End of WWII Vocabulary

Flashcards to help study for the End of WWII quiz.

Appeasement

A policy of pacifying an aggressive nation through concessions in order to avoid war.

Axis Powers

Military alliance formed in 1936 between Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy.

German Invasion of Poland

Germany's invasion of Poland on September 1, 1939, which triggered the start of World War II.

Fall of France

Military campaign of the Second World War by which the German Wehrmacht and Waffen-SS forces invaded France.

Battle of Britain

Military campaign of the Second World War, when the Royal Air Force (RAF) and the Fleet Air Arm (FAA) of the Royal Navy defended the United Kingdom (UK) against large-scale attacks by Nazi Germany's air force

Atlantic Charter

A statement issued on 14 August 1941 that set out American and British goals for the world after the end of World War II.

Operation Barbarossa

The code name for the German invasion of the Soviet Union, which was launched on June 22, 1941.

Invasion of Sicily

Allied invasion of Sicily, codenamed Operation Husky, was a major campaign of World War II, took place during July and August 1943.

D-Day

Allied invasion of Normandy in Operation Overlord during World War II. Launched on 6 June 1944

Battle of the Bulge

Last major German offensive campaign on the Western Front during World War II.

Fall of Berlin

Major and successful Soviet strategic offensive on the Eastern Front of World War II, from 23 June to 29 August 1944, also referred to as the White Russian Operation

German Surrender at Stalingrad

Major battle on the Eastern Front of World War II in which Nazi Germany and its allies fought the Soviet Union for control of the city of Stalingrad

Island Hopping

A military strategy employed by the Allies in the Pacific War against Japan and the Axis powers during World War II.

Tehran Conference

Conference in 1943 between Stalin, Roosevelt, and Churchill in which they planned the final strategy for the war against Nazi Germany and its allies.

Yalta Conference

Took place from February 4 to 11, 1945, was the World War II meeting of the heads of government of the United States, the United Kingdom, and the Soviet Union to discuss the postwar reorganization of Europe.

Potsdam Conference

Held in July–August 1945, was the last of the World War II meetings held by the 'Big Three' heads of state.

Iron Curtain

The term symbolizing the ideological barrier that divided Europe into two separate areas from the end of World War II in 1945 until the end of the Cold War in 1991.

Berlin Wall

Barrier that divided Berlin from 1961 to 1989, constructed by the German Democratic Republic (GDR, East Germany) starting on 13 August 1961, that completely cut off West Berlin from surrounding East Germany and from East Berlin until it was opened in November 1989.

NATO

A military alliance established on April 4, 1949, with the signing of the North Atlantic Treaty for purposes of collective security.

Warsaw Pact

A collective defence treaty signed in Warsaw, Poland between the Soviet Union and seven other Eastern Bloc socialist republics of Central and Eastern Europe in May 1955.

Marshall Plan

An American initiative enacted in 1948 to provide foreign aid to Western Europe.

Truman Doctrine

An American foreign policy whose stated purpose was to counter Soviet geopolitical expansion during the Cold War.

Sino-Soviet Split

The breaking of political relations between the People's Republic of China (PRC) and the Soviet Union (USSR), caused by doctrinal divergences that arose from their different interpretations and practical applications of Marxism–Leninism.

Great Leap Forward

An economic and social campaign by the Communist Party of China (CPC) from 1958 to 1962.

Red Guard

A mass paramilitary social movement mobilized by Mao Zedong in the People's Republic of China from 1966 to 1968, during the Cultural Revolution.

Cultural Revolution

A sociopolitical movement that took place in China from 1966 to 1976.