Chapter 8 Flashcards
World War II
The Nazi dictator who ruled Germany and eventually led Europe into World War I
Adolf Hitler
This is an approach in which an aggressor nation is allowed to keep regions it has conquered in hopes that it will satisfy the country’s leaders and prevent future aggression. Britain and France signed the Munich Pact, an agreement that agreed to let Germany keep territories it had taken in exchange for a pledge not to invade anymore countries
Appeasement
The communist dictator who ruled the Soviet Union and who was one of the Big Three allies during World War I
Joseph Stalin
The dictator who ruled Italy. He was a fascist and an ally of Germany and Japan
Benito Mussolini
The military leader who served as prime minister of Japan during World War II. He was eventually executed for war crimes
Hideki Tojo
This was the alliance between Germany, Italy, and Japan during World War II
Axis Powers
1935 law that prohibited the sale of US weapons to warring nations
Neutrality Acts
Law under which the president could send aid to any nation whose defense was considered vital to the United States’ national security. If the country had no resources to pay for the aid, the US could send it and defer payment until later
Lend Lease Act
US naval base in Hawaii which was attacked on December 7, 1941 by the Japanese. The event finally pulled the US into WWII
Pearl Harbor
Conference between Roosevelt, Churchill, and Stalin in which the three leaders decided to launch an Allied invasion of western Europe
Tehran Conference
Name given the Allied invasion of Europe
Operation Overload/ D-Day
Roosevelt, Churchill, and Stalin met in February 1945 at the city of Yalta and conducted the Yalta Conference
Big Three
Conference at which the “Big Three” discussed military strategy and postwar policies. The resolutions of the conference were stated in a Declaration and included a provision for Germany being divided into four zones to be administered by the Allies following the war. In addition, the leaders scheduled a conference in San Francisco for the following April to establish the United Nations as a permanent peace-keeping organization
Yalta Conference
Southeast Asian island territory won by the US from Spain. It was a subject of much debate and division after the Spanish-American war as many wanted to annex it, and others wanted it declared and independent nation
The Philippines
Battle which ended in a US victory and turned the tide of the water in the Pacific in favor of the US and its allies
Battle of Midway
Strategy used by US forces in the Pacific in which they would attack and conquer one set of islands and then move on to the next as they made their way to Japan
Island Hopping
Nuclear bomb dropped by the US on Hiroshima and later Nagasaki to bring about Japan’s surrender and the end of WWII
Atomic Bomb
Project to construct the atomic bomb
Manhattan Project
President who took office following Roosevelt’s death and who gave the final order to drop the atomic bomb
Harry S. Truman
Japanese cities on which the US dropped atomic bombs
Hiroshima and Nagasaki
Act passed by Congress authorized the first peacetime draft in US history in 1940
Selective Service Act
Re-directed raw materials and resources from the production of civilian consumer goods to the production of materials needed for waging war against Germany and Japan
War Production Board
Drives which encouraged citizens in the US to buy bonds to help raise money for the war effort
War Bonds Drive
Private vegetable gardens grown by citizens so that more food could be sent to support soldiers
Victory Gardens
Policy in which the US government controlled how certain goods were allocated, so as to make sure that the war effort was adequately supported
Rationing
Became the symbol of those women who entered the workforce to fill the gap left vacant by men serving in the war
Rosie the Riveter
Women’s Army Corps; an army division for women that served in nearly every capacity except combat
WAC
All black squadron of fighter pilots that successfully protected every single bomber it escorted during WWII
Tuskegee Airmen
Native American Marines who served as radio operators in the Pacific
Code-talkers
Japanese American unit that served valiantly in Europe and became the mot decorated unit in United States history
442nd
Slogan used by many African Americans who were calling for social change in the US during the war. It stood for victory both abroad against Hitler and the Japanese, and at home against “Hitlerism”
Double V Campaign
Mostly Mexican immigrants that the United States needed for labor during World War II
Hispanic Population
After Pearl Harbor, the US government ordered all Japanese Americans away from military facilities. Under authority of this order, the US military forced more than 100,000 Japanese Americans from their homes and businesses during the war and placed them in internment camps
Internment of Japanese Americans
Camps established by the Nazis in which Jews and other prisoners were either immediately put to death or forced to provide slave labor before finally being executed or dying of disease or starvation
Concentration Camps
The attempted genocide of the Jewish people (and some other ethnic and social groups) by the Nazis during WWII
Holocaust
Trials held in Germany after the war and the discovery of the Holocaust. It placed several Nazi leaders on trial for war crimes and resulted in a number of executions and long prison sentences
Nuremberg Trials
WWII saw advances in radar, sonar, microwave technology, computers, agriculture, nuclear power, and medicine. In addition, innovations such as pipelines, synthetic rubber, and improved radios also came about during this period
Advances in Technology
Age that began with the dropping of the atomic bomb in which both the horrors of nuclear weapons and the possible benefits of nuclear energy are realities the world lives with
Nuclear Age
Competition between the US and USSR in which each side continued to build more and more powerful nuclear weapons in an effort to maintain a military advantage
Nuclear Arms Race