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WWII
A Look at World War II at Home and Abroad
36
Social Studies
8th Grade
12/01/2016

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Term
Dictator
Definition
A person who rules a country with absolute power or total control
Term
Adolf Hitler
Definition
Leader of Germany prior to and throughout WWII. Head of the Nazi Party.
Term
Causes of WWII
Definition
1) Treaty of Versailles
2) Dictator rule in Europe
3) Worldwide depression
4) Weakness of League of Nations
Term
Benito Mussolini
Definition
Fascist leader of Italy
Term
Nazi Party Beliefs
Definition
Focused on placing Germans in front of all others
Becomes more and more anti-Semitic over time
Term
Japan before WWII
Definition
Japan seeks to find natural resources and invades China
Term
American Neutrality
Definition
U.S. seeks to remain isolationist and passes Neutrality Acts in both 1935 and 1937.
Term
Lebensraum
Definition
Germany seeks to expand into other "traditionally German" areas. They take the Rhineland, Austria, and the Sudetenland by 1938.
Term
Munich Conference
Definition
Britain and France appease Germany by giving them the Sudetenland in exchange for a promise not to take anything else.
Term
Appeasement
Definition
To give in to avoid conflict. Britain and France unsuccessfully used a policy of appeasement with Germany prior to WWII.
Term
Soviet-German Non-Aggression Pact
Definition
USSR and Germany agree not to attack one another. This clears the way for Hitler and Germany to attack Poland.
Term
Blitzkrieg
Definition
"Lightning War" - the style of fighting used by Germany in WWII. Three waves of attack - planes, then tanks, then soldiers.
Term
Invasion of Poland
Definition
This September, 1939, German attack is considered the beginning of WWII. German took Poland in only one month.
Term
Axis Powers
Definition
Germany, Italy, Japan, and their allies
Term
Allied Powers
Definition
U.S.S.R., Britain, France, and later the U.S. and their allies
Term
Battle of Britain
Definition
Largely air war over Britain ith the German Luftwaffe desperately trying to bomb Britain into submission. The citizens of Britain survive by using blackouts, RADAR, and and air force consisting of quick, agile Spitfire fighter planes against the slower German bombers.
Term
Pearl Harbor
Definition
December 7, 1941 - a Japanese sneak attack on the U.S. Pacific Fleet at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii killing 2300 soldiers. This brought the U.S. into the war.
Term
Selective Service Act
Definition
FDR creates a draft to increase the size of the United State military.
Term
War Production Board
Definition
Supervised the conversion of industries to war goods manufacturing
Term
War Bonds
Definition
Helped to raise funds to support the war effort. Sold with help from a successful propaganda campaign.
Term
Victory Gardens
Definition
U.S. citizens are asked to grow own food to allow the government to send food to the front.
Term
Scrap Drives
Definition
U.S. citizens are asked to same metals, cloth, rubber, etc. to aid in the war effort.
Term
"Rosie the Riveter"
Definition
Successful ad campaign that urged women to enter the workforce during the war to support the war effort.
Term
Code Talkers
Definition
Navajo Indians used to put secret messages in code and to break the codes of the Japanese and Germans.
Term
Japanese Internment
Definition
Citizens of the U.S. on the West Coast are concerned that Japanese Americans might be acting as spies. FDR issues Executive Order 9066, ordering all Japanese people in the west to go to internment camps for the duration of the war.
Term
Korematsu vs. United States (1944)
Definition
Fred Korematsu sued over having been placed in an interment camp and loses his case. This decision is later overturned and the U.S. apologizes to those interned during the war.
Term
Battle of Stalingrad
Definition
U.S.S.R. defends this city against German attack despite huge losses. The Soviets lose more people during this war than any other country.
Term
D-Day Invasion (June 6, 1944)
Definition
U.S., France, UK and Canada land troops at Normandy, France against German defenses. This creates a two front war for Germany with USSR in the east and the others in the west.
Term
V-E Day
Definition
May 7, 1945 - Germany surrenders to the Allies in Europe. The fighting in the Pacific would continue, however.
Term
Holocaust
Definition
During the war, Germany executed 6 million Jews, gypsies, homosexual and handicapped people in an effort to "purify" the human race.
Term
Genocide
Definition
The deliberate killing of a certain group of people.
Term
Island Hopping
Definition
The U.S. policy in the Pacific of creeping closer and closer to the islands of Japan in order to launch an attack.
Term
Manhattan Project
Definition
The secret development of the atomic bomb by the United States.
Term
Hiroshima and Nagasaki
Definition
The two Japanese cities hit by U.S. atomic bombs in August of 1945. The devastation leads Japan to surrender on V-J Day (August 15, 1945).
Term
Nuremberg Trials
Definition
German officials were tried in court in Nuremberg, Germany. They were accused of war crimes. The chief prosecutor was Robert H. Jackson of Jamestown, NY.
Term
Costs of the War
Definition
1) 55 million deaths
2) Europe and the Pacific are largely destroyed
3) Half of deaths were civilians (non-military)
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