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WWII
Terms
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact | The official non-aggression pact signed between Germany and the Soviet Union. They agreed to split Poland between themselves. |
| Blitzkrieg | Germany's newest military strategy. "lightning war". Involved using fast-moving airplanes/tanks, followed by massive infantry forces to take enemy defenders by surprise & quickly overwhelm them. |
| Vichy France | Southern part of France who began collaborating with the Axis powers to claim they weren't being controlled. |
| Battle of Britian | Airstrikes by the German Luftwaffe on Britain. German goal was for the British to leave the war. British civilian resistance stunned Hitler and he called off the attacks. Proved that Hitler/Nazi attacks could be blocked. |
| Operation Barbarossa | Hitler's plan to invade the Soviet Union. Soviet troops not prepared for the attack. Lasted 1 week until the Germans pushed 500 miles into the Soviet Union. Soviet troops burned & destroyed everything in the German's path. |
| Siege of Leningrad | City completely cut off from the rest of the Soviet Union. Hitler was prepared to starve all 2.5 million citizens. German bombs destroy warehouses with food. People starve & begin eating any animals around. 1 million died. |
| Battle of Stalingrad | Nightly bombing raids in Soviet Union that sent the city ablaze & reduced the rest to rubble. Germany controls 90% of the city. Soviet troops close in & cut off German supplies. Hitler refused to retreat. Frostbitten & starved German soldiers surrendered. |
| Tobruk | City in Libya. Whoever controlled it would have access to the Suez Canal and oil fields in Egypt. Battle between Germany & Great Britain occurred there. |
| Atlantic Charter | A secret joint declaration between Roosevelt & Churchill. Upheld free trade among the nations & the right of people to choose their own government. Later served as the Allies' peace plan at the end of the war. |
| Pearl Harbor | December 7, 1941. Japanese air force bombed a US occupied island in Hawaii. More than 2,300 killed and 1,100 wounded. Prompted the US to join WWII and declare war on Japan & its allies. |
| Island Hopping | General MacArthur’s plan to invade Japan. Instead of storming each island, which would be long & costly, they would seize weakly held islands first. Then, make their way to stronger islands. |
| Aryans | Nazi Germany proclaimed this group of Germanic peoples were the “master race” and superior to non-Aryans. |
| "Final Solution" | Hitler’s plan to exterminate all groups he considered inferior, especially Jews. His conquest relied on the “purity” of the Aryan race, so this prompted him to eliminate groups the Nazis viewed as “inferior”. |
| Genocide | The systematic killing of an entire people. Essentially what occurred to Jewish people during the Holocaust. |
| Warsaw Ghetto Uprising | Jews in this Ghetto rose up and attacked Nazi soldiers using German machine guns. They made a defensive of the Ghetto. Jurgen Stroop set the entire area on fire after the uprising. People hid in sewers but were smoked out and shot. |
| D-Day | 6/6/44. Allied invasion of Normandy, France. Opened a second front in Europe for the Allies. Allowed them to liberate France, Luxembourg, and Belgium. Pushing Germany back from France. |
| Allied Invasion of Italy | Allied forces land on Sicily & captured it from Italian & German troops. Mussolini arrested and loses power. He was put back in control when Germany gained control of North Italy. |
| Battle of the Bulge | The LAST big offensive for Germany in Belgium. Germany almost made it through the Allies’ lines, but the Allies held their own and forced the Germans back to Berlin. |
| German Surrender / VE Day | 5/8/45. Germany surrounded on all sides by Allied & Soviet troops. Hitler commits suicide. Later, General Eisenhower accepted the official surrender of the Third Reich which was eventually signed in Berlin |
| Nuremberg Trials / Creation of ICC | A Military Tribunal that put Nazi war criminals on trials. Nazi leaders charged w/ waging a war of aggression & the murder of 11 million people. Leaders then either committed suicide or were sentenced to death. "following orders" not a defense. |
| Hiroshima & Nagasaki | The two cities were affected by the American atomic bombs. Since Japan refused America’s request to surrender, they planted bombs just a few days apart. Thousands of people were killed, ended in the surrender of Japan. |
| Japanese Surrender / VJ Day | 9/2/45. Japan surrendered to General MacArthur after the Atomic bombs were dropped on Hiroshima & Nagasaki. UNCONDITIONAL surrender. |
| Japanese Constitution | CONSTITUTIONAL MONARCHY. New Japanese emperor had to declare he was not divine. Becomes more of a symbol of Japan. Citizens elect 2-house parliament (the Diet). Basic freedoms protected. Article 9 stated Japan could no longer make war. |
| U.S. Occupation of Japan | Led by Douglas MacArthur. He was determined to be fair & prevent any kind of future war. Japan is demilitarized & democratized. |
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