Modern World History Review Sheet

Flashcards for the Modern World History Final Exam Review

Totalitarian State/Totalitarianism

A political system where the state has total control over all aspects of public and private life.

Great Purge

A campaign of political repression and executions in the Soviet Union orchestrated by Joseph Stalin.

Collective Farms/Collectivization of Agriculture

Government-controlled farms created by combining many small farms into larger units

Gulag

A system of forced labor camps in the Soviet Union.

Five Year Plans

A series of economic development plans undertaken by the Soviet Union under Stalin.

Kulaks

Wealthy peasants in the Soviet Union who resisted collectivization.

Fascism

A political ideology that emphasizes the importance of the nation or an ethnic group, and the supreme authority of the leader.

Black Shirts

Mussolini's paramilitary wing that enforced fascist ideology through violence and intimidation.

"Il Duce"

The title taken by Benito Mussolini, meaning 'The Leader'.

Ethiopia

An African nation invaded by Italy in 1935, highlighting the League of Nations' weakness.

League of Nations

An international organization founded after World War I to promote world peace and cooperation.

Rape of Nanjing

A brutal massacre of Chinese civilians by Japanese soldiers in 1937.

Nazi Party

Political party led by Adolf Hitler, characterized by extreme nationalism and racism.

Anti-Semitism

Prejudice and discrimination against Jewish people.

Nuremberg Laws

Laws enacted in Nazi Germany that deprived Jews of many rights of citizenship.

Mein Kampf

Autobiographical manifesto by Adolf Hitler, outlining his political ideology and plans for Germany.

Aryan race

A concept in Nazi ideology that viewed the 'Aryan race' as superior.

Fuhrer

Title taken by Adolf Hitler, meaning 'Leader'.

Third Reich

Nazi Germany, from 1933 to 1945.

Gestapo

The secret police in Nazi Germany.

Reichstag

The German parliament.

Manchuria

Region of China invaded by Japan in 1931.

March on Rome

The event in 1922 where Mussolini's National Fascist Party came to power in Italy.

Weimar Republic

The democratic government of Germany between the end of World War I and the rise of Nazi Germany.

Lebensraum

German term referring to 'living space,' used by Nazis to justify territorial expansion.

Axis Powers

The alliance of Germany, Italy, and Japan during World War II.

1936 Berlin Olympics

International sporting event held in Germany in 1936 that was used for propaganda.

Sudetenland

An area of Czechoslovakia inhabited mostly by ethnic Germans that Hitler demanded to be annexed to Germany.

Rhineland

Area of western Germany that was reoccupied by German military forces in 1936, violating the Treaty of Versailles.

Munich Conference & Agreement

A meeting in 1938 where Britain and France appeased Hitler by allowing Germany to annex the Sudetenland.

Polish Corridor

A territory (also known as the 'Corridor') was established after World War I and it gave the Second Republic of Poland access to the Baltic Sea, but divided Germany.

Danzig

A port city in Poland that Hitler wanted to annex to Germany.

Spanish Civil War

A conflict in Spain (1936-1939) that became a proxy war between fascists and republicans.

Guernica

A Basque town in Spain bombed by the German Luftwaffe in 1937, a symbol of the brutality of the Spanish Civil War.

Anschluss

The annexation of Austria into Nazi Germany in 1938.

Nazi-Soviet Nonaggression Pact

A pact between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union that divided Eastern Europe into spheres of influence.

Brown Shirts

The original paramilitary wing of the Nazi Party.

Appeasement

A policy of giving in to the demands of an aggressor to avoid war.

Republic of China

The state following the collapse of the Qing Dynasty, later overthrown by Mao Zedong

Chinese Civil War

A conflict in China between the Communist Party and the Nationalist Party.

Kuomintang/Nationalists

The Nationalist political party in China, led by Jiang Jieshi.

Long March

The military retreat undertaken by the Red Army of the Chinese Communist Party.

Bushido Code

A Japanese code of conduct emphasizing honor, loyalty, and sacrifice.

Axis versus Allies

The alliance of Great Britain, France, the Soviet Union, the United States, and China during World War II.

Blitzkrieg

A military tactic based on speed and surprise that Germany used during WWII.

Vichy France

The French government that collaborated with Nazi Germany during WWII.

Maginot Line

A line of concrete fortifications, obstacles, and weapon installations that France constructed to deter a German invasion.

Battle of Britain & the Blitz

The aerial warfare fought between the German Luftwaffe and the British Royal Air Force during WWII.

Luftwaffe

The German air force during World War II.

RAF

The British Royal Air Force during World War II.

Scorched Earth Policy

A military strategy of destroying anything that might be useful to the enemy.

Lend-Lease Act

A policy adopted by the United States in 1941 that allowed the president to sell, lend, or lease arms and other supplies to any nation considered vital to the defense of the United States.

