History Semester 2 Final

Triple Entente

The military alliance formed in 1907 between Great Britain, France, and Russia, which stood against the Central Powers in World War I.

Central Powers

The wartime alliance consisting of Germany, Austria-Hungary, the Ottoman Empire, and Bulgaria.

Wilson’s 14 Points

A 1918 blueprint for postwar peace proposed by President Woodrow Wilson, emphasizing free trade, open diplomacy, self-determination, and the creation of a League of Nations.

Schlieffen Plan

Germany's prewar military strategy to avoid a two-front war by rapidly defeating France through Belgium before turning to face Russia.

Sarajevo

The capital city of Bosnia and Herzegovina where the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand took place, sparking World War I.

U-Boat

(Unterseeboot) A German submarine used to sink Allied merchant and military ships to disrupt supply lines.

Archduke Franz Ferdinand

The heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne whose assassination on June 28, 1914, triggered the outbreak of World War I.

Gavrilo Princip

The Serbian nationalist and member of the Black Hand secret society who assassinated Archduke Franz Ferdinand.

Machine gun

A rapid-firing automatic weapon that dominated WWI glass ceilings, making open-field infantry charges suicidal and forcing troops into trenches.

Trench warfare

A defensive form of combat where opposing armies face each other from deep systems of protective ditches dug into the ground.

Attrition

A military strategy aiming to win a war by wearing down the enemy to the point of collapse through continuous losses in personnel and material.

Tank

An armored, tracked combat vehicle introduced by the British during WWI to cross rugged terrain and break through barbed wire and trenches.

Zeppelin/dirigible

Large, hydrogen-filled rigid airships used by Germany for scouting and early strategic bombing raids during WWI.

War Industries Board (WIB)

A U.S. government agency established during WWI to coordinate industrial production and increase efficiency for the war effort.

Unrestricted U-Boat attacks

Germany's naval policy of sinking any ships (including civilian and neutral vessels) entering war zones around Britain without warning.

Liberty Bonds

War bonds sold by the U.S. government to private citizens to finance American military participation in WWI.

Spanish Flu/influenza

A deadly global influenza pandemic (1918–1920) that infected an estimated one-third of the world's population and killed tens of millions.

League of Nations

An international peacekeeping organization proposed by Woodrow Wilson in his 14 Points to resolve global disputes diplomatically; the U.S. ultimately never joined.

Great Migration

The mass movement of millions of African Americans from the rural American South to northern and midwestern industrial cities starting during WWI to find jobs and escape Jim Crow.

Treaty of Versailles

The 1919 peace treaty that officially ended WWI, imposing harsh financial reparations and territorial losses on Germany, which contributed to later geopolitical instability.

ACLU (American Civil Liberties Union)

Formed in 1920 to defend and preserve the individual rights and liberties guaranteed to every person in the U.S. by the Constitution.

ADL (Anti-Defamation League)

An international Jewish non-governmental organization founded in 1913 to combat antisemitism and secure justice and fair treatment for all citizens.

Assembly line

A manufacturing process where parts are added to a product in a sequential manner, drastically speeding up production and lowering costs.

Henry Ford

Founder of the Ford Motor Company who revolutionized industrial manufacturing by perfecting the moving assembly line for the Model T car.

Pan-Africanism

A worldwide movement that aims to encourage and strengthen bonds of solidarity between all people of African descent.

Marcus Garvey/Back to Africa mvmnt.

A Jamaican political activist who founded the UNIA and advocated for African American economic independence and repatriation to Africa.

Harlem Renaissance

A cultural, social, and artistic explosion centered in Harlem, New York, during the 1920s that celebrated African American culture and heritage.

Jazz

A genre of music originating in African American communities of New Orleans in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, defined by improvisation and syncopated rhythms.

Flapper

A generation of young Western women in the 1920s who wore short skirts, bobbed their hair, listened to jazz, and flaunted disdain for traditional social behavior.

Religious fundamentalism

A religious movement characterized by a strict, literal interpretation of religious texts, which surged in the 1920s as a reaction to modern secular culture.

Eugenics

A pseudoscientific movement in the early-to-mid 20th century aimed at "improving" the genetic quality of a human population through selective breeding and forced sterilization.

Bootlegger

A person who illegally makes, transports, or sells alcoholic beverages during Prohibition.

Speakeasy

An illicit establishment that illegally sold alcoholic beverages during the Prohibition era.

