Modern World History Honors Final Exam Study Guide - M19 to M23

Flashcards for vocabulary review

Trench Warfare

Soldiers fought each other from trenches and ended with significant casualties for very little gain on enemies. Life in the trenches was miserable for the soldiers. Trenches were muddy, wet, rat and disease infested holes that soldiers lived in day and night for months at a time. Sleep and fresh food was difficult to come by

No Man's Land

The area between the trenches that was filled with barbed wire and mines. It was typically a last resort for soldiers to enter this area as it typically ended in death

Zimmerman Note

Germany’s foreign minister, Arthur Zimmerman, sent a telegram to the Mexican government requesting that Mexico increase disruptions in the town along the border with the US so that the US government would continue to send Army troops to the border to help secure the area. In return for their cooperation, once Germany was able to win the war they would grant Mexico land that they had lost in their war with America back in 1848 -- Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona

Schlieffen Plan

For Germany to not have to fight a two front war. The basic premise was that Russia would be slow to mobilize and would not bring a real threat to Germany until several weeks after the war. Expecting Russia to be slow to mobilize in the East, Germany would be better suited to use the early weeks of the war to strike quickly in France, capture Paris, and neutralize any combat in the West

Alliance System

A network of public and secretive alliances that brought many countries into WWI

Treaty of Versailles

Treaty that ended WWI - focus was mostly on punishing Germany for its role in the war

War Reparations

Payments made by the losers in a war to those who won the war because of the cost associated with the war

Militarism

The build up of military and aggressive military actions a country may make. Germany’s militarism was a cause of the war and led to demilitarization after the war

Wilson's Fourteen Points

Woodrow Wilson’s plan for the end of the war world. Included ideas such as: Demilitarization, Free trade, Self determination in Eastern Europe, and Freedom of the seas

Central Powers

Germany and Austria-Hungary

Allied Powers

Britain, France, Russia, US, and Serbia

Total War

When all aspects of society and the economy are dedicated to the war effort, including civilian lives. All resources and manpower were dedicated to the war

Propaganda

Used in WWI to ensure support for the war effort at home and abroad and to push public opinion in favor of the war

Unrestricted Submarine Warfare

German strategy at sea that involved sinking any vessel that they believed aided their enemies war effort. Used because they were trying to keep supplies and food from reaching Britain in order to starve them out

Treaty of Brest-Litovsk

Treaty between Russia and Germany that ended Russia’s role in the war

Powder Keg

The Balkans were considered the Powder Keg of Europe because it was an area of many nationalist uprisings that made war more possible

Rasputin

Wizard, witch doctor, mythical man of special powers who possibly cured the czars child of a blood disease. Czarina Alexandra believed that Rasputin had magical powers and fell for his influence

Collectives

Farming and agriculture under complete government control. Introduced by Stalin where the government would provide all the equipment and supplies and determine what type of farming would take place

Lenin

After years of rule by the Czars and their oppressive and/or weak leadership, Russians wanted promise of something better. Lenin promised peace, land, and bread

Great Purge

When Stalin consolidated power and wanted to remove any political opponents, especially those who had been loyal to Leon Trotsky. During the Great Purge, many longtime (or former) Bolsheviks or anyone else that had been a threat to Stalin’s power were imprisoned and/or sent to labor camps, or executed

Command Economy

Under a command economy, all aspects of the economy are under the control of the central government. Stalin replaced the NEP with a command economy

Totalitarianism

Intimidation, fear, spying, and violence are used to control the citizens and to ensure any opposition is crushed. Propaganda and censorship were also used to control ideas and eliminate dissent

Five Year Plans

The Five Year Plan emphasized factory production (heavy industry) and collectivized agriculture. Factory production was guided by the government and quotas were established to make sure production was high

Red Scare

Fear of the spread of communism

Lebensraum

Hitler’s policy to expand the German empire while also removing groups of people that were not considered “Aryan” from Germany. He believed that Germany was “too crowded”

Nuremberg Laws

German laws that restricted citizenship for Jewish people and laws concerning the everyday lives of Jewish people living in Germany. Restrictions included: who Jews were allowed to marry, Jewish citizenship in Germany, allowance to own businesses, not being allowed to show own heritage or even support Germany by raising certain flags

Munich Conference

Germany was allowed to take the Sudetenland but had to promise not to invade the rest of Czechoslovakia (they did six months later). The west (Britain and France) wanted to avoid war through the policy of appeasement

Battle of the Bulge

Considered Hitler’s last major offensive and Germany’s last opportunity to stop the Allied advance. German forces pushed into the Allied lines around the area of the Maginot Line stretching into Belgium, but the lines ultimately held although there was a “bulge” created by the German offensive.

