Unit 13 Vocabulary:

1. Dictator – Ruler with complete control obtained and kept through ruthless means.
2. Totalitarianism – ridicules democracy and capitalism and called for strong governments that would have total control over people’s lives
3. Isolationism – a policy of staying out of the affairs of other nations. Hoped that the huge oceans that surrounded America would keep it safe from faraway events.
4. Fascism – a form of totalitarian government that promotes extreme nationalism
5. Adolf Hitler – Wanted to restore German racial purity and national power after WWI reparations. Led All-out war against Europe. His Final Solution resulted in the deaths of over 10 million civilians, mostly Jews.
6. D-Day – the Allied invasion of German-occupied France on June 6, 1944
7. Holocaust – the killing of about 6 million Jews, along with others, by the Nazis during WWII
8. Battle of Midway – a decisive U.S. victory over the Japanese in the Pacific during WWII
9. Hiroshima & Nagasaki - Japanese cities where the U.S. dropped atomic bombs to end the war in the Pacific
10. Japanese-American Internment – sites where the U.S. forcibly relocated 110,000 Japanese during WWII
11. Benito Mussolini – Italian totalitarian dictator. Former socialist leader who became prime minister of Italy by threatening to lead his new Italian Fascist Party in an armed revolt
12. Appeasement – Giving in in order to prevent conflict. Western democracies allowed Hitler to take part of Czechoslovakia
13. Lend-Lease Act – The U.S. would lend or lease raw materials, equipment, and weapons to the Allied nations
14. Joseph Stalin – USSR totalitarian dictator. Wanted to overthrow capitalism which eventually led to the Cold War
15. Winston Churchill – Leader of British war effort and eventual Prime Minister. Became Britain’s symbol of defiance against Nazi Germany.
16. Franklin D. Roosevelt – President leading up to and during WWII. Guided the country through Pearl Harbor attack and entry into Pacific and Europe war.
17. Harry S. Truman – VP to Roosevelt. Became president and oversaw bombing of Hiroshima & Nagasaki and eventual winning of Pacific and Europe wars.
18. Dwight D. Eisenhower – Professional soldier later name Supreme Allied Commander in Europe. Oversaw the planning of D-Day invasion in 1944.
19. Genocide – the systematic, planned killing of a racial, political, or cultural group.
20. Manhattan Project – the top-secret U.S. program set up in 1942 to build an atomic bomb
21. Island Hopping – The U.S. Pacific Fleet’s strategy of seizing islands that were not too heavily defended by the Japanese to use as bases to stage further attacks on the Japanese.
22. Torpedo Junction – Name given to waters off Cape Hatteras due to German submarine activity during WWII
23. War Bonds – A low-interest loan made by citizens to the government to support the cost of war.
24. Axis Powers – Germany, Italy, Japan, USSR (initially)
25. Allied Powers – Great Britain, France, U.S., USSR (after Germany attacked them)
26. Rationing – A system in which families were allowed to have only fixed amounts of certain items (gas, tires, sugar, meat) per month in order to support the war effort.
27. Nuremberg Trials – Nazi leaders were tried for committing crimes against humanity in order to achieve some measure of justice for those killed during the Holocaust
28. United Nations – Organization set up after WWII to maintaining worldwide peace and security and to solve economic, social, cultural, or humanitarian international problems.
29. Marshall Plan - U.S. pledges economic support to help rebuild Western European economies after the end of World War II