IGCSE History Core Content - Remove exam

Alsace-Lorraine

Region on the border between France and Germany; taken by Germany from France after the Franco-Prussian War in 1871; given back to France in the Versailles Settlement

Anschluss

Political union/alliance between Austria and Germany; banned in the Versailles Settlement

Armistice

11 November 1918; brought the First World War to an end

Big Three

Phrase used to describe the leaders of France, Great Britain and the USA during the post-WWI peace negotiations

Georges Clemenceau

Leader of France during the post-WWI peace negotiations; sought revenge, security, reparations

Communism

Economic and social system in which property and economic activity are controlled by the state; people have few rights and freedoms; religion is banned and the media is censored

Conscription

Forced participation in a country's military for a certain number of years; banned in Germany in the Versailles Settlement

Danzig

City taken from Germany in the Versailles Settlement to become a 'Free City'

Disarmament

Following the Versailles Settlement, Germany was only allowed 100,000 soldiers, six battleships, no heavy artillery, no submarines, no air force, and no conscription

Diktat

Term used to describe the fact Germany had no option but to accept the terms of the Versailles Settlement

Fourteen Points

January 1918; statement of principles of peace that was sought by USA President Woodrow Wilson in the post-WWI peace settlements

League of Nations

Organisation established in the Versailles Settlement; idea of Woodrow Wilson; sought to bring all states in the world as a world parliament

David Lloyd George

Leader of Great Britain during the post-WWI peace negotiations; sought to protect the British Empire, protect trade, limit threat of communism

Mandate

Term used to describe the process of the League of Nations taking control of Germany's former colonies (e.g. the Cameroons) and allowing Great Britain, France and Japan to govern them on the League's behalf

Polish Corridor

Composed of West Prussia, Posen and parts of Upper Silesia; given to Poland from Germany in the Versailles Settlement

Reparations

Article 232; Germany forced to pay £6,600 million to the Allies (mainly France and Belgium) in yearly instalments

Rhineland

Region on border between France and Germany; after the Versailles Settlement it remained part of Germany but became a demilitarised zone with an Allied military occupation for 15 years

Russian Revolution

1917; victory for the communists

Saar

Industrial region of Germany; the Versailles Settlement stated that its mining profits were to be given to France for 15 years

Self-determination

Establishment of nation-states rather than great empires; ambition of Woodrow Wilson during the post-WWI peace negotiations

Treaty of Versailles

June 1919; treaty that dealt with Germany following the First World War

War Guilt Clause

Article 231; Germany forced to accept guilt for the First World War

Woodrow Wilson

Leader of the USA during the post-WWI peace negotiations; sought the Fourteen Points, disarmament, self-determination, "fair and lasting peace"

Aaland Islands dispute

(Success in 1920s) 1921; dispute between Sweden and Finland; owned by the League oversaw a plebiscite; the League ruled they should be run by Finland but given significant autonomy

Aims of the League of Nations

Discourage aggression; improve living and working conditions; encourage disarmament; encourage cooperation and trade between countries

Arbitration

Method of resolving a dispute peacefully using an independent authority that is neutral who will listen to all evidence like a judge, then issue a ruling; League used the Permanent Court of International Justice for this

Assembly

'Parliament' of the League; it was comprised of all member-states; met once per year; admitted new members and elected non-permanent members of the Council; decisions had to be unanimous

Collective security

Key principle of the League; member-states would guarantee the security of every other country through a three-step process: (i) moral condemnation, (ii) economic sanctions, and (iii) military intervention

Committees

Bodies within the Secretariat that oversees aims of the League; they included the Health Committee, Refugee Committee, Mandates Committee, Slavery Committee, and Disarmament Committee

Corfu dispute

(Failure in 1920s) 1923; Conference of Ambassadors sent Italian General Tellini to establish new border between Albania and Greece; he was murdered and no arrests made; Mussolini ordered occupation of Corfu as compensation; Greece appealed to League; Council sent commission to investigate which found no evidence that Greece had failed to investigate properly; Conference of Ambassadors (under pressure from Italy) ruled that Greece must pay Italy 50 million lire in compensation

Council

'Executive' body of the League; comprised of permanent members (Great Britain, France, Italy, Japan, and later Germany) and non-permanent members; met four times per year; main decision-making body; each permanent member had a veto

Covenant

Constitution of the League that laid out its rules

Dawes Plan

1924; agreement that involved American banks loaning 800 million Marks to Germany to restart their economy after hyperinflation

Economic sanctions

(Power #2 of the Council in response to an act of aggression) A penalty or punishment imposed by an official body; typical sanction would be a ban on trade, which has an impact on the country targeted so that they might then change their policies or reverse actions; importantly sanctions on sale of oil to Italy during Abyssinian Crisis were not implemented

