World War II Study Guide – Test on Thursday, February 23, 2017

Vocabulary 

1. Totalitarian state- nation in which a single party controls the government and every

aspect of people’s lives. 

2. Fascism- political system based on militarism, extreme nationalism, and blind loyalty

to the state and its leader. 

3. Aggression- warlike act by one country against another without cause. 

4. Appeasement- policy of giving into aggression in order to avoid war. 

5. Total war- all-out attacks aimed at destroying not only an enemy’s army but also its

resources and its people’s will to fight 

6. rationing- limits set on the amount of certain goods people can buy

7. intern- to temporarily imprison so as to keep from l saving a country

8. Bracero- Mexican laborer 

9. Island hopping- Allied strategy used during World War II to gain control of the Pacific

Islands 

10. Kamikaze- World War II Japanese pilot trained to make a suicidal crash attack,

usually upon a ship. 

11. Genocide- Deliberate attempt to kill or destroy an entire nation or group of people. 

12. War Crimes- Wartime act of cruelty and brutality that is judged to be beyond the

accepted rules of war and human behavior 

People 

1. Josef Stalin- leader of the Soviet Union from the mid- 1920s until his death in 1953

2. Benito Mussolini- Italian politician, leader of the National Fascist Party, ruling the

country as Prime Minister from 1922- 1943. 

3. Adolf Hitler- German politician who was the leader of the Nazi Party. Chancellor of

German from 1933-1945 and Fuher of the Nazi Germany from 1934-1945

4. Winston Church- Sir Winston Churchill rallied the British people during WWII, and

led his country from the brink of defeat to victory

5. Dwight D. Eisenhower- 34th president of the USA. He was a five star general in the US

Army during WWII and served as Supreme Commander of the Allied Forces in Europe.

6. Douglas MacArthur- he was a five star general in the US Army he played a prominent

role in the Pacific theater during WWII

7. Philip Randolph- Leader in the Civil Rights Movement the American labor movement,

and socialist political parties he organized and led the brotherhood of sleeping car porters,

the first predominantly African- American labor union.

8. Harry S. Truman – 33rd president who served as the president of the USA coming to

office on the death of Franklin D. Roosevelt in the last months of WWII.

Terms

1. Neutrality Act- were laws passed in 1935, 1936, 1937, and 1939 to limit U.S.

involvement in future wars. They were based on the widespread disillusionment with

World War I in the early 1930s and the belief that the United States had been drawn into

the war through loans and trade with the Allies.

2 Lend- Lease act- was the principal means for providing U.S. military aid to foreign

nations during World War II.

3. Axis Powers- the nations that fought in World War II against the Allied Powers

4. Allied Powers- Great Britain, France, USA, China, and the Soviet Union

5. Master race- was a concept in Nazi ideology in which the Nordic or Aryan races,

which were thought to predominate among Germans and other northern European

peoples, were deemed the highest in an assumed racial hierarchy.

6. Nonagression Pact- Germany and Soviet Union surprised the world by signing the Non

aggression pact in which the two countries agreed to take no military action against each

other for the next 10 years.

7. Embargo- an official ban on trade or other commercial activity with a particular

country.

8. Blitzkrieg- an intense military campaign intended to bring about a swift victory.

9. Concentration camps- place where large numbers of people, especially political

prisoners or members of persecuted minorities, are deliberately imprisoned in a relatively

small area with inadequate facilities, sometimes to provide forced labor or to await mass

execution
10. Holocaust- the killing of millions of Jews and other people by the Nazis during World

War II

Events

1. Japan invades China- September 18, 1931, when the Kwantung Army of the Empire

of Japan invaded Manchuria immediately following the Mukden Incident.

The Japanese established a puppet state called Manchukuo, and their occupation lasted

until the end of World War II.

2. Germany invades Poland- September 1, 1939 German forces bombard Poland on land

and from the air, as Adolf Hitler seeks to regain lost territory and ultimately rule Poland

3. Lend- Lease Act- was the principal means for providing U.S. military aid to foreign

nations during World War II.

4. The battle of Britain- The Battle of Britain was a combat of the Second World War,

when the Royal Air Force defended the United Kingdom against the German Air Force

attacks from the end of June 1940

5. Embargo on Japan- In 1940Japan invaded French Indochina in an effort to embargo all

imports into China, including war supplies purchased from the U.S

6. Invasion of the Soviet Union- The invasion of the Soviet Union was delayed whilst, in

April 1941, the German army invaded Yugoslavia and Greece in order to secure

Germany’s southern flank

7. Attack on Pearl Harbor- The attack on Pearl Harbor, also known as the Battle of Pearl

Harbor, the Hawaii Operation or Operation AI by the Japanese Imperial General

Headquarters, and Operation Z during planning

8. Japanese Interment- The internment of Japanese Americans in the United States during

World War II was the forced relocation and incarceration in camps in the interior of the

country of between 110,000 and 120,000 people of Japaneseancestry who lived on the

Pacific coast. Sixty-two percent of the internees were United States citizens.

9. Battle of Midway- Between 4 and 7 June 1942, only six months after Japan's attack on

Pearl Harbor and one month after the Battle of the Coral Sea, the United States Navy

under Admirals Chester Nimitz, Frank Jack Fletcher, and Raymond A. Spruance

decisively defeated an attacking fleet of the Imperial Japanese Navy

10. Guadalcanal- The Guadalcanal Campaign, also known as the Battle

of Guadalcanal and code-named Operation Watchtower

11. Invasion of Normandy (D-Day)- American and British troops fight to free France.

12. Battle of the Bulge- In late 1944, during the wake of the Allied forces' successful D-

Day invasion of Normandy, France, 

13. V-E Day (Victory in Europe)- the day (May 8) marking the Allied victory in Europe

in 1945.

14. Atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima and then Nagasaki- The United States

dropped nuclear weapons on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki on August 6

and 9, 1945, respectively, during the final stage of World War II. The United States had

dropped the bombs with the consent of the United Kingdom as outlined in the Quebec
Agreement. The two bombings, which killed at least 129,000 people, remain the only use

of nuclear weapons for warfare in history

15. V-J Day ( Victory over Japan) - the day (August 15) in 1945 on which Japan ceased

fighting in World War II, or the day (September 2) when Japan formally surrendered

16. Nuremberg Trials for War Crimes- Trials of Nazi leaders conducted after

World War II. A court set up by the victorious Allies tried twenty-two former officials,

including Hermann Goering, in Nuremberg, Germany, for war crimes. Goering and

eleven others were sentenced to death.