AP World History chapter 30 vocabulary

Kristallnacht

"Night of the Broken Glass" the night of November 9-10, 1938, when German Nazis attacked Jewish persons and property. The name Kristallnacht refers ironically to the litter of broken glass left in the streets after these pogroms. The violence continued during the day of November 10, and in some places acts of violence continued for several more days. The pretext for the pogroms was the shooting in Paris on November 7 of the German diplomat Ernst vom Rath by a Polish-Jewish student, Herschel Grynszpan. News of Rath's death on November 9 reached Adolf Hitler in Munich, Germany, where he was celebrating the anniversary of the abortive 1923 Beer Hall Putsch. There, Minister of Propaganda Joseph Goebbels, after conferring with Hitler, harangued a gathering of old storm troopers, urging violent reprisals staged to appear as "spontaneous demonstrations." Telephone orders from Munich triggered pogroms throughout Germany, which then included Austria. Just before midnight on November 9, Gestapo chief Heinrich Müller sent a telegram to all police units informing them that "in shortest order, actions against Jews and especially their synagogues will take place in all of Germany. These are not to be interfered with." Rather, the police were to arrest the victims. Fire companies stood by synagogues in flames with explicit instructions to let the buildings burn. They were to intervene only if a fire threatened adjacent "Aryan" properties. In two days and nights, more than 1,000 synagogues were burned or otherwise damaged. Rioters ransacked and looted about 7,500 Jewish businesses, killed at least 91 Jews, and vandalized Jewish hospitals, homes, schools, and cemeteries. The attackers were often neighbours. Some 30,000 Jewish males aged 16 to 60 were arrested. To accommodate so many new prisoners, the concentration camps at Dachau, Buchenwald, and Sachsenhausen were expanded.

apartheid

A system of legal racial segregation enforced by the National Party government in South Africa between 1948 and 1994, under which the rights of the majority black inhabitants of South Africa were curtailed and minority rule by whites was maintained. A social policy or racial segregation involving political and economic and legal discrimination against non-whites. White South Africans made up only 15% of South Africa's population, apartheid reserved good jobs and other privileges for them, pass laws required black South Africans to carry ID documents when entering white areas. they were banned from living in certain areas, mixed marriages were prohibited. In 1964 Nelson Mandela, leader of the African National Congress (ANC) was imprisoned for going against apartheid. The ANC's goals were to end white domination and create a multiracial South Africa.

Charles DeGaulle

French soldier, writer, statesman, and architect of France's Fifth Republic. French General who founded the French Fifth Republicn in 1958 and served as its first President from 1959 to 1969

Universal Declaration of Human Rights

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) is a milestone document in the history of human rights. Drafted by representatives with different legal and cultural backgrounds from all regions of the world, the Declaration was proclaimed by the United Nations General Assembly in Paris on 10th December 1948 (General Assembly resolution 217 A) as a common standard of achievements for all peoples and all nations. It sets out, for the first time, fundamental human rights to be universally protected and it has been translated into over 500 languages.

Vichy France & occupied France

Vichy France, formally French State, French État Français, (July 1940-September 1944), France under the regime of Marshal Philippe Pétain from the Nazi German defeat of France to the Allied liberation in World War II. Occupied France is where the German forces occupied France in 1942, German troops occupy Vichy France, which had previously been free of an Axis military presence. Since July 1940, upon being invaded and defeated by Nazi German forces, the autonomous French state had been split into two regions. One was occupied by German troops, and the other was unoccupied, governed by a more or less puppet regime centered in Vichy, a spa region about 200 miles southeast of Paris, and led by Gen. Philippe Petain, a World War I hero. Publicly, Petain declared that Germany and France had a common goal, "the defeat of England." Privately, the French general hoped that by playing mediator between the Axis power and his fellow countrymen, he could keep German troops out of Vichy France while surreptitiously aiding the antifascist Resistance movement.

