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The Twentieth Century
 fitzBig picture ideas
 How do nationalism and self-determination impact global events?
 Nationalism impacts almost every country in the chapter
 Positive force in uniting people
 Negative force in pitting people against one another
 Self-determination closely linked w/nationalism as goal of most nationalists
 Are world cultures converging?
 How do increasing globalization, population growth, and resource use change the environment?
 The Twentieth Century in Chunks
 The World War 1 Era
 Beginning of 20th century, most of the world was either colonized by Europe or was once colonized
 Everyone connected to the instability in Europe
 Meant when Europeans were at war with each other, colonies were brought into the fight
 European rivalries had already had an impact on the globe for centuries
 Colonial period especially
 Seven Years’ War for example
 In 1914, a major fight among European powers had a more substantial and destructive effect
 Industrial Revolution had given Europe some powerful new weapons
 Ships and airplanes used to deliver them
 Large industrial cities had millions of people- massive casualties possible
 Rise in nationalism fed a military build-up and the desire to use it
 After the unifications of Germany and Italy, Europe had too many power-grabbing rivals
 Shifting Alliances
 Decades leading up to WW1, European power tried to keep balance of power in check by forming alliances
 Newly united Germany (1871 after battles with Denmark, Austria, France) gained industrial power
 Worried that France would seek revenge for its defeat in the Franco-Prussian War in 1870 (rivals)
 Before he resigned from office, Otto von Bismarck created the Triple Alliance among Germany, Austria-Hungary,
and Italy in the 1880s
 Also had a pact with Russia
 Over the next few decades, major players of Europe became so obsessed with a possible war that generals already
had plans in event of war
 After William II ousted Bismarck from power in 1890, he ignored Russia
 Allowed previous agreements between the countries to wither
 With Russia free, France jumped at the chance to make an alliance
 With France to the west and Russia to the east of Germany, a France-Russo alliance could keep Germany in check
 Germany’s 1905 Schlieffen Plan caused for a swift attack on France through Belgium- a neutral country w/ a
growing relationship w/Britain
 By 1907, Britain signed friendly agreements with France and Russia, creating the Triple Entente
 Took the power of a fully unified and industrialized Germany to put France and Britain on the same side
 Everyone was anticipating the possibility of war
 Causes:
1. Imperialism
 Colonial powers had competed for decades over land in Asia and Africa
 By the beginning of the 20th century, there was still argument over even less available land
 Leads to increased suspicion and competition among the European nations
2. Nationalism
 Tensions inside the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the Ottoman Empire, and the Russian Empire from ethnic
groups that wanted to break off and form their own nations
The Twentieth Century
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Leaders of newly unified nations (Germany and Italy) showed great pride
 Expressed it through imperial expansion and armament build up
3. Arms Race
 Industrial Revolution spurred the mass production of weapons that could kill faster from farther
 French created a machine gun that could deliver 300 bullets/minute
 Germans had artillery that could fire over 50 miles
 Nationalism combined with this to create an unofficial competition between European countries to see
who could produce the best weapons
4. Alliance system
 Triple Entente: France, Britain, Russia
 Triple Alliance: Germany, Italy, Austria-Hungary
 Trouble in the Balkans
 Ottoman Empire in bad shape
 “Sick man of Europe”
 Kept losing territory
 Greece won independence in 1829
 Slavic areas north of Greece began to win their independence as well
 Romania, Bulgaria, Serbia, Montenegro
 Bosnia and Herzegovina were under the control of Austria-Hungary
 Decided at the Berlin Conference of 1878- same that led to the Scramble for Africa
 Serbia wanted Bosnia and Herzegovina for itself
 To complicate the issue, Russia was allied with Serbia
 In this climate, Archduke Franz Ferdinand visited Sarajevo, capital of Bosnia, in 1914
 Successor to throne of Austria-Hungary
 Gavrilo Princip, a Serbian nationalist, shot and killed the Archduke
 In an era when Europe is tightly wound in alliances, the dominoes quickly fell
 Austria-Hungary declare war on Serbia
 Russia, allied with Serbia, declares war on Austria-Hungary, mobilized against Germany
 Germany declares war on Russia (due to Triple Alliance), actually mobilizes before Russia
 France actually pulls away from border, Germany begins Schlieffen Plan
 Germany asks Belgium to enter, refuse, declare war on both Belgium and France
 Britain declares war when Germany enters Belgium
 Italy gets out of Triple Alliance and declares neutrality
 Ottoman Empire forms alliance with Germany and Austria-Hungary
 Known as Central Powers
 Wanted to retake Serbia
 Advantages
 Central Powers had short-term advantages
 Connected geographically
 Germany had the best trained and best equipped army
 German industrial system was better suited for wartime conversion
 Allies had long-term advantages
 More men of military age
 More factories (took time to convert)
