AP Euro wars and world war II

Anschluss with Austria

The 1938 annexation of Austria into Nazi Germany. It was a direct violation of the Treaty of Versailles but was met with little resistance from the international community.

Lebensraum

German for "living space." This was a core Nazi tenet claiming that Germany was overpopulated and needed to conquer territory in the East (specifically Poland and the Soviet Union) to provide land for the "Aryan" race.

League of Nations

An international organization created after WWI to prevent future conflicts through diplomacy. It ultimately failed because it lacked an enforcement mechanism (an army) and the U.S. never joined.

Mandate Territories

Former territories of the German and Ottoman Empires that were placed under the "guardianship" of Allied powers (like Britain and France) after WWI, rather than being given immediate independence.

Keynesianism

An economic theory by John Maynard Keynes advocating for increased government spending and lower taxes to stimulate demand and pull a global economy out of depression.

Popular Front (France)

A 1936 alliance of left-wing parties (Socialists, Communists, and Radicals) that took power in France to oppose fascism and enact social reforms like the 40-hour work week.

Albert Einstein

The physicist who revolutionized our understanding of the universe with the Theory of Relativity ($E=mc^2$), challenging the absolute laws of Newtonian physics.

Dadaism

An "anti-art" movement born out of the shock of WWI. It used nonsense, irrationality, and intuition to mock the "rational" world that had led to such a brutal war.

Surrealism

• An artistic movement that followed Dadaism, focusing on the subconscious and dreams. Think Salvador Dalí’s melting clocks—visualizing the world of the "id."

Bauhaus

A German school of design and architecture that merged fine arts with functional craftsmanship. It favored "form follows function" and clean, industrial lines.

Igor Stravinsky

A Russian composer known for The Rite of Spring. His use of "primitive" rhythms and dissonance broke traditional musical rules and famously caused a riot at its premiere.

Erich Maria Remarque

The German author of All Quiet on the Western Front. His work vividly detailed the physical and mental trauma of WWI soldiers, becoming a definitive anti-war statement.

Axis Powers (WWII)

Primarily Germany, Italy, and Japan. They were later joined by smaller nations like Hungary, Romania, and Bulgaria.

Allied Powers (WWII)

Primarily Great Britain, the Soviet Union (USSR), and the United States. France (Free French Forces) and China were also key members.

Blitzkrieg

"Lightning War." A military tactic using fast-moving tanks, motorized infantry, and massive air support to overwhelm and encircle enemy forces quickly.

Winston Churchill

The British Prime Minister who led the UK through the darkest days of the war, famous for his refusal to surrender and his "Iron Curtain" speech later on.

Concentration/Death Camp

Facilities used by the Nazis. Concentration camps were for forced labor and imprisonment of "enemies of the state"; Death camps (like Auschwitz-Birkenau) were specifically designed for mass industrial murder, primarily of Jewish people during the Holocaust.

Appeasement

The policy followed by Britain and France in the late 1930s of giving in to Hitler’s territorial demands (like the Sudetenland) in hopes of avoiding a full-scale war.

Nuremberg Laws

A set of 1935 racial laws in Nazi Germany that stripped Jewish people of their citizenship and forbade marriage or extramarital relations between Jews and Germans.

Operation Barbarossa

The code name for the Axis invasion of the Soviet Union in June 1941. It was the largest military operation in history and opened the brutal Eastern Front.

Yalta/Potsdam

Two major conferences held by the "Big Three" (Stalin, Roosevelt/Truman, Churchill/Attlee) to decide how to reorganize Europe and Germany after the war. Yalta (Feb 1945) planned the post-war split; Potsdam (July 1945) finalized the terms of Germany's surrender and the borders of Poland.