Turning Point Battles: (1.El Alamein, 2.Stalingrad, 3.Coral Sea, 4.Midway)

1. marked the culmination of the World War II North African campaign between the British Empire and the German-Italian army. With the Allies victorious, it marked a major turning point in the Western Desert Campaign of the Second World War. 2. successful Soviet defense of the city of Stalingrad (now Volgograd), Russia, U.S.S.R., during World War II. Russians consider it to be one of the greatest battles of their Great Patriotic War, and most historians consider it to be the greatest battle of the entire conflict. It stopped the German advance into the Soviet Union and marked the turning of the tide of war in favor of the Allies. 3. This four-day World War II skirmish in May 1942 marked the first air-sea battle in history. The Japanese were seeking to control the Coral Sea with an invasion of Port Moresby in southeast New Guinea, but their plans were intercepted by Allied forces. When the Japanese landed in the area, they came under attack from the aircraft carrier planes of the American task force commanded by Rear Admiral Frank J. Fletcher. Although both sides suffered damages to their carriers, the battle left the Japanese without enough planes to cover the ground attack of Port Moresby, resulting in a strategic Allied victory. 4. U.S. naval victory over the Japanese fleet in June 1942, in which the Japanese lost four of their best aircraft carriers. It marked a turning point in the pacific theater of World War II.

Blitzkrieg

A German term for "lightning war," blitzkrieg is a military tactic designed to create disorganization among enemy forces through the use of mobile forces and locally concentrated firepower. Its successful execution results in short military campaigns, which preserves human lives and limits the expenditure of artillery

Auschwitz, Sobibor, Treblinka

Auschwitz: Nazi Germany's largest concentration camp and extermination camp. Located near the industrial town of Oświęcim in southern Poland (in a portion of the country that was annexed by Germany at the beginning of World War II), Auschwitz was actually three camps in one: a prison camp, an extermination camp, and a slave-labour camp. As the most lethal of the Nazi extermination camps, Auschwitz has become the emblematic site of the "final solution," a virtual synonym for the Holocaust. Between 1.1 and 1.5 million people died at Auschwitz; 90 percent of them were Jews. Sobibor: Nazi German extermination camp located in a forest near the village of Sobibór in the present-day Polish province of Lublin. Built in March 1942, it operated from May 1942 until October 1943, and its gas chambers killed a total of about 250,000 Jews, mostly from Poland and occupied areas of the Soviet Union. Sobibor was one of the three camps established after the Wannsee Conference to exterminate the Jewish population of occupied Poland. The others were Belzec and Treblinka. Treblinka: major Nazi German concentration camp and extermination camp, located near the village of Treblinka, 50 miles (80 km) northeast of Warsaw on the main Warsaw-Bialystok railway line. There were actually two camps. The Nazis opened the first, Treblinka, 2.5 miles (4 km) from the railway station in December 1941 as a small forced-labour camp. The second, larger, ultrasecret camp—called "T.II" (Treblinka II) in official dispatches—was 1 mile (1.6 km) from the first and opened in July 1942 as an extermination camp for Jews as part of the "final solution to the Jewish question," or the Holocaust. The Nazis established this camp—along with Belzec and Sobibor—as part of Operation Reinhard, an effort to exterminate the Jews of occupied Poland. Concentration camps in Poland

Winston Churchill

British statesman, orator, and author who as prime minister (1940-45, 1951-55) rallied the British people during World War II and led his country from the brink of defeat to victory. After a sensational rise to prominence in national politics before World War I, Churchill acquired a reputation for erratic judgment in the war itself and in the decade that followed. Politically suspect in consequence, he was a lonely figure until his response to Adolf Hitler's challenge brought him to leadership of a national coalition in 1940. With Franklin D. Roosevelt and Joseph Stalin he then shaped Allied strategy in World War II, and after the breakdown of the alliance he alerted the West to the expansionist threat of the Soviet Union. He led the Conservative Party back to office in 1951 and remained prime minister until 1955, when ill health forced his resignation. An English political leader and author of the twentieth century; he became prime minister shortly after World War II began and served through the end of the war in Europe Responsible for British resistance to German air assaults.

World Court

Called the "International Court of Justice", it s a judicial body set up by the original United Nations charter. It settles disputes over international law brought to it by countries. the primary judicial branch of the United Nations (UN)

Muhammad Ali Jinnah

Indian Muslim politician who founded the state of Pakistan. A lawyer by training, he joined the All-India Muslim League in 1913. As leader of the League from the 1920s on, he negotiated with the British/INC for Muslim Political Rights Jinnah served as leader of the All-India Muslim League from 1913 until Pakistan's creation on 14 August 1947, and then as Pakistan's first Governor-General until his death

Total war

Nations who committed all of their resources to the war effort. A nations domestic population, in addition to its military was committed to winning the war. Cilivians worked in factories producing war materials, entire economies were centered on winning the war. Governments set up planning boards that set production quotas, price and wage controls, and rationing food and other supplies. They censored the media and imprisoned anyone who spoke out against the war effort. Propaganda was another component of total war. Warfare of the 20th Century, vast resources and emotional commitments of nations to support military effort.

