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WORLD WAR II
September 1, 1939 – September 2, 1945
ACTIONS OF TOTALITARIAN
DICTATORS- JAPAN
• 1922- sign international treaty to respect China’s borders
• 1928- sign Kellogg-Briand Pact renouncing war
• Government weak- Constitution put strict limits on prime minister & cabinet
powers
• Civilian leaders had little control over armed forces
• Military leaders reported only to emperor
• As long as Japan remained prosperous, civilian government kept power
• Great Depression of 1930’s blamed on gov’t & military won control
• Plan on solving economic issues with global expansion
• Raw materials
• Area to expand
ACTIONS OF TOTALITARIAN
DICTATORS- JAPAN
• 1930- Invade Manchuria
• China’s northern most province
• Rich in iron & coal
• Set up puppet government
• Japanese begin to arrive in large #s to build mines and factories
• 1933-Withdrawl from League of Nations
• No way for League to enforce policies
• A lot of protests from other world countries
• July 7, 1937- Japan invades China
• Exchange shots at a railroad bridge near Beijing
• Sweep into northern China
• Northern cities, including Beijing & Nanjing (capital) fall into Japanese control
• “The rape” of Nanjing- Mass killing of Chinese soldiers & civilians
ACTIONS OF TOTALITARIAN
DICTATORS- ITALY
• Encouraged by League’s failure to stop Japan
• Dreamed of colonial empire in Africa
• Ethiopia- independent nation
• Could not defeat Italy’s airplanes, tanks, guns, and poison gas
with their spears & swords.
• Appealed to League of Nations with no actions
• Britain allows Italians through Suez Canal into Ethiopia
• Hope to keep peace in Europe by giving Mussolini Africa
ACTIONS OF TOTALITARIAN
DICTATORS- GERMANY
• March, 1935- Hitler announces they would not obey Treaty of Versailles restrictions
• League’s failure encourages Hitler
• Rhineland- 30-mile wide buffer zone on each side of Rhine River
• Buffer between France & Germany
• Important industrial area
• March 7, 1936- Hitler moves into area
• French unwilling to risk war
• British urged appeasement: making of concessions to an aggressor in order to avoid
war
• Hitler admitted he would have backed down if challenged
• October, 1936- agreement with Italy
• November, 1936- agreement with Japan
AXIS POWERS!!!
ACTIONS OF TOTALITARIAN
DICTATORS- GERMANY
• November 5, 1937- announces plans to absorb Austria & Czechoslovakia
• Would then expand into Russia & Poland
• Treaty of Versailles prohibited union between Germany & Austria
• Annexed Austria March 1938
• Britain & France ignored
• Czechoslovakia- prosperous democracy w/strong army & defense treaty with
France
• 3M German speakers lived in western border region called Sudetenland
• 1938-Hitler demanded this area return to Germany
• Czechs refused & asked France for help
GERMAN
EXPANSION
• 1935-1939
• Unopposed by
the League of
Nations
1. Rhineland
2. Austria
3. Sudetenland
MUNICH CONFERENCE
• France & Britain preparing for war when Mussolini proposed a meeting
• Leaders met in Munich to decide the fate of Czechoslovakia but
Czechoslovakia was not included in meeting
• Hitler believed Sudetenland should be part of Germany,
• Leaders: Adolf Hitler--Germany
Neville Chamberlain—England
Premier Edouard Deladier---France
Benito Mussolini--Italy
• Hitler promised the world if he received the Sudetenland, there would be no
war.
MUNICH CONFERENCE
• Chamberlain’s policy of appeasement
• Believed that by sacrificing Czechoslovakia he had satisfied Hitler
and he would stop being aggressive
• Hitler promised the world if he received the Sudetenland, there
would be no war.
• September 30, 1938- Hitler is given Sudetenland
• FDR ( Franklin Roosevelt) sent a letter to Hitler asking him to honor
the Munich Conference
• 6 months later, Hitler would invade and take the rest of
Czechoslovakia
UNITED STATES
Isolationism• The policy of avoiding political or military involvement with other
countries.
• Citizens believed involvement in WWI had been a costly mistake
• Beginning in 1935- Congress passed 3 Neutrality Acts
• Banned loans & the sale of arms to nations at war
• Believed this would keep the US our of another war
ACTIONS OF TOTALITARIAN
DICTATORS- SOVIET UNION
• Britain & France asked the Soviet Union to join them in stopping
Germany & Italy
• France & Britain distrusted Stalin
• Stalin resented being left out of the Berlin Conference
• Bargaining with Hitler while talking with France & Britain
• Reached agreement with Hitler on August 23, 1939
• 10 year nonaggression pact
• Agreed to never attack each other (publicly)
• Agreed to divide Poland between themselves (secretly)
• Agreed Russia could take over Finland & Baltic countries (secretly)
GERMANY IN POLAND
• Why Poland?
• Germany lost this after WWI
• If Hitler invaded Poland, Great Britain and France would declare
war on Germany.
