III.

Person, Place, Things

 Vladimir Lenin- Ideological figurehead behind Marxism-Leninism. Red Terror (purification of

political leaders). He wanted to spread communism to the world. He was placed in Switzerland
and went back to Russia by train because of the Germans.
 Big German/Little German Solution- The German question was a debate in the 19th century over
the best way to achieve German Unification:
- Big Germany- Capital in Vienna, majority Catholic, ruled by the Habsburg Monarchy, Austria,
unifying all German-speaking peoples under one state
- Little Germany- Capital in Berlin, majority Protestant, dominated by the Hohenzollern
Monarchy, Prussia dominates, unify the northern German states
 Leopold II- King Leopold II of Belgium (a constitutional monarchy). Responsible for the atrocities
to be committed in the Congo Free State.
 Enver Pasha- Ottoman military officer and a leader of the 1908 Young Turk Revolution. He
became to main leader of the Ottoman Empire in both the Balkan wars and in WWI.
 Kulaks- “tight-fists”, Stalin and his henchmen labeled all sorts of people kulaks, including
starving farmers who could not fulfill their grain quotas, and insisted that they should be
destroyed as a class.
 Archduke Franz Ferdinand- Heir to the Austrian throne, assassinated. His assassination
precipitated Austria-Hungary’s declaration of war against Serbia. This caused the Central
Powers, Germany and Austria-Hungary, and Serbia’s allies to declare war on each other, starting
World War I.
 Manchester- the first city to be connected by railroad to Liverpool in 1830. The first railway to
be powered entirely by its own motive power, and the first to carry mail. Built to provide faster
transport of raw materials, finished goods and passengers.
 Hermann Goring- a high-ranking Nazi that objected because property the Reich might use
profitably was being recklessly destroyed. Hitler’s right hand man, head of the political police.
 Warsaw Uprising- A WWII operation by the Polish resistance Home Army to liberate Warsaw
from German occupation. The single largest military effort taken by any European resistance
movement during WWII.
 Warsaw Ghetto- The 1943 act of Jewish resistance that arose within the Warsaw Ghetto in
German- occupied Poland during WWII, and which opposed Nazi Germany’s final effort to
transport the remaining Ghetto population to Treblinka.
 T-4 program- Stands for Tiergarten 4, the address of the Berlin headquarters of the Nazi
euthanasia program, the Nazis began murdering mentally and physically handicapped people in
1939; officially stopped in Germany because of public pressure (though continued unofficially to
1945).
 Kristallnacht- Reichskristallnacht, The Night of the Broken Glass, a pogrom against Jews
throughout Nazi Germany, Several dozen Jews lose their lives and tens of thousands are
arrested and sent to concentration camps.
 Bolsheviks- Russian communists led by Vladimir Lenin, who advocated a violent, immediate
revolution to over throw capitalism. The Bolsheviks toppled the provisional government in 1917
and became the founders of communism in the Soviet Union.
 Treaty of Nanking- Signed in 1842. The treaty between Britain and China after the Opium Wars.
Treaty contained: treaty ports and extra-territoriality.
 Ernst Rohm- A German military officer and an early member of the Nazi Party. He was the head
of the SA (Brownshirts) to protect the Nazi Party meetings. However, fearing that Rohm was
going to betray him, Hitler ordered his arrest and death.
 The Somme- a pointless battle. From June 1916-Nov. 1916, almost no territory was gained, and
example of the staggering futility of this war.
 Hyper-inflation- catastrophic rate of inflation, resulting in enormous price increases, such as that
which occurred in Germany in 1923. When a country experiences very high and usually
accelerating rates of inflation, rapidly eroding the real value of the local currency, and causing
the population to minimize their holdings of local money.
 ‘Blank check’- part of the July Crisis. Germany gives Austria- Hungary a blank check. Promising
Germany’s “faithful support” for Austria-Hungary in whatever action it chose to take towards
Serbia, even if Russia intervened. Without Germany’s backing, the conflict in the Balkans might
have remained localized.
 Armenian genocide- “Armenian holocaust” Armenians as spies and traitors, murder of about 1
million; forced marches of women and children across the desert. During and after WWI. The
wholesale killing of the able-bodied male population through massacre and subjection of army
conscripts to forced labor, followed by the deportation of women, children, the elderly, and the
infirm on death marches leading to the Syrian Desert.
 Josef Stalin- ended the NEP, kicks out Trotsky, Lenin’s Cheka becomes the NKVD, building
‘communism in one country’, ideologically a Marxist and a Leninist, helped to formalize these
ideas as Marxism-Leninism while his own policies became known as Stalinism.
 Alexander Kerensky- leader of a provisional government, however, the government was
destabilized by attacks from the right and left during the summer of 1917, key political figure in
the Russian Revolution.
 Paul von Hindenburg- President of the German Reich. Considered to be the only candidate who
could defeat Hitler. A German war veteran
 July Crisis- the events the led to WWI. Assassination, Diplomatic maneuvering, the ‘blank check’,
Austria’s ultimatum, Bombardment of Belgrade begins, Austria’s chief ‘hawk’ Chancellor Leopold
won Berchtold. A diplomatic crisis among the major powers of Europe in the summer fo1914
that led to WWI.
 Wilhelm II- last German Emperor; King of Prussia 1888-1918, fires Bismarck, ends Russian
alliance,
 Liberals- individual freedoms, free trade, rationalization, emphasis on work and merit, equality
under the law, but NOT economic equality, often combined with nationalism (central state v.
particularism), often anti-clerical (pro-secularization)
 Enabling Act- Interwar and WWII era 1933, the ‘law for removing the distress of the people and
the reich’, the power to enact laws without the involvement of the Reichstag. Signed by
President Paul von Hinenburg. Gave Hitler plenary powers.
 Fin de siècle- French term meaning “end of the century.” Refers to the cultural crisis at the end
of the 19th century marked by increased mobility, mass politics, and the decline of certainty,
positivism, and liberalism.
 Labor front- DAF, was the National Socialist trade union organization which replaced the various
independent trade unions of the Weimar Republic after Hitler’s rise to power, Workers’ trade
unions ensure that workers get fair wages and working conditions. Hitler didn’t like trade
unions. Trade unions were banned in Germany in May 1933.
 Deportations-
 Appeasement- The foreign policy of making concessions to satisfy and aggressor; used most
notably by Great Britain and France in the late 1930s to avoid war with Nazi Germany.
 Beer Hall Putsch- a failed coup attempt by the Nazi party leader Hitler, A failed takeover of the
government in Bavaria. Hitler was convicted of treason and sentenced to 5 years in prison.
Spent less than a year behind bars, during which he dictated “Mein Kampf”, his political
autobiography.
 Winter Palace- in Saint Petersburg, Russia. The official residence of the Russian monarchs from
1732 to 1917
 Opium Wars- China exporting opium. A way from Britain to colonialize China. Weakened the
Qing dynasty and forced China to trade with the other parts of the world.
 Schlieffen Plan- German’s plan to fight a double front war, going through Belgium, take over
Paris, head back to the east to take of the Russians. Led to Britain declaring war on Germany in
1914.
 14 points- Peace plans formulated by US president Wilson as the basis for a new world order
WWI. Called for free trade, German evacuation of occupied territory, national self-
determination, and the end of secret treaties.
 War Guilt Clause-