World History Flashcards: WWI, WWII, and the Cold War

A complete set of vocabulary flashcards covering World War I, the Russian Revolution, the period between world wars, World War II, and the Cold War era based on lecture notes.

Triple Alliance

Alliance between Italy, Austria-Hungary, and Germany

Triple Entente

Alliance between France, Russia, and Britain

M.A.I.N. Causes of War

Militarism, Alliances, Imperialism, Nationalism

Militarism

Glorification of military & wars

Alliances

Pledges to protect one another

Imperialism

Competition for land and resources fueled rivalries for power

Nationalism

Pride in country’s economic & military successes

Assassination of Archduke Ferdinand

Murdered in car traveling city

Stalemate

deadlock in which neither side is able to defeat the other

Trench Warfare

protected by barbed wire and machine guns

“No Man’s Land”

Area between opposing trenches 50-250 yards

Machine guns

Mow down waves of soldiers

Poison Gas

Blinded, chocked, burned & blistered Led to use of gas masks

Sinking of the Lusitania

1200 killed, 128 Americans

Zimmerman Note

Stated Germany would help Mexico regain New Mexico, Texas, and Arizona in return for support against the USA

Fourteen Points

List of terms to resolve war

Treaty of Versailles

officially ended World War I between the Allied Powers and Germany

League of Nations

Common action against aggressor U.S. did not join Weakened power of the League

Grigori Rasputin

Believed to have magical powers “Mad monk”

Bolsheviks

Radical socialist group Took charge of government V.I. Lenin

VI Lenin

Leader of the Bolsheviks

Communists

used terror to control

Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR)

Soviet Union United much of old Russian empire

Joseph Stalin

Lead the soviet

Roaring Twenties

Post-war: young people chased excitement New technologies led to a new mass culture

Great Depression

Economic crisis in USA Global economic slump

Benito Mussolini

Fierce nationalist of Fascist party

Il Duce

Means The Leader

Totalitarian State

One party dictatorship regulates all aspects of life Controlled the economy Secret police, propaganda, & terror to control power

Extreme Nationalism

Glorify the state over the individual, Loyalty

Fascism

Policies glorify the state over the individual Destructive to human rights Extreme Nationalism

Command Economy

Government controls all basic economic decisions Government owned all businesses, farms, & resources

Gulag

System of brutal labor camps

Adolf Hitler

Leader of National Socialist German Workers party

Anti-Semitism

Prejudice against Jews

Nazi Party

Sparked violence in streets in political protest

Mein Kampf

Hitler’s 720 page manifesto Basic book of Nazi goals & ideology

Third Reich

New empire under Hitler German master race would dominate Europe

Nuremberg Laws

Deprived Jews of citizenship Created severe restrictions

Kristallnacht

Nazi mobs burned, destroyed Jewish homes, businesses, schools, churches 30,000 arrested, sent to concentration camps

Appeasement

Giving in to demands of aggressor to keep the peace

Axis powers alliance

Germany, Italy, & Japan

Nazi-Soviet Pact

Nonaggression pact between Hitler & Stalin Won’t declare war on each other

Germany invades Poland

Two days later… Britain & France declare war on Germany

Blitzkrieg

Known as the lightning war, Tank and air power technology to strike a quick & devastating blow

Hitler Invades Soviet Union

Wanted “living space” Wanted Soviet resources

General Winter

Russian winter halts German advances German forces ill-equipped Thousands froze to death

Hideki Tojo

Japan Prime Minister

Attack on Pearl Harbor

Surprise bombing of American naval fleet 2,400 died, ships/aircraft destroyed

Concentration camps

Detention centers for “enemies of the state”

Final Solution

Extermination of all Jews in Europe

Holocaust

Campaign of genocide against Jews Creation of six “death camps” 6 million Jews killed

Death camps

Nazis shipped Jews & others from all over Europe

Anne Frank

Hid from the Nazis

Impact of Holocaust

6 million Jews killed 2/3 of European Jews 5 million others killed also Horrors of Holocaust led to worldwide support for an Independent Jewish state

Total war

Devote all of nation’s resources to war effort

Rosie the Riveter

represents the women who worked in the factories and shipyards

Big Three

Roosevelt, Churchill, Stalin

Dwight Eisenhower

34th president, supreme commander of the Allied Expeditionary Force

D-Day Invasion

Invasion of France Paratroopers dropped behind German lines 156,000 Allied troops land on beaches of Normandy

Yalta Conference

Plan for final stages of war & post-war Europe

V-E Day

Victory in Europe Day, Official end to war in Europe

Manhattan Project

Top secret project First atomic bomb successfully tested

Harry Truman

Faced decision- atomic bomb would end war faster and save American lives

Atomic Bombs

Flattened 4 sq. miles Instantly killed 70,000 Many more will die of radiation sickness

Hiroshima & Nagasaki

The first and second place where the atomic bomb was drppped

Aftermath of WWII

50 million killed in WW2 Many countries in ruins Total war gutted resources

Nuremberg Trials

200 German/Austrian leaders

United Nations

50 nations Goal: keep peace among nations by resolving issues peacefully

Superpowers

The United States and the Soviet Union

Cold War

State of tension & hostility between U.S. & Soviet Union

Iron Curtain

dividing Europe into East (communism) and West (democracy)

Truman Doctrine

Saw communism as evil force New Foreign Policy

Marshall Plan

Provide food & economic assistance to struggling European countries

NATO

North Atlantic Treaty Organization

Warsaw Pact

Soviet Union & 7 satellite states in Eastern Europe Military alliance

Berlin Wall

Massive concrete wall w/ barbed wire dividing the city Symbol of Cold War

Cuban Missile Crisis

Soviets build nuclear missile bases in Cuba

Suburbanization

Movement from cities to suburbs outside of city

Mao Zedong

Communist leader

People’s Republic of China

One-party Communist totalitarian state

Korean War

End in long, deadly stalemate Armistice signed to end fighting

DMZ

Demilitarized Zone

North Korea today

remained communist

Ho Chi Minh

Communist leader of revolutionary forces fighting for independence

Domino Theory

If Vietnam fell to communism, then entire region might too U.S. steps up efforts to stop communism in Vietnam

Viet Cong

Communist rebels inside of South Vietnam trying to defeat the South’s govt.

Ho Chi Minh Trail

ran from North Vietnam through Laos and Cambodia to South Vietnam

Anti-war Movement

a massive, decentralized global effort that peaked during the Vietnam War

Outcome of the Vietnam War

the United States emerging as the world's sole superpower, the democratization and integration of Eastern Europe into Western institutions like NATO, and the creation of 15 newly independent post-Soviet states