Key Terms - Germany, Russia, Italy, Japan Flashcards
Anschluss
The event in 1938 which incorporated the entirety of Austria into Nazi Germany.
Anti-Semitism
Discrimination and prejudice against Jewish people.
Aryan
The race that the Nazis saw as superior, generally consisting of those with northern European appearance.
Autarky
The concept of economic self-sufficiency.
der Führer
Literally ‘the leader’, used as Hitler’s main title and more broadly encapsulates the idea of an absolute leader with total power
Führerprinzip
Literally ‘the leader’s principle’, part of Nazi propaganda which established Hitler’s total authority.
Final Solution
Term given to the Holocaust: the systematic extermination of Jews.
Gestapo
The Nazi secret police force, formed by Hermann Göring in 1933.
Gleichschaltung
The name given to the process of ‘Nazify-ing’ Germany in all areas of life.
Holocaust
The systematic elimination of six million Jews and other minorities (including gypsies, homosexuals and people of colour).
Kristallnacht
Literally ‘Night of the Broken Glass’, refers to an event on 9-10th November 1937 where Jewish businesses and synagogues were pillaged, with government support for the violence.
Lebensraum
Literally ‘living space’, refers to the need for Nazi Germany to expand its territory.
Luftwaffe
The Nazi Air Force.
Mein Kampf
Hitler’s book, written in prison after the failed Beer Hall Putsch of 1923, which set out his radical political and racial ideology.
Reich
Literally ‘Empire’, used to refer to the Nazi government broadly, as they self-referred to the regime as the ‘Third Reich’.
Reichstag
The German Parliament, also sometimes used to refer to the building which housed the Parliament, which famously burned down in 1933.
SA
Also known as the brownshirts, this was the private Nazi army used in the early years of the regime as a tool of public intimidation. Famously led by Ernst Röhm, who was executed during the 1934 Night of the Long Knives.
SD
The Nazi interior police force, responsible for intelligence services. Formed by Heinrich Himmler.
Social Darwinism
Disproved racial evolutionary theory which argued that the Aryan race was the most evolved.
SS
Short for the Schutzstaffel, Hitler’s personal guard which developed into the Nazi police force.
Volksgemeinschaft
Literally ‘people’s community’, used for the ideal concept of the racially pure German population united against enemy races and political groups, such as communists.
Wehrmacht
The name given to the German Army during WWII.
Weimar Republic
The government which preceded the Nazis. They held power from 1918-1933, between the fall of the Imperial government and the start of the Nazi regime.
Bolsheviks
The Bolshevik Party was the socialist party run by Vladimir Lenin that overthrew the Tsarist government in the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917. They became the Soviets.
Mensheviks
A competing communist party to the Bolsheviks (who lost a civil war to them right after WWI).
Russo-Japanese War
Fought in 1905 between Russian and Japan over interests in Manchuria and Korea, Japan won causing revolutionary upheaval in Russia.
Soviet
A ‘soviet’ is a small communist council, and the union of these councils formed the Soviet Union. Later on, ‘the Soviets’ became the common name used for the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU).
Abyssinia
A North African region in modern-day Ethiopia which Mussolini invaded in 1935 as part of Fascist Italian Imperialism.
Blackshirts
Mussolini’s domestic paramilitary group, consisting of armed squads whose uniform consisted of black shirts.
Corporate State
Mussolini’s class-based system of government, where all members of society were organised into “corporations” subordinate to the state.
Il Duce
Literally ‘the leader’, a term used to refer to Mussolini.
Rome-Berlin-Tokyo Axis
Sometimes just referred to as ‘the Axis’, refers to the group of nations (Italy, Germany, Japan) who opposed the Allied forces in WWII.
Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere
A sphere of influence in East Asia, designed to support Japanese expansionism in the region against the presence of European control.
Japanese militarism
The idea in Japanese nationalism that a society must maintain strong armed forces, and that the military should be at the centre of the political and social arenas.
Manchuria
A large geographical region North of China and South of Russia which Japan invaded in 1931.
The Second Sino-Japanese War
Fought between Japan and China from 1937—1945 in response to increasing Japanese imperial aggression. The USA intervened to help China, leading to the famous bombing of Pearl Harbour.
