Download chapter outline

CHAPTER 27
THE DEEPENING OF THE EUROPEAN CRISIS:
WORLD WAR II
CHAPTER OUTLINE
Opening; Hitler’s goals, the two conflicts of WWII, total war
I. Prelude to War (1933-1939); what makes Europe ripe for conflict
A. The Role of Hitler; threat of Slavs, Lebensraum, Bolshevik effect on Russia, support for
expansion
B. The “Diplomatic Revolution” (1933-1936); effect of the Treaty of Versailles, German
advantages, steps to rearmament, withdrawal from Geneva Disarmament Conference and the League of
Nations
1. German Rearmament, announcement of rearmament, reaction from European states,
Anglo-German Naval Pact, appeasement, reasons for appeasement
2. Occupation of the Rhineland; British opinion, German opinion of Hitler
3. New Alliances; Mussolini, Spanish Civil War, Rome Berlin Axis, Anti-Comintern
Pact, Hitler’s diplomatic revolution
C. The Path to War in Europe (1937-1939); Neville Chamberlain
1. Austria; invitation from gov’t, march in, Czechoslovakia’s strengths
2. Czechoslovakia; Sudetenland, Munich Conference, Internal disorder and the
destruction of Czechoslovakia
3. Poland; Danzig, French and British reactions, negotiations with Stalin, Secret treaty
with the Soviets, War
D. The Path to War in Asia; empire and internal tensions, political parties
1. Japanese Goals in East Asia; Manchuria and the league of nations, Invasion of china,
choosing between attacking the USSR or SE Asia, Reaction from America
II. The Course of World War II (see reading questions)
A. Victory and Stalemate
1. Hitler’s Attack in the West
2. The Problem of Britain
3. Invasion of the Soviet Union
B. The War in Asia
C. The Turning Point of the War (1942-1943)
1. Battle of Stalingrad
2. Battle of Midway
D. The Last Years of the War
1. Allied Advances in the West
2. Soviet Offensive in the East
3. Defeat of Japan
III. The New Order
A. The Nazi Empire; extent, varying gov’ts, racial considerations, exploitation of resources
1. Plans for an Aryan Racial Empire; Himmler, resettlement in Poland, plans for
colonization in the east
2. Economic Exploitation
3. Use of Foreign Workers; recruitment of workers, problems created by it
B. Resistance Movements
1. Resistance Movements in Nazi-Occupied Europe; actions of resistance movements,
Charles de Gaulle, Tito and Yugoslavia, communists, women (Wives dressed their husbands like
women??? What, like the guy couldn’t put the dress on himself to escape execution?)
426
2. Resistance Movements in Germany; The White Rose, Stauffenberg bombing
C. The Holocaust; Hitler’s conflict of opposites
1. Early Nazi Policy; emigration, Madagascar plan. Einsatzgruppen, “Final Solution”
problems with morale
2 The Death Camps; construction, gas chambers, cremation, Wannsee, precedence of
transportation, experience of death camps, death toll
3. The Other Holocaust; other targeted groups
D. The New Order in Asia; Great East Asian co-Prosperity Sphere, Asia for Asians, military
needs, conquest of Nanjing, Burma-Thailand railway
IV. The Home Front; ways in which WWII was more of a total war than WWI
A. The Mobilization of Peoples
1. Great Britain; success, women, food and gardens, The Home Guard, new ministries
2. The Soviet Union; The Great Patriotic War, Supercentralization, siege of Leningrad,
moving factories, battle of the machines, living conditions, women, farming, propaganda
3. The United States; differences between US and European mobilization, social
problems
4. Germany; attempts to keep consumer goods, coming late to total war, resistance to
women working
5. Japan; advantages, bushido, women, foreign workers,
B. Frontline Civilians: The Bombing of Cities; use of bombs, Douhet and civilian bombing
1. Luftwaffe Attacks; The Blitz, effect on Morale,
2. The Bombing of Germany; Bomber Command, precision bombing, Hamburg,
Dresden, effects
3. The Bombing of Japan: The Atomic Bomb; development, Japan’s vulnerability,
People’s Volunteer Corps, Hiroshima and Nagasaki
V. Aftermath of the War: Cold War
A. The Conference at Tehran; The Big Three, Differing plans, meeting in Germany, plans for
partition
1. The Yalta Conference; Stalin and spheres of influence, Roosevelt and Selfdetermination, making deals, United Nations, plan for Germany, Eastern Europe
B. Intensifying Differences; lend-lease, Romania and Poland,
1. The Potsdam Conference; Truman, Soviet security
C. The Emergence of the Cold War
VI. Conclusion; new super powers
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS FOR THE PRIMARY SOURCES (BOXED
DOCUMENTS)
1. “Hitler's Foreign Policy Goals”: According to Hitler, what were Germany's possible foreign policy
goals? Which one did Hitler prefer? Why? What did he predict would be the response and reaction of
England and Italy if Germany pursued his preferred foreign policy? What were the consequences of his
decisions in pursing his desired goal? (page 784)
2. “The Munich Conference”: What were the issues that led to the Munich Conference and what were the
consequences? Compare the responses of Churchill and Chamberlain to the Munich Conference
appeasement agreement. Why did they disagree so much? Did Chamberlain’s actions at Munich directly
lead to World War II? Why or why not? In 1938, who was the “realist” and which was the “idealist” and
why? (page 787)
3. “A German Soldier at Stalingrad”: What does this excerpt tell you about the attitude of German
soldiers prior to the battle of Stalingrad and the degree to which ordinary soldiers understood the realities
427
of modern urban warfare. Did even the generals perceive the costs of urban warfare? Why do you think
the author here is so surprised at determined and effective Russian resistance? (page 795)
4. “Hitler's Plan for a New Order in the East”: What new order did Hitler envision in the east? What
would its achievement have meant for the peoples of Eastern Europe? Do Hitler’s ideas echo some of the
assumptions and practices of the New Imperialism of the late nineteenth-century? What are the
similarities and what are the differences, if any? Was Hitler insane in some of his predictions and hopes?
