Glossary of Terms

Allied Powers – Those countries joined together against the Axis Powers. They included the United States, Great Britain and the Soviet Union. List of the countries involved in the Allied Powers.

Annex  Process by which a government gains control over a territory not presently under their jurisdiction. It usually involves either conquest or the use of force.

Anschluss  The annexation of Austria by Germany.

Armistice  Agreement to end fighting during hostilities, possibly leading to a peace agreement.

Arsenal of Democracy  Term used to describe the United States increased production of military products for defense and for export to the Allied countries during World War II.

American propaganda poster

Axis Powers  Those countries joined to fight together against the Allies during World War II. They included Germany, Italy and Japan. List of the Axis nations.
Bataan  A peninsula in the Philippine Islands that extends into Manila Bay. Setting of the Bataan Death March.

Bataan Death March  April 1942, American soldiers were forced to march 65 miles to prison camps by their Japanese captors. It is called the Death March because so may of the prisoners died en route.

Belligerent – In wartime, a nation at war.

Cash and carry – policy adopted by the United States in 1939 to preserve neutrality while aiding the Allies. Britain and France could buy goods from the United States if they paid in full and transported them.

Churchill, Winston  Prime minister of Great Britain from 1940-1945 and again 1951-1955.

Winston Churchill giving the V for Victory
Conscription  Mandatory enlistment of people into the armed services.
D-Day  June 6, 1944, the day on which Allied forces landed in Normandy, France to begin a massive offensive against the Germans in the occupied territory of Europe.

Dachau  Large concentration camp located in Germany, near Munich, where prisoners were kept for slave labor and medical experiments. It also housed facilities for mass murder and cremation. Map of Concentration Camps.

G. I. Bill of Rights  provided unemployment payments, for educational expenses and home and business loans for the veterans of World War II.

Hindenburg, Paul von  German World War I general and hero, who was president of the Weimar Republic and appointed Adolph Hitler chancellor.

Hitler, Adolph  Leader of the Nazi Party and the Third Reich in Germany during World War II.

Benito Mussolini (left) and Adolph Hitler (right)

League of Nations  Was formed after World War I to be an international peace keeping alliance. While the United States monitored its activities closely, it never became a member because it did not sign the Treaty of Versailles which ended World War I.

Lend-Lease Bill  bill by which the United States government provided aid, economic and other, to nations warring against the Axis Powers.

Munitions  arms and weaponry

Mussolini, Benito- head of the Italian Fascist party. Mussolini was known as El Duce and was leader of Italy, the first Facist regime, during World War II.

Nazi Party  German National-Socialist party, grounded in Fascism, militarism and expansion.

Nazi-Soviet Non-Aggression Pact (1939)  Germany and the Soviet Union pledged neutrality should either become involved in a war. It also divided up Eastern Europe between the two powers. It was dissolved when Hitler invaded the Soviet Union in June, 1941.

Neutrality Acts  originally designed to avoid American involvement in World War II by preventing loans to those countries taking part in the conflict; they were later modified in 1939 to allow aid to Great Britain and other Allied nations.

New Deal Common name for the collection of legislation, 1933-1938, initiated by FDR to combat the Great Depression.

Nondiscrimination clauses  prevents companies from not hiring candidates because of their race.

Nuremberg  town where trials were held for the Nazis accused of war crimes.

Nuremberg Laws  established legal basis in Nazi Germany for discrimination against Jews.

Pearl Harbor  United States military base on Hawaii that was bombed by Japan, bringing the United States into World War II.

The aftermath of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor

Policy of Appeasement (1938) policy by which Czechoslovakia, Great Britain and France agreed to Germanys annexation of the Sudetenland in agreement for not taking any additional Czech territory.

Potsdam Declaration (1945) – Ultimatum from the Potsdam Conference that was issued by the United States, Great Britain and China to Japan offering that country the choice between unconditional surrender and total annihilation.

Quarantine  isolation because of suspected contagion.

Rationing  taking items that are in short supply and distributing them according to a system. For instance, during World War II, gas, sugar, and butter were a few of the items rationed in the United States.

American propaganda posters

Rome-Berlin Axis  agreement between Germany and Italy against the Allied powers.
Roosevelt, Franklin Delano (FDR)  the 32nd president of the United States. He was president from 1933 until his death in 1945 during both the Great Depression and World War II. He is the only president to have been elected 4 times, a feat no longer permissible due to the 22nd Amendment to the Constitution.

Stalin, Joseph – general secretary of the Communist Part of the Soviet Union, he led from 1922 until his death in 1953 and established a communist totalitarian state.

Truman, Harry S 33rd president of the United States. He assumed the presidency at the death of FDR in 1945 and served until 1953. Under his leadership the United States saw the end of the Second World War with the dropping of the two atomic bombs on Japan and also the establishment of the Truman Doctrine for foreign policy, which seeks to limit the spread of Communism.

Harry S Truman

Unconditional Surrender – one country surrenders to another after a conflict without the ability to control the terms.

United Nations  organization founded after World War II to promote international peace and cooperation.

V-E Day  May 8, 1945, the day that Germany and Italy officially and unconditionally surrendered to the Allied forces.

V-J Day  August 15, 1945, Japan surrenders, NOT unconditionally to the Allied Powers.

Vichy France  The pro-German French government established in the unoccupied territory of Southern France after the occupation of part that country by Germany.

Yalta Conference (1944)  meeting of “The Big Three” Stalin, FDR, and Churchill to discuss Allied military strategy and other politics.