Vocabulary Set 2

New Economic Policy

A policy that returned most agriculture, retail, and small industry to private ownership after the centralized control of all economic assets had virtually destroyed the Soviet economy. (p. 461)

Joseph Stalin

Bolshevik revolutionary, head of the Communist Party after 1924, and dictator of the Soviet Union from 1928 to 1953. He led the Soviet Union with an iron fist, using Five-Year Plans to increase industrial production and terror to crush all opposition. (p. 462)

Five-Year Plans

Plans that Joseph Stalin introduced to industrialize the Soviet Union rapidly, beginning in 1928. They set goals for the output of steel, electricity, machinery, and most other products and were enforced by the police powers of the state. They succeeded in making the Soviet Union a major industrial power before World War II. (p. 462)

Treaty of Versailles

The treaty imposed on Germany by France, Great Britain, the United States, and other Allied Powers after World War I. It demanded that Germany dismantle its military and give up some lands to Poland. It was resented by many Germans. (p. 466)

Atatürk

The founder of Modern Turkey. He distinguished himself in the defense of Gallipoli in World War I and expelled a Greek expeditionary army from Anatolia in 1921–1922. He replaced the Ottoman Empire with the Turkish Republic in 1923. As president, he pushed through a radical westernization and reform of Turkish society. (p. 470)

Chiang Kai-shek

Chinese military and political leader. Succeeded Sun Yat-sen as head of the Guomindang in 1925

Benito Mussolini

Fascist dictator of Italy (1922–1943). He led Italy to conquer Ethiopia (1935), joined Germany in the Axis pact (1936), and allied Italy with Germany in World War II. He was overthrown in 1943 when the Allies invaded Italy. (p. 471)

Fascist Party

Italian political party created by Benito Mussolini during World War I. It emphasized aggressive nationalism and was Mussolini's instrument for the creation of a dictatorship in Italy from 1922 to 1943. (p. 471)

Adolf Hitler

Born in Austria, Hitler became a radical German nationalist during World War I. He led the Nationalist Socialist German Workers’ Party—The Nazis— in the 1920s and became dictator of Germany in 1933. He led Europe into World War II. (p. 471)

Nazis

German political party led by Adolf Hitler, emphasizing nationalism, racism, and war. When Hitler became chancellor of Germany in 1933, the Nazis became the only legal party and an instrument o Hitler’s absolute rule. The party’s formal name was Nationalist Socialist German Worker’s Party (p. 471)

Mao Zedong

Leader of the Chinese Communist Party (1927–1976). He led the Communists on the Long March (1934–1935) and rebuilt the Communist Party and Red Army during the Japanese occupation of China (1937–1945). After World War II, he led the Communists to victory over the Guomindang. He ordered the Cultural Revolution. (p. 476)

Long March

The 6,000-mile flight of Chinese Communists from southeastern to northwestern China. The Communists, led by Mao Zedong, were pursued by the Chinese army under orders from Chiang Kai-shek. The 4,000 survivors of the march formed the nucleus of a revived Communist movement that defeated the Guomindang after World War II. (p. 476)

Stalingrad

City in Russia, site of a Red Army victory over the German army in 1942–1943. The Battle of Stalingrad was the turning point in the war between Germany and the Soviet Union. Today it is Volgograd. (p. 478)

El Alamein

Town in Egypt, site of the victory over German forces led by General Erwin Rommel ("the Desert Fox") in 1942–1943. (p. 478)

Pearl Harbor

Naval base in Hawaii attacked by Japanese aircraft on December 7, 1941. The sinking of much of the U.S. Pacific Fleet brought the United States into World War II. (p. 478)

Battle of Midway

U.S. naval victory over the Japanese fleet in June 1942, in which the Japanese lost four of their best aircraft carriers. It marked a turning point in World War II. (p. 478)

Hiroshima

City in Japan, the first to be destroyed by an atomic bomb, on August 6, 1945. The bombing hastened the end of World War II. (p. 483)

Auschwitz

Nazi extermination camp in Poland, the largest center of mass murder during the Holocaust. Close to a million Jews, Gypsies, Communists, and others were killed there. (p. 488)

Holocaust

Nazis' program during World War II to kill people they considered undesirable. Some 6 million Jews perished during the Holocaust, along with millions of Poles, Gypsies, Communists, Socialists, and others. (p. 488)