World War II & Interwar Period Vocabulary

### Reparations

Payments made by a defeated country for damages caused during a war.

### Hyperinflation

Extremely rapid inflation that makes money lose value quickly.

### Weimar Republic

Germany’s democratic government established after World War I in 1919.

### Coalition Government

A government formed by multiple political parties working together.

### Dawes Plan

1924 U.S. plan that loaned money to Germany to stabilize its economy and help pay reparations.

### Treaty of Locarno

Agreement in which Germany recognized its borders with France and Belgium.

### Kellogg

Briand Pact

### Great Depression

Worldwide economic collapse that began after the U.S. stock market crash in 1929.

### Stock Market Crash

Collapse of stock prices in October 1929 that triggered the Great Depression.

### Margin Buying

Buying stocks with borrowed money.

### Fascism

Political system emphasizing extreme nationalism, dictatorship, and loyalty to the state.

### Militarism

Policy of building up strong armed forces and preparing for war.

### Benito Mussolini

Leader of Italy’s Fascist Party and dictator of Italy.

### Black Shirts

Mussolini’s paramilitary group that used violence and intimidation.

### Adolf Hitler

Leader of the Nazi Party and dictator of Germany.

### Nazi Party

National Socialist German Workers’ Party led by Hitler.

### Brown Shirts (SA)

Nazi paramilitary group used to intimidate opponents.

### Mein Kampf

Book written by Hitler explaining Nazi beliefs and goals.

### Aryan

Nazi term for the so

### Anti

Semitism

### Lebensraum

“Living space”; Hitler’s goal of expanding Germany into Eastern Europe.

### Reichstag

Germany’s parliament.

### Reichstag Fire

1933 fire blamed on communists that helped Hitler gain power.

### Enabling Act

1933 law giving Hitler dictatorial powers.

### Totalitarian State

Government that controls nearly every aspect of citizens’ lives.

### SS

Elite Nazi force loyal directly to Hitler.

### Gestapo

Nazi secret police.

### Night of the Long Knives

1934 purge where Hitler eliminated rivals within the Nazi Party.

### Propaganda

Information used to influence public opinion.

### Hitler Youth

Nazi organization for training German boys in Nazi beliefs.

### Nuremberg Laws

Laws that stripped Jews of rights in Nazi Germany.

### Kristallnacht

“Night of Broken Glass”; violent attacks against Jews on November 9, 1938.

### Holocaust

Systematic murder of six million Jews and millions of others by Nazis during WWII.

### Appeasement

Giving in to an aggressor’s demands to avoid conflict.

### Axis Powers

Alliance of Germany, Italy, and Japan.

### Rhineland

Area Germany remilitarized in 1936 in violation of the Treaty of Versailles.

### Anschluss

Germany’s annexation of Austria in 1938.

### Munich Conference

1938 meeting where Britain and France allowed Hitler to take the Sudetenland.

### Sudetenland

German

### Neville Chamberlain

British Prime Minister associated with appeasement.

### Francisco Franco

Nationalist leader who won the Spanish Civil War with help from Germany and Italy.

### Neutrality Acts

U.S. laws intended to keep America out of foreign wars.

### Nonaggression Pact

Agreement between countries not to attack one another.

### Nazi

Soviet Pact

### Blitzkrieg

“Lightning war”; fast

### Hideki Tojo

Japanese militarist leader during WWII.

### Emperor Hirohito

Emperor of Japan during World War II.

### Manchuria

Region in China invaded by Japan in 1931.

### Collective Security

System in which countries work together to stop aggression.