IB 20th Century World History Unit 6 Review: The Second World War and the Americas 1933-1945

Monroe Doctrine

1823 policy statement warning nations of western Europe not to interfere with the newly independent nations of Latin America

Gentleman's Agreement

1907 agreement between the US and Japan that restricted any Japanese immigration

Washington Conference

1921 summit in Washington DC to address concerns about postwar naval strength, the Open Door Policy, and the growing power of Japan

Kellogg-Briand Pact

1928 treaty outlawing war except in cases of self-defense

Quarantine Speech

1937 speech during which FDR compared the rise of aggression in Europe and Asia to an epidemic; urged a coalition of "peace-loving" nations to stand up to the aggressors

Munich Agreement

1938 agreement between the UK, Germany, France, and Italy which ceded the Sudetenland to Germany; later widely criticized as appeasement of Nazi aggression

Robert A. Divine

1960s historian who argued that Americans were driven to isolationism in the 1930s to protect themselves from the forces threatening world peace

Robert Dalleck

1970s historian who viewed FDR as a gradualist whose inclination was to move slowly in foreign affairs

Woodrow Wilson

28th President of the United States; Democrat; adopted moral diplomacy; led the US during WWI

Warren Harding

29th President of the United States; Republican; promised a "return to normalcy"

Quebecois

A French-speaking native or inhabitant of Quebec

Belligerent

A country entangled in war

Isolationism

A policy of avoiding political or military involvement with other countries

Open Door Policy

A policy proposed by the US in 1899, under which ALL nations would have equal opportunities to trade in China

Protectionist

A policy which placed tariffs on imports to protect US industry from foreign competitors

Neutrality Acts

A series of acts passed by the U.S. Congress from 1935 to 1939 that aimed to keep the U. S. from becoming involved in WWII

New Deal

A series of reforms enacted by the Franklin Roosevelt administration between 1933 and 1942 with the goal of ending the Great Depression.

Buffer state

A small and usually neutral state between two rival powers

Hawley-Smoot Tariff

A tariff that increased the tax on American imports from other countries; ended up increasing the severity of the Depression because countries responded similarly to the US, severely hampering international trade.

Cairo Declaration

Agreement between FDR, Churchill, and Chiang Kai Shek stating that the US, Britain, and China would strip Japan of all its pre-war and wartime conquests

D-Day

Allied invasion of France on June 6, 1944

Operation Torch

Allied invasion of North Africa headed by General Eisenhower in November 1942

Dieppe Raid

Allied raid on the French Channel coast on August 19, 1942; designed to increase German fears of an attack in the west and force them to divert resources away from other theaters of war; resulted in the deaths of 907 Canadians and 1856 Canadian prisoners of war

Platt Amendment

Allowed the United States to intervene in Cuba and gave the United States control of the naval base at Guantanamo Bay

Operation Downfall

American plan to invade mainland Japan; never implemented because the US opted to use the atomic bomb to bring about a Japanese surrender instead

Internationalist

An advocate for cooperation and understanding between nations

United Nations Organization

An international peacekeeping organization to which most nations in the world belong, founded in 1945 to promote world peace, security, and economic development.

French Resistance

Anti-German groups that were based within France which organized fighting for liberty while under German occupation

"Sink on sight" policy

Any ship that was seen was immediately attacked without warning, whether the country the ship belonged to was at war with Germany or not

Zones of occupation

Areas of a defeated country occupied by the victors' armed forces

Security Council

Body of the UN with 5 permanent members -- China, France, Britain, and the US -- and 6 additional members elected to two year terms by the General Assembly

Incendiary bombs

Bombs designed to start fires

Clement Atlee

British Prime Minister elected in the summer of 1945; joined the Big Three at the Potsdam Conference

Chiang Kai Shek

Chinese Nationalist leader; Cooperated with the Allies during WWII; defeated by the communists in 1949; established the democratic Republic of China in Taiwan.

