HISTORY FINAL TERMS - UP TO WWII Flashcards
1
Q
Ace
A
- an ace is a military aviator or airman credited with shooting down five or more enemy aircraft
2
Q
Allies
A
- The Allies in the beginning of WWII were Great Britain, France and the Commonwealth. When Germany invaded France they were still considered an ally but they were unable to really help out. When Germany tried to invade the Soviet Union, the U.S.S.R. reached out to the Allied forces and asked for them to help. When the Germans failed the Soviet Union joined the Allies and fought against the Nazi’s.
3
Q
Alsace/Lorraine
A
- Alsace-Lorraine was reverted to French ownership in 1918 as part of the Treaty of Versailles and Germany’s defeat in World War I. Well, initially Germany mainly wanted Alsace-Lorraine to act as a buffer zone in the event of any future wars with France. The area contains the Vosges Mountains, which would be much more defensible than the Rhine River if the French ever attempted to invade.
4
Q
Anschluss
A
- Anschluss, German: “Union”, political union of Austria with Germany, achieved through annexation by Adolf Hitler in 1938. The Anschluss was among the first major steps in Austrian-born Hitler’s desire to create a Greater German Reich that was to include all ethnic Germans and all the lands and territories that the German Empire had lost after the First World War.
5
Q
Anti-Semitism
A
- It means prejudice against or hatred of Jewish people. Hitler was known for his hatred of Jewish people and believed that they were like bugs that needed to be exterminated.
6
Q
Appeasement
A
- Appeasement encouraged Hitler to be more aggressive, with each victory giving him confidence and power. The Policy of Appeasement led to the Second World War as Britain and France, two of the main powers in 20th century Europe, failed to appease Hitler to the extent where war with Nazi Germany was inevitable.
7
Q
Armistice
A
- the Armistice was the ceasefire that ended hostilities between the Allies and Germany on the 11th of November 1918. The Armistice did not end the First World War itself, but it was the agreement which stopped the fighting on the Western Front while the terms of the permanent peace were discussed.
8
Q
Arms Race
A
- An arms race occurs when two or more countries increase the size and quality of military resources to gain military and political superiority over one another.
9
Q
Aryan
A
- Germans coined the term “Aryan” which is what they referred to as the master race. It is a concept in Nazi ideology in which the putative “Aryan race” is deemed the pinnacle of human racial hierarchy.
10
Q
Assimilation
A
- forced assimilation is an involuntary process of cultural assimilation of religious or ethnic minority groups during which they are forced to adopt language, identity, norms, mores, customs, traditions, values, mentality, perceptions, way of life, and often religion and ideology of established and generally larger community belonging to dominant culture by government.
11
Q
Atlantic Gap
A
- The Mid-Atlantic Gap is a geographical term applied to an undefended area beyond the reach of land-based RAF Coastal Command antisubmarine (A/S) aircraft during the Battle of the Atlantic in the Second World War.
12
Q
A-bomb
A
an “a-bomb” was another name for an atomic bomb, such as the one dropped on the Japanese city Hiroshima.
13
Q
Attrition
A
- The First World War is often perceived as a war of attrition, a conflict in which each side tried to wear the other down by killing as many of its men as possible
14
Q
Axis
A
- The three principal partners in the Axis alliance were Germany, Italy, and Japan. These three countries recognized German domination over most of continental Europe; Italian domination over the Mediterranean Sea; and Japanese domination over East Asia and the Pacific.
15
Q
Barbarossa
A
- Operation Barbarossa was the codename for the Axis invasion of the Soviet Union during WWII. On June 22, 1941, Germany launched its invasion of the Soviet Union during World War II, codenamed Operation Barbarossa. Nazi leader Adolf Hitler predicted a quick victory, but after initial success, the brutal campaign dragged on and eventually failed due to strategic blunders and harsh winter weather, as well as a determined Soviet resistance and attrition suffered by German forces.
16
Q
Battle of Britain
A
- an at campaign launched in 1940 by the Royal Air Force to stop the Germans from achieving air supremacy
17
Q
Battle of the Atlantic
A
- the struggle between the Allies and the loss powers to control the Allies shipping count across the Atlantic Ocean
18
Q
BCATP
A
- The British Commonwealth Air Training Plan (BCATP), or Empire Air Training Scheme (EATS) often referred to as simply “The Plan”, was a massive, joint military aircrew training program created by the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, during the Second World War
19
Q
Bennett-buggy
A
- an engineless automobile drawn by a horse.
