FInal, Test #2 Flashcards
Trace Japan’s rise as an imperial power
Japan westernizes itself to prevent from western colonization
Meiji- Policy of westernization(emperor with parliament & military industrialization)
Invasion of Manchuria (1931)
Japans invasion of China that takes control of Manchuria
Renamed Manchukuo as a puppet state
Leader Pu Yi put in place
Japanese imperialism
Bombing of Shanghai (1937)
During the second sino-japanese war
In order to take control of Shanghai
Japanese imperialism
Rape of Nanjing (1938)
Unspeakable atrocities from Japanese soldiers
300,000 victims
Emperor Hirohito
124th emperor (1926-1989) Active in Japan militaristic role or passive? Godlike figure for Japanese people appointed prime minister Tojo (anti US and militaristic)
Pearl Harbor (japanese objective)
Dec 6, 1941
Attack at US pacific fleet in Hawaii
Japanese perspective- cripple US while securing pacific holdings
Might make the US resign to defeat
Hideki Tojo
Prime minister for Japan
Directly responsible for Japanese attack at Pearl Harbor
Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto
Strategist of Pearl Harbor
Pearl Harbor
Very devastating but not all objectives hit
No carriers destroyed/not a lot of officers
US declares war on Japan
Main objectives of Axis and Allies during WW2
Axis- Create vast empires
Allies- Roll back and destroy empires
Winston Churchill (objective)
Prime Minister of Great Britain- resist Nazi aggression
Joseph Stalin (Objective)
Resist Nazi aggression in the Soviet Union and Lebensraum
Franklin Delano Roosevelt (objective)
prevent imperialism in the pacific and Europe
Nazi Invasion into France
France surrenders quickly in June 1940
Quick sweep by Nazi forces
Battle of Britain
Fought entirely by airforces Luftwaffe v. RAF
Nazis try to bomb Britain into submission
July 1940- june 1941
Ends when Germany fails to take GB
Operation Barbarossa
codename for invasion of Russia by Nazi forces
launched June 22, 1941
Very broad front meant to take leningrad, moscow, and donets basin
Largest casualties of any military operation
Failure due to terrible conditions and weather
Siege of Leningrad
Siege by German troops in the city of Leningrad
Lasted 872 days and was costly in terms of casualties
Holocaust (WW2)
Nazi systematic genocide of jews and other ethnic and religious groups
Nuremberg Laws
1935- Laws that deprived jews of citizenship and basic rights
Jews forbidden to marry non-jews
Kristallnacht
Night of the broken glass
State sponsored attack on Jews Nov. 9-10, 1938
1000 synagogues burned
thousands of Jewish businesses, cemetaries, and schools vandalized
Creation of Warsaw ghetto to Einsatzgruppen
Ghettos created- Government run territories where Jews were confined
Einsatzgruppen- mobile killing squads
Wannsee Conference (1942)
Meeting to formulate the “final solution”
Death camps and impersonal killing
Auschwitz, Dachau, and Buchenwald, and Treblinka
Cattle cars to camps
Poison gas in showers
Axis held territory in Eurasia
Central Europe without Spain, Portugal, GB, Sweden, and part of Russia
Also north Africa
North African campaign
Liberate N. Africa, go through Italy to S. Germany
Italian campaign
Allied military campaign to invade Sicily and move northward
Eventually ending at Germany
Battle of Stalingrad (aug42-feb43)
Germans v. Soviets on the banks of the Volga river Stalingrad an important industrial city turning point in the east Farthest point Germany reaches Urban battlefield German 6th army surrenders feb2, 43
D-Day Invasion
June 6, 1944
allied invasion of Normandy, northwestern france
Eisenhower supreme allied commander
Paris liberated aug 25
Battle of the Bulge
German counter offensive
Ardennes forest
Ultimately a German defeat
Fall of Berlin
May 2, 1945, Soviets take control of Berlin
German surrender
V-E day, May 8, 1945
Japan strategy in the Pacific
build and maintain pacific empire
Basic US strategy in the Pacific
Island Hopping
Death March to Bataan
Brutal, 80 mile POW march to prison camps in the Pacific (Philippines)
Battle of Midway
US victory in the Pacific in Midway Atoll
Japans worst naval defeat
A decisive victory for the US
Battle of the Coral Sea
Battle in the Coral sea between Australia and New Zealand
US victory, primarily aircraft carriers used
Battle of Guadalcanal
First US offensive against Japanese
Battle of Saipan
June 1944
US close enough for bomb runs
Demonstrated Japanese willingness to fight to the last man
Close enough for US bombing raids
Battles of Iwo Jima and Okinawa
Staging ground for an attack on the Japanese mainland
Iwo Jima- known that the US could not be stopped only slowed down-staged for a lot of casualties
Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings
Truman decides to use atomic bomb
Hiroshima 80,000 killed instantly 140,000 all together
caused a surrender from Hirohito
Potsdam Conference
Japan not yet surrendered
Last meeting of allied 3
Germany defeated but Japan not
Cold War definition and the US/Soviet Union coldwar
A condition of competition, tension, conflict between the US and Soviet Union falling short of actual (hot war)
Never officially declared war on each other
1945-1991
Yalta Conference
map out post war world
friendly governments in Eastern Europe
Divide Germany in four zones
United Nations
“Iron Curtain” -Winston Churchill
metaphor for eastern Europe trapped under iron curtain
You cant simply pull back the curtain
Speech at Westminster college Fulton, MO
Harry Truman and Truman Doctrine
decidevely supporting anti-communist regimes with massive aid
theory of containment
Yugoslavia
WW2 leader Tito creates communist state Yugoslavia
Not aligned with soviet bloc or any other state
Marshall Plan
Economically rebuild war torn Europe $12.5 billion
Political weapon to fight the cold war
Undermines the growth of communism
Berlin Blockade
begins june 7, 1948, creation of west Germany
June 24, soviets stop all surface travel into Berlin
US airlifts supplies to free Berlin zones- 300days 270,000 flights
Creation of NATO
created to prevent the attack on individual countries from Soviet Union
Madame Chiang Kai-shek
Leader of Peoples nationalist party that fought against communism for control of China Ultimately lost(due to corruption, demoralization, and hyperinflation) Went to Tawaiin after defeat
Formation of the Peoples Republic of China
great leap forward (1958-1960)-
Great proleterian cultural revolution(1966-1976)-
great leap forward (1958-1960)
rapid industrialization and collectivization of agriculture
Great proleterian cultural revolution(1966-1976)
red guards cleanse impure elements of chinese society
Korean War
Korea divided after WW2
North invades south
US military intervention
War ends on the 38th parallel
MacArthur’s role in Korean War
Moves north and gets shut down by Chinese troops
pushed back to 38th parallel- two years of stalemate
Geneva conference (1954)
Right after France leaves, temporarily partition Vietnam at 17th parallel (divide)
Ho Chi Minh
vietnamese nationalist and marxist revolutionary
fights against french and US
Battle of Dien Bien Phu
China aids with weapons siezed from Korean War
Ngo Dinh Diem
First presiden of south vietnam
US anti communist ally
Unpopular with vietnamese people
US involvement in vietnam war
Goal to preserve and protect non communist s. korea
US takes the brunt for South Vietnam’s weak government and army
Fall of Saigon to communists in 1975
Cambodia
Gains independence from french rule
Khmer rouge takes control from Lon Nol
Pol Pot takes control
establishes communist gov and killing fields
