World Wars BIG IDEAS

Triple Entente (Allied Powers)

A military alliance between Great Britain, France, and Russia in the years preceding World War I

Triple Alliance (Central Powers)

A military alliance between Germany, Austria-Hungary, Italy (later left and joined the Entenete), and the Ottoman Empire during WWI

Triggering event of WWI

Assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand by Serbian nationalist Gavrilo Princip

MAIN, militarism

The increase of European armies and navies which contributed to WWI

Trench Warfare

a type of combat in WWI in which opposing troops create trenches facing each other to protect from bombs and other modern weapons; soldiers have to "go over the top" into "no man's land" to fight; led to great slaughter, no gains, and stalemate

Conditions in WWI trenches

Horrible - rats, lice, trench foot from standing water, fear of constant shelling and chemical gas attacks; led to development of "shell shock" (PTSD)

Outcome of the Treaty of Versailles (Germany)

Germany had to accept guilt for the war, surrender all colonies, return Alsace-Lorraine to France, demilitarize, pay $33 billion in reparations

Outcome of the Treaty of Versailles (Ethnic groups)

German, Austro-Hungarian, and Ottoman Empires were broken up, creating new nation states based on ethnic identities (Czechoslovakia, Armenia, Turkey)

Nazi Party Platform

Laid out the main beliefs of the Nazi Party; focused on the rights of German citizens and laid out who was excluded from these rights (immigrants, Jews)

Responses to the Great Depression

Economic nationalism (tariffs on imported goods), government social welfare programs (US-New Deal Social Security)

Hitler's rise to power

Completely legal (largest part in the German Reichstag in 1932 and was appointed chancellor); Nazi Party's platform had broad appeal in postwar Germany; the Nazis promised to undo the Treaty of Versailles, the deal with the depression, and used the Jews and communists as scapegoats for Germany's situation

European Response to Hitler between 1935-1939

Britain and France followed the policy of appeasement, giving Hitler what he wanted (remiliarization, Anschluss or union between Austria and Germany, and annexation of Western Czechoslovakia, Sudetenland) to avoid conflict

Impact of WWII on civilians

Civilians were important to the war effort (producing modern weapons, food, etc.); because the civilian population was necessary for victory, they were also targeted in air raids and other actions; unprecedented death of civilians in WWII

Axis Powers

the military alliance of Germany, Italy, and Japan during World War II

Nanjing Massacre

event in which Japanese soldiers murdered 300,000 Chinese men, women, and children after capturing the city of Nanjing

Armenian Genocide

Assault carried out by mainly Turkish military forces against Armenian population in Anatolia in 1915; over a million Armenians perished and thousands fled to Russia and the Middle East

Why did Japan want a Pan-Asian empire?

Japan needed natural resources and space to settle a growing population, felt ethnically superior, and wanted to eliminate Western influence in the region

France-Germany Rivalry

France perceived Germany the newly unified Germany as an economic/industrial/imperial threat; France was also bitter about the loss of the resource-rich Alsace-Lorraine

Great Britain-Germany Rivalry

Great Britain perceived the newly unified Germany as an economic/industrial/naval/imperial threat; Germany wanted a big colonial empire and navy like Britain

Russia-Austria-Hungary Rivalry

Conflicting interests in the Balkans - Austria-Hungary annexed Bosnia, but Serbia wanted Bosnia for itself; Russia wanted to support its fellow Orthodox, Slavic nation (Serbia), and have greater access to the Balkans

Alsace-Lorraine

Territory on the border of Germany and France which contained valuable iron ore deposits, iron- and steelmaking plants, and other industries; Lost by France to Germany in 1871 as a result of the Franco-Prussian War

Self-determination

The idea that nationalities should have own states; Championed by US President Woodrow Wilson as a way to achieve world peace

Holocaust

the systematic, state-sponsored persecution and murder of approximately six million European Jews by the Nazi regime and its collaborators in the years leading up to and during World War II

Other groups murdered in the Holocaust

Roma (Gypsies), people with intellectual and physical disabilities, some of the Slavic peoples (Poles, Russians, and others), Communists, Socialists, Jehovah's Witnesses, and homosexuals

Beginning of WWII in Asia

Japanese invasion of China in 1937

Beginning of WWII in Europe

German invasion of Poland in 1939

Total War

a conflict in which the participating countries devote all their resources to the war effort; civilians involved in industrial production and supplying armies

Consequences of Total War in WWII

civilians as well soldiers became targets for the enemy

U.S. immigration policy in the 1930s

Restrictive system with quotas for different countries, which discriminated against Southern and Eastern European countries

tariff

a government tax on imports to protect domestic industries

Anschluss

Austria was annexed to Germany (violating the Treaty of Versailles)

Munich Agreement

Agreement between British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain and Hitler that Germany could annex the Sudetenland (in Czechoslovakia) in exchange for "peace"

Kristallnacht (Night of Broken Glass)

a riot against Jews on November 9-10, 1938 where synagogues, business, and homes were vandalized and destroyed, and 6,000 Jewish men were arrested and sent to Dachau (concentration camp)

Pan-Asianism

Concept to unite all Asian peoples in order to repel the influence of Western imperialism; Japanese used this ideology as the basis for their wars of aggression