World War II: Causes, Structure, and Consequences

Vocabulary and key concepts drawn from Osvaldo Coggiola's lecture transcript on the causes, structure, and consequences of the Second World War.

Second Thirty Years' War

A historical hypothesis postulating that the period between $1914$ and $1945$ constitutes a single continuous conflict divided into traditional segments of World War I ($1914$-$1918$) and World War II ($1939$-$1945$).

Era of Catastrophe

A term used by historian Eric J. Hobsbawm to describe the $31$-year period between $1914$ and $1945$, characterized by the crisis of liberal/imperial society.

Generalplan Ost

The Nazi general project for Eastern Europe and the USSR formulated between $1940$ and $1942$, predicting the deaths of tens of millions of 'inferior' Slavic and Jewish populations to create colonization zones for the 'Aryan race'.

Hunger Plan

A Nazi strategy designed to kill $30,000,000$ people by starvation within a few months, partially implemented in the 'General Government' occupation zone.

Katyn Forest Massacre

The mass execution of the Polish officer corps by Soviet troops, an event long denied by the USSR and the current Russian state.

Night of the Long Knives

The summary executions carried out on the night of June $29$ to $30$, $1934$, where Hitler ordered the elimination of SA leaders like Ernst Röhm to consolidate power and secure the support of the Reichswehr.

Anschluss

The Nazi annexation of Austria into the Third Reich in $1938$, preceded by the assassination of Chancellor Engelbert Dollfuss in $1934$.

Munich Conference

A $1938$ meeting between Germany, Italy, Great Britain, and France that resulted in the dismemberment of Czechoslovakia through the annexation of the Sudetenland by Germany.

Blitzkrieg

A 'lightning war' method combining armored divisions (Panzer), Stuka bombers, and radio communications to achieve rapid military victory through surprise and concentrated firepower.

Vichy Regime

The collaborationist French government led by Marshal Pétain that succeeded the Third Republic after the surrender to Nazi Germany in $1940$, characterized by corporatism and anti-Semitic legislation.

Little Boy and Fat Man

The code names for the uranium and plutonium nuclear bombs dropped by the United States on Hiroshima (August $6$, $1945$) and Nagasaki (August $9$, $1945$), respectively.

Long March

The strategic retreat of the Chinese Red Army from Kiangsi to the Northwest ($1934$-$1935$) covering $10,000$ kilometers, which established Mao Ze Dong as the leader of the Communist Party.

Battle of Midway

A turning point in the Pacific War in June $1942$ where US naval and air forces destroyed major Japanese aircraft carriers, shifting the offensive to the Allies.

Afrika Korps

The German expeditionary force in North Africa commanded by Erwin Rommel (the 'Desert Fox'), known for utilizing Blitzkrieg tactics in the desert.

Wannsee Conference

A meeting held in January $1942$ to plan the 'Final Solution,' coordinating the systematic extermination of European Jews through gas chambers and mass deportations.

Battle of Stalingrad

A Decisive turning point on the Eastern Front ($1942$-$1943$) where the German $6\text{th}$ Army was destroyed, resulting in approximately $2,000,000$ total casualties.

Operation Uranus

The Soviet counter-offensive launched in November $1942$ by Generals Vasilievsky and Jukov that successfully encircled the German forces at Stalingrad.

Battle of Kursk

The largest tank battle in history ($1943$), also known as 'Operation Citadel,' which ended Germany's offensive capacity in the USSR.

Operation Bagration

A Soviet strategic offensive in June $1944$ in Belarus that resulted in the nearly complete destruction of the German Army Group Centre.

Bretton Woods Agreement

A $1944$ financial conference that established the IMF and the World Bank to regulate the post-war international economic order under US hegemony.

Marshall Plan

A $1947$ US economic aid program that provided $13,000,000,000$ dollars (approximately $140,000,000,000$ in $1994$ values) to rebuild Western Europe and contain communist influence.

Nakbah

Meaning 'catastrophe,' it refers to the $1948$ expulsion of over $800,000$ Palestinians during the conflict following the creation of the State of Israel.

Truman Doctrine

The $1947$ US foreign policy commitment to support 'free peoples' resisting subjugation by armed minorities or external pressures, marking the start of the Cold War.

Red Scare

A period of intense anti-communist paranoia and 'witch hunts' in the US between $1950$ and $1956$, led by Senator Joseph McCarthy.

Little Idea

The term used for the Soviet RDS-$1$ atomic device tested in August $1949$, followed later by the RDS-$37$ hydrogen bomb or 'Third Idea' in $1955$.