AP Euro Topic 8 All Vocab

Militarism

A policy of glorifying military power and keeping a standing army always prepared for war

Imperial competition

Rivalry among European powers for dominance in the building of empires. A cause of WWI.

Archduke Franz Ferdinand

Archduke of Austria Hungary assassinated by a Serbian in 1914. His murder was one of the causes of WW I.

Gavrilo Princep

The assassin of Archduke Francis Ferdinand of Austria (and his lovely wife Sophie), a member of the Black Hand freedom fighters. Immediate cause of WWI.

Central Powers

WWI Alliance: Austria-Hungary, Germany, Ottoman Empire

Allies WWI

WWI Alliance: Britain, France, and Russia- Later joined by Italy

Western Front

A line of trenches and fortifications in World War I that stretched without a break from Switzerland to the North Sea. Scene of most of the fighting between Germany, on the one hand, and France and Britain, on the other.

Eastern Front

In WWI, the region along the German-Russian Border where Russians and Serbs battled Germans, Austrians, and Turks.

Trench warfare

A form of battle in which opposing armies fight each other from long winding troughs dug in the battlefield.

Stalemate

Word for a deadlock in which neither side is able to defeat the other

Armistice

an agreement made by opposing sides in a war to stop fighting for a certain time; a truce.

submarine/Uboat

a watercraft that stays under water and attacks surface ships using torpedoes, underwater missiles.

Machine gun

An automatic weapon that fires bullets in rapid succession for as long as the trigger is pressed.

barbed wire

twisted strands of fence wire with barbs at regular intervals used as a last line of defense in trench warfare.

airplane

A powered aircraft with fixed wings first used in battle in World War I for spying and later some bombing.

poison gas

Introduced by the Germans and was used by both sides during the war; caused vomiting, blindness, severe burns, and suffocation

tank

An enclosed armored military vehicle first used by British in WWI.

Easter rebellion

Irish uprising and demand for independence in 1916, hoping to get it while British were occupied by the WW1.

Tsar Nicholas II

the last tsar of Russia who terribly botched the war effort and was forced to abdicate in 1917 by the communists.

Russian Revolution

The overthrow of the Tsarist government which led to the abdication of Nicholas II and the creation of a provisional government in March 1917.

Vladimir Lenin

Russian founder of the Bolsheviks and leader of the Russian Revolution and first leader of the Soviet Union (USSR).

Soviet Union

A Communist nation, consisting of Russia and 14 other states, that was created by the Bolsheviks and existed from 1922 to 1991.

Genocide

systematic killing of a racial or cultural group

Kemal Ataturk

Turkish nationalist who founded the modern country of Turkey.

Mandate system

Allocation of former German colonies and Ottoman possessions to the semi-control of the British and French after World War I; rather than giving them independence.

Communism

a form of socialism that abolishes private ownership.

Proletariat

Marx's term for the exploited class, the mass of workers who do not own the means of production

Left-wing

those who support varying degrees of social or political or economic change designed to promote the public welfare

Fascism

an authoritarian and nationalistic right-wing system of government where a dictator has tight control over the economy and people's lives.

Right-wing

the conservative or reactionary section of a political party or system.

Liberal democracy

representative democracy characterized by popular sovereignty (voting rights), liberty, and political equality

Karl Marx

founder of modern communism

Marxist-Leninist theory

Lenin's version of Marxist thought which did not call for immediate world Revolution and supported the idea of a Vanguard of educated people to lead the communist nation.

Bolshevik

A group of revolutionary Russian Marxists who advocated immediate communist revolution without the full Bourgeois phase.

Russian Social Democratic Party

revolutionary socialist Russian political party formed to unite various revolutionary organizations into one party; later split into Bolshevik and Menshevik factions

Duma

Russian Parliament

Provisional government

Temporary government led by Alexander Kerensky that came to power after the overthrow of the Tsar (lasted 6 months).