Nazi-Soviet Pact

Pact agreed to between Germany and SU that they wouldn’t attack each other, but also included terms that outlined which territories would be attacked by each and who would annex certain territories. Poland was the first target after the pact was signed and kicked off WWII by Germany invading. The SU would later invade Poland from the East

Vichy France

The puppet government of southern France that was significantly influenced and controlled by the Germans

Island Hopping

The strategy of island hopping included US troops taking smaller, weaker defended islands across the Pacific to interrupt supply chains for the Japanese and would lead to the invasion of larger, better defended islands later on

D-Day

The objective of the D-Day invasion was to free western Europe from Nazi occupation. Allied troops invaded France at Normandy from the English Channel, landing on the beaches of Normandy, or paratroopers landing further inland

Battle of Midway

US forces were aware of a pending attack by the Japanese, so they staged their naval forces far enough away that the Japanese couldn’t see them. When the Japanese began their attack on Midway, an important base for the US in the middle of the Pacific, the US fleet began attacking the Japanese fleet in a surprise attack

Battle of Stalingrad

German offensive on important city of Stalingrad in southern USSR (named after Stalin)

Dunkirk

Mostly British troops were being forced through a narrow lane toward the English Channel by the Germans very early in the war - several hundred thousand troops were being pushed on 3 sides by German forces and their backs were up against the sea. At Dunkirk, the British Royal Navy came up with a plan to use every ship, military vessel, civilian vessel that they could to reach Dunkirk and save as many of the retreating forces as possible

Pearl Harbor

Japan believed that the US Pacific fleet stationed at Pearl Harbor was a threat to Japan and believed that the US was the aggressor because of the naval fleet stationed there

Invasion of USSR

Hitler was after Lebensraum, but also the USSR had vast oil fields that the Germans would need

Lend-Lease Act

Was a program in which the US would Lend or Lease weapons or supplies to their allies or any country deemed necessary for the defense of (or to protect) the US. This allowed the US to supply mostly the British prior to the US joining the war

Final Solution

After Hitler’s initial plan to force Jews to emigrate out of Germany and controlled areas, Hitler expanded the plan of his final solution to include moving Jews to prison camps and concentration camps. In these camps, those who were deemed unfit to work were killed in gas chambers

Atomic Bombs

Save American lives and Japanese lives, and force a quick surrender

Marshall Plan

With much of W. Europe in ruins, along with economic issues, food scarcity and high unemployment, US Sec’y of State George Marshall introduced a plan in 1947 to provide aid to European countries who were in need which provided food, machinery and materials in order to stabilize and rebuild Europe

Truman Doctrine

As the relationship between the US and the SU worsened following the war, President Truman adopted containment as the foreign policy regarding the expansion of communism, which is a foreign policy directed at blocking Soviet influence and stopping the expansion of communism

Berlin Airlift

Over time, the Soviets cut off West Berlin from water, rail traffic and highways as Stalin was trying to either force the Allies to give up on all of Berlin and hand it over to the Soviets and/or give up on the allies plan to reunify all of Germany

United Nations

In June 1945, the US and Soviet Union agreed to join 48 other countries in forming what is known as the United Nations, replacing the League of Nations as a governing body of the world

Buffer Zone

Following WWII, a goal of the SU was to shield or block itself from the west in order to avoid another invasion. As the war drew to a conclusion, the SU pushed the Germans back and by doing so left several countries along the western edge of the SU occupied and became what Stalin considered a necessary buffer between the SU and W. Europe

NATO vs Warsaw Pact

In 1949, as Western Europe feared Soviet aggression, 10 countries of Western Europe as well as the US and Canada joined together form a defensive military alliance known NATO or the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. To counter the creation of NATO, the Soviet Union led the formation of their own similar alliance involving communist countries which was called the Warsaw Pact

Brinkmanship

Was the US foreign policy beginning under Eisenhower in 1953 in which the US and its Allies would be willing to go to the edge, or “brink” of nuclear war with the USSR if necessary. Cuban Missile Crisis is an example of this

Bay of Pigs

When Castro nationalized all US owned sugar mills in Cuba, Pres. Eisenhower responded by ordering an embargo on all trade with Cuba. As a result of the failure of the Bay of Pigs invasion, the leader of the USSR, Nikita Khrushchev was convinced that the US would not resist Soviet expansion in Latin America

Berlin Wall

As what became known as a symbol of the Cold War and division between Capitalism and Communism, East Germany began building the Berlin Wall in 1961 in order to keep East Germans from fleeing into West Berlin