History of Romanians and Universal History (Grade 9)

Vocabulary and terminology from the 9th-grade textbook on Romanian and Universal History, covering the first and second World Wars, the interwar period, and the post-war/contemporary era of independence.

Alliance

A political agreement between states, based on a treaty, by which they undertake to act in common or to help each other in certain circumstances.

World War

An armed struggle in which numerous states of the world participate.

Ultimatum

A notice made by one state to another through a diplomatic note, drawing attention to the fact that coercive measures or war will be initiated if certain acts are committed.

Beligerance

A state of war; actual participation within a war.

Contemporary History

A field of study in universal history that examines the past of generations that are still alive.

Generation

The totality of people within a given social community who are of approximately the same age; also defined as the period separating the age of a father from his son.

Concern

A gathering of several enterprises from different economic branches under the management of a single small group of monopolists, where enterprises remain formally independent.

Crash (Crah)

An economic phenomenon characterized by an acute lack of credit, a catastrophic drop in stock market share prices, and currency devaluation.

Isolationism

An external policy of a country based on non-involvement in solving international problems.

Prohibition Law

The XVIII Amendment of the U.S. Constitution (1919) that prohibited the production, sale, and export of alcoholic beverages.

Presidential Republic

A form of government where the president is both the head of state and head of the executive, and is elected by the people.

Trust

A form of monopoly in which merged enterprises lose their commercial, production, and legal independence.

Commonwealth

A free association of Great Britain and its former colonies that became independent states and recognize the British sovereign as their link.

Imperial Conference

A conference of British premiers with representatives of the colonies.

Constitutional Monarchy

A form of government headed by a monarch whose powers are limited by a constitution.

Parliamentary Republic

A form of government where governing bodies are elected, supreme power belongs to the Parliament, and the head of state performs mostly symbolic functions.

Suffragette

A fighter for the political rights of women, specifically in England.

Anschluss

The annexation of Austria by Germany in 1938.

München Agreement (Cârdășia de la München)

The 1938 conference and agreement resulting in the dismemberment of Czechoslovakia.

Concordat

A treaty concluded by the Pope of Rome with different states to establish the status and privileges of the Catholic Church.

Purge (Epurare)

The elimination of persons considered inappropriate or hostile from a party, institution, or organization.

Fascism

A totalitarian ideology opposed to communism and liberalism, characterized by extreme nationalism, mysticism, and violence.

Stresa Front

An agreement signed between the foreign minister of France and the premiers of Great Britain and Italy to coordinate against German policy.

Ideology

The totality of ideas and conceptions that constitute the theoretical part of a system.

Propaganda

The spreading of ideas that support a specific conception or political party with the goal of winning followers.

Remilitarization

The restoration of a country's war industry.

Dictatorship

A political regime where society lacks mechanisms to control power, led forcibly by a person, party, or group.

Coup d'état

A rapid action aiming to overthrow the existing political regime and seize power by force.

Regency

Provisional governance exercised during the minority, absence, or illness of a monarch.

Bolshevik

An adherent of Bolshevism/Communism and the teachings of Vladimir Lenin.

GULAG

The General Directorate of Camps in the USSR; a term used for the network of labor camps and the repressive system.

Proletariat

The totality of workers who are deprived of the means of production.

Repression

The use of force and violence, such as arrests and deportations, to control groups of the population.

Soviets

Organs of state power in the USSR composed of deputies formally chosen by citizens but actually designated by the ruling party.

Militarism

A policy subordinating state activity and social life to the increase of military potential and war preparation.

Collaborationism

An attitude or policy of betraying the interests of one's own country by cooperating with foreign occupiers.

Gomindan (Kuomintang)

A nationalist political formation and the first regular Chinese political party, founded in 1921.

Guerrilla (Gherilă)

A war of harassment or ambush struggles.

Dictat

An act by which a state imposes conditions on another state against its will through force or intimidation.

Territorial Integrity

A principle of international law stating a state's right to fully exercise sovereignty over its territory.

Statu-quo

The existing situation regarding territory and borders.

State Sovereignty

Supremacy of state power internally and independence from the power of other states.

Non-aggression Pact

A treaty by which states undertake not to initiate armed actions against one another.

Secret Additional Protocol

A document accompanying a treaty with secret provisions regarding spheres of influence or territory not disclosed to the public.

Maginot Line

A system of fortifications built by France along its border with Germany.

Plan Barbarossa

The secret Nazi German plan signed by Hitler in 1940 with the aim of invading the USSR.

Vichy Regime

The authoritative French regime (1940–1944) under Marshal Pétain that was dependent on Nazi Germany.

Wehrmacht

The official name of the armed forces in Nazi Germany.

War Crimes

Grave violations of international humanitarian law during war, such as killing or torturing civilians and prisoners.

Holocaust

The systematic extermination of Jews, Roma, and others by the Nazis and their allies; it also refers to the coordinatated anti-Jewish actions between 1933 and 1945.

Iron Curtain

Winston Churchill's term for the division of Europe into the democratic West and the Communist-controlled East.

Cold War

The political, ideological, and economic confrontation between the USA and USSR from 1945 to 1991.

Perestroika

A policy of restructuring initiated by Mikhail Gorbaciov to revive the Soviet economy and society.

Glasnost

A policy of transparency and the lifting of censorship in the late Soviet Union.

Mass Culture

A form of culture associated with contemporary consumer society, where human relations are largely governed by economic processes.

Dadaism

A literary-artistic movement founded in 1916 by the Romanian Tristan Tzara.

Surrealism

An artistic movement focusing on spontaneous imagination and the irrational.

Proletcultism

A Soviet cultural movement that rejected traditional heritage in favor of culture solely based on labor and production processes.

Velvet Revolution

The pacific movement in Czechoslovakia through which the Communist Party lost its monopoly and democracy was restored.