World History Chapter 32 World War II – Flashcards
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nonaggression pact
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a pact between soviet dictator Joseph Stalin and Hitler where they agreed to divide Poland between them and that the USSR could take over Finland and the Baltic countries of Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia
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blitzkrieg
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"lightning war" which involved using fast moving airplanes and tanks followed by massive infantry forces to take enemy defenses by surprise and quickly overwhelm them
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Charles de Gaulle
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a French general who set up a government-in-exile in London and committed all of his energy to reconquering France
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Winston Churchill
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a British prime minister who declared (to the Nazi's) that his nation would never give in
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Battle of Britain
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in October, 1940, Hitler favored night bombing, where Londoners flocked the subways for protection; this battle continued until May 10, 1941
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Erwin Rommel
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a Nazi general who commanded a crack of German tank forces, the African Korps, to reinforce the Italians
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Atlantic Charter
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Roosevelt and Churchill met secretly and issued a joint declaration which upheld free trade among nations and the right of people to choose their own government
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Isoroku Yamamoto
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Japans greatest naval strategist, also called for an attack on the U.S. fleet in Hawaii. It was, he said, "a dagger pointed at (Japan's) throat" and must be destroyed
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Pearl Harbor
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In the morning of December 7, 1941, a Hawaiian harbor was rigorously attacked by the Japanese killing over 2300 and injuring nearly 1100 American citizens. On December 7, 1941, Congress approved a declaration of war on Japan and its allies.
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Battle of Midway
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Admiral Yamamoto believed that an attack on Midway would draw the whole of the US Pacific fleet from Pearl Harbor, although Americans intercepted Chinese communications. On June 4th, Nimitz allowed the Japanese to begin their assault on the island, although American forces were hidden beyond the horizon. by June 7, 1942, the battle was over and the American navy won.
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Douglas MacArthur
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the commander of the allied land forces in the Pacific who developed a plan to handle the Japanese attacks' on islands in the Pacific
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Battle of Guadalcanal
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a battle between the US and its allies that occurred on August 7, 1942 in an effort to prevent the Japanese from established a huge air base on the island of Guadalcanal, the "Island of Death"
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Aryans
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Germanic peoples who were considered the "master race" by the Nazi party
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Holocaust
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the systematic mass slaughter of Jews and groups deemed inferior by the Nazi's
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Kristallnaught
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"The Night of Broken Glass" on November 9th, where Nazi storm troopers attacked Jewish homes, businesses, and synagogues across Germany and murdered nearly 100 Jews
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ghettos
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segregated Jewish areas
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Final Solution
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a program of genocide to protect racial purity by eliminating other races, nationalities, of groups they viewed as inferior
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genocide
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the systematic killing of an entire people
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Dwight D. Eisenhower
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Leader of Operation Torch, created by the allies, where allied forces of more than 100,000 troops, primarily Americans, landed in North Africa: Morocco an Algeria
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Battle of Stalingrad
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A battle that occurred on August 23, 1942; Hitler sent his Sixth Army, under the command of General Friedrich Paulus, to seize the oil fields in the Caucus Mountains as well as capture Stalingrad, a major industrial center on the Volga River
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D-Day
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an attack that occurred on June 6, 1944 in an effort to attack and capture German-controlled France across the English Channel, on the coast of Normandy
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Battle of the Bulge
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as allied forces moved toward Germany from the West, the soviet army was advancing toward Germany from the east and on December 16, German tanks broke through weak American defenses along a 75-mile front in the Ardennes, giving this campaign its name
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Kamikazes
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Japanese suicide pilots who would sink allied ships by crash-diving their bomb-filled planes into them
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Nuremberg Trials
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during 1945-1946, an international military tribunal representing 23 nations put Nazi war criminals on trial in Nuremberg, Germany
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demilitarization
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disbanding (Japanese) armed forces
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democratization
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the process of creating a government elected by the people
