World War II

Appeasement

yielding to an enemy’s demands in order to maintain peace

Munich Pact

the 1938 agreement in which Britain and France appeased Hitler by agreeing that Germany could annex the Sudetenland, a German-speaking region of Czechoslovakia

Totalarianism

a system in which the government totally controls all aspects of a society, including the economy

Fascism

a political movement based on an extreme nationalism in which the state comes first and the individual liberty is secondary.

Nazism

a form of fascism that promoted the belief that Germans and other Nordic peoples were superior to other races

Spanish Civil War

a civil war from 1936 to 1939 in which the Spanish military and its right-wing allies, known as the Nationalists, overthrew Spain’s democratic republic

neutrality acts

legislation passed by Congress in 1936 and 1937 designed to keep the US out of European conflicts, such as the Spanish Civil War.

blitzkrieg

“lightning war” the German military strategy during WWII of attacking without warning

mobilization

the assembling of troops and equipment for war

puppet government

a government that is run by citizens of a conquered country who carry out the policies of the conqueror

Lend-Lease Act

legislation passed by Congress in 1941 adopting a plan to lend arms to Britain

War Production Board

the federal agency set up to manage the conversion of industries to military production during WWII

gross domestic product (GDP)

the gross national product excluding the value of net income earned abroad

price controls

a system of legal restrictions on the prices charged for goods

GIs

a nickname for US soldiers during WWII, derived from the government issue label on many of their supplies

internment camp

a center for confirming people who have been relocated for reasons of national security

Executive Order 9066

an executive order issued by FDR in 1942 allowing interment camps to be set up to exclude current residents believed to be a threat to security

Korematsu vs United States

the 1944 Supreme Court decision declaring that the government had the right to keep Japanese Americans in interment camps

Women’s Army Corps (WAC)

a women’s unit of the US army, established in 1942

Double V campaign

a campaign in which black leaders called for all citizens to fight against racism by seeking a “double victory” - a victory for democracy and abroad

Tuskegee Airmen

a group of Army Air Corps pilots and support crews, established in 1941 as the first black combat unit

War Refugee Board

an agency created in 1944 that arranged for Jewish refugees to stay at centers in Italy and North Africa, as well as in former army camps in the US

Zoot Suit Riots

racial clashes in Los Angeles in 1943 between mobs of sailors and marines and Mexican American youths who wore zoot suits

Allies

the countries that fought against the Central Powers during WWI and against the Axis powers during WWII

Axis Powers

the alliance between Germany, Italy, and Japan during WWII

Counteroffensive

a large scale military counterattack by a force that was previously on the defensive

Battle of Stalingrad

a key Soviet victory during WWII that ended Hitler’s effort to conquer the USSR

precision bombing

the bombing of specific targets

saturation bombing

the rapid release of a large number of bombs over a wide area

D-Day

June 6, 1944: the day that the Allied invasion of German-occupied France began

Genocide

the systematic killing of a racial, political, or cultural group

Holocaust

the systematic, state-sponsored persecution and murder of Jews and other minority groups by the Nazis

Battle of Midway

the US naval victory in WWII that stopped Japanese expansion and forced Japan to focus on Defense

Leapfrogging

an American strategy in the Pacific during WWII in which islands heavily defended by the Japanese were bypassed in order to capture nearby islands that were not well defended

Battle of Okinawa

the US victory in WWII that positioned the Allies for an invasion of Japan

Kamikaze

a Japanese strategy during WWII in which suicide pilots flew bomb-filled planes directly into the vessels of the Allied fleet

atomic bomb

a bomb with explosive power that comes from the energy suddenly released by splitting the nuclei of uranium or plutonium atoms

Manhattan Project

the top-secret US government project that developed the atomic bomb

World Bank

a bank founded in 1944 by the US and 43 other nations in order to provide loans to help countries recover from WWII and develop their economies

United Nations (UN)

the international organization founded in 1945 to further the causes of peace, prosperity and human rights

Four Freedoms

essential freedoms identified by FDR in a 1941 speech and later incorporated into the UN charter: freedom of speech and expression, freedom of worship, freedom from want, and freedom from fear

Universal Declaration of Human Rights

a document adopted by the UN in 1948 affirming basic human rights, including the right to life, liberty, and equality before the law, as well as freedom of religion, expression, and assembly.

human rights

rights that are regarded as belonging to all people, such as the right to life, liberty, and equality before the law, as well as freedom of religion, expression, and assembly

war crimes

a violation of internationally accepted practices related to waging war

tribunal

a court

Nuremberg War Crimes Trials

a series of trials in 1945 and 9146 in Nuremberg, Germany, in which an international military tribunal convicted former Nazi leaders of war crimes

Sovereignty

a nation’s independent authority

GI Bill of Rights

a law passed in 1944 to provide federal funds to help returning GIs make the transition to civilian life

median income

average pay

service sector

the segment of the economy that does not produce goods