Soviets

A Russian local government council composed of representatives from the workers and soldiers.

Leon Trotsky

Russian revolutionary intellectual and close adviser to Lenin who was later expelled from the Soviet Union for his opposition to the authoritarianism of Stalin

Communists

people who favor the equal distribution of wealth and the end of all forms of private property

War communism

A system introduced under Bolshevik rule after 1917 which involved land being seized and redistributed, factories given to the workers, banks being nationalized, and church property being granted to the state. This was enforced by the Cheka (secret police).

New Economic Policy (NEP)

Lenin's 1921 policy to re-establish limited economic freedom in an attempt to rebuild agriculture and industry in the face of economic disintegration

Versailles Conference

the meeting of the Allied victors, following the end of World War I to set the peace terms for the defeated Central Powers following the armistices of 1918.

Woodrow Wilson

U.S. President, who led USA into WWI. He proposed the very idealistic 14 points with the hope of establishing lasting peace and security in Europe.

David Lloyd George

British prime minister who won reelection on the slogan "Make Germany Pay" and who therefore pushed for a harsh peace settlement after WWI.

Georges Clemenceau

"tiger of France", the French prime minister who wanted to ensure that Germany would never again threaten France; at the Paris Peace Conference and therefore pushed for punishment and disarmament of Germany.

Reparations

Payment for war damages

Treaty of Versailles

the peace treaty signed by Germany and the Allied powers after World War I. Germany was forced to sign it without any input.

Weimar Republic

German republic founded after the WWI and the German people's overthrow of Wilhelm II. It signed the treaty of Versailles and was overthrown by Hitler.

League of Nations

One of Wilson's 14 points, it was an international organization intended as a forum for nations to resolve their differences without fighting. No power to back up its findings though.

Disarmament

Reduction of armed forces and weapons across all European nations, which was one of the hopes of the Treaty of Versailles.

Poland

Carved out of the former Austrian, German, and Russian Empires, it was one of the "new nations" formed after WWI. Initially democratic, but was taken over by a dictator.

Czechoslovakia

New nation carved out of the German Empire by unifying the Czechs and Slovaks into one democratic government.

Hungary

Carved out of the former Austrian Empire as its own country after WWI, it became increasingly ruled by a strong dictator.

Totalitarian

referring to a form of government in which one person or party holds absolute control (kind of a 20th c. version of Absolute Monarchies).

Yugoslavia

This country was created after WWI, uniting ethnicities that spoke similar Slavic languages. Held together by a dictator because it had too many different ethnic groups.

Iraq and Palestine

Carved out of the Ottoman Empire, these two regions were controlled as a mandate by Britain.

Syria and Lebanon

Carved out of the Ottoman Empire, these two regions were controlled as a mandate by France.

Great Depression

the economic crisis beginning with the New York stock market crash in 1929 and continuing through the 1930s that contributed to the rise of totalitarian dictatorships.

Gold standard

A monetary system in which paper money and coins are equal to the value of a certain amount of gold which left very little flexibility in economic crises.

Depreciate

to decrease in value

Speculation

Involvement in very risky business transactions in an effort to make a quick or large profit. Too much of this led to the stock market crash of 1929.

John Maynard Keynes

British economist who argued that for a nation to recovery fully from a depression, the gov't had to spend money on things such as infrastructure projects to encourage investment and consumption rather than work to balance their budget.

National government

A coalition of the Liberal, Labour, and Conservative parties formed in Britain to deal with the Depression, credited with bringing Great Britain out of the worst stages of the Great Depression

Popular Front

French government formed in 1936 to combat the rising power of Fascism in France that consisted of all left wing groups. Brought policies that favored/helped workers so that they would not turn to fascism.

Benito Mussolini

Fascist Italian Dictator who used fear, caused by instability, to rise to power and appealed to Italian businessmen with promises of stability.

