• Vichy city in central France where a puppet state governed unoccupied France and the French colonies

• Viet Cong communist rebels in South Vietnam who sought to overthrow South Vietnam's government; received assistance from North Vietnam

• Vikings Scandinavian peoples whose sailors raided Europe from the 700s through the 1100s

• vizier chief minister who supervised the business of government in ancient Egypt

W

• War of the Austrian Succession series of wars in which various European nations competed for power in Central Europe after the death of Hapsburg emperor Charles VI

• warlord local military ruler

• warm-water port port that is free of ice yearround

• Warsaw Pact mutual-defense alliance between the Soviet Union and seven satellites in Eastern Europe set up in 1955

• weapons of mass destruction biological, nuclear, or chemical weapons

• welfare state a country with a market economy but with increased government responsibility for the social and economic needs of its people

• westernization adoption of western ideas, technology, and culture

• Wittenberg a city in northern Germany, where Luther drew up his 95 theses

• women's suffrage right of women to vote

• World Trade Organization international organization set up to facilitate global trade

Y

• Yalta Conference meeting between Churchill, Roosevelt, and Stalin in February 1945 where the three leaders made agreements regarding the end of World War II

• Yathrib final destination of Muhammad's hijra and the home of the first community of Muslims; later renamed Medina; located in the northwest of present-day Saudi Arabia

• Yorktown, Virginia location where the British army surrendered in the American Revolution

• Yuan dynasty Chinese dynasty ruled by the Mongols from 1279 to 1368; best known ruler was Kublai Khan

Z

• zaibatsu since the late 1800s, powerful banking and industrial families in Japan

• zemstvos local elected assembly set up in Russia under Alexander II

• Zen the practice of meditation; a school of Buddhism in Japan

• zeppelin large gas-filled balloon

• ziggurat in ancient Mesopotamia, a large, stepped platform thought to have been topped by a temple dedicated to a city's chief god or goddess

• Zionism a movement devoted to rebuilding a Jewish state in Palestine

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