ww2 terms Flashcards
Treaty of Versailles Definition
The peace treaty signed on June 28, 1919, at the Palace of Versailles in France between Germany and the Allied Powers (primarily Britain, France, and the United States) that officially ended World War I. Germany was forced to accept responsibility for the war, pay massive reparations, surrender territories, and severely limit its military.
Treaty of Versailles Signficance
The harsh terms created deep economic problems and national resentment in Germany, directly contributing to the rise of extremist political movements, including the Nazi Party. Hitler exploited German anger at the treaty to gain power and justify remilitarization, making the treaty a critical factor in the causes of World War II.
Fascism Definition
An authoritarian ultranationalist political ideology that emerged in Italy under Benito Mussolini in the 1920s and later in Germany under Adolf Hitler in the 1930s. It glorified the state over individual rights, embraced militarism, opposed democracy and liberalism, and typically centered around a cult of personality with a dictatorial leader.
Fascism Significance
Fascism’s rise transformed interwar Europe by rejecting democratic governance in favor of totalitarian states focused on militaristic expansion. This ideology fueled aggressive foreign policies, extreme nationalism, and in Nazi Germany’s case, genocidal racism, directly leading to World War II and fundamentally challenging the post-WWI international order(league of nations)
appeasement definition
A diplomatic policy pursued primarily by Britain under Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain and France from 1937-1939, which sought to avoid war by making concessions to Nazi Germany, most notably at the Munich Conference in September 1938 where Czechoslovakia’s Sudetenland was surrendered to Hitler.
appeasement significance
This policy failed catastrophically as Hitler viewed concessions as weakness and continued his expansionism, invading Poland in September 1939. Appeasement has become a powerful historical lesson that influenced Cold War policies, with the term becoming synonymous with dangerous accommodation of aggressive powers rather than confronting them early.
Nanjing Massacre/Rape of Nanjing
Definition:
A six-week period of mass killings, rape, and looting committed by Japanese Imperial Army troops against civilians and unarmed soldiers in Nanjing, China between December 1937 and
January 1938, following the Japanese capture of the city during the Second Sino-Japanese War. Between 40,000 and 300,000 civilians and disarmed soldiers were killed.
Nanjing Massacre/Rape of Nanjing Significance
The event became a symbol of Japanese wartime atrocities in Asia, creating lasting tension in Sino-Japanese relations. It highlighted the brutality of Japan’s imperial expansion and later became important evidence during the Tokyo War Crimes Trials, informing postwar international humanitarian law related to the treatment of civilians during conflict.
Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact
Definition:
A non-aggression treaty signed between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union on August 23, 1939, in Moscow by foreign ministers Joachim von Ribbentrop and Vyacheslav Molotov. It included secret protocols dividing Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Finland, and Romania into German and Soviet spheres of influence.
Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact
Significance:
This shocking alliance between ideological enemies removed Hitler’s fear of a two-front war, enabling Germany’s invasion of Poland on September 1, 1939, which triggered World War II. It allowed the Soviet annexation of the Baltic states and eastern Poland, redrawing Eastern Europe’s map. Though Hitler violated the pact by invading the USSR in 1941, its territorial changes significantly influenced post-war boundaries.
Blitzkrieg
Definition
: A military strategy developed by German generals in the 1930s and employed from 1939 to 1941 in Poland, Western Europe, and initially in the Soviet Union. It involved coordinated attacks using fast-moving armor,(movable armor) motorized infantry,(troops don’t walk) and air support to penetrate defensive lines and rapidly encircle enemy forces.
Blitzkrieg Significance
This “lightning war” tactic revolutionized modern warfare, enabling Germany to conquer much of Europe with unprecedented speed and minimal German casualties. It forced Allied armies to develop new defensive tactics and mobile warfare capabilities, ultimately influencing military belifs worldwide and demonstrating the decisive importance of coordinated air-ground operations.
Battle of Britain
Definition:
An air campaign waged by Nazi Germany’s Luftwaffe against the United Kingdom between July and October 1940, focusing on destroying the Royal Air Force (RAF) and bombing British cities to force Britain to negotiate peace or prepare for invasion after the fall of France.