Blackshirts

Squads of armed fascist supporters of Mussolini who violently attacked labor organizations to secure Mussolini's power.

Adolf Hitler

Austrian born Fascist Dictator of Germany, caused WWII and The Holocaust.

Nazi Party

Fascist party of Adolph Hitler that ruled Germany between 1933 to 1945

Cult of personality

arises when an individual uses mass media, propaganda, or other methods to create an idealized, heroic, and at times worshipful image of themselves, often through unquestioning flattery and praise.

Joseph Goebbels

Minister of propaganda in Nazi Germany who was skilled at using film as a tool to appeal to the masses.

Leni Riefenstahl

A director of the nazi propaganda film Triumph of the Will

Francisco Franco

Turned Spain into Fascist dictatorship after beginning a Civil War in the newly formed Spanish Republic.

Spanish Civil War

A very violent conflict from 1936 to 1939 that resulted in the installation of fascist dictator Francisco Franco as ruler of Spain. Often seen as preview of horrors of WWII.

Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR)

The full formal name for the Communist nation, consisting of Russia and 14 other states, that existed from 1922 to 1991.

Joseph Stalin

Soviet Union leader who created a totalitarian state by purging all opposition and brutally imposed his version of communism on them.

Five Year Plan

Plans that Joseph Stalin introduced to industrialize the Soviet Union rapidly, beginning in 1928. They set goals for the output of steel, electricity, machinery, and most other products and were enforced by the police powers of the state.

Kulaks

Wealthy farmers in the Soviet Union who opposed Stalin's plans and were "liquidated" as a result.

Collectivisation

the forced elimination of private ownership of farms under Stalin in the Soviet Union.

Gulag

forced labor camps where Stalin sent his political enemies.

Appeasement

The British policy of making concessions during the 1930s to Hitler in the hopes of avoiding war. Most notably, giving up part of Czechoslovakia to Germany.

Ethiopia

Independent East African nation that was invaded by Mussolini's Italy in 1935.

Rhineland

a German territory west of the Rhine River along the French border that was supposed to be a non-militarized zone as laid out in the Treaty of Versailles.

Annexation

the formal act of acquiring a territory by conquest or occupation as Germany did with Austria and Czechoslovakia in the years leading up to WWII.

Munich Agreement

Arrangement between Germany and Great Britain in which Hitler is given the Sudetenland (part of Czechoslovakia) in return for agreeing not to take any more territory. (spoiler alert! He took more territory anyway).

Nazi-Soviet Non-Aggression Pact

A secret agreement between the Germans and the Russians that said that they would not attack each other(The Germans went back on this in 1941)

Axis Powers

Alliance of Germany, Italy, and Japan during World War II.

Allies WWII

Alliance of France, Britain, US, Soviet Union during World War II

Winston Churchill

Prime Minister of Great Britain during WWII

Franklin D. Roosevelt

President of the US during Great Depression and World War II

Blitzkrieg

"Lighting war", typed of fast-moving warfare used by German forces against Poland in 1939

Operation Barbarossa

Code name for Nazi Germany's invasion of the Soviet Union during World War II.

Pearl Harbor

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

Yalta Conference

1945 Meeting with US president FDR, British Prime Minister Churchill, and and Soviet Leader Stalin during WWII to plan for post-war settlements

Jewish Question

The issue, as framed by the Nazis, on how to end Jewish influence in Germany.

Nuremberg Laws

Placed severe restrictions of Jews, prohibited from marrying non- Jews, attending schools or universities, holding government jobs, practicing law or medicine or publishing books.

Kristallnacht

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

Concentration camp

a camp where prisoners of war, political prisoners, or members of minority groups are confined, typically under harsh conditions

Ghetto

separate section of a city where members of a minority group are forced to live.

Holocaust

A methodical plan orchestrated by Hitler to ensure German supremacy. It called for the elimination of Jews, non-conformists, homosexuals, non-Aryans, and mentally and physically disabled.