Spring FINAL

Blitzkrieg

German warfare strategy in which surprise air attacks are followed by massive attacks on land

Charles de Gaulle

French general and statesman who became very popular during World War II as the leader of the Free French forces in exile (1890-1970)

Winston Churchill

Leader (Prime Minister) of Great Britain during WWII

Battle of Britain

Battle of British (RAF) and German air forces (Luftwaffe) fought over Britain during 1940-1941

Erwin Rommel

German general who led troops in North Africa

Atlantic Charter

Declaration of principles issued by Winston Churchill and Franklin D. Roosevelt in August 1941

Battle of Dunkirk

Allied forces met the Germans in Belgium, the Allies where pushed back to the beaches in Dunkirk they were rescued by private boats evacuating them across the English Channel

Invasion of France

1940 Germany broke through Maginot Line and in June took control of France and established a puppet government (Vichi France)

Invasion of Poland

Germany invaded Poland, leading to Britain and France declared war, starting World War II

Bataan Death March

Brutal march of American and Filipino prisoners by Japanese soldiers in 1942

Battle of Midway

Sea and air battle in which American forces defeated Japanese forces near Midway Island in the Pacific

Douglas MacArthur

U.S. general who commanded Allied forces in the Pacific

island hopping

A military strategy used during World War II that involved selectively attacking specific enemy-held islands and skipping past others

Battle of Guadalcanal

Six-month battle on the island of Guadalcanal in which American and Australian troops defeated Japanese defenders

Axis Powers

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

Allies (WWII)

England, France, United States, and Russia after their pact with the Nazi Regime was violated.

annexation

The adding of a region to the territory of an existing country.

Nonaggression Pact

Agreement that says countries will not attack or invade one another

Aryans

Germanic people seen as the master race

Holocaust

Systematic mass killing of Jews and other groups considered inferior by Nazis

Kristallnacht

"Night of Broken Glass," when Nazis attacked Jews throughout Germany

ghettos

Neighborhoods in which European Jews were forced to live

"Final Solution"

Hitler's program of systematically killing the entire Jewish people

genocide

the systematic killing of an entire people

Battle of Stalingrad

Battle during which the Red Army forced the Germans out of Stalingrad

D-Day

Huge Allied invasion mounted to retake France from the Germans

Battle of the Bulge

Final large-scale attack by German troops that was forced back by the Allies

Kamikaze

Japanese suicide pilots

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.

concentration camp

prison camps used under the rule of Hitler in Nazi Germany. Conditions were inhuman, and prisoners, mostly Jewish people, were generally starved or worked to death, or killed immediately.

Nuremberg Trials

Trials of Nazi leaders charged with crimes against humanity, held in Nuremberg, Germany

V-E Day

May 8, 1945; victory in Europe Day when the Germans surrendered

V-J Day

"Victory over Japan day" is the celebration of the Surrender of Japan, which was initially announced on August 15, 1945

Manhattan Project

code name for the secret United States project set up in 1942 to develop atomic bombs for use in World War II

Wannsee Conference

A January 1942 conference during which Nazi officials decided to implement the "final solution" to the "Jewish question"—a euphemism for the extermination of European Jews and other minorities at concentration camps in eastern Europe.

United Nations

World organization formed to prevent war

Iron Curtain

Division between Eastern and Western Europe during the Cold War

containment

Policy aimed at preventing the spread of communism

Truman Doctrine

Policy of giving aid to countries threatened by communism

Marshall Plan

Plan to give economic aid to European countries to help them recover

Cold War

A conflict that was between the US and the Soviet Union. The nations never directly confronted each other on the battlefield but deadly threats went on for years.

North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO)

Military alliance including the United States, Canada, and Western Europe

Warsaw Pact

Military alliance between the Soviet Union and nations of Eastern Europe, formed in 1955.

brinkmanship

Willingness on the part of the superpower to go to the edge of war

domino theory

A theory that if one nation comes under Communist control, then neighboring nations will also come under Communist control.

