World War 2 Flashcards
Terms of Treaty of Versailles
War guilt clause- germany accepted blame for starting ww1
Reparations- Germany had to pay £6,600 million for damage cause by war
Disarmament- Germany only allowed small army (100,000 men) and six naval ships. No tanks, Air Force or submarines. The Rhineland was demilitarized.
Conscription banned-soldiers had to be volunteers
Territorial clauses- land taken away from Germany and given to other countries. Anschluss was forbidden (union with Austria)
What is the treaty of Versailles?
Treaty that established the punishments for Germany after ww1.
Made in 1919.
Land that Germany lost after ww1
Alcace-Lorraine- France
West Prussia & Posen-Poland
Upper Silesia-Poland
North Schleswig-Denmark
What is the Munich pact
Agreement between Britain, Italy. France and Germany to bring “peace w/ honor”.
Gave Sudetenland to Germany, as long as Germany would leave Czechoslovakia alone.
Appeasement
Policy of avoiding further arguments or war by accepting the conditions or demand of an aggressor
When did hitler come into power?
1933
What were hitlers 2 important alliances made in 1936?
Rome-Berlin axis pact w/ mussolini’s Italy
Anti-Comintern pact w/ japan
What was the League of Nations?
International organization set up in 1919 to help keep world peace. If there was disputes between countries they would be resolved by negotiation than by force.
Why did the League of Nations fail?
- not all countries joined the league
- the league had no power
- the league had no army
- unable to act quickly
Ultranationalism
Extreme nationalism that promotes the interest of one state or people above all others
Us vs. them mentality
Ex) conscription
Robert Borden
Prime minister if Canada during ww2.
Said it was Canada’s duty to fight for Britain.
Enemy aliens
People of German, Austrian, Turkish, Hungarian, and Ukrainian descent. Te unemployed were sent to internment camps across Canada.
“Zombies”
Canadian slang term that referred to an army conscript to home defense in ww2.
Te soldiers that did not want to go to war
Volk community
- Created by nazis
- citizenship was characterized by blood, bit by geographical borders
- members were thought to be part of a superior aryan race
Kristallnacht
“Night of broken glass” Nazis burned down Jewish businesses, homes and physically assaulted Jews.
Hundreds of Jews were injured, 96 killed and 30,000 were arrested an sent to concentration camp
Anschluss
Union between Germany an Austria that was forbidden after ww1
Irredentism
Italian ultranationalism
Italy sought to unite all those if Italian ethnicity within a natural border.
Luftwaffe
Germany’s Air Force
Wehrmacht
Germany’s army
Lebensraum
“Living space”
Let Germans conquer neighboring nations to the east
Expansion
Pacifism
Desire to avoid war
Maginot line
Defense line made by the French along the France-Germany border made of bulwark of trenches, tank traps, and gun emplacements
Connected by a system of rail lines
Thought to be unbreakable and withstand attack
Winston Churchill
Former British prime minister during ww2
“We shall never surrender”
Rhineland
Land that bordered France and Germany
Re militarization
Assembling and putting Into readiness for war
Mobilization of troops
Germany demilitarized the Rhineland Whig violation the treaty of Versailles
Sudetenland
Land in Czech that bordered germany. Hitler demanded this land be given to them
Non-aggression pact
Deal bwtn Stalin and hitler
Represent partnership bwtn two opposite political/economic ideologies (facist, communist)
Gave hitler guarantee that the spite union would not oppose him
Stalin
Soviet leader during ww2
Killer 30-40 million of his own civilians
Goebbels
German propaganda minister in nazi germany
Timeline of events of nazi germany
March- 1936- Germany mobilizes the Rhineland. Britain and France do nothing
March 1938- Germany makes union with Austria
Sept 1938- hitler puts pressure on Czech. Britain, France and Germany make Munich pact giving Germany Sudetenland as long as Germany leaves rest of Czech alone.
Aug 1938- hitler takes over rest of Czech ignoring Munich
Sept 1st 1939- Germany invades Poland
Sept 3rd 1939- Britain an France declare war on Germany
April 1940- German troops invade Denmark an Norway
May 1940- Germany invades Netherlands and France. German blitzkrieg (lightening war) is success. France taken over in 6 weeks.
Genocide
An act committed w/ the intent to destroy, in a whole or part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group.
Ex) nazis killed apprx. 6 million jews
Ethnic cleansing
Raphael Lemkin
Polish Jew that created term genocide in 1944, when trying to find a word that described the inhumanity of the nazis towards his people
Holocaust
Mass murder, elimination or genocide of apprx. 6 million Jews during ww2 by nazi Germany party.
Germany’s “final solution” to dispose Jewish pop. And transporting them to extermination camps
Axis of evil
George w. Bush described Iraq, Iran, and North Korea as “axis of evil”. He accused these countries of building weapons if mass destructions and pursuing acts of terrorism.
Nazi party
(NSDAP)
Refers to policies of NSDAP, under Adolf Hitler from 1933-1945.
Supported beliefs of Nazism “blood & soil”
-rejection of democracy
-need for racial purity
-need for living space
Enabling act 1933
Gave hitler power to laws without asking reichstag
Aryan
Defines people who speak indo-European languages
Associated with race, and identifies speakers of superior physiques and intelligence
Untermenschen
Refers to Jews by Germans (sub-humans)
In school German children were indoctrinated to believe this
Ubermenschen
Refers to Aryan race (superior)
Children also indoctrinated to believe this
Scapegoat
Group of people singled out for negative treatment or blame
Ex) nazi germany used the Jews as a scapegoat for the weak German economy and misery of its people
Anti-semitism
Term used for Jews people that differs them from Aryan race and can never be combine w/ them.
Refers to racial characteristics of Jews ex) greedy, aptitude for money making, lack of patriotism
Fascism
Political view adopted by Germany during ww2 to pursue ultranationalism
Citizens duty to serve county
“Hail hitler”
Nuremberg laws
- maintaining pure Aryan race, defined limit of citizenship in reich, Jews no longer citizens
- exclusion of Jews from education, business ownership, and intermarriage w/ true Germans
- in school children indoctrinated to believe Jews were (sub-humans) and that the aryan race was superior.
Final solution
- genocide started in 1941 to gather all Jewish people and dispose the pop. By transporting them to extermination camps
- 6 mill Jews and million of undesirables ex) soviets, Slavic, homosexuals, disabled people were exterminated.
Holodomor
“Death by hunger”
Ukrainian words holod “famine” and moryty “kill or torture”
Russian untranationalism led to extreme acts of this from 1932-1933
Collectivism
Russia took all food and produce from the ukraines
Russification
Stalin’s goal to unite the Soviet Union, made up of 100’s if nations living within 15 republics if the Soviet Union, under a common culture
Kulaks
Ukrainian landowning farmers
They opposed stalin’s collectivization and acted in resistance
In response, Stalin condemned most of them to death or exiled them to forced labour in Siberia
Nazi’s national interests
- establishing Germany as a powerful nation and empire, the third reich
- providing new space for growth if German pop. Through lebensraum & German expansion
- unifying all German people
- dealing with so-called Jewish problem
- rebuilding country’s military power