• August 23, 1939 @ dawn, Hitler launches surprise attack from air
& ground
• Blitzkrieg “lightning war”
• Poland falls to Germany 3 weeks before France or Britain can
make any military response
• Hitler annexed western half of Poland
WWII BEGINS IN EUROPE
• Germany invades Poland on September 1, 1939-
THIS ACT BEGINS WORLD WAR II
• Great Britain & France declare war on Germany on
September 3rd, 1939
SOVIETS IN POLAND
• September 17, 1939- Soviet troops sent into eastern Poland
• Begin to annexation
• Lithuania, Latvia, & Estonia fell without struggle
• Finland resisted
• November, 1939- 1M Soviet troops sent into Finland
• Stalin thought he would win quickly
• Finns outnumbered & outgunned but fiercely defended country
• March, 1940-Stalin forces Finns to accept surrender terms
ACTUAL WAR BEGINS
• April 9, 1940- First true act of war after was is declared
• Hitler launches surprise invasion of Denmark & Norway
• Denmark falls 4 hours after attack begins
• Norway surrenders 2 months later
Hitler planned to build bases on their coasts in order to
attack Great Britain
THE BATTLE FOR FRANCE &
GREAT BRITAIN
• May, 1940- Hitler begins dramatic sweep through Holland, Belgium, &
Luxembourg
• Part of plan to attack France
• Kept Allied attention on these countries
• Hitler sends larger force of tanks & trucks through Ardennes (heavily
wooded area in NE France & Luxembourg
• Reached France’s northern coast in 10 days
• Head north to join German forces in Belgium
THE BATTLE FOR FRANCE &
GREAT BRITAIN
• May 26, 1940- Germans trapped Allied forces around northern French
city of Lille
• German victory inevitable
• Belgium surrendered
• Allies escape to beach of Dunkirk- trapped with no where to go
• May 26 to June 4th – 1 of the most heroic acts of WWII
• Britain sends fleet of 850 ships to Dunkirk
• Civilian ships: yachts, lifeboats, motorboats, paddle steamboats,
and fishing boats joined
• Sailed back and forth saving 338,000 soldiers while under fire.
FRANCE FALLS
• June 10th- Mussolini joins Hitler and declares war on
G.B. & France
• Italy attacks France from the south
• June 14th- Paris falls to Germany
• June 22nd- France surrenders
• Leaves G.B. to fight alone
GERMANY ATTACKS GREAT
BRITAIN
• Operation Sea Lion
• Germany’s planned attack on Royal Air Force (RAF) followed by landing
250,000 soldiers on British shores.
• RAF- 2,900 planes
• Luftwaffe (German Air Force)- 4,500 planes
• Target airfields and aircraft factories
• Move bombing to cities to lower moral
• RAF fight back hard with radar and Enigma (a German code-making
machine)
• Becomes known as the Battle of Britain
• September, 1940-May 10, 1941
LESSON LEARNED- GERMANY COULD BE BLOCKED!
EASTERN FRONT &
MEDITERRANEAN
• G.B.’s resistance shifts Hitler’s strategy
• Germany & Italy attack Africa
• Mussolini needed to equal Italy to Germany
• Sept. 1940- Mussolini ordered army to move east from Libya
• Goal- to seize Egypt & Suez Canal for access to oil in Middle East
• 1 week= 60 miles into Egypt
• Forced British troops back
• Dec. 1940- British attack & destroy Italy
• By Feb. 1941, G.B. swept 500 miles across N. Africa & capture 130,000
Italian soldiers
• February, 1941- Hitler send Erwin Rommel to Libya
• Commands new tank corps- Afrika Korps
• Attacked in Agheila causing British to retreat 500 miles east to Tobruk
WAR IN THE BALKANS
• Summer, 1940- Hitler begins planning attack on USSR
• Bulgaria, Romania, & Hungary join Axis power in 1941
• Yugoslavia & Greece (both British) resist
• Hitler invades both on April 6th, 1941
• Yugoslavia fell in 11 days
• Greece fell in 17 days
HITLER INVADES THE SOVIET
UNION
• Operation Barbarossa
• Blitzkrieg invasion begins June 22, 1941
• Russians use scorch and retreat strategies
• By Sept. 8th, Germans surround Leningrad
• Plan on starving 2.5M inhabitants by bombing food warehouses
• More than 1M people died over the winter
• Leningrad does not fall
HITLER INVADES THE SOVIET
UNION
• Begin march for Moscow on October 2, 1941
• Surround Moscow in December but Russians
counterattack
• Germans wearing summer uniforms retreat
• Fuel & oil freezing
• Tanks, trucks, & weapons not working
• Hitler demands no retreat
• German troops settle 125 miles outside Moscow & hold line
until March 1943
• Costs 500,000 German lives
UNITED STATES AIDES ITS
ALLIES
• 1935 & 1937- Neutrality Acts
• Illegal to sell arms or lend $$ to nations at war
• March 1941- President Roosevelt develops Lend-Lease Act
• Lend or lease arms to countries vital to US
• By summer of 1921- US Navy escorting British ships carrying US arms
• Hitler orders submarines to sink all cargo ships
• Roosevelt & Churchill issue Atlantic Charter
• Upheld free trade among nations & the right of people to choose own gov’t
• Later serves at Allies peace plan at end of war
• September 4th- German U-boat fired on US destroyer
• US Navy ordered to shoot German subs on sight
• US now involved in an undeclared naval war with Hitler