Battle of Britain Significance
Britain’s successful defense represented Hitler’s first major defeat, ensuring British survival as an Allied power base and preventing German domination of Western Europe. It demonstrated the importance of radar and air defense systems, while the subsequent Blitz against civilian targets failed to break British morale, keeping resistance alive in Europe and allowing Britain to later serve as a launching point for the liberation of Western Europe.
Operation Torch
Definition:
The November 8-16, 1942, Anglo-American invasion of Vichy French North Africa (Morocco, Algeria, and Tunisia) led by General Dwight D. Eisenhower, involving over 100,000 troops landing at Casablanca, Oran, and Algiers.
Operation Torch Significance
This operation marked America’s first major ground offensive against Axis forces in the European theater, opening a second front against Germany in Africa. It relieved pressure on the Soviet Union, secured the Mediterranean for Allied shipping, and provided a staging ground for the invasion of Sicily and Italy. It also represented a crucial step in Allied cooperation and command structure development that would later be critical for the Normandy invasion.
Operation Barbarossa (Eastern Front)
Definition:
The massive German invasion of the Soviet Union launched on June 22, 1941, involving approximately 3 million Axis troops along a 1,800-mile front stretching from the Baltic to the Black Sea. This military operation, codenamed “Barbarossa” after the medieval Holy Roman Emperor, represented the largest invasion force in history.
Operation Barbarossa (Eastern Front) Significance
This campaign became the deadliest theater of World War II, with over 25 million Soviet casualties. Despite initial German successes, the Soviet Union’s resistance, harsh winter, and vast resources ultimately led to Germany’s defeat. The Eastern Front tied down the majority of German forces, enabling Allied success elsewhere and was decisive in determining the outcome of the European war. It also set the stage for Soviet domination of Eastern Europe after the war, shaping Cold War geopolitics.
Pearl Harbor
Definition:
A surprise military strike by the Imperial Japanese Navy against the U.S. naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on December 7, 1941. The attack damaged or destroyed 19 U.S. ships (including 8 battleships), destroyed 188 aircraft, and killed 2,403 Americans.
Pearl Harbor Significance
This attack immediately brought the United States into World War II, transforming what had been a primarily European and Asian conflict into a truly global war. It unified American public opinion behind the war effort, ending U.S. isolationism. Japan’s tactical victory proved a strategic catastrophe, as it underestimated America’s industrial capacity and resolve, ultimately leading to Japan’s defeat and the war’s conclusion with the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
Holocaust
Definition:
The systematic persecution and genocide of approximately six million European Jews and millions of others (including Roma, disabled people, Soviet POWs, Polish civilians, homosexuals, and political opponents) by Nazi Germany and its collaborators between 1941-1945, involving concentration camps, mass shootings, and death camps across German-occupied Europe.
Holocaust Significance
This genocide represents one of history’s greatest crimes against humanity and led directly to the development of the concept of “genocide” in international law. The Holocaust profoundly influenced postwar Jewish identity and was a key factor in the establishment of Israel in 1948. It transformed international human rights frameworks, including the 1948 UN Genocide Convention, and continues to shape discussions about state violence, prejudice, and responsibility, while establishing “never again” as a moral imperative in international affairs.
Second Front
Definition:
The long-awaited Allied invasion of Nazi-occupied Western Europe, primarily referring to the D-Day landings (Operation Overlord) on June 6, 1944, after years of Soviet requests for the Western Allies to relieve pressure on the Eastern Front.
Second Front Significance
Opening this second major front in Europe divided German forces, accelerating Nazi Germany’s defeat. The delay in establishing this front (originally promised for 1942) created tension between the Soviet Union and Western Allies, contributing to postwar suspicions. When finally launched, it demonstrated unprecedented Allied cooperation and logistics, while ensuring Western Allied influence in postwar Western Europe, preventing Soviet dominance of the entire continent and shaping Cold War boundaries.