19th Amendment

Note: The prompt lists this as Prohibition, but the 19th Amendment actually granted women the right to vote (ratified 1920). Prohibition was established by the 18th Amendment. 

20th Amendment

Note: The prompt lists this as women's suffrage, but the 20th Amendment actually shortened the time between presidential elections and inaugurations ("Lame Duck" amendment, ratified 1933). 

Red Scare

A period of intense fear of communism and radical leftism in the United States, particularly following the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution in Russia.

Mass markets

Large-scale consumer markets created by mass production, nationwide advertising, and standardized consumer goods.

Radicals

Individuals who advocate for fundamental, sweeping, and revolutionary changes to political, economic, or social structures.

Louis Armstrong

A highly influential African American jazz trumpeter, composer, and singer who became one of the foundational figures of jazz music.

Langston Hughes

A leading poet, novelist, and playwright of the Harlem Renaissance whose work celebrated black life and culture.

Zora Neale Hurston

An influential author, anthropologist, and filmmaker associated with the Harlem Renaissance, best known for her novel Their Eyes Were Watching God.

Scopes “Monkey Trial”

A famous 1925 court case in which biology teacher John Scopes was tried for illegally teaching Charles Darwin's theory of evolution in a Tennessee public school, highlighting the cultural clash between modern science and traditional religion.

Black Tuesday

October 29, 1929, the day the U.S. stock market crashed catastrophically, signaling the beginning of the Great Depression.

Bonus Army

A group of WWI veterans who marched on Washington, D.C., in 1932 to demand early payment of their military cash bonuses, only to be forcibly removed by the U.S. Army.

Great Depression

The worst economic downturn in the history of the industrialized world, lasting from the 1929 stock market crash until World War II.

Dust Bowl

A severe environmental disaster in the 1930s characterized by devastating dust storms and severe drought that ruined agriculture across the American Great Plains.

GNP (Gross National Product)

The total value of all finished goods and services produced by a country's citizens and businesses in a given financial year.

Hoovervilles

Shantytowns built by unemployed and homeless people during the Great Depression, named mockingly after President Herbert Hoover.

Buying on margin/margin calls

Purchasing stock by borrowing a large percentage of the funds from a broker. A margin call is a broker's demand that an investor deposit more cash to cover losses.

Speculation

Engaging in risky financial transactions (like buying real estate or stocks) in hope of making a quick, large profit based on market fluctuations.

Drought

A prolonged period of abnormally low rainfall, leading to a shortage of water and severe agricultural damage.

Disposable income

The amount of money that households have available for spending and saving after income taxes have been accounted for.

Fascism

A far-right, authoritarian, ultranationalist political ideology characterized by dictatorial power, militarism, and the forcible suppression of opposition.

Kellogg-Briand Pact

A 1928 international agreement in which signatory states promised not to use war to resolve disputes or conflicts.

Tariffs

Taxes imposed by a government on imported goods, often used to protect domestic industries from foreign competition.

Smoot-Hawley Act

A 1930 U.S. law that raised tariffs on over 20,000 imported goods to record-high levels, which worsened the global depression by triggering retaliatory tariffs.

Stock market

A public marketplace where shares of publicly held companies are issued, bought, and sold.

1st 100 Days

The initial period of FDR's presidency during which he pushed through an unprecedented amount of emergency legislation to fight the Great Depression.

Bank holidays

A temporary closure of all American banks ordered by FDR in March 1933 to halt panic runs and restore public confidence in the banking system.

Brain trust

A group of close advisors, academic experts, and professionals who helped FDR design and implement New Deal legislation.

Collective bargaining

Negotiations between an employer and a group of employees (usually represented by a labor union) to determine conditions of employment.

Court-packing

FDR's failed 1937 legislative plan to add up to six extra judges to the Supreme Court to prevent conservative justices from overturning New Deal laws.

Deficit spending

The practice of a government spending more money than it receives in tax revenue, borrowing the difference to stimulate the economy.

Fireside chats

A series of informal evening radio addresses given by FDR directly to the American public to explain his policies and calm fears.

21st Amendment

Ratified in 1933, this amendment officially repealed the 18th Amendment, ending the national prohibition of alcohol.

22nd Amendment

Limits a president to two terms (passed after FDR's death).

New Deal

FDR's domestic economic and social program consisting of numerous laws, public works projects, financial reforms, and regulations passed during the 1930s.

2nd New Deal

A second wave of New Deal legislation launched in 1935 focused more heavily on long-term social reform, labor security, and permanent safety nets.