Geneva Protocol

1924; agreement that stated if two members of the League were in dispute, they would accept the decision made by the League

Greek-Bulgaria dispute

(Success in 1920s) 1925; two Greek border guards were killed on the border with Bulgaria; Greek gov't mistakenly told Bulgaria had launched invasion; Greece attack Bulgaria; Bulgaria inform Council who order both sides to end military action; League found out that Greece had stolen crops and cattle upon retreat; Greece forced to pay £45,000 compensation to Bulgaria

Health Committee

Committee of the League that sought to deal with global crises after WWI; led by Ludwig Rajchman, the Health Committee became one of the most successful of the League; it supported Soviet Russia in preventing a typhus epidemic in the 1920s, reduced the incidence of leprosy and began international campaign to eliminate mosquitoes (reducing spread of malaria)

Humanitarian

Taking action to promote the welfare of people

International Labour Organisation

Organisation within the League designed improve working conditions around the world; ILO introduced 8-hour working day and 48-working week to many countries, restricted the addition of lead to paint and campaigned to end child labour

Isolationism

Foreign policy of the USA following WWI in which they sought to isolate themselves from world affairs

Kellogg-Briand Pact

1928; agreement in which 65 states agreed not to use force to settle disputes

Locarno Treaties

1925; agreement wherein Germany accepted its western borders as set out in the Versailles Settlement

Mandate

Term used to describe the process of the League taking control of Germany's former colonies (e.g. the Cameroons) and allowing Great Britain, France and Japan to govern them on the League's behalf; the Mandates Committee oversaw this process

Mandates Committee

Committee of the League responsible for oversight of the mandated territories

Military intervention

(Power #3 of the Council in response to an act of aggression) If all other methods failed, Council could send military help to victim of attack

Moral condemnation

(Power #1 of the Council in response to an act of aggression) Public condemnation by the Council of an act of aggression by a country

Occupation of the Ruhr

(Failure in 1920s) 1923; Germany failed to pay its second instalment of reparations; French and Belgian troops occupy the Ruhr region of western Germany; 132 Germany were killed and 150,000 expelled from the region; League did nothing; troops eventually withdrew in August 1923 upon resumption of reparation payments

Permanent Court of International Justice

Organisation within the League that worked as a neutral arbiter when countries entered a dispute

Permanent member

Constant members of the Council; in 1920: Britain, France, Japan, and Italy (Germany joined in 1926)

Refugee Committee

Committee of the League that sought to deal with the refugee crisis in Europe after WWI; led by Fridtjof Nansen, it successfully returned 425,000 refugees within two years of WWI

Secretariat

'Administrative' body of the League; worked to carry out the Council's decisions; oversaw the work of the League's committees

Slavery Committee

Committee of the League that sought to abolish slavery around the world; successfully freed 200,000 slaves in Burma and Sierra Leone

General Tellini

Italian General sent by the Conference of Ambassadors to establish new border between Albania and Greece; he was murdered and no arrests made; led to the Corfu crisis

Unanimous

Term used to describe a decision in the League's Assembly that has the support of every representative who is voting, and so no one has opposed the proposal being voted on

Upper Silesia dispute

(Success in 1920s) 1921; Dispute between Germany and Poland; League oversaw a plebiscite and the territory was divided between the two countries

Vilna dispute

(Failure in 1920s) 1920; Dispute between Lithuania and Poland; Vilna was made the capital of Lithuania in the Versailles Settlement; Poland took it over; the League did nothing to stop them

Wall Street Crash

1929; for Japan, their silk market collapsed; led to an economic depression around the world

Washington Naval Disarmament Conference

1921; USA, Britain, France and Japan agreed to limit the size of their navies

Young Plan

1929; agreement in which Germany's reparation payments were reduced

Abyssinian crisis

(Failure in 1930s) 1935-6; Italy invaded Abyssinia (Ethiopia) in 1935 following the Wal-Wal Incident and successfully occupied it

Addis Ababa

Capital of Abyssinia; occupied by Italian forces in May 1936

Disarmament Conference

(Failure in 1930s) 1932-4; conference held in Geneva to reduce global arms; failed due to fears of individual countries and reluctance to trust one another; neither Britain nor USA was willing to give guarantees; Hitler made clear intention to rearm and left conference in 1933

Economic depression

Period of economic decline experienced by countries in the early 1930s; led to both isolationism and militarism

Hoare-Laval Pact

December 1935; agreement made secretly between Britain, France and Italy during the Abyssinian Crisis to give Italy two-thirds of Abyssinia in return for stopping the war; press found out and Hoare was forced to resign as British foreign secretary

Lytton Report

September 1932; report published by the League following Lord Lytton's investigation into the Japanese invasion of Manchuria; it condemned Japanese actions and claimed the invasion was unlawful

