Studied by 55 people
20th Cent. Global Conflict
"Lost Generation"
created by World War I, this group was fostered by disillusionment and cynicism and the term referred to the great confusion and aimlessness among the war's survivors in the early post-war years; many settled in Paris during the 1920s after rejecting American materialism, intolerance, and lack of spirituality; included famous peoples such as Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and Gertrude Stein
Albert Einstein
German physicist who developed the theory of relativity and his famous equation E=mc2 explains the energy released in an atomic bomb; although he is not associated with the development of the nuclear bomb, he did implore US President Roosevelt to develop the bomb before Germany did
Anschluss
Nazi Germany's peaceful annexation of Austria in its efforts to create a Greater Germany; Austrian Nazis and people from all backgrounds in both nations supported this move; the call for this existed ever since Germany was created in 1871 but excluded Austria; European powers did nothing to stop this nor did they render punishments to Germany for going against the Treaty of Versailles
Appeasement Policy
The Anglo-French policy of making concessions to Germany in the 1930s to avoid a crisis that would lead to war; it assumed that Germany had real grievances and Hitler's aims were limited and ultimately acceptable.
Armenian Genocide
systematic mass murder and expulsion of 1.5 million ethnic Armenians by the Ottoman government to the deserts of Syria between 1914 to 1923, with claims that they were spying for their Christian Orthodox allies, the Russians; directly resulted in an Armenian diaspora around the world; provided precedence for the Holocaust and is vehemently denied by Turkey to be a genocide
Blitzkrieg
meaning "lightning war"; the German tactic early in WWII of employing fast-moving, massed armored columns supported by airpower to overwhelm the enemy.
Collectivization
a system in which private farms were eliminated and instead, the government owned all of the land while the peasants worked it; resistance came from peasants, especially small land-owning peasants known as kulaks, in the form of hoarding their crops and killing their livestock; this initiated a severe backlash from Stalin
Easter Rebellion
Irish independence movement in 1916, whilst the British were distracted with WWI; the Irish were upset by the lack of promised self-rule, and thousands took to the streets of Dublin to protest; spread widespread Irish nationalism, and eventually led to Ireland becoming a separate nation from the United Kingdom.
Fascism
political movements that tend to be anti democratic, anti-Marxist, anti parliamentary, and often anti-Semitic; Fascists were invariably nationalists and exalted the nation over the individual; they supported the interests of the middle class and rejected the ideas of the French Revolution and 19th century liberalism; the first fascist regime was founded by Benito Mussolini in Italy, and later became the basis of the German Nazi Party, which came to power under Adolf Hitler.
February Revolution
A spontaneous uprising that spiraled out of control - leaving the Tsar no choice but to abdicate. It was characterized by a great number of strikes, manor burning and mutinies in the military.
Five Year Plans
Stalin's economic policy to rebuild the Soviet economy and modernize fully through rapid industrialization and the improving of heavy industrial production and also consumer goods; when this plan began, the USSR was fifth in industrialization, and with the first five-year plan moved up to second, with only the United States in first; resulted in severe repercussions for his people, including devastating famines and purges
Great Purges
The widespread arrests and executions of over a million people by Josef Stalin between 1936 and 1938; he was attempting to eliminate all opposition to his rule of the Soviet Union
Joseph Goebbels
was a German Nazi politician and Reich Minister of Propaganda of Nazi Germany from 1933 to 1945; he was instrumental in spreading Nazi propaganda, including building hatred of the Jews and exalting Hitler, especially in his famous film, "Triumph of the Will"
Keynesian Economics
Economic theory employed in Britain which encouraged aggressive government intervention to combat recession and promote economic growth, especially by massive federal spending ("stimulus")
League of Nations
an international organization formed in 1920 to promote cooperation and peace among nations but weakened from the onset by the non participation of the US, Germany, and the Soviet Union; one of its most noteworthy decisions with present day implications was its distribution of former German and Ottoman lands to France and Great Britain, thus altering the imperial balance of power and creating a strategic interest in the Middle East and its oil
Mandate System
an attempt to stop the cycle of war and fighting over conquered land by appropriating the land of the collapsed Ottoman Empire and the colonies of Germany and determining which territories were close to independence, which were near-to-far to independence, and which colonies had virtually no hope of self-determination; the latter would be guided by a larger, established state; in practice, it devolved into internationally-sanctioned colonialism; present day Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Palestine, Jordan
Munich Agreement (1938)
A settlement reached by Germany, Great Britain, France, and Italy that permitted German annexation of the Sudetenland, in western Czechoslovakia, in exchange for a promise of no future expansions; the Czechs and Slovaks had no seats at the table; it is widely regarded as a failed act of appeasement toward Nazi Germany because shortly thereafter it took over all of Czechoslovakia
Nazi-Soviet Non-Aggression Pact (1939)
also known as the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact of neutrality between Germany and the Soviet Union in which neither government would ally itself to, or aid an enemy of the other party; it included a secret protocol which defined the borders of Soviet and German spheres of influence across the territories of Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, and Finland; Germany invaded Poland from the west on 1 September 1939 and USSR invaded Poland from the east on 17 September; Germany then broke the pact and attacked the Soviet Union
New Economic Policy (NEP)
Policy proclaimed by Vladimir Lenin in 1924 to encourage the revival of the Soviet economy by allowing small private businesses and agriculture by employing some free market principles instead of complete communist domination; his idea was that the Soviet state would just control major industries, while allowing ordinary citizens to operate business and property ownership as normal; Joseph Stalin ended this in 1928 and replaced it with greater state ownership, collectivization, and a series of Five-Year Plans
Nuclear Proliferation
the spread of nuclear weapons, technology and information to nations not recognized as "Nuclear Weapon States" by the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons; proliferation has been opposed by many nations with and without nuclear weapons, as governments fear that more countries with nuclear weapons will increase the possibility of nuclear warfare, de-stabilize international or regional relations, or infringe upon the national sovereignty of states.
