Unit 3 DCUSH

Warren G. Harding

Republican president after World War I. Called for a "Return to Normalcy." His administration was corrupt. He died in office.

Agricultural Sector

This sector of the economy did not share in the general prosperity of the 1920s.

Laissez-faire

The three Republican presidents of the 1920s, influenced by Treasury Secretary Andrew Mellon, all shared in their beliefs in this "hands-off" approach to the economy.

Dawes Plan

A plan to revive the German economy, the United States lends Germany money which then can pay reparations to England and France, who can then pay back their loans from the U.S. This circular flow of money was a success in the short term.

Harlem Renaissance

A period in the 1920s when African-American achievements in art, music, and literature flourished.

Herbert Hoover

Last Republican president of the 1920s; the Great Depression would begin during his presidency, and he would resist calls from the federal government to help solve the Depression.

Causes of the Great Depression

1. Economic Policies,

2. Agricultural Sector Suffering

3. Pay Did Not Increase with Productivity

4. Unequal Distribution of Wealth

5. Buying on Margin.

Characteristics of the Great Depression

1. High Unemployment

2. Declining Prices

3. Bank Failures

4. Lower Production and Sales

League of Nations

Created after World War I to secure peace. This organization failed because of the lack of U.S. involvement. It could only "wag" the finger at aggressive nations, and did not take measures to stop them.

Causes of World War II

These include the failure of the League of Nations, War Guilt Placed on Germany, the rise of aggressive dictators, and the Great Depression.

Totalitarianism

A government in which a single party or leader controls the economic, social, and cultural lives of its people. Total control of society. Often there is a strong, charismatic leader (examples: Hitler, Mussolini, Stalin).

Communism

This political/economic philosophy spoke to the rise of the working class and equality for all.

Joseph Stalin

The Communist leader of the Soviet Union from the late 1920s to the early 1950s.

Fascism

A political movement that stressed extreme nationalism and autocratic (dictator, strong-man) rule, as well as total control over society. Fascist countries would include Germany, Italy, and Spain.

Benito Mussolini

In 1922, he marched on Rome with his supporters, promising to make Italy great again. He outlawed political parties, took over the press, created a secret police, etc.

Nazi Party

National Socialist German Workers' Party, would come to be led by Hitler, believed in total control of German society.

Adolf Hitler

After his release from prison in 1924, he rallied his party, earned votes, and rose to power as Chancellor of Germany in 1933, and then quickly made himself a dictator.

Mein Kampf

Written by Adolf Hitler in prison, in this book he stated his explanations for the problems facing Germany. He primarily placed the blame for Germany's troubles on Communists and Jews.

Militarism

This is a system in which military leaders assume positions of power and promote aggressive military expansion/war. This occurs in Japan in the 1930s and through World War II.

Munich Conference

A conference attended by Britain, France, Germany, and Italy to solve the Sudeten crisis. At the conference, Britain and France appeased Hitler, giving him the Sudetenland in return for a promise that his territorial ambitions were satisfied.

Appeasement

This was the policy that Britain and France used with Germany, even as Germany began to expand in the late 1930s. It was, ultimately, a failed policy.

Nazi-Soviet Non-Aggression Pact

This was signed between Germany and the Soviet Union in August, 1939. It was an agreement to not go to war with one another. Hitler never intended to follow it in the long run, and Stalin knew that. They signed because Hitler wanted to secure the Eastern front and Stalin wanted time to mobilize forces.

Fall of France

This occurred in June, 1940, only a matter of weeks after the country's invasion by Germany via the Ardennes forest.

Dunkirk

This was the French city that nearly 400,000 British/French troops retreated to after the successful German invasion of France. Ultimately, there was massive evacuation in late May and early June, 1940 of over 330,000 troops across the English channel to Britain, including with use of civilian vessels.

Battle of Britain

This was an aerial battle fought between the British Royal Air Force and the German Luftwaffe (air force) between July-October, 1940. The British prevailed, and the Germans abandoned their impending invasion of Britain.

Isolationism

This was the policy of the United States toward European affairs after World War I, and it would remain the policy at the beginning of World War II because many Americans didn't want to get involved in yet another costly European war.

Lend-Lease Act

Beginning in March, 1941, this allowed the U.S. to support Britain's war efforts prior to U.S. entry into the war through massive aid.

Axis Powers

Major Powers: Germany, Italy, Japan

Allied Powers

Major Powers: Britain, Soviet Union (entered June 1941), United States (entered December 1941).

…and France (defeated June 1940)

General Hideki Tojo

He became Prime Minister of Japan in 1941 and was directly responsible for ordering the attack on Pearl Harbor in order to destroy American ships/plans that could hinder Japanese expansion in Asia. He was executed for war crimes after the war.

Pearl Harbor

This American naval base was attacked by the Japanese on December 7, 1941.

Bataan Death March

After a surrender in the Philippines, as many as 10,000 American and Filipino Prisoners of War died when they were forced to march over 60 miles inland. This was a war crime committed by the Japanese.

Battle of Stalingrad

Germans surrendered here in February, 1943. Turning point of the war in Europe, after which the Soviets began to push the Germans back toward Germany.

Dwight D. Eisenhower

Supreme Allied Commander in Europe who helped to plan and supervise Operation Torch in North Africa and Operation Overlord in Europe.

Tuskegee Airmen

In more than 1,500 missions over enemy territory in Europe, this all-black fighter pilot squadron did not lose a single bomber.

