Modern World History 2026 FEX Review Flashcards

Comprehensive vocabulary terms and concepts covering Modern World History, from WWII through the Cold War and Post-Colonialism.

Communism

A type of government and economic system where the state owns all property and means of production.

Socialism

An economic and political system based on public or collective ownership of the means of production.

Capitalism

An economic system based on private ownership of capital and the production of goods and services for profit.

Democracy

A system of government where power is vested in the people, either directly or through elected representatives.

Fascism

A far-right, authoritarian ultranationalism characterized by dictatorial power and forcible suppression of opposition.

Totalitarianism

A system of government that is centralized and dictatorial and requires complete subservience to the state.

Mein Kampf

The book written by Adolf Hitler outlining his political ideology and future plans for Germany.

Neville Chamberlain

The British Prime Minister who famously used the phrase "Peace in our time" and pursued a policy of appeasement.

Appeasement policy

A diplomatic policy of making political or material concessions to an aggressive power in order to avoid conflict.

Hitler-Stalin Pact

A non-aggression agreement signed between Germany and the Soviet Union before the invasion of Poland.

Japan's involvement in WWII

Driven by Japanese Imperialism and expansionist goals in the Pacific.

Kamikaze

Japanese suicide pilots who intentionally crashed planes into enemy ships during World War II.

Blitzkrieg

A lightning war tactic used by Germany involving fast, concentrated motorized force and air power.

Final Solution

The Nazi program for the systematic genocide of the Jewish population during World War II.

D-Day

The Allied invasion of Normandy, France, which began on June 6, 1944.

Lend-Lease program

The policy under which the United States supplied the United Kingdom, Soviet Union, and other Allied nations with food, oil, and materiel between 1941 and 1945.

Lebensraum

The Nazi concept of "living space," justifying the expansion of German territory to the east.

Soviet Union (Losses)

The country that lost the most men and suffered the highest number of losses in World War II.

Yalta Conference

A February 1945 meeting between the Big Three (Stalin, Roosevelt, Churchill) to discuss the post-war reorganization of Europe.

Potsdam Conference

A July 1945 meeting between Allied leaders to negotiate terms for the end of World War II.

Nuremberg Trials

A series of military tribunals held by the Allied forces after World War II to prosecute prominent members of the political, military, and economic leadership of Nazi Germany.

Iron Curtain

A term coined by Winston Churchill to describe the ideological and physical boundary dividing Europe into two separate areas from the end of WWII until the end of the Cold War.

NATO

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization, an intergovernmental military alliance between North American and European countries.

Warsaw Pact

A collective defense treaty signed in 1955 among the Soviet Union and seven Soviet satellite states of Central and Eastern Europe in response to NATO.

Berlin Airlift

The Allied operation that flew food and supplies into West Berlin after the Soviet Union's Berlin Blockade.

Truman Doctrine

An American foreign policy with the primary goal of containing the spread of communism.

Marshall Plan

An American initiative to provide economic aid to help rebuild Western European economies after the end of World War II.

Sputnik I

The first artificial Earth satellite, launched by the Soviet Union in 1957, which began the Arms Race.

Apartheid

A system of institutionalized racial segregation and discrimination in South Africa.

Genocide

The deliberate killing of a large group of people, especially those of a particular ethnic group or nation.

Khmer Rouge

A radical communist group led by Pol Pot that was responsible for the Cambodian Genocide.

Partition of India

The 1947 division of British India into the independent nations of India and Pakistan.

Tiananmen Square

The site of student-led protests in Beijing in 1989 that resulted in a military crackdown.