Henretta, America's History for the AP® Course, 11e, Chapter 23

fascism

A system of government characterized by authoritarian rule, extreme nationalism, disdain for civil society, and a conviction that militarism and imperialism make great nations. Germany under Adolf Hitler and Italy under Benito Mussolini were fascist states.

National Socialist (Nazi) Party

German political party led by Adolf Hitler, who became chancellor of Germany in 1933. The party’s ascent was fueled by huge World War I reparation payments, economic depression, fear of communism, labor unrest, and rising unemployment.

Axis powers

Military alliance formed in 1936 among Germany, Italy, and Japan that fought the Allied powers during World War II.

Neutrality Act of 1935

Legislation that sought to avoid entanglement in foreign wars while protecting trade. It imposed an embargo on selling arms to warring countries and declared that Americans traveling on the ships of belligerent nations did so at their own risk.

Popular Front

A small, left-leaning coalition of Americans who pushed for greater U.S. intervention against fascism in Europe. It comprised American Communist Party members, African American civil rights activists, and trade unionists, among others.

Munich Conference

A conference in Munich, Germany, in September 1938 during which Britain and France agreed to allow Germany to annex the Sudetenland — a German-speaking border area of Czechoslovakia — in return for Hitler’s pledge to seek no more territory.

America First Committee (AFC)

A committee organized by isolationists in 1940 to oppose the entrance of the United States into World War II. The membership of the committee included senators, journalists, publishers, and such prominent national figures as the aviator Charles Lindbergh.

Four Freedoms

Basic human rights identified by President Franklin D. Roosevelt to justify support for Britain in World War II: freedom of speech, freedom of religion, freedom from want, and freedom from fear.

Lend-Lease Act

Legislation in 1941 that enabled Britain to obtain arms from the United States without cash but with the promise of reimbursement when World War II ended. The act reflected Roosevelt’s desire to assist the British in any way possible short of war.

Atlantic Charter

A press release by President Roosevelt and British prime minister Winston Churchill in August 1941 calling for economic cooperation, national self-determination, and guarantees of political stability after the war.

Pearl Harbor

A naval base in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, that was attacked by Japanese bombers on December 7, 1941; more than 2,400 Americans were killed. The following day, President Roosevelt asked Congress for a declaration of war against Japan.

War Powers Act (1941)

The 1941 law that gave President Roosevelt unprecedented control over all aspects of the war effort during World War II.

Revenue Act

A 1942 act that expanded the number of people paying income taxes from 3.9 million to 42.6 million. These taxes on personal incomes and business profits paid half the cost of World War II.

code talkers

Native American soldiers trained to use native languages to send messages in battle during World War II. The messages they sent gave the Allies great advantage in several battles.

"Double V" campaign

An African American civil rights campaign during World War II that called for victory over Nazism abroad and over discrimination in jobs, housing, and voting at home.

Executive Order 8802

An order signed by President Roosevelt in 1941 that prohibited “discrimination in the employment of workers in defense industries or government because of race, creed, color, or national origin” and established the Fair Employment Practices Committee (FEPC).

Bracero Program

A federal program that brought hundreds of thousands of Mexican agricultural workers to the United States during and after World War II. The program continued until 1964 and was a major spur of Mexican immigration to the United States.

Servicemen's Readjustment Act

Popularly known as the GI Bill, 1944 legislation authorizing the government to provide World War II veterans with funds for education, housing, and health care, as well as loans to start businesses and buy homes.

zoot-suit riots

In June 1943, a group of white sailors and soldiers in Los Angeles, seeking revenge for an earlier skirmish with Mexican American youths, attacked anyone they found wearing a zoot suit, an outfit that symbolized a rebellious style.

Executive Order 9066

An order signed by President Roosevelt in 1942 that authorized the War Department to force Japanese Americans from their homes and hold them in relocation camps for the rest of the war.

D-Day

June 6, 1944, the date of the Allied invasion of northern France. The largest amphibious assault in world history, the invasion opened a second front against the Germans and moved the Allies closer to victory in Europe.

Holocaust

Germany’s campaign during World War II to exterminate all Jews living in German-controlled lands, along with other groups the Nazis deemed “undesirable.” In all, some 11 to 12 million people were killed in the Holocaust, most of them Jews.

Manhattan Project

The research and weapons development project, authorized by President Franklin Roosevelt in 1942, that produced the first atomic bomb.