World War II

What was WWII

• Largest war in human history.

• Involved countries, colonies, and

territories around the entire

world.

• By the end, over 70 million were

dead.

• It lasted from 1939 until 1945.

Causes

W WI and the Treaty of Versailles

Appeasement

Rise of Totalitarianism

• Germany lost land to surrounding nations

• War reparations– Allies collect $ to

pay back war debts to US

– Germany pays $57 trillion (modern day equivalent)

– Germans are bankrupt, embarrassed, guilt ridden, and angry.

• Desperate people turn to desperate leaders

WWI and the Treaty of Versailles

Rise of Totalitarianism

• A system in which the state and its

leader have nearly TOTAL control. • Individual rights are not viewed as important

as the needs of the nation.

– No right to vote

– No free speech

– Government controlled economy

– Often a police state

Totalitarianism

USSR:Communist Dictatorship

Germany & Italy:

FascistDictatorship

Japan:Military

Dictatorship

• Japan‟s Expansion

– Need raw materials, foreign goods

– Military leaders take control of

country

– 1931: invade/conquer Manchuria,

Chinese province

– Japan withdraws from the League of

Nations

The Japanese Invasionof China, 1937

• Spanish Civil War

– In 1931, a republic is declared

– In 1936, General Francisco Franco leads rebellion

– Hitler & Mussolini help Franco & his fascists; no formal support from Allies for Republicans

– 1939: Franco wins civil war

– Franco becomes Spain‟s Fascist dictator

– Hitler used Spanish Civil War as a „practice round‟

Pablo Picasso – „Guernica‟

What is Fascism

• Political belief that says the individual is less important than the nation.

• Glorifies violence, believes it is needed to “prove” strength of a people.

• Uses nationalism and racism.

• Dictatorships.

• Italy and then Germany became fascist.

• Italy

– Fascism is new,

militant political

movement

• Emphasizes nationalism

& loyalty

– Benito Mussolini is

put in charge of govt.

– Italy invades Ethiopia

– Mussolini annexes

Ethiopia: 1936

• League of Nations does

nothing

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Baby-hitler.jpg

“Youth serves the Fuhrer. All 10 year olds into the

Hitler Youth!”

“Germany is

free!”

“Enough

! Vote

Hitler!”

“Hitler is

building. Help

him. Buy German

goods!

“2 million dead. Did they die in vain?

Never! Front soldiers! Adolf

Hitler is showing you the way!”

What did Hitler Want• Militarism- soon after becoming

chancellor he begins rearming Germany

breaking the Treaty of Versailles

• Rhineland- moves troops into the Rhineland territory, breaking the Treaty

of Versailles

• Lebensraum- “living space”

– Austria - annexed peacefully in 1938 –

„Anschluss‟

– Sudetenland – territory in Czechoslovakia

• Great Britain and France let Germany take it

– Hitler then invades the rest of Czechoslovakia

– On to Poland…

Appeasement• Giving someone something to make them happy and leave you

alone.

• Hitler demanded land that wasn‟t Germany‟s and others just gave it to him.

• Nations were trying to prevent war…it didn‟t work. (Isolationism)

• Appeasement just showed Hitler that he could do whatever he wanted.

• France & Britain meet with Hitler in Munich: The Munich Conference (1938)- Hitler says Sudetenland = last territorial demand- Britain & France agree to let him have it- Policy of Appeasement: granting

concessions to maintain peace

How did WWII start?

Sep 1 1939: Germany invades Poland

- Sep 3: Britain & France declare war on Germany

1939: Non-Aggression Pact: Soviet Union & Germany- Agree not to go to war against each other- Secretly agree to divide Poland between them

• Germany then invades France, Belgium,

etc.

• Germans use “blitzkrieg” to overwhelm other armies.

– Blitzkrieg means “lightening war” in German.

– Surround with tanks and troops

in trucks.

– Planes, tanks, infantry used to

surprise enemy & quickly

conquer

• The Fall of France– In 1940 Hitler

captures Denmark, Norway, Netherlands, Belgium, etc..

