History finals 2023 flashcards

Vocabulary of Semester II of Honors Modern World History

Anschluss

Union of Austria and Germany

Appeasement

Giving into aggressive demands in order to maintain peace

Armistice

An agreement to cease fighting

Arms Race

Competition between nations to gain an advantage in weapons

Blitzkrieg

A fast, forceful style of fighting used by the Germans in World War II

Bolsheviks

A group of Marxists who seized power in Russia in 1917

Collectivization

Combining small, individual farms to make larger, mechanized farms

Command Economy

system in which government officials make all basic economic decisions

Concentration Camps

detention sites created for military or political purposes to confine, terrorize, and, in some cases, kill civilians

Containment

The United States strategy of limiting the spread of communism to the areas already under Soviet control

Detente

Efforts taken in the late 1960s and early 1970s to lower Cold War tensions

Domino Theory

The belief that the fall of one country to communism would cause neighboring countries to do so also

Duma

The Russian assembly formed after the Revolution of 1905

Entente

nonbinding agreement between nations to follow common policies

Extraterritoriality

The right of citizens to be tried in the courts of their native country rather than in the courts of the country that they are living in

Fascism

a system of government that focuses on the good of the state rather than on the individual citizens

Final Solution

The Nazi Party's plan for the Jewish population of Europe

Five Year Plan

Stalin's production goals for the Soviet Union

Genocide

The deliberate and systematic killing of people who belong to a particular racial, ethnic, or cultural group

Glasnost

A willingness to openly discuss the Soviet Union's problems

Gulag

A system of Soviet labor camps

Holocaust

The killing of millions of Jews and other groups by Nazis during World War II

Hyperinflation

A rise in prices at an extremely rapid rate, usually caused by a rapid increase in money supply making currency of little value

Imperialism

the policy of one country's political, economic, or cultural domination over other lands and territories

Iron Curtain

the dividing line between Communist countries and the Western countries of Europe

Kaiser

Emperor of Germany

Kamikazes

Japanese pilots who loaded their aircraft with bombs and crashed them into enemy ships

Kulturkampf

Bismarck's struggle to limit the influence of the Catholic Church in Germany

Mandates

Territories given to European powers to rule after World War I

NATO

A military alliance of twelve Western nations formed in 1949

Neutrality

policy of supporting neither side in a conflict

Nuremberg Laws

Eliminated citizenship and many civil and property rights for Jews

Perestroika

Restructuring of the Soviet economic and political structure

Pogrom

Violent riot or attack directed against a Jewish community

Proletariat

working class

Propaganda

Information created by governments in order to influence public opinion

Protectorate

Country with its own government but under the control of an outside power

Realpolitik

The belief in practical goals instead of theory in political philosophy

Reich

German Empire

Reparation

payment for war damage or damage caused by imprisonment

Social Darwinism

An application of principles of natural selection and survival of the fittest to the struggle between nations and races

Soviet

council of workers and soldiers set up by Russian revolutionaries in 1917

Sphere of Influence

Area in which an outside power claims exclusive investment or trading priveleges

Total War

Channeling of a nation's entire resources into a war effort

Totalitarianism

A form of government in which the person or party in charge has absolute control over all aspects of life

Trench Warfare

A form of combat in which soldiers dug deep ditches to seek protection from enemy fire and defend their positions

Tsar

Emperor of Russia

U-Boats

German submarines

United Nations

an international organization formed in 1945 to maintain peace and encourage cooperation among nations

Warsaw Pact

A military alliance of the Soviet-dominated countries of Eastern Europe, established in 1955