World War II

Focus:

Why will some people turn to dictators instead of democracy?

Failure of Treaty of Versailles

Germans upset about losing land

Soviets upset about losing land

Some democracies did emerge, but with problems

many expected to pay huge debts

widespread hunger

homelessness

unemployment

Many democracies collapsed and dictators took control– Joseph Stalin– Benito Mussolini– Adolf Hitler

Stalin - Soviet Union

Lenin dies in 1924 - Stalin takes over– focuses on creating a

model communist state– eliminate private

enterprise, private farming (people work for government)

By 1939 Soviet Union is 3rd largest industrial power (U.S. and Germany are 1st and 2nd)

Anyone who spoke out against government was executed

responsible for 8-13 million deaths

Totalitarian - maintains total control over citizens (no rights)

Benito Mussolini - Italy

Fascism - political movement of a strong, centralized government headed by a powerful dictator.– Not communists

Mussolini was allowed to form a new government by the King

Called himself “Il Duce” or “The Chief”

Crushed opposition and totalitarian state

Adolf Hitler -Germany

Wrote Mein Kampf (My Struggle)– outlined beliefs of

Nazism

Dreamed of uniting all German speaking people under one empire

Aryan Race - blue eyes/blond hair

Jewish people were inferior

Hitler wanted to expand

1933 - Hitler was voted into power.

Established the Third Reich (Third German Empire)

Militarists in Japan

Military leaders invade Manchuria

Militarists take control of Japan’s government

League of Nations gave Japan a “slap on the wrist”. Japan quit League

Hitler establishes a pact with Italy

He sends troops to the Rhineland (a German region near France that was demilitarized)

Italy planned to invade Ethiopia– League of Nations did nothing

Poland (Sept.1,1939)

Germany launches the “Blitzkrieg” - lightning war– take the enemy by surprise

Britain/France declare war on Germany on Sept. 3rd

Discussion Questions

1. What were some of Hitler’s goals?

2. Why did the treaty of Versailles fail?

Focus

What is isolationism and when did the US turn to it?

World War II begins

No more Poland

Stalin begins taking lands lost during WWI as well as Finland

April 9, 1940

Germany begins attacking Denmark, Norway, Neth.,Belgium and Luxembourg

France builds the “Maginot Line” -fortifications on German border

June 1940

Germany and Italy gang up to take France. French General Charles de Gualle fled to England.

Battle of Britain

Germany launched an air war with the Luftwaffe -German airforce. Two months solid of air raids on London.

British Royal Air Force - used radar to detect Germans

Germany eventually called off the raids

Germany Goes to Czechoslovakia

1939 - continued to expand by taking Czech.

U.S.S.R./Germany sign Non-Aggression Pact– agree not to fight each other– agreed to divide Poland up

The Holocaust

the systematic murder of 11 million people. More than half were Jews– Hitler wanted racial purity

Anti-Semitism-hatred of Jews. Hitler used them as his scapegoat.

Jews wore the Star of David as identification

Kristallnacht - “crystal night” - night of broken glass.– Raids against Jewish homes, stores etc. 20,000

arrested and sent to concentration camps

Jewish Refugees

fled to other countries

Albert Einstein etc. went to U.S.

U.S. had limitations because of the depression

Genocide - deliberate and systematic killing of an entire people

Germany began to implement this plan using concentration camps.

Jews, Poles, Disabled, Gypsies, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Soviets, Homosexuals

Concentration Camps

People were held there to work.

Thousand killed daily.

Shot, gassed, starved

Auschwitz was the largest. (Poland)

Crematoriums - ovens to burn the dead

Medical experiments were performed

U.S. - Anti-War

Neutrality Acts - Outlawed arms sales or loans to nations at war

Appeasement -giving up principles to pacify an aggressor.

U.S.

Cash and Carry - nations can buy arms from the U.S. as long as they paid cash and carried them home.

U.S. begins sending weapons and destroyers

Boosted defense spending

Draft - 16 million men between 21 and 35 registered

FDR breaks tradition by running for a 3rd term.

He wins.

Discussion Questions

1.What areas did Hitler take over?

2.Why were many Jewish refugees not allowed into the US?

Focus

Why wasn’t the United States attacked during WWI?

1941

Lend-Lease Plan - to any country whose defense is vital to U.S.

Germany attacks Soviet Union– U.S. aids Soviet Union– Many didn’t want to aid Stalin

Atlantic Charter - FDR and Great Britain outlined the guidelines for war.

no expansion allowed

protect rights of people

free trade

international cooperation

build peace

disarmament and security

Allies - nations joined to fight Axis powers

Germans began attacking merchant ships – no war from U.S.

U.S. imposed trade restrictions on Japan because of their violent expansion efforts in the Pacific

Japan couldn’t continue without oil and fuel from U.S.

they tried to negotiate, not successful

Pearl Harbor

Dec. 7, 1941 - Japan attacks Hawaiian navel base for an hour and a half.– 18 ships damaged– 350 planes destroyed or damaged.

2,400 people dead

1,178 people injured

U.S. declares war on Japan

Germany and Italy declare war on U.S.

U.S. and Britain

Decide Germany is top priority– Soviet Union needs help– Once Hitler is defeated then go to Japan– Accept only the unconditional surrender of

Axis powers

Battle in the AtlanticU-boats attack U.S. ships

U.S. responds with rapid ship building

U.S. comes back to defeat Germans in Atlantic

War in Pacific

Japan worked hard to take control of much of the East

U.S. goes to Philippines with 80,000 men and MacArthur fighting against 200,000 Japanese. U.S. had to retreat.

