Causes and Course of WWII

Invasion of Ethiopia

A brutal war of aggression carried on by Mussolini from October 1935 to May 1936

Rome-Berlin Axis

A treaty of friendship in 1936 between Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy that formalized their alliance

Concentration camps

Camps where Nazis imprisoned, exploited, and murdered people (political enemies, Jews, etc.)

Kristallnacht

Anschluss

The taking over of Austria by Nazi Germany in 1938

Appeasement

A diplomatic policy of making political, material, or territorial concessions to an aggressive power to avoid conflict and maintain peace

Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact

Non-aggression treaty between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union (1939), just before WWII. It assured neutrality but contained secret protocols to divide Eastern Europe - specifically Poland.

Blitzkrieg

Battle of Britain

A crucial air battle during WWII (1940) where the British Royal Air Force (RAF) resisted the German Luftwaffe attacks, It was the first major battle fought entirely in the air, resulting in a victory for Britain that forced Hitler to postpone his planned invasion.

Operation Barbarossa

The codename for Nazi Germany’s massive surprise invasion of the Soviet Union (1941)

Pearl Harbor

Japan launched a surprise military attack on the US naval base (1941), bringing the USA into WWII

Holocaust

Systematic, bureaucratic, state-sponsored persecution and murder of six million Jewish people by the Nazi regime

Potsdam Conference

A meeting in 1945 of the "Big Three" leaders Joseph Stalin, Harry S. Truman, and Winston Churchill. There they finalized plans for dividing post-war Germany, implementing reparations, and issuing the Potsdam Declaration demanding Japan's unconditional surrender.