World War II

WWII: Significant Participants

World War II was the most devastating event of the 20th century and the lessons and events still dominate current

foreign policy.It was a total war.

Fifty million people died.Twenty-five million of them

were civilians.

WWII Terms

1. Totalitarian dictator2. Appeasement3. Blitzkrieg4. Third Reich5. Lend-Lease6. Pearl Harbor7. rationing

8. D Day9. Midway10. Yalta Conference11. Hiroshima12. VE Day13. VJ Day14. United Nations

1. Totalitarianism—absolute and total rule (The Axis)2. Appeasement—giving in to a dictator (Munich)3. Blitzkrieg— “lightning war” (Luftwaffe in Poland)4. Third Reich—Germany’s European Empire5. Lend-Lease—U.S. loaned or rented weapons (FDR)6. Pearl Harbor—Japan’s surprise attack on U.S.7. Rationing—limits on consumer goods on home front8. D Day—turning point in Europe (Normandy)9. Midway—turning point in Pacific 10. Yalta Conference—The Big Three discuss the end of war11. Hiroshima—use of atomic bomb against Japan (by U.S.)12. VE Day—Victory over Europe (May 1945)13. VJ Day—Victory over Japan (Aug./Sept. 1945)14. United Nations—Allied nations form a peace-keeping

organization

Add terms as needed

• Mobilization

• Flying Tigers

• Office of War Information

• Executive Order 9066

• Rosie the Riveter

• Tuskegee Airmen

• Navajo Code Talkers

• Bataan Death March

• FDR and Truman

• G.I. Bill (Servicemen’s Re-adjustment Act of 1944)

What is Historiography?• How we study history

• Military

• Political

• Social

• Economic

• Psychological

• Biographical

• Focuses on how history is written and interpreted

German Expressionism(Kandinsky, 1911)

Events Leading to World War II

Rise of Totalitarianism in Italy, USSR, Japan, and Germany

Why? To help countries fight uncertain times of economic depression

“Isms”

• Socialism—You have two cows. Give one cow to your neighbor.

• Communism—You have two cows. Give both cows to the government, and they may give you some of the milk.

• Fascism—You have two cows. You give all of the milk to the government, and the government sells it.

• Nazism—You have two cows. The government shoots you and takes both of the cows.

• Anarchism—You have two cows. Keep both of the cows, shoot the government agent and steal another cow.

• Capitalism—You have two cows. Sell one cow and buy a bull.

Italy

• Benito Mussolini— leader in 1922• Fascism -national socialism) enforced by “blackshirts”• New Roman Empire• “Il Duce” • “Hail Caesar”

USSR

• Stalin replaced Lenin in Communist Soviet Union (USSR) in 1924• Totalitarian dictator • Enforced with “Purges”

Japan

• Emperor Hirohito• Korea occupied since 1910• 1931—invaded Manchuria (state in China)• 1937—invaded China• (Note: The Anti-American military leader, Tojo

Hideki became prime minister in Oct. 1941)

Germany--Background

• Weimar Republic after WWI• Unemployed veterans and resentments after

The Treaty of Versailles• President Hindenburg was elderly

Adolf Hitler

• Childhood in Austria• Ambitions• Fascism—Nazi Party, swastika, brownshirts

• Beer Hall Putsch (1924)

• Show trial and imprisonment

• Mein Kampf—a bestseller

• Aryans—the “Master Race”

• Jews as scapegoats

• Norse gods and Wagner operas

• Nazis elected to Reichstag

• “Chancellor”– 1933• Burning of the Reichstag• Death of Hindenburg• “Messiah Complex”• “Der Fuhrer”• Hitler Youth• Gestapo enforcement• The Third Reich• Nuremberg Laws• Kristallnacht

Nuremberg Rally

1935

• Italy invaded Ethiopia• Germany re-armed and dismissed The Treaty

of Versailles

1936

• Germany occupied The Rhineland• France relied on The Maginot Line as a

defense• Spanish Civil War— Francisco Franco got military help from Italy and Germany• “blitzkrieg” and total warfare

Picasso’s Guernica

1936

• Rome-Tokyo-Berlin Axis Formed

Bush’s Speech in 2006• Referred to an “Axis of Evil” (Iran, Iraq, N. Korea)

1937• Japan invaded China-(“Flying Tigers”)• Closed “Open Door Policy” in 1938

1938

• Hitler conquered Austria• Hitler conquered The Sudetenland (part of

Czechoslovakia)

Munich Conference--1938

Appeasement• English Prime Minister Neville

Chamberlain: “We shall have peace in our time”

• Advised by U.S. Ambassador Joseph P. Kennedy and

• American hero, Charles A. Lindbergh

• Hitler invaded and occupied Czechoslovakia!

1939

• Italy conquered Albania

• Germany signed a secret non-aggression pact with USSR

• On Sept. 1, Hitler invaded Poland with his Luftwaffe (air force) and blitzkrieg (lightening war)

• England and France declared war

• Winston Churchill became prime minister of England

1940, 1941

• U.S. remained officially neutral

• Lend-Lease program supplied weapons to countries fighting the Axis powers

WWII “Sides”

Axis Nations• Germany• Japan• Italy (until 1945)

Allied Nations • Great Britain• France• USSR (switched sides when

Hitler double-crossed them)• U.S.A. (starting in 1941)• 22 other nations around the

world (“united nations”)