Inner War Years Vocabulary Review

Inflation

• Inflation is when the cost of an item rises, but the amount you get stays the same. (Think of rising gas prices).

• This makes you feel poor, even if you make the same amount of money.

Depression

• When business, the economy, employment, and the stock market decline severely for an extended period of time.

Coalition Government

• A government controlled by a temporary alliance of several political parties.

• Coalition governments tend to be weak, because they often disagree and don’t get much done.

Weimar Republic

• The coalition government that was established in Germany after World War I.

• The people thought they were weak and wanted strong leadership.

Nazis

• The National Socialist German Workers’ party – a political party that used fascist and totalitarian ideas, as well as racial superiority.

• This was the political party Hitler became the leader of.

Totalitarianism

• Government control over every aspect of public and private life.

• Used by Hitler, Mussolini, and Stalin.

Fascism

• A political movement that promotes extreme nationalism (people must be loyal to both the ruler and the state), limits individual rights, and has only one party/ruler in power.

Hitler

• The fascist and totalitarian leader of the Nazi party. He wrote Mein Kampf in which he outlined his plans to promote the Aryan race and create lebensraum for the German people.

Mussolini

• The fascist leader of Italy, who inspired Hitler to attempt to take over the government.

Stalin

• The totalitarian leader of the Soviet Union.

Aryans

• The Aryan race was Hitler’s idea of the ideal/master race – people who had blue eyes, blonde hair, and were pure blooded Germans.

Lebensraum

• Lebensraum literally translates to living space, Hitler believed that the Aryan race needed more land to build an empire, and thought they could get this land by conquered Europe and Russia.

Mein Kampf

• The book Hitler wrote while in jail, which outlined his belief about the Aryan race, the need for lebensraum, and his dislike of the Treaty of Versailles.

Command Economy

• An economic system in which the government makes all the economic decisions.

• This is not the same thing as communism. People are still allowed to own private property.

Communism

• An economic system in which all means of production (railroads, land, factories, etc.) are owned by the people, private property does not exist, and all goods and services are shared equally.

• This was the system in place in the Soviet Union, but not in Germany or Italy (Hitler and Mussolini hated communism).

Collective Farms

• A large government controlled farm formed by combining many farms. People lived in dormitories and all worked on the farm together.

• Stalin tried to implement collective farms, but they were not popular amongst the people.

Kulaks

• A member of the wealthier peasant class/farmers who owned land.

Great Purge

• Stalin’s campaign in the 1930’s to get rid of anyone who threatened his power him in society and in the communist party. Millions of people were killed.