Saturday, April 18, 2009

Term Definitions- World War II

1. Invasion of Poland- This was the event that started World War II. It is when German forces invaded Poland and it was a brutal since they used their military. This made Poland's allies mad and therefore the United Kingdom, Australia, and New Zealand declared war on Germany on September 3, 1939.
2. Blitzkrieg- This is a word that describes a military tactic that the Germans used in WWII. It means lightening war in German and it included surprise attacks.
3. Nazi-Soviet Non Aggression Pact- In 1939, Hitler was getting ready for war, but did not want to make the same mistakes that Germany did in WWI so he signed a pact with the Soviets. This agreement that was between Stalin and Hitler was important because it made Germany and Russia neutral between each other.
4. Tripartite Pact- This was an agreement signed on September 27, 1940 in Berlin, Germany. Saburo Kurusu of Japan, Adolf Hitler of Germany, and Galeazzon Ciano of Italy signed it and it made the Axis Powers of WWII.
5. Anti Comintern Pact- It was signed on November 25, 1936 between Nazi Germany and the Empire of Japan. It was directed to go against the Soviet Union.
6. Operation Barbarossa- Code name for Nazi Germany's attack on the Soviet Union that took place on June 22, 1941.
7. Winston Churchill- British Politician and Prime minister of the United Kingdom. He was known for leading the United Kingdom during World War II.
8. Atlantic Charter- It was the blueprint for the world after WWII. It is also used for the foundation of many treaties in the world today.
9. Pearl Harbor- This is a harbor on the island of O'ahu where the Americans took on a surprise attack by the Japanese. It took place on December 7, 1941 and this is what caused the Americans to get militarily involved in WWII. This is also where the headquarters for the U.S. Pacific Fleet is.
10. D-Day- Took place on June 6, 1944 when the Allied forces landed on French coastline called the Normandy coast to fight Nazi Germany.
11. Stalingrad- A battle between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union in order to gain control of Stalingrad, Russia. This was the bloodiest battles in modern history and a turning point of WWII.
12. Midway- This is a major naval battle that took place between June 4-7, 1942. The Americans destroyed four aircraft carriers of the Japanese and this is what destroyed Japan's military strength.
13. Hiroshima & Nagasaki- The United States's nuclear attacks on the Empire of Japan at the end of WWII. They took place on August 6th and 9th in 1945. The nuclear weapon, "Little Boy", was dropped on Hiroshima and the nuclear weapon, "Fat Man", was dropped on Nagasaki.
14. Robert Oppenheimer- He was an American physicist and he is best known for his role in the Manhattan Project, which is the effort to try and create the first nuclear weapon for World War II. He is also called "The Father of the Atomic Bomb."
15. Yalta Conference- It was a wartime meeting involving Franklin Roosevelt from the United States, Winston Churchill of the United Kingdom, and Stalin from the Soviet Union to discuss what to do with the nations from Germany. It took place between February 4th to February 11th in 1945.
16. F.D.R- These are the initials of Franklin D. Roosevelt who was the 32nd president of the United States. He was the president during WWII and is the only president to have been elected more than two terms.
17. Dwight D. Eisenhower- He was the 34th president of the United States and during WWII he served as Supreme Commander of the Allied forces in Europe. He became the first Supreme Commander of NATO in 1951.
18. NATO- It stands for the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, which is a military alliance from the signing of the North Atlantic Treaty on April 4, 1949. The headquarters are in Brussels, Belgium.
19. Warsaw Pact- This was an organization of communist states in Europe's central and Eastern parts. The treaty was signed on May 14, 1955 in Warsaw, Poland and it was in response of West Germany joining the NATO.

Monday, April 13, 2009

Term Definitions

1. Appeasement- This is the settling of international problems by negotiation and compromise. Neville Chamberlain, who is the British Prime Minister, is known for this because of his policy towards Nazi Germany.
2. League of Nations- This is an organization which was founded because of the Treaty of Versailles. The goals of this League was to keep the peace between countries through collective security, negotiation, and diplomacy.
3. Collective Security- This was a compromise between world government and a nation-state based balance of power. The latter is destructive and therefore not good enough for peace and it is then that the first one is unacomplishable at that time.
4. Neville Chamberlain- He was the British Prime Minister from 1937 to 1940. He is well-known for his appeasement policy. He signed the Munich Agreement in 1938, which gave Germany Sudetenland.
5. Remilitarization of the Rhineland- This took place in March 7, 1936 by the German Army. Hitler originally was going to re-militarize it in 1937, but decided to make it a year sooner. He did this because of the Olympics and the ratification of the Franco-Soviet pact by the French National Assembly in 1935. Not to mention the fact that Hitler was becoming very impatient.
6. Anschluss- This was when Austria was incorporated into Greater Germany by Nazi Germany. This happened on March 12, 1938. However, before this happened... Nazi Germany gave support to the Austrian National Socialist Party. Also, Kurt Schuschnigg tried to hold a vote in order to see if the Austrian people wanted to become apart of Germany or remain independent.
7. Lebensraum- This means "living space". This was motivation for Nazi Germany. In Hitler's book, Mein Kamp, he said how the Germans needed this. It was the killing of the Polish, and later to come, the Russians and other Slavic peoples in order to replace them with the Germans. They would do this through starvation.
8. Austrian Nazi Party- Austrian police after Austria gave into Hitler's demands. This was beneficial to Hitler because there was now a party in Austria who was also convincing Austrians to go along with him.
9. Austrian Plebiscite- The vote in Austria to show Hitler that Austrians wanted to stay independent and Austrians, not Germans. The vote was limited to people over the age of 24, so that younger people who might want change were excluded.
10. Kurt Schuschnigg- He became the chancellor of Austria after Dollfuss was assassinated. He was the person who gave into Hitler's demands, and was later imprisoned by the Nazis.
11. Abyssinia Crisis- began with the Walwal incident, which resulted from the conflict between Italy and Ethiopia. The effects of the Abyssinia Crisis include encouraging Italy to ally with Germany, and the League of Nations proved once again to be helpless.
12. Sudetenland- This was the western regions of Czechoslovakia. This is land that was given to Germany in the Munich Agreement.
13. Munich Agreement- This was an agreement in regards to Sudetenland. The agreement took place in Munich, Germany and had all the major powers of Germany except Czechoslovakia. It was signed by Italy, Britain, and France on September 30, 1938 and it gave the Sudetenland to Germany.