Operation Overlord

Codename for the planned Allied invasion of Normandy (D-Day) to open up a Second Front

General Douglas MacArthur

Commander of the U.S. forces in the Pacific during World War II; liberated the Philippines and oversaw the postwar occupation of Japan

Reparations

Compensation to be paid by the losing side for the costs of the war

Moscow Conference (1944)

Conference between Churchill and Stalin during which Churchill proposed the percentages agreement regarding postwar occupation of Eastern Europe

Casablanca Conference (1943)

Conference between FDR and Churchill agreed to postponed the opening of a Second Front in favor of an invasion of Sicily; a decision was made to accept nothing less than an Axis unconditional surrender

Washington Conference (1943)

Conference between FDR and Winston Churchill where Churchill worked to alleviate FDR's remaining concerns about the Italy campaign

Quebec Conference (1943)

Conference during which Churchill and FDR discussed joint US/UK military operations and initial plans for Operation Overlord

Washington Conference (1941-1942)

Conference during which FDR and Churchill agreed to launch Operation Torch in North Africa and adopted the "Declaration of the United Nations"

Quebec Conference (1944)

Conference during which FDR and Churchill initially disagreed about the role the British would play in the Pacific, but also discussed plans for governance of the American and British zones of occupation in postwar Germany

Nye Committee

Documented the huge profit that arms factories had made during the war; their findings turned Americans toward isolationism

Tariff

Duty or tax imposed on items of overseas trade

Emperor Hirohito

Emperor of Japan

Hemisphere Neutrality Belt

FDR declared that this zone, 300 miles out from the eastern US coast, was part of the Western Hemisphere, and therefore neutral

Cordell Hull

FDR's Secretary of State

Henry Morgenthau

FDR's Secretary of the Treasury

Benito Mussolini

Fascist dictator of Italy (1922-1943). He led Italy to conquer Ethiopia (1935), joined Germany in the Axis pact (1936), and allied Italy with Germany in World War II. He was overthrown in 1943 when the Allies invaded Italy.

Tehran Conference (1943)

First meeting of the "Big Three" -- FDR, Churchill, and Stalin; During this meeting the US and Britain confirmed May 1944 as a timeline for opening a Second Front, Stalin agreed to enter the war in the Pacific after the defeat of Germany; postwar division of Germany was discussed

Herbert Hoover

Food Administrator during WWI; Later 31st President of the United States; Republican

Wendell Willkie

Franklin Roosevelt's Republican opponent in the 1940 Presidential election.

Georges Clemenceau

French Prime Minister during WWI; sought huge reparations from Germany during the Versailles Conference

Adolf Hitler

German Fascist dictator; Leader of the National Socialist Workers Party, or Nazis; Elected Chancellor of Germany in 1933, he quickly established himself as an absolute dictator.

Operation Barbarossa

German invasion of the USSR on June 22, 1941

U-boat

German submarines

Robert D. Schulzinger

Historian of the 1980s who also saw FDR as a gradualist; arguing that the Quarantine speech was used as a trial to slowly prepare Americans for further intervention

Tsuyoshi Hasegawa

Historian who argued in 2006 that Truman dropped the atomic bombs to end the war against Japan without Soviet assistance, limiting the opportunity for Soviet expansion in Asia

William O'Neill

Historian who views FDR as a pragmatist who could not go to war sooner because American public opinion was against it; also argues that the Japanese military had no intention of surrendering prior to the atomic bombings, intending to fight to the death

Daniel Snowman

Historian, who argued, in the 1970s, that the inconsistencies in FDR's foreign policy can be explained by a desire to compromise between the conflicting domestic and international pressures he faced

League of Nations

International organization established after WWI to maintain peaceful relations and encourage countries to cooperate to address common problems; the US never joined

"Declaration of the United Nations"

Invited all the countries fighting the Axis powers to pledge to remain together until the Axis powers were defeated

America First Committee

Isolationist group in America that insisted that America stay out of World War II; argued that affairs in Europe should be settled by Europeans and not Americans and stated that the Soviet Union was a greater eventual threat than Nazi Germany.

