World War 2 and Year of Crisis Study Guide

Defiance of Treaty of Versailles

Hitler broke the treaty by moving troops into the Rhineland demilitarized zone in 1936.

Fascism

A type of government led by a dictator that controls everything and stops people from disagreeing.

Appeasement

A policy of giving in to someone's demands to avoid conflict, often used to prevent war.

Munich Conference

A meeting in 1938 where leaders of Britain, France, Italy, and Germany allowed Hitler to take control of part of Czechoslovakia to avoid war.

Anschluss

The annexation of Austria by Nazi Germany in 1938.

Lebensraum

Nazi policy seeking to expand German territory to provide more living space for the German people.

Isolationism

A policy of avoiding involvement in the affairs or conflicts of other countries.

Non Aggression Pact

An agreement between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union in 1939, promising not to attack each other.

Third Reich

The name given to Nazi Germany from 1933 to 1945 under Hitler's dictatorship.

Blitzkrieg

A military strategy involving rapid and overwhelming attacks to quickly defeat enemies.

Lend-Lease Act

A U.S. law passed in 1941 allowing America to supply military aid to Allied countries without directly joining the conflict.

Fall of France/Vichy Government

Refers to the quick defeat of French forces by Nazi Germany in 1940, leading to the establishment of a collaborationist regime.

Dunkirk

The site of a dramatic evacuation in 1940 of over 330,000 Allied soldiers from beaches in France.

Operation Dynamo

The codename for the evacuation of Allied soldiers from Dunkirk in 1940.

Winston Churchill

The British Prime Minister during WWII known for his inspiring leadership and speeches.

Operation Barbarossa

The German invasion of the Soviet Union in June 1941, marking the largest military operation in history.

U-boats

German submarines used in both World Wars primarily to attack Allied shipping.

Battle of Britain

A 1940 air campaign where the British Royal Air Force defended against massive German bombing raids.

Atomic Bomb

A powerful nuclear weapon developed by the U.S. during WWII and used on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Nuremberg Trials

A series of military tribunals held after WWII to prosecute Nazi war criminals for crimes against humanity.

Marshall Plan

A U.S. initiative launched in 1948 to provide financial aid to rebuild European economies after WWII.

Genocide

The deliberate and systematic extermination of a particular group of people.

Holocaust

The state-sponsored genocide during WWII in which Nazi Germany killed six million Jews and millions of others.

Kristallnacht

A violent anti-Jewish pogrom in November 1938 leading to the destruction of Jewish businesses and arrests.

Two Front War

A military situation where a country fights against enemies on two different fronts, as Germany did in WWII.

D-Day

The Allied invasion of Normandy on June 6, 1944, marking a turning point in WWII.

Kamikaze

Japanese suicide pilots during WWII who crashed their planes into enemy ships.