Non- Aggression Pact

On August 23, 1939-shortly before World War II (1939-45) broke out in Europe-enemies Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union surprised the world by signing the German-Soviet Nonaggression Pact, in which the two countries agreed to take no military action against each other for the next 10 years. With Europe on the brink of another major war, Soviet leader Joseph Stalin (1879-1953) viewed the pact as a way to keep his nation on peaceful terms with Germany, while giving him time to build up the Soviet military. German chancellor Adolf Hitler (1889-1945) used the pact to make sure Germany was able to invade Poland unopposed. The pact also contained a secret agreement in which the Soviets and Germans agreed how they would later divide up Eastern Europe. The German-Soviet Nonaggression Pact fell apart in June 1941, when Nazi forces invaded the Soviet Union. In the pact Hitler offered Stalin control of eastern Poland and the Baltic States if Stalin would stand by during a German invasion of western Poland. Germany invaded Poland on Sprtember 1, 1939, claiming that Poland had attacked first. Britian and France honored there agreement to protect Poland and declared war on Germany. These actions marked the official start of WWII in Europe

D Day & Normandy

On June 6, 1944, more than 160,000 Allied troops landed along a 50-mile stretch of heavily-fortified French coastline, to fight Nazi Germany on the beaches of Normandy, France. More than 9,000 Allied Soldiers were killed or wounded, but their sacrifice allowed more than 100,000 Soldiers to begin the slow, hard slog across Europe, to defeat Adolf Hitler's crack troops. the Battle of Normandy, which lasted from June 1944 to August 1944, resulted in the Allied liberation of Western Europe from Nazi Germany's control. Codenamed Operation Overlord, the battle began on June 6, 1944, also known as D-Day, when some 156,000 American, British and Canadian forces landed on five beaches along a 50-mile stretch of the heavily fortified coast of France's Normandy region. The invasion was one of the largest amphibious military assaults in history and required extensive planning. Prior to D-Day, the Allies conducted a large-scale deception campaign designed to mislead the Germans about the intended invasion target. By late August 1944, all of northern France had been liberated, and by the following spring the Allies had defeated the Germans. The Normandy landings have been called the beginning of the end of war in Europe.

decolonization

Process by which colonies become independent of the colonizing country. Decolonization was gradual and peaceful for some British colonies largely settled by expatriates but violent for others, where native rebellions were energized by nationalism. After World War II, European countries generally lacked the wealth and political support necessary to suppress faraway revolts; they also faced opposition from the new superpowers, the U.S. and the Soviet Union, both of which had taken positions against colonialism. Korea was freed in 1945 by Japan's defeat in the war. The U.S. relinquished the Philippines in 1946. Britain left India in 1947, Palestine in 1948, and Egypt in 1956; it withdrew from Africa in the 1950s and '60s, from various island protectorates in the 1970s and '80s, and from Hong Kong in 1997. The French left Vietnam in 1954 and gave up its North African colonies by 1962. Portugal gave up its African colonies in the 1970s; Macau was returned to the Chinese in 1999.

Afrikaners & the National Party

South Africans that descended from Dutch and French settlers of the seventeenth century. Their Great Trek founded new settler colonies in the nineteenth century. Though a minority among South Africans, they held political power after 1910. South African political party, founded in 1914, which ruled the country from 1948 to 1994. Its following included most of the Dutch-descended Afrikaners and many English-speaking whites. The National Party was long dedicated to policies of apartheid and white supremacy, but by the early 1990s it had moved toward sharing power with South Africa's black majority. It first became the governing party of the country in 1924. It was in opposition during the World War II years but it returned to power and was again in the government from 4 June 1948 until 9 May 1994. At this time, it began implementing its policy of racial segregation, known as "Apartheid". The policies of the party also included the establishment of a republic, and the promotion of Afrikaner culture.[1]

