Modern World History: 20th-Century China and Weimar & Nazi Germany

Comprehensive vocabulary flashcards covering the fall of the Qing Dynasty, Warlord Era, Chinese Civil War, Mao's regime, Cultural Revolution, Deng's reforms, the Weimar Republic, the rise of the Nazi Party, the Third Reich, and World War II.

Mandate of Heaven

The traditional Chinese concept that fate granted the Emperor authority to rule as long as his actions remained within the natural laws of harmony.

Mandarins

The elite scholar-bureaucrat class in imperial China who were students of Confucius and earned privileges and administrative authority by passing state examinations.

Hundred Days Reform (1898)

An attempt by Emperor Guangxu to modernise the Qing government and cease concessions to foreign powers, which was terminated by Empress Dowager Cixi and her supporters.

Society of Righteous and Harmonious Fists (Boxers)

A Chinese peasant secret society that opposed foreign influence, Christianity, railways, and telegraph wires, launching attacks across northern China in the late 1890s.

Boxer Protocol Reparations

A severe financial penalty imposed on China by Western powers following the Boxer Uprising, demanding $\pounds 67\text{ million}$ to be paid over $39$ years.

Double Tenth (October 10th 1911)

The date when a military mutiny erupted in Wuhan among Han soldiers resisting Manchu authority, quickly spreading across provinces and igniting the 1911 Revolution.

Three Principles of the People

The core political ideology announced by Sun Yat-sen in 1919 for the Guomindang (GMD), focusing on national unity, lifting the Chinese populace from poverty, and ending foreign exploitation.

Twenty-One Demands (1915)

A series of coercive demands imposed by Japan on Chinese territory, the acceptance of most of which by Yuan Shikai provoked military revolt and eroded his authority.

Warlord Era (1916–27)

A period of fragmentation following the death of Yuan Shikai in June 1916, during which local military generals governed independent provinces, maintained private armies, and levied their own legal and tax systems.

May the Fourth Movement (1919)

A student-led protest beginning at Beijing University and Tiananmen Square opposing the Treaty of Versailles decision to award German possessions in Shandong to Japan, promoting modern values known as the 'New Tide'.

Whampoa Military Academy

A military training institute established in 1924 by Sun Yat-sen with Soviet Bolshevik assistance to develop the officer corps for the National Revolutionary Army (NRA).

First United Front (1924–27)

An alliance established between the GMD and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) to destroy the warlords, expel foreign imperialists, and improve living standards across China.

Northern Expedition (1926–28)

A military campaign launched by the National Revolutionary Army under Chiang Kai-shek that advanced through central, eastern, and northern China, defeating warlords and establishing a national capital at Nanjing.

Shanghai Massacres (April 1927)

A purge orchestrated by Chiang Kai-shek, supported by industrialists and local gangs, during which approximately $5{,}000$ communists in Shanghai were executed, initiating the collapse of the First United Front.

Extermination Campaigns (1930–34)

A sequence of five military encirclement campaigns led by Chiang Kai-shek to eliminate the communists in their Jiangxi base, concluding with a blockade and scorched-earth strategy in late 1933.

Long March (1934–35)

A military breakout on the night of October 16th 1934 by $80{,}000$ to $100{,}000$ communists fleeing the Jiangxi Soviet, marching north to reach safety in Yan'an in October 1935 with approximately $10{,}000$ survivors.

Zunyi Conference (January 1935)

A crucial leadership meeting during the Long March where Mao Zedong and Zhu De took control of the Communist Party and adopted flexible, evasive military manoeuvres.

Manchukuo

The puppet state established by the Japanese Empire in 1932 after invading the northeastern Chinese region of Manchuria in 1931.

Second United Front (1937–45)

The renewed coalition between the GMD and CCP, formed after warlords coerced Chiang Kai-shek in December 1936 to suspend anti-communist actions and combat the Japanese invasion together.

Rape of Nanjing (December 1937)

The capture and subsequent atrocities in Nanjing by the Japanese Imperial Army, resulting in over $30{,}000$ Chinese civilians killed and approximately $20{,}000$ women and girls raped.

100 Regiments Offensive (1940)

A major communist offensive during the Sino-Japanese War where over $400{,}000$ Red Army soldiers launched coordinated attacks against Japanese transport networks and garrisons across northern and central China.

Battle of Huai-Hai (November 1948–January 1949)

A decisive confrontation of the Chinese Civil War around Xuzhou in which the People's Liberation Army defeated Nationalist forces, resulting in over $200{,}000$ GMD casualties and opening central China to the communists.

