VFL 8: World War 2

[Threequel incoming] 😬

Joseph Stalin

Dictator that took over the Soviet Union in 1924. He focused on creating a model communist state and wanted to turn the Soviet Union into a great industrial power

Totalitarian

Characteristic of a political system in which the government exercises complete control over citizens’ lives

Benito Mussolini

Established a totalitarian regime in Italy, established the Fascist party, and was appointed the head of government in Italy

Fascism

A political philosophy that advocates a strong, centralized, nationalistic, government headed by a powerful dictator

Nazism

A political philosophy based on extreme nationalism, racism, and militaristic expansionism that was put into practice in Germany by Adolf Hitler from 1933 to 1945

Adolf Hitler

Austrian-born dictator of Germany and Nazi leader who implemented Nazism to Germany, started WW2 & the Holocaust, and wrote Mein Kampf

Francisco Franco

The general who led the nationalists in the Spanish Civil War and later became Spain’s fascist dictator

Neutrality Act

A series of laws enacted in 1935 & 1936 to prevent US arms sales and loans to nations at war

Neville Chamberlain

British prime minister (1st) who signed the Munich Agreement

Winston Churchill

British prime minister (2nd) during WW2. Chamberlain’s rival who disagreed with appeasement

Appeasement

The granting of concessions to a hostile power in order to keep the peace

Nonaggression Pact

An agreement in which two nations promise not to go to war with each other

Blitzkrieg

Lightning war from air and ground

Holocaust

The systematic murder/genocide of Jews and other groups in Europe by the Nazis before and during WW2

Kristallnacht

The “night of broken glass”. A name given to the night of November 9, 1938, when gangs of Nazi storm troopers attacked Jewish homes, businesses, & synagogues in Germany

Genocide

The deliberate and systematic extermination of a particular racial, national, or religous group

Ghetto

A city neighborhood in which a certain minority group is pressured or forced to live

Concentration Camps

A prison camp operated by Nazi Germany in which Jews and other groups considered to be enemies of Adolf Hitler were starved while doing slave labor or were murdered

Axis Powers

The group of nations including Germany, Italy, & Japan that opposed the Allies in WW2

Lend-Lease Act

A law passed in 1941 that allowed the US to ship arms and other supplies to nations fighting the Axis Powers without immediate payment

Atlantic Charter

A 1941 declaration of principles in which the US & Great Britian set forth their goals in opposing the Axis Powers

Allies

A group of nations including Great Britian, The Soviet Union, and the US that opposed the Axis Powers

Hideki Tojo

The prime minister of Japan during WW2 and chief staff of Japan’s Kwantung Army