 Stronger navy, and able to force a blockade
 The War to end all Wars
 Since the European powers had colonies or strong economic ties with the rest of the world, resulted in battles across
the globe
The Twentieth Century
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More than 40 countries ended up participating in the war
 Includes Japan who fought on the side of Britain
 Italy joined the allies in 1915
 The U.S. declared its neutrality at first
 Focused on own internal affairs, known as isolationism
 German provocation
 Unrestricted Submarine Warfare of Germans against British blockade
 Zimmerman Telegram promising Mexico part of U.S. if they invaded
 Sinking of British passenger liner Lusitania in 1915
 Killed 100 Americans
 U.S. joins April 2, 1917
 November 11, 1918, the Central Powers give up
 Trench warfare, chemical warfare, mechanization of weapons
 Features of World War I
 No one expected a long war
 When it lingered, the two sides hunkered down into defensive positions in France and Russia by end of 1914
 New weapons of WW1 led to changes in tactics and philosophies about war- machine guns, poison gas, airplanes,
submarines
 Machine gun’s rapid killing power forced combatants on all sides into defensive trenches
 Despite huge losses, leaders repeatedly sent long lines of men across “No Man’s Land”
 Battle of Somme- 20,000 Brits die first day
 60,000 before first soldier reached German trenches
 After four months of battle, 1.5 million men were killed, wounded, missing, or captured
 Lowered the value of humanity in war
 Civilians as legitimate targets in “total war”
 Full economic production and political power of nations engaged in military victory
 Submarines torpedoed enemy civilian ships (Lusitania)
 Cannons fired indiscriminately into cities (Paris Guns- German artillery shooting at Paris from 82 miles away)
 Colonial Participation in WWI and consequences
 Use of African and Asian soldier to fight the war
 India had one million troops to aid the British
 Military campaigns in the colonies
 Australian soldiers fought at Gallipoli
 British convince Arabs to fight against the Ottomans
 Promised them independence
 May not have been a good decision by the Europeans
 Now, nationalist movements in the colonies had weapons
 Many elites had learned about European ideals such as self-rule while attending European schools before the
war
 Fourteen Points call for “self-determination” for nationalist groups
 Intended for Europe, but the nationalist movements in the colonies picked it up
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 Consequences of World War I
 Consequences staggering
 8.5 million soldiers killed
 20 million total killed
 Social impact on the home front was substantial
 Most governments took over industrial production during the war
The Twentieth Century
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Price controls and rationing of products needed on the front lines
Women moved into factories to fill shoes of soldiers
 Revved up women’s suffrage movement
 Basis for successful push of women in Britain and U.S. to gain the vote
 Shaped how Europeans viewed war for two decades
 Policy of “appeasement” by France and Britain before World War II
 Russian, Austrian, Ottoman, and German empires fell during or just after WWI
 Austria’s once huge empire was divided into several nations
 Yugoslavia, Hungary, smaller Austria
 Democratic nation of Turkey established by nationalists led by Mustafa Kemal, “Ataturk”
 Japan and the U.S. emerged from the war with their industrial capacity and colonial possessions intact
 Poised to rise to the top of the economic ladder
 The Treaty of Versailles and others
 Signed in 1919, the Treaty of Versailles brought an end to World War 1
 France and Britain wanted to cripple Germany economically so it could never again rise to power
 Versailles was extremely punitive for Germany
 Required to take full blame for starting the war
 Drastically reduced its military forces
 Paid billions in war reparations to England and France
 Many Germans developed resentment towards the Allies
 Especially after the economy imploded in 1920s due to the reparation payments
 German currency went from 4 marks/dollar to over a trillion to the dollar in 1923
 Required Germany to ditch its constitutional monarchy and set up a republic (Weimar Republic)
 Too frail and fragmented to deal with the economic crisis
 Caused many Germans to seek radical alternatives to the Weimar Republic
 Seek revenge against France and Britain
 Divided Austria-Hungary into separate nations
 Created new countries like Czechoslovakia
 Treaty departed from Fourteen Points, focused on establishing future peace and workable balance of power
 Britain and France needed to justify the cost and duration of the war; Wilson’s points unacceptable
 Victors blamed the war on Germany, forcing them to sign a punitive treaty (US didn’t want it)
 Rather than demoralizing Germany, created resentment in Germany by greatly weakening their economy
 Laid the groundwork for the rise of Adolf Hitler
 No war involving Europe had caused so much widespread destruction of lives, property, and empires
 Five Power Treaty and London Naval Conference limited the number of battleships a nation could have
 Japan rejected this because it was given fewer ships than the U.S. and England
 Geneva Convention set the rules for war, particularly for prisoners of war
 Kellog-Briand pact outlawed war (lol)
 The League of Nations
