click below
click below
Normal Size Small Size show me how
chapter 28
vocab
Term | Definition |
---|---|
appeasement | giving into aggressive demands in order to avoid war |
Winston Churchill | British prime minister; he opposed the policy of appeasement and led Great Britain into WWII |
Axis Powers | the alliance of Germany, Italy and Japan in WWII |
nonaggression pact | an agreement between nations to not attack one another |
blitzkrieg | a German word meaning "lightning war"; a fast, forceful style of fighting used by Germans in WWII |
Allies | the alliance of Britain, France and Russia in WWII; joined by the United States after the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor in 1941 |
Battle of Britain | 3 month air battle between Germany and Great Britain fought over Great Britain during WWII, Britain victory forestalled a German invasion |
Hideki Tojo | Japanese nationalist and general; he took control of Japan during World War 2. He was later tried and executed for war crimes. |
Isolationism | Staying out of the affairs and wars of other nations; the position initially held by the United States at the beginning of World War 2. |
Erwin Rommel | German general during World War 2; he commanded the Africa Korps and was nicknamed the Desert Fox for his leadership. |
Battle of El Alamein | key battle in North Africa won by the British in October 1942 |
Dwight D Eisenhower | commander of American forces, defeated Rommel in Africa |
Siege of Leningrad | German blockade in the winter of 1941–42 which resulted in the deaths of one million Russian civilians |
Battle of Stalingrad | WWII battle between invading German forces and Soviet defenders for control of Stalingrad, a city on the Volga River; each side sustain hundred of casualties; Germany defeat marked a turning point of the war |
Douglas MacArthur | commander of American forces in the Pacific |
Bataan Death March | brutal forced march of American and Filipino prisoners of war by their Japanese captors |
Battle of Midway | WWII naval battle fought in the Pacific; The Americans broke the Japanese code and knew the date and location of the attack, setting the stage for a major American victory |
Battle of Guadalcanal | WWII battle in the pacific; it represented the first Allied counterattack against Japanese forces; Allied victory forced Japanese forces to abandon the island |
Kamikazes | any Japanese pilot who loaded his plane with explosives and crashed into an Allied ship, sacrificing his own life |
deported | forced to leave a country |
Final Solution | deliberate, mass execution of Jews |
ghetto | confined areas within a city |
concentration camps | labor camps meant to hold the people Hitler called enemies of the state |
Holocaust | campaign of mass murder that the Nazis waged against the Jews |
D-day | June 6, 1944, the day Allied forces invaded France on the beaches of Normandy |
V-E Day | Victory in Europe Day, May 8, 1945, the day Allied victory was declared |
Battle of Iwo Jima | WWII battle between Japanese forces and invading U.S. troops |
Battle of Okinawa | WWII victory for the Allied troops that resulted in the death of almost all of the Japanese defenders; the battle claimed 12,000 American lives |
Harry S Truman | U.S. President who made the decision to use the atomic bomb |
Hirohito | Japanese emperor who surrendered to Allies |
V-J Day | August 15, 1945, the day Japan surrendered to the Allies, ending World War II |
Yalta Conference | meeting held by the Allied nations to plan postwar Europe |
United Nations | international organization formed in 1945 to maintain world peace and encouragement cooperation among nations |
Potsdam Conference | meeting of Allied leaders in which tension between the Soviet Union and the other Allies surfaced |