Mao Zedong

Communist leader who defeated the Nationalists and led the People's Republic of China

Jiang Jieshi

Nationalist leader who set up a new government in Taiwan

commune

Large farm setup in China in which many families work the land and live together

Red Guards

Young Chinese students who carried out the Cultural Revolution

Cultural Revolution

Uprising in China between 1966 and 1976 that aimed to establish a society of peasants and workers in which all were equal

38th Parallel

line of latitude that separated North and South Korea

Ho Chi Minh

Vietnamese nationalist who drove the French out of Vietnam and who led North Vietnam

Vietcong

Communist rebels in South Vietnam who were supported by North Vietnam.

Vietminh

An organization of Vietnamese Communists and other nationalist groups that between 1946 and 1954 fought for Vietnamese independence from the French

Ngo Dinh Diem

Leader of the anti-Communist government of South Vietnam

Vietnamization

President Richard Nixons strategy for ending U.S involvement in the vietnam war, involving a gradual withdrawl of American troops and replacement of them with South Vietnamese forces

First World

a term from the Cold War era that is used to describe industrialized capitalist democracies

Second World

the communist and state-planned countries of the Soviet Union, Eastern Europe, and China (Cold War)

Third World

Developing nations in Africa, Asia, and Latin America

Fidel Castro

Communist leader of Cuba

Nikita Khrushchev

Leader of the Soviet Union after Stalin

Leonid Brezhnev

Soviet leader after Khrushchev

John F. Kennedy

President of the United States from 1961 to 1963

Lyndon Johnson

President of the United States from 1963 to 1969

detente

the easing of hostility or strained relations, especially between countries.

Richard Nixon

President of the United States from 1969 to 1974 who followed a foreign policy marked by détente with the Soviet Union

SALT (Strategic Arms Limitation Talks)

Talks to limit nuclear arms in the United States and the Soviet Union

Four Modernizations

a set of goals adopted by the Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping in the late 20th century, involving progress in agriculture, industry, defense, and science and technology

Mikhail Gorbachev

Leader of the Soviet Union from 1985 to 1991

Glasnost

Gorbachev's policy of openness

reunification

Uniting of East and West Germany into one nation

ethnic cleansing

Policy of murder and brutality aimed at ridding a country of a particular ethnic group

Berlin Wall

Barrier set up in 1961 to separate East and West Berlin

Berlin Airlift

Joint effort by the US and Britain to fly food and supplies into West Berlin after the Soviets blocked off all ground routes into the city

Fascism

Political movement based on nationalism that gives power to a dictator and takes away individual rights

Benito Mussolini

Fascist leader of Italy

Adolf Hitler

Fascist leader of Germany

Nazism

German brand of fascism

Mein Kampf

Book by Hitler outlining his beliefs and goals for Germany

Lebensraum

living space

Appeasement

Giving in to an aggressor to keep peace

Isolationism

the belief that political ties to other countries should be avoided

Munich Conference

Meeting of world powers in 1938 that allowed Hitler to take part of Czechoslovakia

Albert Einstein

Scientist who developed the theory of relativity

Sigmund Freud

Physician who exposed the workings of the unconscious mind

Existentialism

Philosophy that says each person must make meaning in a world that has no universal meaning

Friedrich Nietzsche

German philosopher who dismissed reason, democracy, and progress as empty ideas

Surrealism

Art movement in which a dreamlike world, outside of reality, is portrayed or evoked

Jazz

Lively, loose form of popular music developed in the United States

Coalition government

Temporary alliance of several political parties

Weimar Republic

Government of Germany after World War I

Great Depression

Severe economic downturn that followed the collapse of the U.S. stock market in 1929

Franklin D. Roosevelt

President of the US during Great Depression and World War II

proletariat

working class

Bolsheviks

Group of revolutionaries led by Lenin

Vladmir Lenin

Leader of the Bolsheviks and first ruler of the Soviet Union

Grigori Rasputin

Eccentric monk assassinated because of his corrupt influence on the Russian royal family

provisional government

Temporary government led by Alexander Kerensky

soviet

Local governing council consisting of workers, peasants, and soldiers

Communist Party

A political party practicing the ideas of Karl Marx and V.I Lenin originally the Russian Bolshevik