WORLD WAR II STUDY GUIDE
CH. 31
appeasement – Giving in to the demands of an aggressor in order to keep the peace. Western democracies denounced his moves but took no real action and adopted a policy of appeasement.
blitzkrieg – Hitler’s use of “lightning war.” It was the use of fast troops and overwhelming power to overrun enemies; first German plans bombed airfields, factories, towns and cities, and screaming dive bombers fired on troops and civilians, followed by fast-moving tanks and troop transports.
cold war – Term used for the rapid military armament between the Soviet Union and the United States after World War II until the 1980’s. Both super powers competed for influence and control, and many believed that the cold war would turn “hot,” and that an inevitable conflict between the two ideologically opposed countries would occur, although no such conflict ever happened.
collaborator – People or organizations that helped the Nazis hunt down the Jews. The Vichy government in France helped the Nazis ship tens of thousands of Jews to their death.
containment (policy) – Limiting communism to the areas already under Soviet control. It was believed that with “patient but firm and vigilant containment” the United States could stop Soviet expansion.
genocide – Deliberate attempt to destroy an entire religious or ethnic group. Hitler called for a “final solution” to destroy all of the Jews and committed a genocide against them.
kamikaze – Young Japanese pilots who undertook suicide missions by crashing their planes loaded with explosives into American warships. The method proved very ineffective and cost many, many more Japanese lives than American.
Pacifism – Opposition to all war, and disgust with the last World War. Many governments were suffering from the Great Depression and pushed to seek peace at any price.
Winston Churchill – British Prime Minister during World War II. He recognized the Nazi threat from early on, and urged people to stop them before they regained their military strength and power.
Francisco Franco – A right wing general who led a revolt that touched off a bloody civil war. He called his followers the Nationalists and rallied all conservatives to follow him and by 1939 he had triumphed and created a fascist dictatorship like those of Hitler and Mussolini.
Dwight Eisenhower – American General who in 1942took command of a joint Anglo-American force in Morocco and Algeria that trapped Rommel’s army in 1943. He later became commander of all allied forces in Europe.
Haile Selassie – Ethiopian king who appealed to the League of Nations for help against the invading Italians. The league voted sanctions against Italy for having violated international law, but that failed to stop the Italians from conquering Ethiopia and proved the ineffectiveness of the League of Nations.
Harry Truman – American president who succeeded FDR after he unexpectedly died on April 12, 1945. He authorized the dropping of the atomic bomb on Japan to expedite the end of WWII.
Dunkirk – A French beach where 300,000 British troops were stranded. The British ordered every available vessel to ferry troops off the beach; this act later became known as the “Miracle of Dunkirk.”
El Alamein – Battle in Egypt where the British under General Bernard Montgomery stopped Rommel’s advance. They then turned the tables on Rommel by driving the Axis forces back across Libya into Tunisia.
Guernica – The location of a German air raid where a small Spanish market town of no military value was bombed by Germans and up to 1,600 people were killed. To Nazi leaders, the attack on Guernica was an “experiment” to see what their new planes could do.
Hiroshima – The first site of a nuclear attack by a bomb dropped by the Americans on August 6th, 1945. The bomb flattened four square miles and instantly killed more than 70,000 people.
Nagasaki – The second site of a nuclear attack on August 9th, 1945. The second atomic bomb killed more than 40,000 people.
Pearl Harbor – A surprise attack on the American fleet at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on December 7th, 1941. They Japanese airplanes damaged or destroyed 19 ships and killed more than 2,400 people.
Operation Barbarossa – Hitler’s plan to conquer the Soviet Union. Hitler wanted to acquire the vast resources that the Soviets controlled and crush his rival Joseph Stalin.
D-Day – An allied invasion of France occurring on June 6th, 1944. About 176,000 Allied troops were ferried across the English Channel, and from lading craft, they fought their way to shore amid underwater mines and raking machine gun fire.
Battle of Midway – Six months after Pearl Harbor, American warships and airplanes severely damaged Japanese fleets at battles at Midway Island. It was a stepping stone for later battles on the Pacific Theater.
Holocaust – Part of Hitler’s “final solution” included the organized genocide of the Jewish people. Death camps were built in Poland and Germany, and the end result was over 6 million Jews killed.
Cold War rivals (which nations) - The Soviet Union and the United States were the two main rivals during the Cold War. They had fundamentally opposed ideologies and competed with each other continually for military superiority.
Francisco Franco – A right wing general who led a revolt that touched off a bloody civil war. He called his followers the Nationalists and rallied all conservatives to follow him and by 1939 he had triumphed and created a fascist dictatorship like those of Hitler and Mussolini.
Benito Mussolini – Italian fascist leader who took control of Italy in 1922. He allied himself with Hitler and the Axis powers during World War II, although he was later overthrown and fell from power.
Adolph Hitler – Fascist leader of Nazi Germany who was at first democratically elected before seizing total power. He re-armed Germany with technologically advanced weapons for war, launched a campaign to destroy the Jews, and led Germany and the rest of the World into WWII before committing suicide in his bunker in 1945.
Tojo Hideki – Extreme militarist General who wanted to seize lands in Asia and the Pacific and make certain that the United States did not meddle in their plans. He ordered a surprise attack on the American fleet at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on December 7, 1941, destroying 19 ships and killing more than 2,400 people.
Neville Chamberlin – British Prime Minister who above all else wanted peace. He attended peace conferences and told his people that he had attained “peace for our time” by practicing appeasement, although Britain was still later plunged into war.
Franklin Roosevelt – One of the greatest American presidents who initially avoided entry into World War II, but after the attack on Pearl Harbor by the Japanese, entered America into the global conflict. He met at the infamous Conference at Yalta with the other “big three” allied leaders of the war to plan for the structure of post war Europe.
Stalingrad – City named after the Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin. It was the site of a great battle between the Germans and Soviets in which the Germans initially conquered the city, but were later forced out by the poorly armed and trained Soviets.
Explain 2 reasons why the US used the atomic bomb against Japan. – One reason why the US used the atomic bomb against Japan was to spare the massive amount of casualties on both sides that would have resulted from a mainland invasion. Another reason the US used the atomic bomb was to expedite the end of the war and force Japan into a quick submission.