FLN & Algeria

The National Liberation Front is FLN; Radical nationalist movement in Algeria; launched sustained guerrilla war against France in the 1950's; success of attacks led to independence of Algeria in 1958. The Algerian War for Independence began in 1954, many French people lived in Algeria as settlers and the French Government considered Algeria part of France and did not want Algeria to become a separate country. The independence movement was led by the FLN which used guerrilla techniques against 500,000 French forces. The violence was captured in the 1966 film "The Battle of Algiers". The French Communist Party wanted independence of Algeria. In 1958 French President Charles De Gaulle planned steps for Algerian independence. He then went to the people of France and Algeria in a referendum to gain approval. War broke out several more times, in 1962, in Algeria because of the pro French Algerians that fled the country to France. These refugees created housing and job problems and anti immigration sentiment. This left violence in Algeria and the new president of the new Algerian Republic was overthrown in 1965 in a coup. The FLN maintained power making Algeria a single party state. Then there was the Algerian Civil War in 1991, this time in reaction to the one party rule. the National Liberation Front (FLN) succeeded Messali Hadj's Algerian People's Party (PPA), while its leaders created an armed wing, the (National Liberation Army) to engage in an armed struggle against French authority

Tehran, Yalta, Potsdam

The main Allied nations in WWII; Great Britain, United States and Soviet Union were collectively known as "The Big Three". Beginning in 1943 they met in a series of conferences to discuss strategy for winning the war and shaping the world after the war ended. Tehran Conference: a meeting between U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, and Soviet Premier Joseph Stalin in Tehran, Iran, between November 28 and December 1, 1943. The SU would focus on freeing Eastern Europe, while Britain and the US concentrated on Western Europe. Yalta Conference: the World War II meeting of the United States, Great Britain and the Soviet Union. Stalin revealed his distrust of his allies. All three could not agree on what should happen after Germany's surrender. Stalin wanted influence over Eastern Europe and Roosevelt thought those countries should rule themselves through free democratic elections. US wanted Soviet support in the war with Japan but Soviets wanted many concessions. The only thing to come out of meeting was the creation of the United Nations Potsdam Conference: July 1945 in Germany. The final meeting of The Big Three—Soviet leader Joseph Stalin, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill started the conference then was (replaced on July 26 by Prime Minister Clement Attlee), and U.S. President Harry Truman (became president after Roosevelt died in April—met in Potsdam, Germany, from July 17 to August 2, 1945, to negotiate terms for the end of World War II. Truman insisted on free elections in Eastern Europe but Stalin had already occupied the region with Soviet troops and refused Trumans demand. The two countries lacked trust in one another and it eventually developed into the Cold War.

Holocaust

The word "Holocaust," from the Greek words "holos" (whole) and "kaustos" (burned), was historically used to describe a sacrificial offering burned on an altar. Since 1945, the word has taken on a new and horrible meaning: the mass murder of some 6 million European Jews (as well as members of some other persecuted groups, such as Gypsies and homosexuals) by the German Nazi regime during the Second World War. To the anti-Semitic Nazi leader Adolf Hitler, Jews were an inferior race, an alien threat to German racial purity and community.

Haganah

Zionist military organization representing the majority of the Jews in Palestine from 1920 to 1948. Organized to combat the revolts of Palestinian Arabs against the Jewish settlement of Palestine, it early came under the influence of the Histadrut ("General Federation of Labour"). Although it was outlawed by the British Mandatory authorities and was poorly armed, it managed effectively to defend Jewish settlements. a complete Israeli Combative methodology based on both Israeli martial arts and Israeli military tactics used by Israeli Special Forces operatives in extremely hostile situations

Quit India Movement

a civil disobedience movement launched by Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (Mahatma Gandhi) on 8 August 1942, during World War II, demanding an end to British Rule of India. Gandhi made a call to Do or Die in his Quit India speech delivered in Bombay. The All-India Congress Committee launched a mass protest demanding what Gandhi called "An Orderly British Withdrawal" from India. Even though it was wartime, the British were prepared to act. Almost the entire leadership of the Indian National Congress was imprisoned without trial within hours of Gandhi's speech. Most spent the rest of the war in prison and out of contact with the masses. The British had the support of the Viceroy's Council (which had a majority of Indians), of the All India Muslim League, the princely states, the Indian Imperial Police, the British Indian Army and the Indian Civil Service. Many Indian businessmen profiting from heavy wartime spending did not support the Quit India Movement. The only outside support came from the Americans, as President Franklin D. Roosevelt pressured Prime Minister Winston Churchill to give in to some of the Indian demands. The Quit India campaign was effectively crushed.[2] The British refused to grant immediate independence, saying it could happen only after the war had ended.

island hopping

a military strategy employed by the Allies in the Pacific War against Japan and the Axis powers during World War II the phrase given to the strategy employed by the United States to gain military bases and secure the many small islands in the Pacific during WWII. The attack was lead by General Douglas MacArthur, Commander of the Allied forces in the South west Pacific, and Admiral Chester W. Nimitz, Commander-in-chief of the Pacific fleet. The US troops targeted the islands that were not as strongly defended by the Japanese. They took control of those islands, and quickly constructed landing strips and small military bases. Then they proceeded to attack other islands from the bases they had established. Slowly the US army moved closer to Japan, taking control of many of the surrounding islands.

