 | Term | Definition |
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S.A. |
Brown shirts, the Nazi party militia |
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S.S. |
Elite force built on Nazi ideology responsible for many of the war crimes under Hitler. |
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Fuhrer |
Means 'leader': Hitler's title as head of the Nazi state |
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Gleichschaltung |
the principle justifying Nazification. Whole of public life must be assimilated into Nazism. |
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Volk |
means 'people', 'nation', 'community'. Connected to the idea that the party transcends all internal divisions. |
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Gestapo |
Secret police of the Nazi party |
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Goebbels |
(d. 1945) Hitler's propaganda minister |
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Nuremberg Laws |
(1935) Restrictive laws ordering Jews out of professions and the civil service, banning them from marrying non-Jews, revoking citizenship, and ordering the wearing of the Star of David |
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Crystal Night |
(1938) Coordinated attacks on Jewish shops, homes. First Jews sent to camps. |
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Goering |
(d. 1946) General in charge of Hitler's remilitarization of Germany. |
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Anschluss |
(1938) "Re"unification of Austria and Germany under Hitler—the two were never unified in the first place. |
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Sudeten |
(1938) Part of Czechoslovakia taken by the Germans as part of appeasement |
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Pact of Steel |
1939 alliance between Italy and Germany |
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Leni Riefenstahl |
Director, Triumph of the Will, 1934 |
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Hobson |
1902, publishes the first significant study of imperialism. Argues that it is part of larger capitalist enterprises, but that is not good for economy in general. First to write about the human costs |
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Vladimir Lenin |
d. 1924. A Russian revolutionary, a communist politician, the main leader of the October Revolution, the first head of the Russian Soviet Socialist Republic and from 1922, the first de facto leader of the Soviet Union. |
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Paternalism |
Idea of the 'white man's burden' in the colonial era to educate and 'civilize' native people. (Late 1800s) |
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Suez Canal |
Opened 1869 after international struggle, giving Britain control. Illustrated colonial rivalries. |
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Cecil Rhodes |
d. 1902. South African businessman, politician. "From Cape to Cairo"- build a railroad and unite British colonies from top to bottom of Africa. |
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Entente Cordiale |
1904, between France and Britain |
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Boxer Rebellion |
1900-1. Chinese national rebellion against European meddling in China |
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Boer War |
1899-1902. Against Dutch settlers, over gold. Vicious and bloody. Caused Britain to begin to worry about their diplomatic isolation. |
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Triple Alliance |
1882 (Pre-WWI). Italy, Germany, and Austria |
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Triple Entente |
1907 (Pre-WWI). Russia, Britain, France |
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Schlieffen Plan |
German offensive plan for war (through Belgium to France, into Russia) |
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Franz Ferdinand |
Assassinated in Sarajevo, June 28 1914. Causes Germany and Russia to have proxies in the Balkans- this causes the Germans to declare war on France for no good reason. |
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Lusitania |
Passenger ship sunk by German submarines that brought America into the war. |
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14 Points |
Wilson's more lenient, multinational plan for post-WWI |
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League of Nations |
Wilson's proposal for UN-like body after WWI. Created, but the US didn't join as Senate would not approve. |
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Alexander II |
(1855-81) Tsar who initiated top-down reform, emancipating serfs and modernizing the economy before he was assassinated in 1881. |
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Slavophiles |
Originated in the 1830s, Moscow. The movement was interested in Russian identity, unification with other Slavs under the tsar. |
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Nicholas II |
(1894-1917) Repressive tsar who survived the Revolution of 1905 by mass killings and token democratic reforms. Deposed by the February Revolution of 1917. Succeeded by Kerensky. |
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Populists |
1860s/70s. Originated after serfs emancipated by Alexander II. Shared common aims of removing from power the monarchy and kulaks. Socialists. Anti-Semitic, fervently nationalist. |
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Cadets |
1905-1940. Constitutional democrats active in Russian reform movements and the government under Kerensky. Repressed after Bolshevik takeover. |
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Mensheviks |
1903-1921. More traditional Continental Marxists opposed to to Lenin's Bolsheviks in Russia. Lost power as Lenin gained, outlawed in 1921. |
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Bolsheviks |
1903-1952. Product of a split in Russian communism with the less radical Mensheviks. Lenin's Bolsheviks took power in 1917, eliminating Mensheviks. In 1952, Stalin declared the term—"majority"—obsolete since they were the party. |
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Soviets |
Originally workers' local councils, organized in 1905. Adopted by Bolsheviks as the basic unit of society, and nominally part of the USSR's government after. |
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Kulaks |
Early 1900s. Rich peasants, arbitrarily defined by the government, thought to have benefited from the tsar's reforms. Cruelly repressed by Stalin. |
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Alexander Kerensky |
(d. 1970) Leader of the Russian provisional government in 1917. Moderate Communist. Exiled by Lenin after the October Revolution, 1917. |
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Leon Trotsky |
(d. 1940) Bolshevik revolutionary and Marxist theorist. One of the leaders of the Russian October Revolution. After leading the failed struggle of the Left Opposition against the policies and rise of Joseph Stalin in the 1920s, Trotsky was expelled from the Communist Party and deported from the Soviet Union in the Great Purge. Then, head of 4th International. |
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P. V. Hindenburg |
(d. 1934) German field marshal and statesman. Elected as the second President of the Weimar Republic, 1925. Obliged to run for re-election in 1932 as the only candidate who could defeat Adolf Hitler. Obliged to appoint Hitler as Chancellor in January 1933. In March he signed the Enabling Act of 1933 which gave special powers to Hitler's government. |
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Comintern |
aimed to export Russian model overseas |
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N.E.P. |
Lenin's program, eventually supported by Trotsky against Stalin. Intended to build a more productive economy before becoming ‘really’ communist. Allows some private property, profit |