Social Security

A permanent federal safety-net program established in 1935 that provides retirement pensions, unemployment insurance, and aid for disabled citizens.

The 3 “R”s (Relief, Recovery, Reform)

The core goals of the New Deal:

Relief for the immediate hardships of the unemployed

Recovery for the economy

Reform of financial systems to prevent future depressions. 

Planned scarcity

An economic policy of reducing agricultural or industrial production to drive up market prices for goods, practiced by early New Deal programs like the AAA.

WPA (Works Progress Administration)

A massive New Deal agency that employed millions of job-seekers to build public works like roads, buildings, and parks, while also funding arts and literacy projects.

AAA (Agricultural Adjustment Act)

A New Deal law that offered federal subsidies to farmers who agreed to limit crop production and livestock numbers to raise crop prices.

Welfare state

A system whereby the state undertakes to protect the health and well-being of its citizens, especially those in financial or social need, through pensions, healthcare, and financial aid.

National Socialism

(Nazism) The totalitarian, expansionist, facist, and virulently antisemitic ideology of the Nazi Party led by Adolf Hitler in Germany.

Josef Stalin

The ruthless dictator of the Soviet Union from the mid-1920s until his death in 1953, who transformed the USSR into a militarized industrial superpower.

5-year Plans

A series of centralized national economic blueprints implemented by Stalin to rapidly industrialize the Soviet Union and collectivize agriculture.

Benito Mussolini

The fascist dictator of Italy (Il Duce) who ruled from 1922 to 1943, creating a totalitarian corporate state and allied with Hitler.

Adolf Hitler

The totalitarian dictator of Nazi Germany (Der Führer) from 1933 to 1945 whose aggressive expansionist policies ignited WWII and orchestrator of the Holocaust.

Fascism

A radical authoritarian nationalist political ideology that emphasizes total subordination to the state, led by a dictatorial ruler.

Appeasement

The policy of making political, material, or territorial concessions to an aggressive power (such as Nazi Germany) in the hope of avoiding war.

Allied Powers

The international military coalition that opposed the Axis Powers during WWII, primarily led by Great Britain, the Soviet Union, and the United States.

Axis Powers

The military alliance of Germany, Italy, and Japan that fought against the Allies during WWII.

Munich Agreement

A 1938 settlement allowing Nazi Germany to annex portions of Czechoslovakia (the Sudetenland), often cited as the ultimate example of failed appeasement.

Atlantic Charter

A 1941 joint declaration issued by FDR and Winston Churchill outlining Allied goals for the postwar world, including self-determination and freedom of the seas.

Anschluss (annexation)

The political annexation and incorporation of Austria into Nazi Germany in March 1938.

Long March

A grueling 6,000-mile military retreat undertaken by the Chinese Red Army to escape the pursuing Nationalist forces, solidifying Mao Zedong's leadership.

Abyssinia

The historical name for Ethiopia, which was invaded and brutally conquered by Fascist Italy in 1935.

Molotov-Ribbentrop (NonAggression) Pact

A 1939 treaty between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union in which they agreed not to attack each other and secretly divided Poland between themselves.

Third Reich

The official Nazi designation for the regime in Germany from 1933 to 1945.

Mao Zedong

The leader of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) who fought against Nationalists and Japanese invaders, eventually establishing the People's Republic of China in 1949.

Chiang Kai-shek

The political and military leader of the Chinese Nationalist Party (Kuomintang) who fought Mao Zedong and later fled to Taiwan.

Pacifism

The belief that any violence, including war, is unjustifiable under any circumstances, and that all disputes should be settled by peaceful means.

Embargo

An official ban on trade or commercial activity with a particular country, used as a political sanction.

Manchuria

A resource-rich region in Northeast China invaded and occupied by Imperial Japan in 1931, setting up the puppet state of Manchukuo.

Tojo

Hideki Tojo, the militaristic Prime Minister of Imperial Japan during most of World War II who authorized the attack on Pearl Harbor.

Hirohito

The Emperor of Japan during World War II and the subsequent post-war American occupation.

Rape of Nanking

A mass atrocity committed by Imperial Japanese troops in 1937, involving the widespread slaughter, torture, and rape of hundreds of thousands of Chinese civilians in Nanking.

Neville Chamberlain

The British Prime Minister from 1937 to 1940 best known for his policy of appeasement toward Adolf Hitler prior to World War II.

Winston Churchill

The inspirational British Prime Minister who led Great Britain to victory against Nazi Germany during World War II.