history 2

Black Tuesday – The stock market crash on October 29, 1929, marking the start of the Great Depression.

Speculation – Risky investment in stocks hoping for quick profits.

Buying on Margin – Borrowing money to buy stocks, leading to financial collapse when stocks fell.

Overproduction – Making too many goods, causing prices to drop and businesses to fail.

Bank Runs – When too many people withdraw money from banks, causing banks to fail.

Dust Bowl – Severe drought and dust storms in the 1930s that ruined farms in the Midwest.

Hoovervilles – Shantytowns built by homeless people during the Great Depression.

New Deal – FDR’s programs to help recover from the Great Depression.

Isolationism – Avoiding involvement in world affairs, especially before WWII.

Laissez-faire – The idea that the government should not interfere in the economy.

Smoot-Hawley Tariff – A high tax on imports that worsened the Great Depression.

Fascism – A political system with a strong leader, nationalism, and no individual freedoms.

Totalitarianism – A government that controls all aspects of life.

Treaty of Versailles – The 1919 treaty that ended WWI and blamed Germany.

Benito Mussolini – Fascist leader of Italy during WWII.

Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party – Dictator of Germany and leader of the Nazis.

Weimar Republic – Germany’s weak government after WWI.

Third Reich – Hitler’s totalitarian rule in Germany.

Brown and Black Shirts – Hitler’s (Brownshirts) and Mussolini’s (Blackshirts) paramilitary groups.

Nationalism – Extreme pride in one’s country.

Mein Kampf – Hitler’s book outlining his ideas for Germany.

Appeasement – Giving in to aggressive demands to avoid war.

Axis Powers – Germany, Italy, and Japan in WWII.

Allied Powers – The U.S., Britain, the Soviet Union, and others fighting the Axis.

Non-Aggression Pact – Agreement between Germany and the USSR not to attack each other.

Hitler, Mussolini, Tojo, Stalin, Churchill, FDR, Truman – WWII leaders (Germany, Italy, Japan, Soviet Union, Britain, U.S., U.S.).

Blitzkrieg – "Lightning war," Germany’s fast-moving military strategy.

Operation Barbarossa – Germany’s failed invasion of the Soviet Union.

Operation Overlord – The Allied invasion of Normandy (D-Day).

Key Battles:

• Battle of Britain – Air battle where Britain stopped German invasion.

• Battle of Stalingrad – Turning point where the Soviet Union defeated Germany.

• D-Day – Allied landings in Normandy, France (June 6, 1944).

• Battle of Midway – Turning point in the Pacific where the U.S. defeated Japan.

Rationing – Limiting use of resources during war.

Propaganda – Government messages to influence public opinion.

War Bonds – Citizens lending money to the government to fund the war.

Holocaust – The Nazi genocide of six million Jews.

Genocide – Mass killing of a group of people.

Concentration Camps – Nazi prison camps where millions died.

Final Solution – Nazi plan to exterminate Jews.

Manhattan Project – U.S. project to develop the atomic bomb.

VE Day – Victory in Europe Day (May 8, 1945).

VJ Day – Victory over Japan Day (August 15, 1945).

United Nations – International organization formed after WWII to keep peace.

Nuremberg Trials – Trials of Nazi leaders for war crimes.

Cold War – Tension between the U.S. and Soviet Union after WWII.