WWI: Causes, Alliances, and Warfare

• The Triple Entente was composed of Russia, France, and England.
• Large battleships built by the British and Germans before WWI were called Dreadnoughts.
• The Balkans, a volatile region in southeastern Europe.
• Gavrilo Princip assassinated the archduke.
• Austria-Hungary's archduke's assassination sparked WWI.
• Serbia was blamed by the Central Powers for assassinating the archduke.
• The Schlieffen Plan was a military strategy to quickly defeat France before focusing on Russia.
• Russia aided Serbia, escalating a local conflict into a world war.
• The Ottomans fought with Germany and Austria in WWI.
• Germany invaded Belgium to surprise France.
• Great Britain entered WWI after Belgium's neutrality was violated.
• U-boats (submarines) were used by the Germans to compete with the British navy.
• Trench warfare was the primary battle tactic in WWI.
• The RMS Lusitania was sunk by a German torpedo.
• The Allies lost the Battle of Gallipoli in the Ottoman Empire.
• "No Man’s Land" refers to the area between opposing armies' trenches.
• Propaganda was used to popularize the war at home and demonize the enemy.
• The Western Front was where Germany fought Britain and France.
• The Eastern Front was where Germany fought Russia.
• Lawrence of Arabia (T.E. Lawrence) was a British officer who inspired Arabs to revolt against the Ottoman Empire.
• The United States turned the tide against the Germans in WWI.
• Armistice means a ceasefire.
• The League of Nations was the only part of Wilson's peace plan that was implemented.
• The Treaty of Versailles ended WWI and sowed the seeds of WWII.
• The Republic of Turkey formed from the remains of the Ottoman Empire.
• Mustafa Kemal was a Turkish nationalist who westernized and secularized Turkey.

The Russian Revolution

• The Five-Year Plan aimed to rapidly industrialize the Soviet Union.
• Collectives were giant farms created by Stalin after seizing 25 million Russian farms.
• The February Revolution of 1917 resulted in the Czar's abdication and a Provisional Government.
• Gulags were labor camps where Stalin sent millions of his enemies.
• Kulaks were peasants who became wealthy under the NEP but were persecuted under Stalin.
• The October Revolution of 1917 resulted in the Bolsheviks taking over Russia.
• "Peace, Land, and Bread" was the Bolsheviks' slogan.
• Rasputin was a monk believed to be able to cure the Czar's son of hemophilia.
• Soviet Councils were radical worker councils that controlled local governments during the February Revolution.
• Bloody Sunday was a peaceful Russian protest where palace guards shot 1000 marchers.
• Bolsheviks were the Communist party of Russia.
• Duma was a Russian parliament first established by Nicholas II.
• Vladimir Lenin led the Bolsheviks and eventually the Soviet Union.
• The New Economic Policy (NEP) was Lenin's policy of reintroducing some capitalism to stabilize the Soviet Union.
• Czar Nicholas II was the last Czar of Russia.

Great Depression

• America produced 50% of the world's goods during the Roaring 20s.
• Britain and France received war reparations from Germany.
• Britain and France had to repay loans to the United States.
• Germany received loans from the United States to pay its war debts.
• Industrial innovations reduced demand for raw materials.
• People bought too many stocks and goods with credit.
• Stock prices were overinflated in the 1920s.
• Overproduction and underconsumption were problems with goods and food in the 1920s.
• The Great Depression was the worst economic crisis in US history.
• By 1932, industrial production in the US had dropped by half.
• Tariffs prevented other countries from selling goods to the US.
• John Keynes encouraged US government to stimulate the economy.
• The New Deal was FDR's plan to pull America out of the Great Depression.
• Germany had the highest unemployment in 1932 at 35%.
• The Grapes of Wrath criticized the government's response to the Great Depression.
• WWII pulled the US out of the Great Depression.

Rise of Hitler

• The Weimar Republic was the post-WWI government of Germany.
• Hitler wanted to be an artist as a young man.
• Hitler's rise to power started in Munich.
• Nationalists were right-leaning revolutionaries in post-WWI Germany.
• Communists were left-leaning revolutionaries in post-WWI Germany.
• The SA, also called Brownshirts, were Hitler's nationalist thugs.
• Ernst Rohm was the leader of the SA.
• Hitler railed against the Treaty of Versailles.
• Conservatives were willing to back Hitler to stop the Communists.
• The Beer Hall Putsch was Hitler's attempt to overthrow the local government.
• Mein Kampf was written by Hitler while in jail.
• Hindenburg was the President of Germany before Hitler took over.
• Joseph Goebbels was Hitler's minister of propaganda.
• The S.S. was Hitler's personal army after he became dictator.

Start of WWII

• Japan annexed Manchuria in 1931.
• The Rape of Nanking was a Japanese atrocity.
• 250,000 people died when Italy invaded Ethiopia in 1935.
• The Munich Agreement was when Britain and France gave Hitler the Sudetenland.
• Appeasement is giving in to an aggressor's demands to avoid war.
• Isolationists advocated staying out of world affairs.
• Blitzkrieg is a battle strategy involving aerial bombings followed by tanks and troops.
• The Axis Powers were an alliance of Japan, Germany, and Italy during WWII.
• The invasion of Poland caused Britain and France to declare war on Germany.
• The Luftwaffe was the Nazi air force.
• The Nazis attempted to win the Battle of Britain through aerial bombings alone.
• Radar was a secret weapon used by the British against the Luftwaffe.
• The Lend-Lease Act was America's attempt to supply Britain at the beginning of the war.
• The Allied Powers were an alliance of Britain, the USSR, and the US during WWII.

End of WWII

• Untermensch is a German term for subhuman.
• The Battle of Stalingrad was the most important battle of WWII.
• Stalin became a hero to the Russian resistance against the Nazis.
• Auschwitz was a concentration camp in Poland.
• The US oil embargo of Japan led to Pearl Harbor.
• The Battle of Midway was the turning point in America's war against Japan.
• Dresden was mercilessly bombed by Allied forces
• The Manhattan Project was the code name for developing the atomic bomb.
• Oppenheimer was in charge of developing the atomic bomb.
• Kamikaze were Japanese suicide bombers.
• Hiroshima, Japan was the first city destroyed by an atomic bomb.