– Soon, Germany army reaches French coast

– June 14 1940: Germans enter Paris & France surrenders

Vichy France: “Free France”

• Led resistance against Axis Powers

• Supported Allies

• The Battle of Britain

– Britain is basically all

alone!

– Winston Churchill = PM, vows no surrender

– Hitler plans air

invasion of Britain

– 2 months: the „Blitz‟(bombing) of London

– Luftwaffe (German Air Force) v. the Royal Air Force (RAF)

• British use RAF, radar,

code-breaking to

resist the Germans

• Hitler calls off

attacks

The London “Tube”:Air Raid Shelters during the Blitz

• Cooperation from

Americans

– FDR = president

– U.S. wants to remain

neutral & avoid war,

but FDR wants to

strengthen the

Allies to resist

Germany

– Lend-Lease Plan: lend war equipment

to any country

fighting Germany

Great Britain.........................$31 billionSoviet Union..........................$11 billionFrance..................................$3 billionChina..................................$1.5 billionOther European......................$500 millionSouth America.......................$400 million

The amount totaled: $48,601,365,000

US Lend - Lease Act

Lend-Lease

• Invasion of the Soviet Union (1941):

Operation Barbarossa

– Hitler invades Balkan countries to

invade Soviet Union

– Russians adopt a scorched-earth policy in response to German invasion toward Moscow

– Russian winter + Soviet counterattack

= German retreat

• Axis forces attack North Africa

– Mussolini attacks British in North

Africa

– Erwin Rommel = German general in N. Africa

„The desert fox‟

Who was on each side

Axis Powers

• Germany

• Italy

• Japan

Allied Powers

• Great Britain

• Soviet Union

• United States

(1941)

• France

– Surrendered to

Germany in 1940

after 6 weeks

What about the Pacific War

• The US (mostly) fought the Japanese after 1941

• Japan attacks European colonies, U.S. bases; Roosevelt cuts off oil shipments to Japan

• Japanese plan attack on U.S. fleet in Hawaii

• December 7, 1941 Japan bombed Pearl Harbor in Hawaii : the „ Day of Infamy‟– Two hours = most US naval ships

destroyed and 2,000 sailors killed

President Roosevelt Signs the US Declaration of War

2,887 Americans Dead!

• Japanese victories

– Japanese attack Philippine islands defended by U.S.

– Philippine islands fall to Japanese in 1942

– Japan captures Hong Kong & Singapore, Dutch East Indies

– Japanese forces treat conquered peoples, POWS brutally

Bataan Death March: April, 194276,000 prisoners [12,000 Americans] Marched 60 miles in the

blazing heat to POW camps in the Philippines.

• The Allies strike back

– U.S. bombers attack

Tokyo; shows that Japan

is vulnerable

• The Battle of Midway

– U.S. destroys Japan‟s

naval fleet

• MacArthur‟s Plan

– Douglas MacArthur: American army

commander in Pacific

– Plans to “island-hop” past strongholds &

attack weaker Japanese

bases

• The Home Front mobilizes for war

– 17-18 million workers (many women) make weapons, etc..

– People at home ration

– Propaganda aims to inspire civilians to help the war effort

• War limits civil rights

– Japanese Americans forced into internment camps on west coast

Turning Points

• War in the desert

– North Africa

– Hitler‟s Afrika Korps: Erwin Rommel:

“The Desert Fox

– Americans land in 1942 under General

Eisenhower

– By 1943, the Allies defeat the

Germans & control N. Africa

• The Battle of Stalingrad (Winter 1942-1943)

– Germans want to capture the industrial city

– Neither Stalin nor Hitler allow their troops to retreat during the brutal battle

– By 1943, the Russians have broken the Nazi “military machine” & defeated the Germans

