War on the Horizon and World War II (1931-1945)

Vocabulary flashcards covering the rise of totalitarianism, Japanese and German expansion, key military engagements, and the Allied victory in World War II.

Marxists

Followers of Karl Marx who led the communist revolution against the Russian Czar.

USSR

The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics; the reformed Russian Empire established following the Marxist revolution.

Leon Trotsky

Revolutionary leader who advocated for the Communist Revolution to spread throughout the world before being exiled and assassinated.

Joseph Stalin

Soviet dictator who prioritized making Socialism strong at home and maintained absolute control over the USSR.

Totalitarianism

A single-party dictatorship that controls all aspects of daily life using spies, terror, state economic control, and strict censorship.

Hyperinflation

An extreme and rapid economic condition where a country's monthly inflation rate exceeds $50\%$.

NSDAP

The National Socialist Workers Party (Nazi Party) that promised "Work and Bread" to pull Germany out of the Great Depression.

Emperor Hirohito

The "divine" ruler of Japan given unlimited theoretical power who permitted the military elite to dominate government policy.

Hideki Tojo

Japanese military officer turned Prime Minister who adhered to Bushido and pushed imperial expansion across Asia.

Bushido

The ancient samurai tradition strongly followed and promoted by Japanese Prime Minister Hideki Tojo.

The Manchuria Incident

A staged explosion on Manchurian railways by Japanese Colonels Itakagi and Ishiwara to fabricate a pretext for invading China.

Chiang Kai-Shek

Leader of the Chinese Republic who relocated the capital from Nanjing during the Japanese invasion.

Nanking Massacre

The brutal capture of the Chinese capital where Japanese forces killed at least $40{,}000$ Chinese civilians and soldiers.

Beer Hall Putsch

Hitler's failed armed attempt to seize a beer hall and launch a workers' revolution, leading to his arrest.

Mein Kampf

Hitler's autobiographical book meaning "My Struggle," outlining his antisemitism and plans to rebuild German power.

Enabling Act

A law passed following the Reichstag fire that granted full dictatorial powers to the German Chancellor.

Führer

German word for "leader," the title assumed by Adolf Hitler upon gaining absolute control of the government.

Night of the Long Knives

A purge carried out by Adolf Hitler to eliminate SA conservatives who were suspected of plotting against him.

Anti-Comintern Pact

An alliance signed between Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan directed against communist governments such as the Soviet Union.

Axis Powers

The alliance of nations including Germany, Italy, Japan, Austria, Hungary, Romania, Slovakia, Bulgaria, and Croatia.

Anschluss

The German term for "union," referring to Hitler's annexation of Austria into Germany.

Sudetenland

The German-speaking border territories of Czechoslovakia annexed by Nazi Germany under the Munich Pact.

Munich Pact

An agreement made by England and France allowing Hitler to annex the Sudetenland in exchange for avoiding war.

Appeasement

The policy of yielding to the demands of an aggressive nation or leader to maintain peace and prevent war.

Phony War

An eight-month period following the invasion of Poland in which neither the Allies nor Germany engaged in active combat.

Winter War

The Soviet military campaign in Finland that ended in a costly Soviet victory and exposed Red Army vulnerabilities to Hitler.

Maginot Line

French border fortifications that were bypassed and flown over by the German Blitzkrieg during the invasion of France.

Blitzkrieg

German mobile warfare strategy ("lightning war") combining armored tank assaults and air power to swiftly overwhelm defenders.

Vichy

The puppet government established by Nazi Germany in southern France that retained limited autonomy.

Neutrality Act of 1939

US legislation allowing European belligerents to purchase war materials if they paid and transported goods themselves.

Lend-Lease Act

Congressional approval allowing the Allies to acquire essential war provisions from the US with the agreement to repay later.

Atlantic Charter

A joint declaration between the United States and Britain endorsing self-determination for all nations.

Battle of El Alamein

A 1942 battle where British forces defeated the German army in Egypt, initiating the Allied westward push across North Africa.

Erwin Rommel

German General who commanded the Afrika Corps, fought US forces at Kasserine Pass, and was forced to retreat from Africa.

Pearl Harbor

The American naval base in Hawaii attacked by Japanese aircraft on December 7, 1941, drawing the US into World War II.

Battle of the Coral Sea

A naval battle fought exclusively with carrier-based aircraft where neither fleet sighted the opposing ships directly.

Aircraft Carriers

Large naval vessels used primarily to launch and recover fighter aircraft across long distances in the Pacific.

Battle of Midway

A decisive US naval victory where American forces sank 4 Japanese aircraft carriers and shot down over $250$ fighters.

Operation Barbarossa

The massive invasion of the Soviet Union launched by Nazi Germany in the summer of 1941.

Full Mobilization

Stalin's wartime policy compelling all Soviet citizens—men, women, children, young, and old—to participate in the war effort.

Einsatzgruppen

Nazi paramilitary death squads tasked with executing Jewish populations and other targeted groups in the Soviet Union.

Battle of Stalingrad

A brutal urban battle for control of the Caucasus gateway city that ended in the catastrophic surrender of Nazi forces in 1943.

D-Day

June 6, 1944; the largest amphibious invasion in history, landing over $1.5$ million Allied troops onto the beaches of Normandy.

Yalta Conference

A 1945 wartime meeting of Roosevelt, Churchill, and Stalin to arrange postwar Europe and the four-way partition of Germany.

Island Hopping

The Allied Pacific strategy led by General Douglas MacArthur to capture strategic islands while bypassing heavily fortified ones.

Douglas MacArthur

The Supreme Allied Commander in the Pacific who directed the island-hopping campaign toward the Japanese homeland.

Wilhelm Keitel

German Field Marshal left in command who signed Germany's unconditional surrender on May 8, 1945.