World Empire FINAL EXAM

Triple Entente

Military alliance between France, Russia, and Britain before WWI, formed to counter the Triple Alliance of Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Italy.

Schlieffen Plan

Germany's military strategy to avoid a two-front war by quickly defeating France in the west, then turning to fight Russia in the east.

Archduke Ferdinand

Heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne whose assassination in Sarajevo in 1914 triggered the chain of events leading to WWI.

Gavrilo Princip

Bosnian-Serb nationalist and member of the Black Hand who assassinated Archduke Franz Ferdinand on June 28, 1914.

Kaiser Wilhelm II

German emperor whose aggressive foreign policy, military buildup, and dismissal of Bismarck's careful diplomacy contributed significantly to WWI.

Miracle of the Marne

1914 battle where French and British forces halted the German advance near the Marne River, ending Germany's hopes for a quick western victory and forcing a war of attrition.

Trench Warfare

Style of combat in WWI characterized by parallel lines of fortified ditches, resulting in a stalemate on the Western Front with massive casualties for minimal territorial gain.

Woodrow Wilson

U.S. President during WWI who tried to keep America neutral, then led the country into war in 1917; proposed the Fourteen Points peace plan and the League of Nations.

Lusitania

British ocean liner sunk by a German U-boat in 1915, killing 1,198 people including 128 Americans, intensifying U.S. public opinion against Germany.

Selective Service Act

1917 U.S. law that established the military draft, requiring men ages 21-30 to register for potential military service in WWI.

Zimmermann Telegram

Secret 1917 German diplomatic message to Mexico proposing a military alliance against the U.S. in exchange for help recovering Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona; helped push U.S. into WWI.

War Industries Board

U.S. government agency created in 1917 to coordinate industrial production for the war effort, representing a major expansion of federal economic control.

Committee on Public Information

U.S. propaganda agency created in 1917 under George Creel to build public support for WWI through posters, films, and speeches.

Espionage Act

1917 U.S. law making it illegal to interfere with military recruitment or aid enemies during wartime; used to prosecute anti-war activists and socialists.

War Labor Board

U.S. agency that mediated labor disputes during WWI to prevent strikes from disrupting war production, giving workers some rights in exchange for labor peace.

Sedition Act

1918 amendment to the Espionage Act that made it illegal to speak or publish anything disloyal or abusive about the U.S. government, flag, or military.

Schenck v. United States

1919 Supreme Court case upholding the Espionage Act; Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes established the "clear and present danger" test, ruling free speech could be limited in wartime.

February Revolution

March 1917 popular uprising in Russia that forced Tsar Nicholas II to abdicate, ending the Romanov dynasty and establishing a Provisional Government.

Tsar Nicholas II

Last emperor of Russia whose incompetent war leadership and refusal to reform led to the 1917 revolutions; executed with his family by Bolsheviks in 1918.

Provisional Government

Temporary government established in Russia after the February Revolution 1917; fatally weakened by its decision to continue WWI and was overthrown by the Bolsheviks in October 1917.

Soviet

Revolutionary councils of workers and soldiers that organized in Russia in 1917; the Petrograd Soviet competed with the Provisional Government for authority.

Bolshevik Revolution

October 1917 seizure of power by Lenin's Bolshevik Party in Russia; established the world's first communist state and withdrew Russia from WWI.

Vladimir Lenin

Marxist revolutionary leader who led the Bolshevik Revolution in 1917; established the Soviet state, signed the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, and introduced the NEP before his death in 1924.

Treaty of Brest-Litovsk

1918 peace treaty between Russia and the Central Powers; Lenin accepted harsh territorial losses to exit WWI, surrendering Ukraine, Poland, Finland, and the Baltic states.

Russian Civil War

1918–1922 conflict between the Bolshevik Red Army and the anti-communist White Army, supported by Western powers; Bolshevik victory consolidated Communist control of Russia.

Meuse-Argonne Campaign

Massive Allied offensive in fall 1918 in northeastern France involving over 1 million U.S. troops; one of the largest battles in U.S. history and helped end WWI.

Treaty of Versailles

1919 peace treaty ending WWI; imposed massive reparations, military restrictions, and territorial losses on Germany through the War Guilt Clause, planting seeds of WWII resentment.

Fourteen Points

President Wilson's 1918 proposal for a just peace after WWI, including self-determination for nations, freedom of the seas, open diplomacy, and creation of the League of Nations.