German Army Russian Army

1,011,500 men 1,000,500 men

10,290 artillery guns 13,541 artillery guns

675 tanks 894 tanks

1,216 planes 1,115 planes

• Invasion of Italy

– Allies plan to invade the weakest Axis

Power

– Liberation of Italy: June 5 1944

– Mussolini arrested & later hung

– Italians think war is over; Hitler

sends in German troops

– By June 1944: Allies enter Rome;

Germans keep fighting in N. Italy until

the war is over

Mussolini & His Mistress,Claretta Petacci Are Hung in Milan,

1945

• Operation Overlord - Allied invasion of France. Also called D-Day: June 6, 1944– Largest land-air-sea operation in history

– Allied troops cross the English Channel to Normandy, France

– Heavy German resistance, but invasion successful

– Within a month 1 million Allied troops were stationed in Europe.

– Germany is surrounded with the USSR to the east

– Allies quickly liberate Paris: August 25, 1944

• The Battle of the Bulge (winter 1944-1945)

– Hitler‟s final effort

– Germany‟s last counterattack as the

Allies close in on both sides

– Gain early success in breaking Allied

lines, but forced to retreat

• Victory in Europe

– By 1945, Allied armies approach Germany from 2 sides:

Soviets from the East, Americans, etc… from the west

– Soviets surround Berlin in April 1945

– Hitler commits suicide with Eva Braun (Apr 30 1945)

– May 8, 1945, Germany officially surrenders: V-E Day

– Pres. Roosevelt dies: Harry S. Truman becomes

president

The Führer’s Bunker

Mr. & Mrs. Hitler

Eden, Truman, Stalin

Churchill, Roosevelt,

Stalin

• Victory over Japan

– Allies move to retake Philippines in

1944

– Face kamikazes: Japanese pilots who fly suicide missions

– 1945: Americans capture Iwo Jima & Okinawa; Japan suffers huge casualties

US Marines on Mt. Surbachi,Iwo Jima [Feb. 19, 1945]

• The Japanese surrender– Advisors warn Truman that invasion of

Japan will cost many lives

– Manhattan Project: secret program to develop the atomic bomb

– Atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima: August 6, 1945

– Japan hesitates to surrender

– Atomic bomb dropped on Nagasaki: August 9, 1945

– Japanese formally surrender on September 2, 1945: V-J Day

© 70,000 killed immediately.

© 48,000 buildings. destroyed.

© 100,000s died of radiation poisoning & cancer later.

Hiroshima:

© 40,000 killed immediately.

© 60,000 injured.© 100,000s died of

radiation poisoning& cancer later.

Nagasaki:

V-J Day in Times Square, NYC

Aftermath: Europe

• Allies divide Germany up between

them.

– This helps start the Cold War.

• Nuremburg Trials are held in

Germany to try the people

responsible for the war.

– Many are executed and jailed for war

crimes.

The Nuremberg War Trials:

Crimes Against Humanity

Aftermath: Japan

• Occupied Japan

– MacArthur takes charge of U.S. occupation

of Japan

– Japanese people adopt new constitution

– MacArthur puts economic reforms in place

– Emperor stays, but he loses power

– U.S. occupation ends in 1951; the U.S. & Japan

become allies

Quick Facts

• War Costs

–US Debt 1940 - $9 Billion

–US Debt 1945 - $98 Billion

• WWII cost $330 billion – 10 timesthe cost of WWI & equivalent to

all previous federal spending

since 1776

Losses of the Major Wartime Powers in

WWII, 1939-1945

• Germany

– 4.5 million military

– 2 million civilian

• Japan

– 2 million military

– 350,000 civilians

• Italy

– 400,000 military

– 100,000 civilian

• China

– 2.5 million military

– 7.4 million civilians

• USSR

– 10 million military

– 10 million civilians

• Great Britain

– 300,000 military

– 50,000 civilians

• France

– 250,000 military

– 350,000 civilian

• United States

– 274,000 military

The U.S. & the U.S.S.R. Emerged as the Two Superpowers

of the later 20c

The Creation of the U. N.

7 Future American Presidents Served in World War II