History End of Year Revision Taxonomy 2025

Flashcards for Year 9 End of Year Exam Revision focusing on key vocabulary from the topics: The First World War, Nazi Germany, The Causes of the Second World War, The Second World War, and Twentieth Century China.

Great Powers (early 20th Century)

Great Britain, France, Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Russia

Balance of Power (1871)

The unification of Germany disrupted the balance of power that existed since Napoleon's defeat in 1815.

Dual Alliance (1879)

Alliance between Germany and Austria-Hungary

Triple Alliance (1882)

Alliance between Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Italy

Franco-Russian Alliance (1892)

Alliance between France and Russia

Entente Cordiale (1904)

Alliance between Britain and France

Triple Entente (1907)

Alliance between Britain, France, and Russia

Schlieffen Plan

German military strategy to attack France through the Low Countries, then focus on Russia.

Trench Warfare

Type of warfare characterized by unsanitary conditions, disease, and attacks across No Man's Land.

No Man's Land

The area between opposing armies' trenches during World War I.

Armistice (1918)

Agreement that stopped the fighting on November 11, 1918.

Treaty of Versailles (1919)

Treaty that officially ended World War I, signed on June 28, 1919.

Weimar Republic

The German government from 1918-1933, established after Kaiser Willhelm II abdicated.

Spartacist Uprising (1919)

Communist attempt to overthrow the Weimar government.

Kapp Putsch (1920)

Nationalist attempt to seize Berlin led by Wolfgang Kapp.

Munich Putsch

Failed Nazi rebellion in November 1923 led by Adolf Hitler.

Mein Kampf

Book written by Adolf Hitler while in prison, outlining his political beliefs.

Reichstag

The German Parliament that the Nazi party gained the majority in following the July 1932 election.

Enabling Act (1933)

Act that took power away from the Reichstag and gave it to Hitler and his government.

Fuhrer

Title taken by Hitler when he merged the offices of president and chancellor.

Joseph Goebbels

Nazi propaganda minister.

Gestapo

Nazi secret police.

Lebensraum

living space for Germans.

League of Nations

International organization established to solve disputes through discussion rather than conflict.

Manchukuo

Name given to Manchuria after the Japanese conquest, with Puyi as puppet head of state.

Appeasement

The policy of granting concessions to a potential enemy in order to avoid conflict.

Nazi-Soviet Pact

Non-aggression agreement between Germany and the Soviet Union.

Phoney War

Period of war preparations with very little fighting.

Blitzkrieg

Meaning 'lightning war', it's a German tactic of rapid attack using tanks and planes.

Operation Dynamo

British operation to evacuate soldiers from Dunkerque.

Operation Sealion

Planned German invasion of Britain.

Luftwaffe

The German Air Force during WWII.

The Blitz

German bombing of British cities to destroy morale.

Operation Barbarossa

German invasion of the Soviet Union.

D-Day Landings

Amphibious invasion of Normandy on June 6, 1944.

Guomindang (GMD)

The Nationalist party in China.

Chinese Communist Party (CCP)

The Communist party in China.

Chiang Kai-Shek

Leader of the GMD who betrayed and tried to exterminate the CCP.

Long March

The CCP's strategic retreat from GMD territory in 1934.

Mao Zedong

Leader of the CCP.

People’s Republic of China

Name declared by Mao for the new China on 1st October 1949, after defeating the GMD.

Hundred Flowers Campaign

Mao's campaign inviting criticism of the CCP, which was later followed by arrests.

Great Leap Forward

Mao's plan to industrialize the countryside, leading to widespread famine.

The result of the Great Leap Forward

Many of the new dams and reservoirs collapsed. Food production dropped and 30-40 million starved as a result.

Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution

Mao's campaign to eliminate the Four Olds.

Spark that Ignited WWI

Archduke Franz Ferdinand's assassination in Sarajevo by Gavrilo Princip, a Serbian nationalist, on June 28, 1914.

Central Powers

Germany, Austria-Hungary, Ottoman Empire, and Bulgaria.

Allied Powers

Britain, France, Russia (until 1917), Italy (from 1915), and the United States (from 1917).

Naval battle fought on May 31 - June 1, 1916, between Britain's Royal Navy and the German Imperial Navy; the only major naval surface engagement of WWI.

Battle of Jutland

The sinking of this ship on May 7, 1915, by a German U-boat, killing 1,198 passengers including 128 Americans, contributed to rising anti-German sentiment in the US.

Lusitania

Proposed alliance between Germany and Mexico if the United States entered World War I against Germany.

Zimmerman Telegram

President of the United States during World War I.

Woodrow Wilson

Wilson's proposal for a just and lasting peace after World War I, including the establishment of the League of Nations.

Fourteen Points

The 'Big Four' at the Paris Peace Conference, who played a dominant role in shaping the Treaty of Versailles.

David Lloyd George, Georges Clemenceau, Woodrow Wilson, Vittorio Orlando

A clause in the Treaty of Versailles that forced Germany to accept full responsibility for causing World War I.

War Guilt Clause (Article 231)

Territory taken from Germany after WWI and given to France.

Alsace-Lorraine

The Polish Corridor

Territory taken from Germany after WWI that created a path to the sea for Poland.

Beer Hall Putsch (another name for Munich Putsch)

The failed overthrow of the Weimar Republic, leading to Hitler's imprisonment.

Nuremberg Laws

Laws passed in September 1935 that institutionalized racial discrimination against Jews in Germany.

Night of the Broken Glass

Kristallnacht

Sudetenland

Territory in Czechoslovakia that was annexed by Germany in 1938.

Meeting in September 1938 where Britain and France appeased Hitler by allowing Germany to annex the Sudetenland.

Munich Agreement

Prime Minister of Great Britain during the appeasement period.

Neville Chamberlain

German invasion of Poland, marking the start of World War II.

September 1, 1939

Leader of the Soviet Union during World War II.

Joseph Stalin

Prime Minister of the United Kingdom during World War II, known for his leadership and speeches.

Winston Churchill

President of the United States for most of World War II.

Franklin D. Roosevelt

Battle of Stalingrad

Turning point in the Eastern Front of WWII, where the Soviets defeated the German army (17th July 1942)

The systematic genocide of European Jews and other minority groups by the Nazis during World War II.

The Holocaust

When and where was the attack on Pearl Harbor?

Japanese surprise attack on the US naval base in Hawaii on December 7, 1941, leading to the US entering World War II.

Allied strategy in the Pacific to bypass heavily fortified islands and instead concentrate on strategically important ones.

Island Hopping

President of the United States who made the decision to use atomic bombs on Japan.

Harry S. Truman

The use of these weapons on Hiroshima and Nagasaki led to Japan's surrender and the end of World War II.

Atomic Bombs

Cities where the U.S. dropped atomic bombs in August 1945

Hiroshima, Nagasaki