World War II - Twentieth Century Europe - HIST 336 Resource Guide

People - Axis

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Adolf Hitler
The son of Alois Hitler (1837–1903), an Austrian customs official, Adolf Hitler dropped out of high school, and after his mother's death in 1907 moved to Vienna...
Benito Mussolini
His father, an ardent Socialist, was a blacksmith; his mother was a teacher. Mussolini taught briefly and lived (1902–4) in Switzerland to avoid military service...
Josef Stalin
Soviet Communist leader and head of the USSR from the death of V. I. Lenin (1924) until his own death, b. Gori, Georgia. His real name was Dzhugashvili (also spelled Dzugashvili or Djugashvili); he adopted the name Stalin ( "man of steel" ) about 1913.

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Germany
Ger. Deutschland, officially Federal Republic of Germany, republic...
Japan
Jap. Nihon or Nippon, country...
Italy
Country in southern Europe, bounded north by Switzerland and Austria...
Hungary
Country in central Europe, bounded north by the Slovak Republic, northeast by Ukraine, east by Romania...
Romania
Country in southeast Europe, bounded north and east by Ukraine, east by Moldova, southeast by the Black Sea...
Bulgaria
Bulgarian Balgarija, officially Republic of Bulgaria, republic...
Croatia
Croatian Hrvatska, officially Republic of Croatia, republic...

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Winston Churchill
Educated at Harrow and Sandhurst, he became (1894) an officer in the 4th hussars. On leave in 1895, he saw his first military action in Cuba as a reporter for London's Daily Graphic...
Joseph J. Stalin
1879–1953, Soviet Communist leader and head of the USSR from the death of V. I. Lenin (1924) until his own death...
Charles De Gaulle
In The Army of the Future (1934, tr. 1941) he foresaw and futilely advocated for France the mechanized warfare by which Germany was to conquer France in 1940...
Harry Truman
He grew up on a farm near Independence, Mo., worked at various jobs, and tended the family farm. He served as a captain of field artillery in France in World War I...
Franklin D. Roosevelt
Through both his father, James Roosevelt, and his mother, Sara Delano Roosevelt, he came of old, wealthy families...

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Great Britain
Officially United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, constitutional monarchy...
British Commonwealth
The British Commonwealth is a voluntary association of 54 countries and states including the UK, which were once part of the British Empire but are now independent...
France
Officially French Republic. The largest country in western Europe, France includes the island of Corsica in the Mediterranean Sea.
United States
Officially United States of America, republic...
China
Mandarin Zhonghua Renmin Gongheguo [central glorious people's united country; i.e., people's republic], officially People's Republic of China, country...
Soviet Union
(Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, USSR) Former federal republic, successor to the Russian Empire and the world's first communist state...

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The Nazi Party
A German political party which dominated Germany from 1933 to 1945. It originated as the Deutsche Arbeiterpartei (German Worker’s Party)...
Fascism
Totalitarian philosophy of government that glorifies the state and nation and assigns to the state control over every aspect of national life...
Blitzkrieg
Swift military campaign, as used by Germany at the beginning of World War II (1939-41)...

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The Manhattan Project
With the discovery of fission in 1939, it became clear to scientists that certain radioactive materials could be used to make a bomb of unprecented power...
Hydrogen Bomb
Or H-bomb, weapon deriving a large portion of its energy from the nuclear fusion of hydrogen isotopes...
Atomic Bomb
Or A-bomb, weapon deriving its explosive force from the release of atomic energy through the fission (splitting) of heavy nuclei...
Du Pont
Family notable in U.S. industrial history. The Du Pont family's importance began when Eleuthère Irénée Du Pont established a gunpowder mill on the Brandywine River in N Delaware...
Albert Einstein
German-born US theoretical physicist who revolutionized our understanding of matter, space, and time with his two theories of relativity...
Nuclear Warfare
War involving the use of nuclear weapons. Nuclear-weapons research began in Britain in 1940, but was transferred to the USA after it entered World War II...

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World War II
War between Germany, Italy, and Japan (the Axis powers) on one side, and Britain, the Commonwealth, France, the USA, the USSR, and China (the Allies) on the other...
Pearl Harbor
US Pacific naval base on Oahu island, Hawaii, USA, the scene of a Japanese aerial attack on 7 December 1941, which brought the USA into World War II...
D-Day
6 June 1944, the day of the Allied invasion of Normandy under the command of General Eisenhower to commence Operation Overlord, the liberation of Western Europe from German occupation...
Atomic Bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki
The United States used an atomic bomb against the Japanese city of Hiroshima on 6 August 1945. Three days later, on August 9, it dropped a bomb on Nagasaki...

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Kellogg-Briand Pact
Agreement, signed Aug. 27, 1928, condemning "recourse to war for the solution of international controversies..."
Treaty of Versailles
When World War I ended in 1918, the victorious Allies, led by the UK, France, and the USA, held discussions at the palace of Versailles in 1919 on Germany and how to reorder Europe...
Fourteen Points
Formulation of a peace program, presented at the end of World War I by U.S. President Woodrow Wilson...
The Great Depression
Although it shared the basic characteristics of other such crises (see depression), the Great Depression was unprecedented in its length and in the wholesale poverty and tragedy it inflicted on society...
Imperialism
Broadly, the extension of rule or influence by one government, nation, or society over another...
Reparations
Payments or other compensation offered as an indemnity for loss or damage. Although the term is used to cover payments made to Holocaust survivors and to Japanese Americans interned during World War II...

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Concentration Camps
A detention site outside the normal prison system created for military or political purposes to confine, terrorize, and, in some cases, kill civilians...
Jews
[from Judah], traditionally, descendants of Judah, the fourth son of Jacob, whose tribe, with that of his half brother Benjamin, made up the kingdom of Judah...
Deportation
Expulsion from a country of an alien who is living there illegally, or whose presence is considered contrary to the public good...
Holocaust
Name given to the period of persecution and extermination of European Jews by Nazi Germany...
Migration
Of people, geographical movements of individuals or groups for the purpose of permanently resettling...
Immigration
Entrance of a person (an alien) into a new country for the purpose of establishing permanent residence. Motives for immigration, like those for migration generally, are often economic, although religious or political factors may be very important...
Racial Discrimination
Racial discrimination or racism involves treating people differently, often unfavourably, because of their nationality, their skin colour, or their religious belief...
Propaganda
Systematic manipulation of public opinion, generally by the use of symbols such as flags, monuments, oratory, and publications...
Terrorism
Systematic violence in the furtherance of political aims, often by small guerrilla groups...