20
Q
Billy Bishop
A
- he is one of the pilots who provided aerial support during the Battle of Vimy Ridge, he shot down 12 planes in April 1917 alone, winning the Military Cross and earning a promotion to Captain. He was awarded the Victoria Cross for his single-handed attack on a German airfield near Cambrai, France on June 2, 1913. By the end of the First World War, Bishop had been promoted to Lieutenant Colonel and was credited with destroying 72 enemy aircraft.
21
Q
Black Hand
A
- a terrorist group who lived in secret in Serbia and were a key instrument in planning the assasination of the Austrian-Hungarian heir Archduke Franz Ferdinand.
22
Q
Black Tuesday.
A
- On October 29, 1929, the United States stock market crashed in an event known as Black Tuesday. This began a chain of events that led to the Great Depression, a 10-year economic slump that affected all industrialised countries in the world. The causes of Black Tuesday included too much debt used to buy stocks, global protectionist policies, and slowing economic growth.
23
Q
Blitzkrieg
A
- Blitzkrieg was a military tactic calculated to create psychological shock and resultant disorganisation in enemy forces through the employment of surprise, speed, and superiority in matériel or firepower.
24
Q
Blue Nose
A
-was a fishing and racing gaff rig schooner built in 1921 in Lunenburg, Nova Scotia, Canada. A celebrated racing ship and fishing vessel, Bluenose under the command of Angus Walters, became a provincial icon for Nova Scotia and an important Canadian symbol in the 1930s, serving as a working vessel until she was wrecked in 1946. Nicknamed the “Queen of the North Atlantic’’,[
25
Q
Boer
A
- a Dutch person who settled in southern Africa in the late 17th century.
26
Q
Bootlegger
A
- a person who makes, distributes, or sells goods illegally.
27
Q
Boycott
A
- is an act of nonviolent, voluntary abstention from a product, person, organisation, or country as an expression of protest.
28
Q
Capitalism
A
- an economic and political system in which a country’s trade and industry are controlled by private owners for profit, rather than by the state. (Two points are that capitalism is the motive to make profit and they want to control property in accord with their own interest)
29
Q
CBC
A
- in 1929 the Commission concluded that Canada was in need of a publicly funded radio broadcast system. In 1936 a new Canadian Broadcasting Act created the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC)/Radio-Canada as a crown corporation.
30
Q
Coalition
A
an alliance for combined action, especially a temporary alliance of political parties forming a government or of states.
31
Q
Cold War
A
a period lasting approximately from 1945 to 1989 when there was tension and hostility between the communist Soviet Union and its allies and capitalist United States and It Allies
32
Q
Commonwealth
A
- The British Commonwealth of Nations was the result of the 1926 Balfour Declaration which stipulated that the relationship between Britain and her Dominions was equal in status. This stipulation was formalised officially in Section 4 of the Statute of Westminster in 1931.
33
Q
Communist-
A
- War Communism was the name given to the economic system that existed in Russia from 1918 to 1921. War Communism was introduced by Lenin to combat the economic problems brought on by the civil war in Russia. It was a combination of emergency measures and socialist dogma. Advocating class war and leading to a society in which all property is publicly owned and each person works and is paid according to their abilities and needs
Conscription - The National Service (Armed Forces) Act imposed conscription on all males aged between 18 and 41 who had to register for service. Those medically unfit were exempted, as were others in key industries and jobs such as baking, farming, medicine, and engineering.
34
Q
Convoy
A
- a group of merchantmen or troopships travelling together with a naval escort. The convoy system, a group of ships sailing together for protection, was designed to help protect cargo in passenger ships during the First and Second World War. The system was created out of desperation. As there were not enough warships to protect thousands of individual merchant ships, they were grouped into convoys with naval escorts, making them hard to find and difficult to attack.
