WWII Review

Hitler

German Nazi dictator during World War II (1889-1945)

Benito Mussolini

(1883-1945) Italian leader. He founded the Italian Fascist Party, and sided with Hitler and Germany in World War II. In 1945 he was overthrown and assassinated by the Italian Resistance.

FDR

Roosevelt, the President of the United States during the Depression and WWII. He instituted the New Deal. Served from 1933 to 1945, he was the only president in U.S. history to be elected to four terms

Neville Chamberlain

Great British prime minister who advocated peace and a policy of appeasement

Joeseph Stalin

Leader of Russia during WWII

Emporer Hirohito

Japanese emperor that had control of Japan during and after WWII. Gave up his divine right after the war.

Harry Truman

Became president when FDR died; gave the order to drop the atomic bomb

Winston Churchill

A noted British statesman who led Britain throughout most of World War II and along with Roosevelt planned many allied campaigns. He predicted an iron curtain that would separate Communist Europe from the rest of the West.

Eisenhower

United States general who supervised the invasion of Normandy and the defeat of Nazi Germany

Treaty of Versailles

the treaty imposed on Germany by the Allied powers in 1920 after the end of World War I which demanded exorbitant reparations from the Germans

Weimar Republic

German republic founded after the WWI and the downfall of the German Empire's monarchy.

Hyperinflation

A very rapid rise in the price level; an extremely high rate of inflation.

Dawes Plan

A plan to revive the German economy, the United States loans Germany money which then can pay reparations to England and France, who can then pay back their loans from the U.S. This circular flow of money was a success.

Rhineland

A region in Germany designated a demilitarized zone by the Treaty of Versailles; Hitler violated the treaty and sent German troops there in 1936

Annexation of Austria

took place in March 1938 as an attempt to reintergrate all Germans into a single homeland. Europe's major powers Britain and France did nothing about it

Sudetenland (1938)

appeasement; Hitler promised that his last territorial demand was the Sudeten territory from Czechoslovakia

Munich Conference

An agreement/conference that gave Germany the Sudetenland

appeasement policy

A policy advocated by the British and French toward the Germans following World War I. The hope was to maintain peace by allowing Hitler to annex the Sudentenland region of Czechoslovakia.

Invasion of Czechoslovakia

when Germany took over the Sudetenland (western part of Czechoslovakia) after annexing Austria because of claims that many Germans still lived there

Nazi-Soviet Pact

A secret agreement between the Germans and the Russians that said that they would not attack each other

Totalitarianism

government control over every aspect of public and private life

Isolationism

A national policy of avoiding involvement in world affairs

Facism

political system based on a strong centralized government headed by a dictator

Allied Powers

Great Britain, France, Italy, Russia, and later the US

Axis Powers

Germany, Italy, Japan

Invasion of Poland

Germany invaded, breaking their agreement, so Britain and France declared war, starting World War II

Blitzkrieg

lightning war

Phony war

period of time after the German invasion of Poland that included little military operation in Europe

Fall of France (1940)

Germany invaded France and the Low Countries. Ended sitskrieg. France surrendered and was divided into German occupation zones in the north and west.

Maginot Line

Line of defense built by France to protect against German invasion. Stretched from Belgium to Switzerland.

Vichy France

"Puppet" government in southern France; basically run by Germany during the German occupation

Dunkirk Evacuation

Mass effort of British citizens to evacuate soldiers from the shores of France.

Battle of Britain

A series of battles between German and British air forces, fought over Britain in 1940-1941

Operation Barbossa - June 22 1941

Codename for the Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union

Battles in North Africa

Erwin Rommel (Desert Fox) led the Afrika Korps. He tried to take British colonies, captured Crimea, but was beaten by the British at El Alamein. When the US/British troops forced German and Italian troops to surrender, the war turned against Hitler.

Pearl Harbor

United States military base on Hawaii that was bombed by Japan, bringing the United States into World War II. Pearl Harbor was attacked on December 7, 1941.

D-Day

Allied invasion of France on June 6, 1944

Battle of the Buldge 1944

A counterattack by the Germans after D-Day, as Hitler tried to turn the tides, but they failed to stop the Allies

Germany surrenders to the Allies

May 1945

V-E Day

Victory in Europe Day

Kamakazi

Japanese suicide pilots

Battle of Midway

U.S. naval victory over the Japanese fleet in June 1942, in which the Japanese lost four of their best aircraft carriers. It marked a turning point in World War II.

Okinawa and Iwo Jima

American victories at _______________ and _____________ brought American forces close to the Japanese mainland and demonstrated how fiercely the Japanese would fight if the war war were to continue.

Invasion of Manchuria (1931)

Japan invaded Manchuria and set up Manchukuo, a Japanese state that lasted until the end of WW2.

V-J (Victory in Japan) Day

Celebrated on August 15, 1945 after the dropping of the atomic bombs on Japan; the celebrations continued through the official end of WWII on September 2, 1945 when Japan officially surrendered

Atlantic Charter

British and American statement of goals for fighting World War II

Potsdam Conference

The final wartime meeting of the leaders of the United States, Britain, and the Soviet Union was held at Potsdamn, outside Berlin, in July, 1945. Truman, Churchill, and Stalin discussed the future of Europe but their failure to reach meaningful agreements soon led to the onset of the Cold War.

Yalta Conference

1945 strategy meeting between Roosevelt, Churchill, and Stalin

United Nations

an organization of independent states formed in 1945 to promote international peace and security