Agrarian Reform Law (1950)

Legislation enacted by the PRC that confiscated land belonging to large landlords and state enemies to redistribute among poor peasants, accompanied by violent local 'struggle meetings'.

Agricultural Producers Co-operatives (APCs)

Farming organisations introduced in 1953 where individual peasant plots, livestock, and equipment were grouped together into units under centralised operational planning.

First Five Year Plan (PRC, 1952–57)

A central industrial development programme in China focused on heavy industries such as coal, iron, steel, and petroleum, assisted by Soviet technical advisers.

Great Leap Forward (1958–62)

A radical campaign initiated by Mao to accelerate industrialisation and communal farming simultaneously, deploying mass labour, rural communes, and approximately $600{,}000$ backyard furnaces.

Four Noes Campaign

An ecological initiative during the Great Leap Forward instructing citizens to eliminate sparrows, flies, mosquitoes, and rats, which unintentionally led to catastrophic crop destruction by insects.

Marriage Law of 1950

A landmark PRC law that banned arranged marriages, dowries, concubinage, and female infanticide while establishing divorce rights for women and setting the minimum marriage age to $18$ for women and $20$ for men.

PRC Government Structure under Mao

A centralised administrative hierarchy where Chairman Mao led both state and party, commanding the five-member Politburo (Mao, Liu Shaoqi, Zhou Enlai, Zhu De, Chen Yun), which oversaw the Central Committee, the PLA, and the Premier-led State Council.

Three Antis and Five Antis Campaigns (1951–52)

Twin campaigns targeting corruption, waste, and inefficiency among cadres (Three Antis), and bribery, tax evasion, fraud, theft of state property, and industrial sabotage among businessmen (Five Antis).

Hundred Flowers Campaign (1957)

A short-lived initiative by Mao encouraging intellectuals to speak freely and criticise party mistakes, followed immediately by the Anti-Rightist Campaign that purged hundreds of thousands of critics.

Central Cultural Revolution Group (CCRG)

A radical political committee formed in March 1966 under Chen Boda to direct ideological policy and mobilise mass campaigns against perceived counter-revolutionaries.

Four Olds

The targets of eradication identified during the Cultural Revolution mass rallies of 1966: old ideas, old culture, old customs, and old habits.

Red Guards

Youth and student paramilitary groups established in May 1966, bearing the Little Red Book and red armbands, who carried out violent struggle sessions against 'class enemies' and revisionists.

Little Red Book

A pocketbook collection of quotations by Mao Zedong compiled by Lin Biao in 1964 for the military, later treated with reverence by Red Guards during the Cultural Revolution.

'Up to the Mountains and Down to the Villages' Campaign

A mass relocation policy launched in 1968 to re-establish social order by dispersing radicalised urban Red Guards into rural farming villages to learn manual peasant labour.

Laogai

A penal network of forced labour and political re-education camps in China where opponents of the Communist regime were subjected to strict discipline, harsh labor, and ideological transformation.

Gang of Four

A radical CCP faction led by Jiang Qing (along with Zhang Chunqiao, Wang Hongwen, and Yao Wenyuan) that exercised extensive cultural control during the Cultural Revolution until their arrest in October 1976.

Household Responsibility System

An agricultural reform introduced under Deng Xiaoping allowing peasant households to lease farmland from the xiang, sell surplus produce on the open market, and retain private profits after fulfilling state quotas.

Special Economic Zones (SEZs)

Designated coastal trade regions established under Deng Xiaoping offering preferential tax rates to attract foreign capital, technology, and export-oriented enterprise.

Iron Rice Bowl

The traditional socialist employment model guaranteeing Chinese state-owned enterprise (SOE) workers lifetime employment, fixed housing, and healthcare regardless of productivity.

One-Child Policy (1979)

A state demographic policy restricting families to a single child via birth permits, financial incentives, and penalties to curb China's rapid population growth.

Democracy Wall Movement

A 1978–79 political movement in Beijing where citizens posted big-character posters demanding political modernisation, highlighted by activist Wei Jingsheng advocating a 'Fifth Modernisation'.

Tiananmen Square Protests (1989)

Student-led demonstrations beginning in April 1989 following the death of Hu Yaobang calling for democratic reforms, which ended on June 3rd–4th with a violent military clearance by the PLA.

November Criminals

A derogatory term used by German nationalists to vilify the Weimar politicians who signed the armistice on November 11th 1918 and agreed to the Treaty of Versailles.

