Years of Crisis (1919-1939)

Between the World Wars, The Great Depression

Great Depression

worst economic downturn in the history of the industrialized world, came after the stock market crash and lasted through the 1930s

Inflation

Decline in the value of money combined with a rise in prices (especially the German Marks)

Kellogg-Briand Pact

Major world powers including the U.S. agreed to make war illegal

(Buying on) Margin

A cause of the stock market crash, allowed people to buy stocks by only paying a small percent of the stock price while borrowing most of the money

Black Tuesday

Crash of the stock market that took place on October 29, 1929 - Often times cited as the start of the Great Depression

Franklin D. Roosevelt (FDR)

President of the United States during the majority of both the Great Depression and World War II

Benito Mussolini

Founder of fascism who becomes the dictator of Italy and joined an alliance with Hitler

Fascism

Political movement that promotes extreme nationalism, denies individual rights, and is ruled by a dictator

Black Shirts

Mussolini's police force that helps him maintain his power of Italy

Weimar Republic

Democratic government of Germany following World War I, 1919 and ended when Hitler took power in 1933

Adolf Hitler

German politician who was the leader of the Nazi Party, Chancellor of Germany from 1933 to 1945, and Führer of Nazi Germany from 1934 to 1945

Der Fuhrer

Title taken by Adolf Hitler that means "The Father or the Leader"

Mein Kampf

"My Struggle" - Book that was writing by Adolf Hitler while he was in prison that became the basic blue print for the NAZI party

Aryans

Race of people (European, non Jewish) that Hitler believed to be the superior master race

Treaty of Versailles

Treaty that ended World War I, war guilt and debt placed on Germany, Hitler vowed to overturn

Lebensraum

Term meaning living space to united all German people into a larger Germany

SS

German police group loyal to Adolf Hitler that helped him maintain power

Joseph Stalin

Communist Leader of the Soviet Union who ruled with an iron fist and brutality

Gulags

Forced labor camps set up by Stalin in Siberia. Dissidents were sent to the camps, where conditions were generally brutal. Millions died.

Great Purge

Stalin campaign that used terror and murder to eliminate anyone who threatened Stalin's power - Resulted in the death of millions of people (Bigger than the Holocaust)

Manchuria

Chinese providence that was seized by the Japanese in 1931 - First direct challenge to the League of Nations

Ethiopia

African country that was overtaken by Mussolini's (Italian) armies

Luftwaffe

German air force

Appeasement

Giving into an aggressor in hopes of keeping the peace, policy towards Hitler

Axis Powers

Alliance made up of Germany, Italy, and Japan

Francisco Franco

Fascist leader who came to power in Spain

Isolationism

American desire to avoid military ties with countries in hopes of not having to fight another war

Third Reich

German Empire declared by Adolf Hitler in 1933 that he claimed would last for a 1,000 years

Sudetenland

German-speaking area of Czechoslovakia that Hitler was allowed to take over (Appeasement)

Munich Conference

Meeting between British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain and Adolf Hitler where Chamberlain agrees to let Germany take control of the Sudetenland (appeasement)