Mandate System

Post-WWI arrangement by which the League of Nations assigned administration of former German and Ottoman territories to France and Britain, effectively expanding their empires.

NEP (New Economic Policy)

Lenin's 1921 compromise allowing limited private enterprise in Soviet Russia to rebuild the economy after war and famine; abandoned by Stalin in favor of forced collectivization.

Josef Stalin

Soviet dictator who succeeded Lenin, industrialized the USSR through brutal Five Year Plans and collectivization, purged political rivals, and led the USSR through WWII.

Five Year Plan

Stalin's series of ambitious economic plans starting in 1928 to rapidly industrialize the Soviet Union through government-directed production quotas, often achieved through coercion.

Collectivization

Stalin's forced consolidation of individual peasant farms into state-controlled collective farms, causing massive resistance, famine, and millions of deaths especially in Ukraine.

Punishment of the Ukraine (Holodomor)

Stalin's engineered famine of 1932–33 in Ukraine caused by forced collectivization and grain seizures; killed an estimated 3.5–7.5 million Ukrainians.

The Great Purge

Stalin's campaign of political repression from 1936–38 in which millions of Soviet citizens were arrested, exiled to gulags, or executed; targeted military officers, Communist Party members, and ordinary citizens.

Mohandas Gandhi

Indian independence leader who pioneered nonviolent civil disobedience against British rule; led the Non-Cooperation Movement, Salt March, and Quit India Movement.

Non-Cooperation Movement

Gandhi's 1920–22 campaign urging Indians to boycott British goods, courts, and institutions as a form of nonviolent resistance to colonial rule.

Civil Disobedience Movement

Gandhi's 1930 campaign of nonviolent defiance of British laws, most famously the Salt March, to protest colonial exploitation and demand independence.

Government of India Act

1935 British law granting India limited self-governance with elected provincial legislatures; seen as inadequate by nationalists but an important step toward independence.

May 4th Movement

1919 Chinese student protest movement against the Treaty of Versailles' handover of German concessions to Japan; sparked Chinese nationalism and influenced the founding of the Chinese Communist Party.

Nationalist Party (Kuomintang)

Chinese political party founded by Sun Yat-sen that ruled China under Chiang Kai-shek; fought both Japanese invaders and Chinese Communists before being defeated and retreating to Taiwan in 1949.

Chiang Kai-shek

Leader of the Chinese Nationalist Party who ruled mainland China, fought Japan and the Communists; lost the Chinese Civil War to Mao in 1949 and retreated to Taiwan.

Mao Zedong

Communist revolutionary who led the Chinese Communist Party to victory in 1949; established the People's Republic of China and launched radical campaigns like the Great Leap Forward and Cultural Revolution.

The Long March

1934–35 strategic retreat of the Chinese Communist Army across 6,000 miles to escape Nationalist forces; transformed Mao Zedong into the unquestioned leader of Chinese Communism.

Reasons for the U.S. Depression

Combination of overproduction, over-speculation in stocks, excessive credit, weak banking regulation, and international financial instability that triggered the Great Depression after 1929.

Black Thursday

October 24, 1929, when the U.S. stock market began its catastrophic crash with a massive sell-off of shares; signaled the beginning of the Great Depression.

Black Tuesday

October 29, 1929, the worst single-day stock market crash in U.S. history; billions of dollars of wealth wiped out and widely seen as the start of the Great Depression.

Smoot-Hawley Tariff

1930 U.S. law that raised tariffs on thousands of imported goods; triggered retaliatory tariffs from other nations, collapsing global trade and worsening the Great Depression.

Reconstruction Finance Corporation

Hoover's 1932 federal agency that loaned money to banks, railroads, and businesses to prevent collapse; criticized as helping corporations while ignoring ordinary Americans.

Herbert Hoover

U.S. President during the start of the Great Depression; his reluctance to provide direct federal relief and faith in voluntary action made him deeply unpopular as the crisis deepened.

New Deal programs (FDIC, CCC, AAA, Social Security)

FDR's suite of Depression-era reforms: FDIC insured bank deposits; CCC employed young men in conservation; AAA paid farmers to reduce surplus; Social Security created a federal retirement safety net.

Franklin Roosevelt

U.S. President from 1933–1945 who launched the New Deal to combat the Great Depression and led the U.S. through most of WWII; transformed the role of the federal government.