Scapegoat

a person or group made to bear the blame for others to suffer in their place

Muslim League

a political organization of India and Pakistan, founded 1906 as the All-India Muslim League by Aga Khan III. Its original purpose was to safeguard the political rights of Muslims in India. political group that led the movement calling for a separate Muslim nation to be created at the time of the partition of British India (1947). The league wanted a separate nation for India's Muslims because it feared that an independent India would be dominated by Hindus.

UN Partition Plan in 1948

a proposal developed by the United Nations, which recommended a partition with Economic Union of Mandatory Palestine to follow the termination of the British Mandate Despite strong Arab opposition, the United Nations votes for the partition of Palestine and the creation of an independent Jewish state. The modern conflict between Jews and Arabs in Palestine dates back to the 1910s, when both groups laid claim to the British-controlled territory. The Jews were Zionists, recent emigrants from Europe and Russia who came to the ancient homeland of the Jews to establish a Jewish national state. The native Palestinian Arabs sought to stem Jewish immigration and set up a secular Palestinian state. Beginning in 1929, Arabs and Jews openly fought in Palestine, and Britain attempted to limit Jewish immigration as a means of appeasing the Arabs. As a result of the Holocaust in Europe, many Jews illegally entered Palestine during World War II. Radical Jewish groups employed terrorism against British forces in Palestine, which they thought had betrayed the Zionist cause. At the end of World War II, in 1945, the United States took up the Zionist cause. Britain, unable to find a practical solution, referred the problem to the United Nations, which on November 29, 1947, voted to partition Palestine.

Manchukuo

a puppet state in Northeast China and Inner Mongolia, which was governed under a form of constitutional monarchy, the last Chinese emperor on its throne

Battle of the Bulge

also called Battle of the Ardennes, (December 16, 1944-January 16, 1945), the last major German offensive on the Western Front during World War II—an unsuccessful attempt to push the Allies back from German home territory. The name Battle of the Bulge was appropriated from Winston Churchill's optimistic description in May 1940 of the resistance that he mistakenly supposed was being offered to the Germans' breakthrough in that area just before the Anglo-French collapse; the Germans were in fact overwhelmingly successful. The "bulge" refers to the wedge that the Germans drove into the Allied lines. was a major German offensive campaign launched through the densely forested Ardennes region of Wallonia in Belgium, France, and Luxembourg on the Western Front toward the end of World War II in Europe

United Nations (UN)

an international organization formed on October 24,1945 to increase political and economic cooperation among member countries. The organization works on economic and social development programs, improving human rights and reducing global conflicts. Leaders of the United States, Great Britain, Soviet Union, and China had the idea for the UN. The UN has several parts: The General Assembly: discusses and votes on issues, with one vote for each member nation. The Security Counsel: acts on the issues and may use military force against a trouble-making country. It is comprised of 5 permanent members, the US, Great Britain, Soviet Union and China and 10 who are elected on a rotating basis.

Weimar Republic

an unofficial designation for the German state between 1919 and 1933. The name derives from the city of Weimar, where its constitutional assembly first took place. the government of Germany from 1919 to 1933, so called because the assembly that adopted its constitution met at Weimar from February 6 to August 11, 1919.

Hiroshima & Nagasaki

cites where US air forces bombed Japan in attempts to get the Japanese to surrender in World War II On August 6, 1945, during World War II (1939-45), an American B-29 bomber dropped the world's first deployed atomic bomb over the Japanese city of Hiroshima. The explosion wiped out 90 percent of the city and immediately killed 80,000 people; tens of thousands more would later die of radiation exposure. Three days later, a second B-29 dropped another A-bomb on Nagasaki, killing an estimated 40,000 people. Japan's Emperor Hirohito announced his country's unconditional surrender in World War II in a radio address on August 15, citing the devastating power of "a new and most cruel bomb."

