The American Pageant 17th Edition Key Terms and People Chapter 32

London Economic Conference

A sixty-nation economic conference organized to stabilize international currency rates. By Roosevelt revoking U.S. participation, there was a deeper world economic crisis.

Good Neighbor Policy

FDR's foreign policy of promoting better relations w/Latin America by using economic influence rater than military force in the region

Rome-Berlin Axis

the alliance between Italy and Germany (Mussolini and Hitler)

Johnson Debt Default Act

1934- prohibited any loans ( including private ones) to any government that had defaulted on its World War I debts to the United States

Neutrality Acts of 1935, 1936, and 1937

Short-sighted acts passed in 1935, 1936, and 1937 in order to prevent American participation in a European War. Among other restrictions, they prevented Americans from selling munitions to foreign belligerents.

Abraham Lincoln Brigade

Idealistic American volunteers who served in the Spanish Civil War, defending Spanish republican forces from the fascist General Francisco Franco's nationalist coup. Some 3,000 Americans served alongside volunteers from other countries.

Quarintine Speech

An important speech delivered by Franklin Roosevelt in which he called for "positive endeavors" to "quarantine" land-hungry dictators, presumably through economic embargoes. The speech flew in the face of isolationist politicians.

Appeasement

A policy of making concessions to an aggressor in the hopes of avoiding war. Associated with Neville Chamberlain's policy of making concessions to Adolf Hitler.

Hitler-Stalin Pact

Treaty signed on August 23, 1939 in which Germany and the Soviet Union agreed not to fight each other. The fateful agreement paved the way for German aggression against Poland and the Western democracies.

Neutrality Act of 1939

Act that allowed nations at war to buy goods and arms in the United States if they paid cash and carried the merchandise on their own ships

Kristallnacht

(Night of the Broken Glass) November 9, 1938, when mobs throughout Germany destroyed Jewish property and terrorized Jews.

Lend-Lease Act

1941 law that authorized the president to aid any nation whose defense he believed was vital to American security

Pearl Harbor

United States military base on Hawaii that was bombed by Japan, bringing the United States into World War II. Pearl Harbor was attacked on December 7, 1941.

Alantic Charter

FDR and chruchill signed to uphold free trade among nations and the right of people to choose their own gov; cuts Japan's resourceses off

Benito Mussolini

Fascist Dictator of Italy that at first used bullying to gain power, then never had full power.

Adolf Hitler

Austrian born Dictator of Germany, implement Fascism and caused WWII and Holocaust.

Francisco Franco

Fascist leader of the Spanish revolution, helped by Hitler and Mussolini

Wendell Wilkie (1892-1944)

An American lawyer, corporate executive, and 1940 Republican nominee for

President. He ran against Franklin D. Roosevelt and lost. He criticized Roosevelt's

New Deal.

• He wrote a book called One World in 1943. It was "largely an outgrowth of his

travels, made a strong plea for postwar cooperation and was influential in turning

many Republicans away from isolationism."

• Example of a white man saying that racial discrimination is the main problem that

needs to be dealt with.

Reciprocal Trade Agreements Act

This act reversed traditional high-protective-tariff policies by allowing the president to negotiate lower tariffs with trade partners, without Senate approval. Its chief architect was Secretary of State Cordell Hull, who believed that tariff barriers choked off foreign trade.

Cordell Hull

FDR's secretary of state, who promoted reciprocal trade agreements, especially with Latin America

War Refugee Board

A U.S. agency formed to help rescue Jews from German-occupied territories and to provide relief to inmates of Nazi concentration camps. The agency performed noble work, but it did not begin operations until very late in the war, after millions had already been murdered.

America First Committee

An isolationist advocacy group formed in September 1940 that opposed American intervention in the Second World War. Though it boasted 800,000 members at its peak, support for the committee dissipated following the attack on Pearl Harbor.