AP World - 1900-present: WWII + The Cold War

Ethiopia

250,000 people died when Italy invaded this country in 1935

Munich Conference

A meeting were Britain and France gave Hitler the Sudetenland

Nazi-Soviet neutrality pact

An agreement of neutrality between Germany and the USSR in 1939

Allied Powers

The alliance of Britain, the USSR, and the US during WWII

AXIS

The alliance of Japan, Germany, and Italy during WWII

Manchuria

The part of China annexed by Japan in 1931

Appeasement

The policy of giving in to the demands of an aggressor to avoid war

Nanjing Massacres

The worst of the atrocities committed by Japan

Stalin

He was seen as a hero for his resistance against the Nazis

Britzkeig

Battle strategy that bombs from the air first and then cleans up resistance with tanks and troops after

Barbarossa/Fritz

Code name for the invasion of the Soviet Union

Lebensraum

German word for living space

Lend-Lease act

The agreement was America's attempt to help supply Britain during the beginning of the war

Luftwaffe

Nazi air force

Battle of Britain

The Nazis attempted to win this battle through aerial bombings alone

Comfort Women

Korean sex slaves used in Japanese military brothels

Final Solution

Nazi decision to kill all Jews in Europe

Stalingrad

The most important battle of WWII

Midway

Turning point in American war vs. Japan

Nagasaki

This ended the war against Japan

Dresden

This German city was mercilessly bombed by Allied forces

Detente

Cooling off period

Nicolae Ceaucescu

Brutal Romanian dictator during cold war

Cuban Missle Crisis

Closest the US and USSR came to war

Mao Zedong

Communist leader of China during the Cold War

Fidel Castro

Communist leader of Cuba during the Cold War

Yalta Conference

Conference before the defeat of Germany where Stalin pledged to allow free elections in Europe

NATO

Defensive alliance by the west against USSR

Truman Doctrine

Doctrine that pledged any and all support to defend countries against communism

Bay of Pigs

Failed US supported invasion of Cuba

Poland

First eastern European country to break free from communist rule

Lech Walesa

Leader of Polish opposition Solidarity and first freely elected leader of Poland

Boris Yeltsin

First freely elected leader of Russia

Lithuania

First republic to declare independence from USSR

Marshall Plan

Gave 12.5 billion dollars to countries in Western Europe in an effort to stop the spread of communism

Glasnost

Gorbachev’s policy of openness

Perestoika

Plan by Gorbachev to rebuild Soviet economy

Iron Curtain

Imaginary line dividing west/east

Taiwan

Where nationalist Chinese government fled

Gorbachev

Last leader of the USSR

Chiang Kai-Sek

Nationalist leader of China

Korean War

One of the wars the UN sanctioned

Brezhnev

Replaced Khrushchev as leader of the USSR

Kruskhchev

Replaced Stalin as leader of the USSR

Berlin airway

Successful mobilization by the U.S. to feed the besieged city of West Berlin

Berlin Wall

Symbol of the Cold War

Deterrence

The promise to completely destroy the other if attacked

United Nations

World organization dedicated to world peace