World War 2 Important Terms

YEAR 9 HISTORY

Communist – Communism is a social organization based on everything behind in common, all ownership given to the community as a whole or a state. A communist is someone who supports left politics.
Fascist – A governmental system led by one dictator who owns complete power. All opposition and criticism is forcibly being suppressed. A fascist supports this system.
Weimar Republic – A period in German history when they were republic. First they had an emperor a Kaiser, abdicated because the War went bad. So they created a republic. They formally created it in the town of Weimar so the period was called Weimar Republic. Post-war Germany 1919-1933
Hyperinflation (in Germany)- Extreme inflation. Inflation is when money loses its value. 1921-1924. German workers had to be paid twice a day.
Blackshirts – A fascist paramilitary armed squads in Italy during the period from the end of WW1 to the end of WW2. Mussolini’s fascists, his fan boys. Brown boys, germany. Blue shirts, franco.
Paramilitary – Very much like a military but not a state military.
Reparations – The World War 1 reparations were the payments and transfers of property and equipment that Germany was forced to make under the Treaty of Versailles.
Roaring twenties – The cultural and social features that spread as an aftermath of World War 1. This decade’s distinctive cultural edge in which many big cities took on. Women rights to vote bloomed during this period in many countries. A time of wealth and excess. Great War just ended, except in Geramny, economy was going well. Social optimism. First out homosexual movies, movies. For a short period racial segregation was not as strict. The great future ahead ended abruptly by the Wall Street Crash.
Prohibition – A forbidding era during the 1920’s where the sale, manufacture, and transportation of alcoholic beverages were illegal. These establishments began in the U.S.
Speakeasy – An establishment that illegally sells alcoholic beverages, this term evolved during the Prohibition Era in the 1920’s.
Wall Street Crash - The US stock market crash which took place in 1929. It triggered the 10 year long Great Depression.
Great Depression – An outcome of the Wall Street Crash which affected all Western industrialized countries. It was an economic depression in the decade before WW2.
New Deal – Domestic economic programs which were meant to restore everything and bring society back to normal after the Great Depression. It was started by President Roosevelt and the laws were passed by the Congress.
Free trade – The government barriers on trade here is very limited. The government wants to influence it as little as possible. The markets are very open with little restrictions. Some governments still however have some protectionist policies to ensure that local employment is kept balanced for the good of the country’s economy as well.
Protectionism – This is an economic policy which restrains trades between states by establishing tariffs – taxes on imported and exported goods, quotas – limit on the amount of goods. This in hope to make the competition between the domestically produced goods and imports/exports more fair. They regulate the trade with foreign nations.
Five year plan – The Five Year Plan for the National Economy of the Soviet Union. This was a series of plans that would help the Soviet Union’s economy, develop it. They were economic plans. They were established by the State planning committee. The ideas were also used by the communist country China. The five year plans because some of them failed and were abandoned and some were accomplished earlier.
Kulak – Wealthier farmers. Stalin and his great reforms. In Russia. When Stalin got around to reforming Soviet agriculture they wanted to create large collective farms hwere people worked together. All indivual peasants had to give their land to the state. Kulak were rich because they could afford an animal on land. They were enemies of the state they were sent to Siberia to work.
“stab in the back” (Germany) – Right wing Germany, Nazi, spread a myth that the social Democrats and republic and Jews that stab Germany in the back and just surrendered even though Germany had not lost anything in the war. If not for these people they could have won the war.
Diktat – This is a harsh penalty decided by the victor of a war against the defeated party. The rules are dictated by a foreign power against a nation.

WHO WERE THESE PEOPLE?

Benito Mussolini – An Italian politician, he was the leader of the National Fascist Party. He was also the Prime Minister from 1922 until 1943 when he was ousted. Oust – to expel or remove from a place occupied. He was an inspiration to Hitler. He dropped all democracy and instead turned towards creating a legal dictatorship. He founded the fascist movement in Italy and is one of the key figures in fascism in our history. He transformed Italy into a one-party dictatorship which is what Hitler was inspired by and did as well.
Fransisco Franco – He was a military leader who ruled as the dictator of Spain during 1939 to his death. It was during the Spanish Civil war that he came into power. He was a conservative and monarchist. Leader of the Nationalists. He then established a dictatorship and was a de facto regent of the restored Kingdom of Spain. He appointed Juan Carlos to be his successor and after his death Juan Carlos became King and Spain worked its way to democracy.
John Maynard Keynes – British economist. Political economy I nthe early 1900’s. Peace conference in Versailles. Create an economic crisis in Germany. He came up with what solved the gReat depression. He was saying that in times of a bad economy, a slow economy, the State should push money in the economy , build roads, dams, electricity. Have work, buy things. Get the economy going. In good economy they should increase rent and increase taxes. Reduce both the peaks and the depth so that it would be a smoother economy. The New Deal was pushing up from the bottom.
Franklin D. Roosevelt – Famous president of the US, the 32nd. He was a central figure during the mid 20th century leading the US during the economic depression. It was a worldwide economic depression and also a total war. He was the leader of the Democratic Party. It was his domestic policies the ‘New Deal’ that were one of his big projects. He was also a leader of the Allies.
Neville Chamberlain – British Conservative politician and also Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. ’37 – ’40. Chamberlain led Britain through the first 8 months of WW2.
Paul von Hindenburg – Second president of Germany. Holds accounted for Hitler’s rise to power. He gave Hitler the title Chancellor because he had in mind that Hitler would fail and so the Nazi Party would be kicked out of the parliament but it had the opposite effect. As a conservative he did not want to give in to the communists so as a last resort he had to turn to the Nazi’s and gave Hitler the Enabling Act, also a bad decision.
Gustav Stresseman – A German politician who served as Chancellor in 1923, only a brief period of 102 days. He was Foreign Minister during the Weimar Republic. A peaceful figure during this violent period, he and one other received the Noble Peace Prize for mending the relationship between Germany and France. During the Weimar Republic he represented the three successive liberal parties and was a hugely dominant figure of the German People’s Party.