AP World History Unit 7

Russo-Japanese War

A war fought between Russia and Japan between 1904-1905 over the influence over Korea and Manchuria. Japan won easily marking the first time an Asian country had defeated a European power

Sun Yat-Sen

The person responsible for overthrowing the Qing dynasty. He was responsible for the revolutionary movement that kept some confucian ideals intact but also introduced democracy, nationalism, and livelihood

Archduke Franz Ferdinand

Heir to the Austrian-Hungary throne whose assassination later led to WWI

World War I (The Great War)

Called the great war due to the immense scale of fighting. No war had ever involved as many nations from all around the world or killed as many soldiers and civilians

Gavrilo Princip

The terrorist responsible for the killing of Archduke Ferdinand. Gavrilo was a member of the Black Hand

Black Hand

A nationalist terrorist group that was anti-Austrian.

MAIN causes for WWI

Militarism, Alliances, Imperialism, Nationalism

Triple Entente

The alliance between France, Russia, and Britain during WWI that later became known as the allies

Triple Alliance

The alliance between Italy, Germany, and Austria-Hungary before WWI

Central Powers

After the Ottoman Empire and Bulgaria joined the Triple Alliance as well as Italy's departure, this alliance became known as what

Trench warfare

Nations dug hundreds of miles of trenches facing one another and fought in the trenches for months at a time

Stalemate

A situation in which neither side is able to gain or lose territory

Propaganda

Communication meant to influence the attitudes and opinions of a community around a particular subject by spreading inaccurate or slanted information

Total war

A nation's domestic population in addition to its military being committed to winning the war

Zimmermann Telegram

A telegram from Germany to Mexico promising that if they fought the US that they would get all their land that was illegally taken from them. This was a major reason for the US joining WWI

Treaty of Versailles

The peace treaty signed by Germany at the end of WWI. It required Germany to take full blame for the war, pay billions in reparations, give up all its colonies, and limit the size of its military.

League of Nations

An organization in which all nations of the world would convene to discuss conflicts openly as a way to avoid simmering tensions as seen in WWI

Reparations

The action of paying money back to those who have been wronged

Great Depression

A severe economic downturn that was characterized by low employment rates, bank and business failures, high poverty, and a reduction in industry and trade

John Maynard Keynes

He believed that governments could improve the economy through intentional government action. During a depression, he believed that governments could use deficit spending to boost the economy.

Franklin D. Roosevelt

He used Keynes ideas to address the Great Depression which lead to the new deal

New Deal

Its goal was to bring relief, recovery and reform back into the country

Bolsheviks

They had promised peace, land, and bread after taking over from the tsar but presided over a populace that faced starvation which led to the Russian civil war

Russian Civil War

Caused by the Bolsheviks lack of leadership, hundreds of thousands of Russians and Ukrainians revolted against Russia's government

USSR

Union of Soviet Socialist Republics

Joseph Stalin

The leader of the politburo who replaced the Bolsheviks. He was a dictator who mainly transformed the USSR to an industrial powerhouse rather than an agricultural nation.

Fascism

a political structure that appealed to extreme nationalism, romanticised war, and blamed problems on ethnic minorities.

Totalitarian states

A state in which the government controls all aspects of life

Hypernationalism

A belief in the superiority of one's nation over all others and the the single minded promotion of national interests

Balfour Declaration

A British declaration issued in 1917 which stated that Palestine should become a permanent home for the Jews

Palestine

The declared area for a Jewish Homeland

Zionists

People who supported a Jewish Homeland

Adolf Hitler

A fascist leader who had extreme views that Aryan people were superior and the vision of a great German civilization which led to the persecution of minorities most notable Jews as well as systematically seizing land

Scientific racism

Pseudoscientific theory based on Darwin's findings that certain races are genetically superior to others

Anti-Semitism

Hostility towards Jews

Genocide

The attempted killing of a group of people based on race, religion or ethnicity

Nuremberg Laws

A law signed in 1935 that stripped Jews of their citizenship, marginalized them, and forbade the marriage between Jews and gentiles. It also restricted them from certain professions and schools.

Blitzkrieg

Meaning lightning war, this was used to quickly subdue their opponent by using tank and air divisions

Island hopping

A strategy used by the US in which they conquered islands that Japan was weak in instead of those they were strong in

Firebombing

bombs such as napalm created massive fire storms and were used in Japanese cities to destroy industry, morale and infrastructure

Ghettos

Jews were also forced to live in this section of the city

Final Solution

A campaign started in 1942 led by the German Special Police (SS) to kill all Jews in Europe

Holocaust

The genocide committed against the Jews by the Nazi party. About 6 million Jews were killed.