Article 48 (Weimar Constitution)

A constitutional emergency provision permitting the German President to suspend fundamental civil rights and enact laws by presidential decree without Reichstag consent.

Proportional Representation (Weimar Republic)

An electoral system allocating Reichstag seats strictly in proportion to party votes, which encouraged broad political participation but frequently generated unstable coalition governments.

Treaty of Versailles (June 28th 1919)

The peace treaty imposed on Germany by the Allied powers, stripping $13\%$ of its European territory, confiscating $11$ African colonies, and placing strict limits on its armed forces.

War Guilt Clause (Article 231)

The provision within the Treaty of Versailles requiring Germany to accept complete moral responsibility for initiating the First World War and to pay reparations amounting to $136{,}000\text{ million marks}$.

Freikorps

Paramilitary bands of demobilised right-wing, anti-communist ex-soldiers deployed by the Weimar government to suppress leftist uprisings such as the Spartacist revolt.

Spartacist Uprising (January 1919)

An armed left-wing rebellion in Berlin led by Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht attempting to establish a communist government, quickly suppressed by the Freikorps.

Kapp Putsch (March 1920)

An attempted right-wing coup led by Dr. Wolfgang Kapp and mutinous Freikorps brigades who seized government buildings in Berlin until brought down by a general strike.

Invasion of the Ruhr (January 1923)

The military occupation of Germany's industrial heartland by French and Belgian forces following missed reparations payments, met by a policy of state-funded passive resistance.

Hyperinflation (1923)

An extreme economic collapse caused by excessive money printing to fund Ruhr strike pay, rendering the German mark worthless and wiping out personal savings and fixed pensions.

Rentenmark

A temporary currency introduced in November 1923 by Chancellor Gustav Stresemann, backed by German industrial and agricultural assets, which stabilised national monetary value.

Dawes Plan (1924)

An international economic agreement providing Germany an $800\text{ million gold mark}$ American loan, lowering annual reparations to $1{,}000\text{ million marks}$ for five years, and prompting the French withdrawal from the Ruhr.

Young Plan (1929)

A financial settlement lowering Germany's total reparations liability to approximately $\$8\text{ billion}$, payable over $59$ years at $\$473\text{ million}$ annually, alongside early French evacuation of the Rhineland.

Locarno Pact (1925)

A collection of seven European treaties wherein Germany accepted its western borders with France and Belgium, renounced military aggression, and entered the 'Locarno Honeymoon' period.

Kellogg-Briand Pact (August 1928)

An international agreement signed by $62$ nations, including Germany, committing signatories to resolve international disputes by peaceful means rather than war.

German Workers' Party (DAP)

A small nationalist, anti-communist, and anti-Semitic political group founded in Munich by Anton Drexler in January 1919, which Adolf Hitler joined in September 1919.

Twenty-Five Point Programme (1920)

The published political manifesto of the renamed National Socialist German Workers' Party (NSDAP), advocating the abolition of the Treaty of Versailles and denial of civil rights to Jews.

Sturmabteilung (SA)

The brown-shirted paramilitary wing of the Nazi Party established in 1921 under Ernst Röhm to protect party meetings, intimidate rival political opponents, and maintain public order.

Munich Putsch (November 1923)

An unsuccessful armed insurrection led by Adolf Hitler and General Ludendorff at the Bürgerbräukeller in Munich aiming to march on Berlin and overthrow the Weimar Republic.

Mein Kampf

Adolf Hitler's autobiographical and ideological book drafted while imprisoned in Landsberg Castle, outlining beliefs in Aryan racial superiority, anti-Semitism, and Lebensraum in the East.

Schutzstaffel (SS)

An elite paramilitary formation initially created as Hitler's personal bodyguard, developed under Heinrich Himmler into an organisation managing internal security and concentration camps.

Wall Street Crash (October 1929)

The collapse of the New York stock exchange triggering a global economic depression and the recall of American loans, precipitating catastrophic bank failures and unemployment in Germany.

Reichstag Fire (February 27th 1933)

The arson destruction of the Reichstag building attributed to Dutch communist Marinus van der Lubbe, which Hitler exploited to suppress the Communist Party and suspend civil liberties.

Decree for the Protection of the People and State (February 28th 1933)

An emergency decree signed by President Hindenburg following the Reichstag fire that suspended civil liberties, enabling the detention of political opponents without formal trial.

Enabling Act (March 24th 1933)

A constitutional amendment passed by $444$ votes to $94$ granting Adolf Hitler the power to enact legislation, alter the constitution, and sign treaties without Reichstag approval for four years.

