Interwar Period & World War II Vocabulary

Inflation

A continuous substantial rise in the general level of prices related to an increase in the volume of money and resulting in the loss of value of currency.

Reparations

Compensation in money, material, labor, etc., payable by a defeated country to another country or to an individual for loss suffered during or as a result of war.

Stock Market

A particular market where stocks and bonds are traded; stock exchange.

Great Depression

The worldwide economic downturn of the 1930s.

Fascism

Political system based on militarism, extreme nationalism, and blind loyalty to the state and its leader.

Nazism

The principles or methods of the Nazis.

Biltzkrieg

A swift military attack often combining air and land forces.

Axis Powers

A group of countries that opposed the Allied powers in World War II, including Germany, Italy, and Japan as well as Bulgaria, Hungary, Romania, and Yugoslavia.

Allied Powers

The countries that opposed the Axis powers during the Second World War: France, Poland and Great

Britain, soon to be joined

by the British Common-

wealth (Canada, Australia,

New Zealand, and South

Africa), the United States

and the Soviet Union.

Anti-Semitism

Prejudice or hatred of Jewish people and culture.

Concentration Camps

A guarded compound for the imprisonment of non-citizens, members of ethnic minorities, political opponents, etc., especially any of the camps established by the Nazis prior to and during World War II for the confinement and persecution of prisoners.

Holocaust

Nazi Germany's mass killing of Jewish people.

Genocide

The deliberate and systematic extermination of a national, racial, political, or

cultural group.

Pearl Harbor

A harbor near Honolulu, on South Oahu, in Hawaii: surprise attack by Japan on the U.S. naval base and other military installations December 7, 1941

Atomic Bombs

A bomb whose explosive force comes from a chain reaction based on nuclear fission in U-235 or

plutonium, dropped by

the USA on Japan to

bring about an end to

WWII.

United Nations

An international organization, with headquarters in New York City, formed to promote international peace, security, and cooperation.

Superpower

A powerful country that can influence many other countries.

Adolf Hitler

Nazi dictator of Germany, born in Austria:

Chancellor 1933-45;

Dictator 1934-45.

Benito Mussolini

Italian Fascist leader: premier of Italy 1922-43.

Winston Churchill

British prime minister 1940-45 during WWII.

Franklin Delano Roosevelt

32nd president of the

U.S. 1933-45, led the

USA during WWII.

Charles de Gaulle

French general and statesman, during World War II, refused to accept armistice with Germany, founded Free French

movement in England (1940),

head of provisional

government (1944-46) .

Josef Stalin

Leader of the Soviet Union

from the mid-1920s until

his death in 1953,

leader during WWII.

Yalta Confrence

Held February 4-11, 1945, was the World War II meeting of the heads of government of the United States, the United Kingdom and the Soviet Union, represented by President Franklin D. Roosevelt, Prime Minister Winston Churchill,

and Premier Joseph Stalin,

respectively, for the purpose

of discussing Europe's

post-war reorganization.

Emperor Hirohito

Was the 124th Emperor of Japan reigning from December 25, 1926, until his death on January 7, 1989, leader of Japan during WWII.

Totalitarian

------------ governments aimed to control all aspects of their citizen's lives.

Benito Mussolini

The first fascist dictator

Mein Kampf

The book Adolf Hitler wrote when he was in jail.

Kristallnacht

Night of the broken glass

Lebensraum

The notion that stronger nation should expand to obtain living space.

Third Reich

Hitler wanted to develop an Aryan racial state to dominate Europe and possibly the world. Nazis wanted the Germans to create a new Empire as the Romans had done. Hitler called the empire the ----- -----.

Manchuria

In September 1931, Japanese soldiers seized Chinese --------- for there natural resources.

Luftwaffe

The new air force created by Hitler in Germany.

Rome-Berlin Axis

The alliance formed by Hitler and Mussolini.

Neville Chamberlain

The British Prime Minister

Non Agression Pact

In August of 1939, Germany and the Soviet Union shocked the world by signing the --- --------- ----.

Isolationism

The US policy after World War 1 to not join any conflicts that did not include them.

Pearl Harbor Bombing

The attack on US territory that occured on December 7, 1941. The reason the US joined World War 2 on the alliance.

Battle of Britain

The shift in German strategy allowed the British to rebuild their air power and inflict crippling losses on the Germans. Having lost the ------ -- -------.

Stalingrad

The war fought between Nazi Germany and Soviet Union just because of the name of the town.

Turning Point

Stalingrad became the -------- ----- of the war in Europe.

Midway

In June, the Battle of Midway Island became the turning point in the war against Japan.

Douglas MacArthur

By the fall of 1942, Allied forces were about to begin offensives against Japan led by ------- ---------.

D Day

On June 6, 1944, the allies, under the command of Dwight D/ Eisenhower landed on the beaches in Normandy.

Kamikaze

A Japanese tactic where young Japanese volunteered to serve as suicide pilots against U.S. ships.