Ch. 1-4 Study Guide Flashcards
Who was Franz Ferdinand?
Archduke of Austria-Hungary assassinated by a Serbian nationalist on June 28, 1914. A major catalyst for WWI.
Who was Gavrilo Princip?
Member of the Black Hand; shot Austrian Archduke Ferdinand and his wife on June 28, 1914, setting off WWI.
What was the impact of WWI?
The Austro-Hungarian Empire is gone, leaving a power vacuum; Russian Revolution of 1918; Germany is very unhappy with results/punishment; lots of hostility between enemies lingered.
What was the Treaty of Versailles?
Provided settlement for Germany, a compromise between Wilson’s 14 points (leniency) and Clemenceau, who wanted blood.
What was the League of Nations?
A collective security organization that Wilson hoped would deter aggression and provide peace. The Senate did not ratify it because of Article 10, so the US never joined it.
What is the Rhineland?
A region in Germany designated a demilitarized zone by the Treaty of Versailles; Hitler violated the treaty and sent German troops there in 1936.
What was Danzig?
A large German port city given use to Poland; Germany lost some land to Poland, which greatly angered them.
What is Czechoslovakia known for in this context?
Contained an area called the Sudetenland, and was eventually betrayed to Hitler by the Allies before WWII.
What is the Sudetenland?
An area of Bohemia and Moravia that had 3 million ethnic Germans; the Germans wanted to take this back.
What was the Munich Conference?
A 1938 meeting between Chamberlain, Daladier, Hitler, and Mussolini; agreed to allow Nazi Germany to annex part of Czechoslovakia in return for Hitler’s pledge to respect Czechoslovakia’s new borders; Czechoslovakia was not invited.
Who was Neville Chamberlain?
Succeeded Baldwin as P.M. of the UK in May 1937; advocated for appeasement, believing such a settlement would preserve peace and satisfy Hitler.
What was Poland’s role in this context?
Had rights to use Danzig; signed a 10-year non-aggression pact with Germany in 1934, which backfired.
What was the Kellogg-Briand Pact (1928)?
A treaty drafted by Sec of State Kellogg and French Foreign Minister Briand outlawing war, signed by 65 nations, but with no means of enforcement.
Who was Benito Mussolini?
Organized a nationalist group in Italy called the Blackshirts, forming the nucleus of the fascist party; wanted to recreate the Roman Empire for Italy.
What were the Blackshirts?
A fascist nationalist group created by Mussolini; a paramilitary force known as ‘squadristi’.
What happened in Ethiopia in 1935?
Attacked by Italian forces; Mussolini planned to invade Ethiopia since 1932, ruining relations between Italy and Western nations.
Who was Matthew Perry?
Commodore of the US Navy who forced his way into Tokyo Bay in 1858 and opened up Japan with the Treaty of Kanagawa.
Who was Emperor Hirohito?
Emperor of Japan during WWII; his people viewed him as a god, but he had little power as the premier and cabinet ruled in his name.
What is Manchuria?
Province in northeast China invaded by Japan in September 1931, renamed Manchuko and made a satellite state, launching the war in the Pacific.
What does Gekokujo mean?
Open defiance of junior officers to senior officers, often overlooked because army authorities sympathized with their motives.
What is Bushido?
The code of honor and morals developed by the Japanese samurai; Japanese would not surrender even with staggering losses.
What happened in Nanking?
When Japan invaded China, they destroyed the city and raped people; 200,000 people died and 1/3 of the city burned.
What was the Panay incident?
On December 12, 1937, Japan sunk the American gunboat Panay (as well as a British gunboat).
Who was Joseph Stalin?
Bolshevik revolutionary, head of the Soviet Communists after 1924, and dictator of the Soviet Union from 1928 to 1953; led the Soviet Union with an iron fist.
Who was Leon Trotsky?
Russian revolutionary and Communist theorist, taken down by Stalin who had teamed up with Gregori Zionev and Lev Kamenev to do so
What were the purges?
Many ‘old Bolsheviks’ tried and killed for various crimes against the party, including Trotsky, Zionev, and Kamenev; millions killed.
What are collective farms?
Large government-controlled farms formed by combining many small farms.
What was the Spanish Civil War?
In 1936, a rebellion erupted in Spain after a coalition of Republicans, Socialists, and Communists was elected; General Francisco Franco led the rebellion.
Who was Francisco Franco?
Fascist leader of the Spanish revolution, helped by Hitler and Mussolini.
What was the Condor Legion?
A unit composed of volunteers from the German Air Force and Army that served with the Nationalists during the Spanish Civil War from July 1936 to March 1939.
What is Totalitarianism?
A form of government that has total control of all aspects of citizens’ lives; prevalent in the USSR, Germany, and Italy.
What is Fascism?
A political philosophy that emphasizes the importance of the nation and/or ethnic group and the supreme authority of the leader; popular in Italy.
Who was Adolf Hitler?
Austrian-born Dictator of Germany who implemented Fascism, wrote Mein Kampf, and aimed for ‘lebensraum’.
What were the Brown Shirts?
Nazi paramilitary force also called the SA, largely composed of former soldiers, used for intimidation.
What is Mein Kampf?
‘My Struggle’; a poorly written self-serving book in which Hitler expressed his views, especially his belief in the superiority of the ‘Aryan’ race.
What was the Reichstag Fire?
In February 1933, the Reichstag was set on fire by a secret order of Joseph Goebbels; Hitler convinced President Hindenburg to suspend civil rights for Communists, socialists, and others.
What is Nazism?
An extreme form of fascism shaped by Hitler’s fanatical ideas about German nationalism and racial superiority.
What were the Axis Powers?
Alliance of Germany, Italy, and Japan during World War II.
Who was Hermann Goering?
One of Hitler’s chief lieutenants, former WW1 pilot, eventually headed the Luftwaffe.
Who was Joseph Goebbels?
Chief minister of Nazi propaganda and organizer of Kristallnacht.
Who was Heinrich Himmler?
former poultry farmer, German Nazi who was chief of the SS; did not look Aryan and suffered from chronic illnesses but was power hungry.
Who was Ernst Rohm?
Army officer during WW1; recruited many to the early SA, killed by Hitler in the Night of the Long Knives.
Who was Joachim von Ribbentrop?
Devoted Nazi, former importer of wine, made minister of foreign affairs due to his knowledge of languages, nobody liked him but Hitler
What was the Night of the Long Knives?
In June 1934, SS troopers seized Rohm and SA leaders and executed them without trial.
What happened after the Night of the Long Knives?
President Hindenburg dies and Hitler combines the offices of Chancellor and Presidency into a new position of Fuhrer and Reich Chancellor.
What was Dachau?
Concentration camp established in 1933 for political prisoners; housed 10,000 prisoners by 1937.
What is Lebenstraum?
Hitler’s expansionist theory based on a drive to acquire ‘living space’ for the German people from Czechoslovakia.
What does Anschluss mean?
‘Union’; Hitler wanted unification between Austria and Germany.
What was the Eagle’s Nest?
In 1938, Hitler invited Austrian Chancellor Schuschnigg to his retreat at Berchtesgaden to discuss relations between the two countries.
What was the Stresa Front?
Made up of Italy, France, and Britain to keep the status quo in Europe when Hitler decided to rearm Germany.
