Key Questions1. How and to what extent can WWII

be considered a total war?2. How did the end of the war

contribute to a new world order?

Ideological War• Absolute enemies• war of two opposing ideologies defending

radically different values• Axis powers– Fascist dictators based on racist ideology– War of conquest of a vast territory to impose a

new order– Enemy is dehumanized and given diabolical traits

• Violence used against enemy not viewed as an abominable act

• Racial conception of war

Allies and Resistance• Fight between 2 incompatible visions

of the world• Values of freedom, democracy and

human rights• Fight of justice• Destroying the enemy is indispensable

• Video: FDR’s Four Freedoms Speech

Propaganda• Ideological fight explains importance

of propaganda as war instrument–Maintaining morale– Justifying the fight– Psychological battle to demoralize the

enemy• Major progress in information

techniques– Posters, press, tracts, cinema, radio

An Economic War• Mobilizing economies– All human and material means are

mobilized by all the warring nations to achieve final victory

– US lend lease program and victory Program makes U.S. the “arsenal of democracy” to supply goods to allies

Video: The Great Collective Effort, The Roosevelts

Exploitation of conquered territories• Fascist regime war economy based

on exploiting conquered territories and their populations– Europe is pillaged and subjugated– Germany seizes raw materials and food

stuffs– German workers replaced with • war prisoners, • concentration camp detainees • laborers from occupied territories

– STO under Vichy regime – all men 20-23 yrs old

Economic CostsUS 2.8 TrillionGermany 2.1 TrillionFrance 1.1 TrillionRussia 930 BillionGreat Britain 497 BillionJapan 412 Billion

Amounts in 2007 U.S. Dollars

$1 in 1945 = $10 in 2007

Science contributes to the war• Acceleration of technological

innovations– Radar, jet engines, etc…)

• Means of destruction more and more powerful– Tanks, bombers, V1 & V2 rockets– Scientific progress facilitates grand scale

massacres (esp. by air raids)– Atomic bomb developed by the U.S. major

breakthrough - unprecedented destructive capacity

A War of Annihilation• Military victims–Modernization of weapons leads to

unprecedented losses–War prisoners (esp E. Europe & Asia)• Treated with incredible brutality• 2 million Soviet prisoners out of 3 M die from

exhaustion, starvation or are liquidated

Civilian Casualties• Armies impose bloody reprisals on

civilian populations– Rape of Nanking 1937• Japanese slaughter 100,000 civilians

– Village of Oradour-sur-Glane (Limousin) 1944• Entire village burned and population

massacred by SS division

Costs and consequences of WarTotal loss of over 50 million people•Eastern Europe, particularly hit = 35 million deaths• USSR, number reaches over 20 million (half civilians) = 14% population• Poland = 16% population gone, mostly civilians due to genocide

• Asia• China suffers 6-8million deaths• Japan 3 million

These figures show the deaths suffered by

individual nations as a percentage of total

Allies and Axis losses

Key Conferences during the War• Tehran conference 1943– First meeting of the Big 3: Roosevelt,

Churchill and Stalin– Stalin wanted control of Eastern Europe

and a divided Germany– Churchill wanted a free Eastern Europe

& a strong Germany– FDR plays mediator

Yalta Conference 1945• Big Three meet again• Discuss plans for postwar Europe• Stalin agrees to free elections in E.

Europe• Division of Germany into 4 zones

Potsdam Conference 1945• Truman President after FDR’s death• Demand unconditional surrender of

Japan• Threaten to use atomic weapon

Nuremberg Trials 1945-1949After the war, Nazi criminals tried by judges from the U.S., France, Great Britain, USSR

The initial trial prosecuted top Nazi leaders while 12 other trials investigated a variety of military, governmental, industrial, and professional leaders

Severe sentences given to those directly involved in war crimes while others received short sentences or no penalty

Testimony of survivors given during the trials helped the world understand the atrocities that occurred during the war

Expulsion of Germans from Eastern Europe 1945-1950

• At Potsdam Conference, a consensus reached that stability in Europe would best be achieved by moving German populations scattered throughout Eastern Europe into Allied occupied Germany

• Mass deportations occurred in Sudetenland, Czechoslovakia, Poland, Yugoslavia, Soviet Union, etc.

• Estimated numbers vary (no records kept)12-17 million people

• Treatment of refugees varied, many died during journey to Germany or in refugee camps

• More refugees relocated to West Germany than to Communist East Germany. Many others left for U.S., Canada, Australia, Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Spain

Postwar Germany•De-Nazification of postwar Germany was a major goal. Involved destroying all remnants of Nazi symbols

•1949 British, French and American occupied zones become the Federal Republic of Germany while the Soviet occupied zone becomes the German Democratic Republic but remains a Satellite nation under Soviet control

International Military Tribunal for the Far East

• Leaders of Imperialist Japan put on trial for various war crimes committed including the Nanking Massacre

• Judges and Prosecutors from ten different nations

• Several Defendants including Prime Minister Hideki Tojo were sentenced to death while others spent the rest of their lives in prison

The Battle of Britain - The Blitzkreig

• Summer/Autumn 1940• V1 and V2 bombers used to gain air

superiority over Britain• German tactic to weaken Britain

first by air in order to prepare for a land invasion

• Military, strategic targets then terror bombing strategy used in cities

• Londoners built air raid shelters• Many Children evacuated and sent

to the countryside• Video: People’s Century Total War

53’

Video: People’s Century Total War 53’

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