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30 Cards in this Set
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fascism |
An authoritarian system of government characterized by dictatorial rule, extreme nationalism, disdain for civil society, and a conviction that imperialism and warfare are the principal means by which nations attain greatness; the US went to war against fascism when it faced Nazi Germany under Adolf Hitler and Italy under Benito Mussolini during World War II |
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National Socialist (Nazi) Party |
German political party led by Adolf Hitler, who became chancellor of Germany in 1933; the party's ascent was fueled by huge World War I reparation payments, economic depression, fear of communism, labor unrest, and rising unemployment |
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Rome-Berlin Axis |
A political and military alliance formed in 1936 between German dictator Adolf Hitler and the Italian dictator Benito Mussolini |
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Neutrality Act of 1935 |
Legislation that sought to avoid it entanglement in foreign wars while protecting trade; it imposed an embargo on selling arms to warring countries and declared that Americans traveling on the ships of belligerent nations did so at their own risk |
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Popular Front |
A small but vocal group of Americans who pushed for greater US involvement in Europe; American Communist Party members, African American civil rights activists, and trade unionists, among other members of the popular front coalition, encouraged Roosevelt to take a stronger stand against European fascism |
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Munich conference |
A conference in Munich held in September 1938 during which Britain and France agreed to allow Germany to annex the Sudetenland – a German-speaking border area of Czechoslovakia – in return for Hitler's pledge to seek no more territory |
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Committee to Defend America by Aiding the allies |
A group of interventionists who believed engaging with, rather than withdrawing from, international developments; interventionists became increasingly vocal 1940 as war escalated in Europe |
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America first committee |
Formed by isolationists, with well respected figures such as Lindbergh and Senator Nye urging the nation to stay out of the war; it held rallies across the US, and it's posters, brochures, and broadsides warning against American involvement in Europe suffused many parts of the country, especially the Midwest |
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Four Freedoms |
Identified by President Franklin D. Roosevelt as the most basic human rights: freedom of speech, freedom of religion, freedom from want, and freedom from fear; the president used these ideas of freedom to justify support for England during World War II, which in turn pulled the United States into the war |
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Lend-Lease Act |
Legislation in 1941 that enabled Britain to obtain arms from the United States without cash but with the promise to reimburse the United States when the war ended; the act reflected Roosevelt's desire to assist the British in anyway possible, short of war |
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Atlantic Charter |
Press release by President Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Winston Churchhill in August 1941 calling for economic cooperation, national self-determination, and guarantees of political stability after the war |
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Pearl Harbor |
Naval base in pearl harbor, Hawaii, that was attacked by Japanese bombers on December 7, 1941; more than 2400 Americans were killed; the following day, President Roosevelt asked Congress for a declaration of war against Japan |
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War Powers Act |
The law that gave President Roosevelt unprecedented control over all aspects of the war effort during World War II |
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Revenue Act |
An act that expanded the number of people paying income taxes from 3.9 million to 42.6 million; these taxes on personal incomes and business profits paid half the cost of World War II |
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code talkers |
Native American soldiers trained to use native languages to send messages in battle during World War II; neither the Japanese nor the Germans could decipher the codes used by these Navajo, Comanche, Choctaw, and Cherokee speakers, and the messages they sent gave the allies great advantage in the battle of Iwo Jima, among many others |
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Executive Order 8802 |
An order signed by President Roosevelt in 1941 that prohibited "discrimination in the employment of workers in defense industries or government because of race, creed, color, or national origin" and established the Fair Employment Practices Commission (FEPC) |
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Servicemen's Readjustment Act (1944) |
Popularly known as the GI Bill, legislation authorizing the government to provide World War II veterans with funds for education, housing, and healthcare, as well as loans to start businesses and buy homes |
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zoot suits |
Oversized suits of clothing in fashion in the 1940s, particularly among young male African Americans and Mexican Americans; in June 1943, a group of white sailors and soldiers in Los Angeles, seeking revenge for an earlier skirmish with Mexican American youths, attacked anyone the found wearing a zoot suit in what became known as the zoot suit riots |
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Executive Order 9066 |
An order signed by President Roosevelt in 1941 that authorized the War Department to force Japanese Americans from their West Coast homes and hold them in relocation camps for the rest of the war |
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D-Day |
June 6, 1944, the date of the Allied invasion of northern France; it was the largest amphibious assault in world history; the invasion opened a second front against the Germans and moved the Allies closer to victory in Europe |
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Holocaust |
Germany's campaign during World War II to exterminate all Jews living in German-controlled lands, along with other groups the Nazis deemed "undesirable"; in all, some 11 million people were killed in the Holocaust, most of them Jews |
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Manhattan Project |
Top-secret project authorized by Franklin Roosevelt in 1942 to develop an atomic bomb ahead of the Germans; the Americans who worked on the project at Los Alamos, New Mexico (among other highly secretive sites around the country), succeeded in producing a successful atomic bomb by July 1945 |
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Benito Mussolini |
Italy's dictator, who came into power in 1922; The Leader, as Mussolini was known, had long denounced the Versailles Treaty, which denied Italy's colonial claims in Africa and the Middle East after World War 1; invaded and took control of Ethiopia in 1936; formed the Rome-Berlin Axis, a political and military alliance between Italy and Germany, with Hitler |
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Adolf Hitler |
Instituted fascism in Germany, which combined a centralized, authoritarian state, a doctrine of Aryan racial supremacy, and intense nationalism in the call for the spiritual reawakening of the German people; huge World War I reparation payments, economic depression, fear of communism, labor unrest, and rising unemployment fueled the ascent of him and his Nazi Party; became chancellor of Germany in 1933 and was granted dictatorial powers to deal with the economic crisis, however, he used his position to outlaw other political parties, arrest many of his political rivals, and declare himself führer (leader) of Germany; his goal was European domination and world power, which he had made clear in his 1925 book Mein Kampf (My Struggle); he formed the Rome-Berlin Axis with Mussolini and seized the military advantage in Europe by 1937 |
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Hideki Tojo |
In 1940 was promoted from General to War Minister of Japan; established a formal military alliance with Germany and Italy; dispatched Japanese troops to occupy the northern part of the French colony of Indochina; his goal, supported by emperor Hirohito, was to create a "Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere" under Japan's control stretching from the Korean Peninsula south to Indonesia; in October 1941, he became Prime Minister and accelerated secret preparations for war against the United States |
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Charles A. Lindbergh |
The first person to fly solo nonstop across the Atlantic ocean, was an American hero in the 1930s; in 1941, he had become the public face of the America First Committee, delivered impassioned speeches against intervention in Europe, and had been fooled by German propaganda into taking its side |
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Winston Churchill |
The British prime minister during World War II, who succeed Chamberlain in 1940; in August 1941, he met with Roosevelt, doing a press release which became known as the Atlantic Charter |
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Harry S. Truman |
Senator of Missouri, a straight-talking, no nonsense politician with little national experience; replaced Vice President Henry Wallace for the Democratic presidential nomination in the election of 1944 |
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Gordon Hirabayashi |
Among the Nisei who actively resisted incarceration; a student at the University of Washington, he was a religious pacifist who had registered with his draft board as a conscientious objector; he refused to report for evacuation and turned himself into the FBI; He was tried and convicted in 1942, and he appealed his case to the Supreme Court in Hirabayashi vs. United States in 1943 |
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Dwight D. Eisenhower |
US general who led Allied troops between November 1942 and May 1943, helping defeat the German Afrika Korps, led by General Irwin Rommel; commanded the invasion of France on D-Day, June 6, 1944 |