Nuremberg Laws
anti-Semitic and racist code that denied German citizenship to the Jews and prevented them from marrying non-Jews; forced them to wear the Star of David in public; pushed Jews out of their homes and mainstream society into the ghettos; Jews could not work in professional fields like medicine, law, engineering, academia; had a crippling economic and social impact on the Jewish community
Operation Barbarossa
Hitler's idea to destroy the Soviet Union and achieve his goal of Lebensraum (living space for all Germanic people); successful at first but ultimately failed to capture the key cities because of the Russian winter, distance from Germany and supply line issues, brave resistance from the Soviet army, and the eventual opening of a second front in France by the Allies
Petrograd Soviet
The St. Petersburg, or Petrograd, council of workers, soldiers, and intellectuals who shared power with the provisional government.
Popular Front (France)
This was a short-lived New Deal inspired alliance (between the communists, socialists, and radicals) in France led by Leon Blum; it encouraged the union movement to launch the far-reaching program of social reform, such as wage increases, paid vacations, collective bargaining to French workers, and reduction of work week to 40 hours
Russian Revolution of 1917
The uprising against the Tsarist government during World War I which led to the abdication of Tsar Nicholas II and the creation of a provisional government in March 1917; causes included political stagnation, social inequality, incomplete industrialization and food/land distribution; eventually led to the Bolshevik takeover, civil war, implementation of a communist government based on Marxist-Leninist theory, and the assassination of Nicholas II and his family
Schlieffen Plan
Attack plan by Germans, proposed by Schliffen, lightning quick attack against France. Proposed to go through Belgium then attack France, Belgium resisted, other countries took up their aid, long fight, used trench warfare.
Spanish Civil War (1936-1939)
General Franco's alliance with Italian and German fascists during this, while other Western democracies did not intervene, represented a testing ground for WWII, including battle tactics (blitzkrieg) and new equipment (tanks, guns, etc.); while Franco was not a true fascist like Hitler or Mussolini, he did benefit from their support, going on to becoming the authoritarian ruler the country from 1936 to mid-1970s
Stalemate
A situation in which no progress can be made or no advancement is possible; became most common in WWI in the midst of trench warfare, when neither side could advance on the other
The Great Depression
caused by weaknesses and barriers to international trade and monetary theories and practices; specifically WWI debt, nationalistic tariff policies, overproduction, depreciated currencies, disrupted trade patterns, and speculation on stocks; financial collapse occurred in Europe when the US cut off capital flows after the Stock Market Crash of 1929; all combined, this undermined Western European democracies and fomented radical political responses throughout Europe, especially Germany, Italy and Spain.
The Holocaust
A methodical plan orchestrated by Hitler (and put into action with collaboration from Fascist governments in France, Hungary, Italy etc.) to ensure a "new racial order" through the elimination of Jews, non-conformists, Communists, homosexuals, Jehovah's Witnesses, non-Aryans, gypsies/Roma, and the mentally and physically disabled; it decimated most of European Jewry and many who remained fled to the post-WWII newly created nation of Israel or to the Americas
Treaty of Versailles (1919)
generated from diplomatic idealism on the part of Woodrow Wilson and a desire to punish Germany on the part of the French and the British, this rendered heavy penalties on Germany, including the war guilt clause and reparations; created new countries such as Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary and Yugoslavia and the League of Nations to guarantee future peace
Vichy France
A Nazi-controlled puppet "free" state in Southern France established by Hitler and headed by French Marshal and hero of WWI, Philippe Petain, after the fall of the French government in Paris in 1940; at the same time, Major Charles de Gaulle ran a Free France government in exile from the UK and provided inspiration and support for resistance fighters
Wannsee Conference
A January 1942 conference during which Nazi officials decided to implement the "final solution" to the "Jewish question"—a euphemism for the extermination of European Jews and other minorities at concentration camps in eastern Europe.
War Communism
A system introduced under Bolshevik rule after 1917 which involved land being seized and redistributed, factories given to the workers, banks being nationalized, and church property being granted to the state with the goal of keeping towns (the proletarian power-base) and the Red Army stocked with food and weapons since circumstances dictated extreme measures as the ongoing civil war disrupted normal economic mechanisms and relations
Weimar Republic
The German democratic regime that existed between the end of World War I and Hitler's coming to power in 1933; ultimately failed to answer for many of the issues following the Treaty of Versailles
Wilson's Fourteen Point Plan
U.S. President Woodrow Wilson's idealistic aims for peace at the Treaty of Versailles; his points included diplomacy, freedom of the seas, lower tariffs, reductions in armaments, decolonization, evacuate troops from Europe, self-determination for former colonies
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