World War Two and Cold War Vocabulary
Great Depression
Allied Powers
The economic decline during the 1930s that was the worst in the
world’s history.
Franklin D. Roosevelt’s plan for getting the United states out of the
Great Depressions.
Policy of allowing fascist countries to take over other countries by
giving into demands in the hopes of avoiding a bigger conflict.
America’s policy of noninvolvement in European wars and avoidance of
“entangling alliances.”
A ruler who uses military might to rule with absolute authority. Hitler
and Mussolini in WWII.
“Lightening war” German tactic used in World War Two based on
speed and surprise.
Great Britain, United States and Russia’s alliance during WWII.
Axis Powers
Germany, Italy, and Japan’s alliance during WWII.
Genocide
The killing of an entire race of people.
Holocaust
The name now used for the mass killing of Jewish people.
Theaters of Conflict
Different fronts where a country is fighting. For example in WWII
the US fought in both Europe and the Pacific.
Atomic bomb
A weapon of mass destruction 1st used by America against Japan in
WWII.
Secret American project to develop a terrible, new weapon called the
Atomic bomb.
A government run by a dictator.
New Deal
Appeasement
Isolationism
Dictator
Blitzkrieg
Manhattan Project
Fascism
United Nations
Israel
Jerusalem
An international organization that came into use at the end of WWII
that would help prevent future wars.
A country that was created after WWII to give the Jews a homeland.
Containment
The capital of Israel considered a holy city to the Jewish, Christian,
and Islamic religions.
Policy to keep the Communists from gaining control of other countries.
Cold War
A conflict of words and ideas between USSR and USA – 1945 – 1991.
Arms Race
A competition among nations to get the most weapons.
The Cuban Missile
Crisis
Space Race
Communism
Glasnost & Perestroika
A very tense confrontation between the Soviet Union and the United
States over the Soviet nuclear missiles in Cuba that could have led to
nuclear war.
An informal competition between the United states and the Soviet
Union. Both countries wanted to be the first to explore outer space.
An economic system in which all property and all means of production
belong to the people as a group.
Introduced in 1985 by Mikhail Gorbachev, these Soviet policies
allowed Soviet citizens to speak out without fear of punishment and
restructured the Soviet political and economic systems. (Openness
and restructuring)