U.S. attacks Japan in a Pearl Harbor style air raid

Battle of Midway Island– U.S. met Japanese there with Admiral Chester

Nimitz. – U.S. defeats Japanese

Island Hopping

U.S. began hopping to weak islands to gain control eventually began defeating Japan.

Iwo Jima– 200 Japanese survived of 20,700

HomefrontMore soldiers needed - more volunteer and more are drafted

Soldiers are known as G.I.s - government issue– describes clothes,

weapons, supplies and now soldiers

Women were now joining the military– 250,000 women

served in WWII

Many minority groups were represented as well

Native Americans - 25,000

Japanese Am - 33,000

Chinese Am - 13,000

African Americans - 1,000,000+

Latinos - 500,000+

Many new factories producing war materials– millions of women

went to work

Sacrifices

“We are now at war. We are now in it—all the way. Every single man, woman, and child is a partner in the most tremendous undertaking of our American history.”

Franklin Roosevelt December 9, 1941

Rationing

Food: meat, sugar, butter

Tires, gasoline.

Collect fabric, scrap metal, old tires for recycling.

Meatless Tuesdays.

Men’s suits became cuff less and vest less.

Propaganda

“Kick ‘em in the Axis” became a popular slogan.

Discussion Questions

1.Why would the US and Britain develop the Atlantic Charter (think about how WWI ended)?

2.What is Island Hopping?

Focus

Why does the US military have an advantage in the world today?

FDR created OSRD - Office of Scientific Research and Development

Scientists improved radar and sonar (underwater)

Use of pesticides kept soldiers free from lice

Developed penicillin

Manhattan Projectdevelopment of the Atomic Bomb

Germans split uranium atoms

Einstein encouraged FDR to look at it

A-bomb in the works

Japanese Internment Camps

Hundreds of thousands were rounded up and confined

2/3 were Nisei - born in U.S. (citizens)

Federal Control

(OPA) Office of Price Administration - freeze prices to avoid inflation

(WPB) War Productions Board - decided which factories would start wartime production. Drives to collect iron, cans etc.

Rationing - fixed amounts of goods– meat, shoes, sugar, coffee, gas– carpool

The Big Three

Leaders of the Allies (Churchill, Roosevelt and Stalin) met at Yalta in February of 1945 to discuss Europe’s postwar strategy.

Battle of Leyte Gulf

The largest naval battle of WWIIFirst battle where the Japanese organized kamikaze attacksLed to the US gaining the Philippines

Battle of Bulge

Allies form a 80 mile long front.

The Germans pushed through and created a “Bulge” in the line

“Bulge” lasted a month

Germans were eventually pushed back

120,000 troops, 600 tank/guns, 1,600 planes lost for the Germans

Battle of Stalingrad

Bitter winter in Russia

Major turning point in the war on the Eastern front

Germany fights to take Stalingrad– had 9/10 of city when Stalin launched a counter

attack to force Germans to surrender

– 91,000 Germans surrendered– 1,250,000 Soviets died (more than all the

Americans in the whole war)

Americans and Dwight D. Eisenhower go to Africa to control Axis aggression.

By 1943 - they had all surrendered

U.S. and Allies enter Italy who wanted to get rid of Mussolini but couldn’t after Germans took control.

Fighting in Italy lasted 18 months.

Allies drove the Germans out with help from Italians who resisted Mussolini.

April 28th, 1945 Italian resisters found Mussolini.

They shot him and hung him

Fighting in Europe

Allies plan an invasion into France. (Normandy Peninsula)

In preparation they bomb supply routes.

D-Day - June 6, 1944

156,000 troops, 4,000 landing craft, 600 warships, 11,000 planes invaded France. German retaliation was fierce!

By Sept, 1944 the Allies freed France, Belgium, Lux. And most of the Netherlands

Discussion Questions

1.Why did the United States develop internment camps?

2.What is rationing?

Focus

Why would some be for atomic bomb to end WWII, and some be against?

FDR is elected AGAIN!

Truman is his Vice President

Harry S Truman - from Independence, Missouri

Surrender

Americans moved in from east

Soviets moved in from west

Began to liberate concentration camps

Soviets stormed Berlin

Hitler marries Eva Braun– The next day they

committed suicide• he shot himself, she

drank poison

May 8, 1945

V-E day

The Third Reich accepted unconditional surrender

FDR dies - April 12,1945

Truman takes over

Truman learns of Manhattan Project– headed by J. Robert Oppenheimer in N. Mexico

A-bomb was ready and tested July 16, 1945– the flash could be

seen 180 miles away

Okinawa - last defensive outpost– 7,600 Americans die– 110,000 Japanese die

Many scientists were opposed to using the bomb– Options:

• drop without warning

• drop in remote location as a warning

August 6,1945

Enola Gay - B-29 bomber released “Little Boy” over Hiroshima

Japan did not surrender

3 Days later “Fat Man” was dropped on Nagasaki

200,000 people died as a result of the A-bomb

September 2nd, Japan surrenders on the U.S.S. Missouri

Peace

Yalta Conference (Feb, 1945)– Churchill, FDR, Stalin agreed on United

Nations• 5 permanent seats - U.S., Great Britain, Soviet

Union, France, China

Germany was divided into 4 sectors.

U.S., G.B., Soviet Union, and France each occupied one.

Nuremberg Trials

Nazi leaders tried for their crimes– 22 tried - 12

sentenced to death– 200 more later

found guilty

Japanese Occupation

MacArthur reformed Japan’s economy and called for a new constitution– women’s suffrage– guarantee basic freedoms– free elections

World War II is over

U.S. now has to deal with the threat of Communism in the Cold War

Discussion Questions

1.How was Berlin split up following the war?

2.What impact has the US had on Japan?