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The Treaty of Versailles was a 1919 peace treaty signed by Germany and the Allied Powers that formally ended World War I. It forced Germany to accept responsibility for the war, pay massive financial reparations, disarm its military, lose significant territory, and give up its colonies. -
Japan invaded Manchuria in 1931 to secure vital natural resources like minerals, wood, and fertile land for its growing industrial and military economy, which was struggling from the global Great Depression. -
The Holocaust known in Hebrew as the Shoah was the genocide of European Jews during World War II. From 1941 to 1945, Nazi Germany and its collaborators -
Italy invaded Ethiopia to establish a new colonial empire and boost national prestige, avenging an earlier Italian defeat at the Battle of Adwa and seeking to unite its existing colonies. -
Germany remilitarized the Rhineland on March 7, 1936, when Adolf Hitler sent troops into the demilitarized zone along the Rhine River, violating the Treaty of Versailles and the Locarno Treaties. -
Anschluss is a German word meaning "connection" or "union," specifically referring to the 1938 annexation of Austria into Nazi Germany, a key step in Adolf Hitler's expansionist ambitions to unite German-speaking peoples and a violation of the Treaty of Versailles. -
Between 1933 and 1941, the Nazis aimed to make Germany judenrein (cleansed of Jews) by making life so difficult for them that they would be forced to leave -
The Munich Conference concluded that the Sudetenland territory would be ceded to Germany. In addition, Hitler would take over portions of Czechoslovakia provided he would not seek further expansion. The Czechoslovakian government was told that it could challenge Hitler to war, but it would do so without any support. -
The Wagner-Rogers Bill was a 1939 U.S. bill that proposed admitting 20,000 German refugee children into the country outside of existing immigration quotas, but it failed to pass -
The MS St. Louis was a German passenger liner famously known for its 1939 voyage where it was denied entry to Cuba and the United States, forcing its Jewish passengers to return to Europe -
The Nazi-Soviet Pact, or Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, a non-aggression treaty signed on August 23, 1939, secretly included a plan for the two totalitarian powers to partition Poland. -
The invasion of Poland, also known as the September Campaign, Polish Campaign, and Polish Defensive War of 1939 (1 September – 6 October 1939), was a joint attack on the Republic of Poland by Nazi Germany, the Slovak Republic, and the Soviet Union, which marked the beginning of World War II. -
a German military tactic emphasizing swift, concentrated assaults using tanks, mobile infantry, and air power to rapidly break through enemy lines, cause confusion, and achieve quick victories -
The Battle of the Atlantic pitted U-boats and other warships of the German Kriegsmarine (Navy) and aircraft of the Luftwaffe (Air Force) against the Royal Navy -
During WWII, the "cash and carry" policy allowed warring nations to buy U.S. goods, including arms, by paying cash upfront and transporting the items on their own ships -
The Battle of Britain (German: Luftschlacht um England, lit. 'air battle for England') was a military campaign of the Second World War, in which the Royal Air Force (RAF) and the Fleet Air Arm (FAA) of the Royal Navy defended the United Kingdom against large-scale attacks by Nazi Germany's air force, the Luftwaffe. -
The destroyers-for-bases deal was an agreement between the United States and the United Kingdom on 2 September 1940, according to which 50 Caldwell, Wickes, and Clemson-class US Navy destroyers were transferred to the Royal Navy from the US Navy in exchange for land rights on British possessions. -
The term "Lend-Lease" most commonly refers to the Lend-Lease Act of 1941, a U.S. World War II program that provided military aid (like weapons, ships, and food) to Allied nations whose defense was vital to the U.S. -
a joint statement of principles issued by U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill in August 1941, outlining their goals for the postwar world -
The attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, was significant because it directly led to the United States entering World War II, shattered American isolationism, and transformed the conflict into a truly global war. -
The Battle of the Coral Sea, from 4 to 8 May 1942, was a major naval battle between the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) and naval and air forces of the United -
The Battle of Midway was a major naval battle in the Pacific Theater of World War II that took place on 4–7 June 1942 -
a U.S. government agency created by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in January 1944 to rescue and provide relief to Jews and other victims of Nazi persecution -
Operation Overlord was the codename for the Battle of Normandy, the Allied operation that launched the successful liberation of German-occupied Western Europe -
The Battle of the Bulge, also known as the Ardennes Offensive or Unternehmen Wacht am Rhein, was the last major German offensive campaign on the Western Front -
The camp gained notoriety when it was liberated by the United States Army in April 1945; Allied commander Dwight D. Eisenhower visited one of its subcamps -
The 82-day battle on Okinawa lasted from 1 April 1945 until 22 June 1945. After a long campaign of island hopping, the Allies were planning to use Kadena Air -
The design was highly inefficient: the weapon used on Hiroshima contained 64 kilograms (141 lb) of uranium, but less than a kilogram underwent nuclear fission. -
A Fat Man device was detonated over the Japanese city of Nagasaki on 9 August 1945. It was the second and larger of the only two nuclear weapons ever used in -
Victory over Japan Day (also known as V-J Day, Victory in the Pacific Day, or V-P Day) is the day on which Imperial Japan surrendered ; 15 August is the official -
an intergovernmental organization founded in 1945 to maintain international peace and security, develop friendly relations among nations, promote international cooperation, and serve as a center for harmonizing the actions of states -
The Nuremberg trials were held by the Allies against leaders of the defeated Nazi Germany for plotting and carrying out invasions of other countries across -
The Truman Doctrine was a U.S. foreign policy established in 1947 that committed the United States to supporting "free peoples who are resisting attempted subjugation by armed minorities or by outside pressures -
a U.S. program, enacted in 1948, that provided billions of dollars in aid to help rebuild Western European economies after World War II -
It sets out, for the first time, fundamental human rights to be universally protected and it has been translated into over 500 languages. -
NATO is a political and military alliance of countries from Europe and North America. Its members are committed to protecting each other from any threat.