Hyperinflation in Germany

Catastrophic inflation in the Weimar Republic especially in 1923, when currency became worthless due to war reparations and economic mismanagement; destroyed savings and destabilized German democracy.

Rise of Nazi Party

Adolf Hitler's National Socialist German Workers' Party rose to power exploiting economic despair, national humiliation from Versailles, fear of communism, and antisemitism in 1930s Germany.

Adolf Hitler

Austrian-born Nazi dictator of Germany from 1933–1945 who started WWII through expansionist aggression and orchestrated the Holocaust, killing 6 million Jews and millions of others.

Nuremberg Laws

1935 Nazi racial laws that stripped German Jews of citizenship and prohibited marriage or sexual relations between Jews and non-Jews; formalized state-sponsored antisemitism.

Kristallnacht

"Night of Broken Glass" — November 9–10, 1938 Nazi pogrom in which synagogues were burned, Jewish businesses destroyed, and thousands of Jews arrested; marked a dramatic escalation of Nazi persecution.

Wannsee Conference

January 1942 secret meeting of Nazi officials in Berlin where they coordinated the "Final Solution" — the systematic genocide of all European Jews through death camps.

Repudiating Treaty of Versailles

Hitler's deliberate violation of Versailles restrictions, including rearming Germany, remilitarizing the Rhineland, and expanding territory; Western powers largely failed to respond, emboldening further aggression.

Lebensraum

Nazi ideology of "living space" — Hitler's belief that Germany needed to conquer land to the east (especially in Poland and the Soviet Union) for German settlement and resources.

Anschluss

Germany's 1938 annexation of Austria, uniting the two German-speaking nations in violation of the Treaty of Versailles; met with little international opposition.

Appeasement (Munich Pact)

Western policy of making concessions to Hitler to avoid war; the 1938 Munich Agreement gave Hitler the Czech Sudetenland in exchange for a promise of no further territorial demands — a promise he immediately broke.

Blitzkrieg

German military tactic of "lightning war" using fast-moving tanks, aircraft, and motorized infantry to overwhelm enemies before they could respond; used to devastating effect in Poland, France, and early stages of the Eastern Front.

Bewegungskrieg

German military doctrine of "war of movement" emphasizing speed, maneuver, and encirclement rather than static fronts; the strategic philosophy behind Blitzkrieg.

Conquest of France

Germany's stunning 1940 defeat of France in just six weeks using Blitzkrieg tactics through the Ardennes Forest, bypassing the Maginot Line and forcing French surrender.

Battle of Britain

1940 German air campaign to destroy British air defenses and force surrender before an invasion; RAF's successful defense was the first major German defeat and Churchill's speech defined Allied resistance.

Operation Barbarossa

Germany's massive June 1941 invasion of the Soviet Union — the largest military operation in history; initially successful but ultimately overextended Germany and brought the USSR into the Allied camp.

Stalingrad

Brutal 1942–43 battle in which Soviet forces encircled and destroyed an entire German army; the turning point of WWII in Europe as it ended German offensive capability on the Eastern Front.

D-Day

June 6, 1944 — Allied amphibious invasion of Nazi-occupied Normandy, France; opened the long-awaited Western Front and began the liberation of Western Europe from German occupation.

V-E Day

Victory in Europe Day — May 8, 1945 — when Germany formally surrendered to the Allies, ending WWII in Europe.

Pearl Harbor

December 7, 1941 surprise Japanese attack on the U.S. naval base in Hawaii; destroyed much of the Pacific Fleet and brought the United States into WWII.

Fall of Singapore

February 1942 Japanese capture of Britain's supposedly impregnable Singapore fortress; most humiliating British defeat of WWII and demonstrated the vulnerability of European colonial power in Asia.

Battle of Midway

June 1942 naval battle in which the U.S. destroyed four Japanese aircraft carriers; turning point in the Pacific War that ended Japanese offensive naval superiority.

Iwo Jima

February–March 1945 brutal U.S. assault on a heavily fortified Japanese island; the iconic flag-raising photo became a symbol of American sacrifice in the Pacific.

Operation Downfall

Planned but never executed U.S. invasion of the Japanese home islands; projected massive casualties on both sides, which was a key argument for using atomic bombs instead.

Atomic Bombs

U.S. dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima (August 6) and Nagasaki (August 9), 1945, killing over 200,000 people and forcing Japan's surrender, ending WWII and inaugurating the nuclear age.

