ABSTRACT

ACTION FRANÇAISE French right-wing political movement founded by Charles Maurras in 1899 based on a royalist, nationalist and anti-Semitic programme. Although nominally supporting the Roman Catholic Church, the movement’s other policies led to a papal ban in 1926. During the Second World War, the movement actively supported the Vichy regime, which resulted in its being banned after the war. AGADIR CRISIS Diplomatic and military crisis in 1911 caused by arrival of German warship Panther in Moroccan port of Agadir. Although supposedly sent to protect German residents, the main aim was to gain colonial concessions from the French elsewhere in Africa in exchange for recognition of the French interest in Morocco. ANCIEN REGIME (Fr. lit. ‘old order’) Describes the structure of government and society prevailing in Europe prior to the French Revolution of 1789. Its chief characteristics were absolute or despotic monarchy, and the division of society into three ‘orders’: aristocracy, clergy and the Third Estate (i.e. the ordinary people) (see Tiers Etat). ANGLO-FRENCH ENTENTE See Entente Cordiale. ANSCHLUSS The idea of union between Austria and Germany, current after the collapse of the Habsburg Monarchy in 1918 and given further impetus after Hitler became German chancellor in 1933. The deliberate destabilization of the Austrian government by the Nazis in 1938 led to the resignation of Chancellor Schuschnigg and his replacement by Arthur Seyss-Inquart, a Nazi nominee who invited the Germans to occupy Austria. The union of Austria with Germany was proclaimed on 13 March 1938. ANTI-CLERICALISM Term applied to the opposition to organized religion, and largely directed against the power of the Roman Catholic Church. Anti-clericalism was prevalent during the revolutionary period in France and throughout the nineteenth century. Also apparent in Spain, especially during the Second Republic, 1931-39, in Germany as a result of the Kulturkampf (q.v.) and sporadically in Italy. ANTI-COMINTERN PACT The agreement between Germany and Japan signed on 25 November 1936 which stated both countries’ hostility to international communism. The pact was also signed by Italy in 1937 and, in addition to being a commitment to oppose the Soviet Union, it recognized the Japanese regime which had ruled Manchuria since 1931. ANTI-SEMITISM Term used to describe animosity towards the Jews, either on a religious or a racial basis. Originally coined by racial theorists of the later nineteenth century, anti-Semitism can take a number of different political, economic or racial forms. A number of political parties in Germany and Austria were based on anti-Semitism, and it also appears in France via Action Française (q.v.). Economic and political anti-Semitism was a feature of Tsarist Russia with frequent pogroms (q.v.) against Jewish communities, a form of activity which seems to have recurred in the Soviet Union in 1958-59 and 1962-63. Anti-Semitism was one of the central planks of Nazi ideology and the major theme in Hitler’s thinking, in which the Jews epitomized all that was wrong with German society. The idea of making Germany ‘Jew-free’ was given practical form in anti-Semitic legislation and the ‘final solution’ (q.v.) put into operation during the Second World War. APRIL REVOLUTION Bloodless military coup, led by junior officers who constituted

the Armed Forces Movement, which took place in Portugal on 25 April 1974, overthrowing the Caetano dictatorship, and opening the way to democracy and to independence for Portugal’s African colonies. The coup was also known as the Carnation Revolution. APRIL THESES Programme for power announced by the Bolshevik leader Lenin on his return to Petrograd in April 1917. Lenin-in effect challenging the Provisional Government-called for an end to the World War, the handing of political and economic power to the Soviets, abolition of the police, bureaucracy and armed forces, and the confiscation of private land. The Social Democratic Party was to be renamed the Communist Party and the Socialist International reconstructed as the Third International. Despite significant internal party opposition, and criticism from the Moscow and Petrograd Soviets, the April Theses became Bolshevik policy. ARMED NEUTRALITY Declaration of policy by a state in times of war or international crisis that, while not wishing to become involved, it will nevertheless defend its interests and territorial integrity from incursions by any belligerent power. ARMENIAN MASSACRES The systematic destruction of the monophysite Christian Armenian people in the Ottoman Empire by Muslim Turks in 1894-95. This action signalled the end of British support for the Empire and was followed by the extermination or deportation of the entire Armenian people by the Turkish government in 1914 and 1915 in one of the worst acts of genocide of the twentieth century. ARYANIZATION Nazi racial policy based on Hitler’s view that ‘A State which in the epoch of race poisoning, dedicates itself to the cherishing of its best elements, must some day be master of the world.’ The Nuremburg Laws for the ‘Protection of German Blood and German Honour’, 15 September 1935, forbade marriage or sexual relations between Jews and non-Jews, punishable by imprisonment and later by death. Later regulations excluded Jews from the professions and the civil service. ASSIGNATS (Fr.) Interest-bearing Treasury bonds introduced by the French Constitutional Assembly in December 1789 to facilitate the purchase of nationalized Church lands. In September 1790 they became paper currency, but over-issue as a means of financing the revolutionary wars led to depreciation and the inflationary crisis in 1793. ATLANTIC CHARTER A statement of principles agreed by Churchill and Roosevelt on behalf of Britain and the United States in August 1941, on the conduct of international policy in the postwar world. These included no territorial or other expansion; no wish for territorial changes other than those agreed by the peoples concerned; respect for the rights of all peoples to choose their form of government; desire for general economic development and collaboration; the need to disarm aggressor nations and the wish to construct a general system of international security. Although mainly a propaganda exercise, the USA refused to acknowledge any future international obligations in spite of British pressure. The charter was endorsed by the Soviet Union and fourteen other states at war with the Axis (q.v.) powers in September 1941. AUSGLEICH (Ger. ‘compromise’) Agreement reached between the Austrian government and moderate Hungarian politicians in 1867 which transformed the Austrian Empire into the Dual Monarchy of Austria-Hungary. The system remained in operation until 1918, despite tensions resulting from commercial union and the resentment of other nationalities within the Empire at the privileged position of the Hungarians. AUSTRO-MARXISM Revisionist Marxist trend which emerged in Austria in 1907. Its main figures were Max Adler, Otto Bauer and Rudolf Hilferding. Adler emphasized

Marxism’s scientific rather than ethical basis, Bauer wrote on the national question and imperialism, and Hilferding provided an economic analysis of imperialism which strongly influenced Lenin. AXIS A term first used by Mussolini on 1 November 1936 to describe Fascist Italy’s relationship with Nazi Germany established by the October protocols of 1936. He referred to the Rome-Berlin Axis, a term which was reinforced by a formal treaty in May 1939, the Pact of Steel. In September 1940, Germany, Italy and Japan signed a tripartite agreement which led to the term ‘Axis Powers’ being used to describe all three, as well as their Eastern European allies.