Dunkirk

The evacuation of Allied soldiers from the beaches and harbor of Dunkirk, France, during World War II.

Stalingrad

A major battle on the Eastern Front of World War II in which Nazi Germany and its allies fought the Soviet Union for control of the city of Stalingrad.

Island-Hopping

A military strategy used in the Pacific War in which the Allies selectively attacked specific enemy-held islands and bypassed others.

Kamikazes

Japanese aircraft loaded with explosives and deliberately crashed into enemy targets.

Hiroshima & Nagasaki

The two Japanese cities on which the United States dropped atomic bombs in August 1945.

Manhattan Project

A research and development undertaking during World War II that produced the first nuclear weapons.

"Fat Man & Little Boy"

The names given to the atomic bombs dropped on Nagasaki and Hiroshima, respectively.

Nuremberg Trials

A series of military tribunals held by the Allied forces after World War II which were most notable for the prosecution of prominent members of Nazi Germany.

Isolationism

A policy of remaining apart from the affairs or interests of other groups, especially the political affairs of foreign countries.

Pearl Harbor

A surprise military strike by the Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service upon the United States against the naval base at Pearl Harbor in Honolulu, Territory of Hawaii.

Midway

A crucial naval battle in the Pacific Theater of World War II.

D-Day

The landing operations on June 6, 1944 of the Allied invasion of Normandy in Operation Overlord during World War II.

Holocaust

The mass murder of Jews under the German Nazi regime during the period 1941–45.

Genocide

The deliberate and systematic destruction of a group of people because of their ethnicity, nationality, religion, or race.

Ghetto

A part of a city, especially a slum area, occupied by a minority group or groups.

Final Solution

Nazi Germany's plan during World War II to annihilate the Jewish people.

Auschwitz

A network of German Nazi concentration camps and extermination camps in occupied Poland during World War II.

Einsatzgruppen

Paramilitary death squads of Nazi Germany that were responsible for mass killings, primarily by shooting, during World War II.

"Righteous Among the Nations"

Non-Jews who risked their lives during the Holocaust to save Jews from extermination by the Nazis.

Sputnik

The Soviet artificial satellite, launched in 1957, that inaugurated the space age.

Space Race

A competition of space exploration between the United States and Soviet Union.

Yalta Conference

A meeting of the Big Three Allied leaders – Roosevelt, Churchill, and Stalin – in February 1945 to plan the postwar world.

United Nations (Security Council & General Assembly)

An international organization founded in 1945 to promote world peace and cooperation.

ICBMs

A missile with a minimum range of more than 5,500 kilometres primarily designed for nuclear arms delivery.

Iron Curtain

The notional barrier separating the former Soviet bloc and the West prior to the decline of communism that followed the political events in eastern Europe in 1989.

Marshall Plan

A United States program of economic aid for the reconstruction of Europe (1948–1952).

Truman Doctrine & Containment

The principle that the US should give support to countries or peoples threatened by Soviet forces or communist insurrection.

Eastern Bloc (Satellite Countries)

A term for the former Soviet republics.

Berlin Airlift

A military operation in the late 1940s that brought food and other needed goods into West Berlin by air after the government of East Germany, which at that time surrounded West Berlin.

Korean War

A war fought on the Korean Peninsula from 1950 to 1953 after North Korea invaded South Korea.

Berlin Wall

A barrier separating East and West Berlin from 1961 to 1989.

Bay of Pigs Invasion

U.S. attempt to overthrow the communist government in Cuba.

Cuban Missile Crisis

A confrontation between the United States and the Soviet Union in 1962 over the presence of missile sites in Cuba.

NATO

A military alliance of Western European and North American states established in 1949 against the Soviet Union and its satellite states.

Warsaw Pact

A military alliance of communist nations in eastern Europe.

Chinese Civil War

A conflict in China between the Communist Party and the Nationalist Party.

Taiwan

An island off the coast of mainland China; it became the refuge for Nationalist Chinese under Chiang Kai-shek after their defeat by Mao Zedong.

Silicon Shield

The island has an important role in the global supply chain of semiconductors, with Taiwan-based companies accounting for over 50% of global foundry revenue.

Great Leap Forward

An effort made by Mao Zedong to change from an agrarian society to a modern, industrial society.

Little Red Book

A book of Mao Zedong's sayings.

Cultural Revolution

A sociopolitical movement that took place in China from 1966 through 1976.

Red Guards

Student-led paramilitary units mobilized in China during the Cultural Revolution.

Tibet

An autonomous region of China in Southwest China, near the Himalayas.

38th parallel

The latitude line separating North and South Korea.

DMZ

A strip of land running across the Korean Peninsula that serves as a buffer zone between North and South Korea.

Juche

An official state ideology of North Korea, described by the country as 'independent' politics, economics and military defense.

French Indochina

Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia

Dien Bien Phu

A decisive battle in the First Indochina War (1946–1954).