Darfur

Another genocide occurred in 2003 in Sudan. This occurred after two rebel groups took arms against the Sudanese government which in turn responded by slaughtering more than 200,000 non-Arab Muslim Africans and displacing over a million

Rwanda

One of the worst instances of modern genocide. This was a tribal conflict going back to Belgium colonialism when they treated the minority Tutsis better than the Hutus. After they declared independence, the Hutus ran the government but in 1992 negotiations were made to provide equal representation. But the president of Rwanda, a Hutu, was shot down by rebel forces which resulted in the death of 500,000 to 1,000,000 people, mostly Tutsis.

Bosnia

Another genocide committed after the ending of WWI. Newly created nations in Eastern Europe led "Ethnic Cleansing" against Muslims in Bosnia and Kosovo. Around 300,000 perished.

Influenza epidemic

An epidemic that was prominent in the trenches. As all the soldiers returned home, they spread the disease to their loved one causing a pandemic which led to the death of 20 million

Armenia

Known as the first genocide of the 20th century, it killed between 600,000 and 1.5 million Christian Armenians as it is believed that they were cooperating with the Russian government.

Militarism

The belief in building up strong armed forces and using military power aggressively to achieve national goals. It was one of the MAIN causes of WWI as European powers competed to build the largest and most powerful militaries.

Alliances

Agreements between nations to support each other in case of war. The complex web of alliances in Europe meant that when conflict broke out between Austria-Hungary and Serbia, it quickly dragged in major powers on both sides.

Imperialism (as a cause of WWI)

European competition for overseas colonies created intense rivalries and tensions between major powers. These rivalries contributed to the hostile atmosphere that made the outbreak of WWI possible.

Nationalism (as a cause of WWI)

Extreme pride in one's nation or ethnic group that fueled competition between European powers and independence movements within multi-ethnic empires. It was a major cause of WWI as groups like the Black Hand sought independence from Austria-Hungary and were willing to use violence to achieve it.

Poison gas

A chemical weapon first used on a large scale during WWI that caused horrific suffering including blindness, lung damage, and death. It was delivered via shells or canisters and became one of the most feared and controversial weapons of the war.

Machine guns

A rapid-fire automatic weapon that could fire hundreds of rounds per minute, making traditional cavalry charges and infantry advances suicidal. They contributed heavily to the stalemate of trench warfare on the Western Front.

Submarines (U-boats)

German submarines that conducted unrestricted warfare against Allied and neutral shipping in the Atlantic. Their sinking of civilian ships, including the Lusitania, helped push the United States toward entering WWI.

Airplanes (WWI)

Aircraft were used in warfare for the first time during WWI, initially for reconnaissance and later for combat and bombing. They introduced a new dimension to warfare and foreshadowed the central role air power would play in future conflicts.

Lusitania sinking

The sinking of a British ocean liner by a German U-boat in 1915 that killed 1,198 people, including 128 Americans. It outraged American public opinion and was one of the factors that eventually pushed the US toward entering WWI.

Global war due to colonies

Because European powers had colonies spread around the world, WWI became a truly global conflict. Colonial subjects from Africa, Asia, and the Americas were drafted or recruited to fight, extending the war far beyond Europe.

Paris Peace Conference

The 1919 meeting of Allied leaders after WWI to negotiate the terms of peace. It resulted in the Treaty of Versailles, which imposed harsh penalties on Germany and redrew the map of Europe.

Woodrow Wilson

The American president who proposed the Fourteen Points as a framework for a just peace after WWI. He advocated strongly for the League of Nations but was unable to convince the US Senate to ratify the Treaty of Versailles.

14 Points

A peace plan proposed by President Woodrow Wilson outlining principles for a just and lasting peace after WWI. Key points included freedom of the seas, self-determination of peoples, and the creation of the League of Nations.

Self-determination

The principle that peoples of a common nationality should have the right to form their own independent nations. It was championed by Wilson after WWI but was inconsistently applied, mainly benefiting European peoples while ignoring the demands of colonized peoples elsewhere.

Weimar Republic

The democratic government established in Germany after WWI that lasted from 1919 to 1933. It was plagued by economic instability, political extremism, and the humiliation of the Treaty of Versailles, making Germany vulnerable to Hitler's rise to power.

Deficit spending

The practice of a government spending more money than it takes in through taxes, going into debt to stimulate the economy. John Maynard Keynes advocated for this approach as a way to pull economies out of depression.

Hyperinflation

An extreme and rapid increase in prices that destroys the value of a currency. Germany experienced this in the early 1920s as a result of printing money to pay war reparations, wiping out the savings of the middle class and deepening political instability.

Benito Mussolini

The Italian fascist leader who came to power in 1922 and established the first fascist dictatorship in Europe. He allied Italy with Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan in the Axis Powers during WWII.