35
Q
Creeping Barrage
A
- before an infantry advance during the First World War, it was a common strategy to bombard enemy defences with all available heavy artillery. First used at the Battle of the Somme, a creeping barrage involved artillery fire moving forward in stages just ahead of the
36
Q
D-Day
A
- On June 6, 1944 the Allied Forces of Britain, America, Canada, and France attacked German forces on the coast of Normandy, France. With a huge force of over 150,000 soldiers, the Allies attacked and gained a victory that became the turning point for World War II in Europe.
37
Q
Deflation
A
- reduction of the general level of prices in an economy.
38
Q
Demilitarized
A
the action of removing military forces from an area: The peace plan includes calls for demilitarisation of the disputed area.
39
Q
Depression (+ cycle)
A
- the financial and industrial slump of 1929 and subsequent years.
40
Q
Desert Fox
A
- Erwin Rommel, in full Erwin Johannes Eugen Rommel, byname the Desert Fox, was a German field marshal who became the most popular general at home and gained the open respect of his enemies with his spectacular tactics and battle strategies.
41
Q
Dieppe
A
- The Dieppe raid of August 19, 1942, was a disaster. Within a few hours of landing on the French beach, almost a thousand Canadian soldiers died and twice that many were taken prisoner. Losses of aircraft and naval vessels were very high. Dieppe was a humiliation for the Allies and a tragedy for those killed, seriously wounded or taken prisoner.
42
Q
Dreadnought
A
- a type of battleship introduced in the early 20th century, larger and faster than its predecessors and equipped entirely with large-calibre guns.
43
Q
Dunkirk
A
-part town in France from which a massive Allied evacuation took place in May 1944 when German forces conquered France
44
Q
Famous Five
A
- the group included Emily Murphy, Henrietta Muir Edwards, Nellie McClung, Louise Crummy McKinney, and Irene Parlby. The Famous Five achieved not only the right for women to serve in the Senate, but they and their many contributions paved the way for women to participate in other aspects of public life and the assertion of women’s rights is now honoured by the Governor General’s Awards in Commemoration of the Persons Case.
45
Q
Fascism
A
- The Nazi government that ruled under Adolf Hitler between 1933 and 1945 was a fascist government. Fascism is a far-right theory of government that opposes the political philosophies of the Enlightenment and the 19th century, including democratic liberalism, communism, and socialism.
46
Q
Feminist
A
- a person who supports the idea that women are equal to men and deserve equal right and opportunities
47
Q
Final solution
A
- The Nazis and their supporters sought the “final solution to the Jewish question,” the murder of all Jews: men, women, and children and their eradication from the human race. In Nazi ideology that perceived Jewishness to be biological, the elimination of the Jews was essential to the purification and even the salvation of the German people.
48
Q
Flapper
A
- flappers were a generation of young Western women in the 1920s who wore short skirts (knee height was considered short during that time period), bobbed their hair, listened to jazz, and flaunted their disdain for what was then considered acceptable behavior.
Fuhrer - Führer, also spelled Fuehrer, German Führer, (“Leader”), title used by Adolf Hitler to define his role of absolute authority in Germany’s Third Reich.
49
Q
Fourteen Points
A
- The Fourteen Points was a statement of principles for peace that was to be used for peace negotiations in order to end World War I. The principles were outlined in a January 8, 1918 speech on war aims and peace terms to the United States Congress by President Woodrow Wilson.
50
Q
Fourteen Points Summarised
A
- Open diplomacy without secret treaties
- Economic free trade on the seas during war and peace
- Equal trade conditions
- Decrease armaments among all nations
- Adjust colonial claims
- Evacuation of all Central Powers from Russia and allow it to define its own independence
- Belgium to be evacuated and restored
- Return of Alsace-Lorraine region and all French territories
- Readjust Italian borders
- Austria-Hungary to be provided an opportunity for self-determination
- Redraw the borders of the Balkan region creating Romania, Serbia and Montenegro
- Creation of a Turkish state with guaranteed free trade in the Dardanelles
- Creation of an independent Polish state
- Creation of the League of Nations
51
Q
General Assembly
A
- Established in 1945 under the Charter of the United Nations, the General Assembly occupies a central position as the chief deliberative, policymaking and representative organ of the United Nations.
