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MWH final exam
| Question | Answer |
|---|---|
| African National Congress | a nationalist group formed in 1912 to seek greater political rights for blacks in South Africa |
| Annex | to add territory to an existing country |
| Apartheid | South Africa’s government policy of racial segregation and white supremacy |
| Appeasement | the policy of giving in to the demands of an aggressor in order to maintain peace |
| Arms Race | The build- up of nuclear weapons during the Cold War between the US and the USSR |
| Battle of Britain | “The Blitz” German air force’s massive bombing of British factories, airfields, seaports, and cities. British victory. |
| Battle of Midway | A World War II naval battle that allowed the United States to reestablish its naval superiority in the Pacific |
| Battle of Stalingrad | The Soviets fought to protect their city. The German commander begged Hitler to let his freezing, exhausted army withdraw. Hitler refused, finally in February 1943, the last German troops in Stalingrad surrendered. The Soviet victory marked a turning p |
| Battle of the Bulge | a 1944-45 battle in which Allied forces turned back the last major German offensive of World War II |
| Berlin blockade | On June 24, 1948, Soviet troops blocked all railroads, and waterways linking West Berlin to the Western zones.cargo planes were flying in supplies to West Berlin |
| Berlin Wall | 1961 East Germans built a wall to separate East and West Berlin, it symbolized a world divided into rival camps. West Berlin was Democratic and East Berlin was Communist |
| Bolshevik | a group of Russian Revolutionary Marxists who took control of Russia’s government in November 1917; a follower of the Marxist movement led by Lenin |
| Bombing of Hiroshima | August 6, 1945 US dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima, a Japanese city, between 70,000-80,000 instantly died |
| Civil War in China before WWII | Communists led by Mao defeat Nationalists led by Jiang Jieshi. The Nationalists flee to Taiwan |
| Cold War | the term applied to the period of extreme tensions and hostility between the United States and the Soviet Union in the years following World War II |
| Creation of a Jewish State (Israel) | based on the Balfour Declaration, the UN divided Palestine into a Palestinian and Jewish state on May 14, 1948 |
| Cuban Missile Crisis | the 1962 confrontation between the United States and the Soviet Union, when President Kennedy secured the removal of Soviet nuclear missiles from Cuba |
| Cultural Revolution in China | Mao Zedong’s campaign (1966-1968) to purge China of traditional cultures, ideas, and institutions |
| Détente | a relaxing of tensions between nations |
| Domino Theory | the belief that if one nation comes under Communist control, its neighboring nations will also come under Communist control |
| Event that started WWII | Germany invaded Poland; September 1, 1939 |
| Fascism | an ideology that stresses nationalism and dictatorship and places that strength of the state above the welfare of individual citizens |
| Franz Ferdinand | The archduke of Austria who was assassinated by Gavril Princip, a Serbian nationalist. This event began World War I. |
| Final Solution | Hitler’s program of systematically killing the entire Jewish population |
| Five Year Plan | one of a series of ambitions created by Stalin to direct the industrialization and economic reorganization of the Soviet Union |
| Genocide | the systematic destruction of an entire people |
| Great Depression | the severe economic slump that followed the collapse of the stock market in 1929 |
| Korean War | – the conflict (1950-1953) between Communist North Korea and non-Communist South Korea, in which a UN army, largely made up of American forces, fought on the side of South Korea. The 38th parallel divides communist North Korea from democratic South Korea |
| Kristallnacht | “Night of Broken Glass”- the night of November 9, 1938 in which the Nazi storm troopers attacked Jewish homes, businesses, and synagogues throughout Germany |
| League of Nations | an organization of nations established in 1920 to promote world peace |
| Manhattan Project | the code name for the effort to develop atomic bombs for the United States during World War II |
| Marshall Plan | the European recovery Program through which the United States provided aid to Western Europe after World War II |
| Militarism | the policy of glorifying war and readying armed forces for conflict |
| NATO | the North Atlantic Treaty Organization; a mutual defense pact formed in 1949 by the United States and major Western European countries, which operates under the premise that an attack against one member will be considered an attack against all |
| Nazi-Soviet Pact | a 1939 agreement between Hitler and Stalin that resulted in Germany’s invasion of Poland and gave the Soviet Union territory in Eastern Europe |
| Nelson Mandela | Head of the African, National Congress in South Africa and prominent leader against apartheid |
| Nuremberg Trials | the trials, beginning in 1945, of surviving leaders of Nazi Germany |
| Propaganda | news and information designed to influence people’s beliefs or actions |
| Rasputin | Self-described holy man who advised Russian czarina Alexandra |
| The Great Purge | a campaign of terror in the Soviet Union during the 1930s, in which Joseph Stalin sought to eliminate all Communist party members and other citizens who threatened his power |
| Third World Nations | the developing nations of Africa, Asia, and Latin America |
| Totalitarianism | a state in which government leaders are given complete authority over the lives of citizens |
| Truman Doctrine | the American foreign policy, as states in 1947 by President Truman, of aiding any country that requested help in resisting communism |
| Trench Warfare | a form of warfare in which opposing armies fight each other from trenches dug in the battlefield in the Western Front it resulted in a stalemate |
| Treaty of Versailles | the settlement made with Germany at the end of WWI that called for territorial changes, reparations, and German demilitarization |
| United Nations | an international peace-keeping organization founded in 1945 to provide security to the nations of the world |
| USSR | Union of Soviet Socialists Republic formed after the Russian revolution |
| Vietnam War | the war between Communist North Vietnam and non-Communist South Vietnam following the withdrawal of the French colonial government; resulted in the formation of a united Communist nation in 1975 |
| Vladimir Lenin | Leader of the Bolsheviks who controlled the government after the Russian Revolution |
| Warsaw Pact | a mutual-defense pact formed in 1955 by the Soviet Union and seven Eastern European countries |
| Western Front | stalemate |
| Winston Churchill’s “Iron Curtain” speech | During the Cold War, the boundary separating the Communist nations of Eastern Europe from the mostly democratic nations of Western Europe |
| Yalta Conference | The “Big Three” leaders of the US, Britain, and the Soviet Union met at the Soviet sea resort of Yalta to discuss post-war Europe. Stalin agreed to join war against Japan and to hold free elections in Eastern Europe. Stalin never hosted free elections. |