Night of the Long Knives (June 30th 1934)

A targeted purge in which the SS executed Ernst Röhm and approximately $200$ high-ranking SA leaders, alongside conservative rivals such as von Kahr and von Schleicher, securing regular army loyalty.

Führer (August 2nd 1934)

The unified title assumed by Adolf Hitler following the death of President Hindenburg, merging the offices of Chancellor and President into an absolute dictatorship with armed forces swearing personal loyalty to him.

Gestapo

The non-uniformed secret state police of Nazi Germany, operating under Heinrich Himmler's command with authority to conduct surveillance, arrest suspects without trial, and detain individuals in concentration camps.

Hitler Youth (Hitlerjugend)

A mandatory state organisation for boys aged $10$ to $18$ focusing on ideological indoctrination, physical fitness, and preparatory military training.

League of German Maidens (BDM)

The female branch of the Hitler Youth for girls aged $14$ to $18$, designed to prepare young women for domestic roles, motherhood, and health according to Nazi racial ideology.

Law for the Encouragement of Marriage (1933)

A Nazi population policy offering state marriage loans to young couples provided the wife withdrew from paid employment, with loan repayments reduced by $25\%$ per child born.

Reich Church

A unified national Protestant organisation established in 1933 under Nazi-supported Bishop Ludwig Müller, incorporating Nazi racial doctrines and known colloquially as 'German Christians'.

Confessional Church

A dissident Protestant movement founded in 1934 by pastors Martin Niemöller and Dietrich Bonhoeffer to resist Nazi ideological interference in traditional Christian theology.

Nuremberg Laws (September 1935)

Anti-Semitic statutes comprising the Reich Citizenship Law (stripping Jews of German citizenship and voting rights) and the Law for the Protection of German Blood and Honour (banning marriages between Jews and Aryans).

Kristallnacht (November 9–10 1938)

A state-sponsored pogrom across Germany destroying over $800$ Jewish-owned shops, burning $191$ synagogues, killing $91$ Jews, and resulting in the arrest of $30{,}000$ individuals.

Autarky

The Nazi economic goal of complete national self-sufficiency in food and industrial raw materials, spearheaded through Hermann Goering's Four Year Plan of 1936.

German Labour Front (DAF)

The state-controlled trade union organisation led by Dr. Robert Ley, which replaced independent labour unions and operated worker programmes such as Strength Through Joy (KdF) and Beauty of Labour (SdA).

Invisible Unemployment

The manipulation of official German employment statistics by excluding women, Jews, forced labour service conscripts (RAD), and part-time workers from official jobless registers.

Warsaw Ghetto Resettlement Order (July 1942)

A directive issued by German occupation authorities mandating the daily deportation of $6{,}000$ Warsaw Jews to Treblinka death camp under the pretext of 'resettlement in the east'.

Einsatzgruppen

Mobile paramilitary death squads of the SS that followed the Wehrmacht during Operation Barbarossa, executing over $1.2\text{ million}$ civilians, primarily Jews, communists, and Romani people.

Final Solution (1941–42)

The state-coordinated plan for the systemic genocide of European Jews, formalised at the Wannsee Conference in January 1942 through the establishment of dedicated extermination camps.

Kinderlandverschickung (KLV)

A wartime mass evacuation programme begun in 1942 relocating approximately $2.5\text{ million}$ German children from bombed cities into $9{,}000$ rural camps supervised by teachers and Hitler Youth leaders.

Total War Speech (February 1943)

A major public address delivered by Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels in Berlin following the Stalingrad defeat, demanding the full mobilisation of German civilian and industrial resources.

Edelweiss Pirates

A working-class youth opposition movement that rejected the regimentation of the Hitler Youth, gave shelter to army deserters, stole supplies, and carried out acts of sabotage against the Gestapo.

White Rose Group

A non-violent student resistance network founded by Hans and Sophie Scholl at Munich University that distributed six anti-Nazi pamphlets criticising the murder of Jews and predicting German defeat.

July Bomb Plot (July 20th 1944)

An assassination attempt on Adolf Hitler led by Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg at the Wolf's Lair headquarters, which failed and triggered the execution of approximately $6{,}000$ implicated plotters.

Nazi Conquests Timeline (1939–1941)

The rapid military expansion of the Third Reich conquering Poland (September 1939), Denmark and Norway (April 1940), France, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg (May 1940), and Yugoslavia and Greece (April 1941).