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5 year plan |
Stalin's economics. Forced, rapid industrialization, targets for production. Devastating to agriculture, complete state takeover |
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Corporatism |
Divide economy/society into vertical, corporate structures, not class but function (totalitarianism before WWII) |
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Autarky |
Attempt to be completely self-sufficient. No foreign aid—dangerous weakness (totalitarianism before WWII) |
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Lebensraum |
“Living space.” Need land to support autarky (totalitarianism before WWII) |
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Victor Emanuel III |
(1900-46) Italian king, opens political system more in the early 1900s. Forced to make Mussolini the new PM. |
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Mussolini |
(d. 1945) Italian PM, 1922. Rigs '24 elections to get absolute majority. Kidnaps, kills Matteotti who protests, uses the mayhem to consolidate a dictatorship. Totalitarian. |
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Matteotti |
(d. 1924) Socialist who protested the rigged Italian elections of 1924. Killed by Mussolini. |
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Concordat |
1929 Papal settlement with Fascist Italy. Catholicism is the official religion, with a powerful role in education. Pope calls Mussolini “a man sent by Providence” |
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Axis |
countries opposed to the Allies during World War II. The three major Axis powers, Nazi Germany, Fascist Italy, and Imperial Japan were part of a military alliance on the signing of the Tripartite Pact in September 1940. |
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Modernism |
Post-WWI. Series of movements that call into question traditional artistic criteria. End up as (ironically) the new norm. |
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Franz Kafka |
(d. 1924) Modernist who dealt with surreal themes, new parts of the human experience (alienation, anonymity, fear) |
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James Joyce |
(d. 1941) Modernist who pioneered new forms, notably in Ulysses. Word games, stream of consciousness. |
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Blitzkrieg |
WWII German strategy: an initial bombardment followed by the employment of motorized mobile forces attacking with speed and surprise to prevent an enemy from implementing a coherent defense. |
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Maginot Line |
Allied plans before WWII depended on this line of tunnels and defenses, which Germans just went around. |
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Petain |
(d. 1955) Set up a puppet government in France after the German occupation. |
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Charles de Gaulle |
(d. 1970) Led the French government in exile in Britain, using Radio London. |
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Winston Churchill |
(d. 1965) Led Britain to victory against the Axis powers. His speeches were a great inspiration to the embattled Allied forces. |
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Partisans |
Resistance movements against German occupation. (WWII) |
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Nuremberg Trials |
(1945-46) Leadership of Nazis tried, sentenced after WWII |
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Potsdam |
(July 1945) Conference of the major powers setting borders that last until after the 90s |
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Atlantic Charter |
(August 1941) Pledges a system of international cooperation after the war. UN results from this agreement, and a '43 conference in San Francisco |
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Clement Attlee |
(d. 1967) Labour PM after Churchill in Britain. Formed the post-war consensus social programs, generally liberal governance. Lasted until Thatcher in the 70s. |
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Adenauer |
(d. 1967) Under Chancellor Adenauer in Germany, Germans experience strong economy and many social programs. Conservative keeps liberal programs. |
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Tito |
(d. 1980) Under Tito, Yugoslavia was Communist but not a Soviet satellite. Primary part of the non-aligned movement. |
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Chiang-Kai-Shek |
(d. 1975) pro-Western general, loses civil war to Mao. |
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Mao Zedong |
(d. 1976) Wins Chinese civil war to make China Communist. Built a massive cult of personality. Not as friendly as West thought with Russia, eventually hostile. |
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Khrushchev |
(d. 1971) Russian leader under whose control tension with the US came down temporarily, even meeting with JFK. |
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Treaty of Rome |
(1957) established the European Economic Community (EEC), an independent supranational economic organization. |
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Gandhi |
(d. 1948) major political and spiritual leader of India and the Indian independence movement. He was the pioneer of Satyagraha—a philosophy that is largely concerned with truth and 'resistance to evil through active, non-violent resistance' |
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Nehru |
(d. 1964) major political leader of the Congress Party, a pivotal figure in the Indian independence movement and the first Prime Minister of independent India. Later, third world advocate. |
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Nkrumah |
(d. 1966) One of the most influential Pan-Africanists of the 20th century, was the leader of Ghana and its predecessor state, the Gold Coast, from 1952 to 1966. |
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Ho Chi Minh |
(d.1969) A Vietnamese revolutionary and statesman, who later became prime minister (1946–1955) and president (1946–1969) of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (North Vietnam). Led the Viet Minh independence movement from 1941 onward, establishing the communist-governed Democratic Republic of Vietnam in 1945 and defeating the French Union in 1954 at Dien Bien Phu. Led the North Vietnamese in the Vietnam War. |
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Pieds-noirs |
Colonists of Algeria until the end of the Algerian War in 1962. Specifically, Pieds-Noirs were French nationals of European descent, Sephardic Jews, and settlers from other European countries such as Spain, Italy, and Malta who were born in Algeria. Violently against French withdrawal. |
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Fifth Republic |
(1958—present) New constitution put in place during Algerian crisis in France. Heavily in favor of the president (de Gaulle, at the time.) |
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Non-aligned movement |
(1955) Movement of nations against taking sides in the Cold War. |
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Technocracy |
Trained managers, economic planners with new power in modern European government |
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Vatican II |
(1962-65) First council in almost a century. More accessible Masses in the popular language. Dialogue with other faiths. Social justice ideas. |
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Existentialism |
Arguably the most influential movement since the war. Based on loss of meaning after the Holocaust, WWII. Primarily atheist; only possibility is focus on the individual. Sartre, Camus |
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Ostpolitik |
West German policy which reached out to other nations and bypassed superpowers |