Berbers

descendants of the pre-Arab inhabitants of North Africa any of the descendants of the pre-Arab inhabitants of North Africa. The Berbers live in scattered communities across Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, Egypt, Mali, Niger, and Mauretania. They speak various Amazigh languages belonging to the Afro-Asiatic family related to Ancient Egyptian. When the French conquered Algeria in the 19th century and Morocco in the 20th, they seized on the distinction between the Arab majority and the Berbers of the mountains. On the strength of Ibn Khaldūn's history, the latter were once again classified as a people under their modern name of Berbers. The identification and description of their language, the anthropological study of their society, and their geographical isolation all gave grounds for their separate administration as a people going back before the time of Islam to a pagan and Christian past. Those colonial studies and policies have determined much of the history of the Berbers down to the present but meanwhile have left a record of their manners and customs before the advent of modernity.

Battle of Britain

during World War II, the successful defense of Great Britain against unremitting and destructive air raids conducted by the German air force (Luftwaffe) from July through September 1940, after the fall of France. Victory for the Luftwaffe in the air battle would have exposed Great Britain to invasion by the German army, which was then in control of the ports of France only a few miles away across the English Channel. In the event, the battle was won by the Royal Air Force (RAF) Fighter Command, whose victory not only blocked the possibility of invasion but also created the conditions for Great Britain's survival, for the extension of the war, and for the eventual defeat of Nazi Germany. is the name given to the Second World War defense of the United Kingdom by the Royal Air Force against an onslaught by the German Air Force which began at the end of June 1940

firebombing

is a bombing technique designed to damage a target, generally an urban area, through the use of fire, caused by incendiary devices, rather than from the blast effect of large bombs. The U.S. and Allies used this type of combat in WWII, German cities Hamburg in 1943, Dresden in 1945 and caused large casualties. The US also used this on Tokyo.

"Aryan master race"

is a concept in Nazi and Neo-Nazi ideology in which the Nordic or Aryan races, predominant among Germans and other northern European peoples, are deemed the highest in racial hierarchy. The Nazi official Alfred Rosenberg believed that the Nordic race was descended from Proto-Aryans who he believed had prehistorically dwelt on the North German Plain and who had ultimately originated from the lost continent of Atlantis.[1] The Nazis declared that the Nordics (now referred to as the Germanic peoples), or Aryan as they sometimes called them, were superior to all other races. The Nazis believed they were entitled to expand territorially.[2] This concept is known as Nordicism. The actual policy that was implemented by the Nazis resulted in the Aryan certificate, the one form of the official document that was required by the law for all citizens of the Reich was the "Lesser Aryan certificate" (Kleiner Ariernachweis) which could be obtained through an Ahnenpass which required the owner to trace his or her lineage through baptism, birth certificates or certified proof thereof that all grandparents were of "Aryan descent".

military occupation

is effective provisional control by a certain ruling power over a territory which is not under the formal sovereignty of that entity, without the violation of the actual sovereign. Military occupation is distinguished from annexation by its intended temporary nature (i.e. no claim for permanent sovereignty), by its military nature, and by citizenship rights of the controlling power not being conferred upon the subjugated population.

Fifth Republic

is the name of France's current government. It began in 1958, after a coup at the hands of the French military in colonial Algeria convinced officials in Paris to dissolve Parliament. Fearing that the military could extend their control beyond Africa, the government called former general Charles de Gaulle out of retirement to hold the country together, as he did during the post-liberation years of World War II. To do so, he crafted a new constitution. Under this government, the president has substantial power, holds a term of five years (it was originally seven) and, following a change to the constitution in 1962, is directly elected by the French people. (de Gaulle held the position until 1968.) This system of government differs dramatically from previous republics, which relied on parliamentary rule. In the Fifth Republic, the head-of-state appoints a prime minister to lead the Parliament (which is comprised of a Senate and a National Assembly), controls the armed forces and France's nuclear arsenal, can dissolve Parliament, and can hold referendums on laws or constitutional changes. the current republican constitution of France, introduced on 4 October 1958

