WORD | DEFINITION |
1.totalitarianism | a theory of government in which a single party or leader controls the economic, social, and cultural lives of its people. |
2.anti-Semitic | 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 country whose 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 national 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 Corps (WAC) | U.S. Army group established during World War II so that women could serve in 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.internment | temporary imprisonment of members of a specific group |
26.Korematsu V. United States | The Supreme Court's decision ruled that the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II did not violate the Constitution |
27.442nd Regimental Combat Team | group that 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 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 while bypassing others |
33.Kamikaze | 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.anti-Semitism | prejudice and discrimination against Jewish people |
37.Nuremberg Laws | laws enacted by Hitler that denied German citizenship to Jews |
38.kristallnacht | "Night of the Broken Glass" organized attacks on Jewish communities in Germany on November 9,1938 |
39.genocide | willful annihilation of a racial,political, or cultural group |
40.concentration camp | camps used by the Nazis to imprison "undesirable" members of society |
41.death camp | Nazi camp designed for the extermination of prisoners |
42.War Refugee Board | U.S. government agency founded in 1944 to save Eastern European Jews |
43.Yalta Conference | 1945 strategy meeting between Roosevelt, Churchill, and Stalin |
44.Superpower | powerful country that plays a dominant economic, political, and military role in the world |
45.General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) | international agreement first signed in 1947 aimed at lowering trade barriers |
46.United Nations (UN) | organization founded in 1945 to promote peace |
47.Universal Declaration of Human Rights | document issued by the UN to promote basic human rights and freedoms |
48.Geneva Convention | international agreement governing the humane treatment of wounded soldiers and prisoners of war |
49.Nuremberg Trials | trials in which Nazi leaders were charged with war crimes |