World War II Flashcards
Nonaggression pact
The agreement between stalin and hitler where they would each take half of Poland and not attack each other while doing it.
Admiral Yamamoto
Japans greatest naval strategist that called on an attack on Pearl Harbor.
Blitzkrieg
German military strategy “lightning war” that involved using fast-moving planes and tanks, followed by massive infantry forces. Goal was to take enemy defenders by surprise and quickly overwhelm them.
Holocaust
1941-1945, the genocide of the Jewish people done by Nazi germany
Atlantic Charter
Joint declaration made by Churchill and Roosevelt that upheld free trade among nations and the right of people to choose their own government. It later served as the Allies peace plan at the end of the WWII.
Kristallnact
“The night of broken glass”
When GERMANS destroyed Jewish businesses, synagogues and homes.
Reason: a Jewish boy assassinates a minor official in the german embassy in paris.
Pearl Harbor
The battle against Japan and the US that lead to the US joining the war.
Bataan Death March
U.S. surrender of the Bataan Peninsula on the main Philippine island of Luzon to the Japanese during World War II.
approximately 75,000 Filipino and American troops on Bataan were forced to make a 65-mile march to prison camps.
Battle of Midway
Battle between Japan and US where Japan targeted Midway Island that was a key location of American airfield. US won because of the of knowledge of the attack before hand (allied forces cracked the Japanese naval code).
Considered the turning point in the Pacific War
ghetto
City neighborhoods where European Jews were forced to live in terrible conditions.
Winston Churchill
British prime minister (Was in command during WWII). Said his nation would never give in
Douglas MacArthur
Commander of the Allied land forces in the Pacific.
Developed “island hoping” where he would seize islands that were not well defended but were close to Japan.
genocide
systematic killing of a race of people
Aryan
A pure german, “without Jewish decent”
Battle of Guadalcanal
Japanese were building a huge air base on Guadalcanal Island in the Soloman Islands.
Japan abandoned the “Island of Death” after loosing more than 24,000 of a force of 36,000 to the Allied powers
Charles de Gaulle
French General
Set up a government-in-exile in London and committed all his energy to reconquering France from Germany.
He organized the Free French military forces to battle the Nazis until France was liberated in 1944.
Mein Kampf
“My Struggle” written by Hitler when he was in jail on how to take over the world. Stated that Aryans were the master race and that Jews, Slavs, Gypsies were inferior.
Guernica
A famous painting by Picasso that used cubism. Showed the destruction of the Spanish city after being bombed by the Germans.
Theory of relativity
Einstein’s ideas about the interrelationships between time and space and between energy and matter.
Weimar Republic
What the german democracy was called after the german army was defeated.
Munich Conference
Meeting between Great Britain, France, Italy and Germany where Britain and France agreed to let Germany take the Sudetenland region of Czechoslovakia in belief that it would satisfy Hitlers need to take over Czech.
Sigmund Freud
Father of philosophy. Came up with Id, ego, superego.
Believed that the human behavior is irrational (irrational part of the mind is called the unconscious).
appeasement
Giving in to an aggressor in order to avoid war.
Final Solution
The mass killing of the Jews instead of just relocating them
Battle of Britain
An air-force battle between Germany and Great Britain. Hitlers plan was to knock out the Royal Air Force and to get 250,000 on the shores of England.
Existentialism
The belief that life has no meaning, and that every person creates their own meaning through choices and actions.
New Deal
FDR’s way of getting the US out of the Great Depression. Done by infusing money into the economy, and starting public works.
Nazism
The fascist policy based off of totalitarianism, of the National Socialist German Worker’s Party (aka Nazi).
Erwin Rommel
German General “Desert Fox” that fought agains Britain for control in North Africa.
Surrealism
20th century artist movement that sought to link the world of dreams with real life. Inspired by Freud’s ideas.
Paul von Hindenberg
Germany’s leading General during WWI. Then was president of Germany from 1925-1934. Appointed Hitler Chancellor in January of 1933
Pablo Picasso
Famous artist who founded cubism in 1907. Painted “Guernica”
Friedrich Nietzsche
German philosopher, who wrote that democracy, reason, and progress had suffocated peoples creativity and actions.
Urged the return of pride, assertiveness, and strength (the ancient heroic values). His beliefs had great impact on Italian and German politics in the 1920s-1930s.
Third Reich
the period in the history of Germany from 1933 to 1945, when it was a dictatorship under the control of Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party. (aka the German Empire)
Adolf Hitler
Austrian-born German politician who was the leader of the Nazi Party. He was Chancellor of Germany from 1933 to 1945 and Führer of Nazi Germany from 1934 to 1945.
fascism
political movement that promotes an extreme form of nationalism (loyalty to the state and leader), a denial of individual rights, and a dictatorial one-party rule.
Albert Einstein
A Jewish theoretic scientist born in Germany. Designed the atomic bomb
stock market
A stock exange
Francisco Franco
took over Spain after the Spanish civil war, was a fascist. ruled for at least 4 decades, he was neutral during WWII.
