Ecliptic Times Chapter 31 Study Guide

Thanks to me and Justin.

Just dance!

1. World War II officially began on September 1, 1939, with the German invasion of Poland.

2. The Axis power countries were Germany, Italy, and Japan.

3. After 1937, highly militarist, ultranationalist groups had taken over, and many young army officers such as Tojo Hideki took growing power.

4. The Japanese marched into Machuria in 1931.

5. The National Socialist Party, or the Nazis, promised to put the Germans back to work, restore political stability, and remilitarize Germany in order to turn back the unfair treaties of Versailles. It was led by Adolf Hitler.

6. Hitler promised the German people that they would be put back into work, to restore political stability, to set in motion a remilitarization program, and to turn back the Communist bid.

7. Hitler rose to power in 1933 by legal election, due to having the largest portion of votes.

8. Benito Mussolini was the fascist leader of Italy who created a new Italy based on aggressive foreign policy and new nationalist glories.

9. Germany and Italy helped out Franco and the fascists towards victory, while the USSR helped the losing republicans.

10. The capital of the Chinese nationalists, before they were forced to evacuate becuase of the Japanese, was Nanjing.

11. The Tripartite Pact was a pact signed in Berlin on Sept. 27, 1940, that established the Axis powers: Germany, Italy, and Japan.

12. Hitler signed the non-aggression pact with the USSR so he could focus on fighting a one-front war and to buy time to prepare to attack Russia.

13. The German invasion of Poland put an end to appeasement.

14. Blitzkrieg was the Nazi tactic of lightning warfare, with incredibly fast movement of troops to overwhelm the enemy. / The German Blitzkrieg tactic, known as “lightning war”, was the quick mobilization of troops, tanks, and aircraft into enemy territory in order to defeat them with the upper hand. Also, it gave the name for an awesome song!

15. In early 1940, the Dutch port of Rotterdam was leveled by Nazi bombers, killing over 40,000 civilians.

16. France fell to the Germans because of Nazi blitzkrieg and because of the divided and weak leadership of the French govt.

17. The Vichy government was a puppet government of the Nazis located in southern France that constantly fought against the rebelling north.

18. The British were victorious in the Battle of Britain due to Winston Churchill, innovative air tactics, invention of radar, and the bravery and courage of Britain's people.

19. Hitler targeted the Jews for the final solution; genocide was decided in February 1942, and over 6 million were killed.

20. Wannsee is important becuase it where was the Nazi's held the conference to determine the answer to the "Jewish problem". They decided extermination was the answer. This led to the Holocaust.

21. The Nazis killed as many as 12 million people in the Holocaust, about half of which were Jews.

22. The Allies launched their European invasion on the beaches of Normandy.

23. The Battle of the Bulge took place in the winter of 1944-1945. It was Hitler’s last-ditch effort to repel the invading Allied armies.

24. Pearl Harbor was where the Japanese bombed the Americans on December 7, 1941. It entered America into the war.

25. Japanese troops had taken and imposed colonial regimes on many of the Southeast Asian islands. Over time, resistance grew, and Japanese soldiers and supplies were spent in this section. Throughout the fighting, the islands banded together and became the nation of Indonesia.

26. Midway Island was where the US won a decisive victory over a Japanese carrier force in June. They gained the upper hand, and could then start attacking the Japanese islands.

27. American General Curtis Le May, who was in charge of aerial operations, declared mass bombings of Japanese cities in March 1945. In Tokyo, 125,000 were killed, and 40% of the city was destroyed.

28. During the war, the European theater was the largest and most costly front, with the most lives lost and the most physical destruction. In the USSR, the Soviet Union and the Germans clashed in incredibly big battles. In addition, the Nazis did battle with the Allies in North Africa, northern France, and the Low Countries.

29. After the Soviet invasion, Germany was defeated. More specifically… in 1943, the Red army began offensively moving on German borders. Vy late 1944, they had cleared the USSR of Nazis, as well as captured Poland and many Balkan states. In late April of 1945, the Red army poured in from the East, meeting American troops in their victorious battle.

30. Japan's surrender in the war was precipitated by the atomic bombs in Hiroshima, then Nagasaki.

31. The three conferences held to discuss the future of Europe were the Tehran Conference of 1944, the Yalta Conference of 1945, and the Potsdam Conference in July of the same year.

32. The main result of the peace treaties was the formation of the UN, which moved power away from the West, involved most nations, and provided a forum for international debates.

33. The United Nations was instituted after World War II, adding in many new nations and giving more opinions throughout the world.

34. The Axis powers did not become charter members. The charter members were the US, the Soviet Union, Britain, and France.

35. Zionism was the name for the movement concerning Jews in Palestine that wanted more Jews in war-torn areas to immigrate, and often violently fought against the Arabs.

36. Apartheid is the policy of strict racial imposed in South Africa to continue the domination of whites.

37. White settlers were able to retain their position of white supremacy in South Africa.

38. Algerian independence was longer and more vicious than in Kenya. 1 million white settlers. Decades after WWII, sporadic rioting grew into guerrilla resistance. By the mid 1950s, the National Liberation Front was formed; full-scale revolt against French. Gradually negotiated independence after 1958, but fighting continues with the Secret Army Organiztion in 1960, composed of settlers. In the end, they won independence in 1962.

39. Jomo Kenyatta was the leader of the Kenya African Union, the leading nationalist party of Kenya. He took party control in 1963 and maintained stability until the 1980s.

40. The process of decolonization was the most vicious in settler colonies, due to the large amount of resistance from whites.

41. By 1960, most of the European colonization of black Africa had come to an end.

42. Kwame Nkrumah was an influential 20th century advocate of Pan-Africanism, and the leader of Ghana and its predecessor state, the Gold Coast, from 1952 to 1966. Launched the process of decolonization.

43. The Asian nations that gained independence without violence were Burma and Ceylon and Philippines.

44. The solution to the division in 1947 between Muslims and Hindus was the creation of Pakistan.

45. The Indian nationalist party the British were most allied with was the Muslim League, led by Muhammad Ali Jinnah.

46.The Indian Congress Party, as well as some nationalist leaders, first spoke out against British rejections, and started the Quit India movement in 1942. They were met with heavy repression and jailing of key figures.

47. The Jewish homeland was declared in Palestine.

48. The Atlantic Charter of 1941 was an alliance between the US and Great Britain, in which declared the “right of all people to choose the form of government under which they live.”

49. Following WWII, the European nations that lost their independence were Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia. However, many independent European nations created after 1918 fell under Soviet domination.