Sudetenland & Munich Conference

settlement reached by Germany, Great Britain, France, and Italy that permitted German annexation of the Sudetenland in western Czechoslovakia After his success in absorbing Austria into Germany proper in March 1938, Adolf Hitler looked covetously at Czechoslovakia, where about three million people in the Sudeten area were of German origin. As Hitler continued to make inflammatory speeches demanding that Germans in Czechoslovakia be reunited with their homeland, war seemed imminent. Neither France nor Britain felt prepared to defend Czechoslovakia, however, and both were anxious to avoid a military confrontation with Germany at almost any cost. Hitler agreed to take no military action without further discussion, and Chamberlain agreed to try to persuade his cabinet and the French to accept the results of a plebiscite in the Sudetenland. The French premier, Édouard Daladier, and his foreign minister, Georges Bonnet, then went to London, where a joint proposal was prepared stipulating that all areas with a population that was more than 50 percent Sudeten German be returned to Germany. The Czechoslovaks were not consulted. The Czechoslovak government initially rejected the proposal but was forced to accept it reluctantly on September 21. On September 22 Chamberlain again flew to Germany and met Hitler at Godesberg, where he was dismayed to learn that Hitler had stiffened his demands: he now wanted the Sudetenland occupied by the German army and the Czechoslovaks evacuated from the area by September 28. In a last-minute effort to avoid war, Chamberlain then proposed that a four-power conference be convened immediately to settle the dispute. Hitler agreed, and on September 29, Hitler, Chamberlain, Daladier, and Italian dictator Benito Mussolini met in Munich, where Mussolini introduced a written plan that was accepted by all as the Munich Agreement.

Axis v. Allies

the Axis were the nations that fought in the Second World War against the Allied forces. The Axis powers agreed on their opposition to the Allies, but did not completely coordinate their activity. The Allies were the countries that together opposed the Axis powers during the Second World War (1939-1945). The Allies promoted the alliance as seeking to stop German, Japanese and Italian aggression. The main Allied powers were Great Britain, The United States, China, and the Soviet Union. The leaders of the Allies were Franklin Roosevelt (the United States), Winston Churchill (Great Britain), and Joseph Stalin (the Soviet Union).

Jomo Kenyatta & the KAU

the Kenya African Union was founded in 1942 under the name Kenya African Study Union. The word "study" was dropped in 1947 when Jomo Kenyatta joined and became leader of the party Kenyatta, who advocated a peaceful transition to African majority rule, traveled widely in Europe and returned in 1946 to become the president of the Kenya African Union (KAU; founded in 1944 as the Kenya African Study Union), which attempted to gain a mass African following. The Kenya African Union was founded in 1942 under the name Kenya African Study Union. The word "study" was dropped in 1947 when Jomo Kenyatta joined and became leader of the party. At the time Kenya was among several African colonies experiencing misrule as a result of the European power's distracting involvement in World War II. Kenyan Africans tried to use KAU to gain political rights through peaceful, nonviolent approaches. The Kenya African Union formed to demand independence for Kenya in the early 1950s through a more forceful approach. Many protests and riots led to the organisation being proscribed in 1952, and several of its leaders being detained.

Final Solution

the Nazi policy of exterminating European Jews. Introduced by Heinrich Himmler and administered by Adolf Eichmann, the policy resulted in the murder of 6 million Jews in concentration camps between 1941 and 1945.

Anschluss

the Nazi propaganda term for the annexing of Austria into Nazi Germany in March 1938 German: "Union", political union of Austria with Germany, achieved through annexation by Adolf Hitler in 1938. Mooted in 1919 by Austria, Anschluss with Germany remained a hope (chiefly with Austrian Social Democrats) during 1919-33, after which Hitler's rise to power made it less attractive. In July 1934 Austrian and German Nazis together attempted a coup but were unsuccessful. An authoritarian right-wing government then took power in Austria and kept perhaps half the population from voicing legitimate dissent; that cleavage prevented concerted resistance to the developments of 1938. In February 1938 Hitler invited the Austrian chancellor Kurt von Schuschnigg to Germany and forced him to agree to give the Austrian Nazis virtually a free hand. Schuschnigg later repudiated the agreement and announced a plebiscite on the Anschluss question. He was bullied into canceling the plebiscite, and he obediently resigned, ordering the Austrian Army not to resist the Germans. President Wilhelm Miklas of Austria refused to appoint the Austrian Nazi leader Arthur Seyss-Inquart as chancellor. The German Nazi minister Hermann Göring ordered Seyss-Inquart to send a telegram requesting German military aid, but he refused, and the telegram was sent by a German agent in Vienna. On March 12 Germany invaded, and the enthusiasm that followed gave Hitler the cover to annex Austria outright on March 13.