Marshall Pietro Badoglio

Italian leader who arranged the Italian surrender to Allied powers in September 1943

General Hideki Tojo

Japanese Premier during WWII

Admiral Yamamoto

Japanese naval commander

Greater East Asia Co-prosperity Sphere

Japanese plan to establish a sphere of influence in Asia

Atlantic Charter

Joint declaration, in August 1941, by Roosevelt and Churchill, stating common principles for the free world; self-determination, free choice of government, equal opportunities for all nations for trade, permanent system of general security and disarmament

Charles De Gaulle

Leader of the Free French during WWII

Puppet state

Nominally a sovereign state but controlled by a foreign power

Good Neighbor Policy

Policy of cultivating good relations with Canada and Latin America introduced by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1933

Totalitarianism

Political regimes which suppress opposition and control all aspects of people's lives

Sanctions

Punishments against a country for violations of international law

Gar Alperovitz

Revisionist historian who argued in 1965 that Truman used the atomic bomb, not out of military necessity, but as "atomic diplomacy" in an effort to intimidate the USSR

Henry L. Stimson

Secretary of State under Hoover who sought sanctions against Japan for its aggression toward Manchuria; Later, Secretary of war under FDR and Truman, oversaw the building and use of the atomic bomb, believed the bomb had the capacity to shorten the war

Reservationists

Senators, led by Henry Cabot Lodge, who had serious concerns about US membership in the League of Nations but were willing to agree to it if these concerns were addressed

Irreconcilables

Senators, led by William Borah of Idaho, who opposed US membership in the League of Nations under any circumstances

Hiroshima

Site of the first atomic bombing of Japan on August 6, 1945

Interventionist

Someone who advocates becoming involved in foreign affairs, in this case, the war in Europe

Second Front

Stalin's wish for the USA and the UK to open another theater of was in France against the Germans in order to take the pressure off the Soviet forces on the Eastern Front

Fourteen Points

Statement of Woodrow Wilson's post-WWI goals for peace

Unconditional surrender

Surrender without conditions, in which no guarantees are given to the country that is surrendering

Draft

System of required military service

Luftwaffe

The German air force

"Island hopping"

US strategy to reach mainland Japan by capturing key islands across the Pacific.

Potsdam Declaration

Warning issued by the Allies to Japan on July 26, 1945 that it must surrender or face "prompt and utter destruction"

Axis

The alliance of Germany, Italy, and Japan

Balance of payments

The difference in value between total payments made to a country and total payments received in a given period

"Hunger winter"

The famine in the Netherlands during the winter of 1944-45

Fireside Chat

The informal radio conversations Roosevelt had with the people to keep spirits up. It was a means of communicating with the people on how he would take on the Depression.

Capital ships

The largest and most heavily armed ships in a naval fleet

Free French

The military units led by General Charles de Gaulle after the fall of France in 1940

Moral embargo

The partial or complete prohibition of commerce and trade in goods with a particular country based on the notion that trading in those goods does not accord with accepted humanitarian standards

"Infamous Decade"

The period following Uriburu's coup which was characterized by rural decline, electoral corruption and economic dislocation

Militarism

The tendency to regard military efficiency as the supreme ideal of the state and to subordinate all other interests to those of the military

Three Power Pact

This agreement, between Germany, Italy, and Japan, was signed on September 27, 1940; it is also called the Tripartite Pact

Nationalize

To place under state control

Treaty of Versailles

Treaty which ended WWI with Germany; under its terms Germany was forced to accept war guilt and pay heavy reparations

David McCullough

Truman biographer who accepts the orthodox view that President Truman made the decision to use the atomic bombs against Japan on military grounds, to secure a speedy victory with minimal risk to American lives