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Chapter 14/15
The Coming of War/World War II
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| 1. totalitarianism | a theory of government in which a single party of leader controls the economic, social, and cultural lives of its people |
| 2. anti-Semitism | prejudice and discrimination against Jewish people |
| 3. Spanish Civil War | Nationalist forces led by General Francisco Franco rebelled against the democratic Republican government of Spain |
| 4. appeasement | policy of granting concessions in order to keep the peace |
| 5. Anschluss | union of Germany and Austria in 1933 |
| 6. Munich Pact | agreement made between Germany, Italy, Great Britain, and France in 1938 that sacrificed the Sudetenland to preserve peace |
| 7. blitzkrieg | "lightning war" that emphasized the use of speed and firepower to penetrate deep into the enemy's territory |
| 8. Axis Powers | group of countries led by Germany, Italy, and Japan that fought the Allies in World War II |
| 9. Allies | group of countries led by Britain, France, the United States, and the Soviet Union that fought the Axis Powers in World War II |
| 10. Neutrality Act of 1939 | act that allowed nations at war to buy goods and arms in the United States if they paid cash and carried the merchandise on their own ships |
| 11. Tripartite Pact | agreement that created an alliance between Germany, Italy, and Japan during World War II |
| 12. Lend-Lease Act | act passed in 1941 that allowed President Roosevelt to sell or lend war supplies to any countries who defense he considered vital to the safety of the United States |
| 13. Atlantic Charter | a joint declaration made in August 1941 by Great Britain and the United States, during World War II, that endorsed nation self-determination and an international system of general security |
| 14. Pearl Harbor | American military base attacked by the Japanese on December 7, 1941 |
| 15. Women's Army Corp (WAC) | U.S. Army group established during World War II so that women could serve in the noncombat roles |
| 16. Bataan Death March | during World War II, the forced march of American and Filipino prisoners of war under brutal conditions by the Japanese military |
| 17. Battle of Coral Sea | World War II battle that took place between Japanese and American aircraft carriers |
| 18. unconditional surrender | giving up completely without any concessions |
| 19. saturation bombing | tactic of dropping massive amounts of bombs in order to inflict maximum damage |
| 20. strategic bombing | tactic of dropping bombs on key political and industrial targets |
| 21. Tuskegee Airmen | African American squadron that escorted bombers in the air war over Europe during World War II |
| 22. Battle of Midway | turning point of World War II in the Pacific, in which the Japanese advance was stopped |
| 23. Executive Order 8802 | World War II measure that assured fair hiring practices in any job funded by the government |
| 24. bracero program | plan that brought laborers from Mexico to work on American farms |
| 25. interment | temporary imprisonment of members of a specific group |
| 26. Korematsu V. United States | court case in which the Supreme Court upheld the governments wartime internment policy |
| 27. 442 Regimental Combat Team | fought in the Italian campaign and became the most decorated military unit in American history |
| 28. rationing | government-controlled limits on the amount of certain goods that civilians could buy during wartime |
| 29. Office of War Information (OWI) | government agency that encouraged support of the war effort during World World War II |
| 30. D-Day | June 6, 1944, the day Allies landed on the beaches of Normandy, France |
| 31. Battle of the Bulge | in December 1944, Hitler ordered a counterattack on Allied troops in Belgium, but it crippled Germany by using up reserves and demoralizing its troops |
| 32. island hopping | World War II strategy that involved seizing selected Japanese-held islands in the Pacific whole bypassing others |
| 33. kamikazes | Japanese pilots who deliberately crashed planes into American ships during World War II |
| 34. Manhattan Project | code name of the project that developed the atomic bomb |
| 35. Holocaust | name now used to describe the systematic murder of Jews by the Nazis |
| 36. Nuremburg Laws | laws enacted by Hitler that denied German citizenship to Jews |
| 37. Kristallnacht | 'Night of the Broken Glass," organized attacks on Jewish communities in Germany on November 9, 1938 |
| 38. genocide | willful annihilation of a racial, political, or cultural group |
| 39. concentration camp | camps used by Nazis to imprison "undesirable" members of society |
| 40. death camp | Nazi camp designed for the extermination of prisoners |
| 41. War Refugee Board | U.S. government agency founded in 1944 to save Eastern European Jews |
| 42. Yalta Conference | 1945 strategy meeting between Roosevelt, Churchill, and Stalin |
| 43. superpower | powerful country that plays a dominant economic, political, and military role in the world |
| 44. General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) | international agreement first signed in 1947 aimed at lowering trade barriers |
| 45. United Nations | organization founded in 1945 to promote peace |
| 46. Universal Declaration of Human Rights | document issued by the UN to promote basic human rights and freedoms |
| 47. Geneva Convention | international agreement governing the humane treatment |
| 48. Nurembuerg Trials | trials in which Nazi leaders were charged with war crimes |