Battle of Britain Terms Flashcards

An effort by one state to reduce conflict with another by accomodating the demands of the latter.

A campaign of air attacks starting in June 1940 by Germany against Britain intended to compel Britain, at the time the only remaining German opponent, to surrender. British air defenses held.

A battle between September 1942 and February 1943 in which Soviet forces destroyed a massive German army. It was a major turning point of World War II’s European Theater.

Policies designed to shift the negative consequences of the global economic downturn onto a state’s neighbors, pursued by many countries during the Great Depression.

A conference that brought together European leaders to solve disputes over the division of Africa into colonies. The conference was sponsored by Otto von Bismarck as an attempt to stabilize European affairs in a manner favourable to Germany.

In an international system, the characteristic of being driven by the existence of and competition between two especially powerful states.

Lightning war, used by Germany to conquer westward at the beginning of World War II.

A political tactic in which a country goes to the brink of war to convince an adversary they are willing to fight even though they would prefer not to.

Security provided by the members of an international cooperative institution in which, if any state threatened or actually used military force illegally against a member state, the other members pledged to form an overwhelming coalition to defeat the aggressor.

Areas conquered by a colonizing power over which the colonizer has political and economic control. Colonizers exploit colonized lands and peoples through trade or settlement for economic and political gain.

US-mediated 1924 plan named for author Charles Dawes to end the Ruhr crisis. The plan called for France to leave Ruhr, Germany’s reparations payments to be reduced, and private international banks to lend Germany money to use for the payments.

The process by which imperial powers relinquished their overseas holdings leading to an upswell in the number of independent nations around the world. In the years following World War II, decolonization swept the globe.

A relaxing of tension in the middle of the Cold War in which economic interdependence began to develop between East and West and global trade increased.

States ruled by “imperial dynasties” or “dynastic families,” in which members of a given extended family, over a number of generations, maintain power within a state or empire.

Political entities that contain a substantial geographical space, often many different peoples, and over which a single powerful ruler governs.