AP European History Unit 8 Illustrative Examples

20th-Century Global Conflicts

Irish Easter Rebellion (1916)

An armed insurrection by Irish nationalists in Dublin seeking to end British rule and establish an independent Irish Republic.

Russian Revolution (1917)

A pair of violent revolutions that dismantled the Romanov autocracy, ending centuries of imperial rule, and paved the way for the creation of the Soviet Union. Triggered by World War I, food shortages, and corruption, it saw the Bolsheviks, led by Vladimir Lenin, seize power and establish a communist state.

Armenian Genocide (1915-1917)

The systematic destruction of the Armenian population in the Ottoman Empire during World War I. Armenians were killed through forced death marches to the Syrian desert, massacres, and starvation.

Arab revolt against the Turks (1916-1918)

An armed uprising by Arab nationalists, led by Sharif Hussein bin Ali of Mecca, against the Ottoman Empire during World War I.

Mandate System

A post-WWI arrangement where victors (mainly Britain and France) administered former German and Ottoman territories. It aimed to prepare these regions for self-governance while serving as a compromise between outright annexation and the principle of self-determination. Examples of some of these regions include Iraq and Palestine.

Ottoman Empire

Collapsed in 1923 as a result of WWI, leading to the creation of modern day Turkey. The Turkish National Movement won the War of Independence (1919–1922), abolishing the Ottoman Sultanate and establishing a secular nation-state in Anatolia.

Austro-HungarianEmpire

Dissolved in 1918 after the rapid political, military, and social collapse of the Dual Monarchy. Driven by military defeat in World War I, intense nationalism, and economic collapse, ethnic groups declared independence, creating new states like Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia.

Petrograd Soviet

A powerful council of workers' and soldiers' deputies formed in Petrograd in March 1917 during the February Revolution.

Keynesianism

Economic theory developed by John Maynard Keynes in the 1930s arguing that active government intervention is necessary to manage demand-side crises, such as depressions and recessions.

Popular Front Government (France)

This was led by Léon Blum, and enacted significant labor reforms including the 40-hour workweek, 12 days of paid vacation, and collective bargaining rights. These policies followed major strikes, aimed to improve workers' lives and fight fascism.

National government in Britain

Coalition administration formed in August 1931 during a severe economic crisis - it aimed at balancing the budget.

Joseph Goebbels

Leader of the Nazi propaganda machine, exercising total control over German media, arts, and information to promote fascism, create a cult of personality around Hitler, and systematically demonize Jews and political opponents.

Leni Riefenstahl

German Film director who directed major propaganda films for the Nazi Party like Triumph of the Will.

Poland, Hungary and Romania

These three states had authoritarian dictatorships during the interwar period.

Collectivization

A violent policy enacted by Joseph Stalin in the late 1920s and 1930s to transform Soviet agriculture, forcing peasants to merge individual farms into large, state-controlled collective farms.

Five Year Plans

Centralized, government-mandated economic blueprints setting specific targets for industrial growth, infrastructure, and societal progress over a five-year period. These plans originated in the Soviet Union in 1928 but were most notably used by China to transform its economy.

Gulags

A system of Soviet forced-labor camps, active primarily from the 1920s to the 1950s, used to imprison millions of political opponents, ordinary criminals, and innocent citizens.

Remilitarizationof the Rhineland

The term for when Nazi Germany violated the Treaty of Versailles and the Locarno Pact by marching 22,000 soldiers into the Rhineland, a demilitarized zone near the French and Belgian borders.

Annexation of Austria (1938)

Known as the Anschluss, this was the incorporation of Austria into Nazi Germany.

Munich Agreement

A 1938 pact allowing Nazi Germany to annex Czechoslovakia's borderland, the Sudetenland. Violated in 1939 when Hitler annexed the remainder of Czechoslovakia.

Nazi-Soviet non-aggression pact

A 10-year, August 23, 1939, agreement where Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union pledged not to attack each other and to remain neutral if the other was attacked.

Polish campaign of 1939

The joint invasion of Poland by Nazi Germany (1 Sept) and the Soviet Union (17 Sept), marking the start of World War II.

Operation Barbarossa (1941)

Nazi Germany's massive, surprise invasion of the Soviet Union. It was a failed attempt to destroy the Soviet Union and eradicate Communism.

Nuremburg Laws (1935)

Antisemitic and racist laws that institutionalised Nazi racial ideology. Stripped German Jews of citizenship.

Wannsee Conference

Meeting of Nazi German officials where the “final solution” to the Jewish Question was answered with the holocaust.

Auschwitz

The largest and most brutal death camp used by Nazi Germany during the holocaust.

Albert Einstein

German-born theoretical physicist who developed the theory of relativity and revolutionized physics.

Werner Heisenburg

German theoretical physicist and a principal founder of quantum mechanics, contributed to nuclear physics and led the German nuclear fission program.