V-J Day

Victory over Japan Day — August 15 (or September 2), 1945 — when Japan formally surrendered, ending WWII after the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Containment

U.S. Cold War foreign policy strategy, articulated by George Kennan, aimed at preventing Soviet communism from spreading beyond areas already under Soviet control.

Truman Doctrine

1947 President Truman's declaration that the U.S. would provide political, military, and economic support to any nation threatened by communism; justified aid to Greece and Turkey.

Brown v. Board of Education (1954)

Landmark Supreme Court ruling that declared racial segregation in public schools unconstitutional, overturning Plessy v. Ferguson and catalyzing the Civil Rights Movement.

Massive Resistance

Southern white political strategy to resist desegregation after Brown v. Board; included state laws, school closures, and intimidation to prevent racial integration.

Civil Rights Act (1964)

Landmark U.S. law that banned discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin in employment and public accommodations.

Voting Rights Act (1965)

U.S. law that prohibited discriminatory voting practices like literacy tests that had disenfranchised Black Americans; dramatically increased Black voter registration in the South.

Berlin Airlift

1948–49 U.S. and British operation to supply West Berlin by air after the Soviet Union blockaded land routes; demonstrated Western resolve and ended when Soviets lifted the blockade.

Chinese Communist Revolution

Mao Zedong's Communist forces defeated Chiang Kai-shek's Nationalists in 1949, establishing the People's Republic of China; shocked the West and intensified Cold War fears.

Mutually Assured Destruction (MAD)

Cold War nuclear deterrence doctrine that both superpowers would be destroyed in any nuclear exchange, theoretically preventing either side from launching a first strike.

Massive Retaliation

Eisenhower's Cold War strategy threatening overwhelming nuclear response to any Soviet aggression; meant to deter attack while reducing the cost of conventional military forces.

Domino Theory

Cold War belief that if one country fell to communism, neighboring countries would follow like falling dominoes; used to justify U.S. intervention in Korea, Vietnam, and elsewhere.

Korean War

1950–53 conflict in which U.S.-led UN forces defended South Korea from North Korean (and later Chinese) invasion; ended in armistice roughly restoring the original border at the 38th parallel.

The Cuban Revolution

Fidel Castro's 1959 overthrow of U.S.-backed dictator Batista; established a communist government 90 miles from Florida and became a major Cold War flashpoint.

Cuban Missile Crisis

October 1962 thirteen-day confrontation when the U.S. discovered Soviet nuclear missiles in Cuba; the closest the Cold War came to nuclear war, resolved when Soviets removed missiles in exchange for U.S. pledge not to invade Cuba.

John F. Kennedy

U.S. President 1961–1963; navigated the Cuban Missile Crisis, began deepening U.S. involvement in Vietnam, and launched the Peace Corps; assassinated in Dallas in November 1963.

Vietnam War

1955–1975 conflict in which the U.S. supported South Vietnam against communist North Vietnam; massive U.S. military involvement failed to prevent communist victory and deeply divided American society.

Ho Chi Minh

Vietnamese communist revolutionary leader who led resistance against French colonialism and the U.S.-backed South Vietnamese government; symbol of Vietnamese nationalism and communist determination.

Lyndon Baines Johnson (LBJ)

U.S. President 1963–1969 who escalated U.S. military involvement in Vietnam while simultaneously passing landmark Great Society domestic programs; Vietnam destroyed his presidency.

Gulf of Tonkin Resolution

1964 Congressional authorization giving President Johnson broad authority to escalate U.S. military involvement in Vietnam, based on disputed (likely fabricated) North Vietnamese attacks on U.S. ships.

Tet Offensive

January 1968 massive coordinated North Vietnamese and Viet Cong surprise attacks on South Vietnamese cities; militarily repulsed but shattered American public confidence that the war was being won.

Richard Nixon

U.S. President 1969–1974 who pursued Vietnamization, opened relations with China, pursued détente with the Soviet Union, and resigned in disgrace due to the Watergate scandal.

Henry Kissinger

Nixon's National Security Advisor and Secretary of State; chief architect of détente, the opening to China, and the Paris Peace Accords ending U.S. involvement in Vietnam.

Vietnamization

Nixon's strategy of gradually withdrawing U.S. troops while building up South Vietnamese forces to take over the fighting; allowed U.S. exit but ultimately failed to prevent South Vietnam's fall.