Appeasement

A decision to give the people (or the mustachioed dictator) what they want in order to get them to stop whatever it is they're doing.

It's not all that different from giving a crying toddler a pacifier when their crying makes you want to beat your head against the wall.

Appropriations

Any money that's been set aside for a specific use—think T. Swift's Oxfords budget.

Armistice

Marshall and Lily said it best—pause.

In this case, it would refer to agreement between the Allies and the Axis to stop fighting.

Arsenals

When a country decides to go to war, it'll dig in the basement to collect necessary supplies, like guns and shells. That's the arsenal: where to explosive goods are store.

Axis

Germany, Italy and Japan formed a clique and went all Regina George on everyone else during World War II. They promised to help each other out, and join together to put the kibosh on any other country's efforts to stop them from conquering the world.

Azores

A set of nine volcanic islands off the western coast of Portugal. The Azores Islands are an autonomous region of Portugal, which is just a fancy way of saying they have the right to govern themselves. But they're still expected to follow the rules and laws of the Portuguese constitution.

Also—fun fact—these islands are gorgeous.

Banking Crisis

The state of your bank account approximately 12.5 seconds after payday—hey-o! (Ugh, sorry. We've been listening to our dad tell too many jokes.)

A banking crisis occurs when lots of people lose confidence in the banks and go to withdraw their money. Most of our banks don't keep lots of cash on-hand (all those movies where robbers run in and steal a bajillion dollars aren't super accurate), so it's entirely possible for them to run out of money. To try and stop that from happening, banks might start knocking on doors and asking people to pay back their loans, which the average human can't do on short notice.

It becomes a nasty circle. People stop trusting the banks and withdraw all their money. The banks declare bankruptcy, and people become even more distrustful of the entire system, and go to get their money. Only at that point, there's nothing left, and it was this kind of pattern that fed into the Great Depression.

The Banking Crisis that FDR refers to in his speech began when the stock market crashed on October 29th, 1929, and the average person started to get a wee bit suspicious as unemployment rates soared. It all came to a head almost two years later, in December 1931, when the banks couldn't keep up with all the withdrawals, and lasted until World War II.

Defeatism

The mindset of those people who look at all glasses as being half empty, the blue sky as just about to cloud over, and a cute polar bear cub as a snarling monster-in-training.

Emissaries

A person (typically a diplomat) who has a mission and must choose to accept it. The mission usually isn't impossible…but it usually does involve making nice to various diplomatic muckity-mucks.

Enmities

Hostility toward someone or something. Think: the tender relationship between the Montagues and the Capulets.

Expeditionary Force

Soldiers sent to fight in far-away places…often on top-secret missions that are later made into Oscar-bait movies.

Incendiary Bomb

A bomb that starts a fire when it hits something. Fun, right? (Wrong.)

Jamestown

The English's first permanent settlement in the New World. This is where Pocahontas met John Smith.

Militaristic

A government with military-focused policy, run by the military, for the military.

Munitions

Weapons and other equipment necessary to fight a war. And, you know, to win.

Pelf

Gaining money in a sketchy way, even if the money won't be used in a sketchy way.

Privation

A time when basic supplies are impossible to get.

Realism

Hey, man—it is what it is.

Rearmament

A plan to restock your weapons supply—Buddy the Elf would've been good at it.

Vaunted

To vaunt is to brag, boast, or otherwise be obnoxious about just how awesome you are.