 US President Woodrow Wilson was the voice of moderation at Versailles
 Hoped the post-war treaties would help establish international laws and standards
 Fourteen Points speech called for the creation of a joint council of nations called the League of Nations
 Leaders at Versailles agreed with the principle
 Many nations refused to join (including US)- couldn’t persuade isolationist US Congress
 Many African and Middle Eastern colonies controlled by Germany and Ottomans reassigned to France and England
 Created a mandate system of rule
 Fr and Eng to guide the colonies until the League decided they were ready for independence
 Syria and Lebanon to France
The Twentieth Century
 Palestine, Jordan, Iraq to England
 Added to the British and French colonial collection
 African mandates under British control included southwest Africa and Tanganyika
 Prompted nationalism in these colonies
 The Russian Revolution
 By the time Nicholas II ruled Russia (1894-1917), revolution was in the air
 Socialists began to organize
 Nicholas tried to rally Russians by going to war with Japan over Manchuria in 1904
 Russians instead suffered a humiliating defeat
 1905, moderates marched on the czar’s palace in peaceful protest
 Attempted to enact Enlightenment reforms
 Nicholas, threatened, ordered his troops to fire on the protestors
 Known as Bloody Sunday
 For the next decade, resentment among the working classes festered
 1906, the czar attempted to enact legislative reforms by appointing Peter Stolypin Prime Minister
 Created the Duma, a parliament meant to represent the Russian people
 Every time the Duma criticized the czar, he disbanded it
 Russian Revolution occurs before WW1 had ended
 Russia entered the war w/the world’s largest army (not most powerful)
 Not as industrialized as opponents
 Quickly, the army began to suffer large-scale losses and found itself short on food, munitions, and leadership
 February 1917, Nicholas II abdicates the throne in face of rising casualties and food shortages
 Romanov dynasty came to an end
 Provisional government established under Alexander Kerensky
 Ineffective, in part because it shared power with the local councils called soviets
 Represented the interest of the workers, peasants, and soldiers
 While the government affirmed natural rights (equality of citizens, religious tolerance), it wanted to continue the
war against German
 Hoped Russia could secure its borders and become a liberal democracy
 The working classes were desperate to end the war
 Idealism of the provisional gov allowed them to miscalculate how desperate the people were to get out of the war
 By 1918, the soviets rallied behind the socialist party, known as the Bolsheviks
 Vladimir Lenin, Marxist leader of the party, mobilized his support of the workers and soldiers
 Issued the April Theses, which demanded peace, land for peasants, and power to the soviets
 Within six months, the Bolsheviks took command of the government
 Under Lenin’s vision of mass socialization, Lenin rigidly set about nationalizing the assets and industries of Russia
 March 1918, the soviets signed an armistice with Germany, the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk
 Ceded a huge piece of western Russia to Germany
 Russia wasn’t part of Treaty of Versailles
 In the Baltic republics of what would be called the Soviet Union, in Ukraine, Siberia, counter revolutionary revolts
broke out
 Bolsheviks faced non-stop fighting from 1918 to 1921
 To put down these struggles, the Bolsheviks created the Red Army, a military force under the command of Leon
Trotsky
 By 1918, w/support of the peasants, the Red Army defeated the counter-revs, but they had lasting implications
 1, prolonged civil war deepened the distrust between the new Marxist state and its Western neighbors
 2, Bolsheviks had their own powerful army now
 Sick Man put out of its misery
 Ottoman Empire was already in trouble at WW1
The Twentieth Century
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Made fatal mistake by joining the Central Powers
In peace negotiations, it lost most of its remaining land
Ripe for attack by the Greeks who attacked in 1919
Mustafa Kemal, later known as Ataturk, “Father of the Turks”
Led successful campaigns against the Greeks
Overthrew the Ottoman sultan
1923, becomes first president of modern Turkey
Secularized the Muslim nation
Introduced Western-style dress and customs (abolished fez)
Changed alphabet from Arabic to Latin
Set up parliamentary system (he dominated)
Changed legal code from Islamic to Western
Put Turkey on a path to Europe instead of Mid East
Instituted these reforms against opposition
Ruthless in his determination to institute change
World War II Era
 Causes of the second world war were well underway in the 1920s
 Not a separate war from WWI, but the Great War Part II
 Stalin: the Soviet Union goes Totalitarian
 Once Soviets leave WW1, the focus on their own domestic policy
 Lenin institutes the New Economic Policy (NEP) in the early 1920s
 Some capitalistic ideas: allowed farmers to sell portions of their grain for their own profit
 Successful plan in agriculture
 Lenin didn’t live long enough to see it succeed
 When he dies, party leadership passes to Joseph Stalin
 Stalin thought the NEP was slow; removed it
 Stalin creates the Five Year Plans
 Expedient agricultural production by taking over private farms
 Combined them into state-owned enterprises (collectivization)
 Construction of large, nationalized factories
