Key Vocabulary for History Study

Key Vocabulary for History Study

• Genocide: Deliberate killing of a large group of people.
• Pogrom: Organized violence against Jewish people.
• Untermenschen: Term for "subhuman" ethnic minorities, including Jews, disabled people, Black people, Gypsies, and homosexuals.
• Herrenvolk: The "master race," typically referring to Aryans.
• SA (brownshirts/stormtroopers): Members of the Sturmabteilung who intimidated Jewish shops and encouraged boycotts.
• Shtetl: A small Jewish town or village in Eastern Europe.
• Holocaust: The systematic murder of 6 million Jews by the Nazis from 1933-1945; also targeted gypsies, homosexuals, disabled people, Black people & Poles, often leading to deaths in concentration camps. Extermination camps like Auschwitz saw mass murder.
• Shoah: Hebrew word for "the catastrophe," used by Jews to distinguish the event from other periods.
• Integrate: (Jewish) people living amongst non-Jewish people.
• Eugenics: Altering reproduction to enhance desirable characteristics within a population.
• Social Darwinism: The idea that society operates on "survival of the fittest," based on Darwin's theory.
• Conquest: Taking control of a country through military force.
• Crusade: A religious war.
• Pope: The head of the Catholic Church.
• Medieval period: The period from 1066-1500.
• Nationalism: Extreme support for one's own country.
• Mutiny: When soldiers refuse to obey orders or turn against their leaders.
• Rebellion: Armed resistance against a government or leader.
• Imperialism: Expanding a country's power through colonialism.
• Empire: A powerful country controlling other countries or colonies.
• Interpretation: A historian's assessment of an event or person based on evidence.
• Democracy: A system of government where people elect leaders and have freedom of speech.
• Colony: A country controlled by another country.
• Renaissance: The rebirth of European art and culture.
• Suffrage: The right to vote.
• Pilgrimage: A journey for religious reasons.
• Reformation: A movement to change the Catholic Church.
• Revolt: An act of violent resistance.
• Break from Rome: Henry VIII's separation of England from the Catholic Church.