Security Council

the United Nations' most powerful body, with "primary responsibility for the maintenance of international peace and security." Five powerful countries sit as "permanent members" along with ten elected members with two-year terms. acts on the issues and may use military force against a trouble-making country. It is comprised of 5 permanent members, the US, Great Britain, Soviet Union and China and 10 who are elected on a rotating basis.

Dachau

the first Nazi concentration camp in Germany, established on March 10, 1933, slightly more than five weeks after Adolf Hitler became chancellor. Built at the edge of the town of Dachau, about 12 miles (16 km) north of Munich, it became the model and training center for all other SS-organized camps. Incomplete records indicate that at least 32,000 of the inmates died there from disease, malnutrition, physical oppression, and execution, but countless more were transported to the extermination camps in German-occupied Poland. The first inmates were Social Democrats, Communists, and other political prisoners. Throughout its existence, Dachau remained a "political camp," in which political prisoners retained a prominent role. Later victims included Roma (Gypsies) and homosexuals, as well as Jehovah's Witnesses. Jews were brought to Dachau after Kristallnacht in November 1938. Initially, Jews could be freed if they had a way out of Germany. When the systematic killing of Jews began in 1942, many were sent from Dachau to the extermination camps. the first of the Nazi concentration camps opened in Germany, intended to hold political prisoners

Jawaharlal Nehru

the first Prime Minister of India and a central figure in Indian politics before and after independence

"Rape of Nanjing"

the mass killing and ravaging of Chinese citizens and capitulated soldiers by soldiers of the Japanese Imperial Army after its seizure of Nanjing, China, on December 13, 1937, during the Sino-Japanese War that preceded World War II. The number of Chinese killed in the massacre has been subject to much debate, with most estimates ranging from 100,000 to more than 300,000 Japanese attack on Chinese capital from 1937-1938 when Japanese aggressorts slaughtered 100,000 civilians and raped thousands of women in order to gain control of China.

Kwame Nkrumah & Ghana

the period of African colonial independence. The beacon country from Africa was Ghana, the first Sub Saharan African country to achieve independence in 1957. The new nation's most influential figure was its prime minister, later president, Kwame Nkrumah who took office in 1960. He was responsible for numerous public works projects such as hydroelectric plants. He was accused of widespread corruption. In 1964 he claimed dictatorial powers. He was a vocal promoter of Pan Africanism, he founded the Organization of African Unity (OAU) in 1963, his government was overthrown in a coup.

Appeasement

to bring to a state of peace, used through letting Hitler have certain countries (such as Poland) means giving people what they want to prevent them from harming you or being angry with you.

Nuremburg Laws

two race-based measures depriving Jews of rights, designed by Adolf Hitler and approved by the Nazi Party at a convention in Nürnberg on September 15, 1935. One, "Law of the Reich Citizen", deprived Jews of German citizenship, designating them "subjects of the state." The other, "Law for the Protection of German Blood and German Honour", usually called simply the ("Blood Protection Law"), forbade marriage or sexual relations between Jews and "citizens of German or kindred blood." These measures were among the first of the racist Nazi laws that culminated in the Holocaust. Under these laws, Jews could not fly the German flag and were forbidden "to employ in domestic service female subjects of German or kindred blood who are under the age of 45 years. a Jew cannot be a citizen of the Reich. He cannot exercise the right to vote; he cannot occupy public office." This racial definition meant that Jews were persecuted not for their religious beliefs and practices but for a so-called racial identity transmitted irrevocably through the blood of their ancestors. These laws resolved the question of definition and set a legal precedent. The Nazis later imposed the Nürnberg Laws on territories they occupied.

Land Freedom Party

was a guerrilla army, formed mainly by the people of central and eastern Kenya, which resisted British rule from the late 1940s to the early 1960s. Kenya's freedom fighters, the Mau Mau, took to the forests of central Kenya in a bloody, seemingly hopeless battle with handmade weapons against the might of Kenya's colonial regime. To Africans in Kenya, they came to be known as the Land Freedom Army and in retrospect it's clear that their apparently suicidal assault on the colonial regime was in fact a turning point on the road to Kenya's independence. Land Freedom Army: The linkage of "land" and "freedom" expresses the ideas for which forest fighters gave their lives. An understanding of that linkage was key to an understanding of land and class in Kenya, even decades later. For those Africans who suffered most at the hands of the colonialists, it was loss of land rights that was at the heart of their suffering.