(page 798)
5. “The Holocaust: The Camp Commandant and the Camp Victims”: What death camp procedures in
mass murder did the Germans create for the extermination of people who were Jewish? Why do you
think that the Germans were so meticulous in these procedures? What do you think induced German
killers to produce so many documents about the construction and conduct of the Holocaust later so
valuable in the many war crimes trials of these criminals? Could a similar event take place in the future?
(page 802)
6. “The Bombing of Civilians”: What common elements do you find in these different descriptions of
bombing raids? What do the three accounts suggest about the progression of bombing destructiveness as
the war progressed? What effect did aerial bombing of cities and civilians have on the nature of modern
warfare? (page 807)
7. “Emergence of the Cold War: Churchill and Stalin”: What do the statements of Churchill and Stalin tell
us about the origins and rhetoric of the Cold War? In these two documents, which seems to have been a
more accurate account of what was taking place in 1945 and 1946? Why? Could it be argued that both
sides in this global conflict persistently misunderstood the other? Why or why not? (page 811)
CHAPTER SUMMARY
Of the causes of World War II, Adolph Hitler’s ambitions loom large, including his beliefs in
Aryan racial supremacy and the need for Germany to have living space in the east (Lebensraum). Posing
as a man of peace, Hitler claimed that the Treaty of Versailles was unfair; and when he stated that
Germany would rearm and when German troops occupied the demilitarized Rhineland, there was little
reaction by Britain and France. Criticized for invading Ethiopia, Mussolini joined Hitler in forming the
Rome-Berlin Axis.
Hitler annexed Austria in March 1938. Czechoslovakia’s Sudentenland, home of three million
ethnic Germans, was next. In late 1938, Britain and France agreed to Hitler’s demands, believing it
meant “peace in our times,” but Hitler soon seized the rest of Czechoslovakia. Western distrust of the
Soviets played into his hands, and in August 1939 Germany signed a non-aggression pact with the Soviet
Union, and Germany launched the Blitzkrieg against Poland on September 1, 1939. In April 1940, the
Nazis attacked in the west and France’s Maginot Line of fortresses were bypassed by Germany’s panzer
divisions. Under Winston Churchill’s leadership, Britain survived Germany’s air assault in the Battle of
Britain. Hitler invaded Russia in June 1941, but Soviet resistance and winter conditions led to stalemate.
Imperial ambitions and economic concerns propelled Japan to attack the United States at Pearl Harbor on
December 7, 1941. America fought back, forming the Grand Alliance with Britain and the Soviet Union.
The Japanese advance was ended at the naval battles of the Coral Sea and Midway in 1942. By
mid-1943 the Axis was driven out of North Africa, German submarine attacks were thwarted in the
Atlantic, and a German army was defeated at Stalingrad. In June 1944, Rome fell to the Allies and
Normandy was invaded. The Soviets linked up with the western Allies in April 1945, and on April 30,
1945, Hitler committed suicide. Atomic bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August. The
war had ended, but at the cost of 50 million dead.
In the Nazi empire racial assumptions were paramount, with Nordics deemed superior, Latins less
so, and Slavs were to be replaced by Aryan Germans. Millions of slave laborers fueled the Nazi war
machine. Resistance movements had only mixed results. Anti-Semitism was central to Nazism. In the
428
1930s, Jewish emigration was encouraged, but ultimately the Final Solution was annihilation, first at the
hands of German troops, and then in extermination camps where millions died in gas chambers. Up to six
million Jews died in the Holocaust, along with Gypsies, homosexuals, and others.
In Britain, 55 percent of the population engaged in war work, and women played a major role in
all the combatant nations. The mainland of the United States was never endangered, and because of its
industrial wealth, the United States became the chief arsenal for the Allies. War brought population
movements, social problems of shifting morals, and racial conflict, and 110,000 Japanese-Americans
were placed in relocation camps. Both sides bombed civilian populations; the Allied bombing of Dresden
in February 1945 killed 100,000 persons, and. Japanese cities suffered from widespread bombing even
before the use of the atomic bomb.
By the Yalta conference of February 1945, the Soviet Union controlled most of Eastern Europe.
Germany was to be divided into zones of occupation. However, Stalin soon showed he would not allow
free elections that might be anti-Soviet. The West feared Soviet expansion, the Soviets believed their
actions were necessary to their future security. An ideological struggle had emerged, pitting totalitarian
communism against democratic capitalism. In 1946, Churchill gave a label to the new Cold War reality:
Europe was divided by “an iron curtain.”
429