Amritsar Massacre

The 1919 killing of hundreds of unarmed Indian civilians by British troops at a public gathering in Amritsar. The massacre outraged Indians across the country and significantly strengthened the independence movement.

Satyagraha

Gandhi's philosophy of nonviolent resistance, meaning truth-force or soul-force in Sanskrit. It became the guiding principle of the Indian independence movement and inspired civil rights leaders around the world.

Civil disobedience

The deliberate, nonviolent refusal to obey unjust laws as a form of political protest. Gandhi used this tactic effectively against British colonial rule in India, inspiring movements for civil rights and independence worldwide.

Pakistan

A Muslim-majority nation created in 1947 when British India was partitioned into two independent states at independence. The partition was accompanied by massive violence and the displacement of millions of people as Muslims and Hindus fled to their respective new countries.

Partition (India)

The division of British India in 1947 into two independent nations, India and Pakistan, along religious lines. The process caused one of the largest mass migrations in history and resulted in widespread communal violence between Hindus, Muslims, and Sikhs.

Mao Zedong

The communist leader who led the Chinese Communist Party to victory in the Chinese Civil War and established the People's Republic of China in 1949. He implemented radical social and economic programs that transformed China but also caused tens of millions of deaths through famine and political violence.

Nazism

The fascist ideology of Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party that combined extreme nationalism, anti-Semitism, and the belief in Aryan racial superiority. It served as the ideological foundation for the Holocaust and Germany's aggressive expansion that triggered WWII.

Axis Powers

The alliance of Germany, Italy, and Japan during WWII that opposed the Allied Powers. They were united by fascist or militarist governments and shared goals of aggressive territorial expansion.

Appeasement

The policy of giving in to an aggressor's demands in order to avoid war. Britain and France famously appeased Hitler at the Munich Conference in 1938 by allowing him to take the Sudetenland, which only encouraged further aggression.

Winston Churchill

The British Prime Minister who led Britain through WWII with his defiant refusal to negotiate with Nazi Germany. His speeches inspired resistance and his leadership was crucial to holding the Allied coalition together.

Pearl Harbor attack

Japan's surprise military strike on the American naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on December 7, 1941. The attack killed over 2,400 Americans and led the US to declare war on Japan, bringing America fully into WWII.

Douglas MacArthur

An American general who commanded Allied forces in the Pacific theater during WWII. He oversaw the island-hopping campaign against Japan and later accepted Japan's formal surrender in 1945.

D-Day

The Allied invasion of Nazi-occupied France at Normandy on June 6, 1944, the largest amphibious military operation in history. The successful invasion opened a second front in Western Europe and began the liberation of France from Nazi control.

Aircraft carriers

Warships that served as mobile airbases, allowing navies to project air power across vast stretches of ocean. They became the dominant naval weapon of WWII, particularly in the Pacific theater, replacing battleships as the most strategically important naval vessels.

Atomic bomb

A weapon of mass destruction that uses nuclear fission to create an enormous explosion. The US dropped atomic bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945, leading to Japan's surrender and the end of WWII.

Hiroshima bombing

The dropping of the first atomic bomb by the US on the Japanese city of Hiroshima on August 6, 1945. The explosion killed an estimated 70,000 to 80,000 people instantly and devastated the city, shocking the world with the destructive power of nuclear weapons.

Nagasaki bombing

The dropping of a second atomic bomb on the Japanese city of Nagasaki on August 9, 1945, three days after Hiroshima. The bombing killed approximately 40,000 people instantly and, combined with the Hiroshima bombing, prompted Japan's unconditional surrender.

Influenza pandemic (1918)

A deadly global flu pandemic that spread in the final stages of WWI and killed an estimated 50 to 100 million people worldwide, far more than the war itself. It spread rapidly through troop movements and already weakened and malnourished populations.

Comfort women

Women, primarily from Korea and other Asian countries occupied by Japan, who were forced into sexual slavery for the Japanese military during WWII. This war crime remains a deeply sensitive source of tension between Japan and its neighbors to this day.

Japanese-American internment camps

Following the attack on Pearl Harbor, the US government forcibly relocated approximately 120,000 Japanese Americans to here out of fear of espionage. This is widely regarded as one of the most significant civil liberties violations in American history.

Hutus

The majority ethnic group in Rwanda who held political power after independence from Belgium. Hutu extremists carried out the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi minority, killing between 500,000 and 1,000,000 people in roughly 100 days.

Tutsis

The minority ethnic group in Rwanda who were favored by Belgian colonizers and given preferential treatment during the colonial period. They were the primary victims of the 1994 Rwandan genocide carried out by Hutu extremists.