just inland from the English Channel that separates it from Britain. During the First World…

The attack happened about 11 nautical miles off the Old Head of Kinsale, on Ireland's southern Atlantic coast — the exposed headlands where the island's shoreline faces directly into the open ocean…

The Battle of the Somme took place near Albert, in the Somme river valley of northern France — that flat, open farmland sitting between Paris to the south and the English Channel to the north that…

This was Verdun, a fortified city on the Meuse River in northeastern France — sitting in the rolling hills of the Western European interior, roughly midway between the Rhine to the east and the…

This is Petrograd — now called Saint Petersburg — in Russia, sitting at the eastern tip of the Baltic Sea where the Neva River meets the Gulf of Finland, exactly where Europe's great northern plain…

Saint-Mihiel is a small town in the Meuse River valley of Lorraine, northeastern France — a temperate corridor of hills and rivers running roughly parallel to the Rhine, far east of Paris. From 12 to…

Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States, sits on the Potomac River along the Atlantic coastal plain, east of the Appalachian Mountains — exactly the eastern seaboard setting the clue…

Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States, sits on the eastern seaboard of North America, wedged between the Atlantic coastal plain and the Appalachian Mountains, roughly midway up the…

On 28 June 1919 — exactly five years after the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand — Germany and the Allied powers signed the Treaty of Versailles in the Hall of Mirrors at the Palace of…

This was Geneva, Switzerland — a city nestled at the southwestern corner of Lake Geneva, where the Alps rise to the south and the Jura range curves to the west, placing it at a crossroads of western…

The signing took place in Sèvres, France — a town on the Seine southwest of Paris — where the fate of a sprawling empire straddling Europe and Asia was decided in 1920. The Treaty of Sèvres formally…

London, the island capital of the United Kingdom, sits on the River Thames just inland from where the English Channel separates Great Britain from continental Europe — making it the natural hub for…

This event unfolded in Gorki, a village within Moscow Oblast, Russia — on the broad European plain west of the Urals, the mountain spine that separates Europe from Asia. On January 21, 1924, Vladimir…

Locarno, Switzerland, 1925 — a small resort town cradled on the northern shore of Lake Maggiore, where the Alps slope southward into Italy. Here, representatives of Germany, France, Britain, Belgium…

This event unfolded in New York City, USA — a vast metropolis on the northeastern Atlantic seaboard, built where the Hudson River meets one of the world's great natural harbours. In October 1929, the…

This event unfolded in Mukden — today called Shenyang — in China's northeastern region of Manchuria, exactly where the broad, flat plains stretching toward the Korean Peninsula and the Russian Far…

This catastrophe unfolded across Soviet Ukraine, centred on Kharkiv — a city sitting deep in the flat, fertile steppe east of the Dnieper River, between the Carpathians to the west and the Don River…

On 23 March 1933, the German parliament passed the Enabling Act, transferring full legislative power to Chancellor Adolf Hitler's cabinet. Hitler could now pass any law without parliamentary…

Munich, Germany — a city on the Bavarian plain tucked between the Alps to the south and the Danube River to the north — was the center of a deadly political purge in late June and early July 1934…

This is Addis Ababa, the capital of Ethiopia — a city sitting high on the East African plateau in the Horn of Africa, exactly where the continent's great highland massif dominates the surrounding…

The uprising that ignited the Spanish Civil War began in 1936 in Melilla, a Spanish enclave perched on the Mediterranean coast of North Africa — separated from mainland Spain only by the narrow…

This is Nanjing, China, situated on the lower Yangtze River as it flows eastward toward the Yellow Sea — the great river-delta city the title clue pointed toward. In late 1937, following the fall of…

Munich, Germany — a major city on the Bavarian plateau, tucked between the Main River to the north and the Alps rising sharply to the south — was where this fateful agreement was signed in 1938…

This is Warsaw, the capital of Poland — a city sitting on the Vistula River, on the broad North European Plain that stretches from the Baltic coast south to the Carpathian Mountains. On September 1…

This is London, the capital of the United Kingdom — sitting on the River Thames in southeast England, on the island of Great Britain, separated from continental Europe by the narrow English Channel…

Oslo, Norway — a country of steep fjords carved by glaciers on the western edge of the Scandinavian Peninsula, separated from Britain only by the narrow North Sea. In April 1940, Nazi Germany…

Auschwitz, in southern Poland — a country on the northern edge of the Carpathian Mountains, at the heart of Europe's great northern plain — was the largest and most lethal site in a continent-wide…

Brest, in what is now Belarus, sits on the North European Plain at the Bug River — the flat corridor that has funneled armies between Central Europe and Russia for centuries. On June 22, 1941, Nazi…

This is Pearl Harbor, on the island of Oahu in Hawaii — a volcanic archipelago sitting roughly 2,400 miles from the North American mainland, isolated in the central Pacific Ocean. In December 1941…

The battle unfolded across the Coral Sea, the warm tropical waters separating northeastern Australia — near the port of Townsville, Queensland — from the island chains of Papua New Guinea and the…

This was Oran, Algeria — a port city on the Mediterranean's southern shore, tucked below the Atlas Mountains where they descend toward the sea, directly across from the Strait of Gibraltar and Spain…

Singapore, a small island city-state just off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula in Southeast Asia, fell to Japanese forces on 15 February 1942 — the largest surrender of British-led troops in…

Saint Petersburg — known as Leningrad during the Soviet era — sits at the eastern end of the Gulf of Finland, where the Neva River empties into the Baltic Sea, placing it at the far northwestern…

Juno Beach lies along the Normandy coast of northern France, facing England across the English Channel — one of the narrowest crossings between the British Isles and continental Europe. On 6 June…

This is the Normandy coast of France — a stretch of sandy beaches along the English Channel, directly south across a narrow strip of water from southern England, on the northwestern edge of the…

The event took place in San Francisco, on the Pacific coast of the United States — exactly where a famous bay cuts into California's coastline, just south of where North America's western shore bends…

Hiroshima and Nagasaki, two major cities on the Japanese archipelago, sit on the western edge of the Pacific Ocean, facing the East China Sea and the Korean Peninsula across narrow straits — exactly…

Tokyo, Japan's capital, sits on the Pacific coast of Honshu — the main island of Japan, an archipelago of curved islands stretching along the western rim of the Pacific Ocean. In 1945, the United…