Chapter 32 Keyterms & People To Know

London Economic Conference (1933)

A sixty-six nation economic conference organized to stabilize international currency rates. Franklin Roosevelt's decision to revoke American participation contributed to a deepening world economic crisis.

Good Neighbor policy

A departure from the Roosevelt Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine, it stressed nonintervention in Latin America. It was begun by Herbert Hoover but associated with Franklin D. Roosevelt.

Reciprocal Trade Agreements Act (1934)

This act reversed traditional high-protective-tariff policies by allowing the president to negotiate lower tariffs with trade partners, without Senate approval. Its chief architect was Secretary of State Cordell Hull, who believed that tariff barriers choked off foreign trade.

Rome-Berlin Axis (1936)

Nazi Germany, under Adolf Hitler, and Fascist Italy, led by Benito Mussolini, allied themselves together under this nefarious treaty. The pact was signed after both countries had intervened on behalf of the fascist leader Francisco Franco during the Spanish Civil War.

Johnson Debt Default Act (1934)

Steeped in ugly memories of World War I, this spiteful act prevented debt-ridden nations from borrowing further from the United States.

Neutrality Acts of 1935, 1936, and 1937

Short-sighted acts passed to prevent American participation in a European war. Among other restrictions, they prevented Americans from selling munitions to foreign belligerents.

Abraham Lincoln Brigade

Idealistic American volunteers who served in the Spanish Civil War, defending Spanish republican forces from the fascist General Francisco Franco's nationalist coup. Some three thousand Americans served alongside volunteers from other countries.

Quarantine Speech (1937)

An important speech delivered by Franklin Roosevelt in which he called for 'positive endeavors' to 'quarantine' land-hungry dictators, presumably through economic embargoes. The speech flew in the face of isolationist politicians.

Appeasement (1938)

The policy followed by leaders of Britain and France at the 1938 conference in Munich. Their purpose was to avoid war, but they allowed Germany to take the Sudetenland from Czechoslovakia.

Hitler-Stalin pact (1939)

Treaty signed on August 23, 1939, in which Germany and the Soviet Union agreed not to fight each other. The fateful agreement paved the way for German aggression against Poland and the Western democracies.

Neutrality Act of 1939

This act stipulated that European democracies might buy American munitions, but only if they could pay in cash and transport them in their own ships, a policy known as 'cash-and-carry.' It represented an effort to avoid war debts and protect American arms-carriers from torpedo attacks.

Kristallnacht

German for "night of broken glass," it refers to the murderous pogrom that destroyed Jewish businesses and synagogues and sent thousands to concentration camps on the night of November 9, 1938.

War Refugee Board (1944-1945)

A U.S. agency formed to help rescue Jews from German-occupied territories and to provide relief to inmates of Nazi concentration camps.

America First Committee

An isolationist advocacy group formed in September 1940 that opposed American intervention in the Second World War.

Lend-Lease Bill (1941)

Based on the motto "Send guns, not sons," this law abandoned former pretenses of neutrality by allowing Americans to sell unlimited supplies of arms to any nation defending itself against the Axis powers.

Atlantic Charter (1941)

A covenant outlining the future path toward disarmament, peace, and a permanent system of general security signed by Franklin Roosevelt and Winston Churchill.

Pearl Harbor (1941)

An American naval base in Hawaii where Japanese warplanes destroyed numerous ships and caused three thousand casualties on December 7, 1941.

Benito Mussolini (1883-1945)

Fascist leader of Italy from 1922 to 1943 who launched Italy into World War II on the side of Axis Powers.

Adolf Hitler (1889-1945)

Nazi dictator of Germany from 1933 to 1945, the mastermind behind the Holocaust.

Francisco Franco (1892-1975)

Spanish general who became head of state after his fascistic troops prevailed over the republican Loyalists in the Spanish Civil War.

Cordell Hull (1871-1955)

Secretary of State under President Roosevelt and chief architect of the low-tariff reciprocal trade policy of the New Dealers.

Wendell L. Willkie (1892-1944)

Known as the "rich man's Roosevelt," he was a novice politician and Republican businessman who lost to Franklin Roosevelt in the 1940 presidential campaign.