52
Q
Genocide
A
- The deliberate and systematic destruction of a group of people because of their ethnicity, nationality, religion, or race. There was a mass genocide of the Jewish people in Germany and the territories that they took over. Nazis would send mass amounts of Jewish men, women and children to concentration camps to try and eradicate them from existence.
53
Q
Ghettos
A
- During the Holocaust, the creation of ghettos was a key step in the Nazi process of brutally separating, persecuting, and ultimately destroying Europe’s Jews. Jews were forced to move into the ghettos, where living conditions were miserable. Ghettos were often enclosed districts that isolated Jews from the non-Jewish population and from other Jewish communities.
54
Q
Group of Seven
A
- they sketched landscapes and developed different techniques to better their art. The group was greatly influenced by European Impressionism. It was in 1919 that they began to call themselves the Group of Seven because they couldn’t come up with a name, and so Harris dubbed them the “Group of Seven” and it stuck.
55
Q
Halifax Explosion
A
- On December 6, 1917 att 9:05 a.m., in the harbour of Halifax in the Canadian province of Nova Scotia, the most devastating man-made explosion in the pre-atomic age occurs when the Mont Blanc, a French munitions ship, explodes 20 minutes after colliding with another vessel. The explosion had profound and long-lasting consequences. Destroyed neighbourhoods were rebuilt to safer standards, while medical treatment, social welfare, and public health saw advances and improvements. During the First World War, Halifax was a busy port and the centre of wartime shipping for Canada.
56
Q
Hiroshima
A
- On the morning of August 6, 1945, the American B-29 bomber Enola Gay dropped an atomic bomb on the Japanese city of Hiroshima. The United States detonated two nuclear weapons over the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki on 6 and 9 August 1945, respectively. The two bombings killed between 129,000 and 226,000 people, most of whom were civilians, and remain the only use of nuclear weapons in armed conflict.
57
Q
Hobo Jungle-
A
was an encampment of unemployed, homeless people during the Great Depression (aka “Hooverville” in the United States, after US President Herbert Hoover). In Vancouver, the term specifically refers to the large homeless camp that sprung up on the edge of the City Dump in 1930, part of the large parcel of land we recognize today as Strathcona Park. Though unemployed locals were definitely a fixture, the encampment was largely populated by transient men freshly arrived in meteorologically mild Vancouver from much colder and harsher parts of Canada. (“Better to starve to death than to freeze to death!” was the reasoning refrain.) The ‘Hobo Jungle’ was destroyed in 1931 after City officials used the pretext of a possible pandemic (typhoid) to raze it to the ground and send its inhabitants off to work camps in the Interior.
58
Q
Holocaust
A
- The Holocaust was Nazi Germany’s deliberate murder of approximately six million European Jews and at least five million prisoners of war.
59
Q
Imperialism
A
- policy of extending a country’s power and influence through diplomacy or military force.
60
Q
Indian Act
A
- it is an act that is a part of a long history of assimilation policies that intended to terminate the cultural, social, economic and political distinctiveness of indigenous peoples.
61
Q
Internment
A
Japanese internment camps were established during World War II by President Franklin D. From 1942 to 1945, it was the policy of the U.S. government that people of Japanese descent, including U.S. citizens, would be incarcerated in isolated camps.
62
Q
Isolationism
A
- Isolationists believed that World War II was ultimately a dispute between foreign nations and that the United States had no good reason to get involved. The best policy, they claimed, was for the United States to build up its own defences and avoid antagonising either side.
63
Q
Kristallnacht
A
- On November 9 to November 10, 1938, in an incident known as “Kristallnacht”, Nazis in Germany torched synagogues, vandalised Jewish homes, schools and businesses and killed close to 100 Jews. In the aftermath of Kristallnacht, also called the “Night of Broken Glass,” some 30,000 Jewish men were arrested and sent to Nazi concentration camps.
64
Q
League of Nations
A
- The League of Nations was an international diplomatic group developed after World War I as a way to solve disputes between countries before they erupted into open warfare. The League effectively ceased operations during World War II.
65
Q
Lebensraum
A
- By 1939, Nazi Germany was ready for the next phase of Hitler’s racial program, which called for Lebensraum, or “living space,” for the Aryan race. The German invasion of Poland in September 1939 both set this quest for “race and space” in motion and began World War II in Europe.
