The first leader of the Soviet Union, which began in 1922, was Vladimir Lenin. Lenin was one of the leaders of the Russian Revolution, in which the monarchy was overthrown and replaced with socialism. He would serve as leader of the Soviet Union until his death, when he was replaced by Josef Stalin. Stalin in turn would reign throughout the thirties and forties until his death led to the leadership of Nikita Khrushchev.

In 1919, Woodrow Wilson was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his work founding the League of Nations, although the League was hampered by the refusal of Wilson’s Congress to ratify American participation in the it.

In the immediate aftermath of World War One, the Entente powers sought to make Germany responsible for the financial and human costs of the conflict. The Treaty of Versailles essentially placed all blame for the conflict with the German government, insisting that the Germans pay astronomical reparations. This caused hyperinflation in Germany along with the rise of radical and reactionary ideologies (like Nazism). In an attempt to remedy this situation, the Dawes Plan was established to provide a staggered payment plan and a substantial financial loan from the United States.

The League of Nations was an idea proposed by Woodrow Wilson in the aftermath of World War One. It was part of Wilson’s Fourteen Points, which he published with the aim of preventing a large scale international conflict from breaking out in the future.

Despite being the brainchild of American President Woodrow Wilson, the United States never formally entered the League of Nations. This is because Congress did not ratify American membership in the league. In United States law any treaties or foreign-relations decisions taken by the United States President have to be approved by Congress before they can be enacted. Many historians believe that America’s failure to join the League of Nations contributed to its ineffectiveness and swift decline.

For the majority of the nineteenth century, United States’ foreign policy, particularly with Europe, revolved around the belief that America should not involve itself in any international conflicts or disputes. This policy is called "isolationism." It faded from preeminence towards the beginning of the twentieth century, when the United States ascended as a world power and began to embark on its own path of imperialist conquest. Isolationism has occasionally resurfaced throughout American history, such as around the time of World War One and of World War Two.

In the first half of the twentieth century there were competing ideologies about how best to govern a nation—democracy, fascism, and socialism. Fascism— particularly as seen in Spain under Franco and Italy under Mussolini—is defined by an extreme form of nationalism in which the media is under complete control of the state and individual rights are limited. It also generally features a totalitarian leader whose authority cannot be questioned.

All of these countries were ruled by Fascism at some point in the twentieth century except Russia, which transitioned first from monarchy to socialism, and then towards the end of the twentieth century (with the fall of the Soviet Union) to limited democracy.

A government or military policy of deliberately killing a group of people based on social, religious, ethnic, or national reasons is called genocide. Genocides have occurred throughout human history but were particularly prominent in the twentieth century. The Holocaust was a genocide of Europe's Jews and Romani perpetrated by Nazi Germany. Hersey is speaking out against organized religious doctrine; to be ostracized means to be banished or sent away from a community; excommunication is a form of banishment carried out by the Catholic Church where individuals, or whole communities, can be shut off from the salvation provided by and through the Church.

The correct answer is "Japanese Internment." Executive Order 9066 (partially reproduced above) authorized the military to forcefully relocate and corral, well, anyone-it was completely discretionary. Of course, it was used almost solely to relocate those of Japanese descent and place them into "internment" camps; essentially, it was the forced relocation and detainment of those of Japanese descent, in large part a response to the bombing of Pearl Harbor (December 7, 1941).