Manchukuo

Name given to Manchuria by the Japanese following their occupation of the territory in September 1931; the Japanese installed ex-Chinese Emperor Pu-Yi as the puppet leader

Manchurian crisis

(Failure in 1930s) 1931-3; Japan invaded Chinese Manchuria in 1931 following the Mukden Incident and successfully occupied it, having renamed in Manchukuo and installed Pu-yi as the puppet leader

Mukden Incident

1931; suspected attack on the South Manchurian Railway that provided an excuse for the Japanese invasion of Manchuria

Benito Mussolini

Leader of Italy (1922-45)

Emperor Pu-yi

Ex-Chinese Emperor installed by Japan as the puppet leader of Manchukuo from 1934-45

Rome-Berlin Axis

1936; agreement signed between Hitler and Mussolini establishing positive relations between the countries

Hailie Selassie

Emperor of Abyssinia

South Manchurian Railway

Railway, controlled by Japan, that ran through Manchuria and the Korean peninsula; location of the Mukden Incident

Stresa Pact

April 1935; agreement signed between Britain, France, and Italy; each country confirmed it would uphold (i) the Versailles Settlement, (ii) the Locarno Treaties, and (iii) guarantee the independence of Austria

Suez Canal

Waterway that connects the Mediterranean with the Red Sea; owned by Britain at the time of the Abyssinian Crisis; its closure would have had a significant impact on Italy's ability to move troops to Abyssinia, but Britain decided against doing this

Tariff

Tax on imports/exports; used to disincentivise trade with other countries

Wal-Wal incident

1934; incident on border between Abyssinia and Italian Somaliland; 30 Italians and 100 Abyssinians died; Mussolini demanded compensation, but later invaded

Anglo-German Naval Agreement

1935; agreement made between Britain and Germany in which Britain would produce and sell 35% of its navy to Germany; example of Britain appeasing German rearmament

Anti-Comintern Pact

1936; anti-communist alliance signed between Germany and Japan, which Italy joined in 1937

Anschluss

Political union/alliance between Austria and Germany; banned in the Versailles Settlement; re-established in 1938; 99.75% of the Austrian population voted in favour of German occupation in the plebiscite of March 1938

Appeasement

British and French policy towards Germany during the 1930s in which they allowed Hitler to undermine the terms of the Versailles Settlement in the hope of avoiding conflict

Benes, Edvard

Leader of Czechoslovakia (1935-8); resigned following the Munich Agreement

Neville Chamberlain

Prime minister of Great Britain (1937-40); associated with the policy of appeasement

Francisco Franco

Leader of the fascists during the Spanish Civil War; leader of Spain (1936-75)

Guarantee to Poland

March 1939; following the German invasion of Czechoslovakia, Britain and France publicly guaranteed the security of Poland - if Germany attacked, they would declare war on Germany

Konrad Henlein

Leader of the Czech Nazi Party

Adolf Hitler

Chancellor of Germany (1933-4) and Fuhrer (1934-45); leader of the Nazi Party

Lebensraum

German term used to describe Hitler's desire for territory in eastern Europe (notably modern-day Poland, Ukraine, and eastern Russia)

Luftwaffe

German air force; re-introduced in 1935 as part of rearmament

Mein Kampf

Book written by Hitler whilst in prison; published 1925; translated to 'My Struggle'; outlined his political views, including his foreign policy aims: destroy communism, destroy the Versailles Settlement; unite Germany speaking people; create a German Reich

Vyacheslav Molotov

Foreign Minister of Soviet Russia who signed the Nazi-Soviet Pact

Munich Agreement

September 1938; agreement signed between Germany, Britain, France, and Italy in which Germany would receive the Sudetenland in Czechoslovakia on the condition that they guaranteed it would be their last territorial claim in Europe

Nazi-Soviet Pact

August 1939; agreement signed between Germany and Soviet Russia

Pact of Steel

May 1939; agreement signed between Germany and Italy

"Peace in our time"

Phrase used by Neville Chamberlain following the Munich Agreement

Rearmament

Process of re-developing a country's military; began under Hitler in Germany in 1933 and by 1939 the country had 950,000 soldiers, 8,250 aircraft, and 95 warships

Remilitarisation of the Rhineland

March 1936; Hitler's first major gamble to undermine the Versailles Settlement - bluff as army had only 22,000 soldiers and orders to retreat if met with resistance; France did not respond

Joachim von Ribbentrop

Foreign Minister of Germany who signed the Nazi-Soviet Pact

Rome-Berlin Axis

1936; agreement signed between Hitler and Mussolini establishing positive relations between the countries

Saar plebiscite

1935; electorate voted 90% in favour of returning to be part of Germany; first territory reclaimed since the Versailles Settlement