Unit 8-9 Summary -- Flashcards

Lebensraum

Lebensraum

The idea, especially purveyed by Hitler, that superior races needed to expand into larger territories.

Anglo-German Naval Pact

A pact between Great Britain and Germany to not escalate naval tensions between each other.

Appeasement

Policy used by the West prior to WWII to make Nazi Germany content to avoid war, especially concerning the Soviet’s status in Europe.

Blitzkrieg

Warfare used by Nazi Germany early in WWII that involved quick warfare of air strikes combined with artillery, leading to early Axis victories.

Annexation of Austria

Hitler’s first move to expand Nazi Germany under Lebensraum.

Munich Conference

Conference between Nazi Germany and the West on the annexation of Sutenland in Czechoslovakia, leading to further appeasement of Nazi Germany. The “peace maker” coined by Chamberlain.

Invasion of Poland

Immediate cause of WWII, when Nazi Germany attempted with allied USSR to claim Poland.

Seizure of Manchuria

Immediate cause of the Eastern front, when Japan seized Chinese Manchuria and began a war of Japanese aggression in East Asia.

Luftwaffe

Air strikes by Nazi Germany on Great Britain that first destroyed British defenses, before civilian targeting leading to firm British resistance.

Pearl Harbor

Japanese aggression on the U.S. seeing the beginning of American intervention in the war

Stalingrad

Turning point of the Western front when Soviet forces successfully destroyed Nazi German forces and badly detrimented the size of their army.

Battle of Midway

Turning point of the Eastern front when American forces successfully pushed back Japanese forces in the Pacific

D-Day

The invasion of France via Normandy that ultimately led to the beginnings of German surrender.

Nazi New Order

The establishment of an Aryan racial state under Hitler.

Einsatzgruppen

Mobile SS forces led by Himmler that carried out the Final Solution on foot, leading to mass casualties of Jews, Roma, and ethnic minorities.

Dig for Victory

British mobilization for citizens to grow their own food to help the war effort.

Night Witches

Women fighter pilots in Stalingrad that contributed to the total mobilization of the USSR

Tehran

First of the settlement conferences; decided that USSR forces would be met by Fr. and GB. despite fears of Soviet liberation and control of Eastern Europe.

Yalta

Second of the settlement conferences; saw the Declaration of Liberated Europe principle ensuring democratic Europe.

Potsdam

Final settlement conflict; saw the final escalation of Cold War tensions with USSR demands for Soviet buffer states in Eastern Europe as America stood firm against it.

Iron Curtain

Term coined by Churchill to describe the Eastern Europe Soviet buffer side of Europe versus the capitalist Western side.

Truman Doctrine

Stated that the U.S. would economically support any nation that was threatened by communism

Marshall Plan

Economic plan by America that funded the economic recovery of multiple Western nations; it was seen as an encroachment of capitalism in Europe by the Soviets

Containment

Tactic used by America during the Cold War that prioritized stopping the spread of Soviet communism

Berlin Air Lift

First major action in the Berlin divide; showed the West’s reluctance to enter war by peacefully delivering goods to blockaded Germans

NATO

Western military alliance that ensured mutual aid against aggressor countries.

COMECON

Communist economic pact that was a response to NATO.

Warsaw Pact

Communist military alliance as a response to NATO.

Korean War

The first major “hot war”, saw the clash of northern communism vs. southern democracy and ultimately ended in stalemate.

1st and 2nd Vietnam Wars

Similar to Korean war in divisions; cost and brutality of the war lead to American withdrawal and fall to northern Vietminh communist forces.

Cuban Missile Crisis

Closest Cold War nuclear conflict in Cuba from Soviets stationing missiles in Cuba; led to the deescalation of war called the Détente

Apartheid

Laws that forced segregation in South Africa; showed that independence often resurfaced ethnic and social tensions

Pan-Arabism

Movement by Nasser to unite Arabic countries as a state; failed due to tensions of Muslim and Jewish populations with the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict.

Great Leap Forward

Mao Zedong’s attempt to induce a communist state in China, failed miserably in famine and backlash.

De-Stalinization

Policy under Khrushchev that tried to limit the tyrannical repression in the USSR; was pushed back due to rebellions in satellite states

Stalinization

Policy under many Soviet satellite states, especially Tito’s Yugoslavia, where miniature 5 Year Plans were enacted with collectivization, mass militarization, and centralization.

Hungarian Revolt of 1956

Anti-Communist reforms in Hungary incited fear from Soviet powers, leading to an overhaul of the Hungarian government by the Red Army

Welfare State

States that arose post-Marshall Plan with Keynesian high social welfare benefits such as pensions, cradle-to-grave support, and healthcare.

EEC/The Common Market

Economic free-market union in Europe that hoped to spur political movements for a more unified Europe.

de Beauvoir

Second-wave feminist who emphasized the struggle against social and economic inequality in women’s lives; founded the Women’s Liberation Movement

Existentialism

Philosophy of the lack of God and destiny in life leading to a need to be authentic and active in daily life.

Student Revolt in France 1968

French student revolt mostly against the ideas of decadence, capitalism, and traditional middle-class consumerism

Détent

Time of relaxed tensions during the Cold War from lessened authoritarian regime in the USSR under Breshnev

Breshnev Doctrine

Principle of intervention in Soviet satellite states to prevent radical democratic reform; seen with the Prague Spring overhaul

Thatcherism

Conservative policies, known especially by Thatcher and Reagan’s use, to handle economic turmoil by decreasing taxes, welfare, union power, and social security. This led to some recovery but ultimately received backlash from worsened education and social services.

Domino Effect

Principle during the 2nd Vietnam War to justify Western intervention, proposed that if one Asian country fell to communism the rest would also; ultimately failed as China became the only giant communist state.

“Star Wars”

Policy under Reagan that saw a brief heating of Cold War tensions because of his plan to build a missile shield in the American space range against the Soviets.

Green Parties

Parties that campaigned for legislation to protect the environment especially after chemical research and the openness of Chernobyl.

Postmodernism

A diverse and globalized artistic movement that saw experimentation, building on traditional structures, and social and political concerns.

Perestroika

“Restructuring”; Gorbachev’s attempt to make the USSR have more free-market policies, ultimately helped lead to the fall of the USSR.

Glasnost

“Openness”; Gorbachev’s policy that reintroduced individual freedoms to the USSR such as lessened censors and opposition to the Communist party. Ultimately led to the fall of the USSR by a lack of intervention in the satellite states’ 1989 Revolutions.