Battle of Midway

Turning point of the war in the Pacific. American torpedo planes and dive bombers sank four Japanese aircraft carriers, along with all 250 aircraft on board.

Battle of Guadalcanal

Jungle battle fought August 1942 - February 1942. Allied victory forced Japanese forces to abandon the island. In conjunction with the Battle of Midway, it is a turning point of the war in the Pacific.

Island Hopping

American strategy in the Pacific. Opening up a path toward Japan, moving from island to island.

Women During the War

Found more jobs in heavy industry, which were traditionally male jobs. They also found more white-collar jobs, and the government helped to build daycare centers for childcare.

War Bonds

These were sold as an investment by the government to raise money to fight the war. Americans would purchase them to help the war effort, and they would see a return on their investment after a number of years.

Rationing

A form of economic control in which Americans were issued coupon books that limited the amount of certain goods that they could buy.

Double V Campaign

A campaign organized by leaders in the African American community to fight fascism abroad and Jim Crow laws/discrimination in the United States.

Executive Order 8802

This measure assured fair hiring practices in any job funded with government money and established the Fair Employment Practices Committee.

A. Philip Randolph

A leader of the "Double V" campaign who called for a march on Washington, D.C. and demanded the president end discrimination in government-funded jobs.

Executive Order 9066

Issued by FDR. The order suspended the civil rights of Japanese Americans and authorized the exclusion of over 110,000 men, women, and children from designated military areas on the western coast.

Japanese-American Internment

The forced imprisonment of Japanese-Americans during the war, two-thirds of whom were U.S. citizens and the vast majority of whom would never regain their property.

Korematsu v. United states (1944)

This Supreme Court case upheld the legality of Japanese-American internment.

Bracero Program

The U.S. also partnered with Mexico for this program, which invited Mexican immigrants to work on farms in the U.S

Zoot Suit Riots

This occurred in 1943, in which mobs of off-duty sailors assaulted Mexican Americans in Los Angeles at random, stripping and beating them. Police did not arrest any servicemen, but instead 500 Latinos.

Operation Overlord

Codename for the Allied invasion of France which entailed a large scale amphibious assault on the beaches of Normandy. The planning also included deception, as a fake army was created to make the Germans think the invasion would take place elsewhere.

D-Day

June 6, 1944. Over 150,000 Allied troops and 20,000 vehicles landed on five beaches of Normandy.

Utah and Omaha

These were the code names of beaches of Normandy that American troops landed on. Other beaches included Sword and Gold (British), and Juno (Canadian).

Battle of the Bulge

The last great battle in Europe, fought primarily between Americans and Germans from December 1944-January 1945.

V-E Day

May 7/8, 1945.

Battle of Iwo Jima

February, 1945. 5-mile-long island. More than 23,000 Marine casualties. In the end, the American flag was raised over the island.

Battle of Okinawa

April, 1945. Only a few hundred miles south of Japan. Involved half a million troops and 1,213 warships. U.S. forces win but at a cost of roughly 50,000 casualties.

Manhattan Project

Secret project to develop an atomic bomb, led by Robert Oppenheimer and Leslie Groves.

Truman's Options to Defeat Japan

Land invasion of Japan; Demonstrate the A-Bomb; Use the A-Bomb on Japan.

Harry Truman

President after Franklin Roosevelt, he gave the order to drop the atomic bombs on Japan.

Hiroshima

The first atomic bomb was dropped on this city on August 6, 1945.

Nagasaki

The second atomic bomb was dropped on this city on August 9, 1945.

V-J Day

August 14/15, 1945.

Holocaust

The systematic, bureaucratic, state-sponsored persecution and murder of approximately six million Jews by the Nazi regime and its collaborators, in addition to other racial and political groups.

Roma (Gypsies), the disabled, and some of the Slavic peoples (Poles, Russians, and others), communists, socialists, Jehovah's Witnesses and homosexuals.

In addition to Jews, these groups of people were also persecuted and killed during the Holocaust.

Anti-Semitism

Anti-Jewish sentiment. This was a factor leading to the Holocaust.

Nuremberg Laws

Passed in 1935, these stripped Jews of German citizenship and limited their civil rights. They are meant to isolate and separate Jews from German society.

Kristallnacht

"Night of Broken Glass." Nazis destroyed more than 1,500 synagogues and 7,500 Jewish-owned businesses, killed more than 200 Jews, and arrested thousands more.

Concentration Camp

These camps were not designed to kill people, but tens of thousands died from disease, starvation, murder, and medical experimentation. Examples include Dachau and Buchenwald.

The Final Solution

This was Hitler's plan to exterminate the Jewish people throughout the world.

Ghetto

Jews were confined to these in which they were restricted to certain parts of European cities that were walled off. Examples: in Warsaw and Krakow, Poland.

Death Camp

These were purpose-built for killing, with prisoners being ushered into gas chambers and bodies cremated in crematoriums.

Auschwitz

The largest camp complex, which included both concentration and death camps. Over 1 Million Jews and tens of thousands of others were killed there.

Genocide

This word was invented to describe the actions of the Holocaust. It means the deliberate killing of a large group of people, especially those of a particular ethnic group or nation.

War Refugee Board

Created in 1944, this U.S. organization worked with the Red Cross to save thousands of Eastern European Jews.

Nuremberg Trials

Trials for Nazi war crimes. Some Nazis committed suicide. Some executed. Some life in prison. Some acquitted.