World War Two Study Guide Flashcards

Vocabulary based on the Chapter 32 World War II study guide, including key terms, people, and major turning points.

nonaggression pact

A ten-year agreement between Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin and Adolf Hitler where signatories promised not to engage in military action against each other after Stalin was excluded from the Munich Conference.

Axis Powers

A military coalition led by Germany, Italy, and Japan that fought against the Allies and served as the catalyst for World War II.

Allies

A group of nations associated for a common purpose, providing assistance, support, or friendship during the war.

Blitzkrieg

Meaning 'lightning war,' this military tactic emphasizes speed, surprise, and concentrated force, using fast-moving airplanes and tanks followed by massive infantry.

Holocaust

The systematic mass slaughter of Jews and other groups judged inferior by the Nazis based on racist claims and non-Aryan ideology.

Jewish Problem

An ideological term used by Nazis to describe the 19th- and 20th-century debate regarding the integration and civil status of Jewish people in European society.

Ghettos

Dismal, overcrowded, and segregated areas where Nazis herded Jews, sealing them off with barbed wire and stone walls.

Final Solution

Hitler's direct plan for the systematic killing of the entire Jewish population through extermination and concentration camps.

Genocide

The systematic killing of an entire people, such as the Holocaust which resulted in the murder of six million people.

Nanking Atrocities / Rape of Nanking

A six-week period beginning in December 1937 of extreme violence committed by the Imperial Japanese Army against the Chinese city of Nanjing.

Kamikaze

Japanese suicide pilots who crashed bomb-filled planes into Allied ships to sink them.

island hopping

A military strategy of moving systematically from one island to another in a specific region, spending a short time on each.

Hiroshima & Nagasaki

Two Japanese cities targeted by the United States with catastrophic aerial nuclear detonations on August 6 and 9, 1945.

Nuremberg Trials

Proceedings held from 1945 to 1946 where an International Military Tribunal representing 23 nations charged Nazi leaders with waging a war of aggression.

Demilitarization

The process initiated by General MacArthur to disband the Japanese armed forces, leaving them with only a small police force.

Democratization

The process of creating a government elected by the people, implemented in Japan after the war.

unconditional surrender

A surrender without guarantees or concessions where the losing side yields completely to the victor's mercy, receiving only baseline protections from international law.

Atlantic Charter

A secret joint declaration between Roosevelt and Churchill that upheld free trade and the right of people to choose their own government.

Winston Churchill

British statesman and Prime Minister (1940–1945 and 1951–1955) who rallied the British people to resist Nazi Germany and shaped the Allied victory.

Adolf Hitler

Austrian-born German politician and fascist dictator (1933–1945) whose expansionist policies and antisemitism catalyzed World War II and the Holocaust.

Joseph Stalin

Soviet revolutionary and brutal dictator who led the Soviet Union from the mid-1920s until his death; his name translates to 'man of steel'.

Harry S. Truman

The 33rd President of the United States (1945–1953) who authorized the use of atomic bombs on Japan to end the war.

Isoroku Yamamoto

Japan’s greatest naval strategist who planned the attack on the U.S. fleet in Hawaii, describing it as a 'dagger pointed at [Japan’s] throat'.

Battle of Britain

Recognized as the first big defeat for Germany during the war.

Battle of Stalingrad

A major turning point battle where Germany lost against the Soviet Union in the East.

Battle of Midway

A turning point battle that shifted the war in the Pacific in favor of the United States.

D-Day

The Allied invasion that opened a second front in Europe.

Radar

A key WWII technology used to detect enemy aircraft and ships.

Nuremberg Laws

Specific Nazi laws that took away the rights of Jewish people as part of the progression toward the 'Final Solution'.