Great Depression
a long and severe recession in the American economy caused by the stock market crash of 1929 on Black Tuesday.
Joseph Stalin
the leader of the Soviet Union from the mid-1920s until his death in 1953. (Ruler of Russia during WWII)
coalition government
A government controlled by temporary allies of several political parties
Truman Doctrine
Truman’s support for countries that rejected communism.
The US would resist communist aggression anywhere where it occurred.
Cold War
The struggle over political differences carried on by means of short of military action.
War between US and the Soviet Union.
Was called the cold war because there was no direct fighting between the US and the Soviet Union.
beachhead
a temporary line created when a military unit reaches a landing beach by sea and begins to defend the area while other reinforcements help out until a unit large enough to begin advancing has arrived
Enemy shoreline captured just before invading forces move inland.
Brinksmanship
the practice of perusing a dangerous policy to the edge of safety and then stopping.
Example: US with atomic threats or actions.
Yalta Conference
A meeting with Churchill, Roosevelt, and Stalin where they agreed to divide Germany into zones of occupation controlled by allied military forces and decided final WWII decisions of the territorial division of Europe.
NATO
1949, Ten Western European nations joined with the US and Canada and formed a defensive military alliance in fear of Soviet Union aggression.
Called the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NOTA).
Marshall Plan
An assistance plan from the US that provided food, machinery, and other materials to help rebuild Western Europe.
Battle of Stalingrad
Began August 23, 1942. between German and the Soviets. to capture Stalingrad (a major industrial center on the Volga River). Turning point in the war for the Soviet Union.
D-Day
June 6, 1944. The invasion of British, American, French, and Canadian troops on a stretch of beach in Normandy, France.
Unconditional surrender
A surrender that has no conditions. Japan and Germany had to unconditionally surrender to the Allied Powers
internment camps
During World War II, the American government put Japanese-Americans in internment camps, fearing they might be loyal to Japan.
Internment camp: a prison camp for the confinement of enemy aliens, prisoners of war, political prisoners, etc.
Axis Powers
Germany (Hitler), Italy (Mussolini), Japan (Hirohito).
March on Rome
a march by which Italian dictator Mussolini’s National Fascist Party came to power in the Kingdom of Italy. The march took place from 22 to 29 October 1922.
Benito Mussolini
an Italian politician, journalist, and leader of the National Fascist Party, ruling the country as Prime Minister from 1922 until his ousting in 1943.
Charles Lindbergh
flew from US to Paris in 27 hours, had his baby stolen and killed, started america first, anti semitic, almost ran for president.
isolationism
when a country does not want to get involved in the affairs of the world, this is what america was before WWII
Jazz
New music style that emerged after WWI in the U.S. Was developed my mainly African American musicians in New Orleans, Memphis, and Chicago.
Salvador Dali
A Spanish artist who is famous for his use of surrealism. Famous piece: The Persistence of Memory (shows clocks melting in a desert)
Kulaks
class of wealthy peasants that the Soviet government eliminated because of their resistance to collective farms
Leon Trotsky
a Marxist revolutionary and theorist, Soviet politician, and the founder and first leader of the Red Army. Trotsky initially supported the Menshevik Internationalists faction of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party.
Nicholas II
the last Emperor of Russia
Dwight D. Eisenhower
American General who led an allied force of more than 100,000 troops to Morocco and Algeria to destroy General Erwin Rommel Afrika Korps. (May 1943).
Battle of the Bulge
Battle between Allied forces and Germany. Hitler faced war on two fronts and made a counter attack in the west were the Germans broke through weak American defenses. This gave the Battle its name. (Allied forces eventually pushed the Germans back).
Kamikaze
Japanese suicide pilots
demilitarization
a reduction in a country’s ability to wage war,
achieved by disbanding its armed forces and not letting it acquire weapons
Manhattan Project
Code name for the 1942 development of the atomic bomb in New Mexico
Battle of Iwo Jima
19 February – 26 March 1945. a major battle in which the United States Armed Forces landed and eventually captured the island of Iwo Jima from the Japanese Imperial Army
Nuremberg Trials
a series of court proceedings held in Nuremberg after WWII, in which Nazi leaders were tried for aggression, violations of the rules of war, and crimes against humanity.
Denazification
The process of removing all nazi things from public life and bringing nazi leaders to justice
democratization
the process of creating a government elected by the people
displaced persons
A person who is forced to leave their home country
iron curtain
Churchill said, this is what was now dividing eastern and western Europe and not in a good way.
containment
A policy adopted by Truman. It was directed at blocking soviet influence and stopping the expansion of communism.
Warsaw Pact
Military alliance formed by the Soviet Union because they saw NATO as a threat. Also included East Germany, Czechoslovakia, Poland, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, and Albania.
Lebensraum
German word for “Living space”
Hitler claim that Germany was over crowded and need more Lebensraum and he would do that by conquering Easter Europe and Russia.
Lebensraum
German word for “Living space”
Hitler claim that Germany was over crowded and need more Lebensraum and he would do that by conquering Easter Europe and Russia.
