World War II

Question 1

An authoritarian system of government characterized by dictatorial rule, extreme nationalism, disdain for civil society, and a conviction that imperialism and warfare are the principal means by which nations attain greatness; Nazi Germany

Answer 1

fascism

Question 2

German political party led by Adolf Hitler, who became chancellor of Germany in 1933; feared communism and democracy

Answer 2

National Socialist Party (Nazi)

Question 3

A political and military alliance formed in 1936 between German dictator Adolf Hitler and the Italian dictator Benito Mussolini.

Answer 3

Rome-Berlin Axis

Question 4

Legislation that sought to avoid entanglement in foreign wars while protecting trade. It imposed an embargo on selling arms to warring countries and declared that Americans traveling on the ships of belligerent nations did so at their own risk.

Answer 4

Neutrality Act of 1935

Question 5

A small but vocal group of Americans who pushed for greater U.S. involvement in Europe. American Communist Party members, African American civil rights activists and trade unionists encouraged Roosevelt to take a stronger stand against European fascism.

Answer 5

Popular Front

Question 6

A conference in Munich held in September 1938 during which Britain and France agreed to allow Germany to annex the Sudetenland — a German-speaking border area of Czechoslovakia — in return for Hitler’s pledge to seek no more territory.

Answer 6

Munich Conference

Question 7

A committee organized by isolationists in 1940 to oppose the entrance of the United States into World War II. The membership of the committee included senators, journalists, and publishers and such well-respected figures as the aviator Charles Lindbergh.

Answer 7

America First Committee

Question 8

Identified by President Franklin D. Roosevelt as the most basic human rights: freedom of speech, freedom of religion, freedom from want, and freedom from fear. The president used these ideas of freedom to justify support for England during World War II, which in turn pulled the United States into the war.

Answer 8

Four Freedoms

Question 9

Legislation in 1941 that enabled Britain to obtain arms from the United States without cash but with the promise to reimburse the United States when the war ended. The act reflected Roosevelt’s desire to assist the British in any way possible, short of war

Answer 9

Lend-Lease Act

Question 10

A press release by President Roosevelt and British prime minister Winston Churchill in August 1941 calling for economic cooperation, national self-determination, and guarantees of political stability after the war.

Answer 10

Atlantic Charter

Question 11

A naval base in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, that was attacked by Japanese bombers on December 7, 1941; more than 2,400 Americans were killed. The following day, President Roosevelt asked Congress for a declaration of war against Japan.

Answer 11

Pearl Harbor

Question 12

The law that gave President Roosevelt unprecedented control over all aspects of the war effort during World War II.

Answer 12

War Powers Act

Question 13

A 1942 act that expanded the number of people paying income taxes from 3.9 million to 42.6 million. These taxes on personal incomes and business profits paid half the cost of World War II.

Answer 13

Revenue Act

Question 14

Native American soldiers trained to use native languages to send messages in battle during World War II. Neither the Japanese nor the Germans could decipher the codes used by these Navajo, Comanche, Choctaw, and Cherokee speakers, and the messages they sent gave the Allies great advantage in the battle of Iwo Jima, among many others.

Answer 14

code talkers

Question 15

An order signed by President Roosevelt in 1941 that prohibited “discrimination in the employment of workers in defense industries or government because of race, creed, color, or national origin” and established the Fair Employment Practices Commission (FEPC).

Answer 15

Executive Order 8802

Question 16

Officially the Mexican Farm Labor Agreement (signed with Mexico), a federal program that brought hundreds of thousands of Mexican agricultural workers to the United States during and after World War II.

Answer 16

Bracero Program

Question 17

Oversized suits of clothing in fashion in the 1940s, particularly among young male African Americans and Mexican Americans; June 1943 riots between white sailors and Mexican youths in Los Angeles.

Answer 17

zoot suits

Question 18

An order signed by President Roosevelt in 1942 that authorized the War Department to force Japanese Americans from their West Coast homes and hold them in relocation camps for the rest of the war.

Answer 18

Executive Order 9066

Question 19

June 6, 1944, the date of the Allied invasion of northern France; was the largest amphibious assault in world history. The invasion opened a second front against the Germans and moved the Allies closer to victory in Europe.

Answer 19

D-Day

Question 20

Germany’s campaign during World War II to exterminate all Jews living in German-controlled lands, along with other groups the Nazis deemed “undesirable.” In all, some 11 million people were killed, most being Jewish.

Answer 20

Holocaust

Question 21

Top-secret project authorized by Franklin Roosevelt in 1942 to develop an atomic bomb ahead of the Germans. The Americans who worked on the project at Los Alamos, New Mexico (among other highly secretive sites around the country), succeeded in producing a successful atomic bomb by July 1945

Answer 21

Manhattan Project