 Achieved in name of communism, but it was actually totalitarianism
 People didn’t share in the power or profits
 No choice regarding participation
 Many people died fighting to protect their farms
 Even more died in famines that resulted when Stalin used crops to feed gov’t workers instead of farmers
 Successfully industrialized the USSR
 Improved economic conditions on the whole
 Stalin relied on terror tactics
 Secret police force, bogus trials, assassinations
 Referred to as the “Great Purge”- Stalin kills many of his rivals within the Communist Party
 Created labor camps to punish those who opposed him
 Millions of Soviets die under Stalin’s direction
 The Great Depression: Capitalism Crashes, Germany Burns
 WWI was expensive
 Spent more than $180 billion on armament
 Europe spent another $150 billion rebuilding
 Capitalism financed most of the recovery
The Twentieth Century
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Due to Europe not having as much money as they used to, the finance capital of the world shifted from London to
New York
 America had lent lots of money to Europe
 France and Germany relied heavily on American credit
 France had loaned huge amounts of money to Russia
 Bolshevik government refused to honor the czar’s debts
 Germany also owed France a lot of money
 Germany experienced extreme financial hardship due to the wartime reparations
 Used American credit to pay by issuing I.O.U.s to countries like France
 France then took these payments and spent them on rebuilding its economy
 Backed by American credit
 Great on paper from 1924 until 1929
 Both Europe and U.S. grew
 Artificial- based on loans that would never be repaid
 When stock market crashed in October 1929, monetary and fiscal problems called the Great Depression escalated
into an international catastrophe
 Shattered the illusion of financial health in Europe
 American banks stopped extending credit
 Effect was that Europe ran out of money (never really had it)
 Germany couldn’t pay reparations without American credit, so France ran out of money too
 U.S. and Germany hit hardest
 1/3rd of workforce unemployed
 In U.S., unemployed Americans rejected the Republican government and elected Franklin Roosevelt in 1932
 In other countries with fragile political structures, crisis resulted in triumph of political ideologies distinctly
different from democracy- fascism
 Fascism gains momentum
 Between the world wars, fascism sprang out throughout Europe
 Did not have identical beliefs, but important ideas in common
 Main idea of fascism, destroy the will of the individual in favor of “the people”
 Wanted a unified society, but unlike communists, did not care about eliminating private property or class
distinctions
 Pushed for an identity rooted in extreme nationalism and racial identity
 Contrast: Fascism and Totalitarianism
 Fascism a subset of totalitarianism
 Totalitarian dictator rules absolutely- controls every aspect of life
 Fascist rulers are a kind of totalitarian ruler
 Right-wing because they rely on traditional institutions and social distinctions to enforce their rule
 Nationalistic- usually based on racism
 Communist totalitarian rulers (Stalin) are extremely left-wing
 Seek to destroy traditional institutions and class distinctions
 Still retain absolute power
 No fascist, but just as militaristic and controlling
 In their extreme forms, right-wing (fascist) and left-wing (communist) government use the same tactics:
totalitarianism
 Fascism in Italy: Another Step toward another War
 Italy first state to have a fascist government
 Founder and leader was Benito Mussolini
 Creates the National Fascist Party in 1919
 Paid squads known as Blackshirts to fight socialist and communist organizations
The Twentieth Century
 Won loyalty of both factory owners and landowners
 By 1921, seated first members in Italian parliament
 Although fascists only had a few seats in legislature, Mussolini demanded king Victor Emmanuel III name him and
others to cabinet posts
 To rally support, organized his paramilitary thugs to march to Rome to attempt to seize power
 King was timid- was facing tough times economically
 Did not hate the fascists
 Named Mussolini prime minister
 As postwar economy failed to improve, Italy was demoralized
 Mussolini faced little opposition to his consolidation of political power
 Was parliamentary leader before completely taking over in 1922
 Implemented changes to ensure that democracy no longer limited his actions
 By 1926, Italy was fully a totalitarian fascist regime
 To rally Italy in a nationalistic sense, Italy focused on expansion esp in North Africa
 The Rise of Hitler
 Immediately after WW1, revolt in Germany where the emperor abdicated
 Germany close to socialism at this point
 Workers and soldiers councils formed in cities like Berlin
 Middle class in Germany was conservative, and large # had been prosperous before war
 Socialist or communist system rejected in favor of a conservative democratic republic, the Weimar Republic
 At same time, Germany was in economic crisis
 Mussolini’s success influenced Germany in many ways
 Nationalist Socialist Party (Nazi), rose to power in the 1920s
 Gained power due to depression
 As Germany’s economy collapsed under the harsh reparations of Versailles and failing world economy, Germans
rejected solutions of the Weimar Republic’s elected body the Reichstag
 Hitler rises to power within the Nazi party during this time
 Like Mussolini, inspired extreme nationalism
 Dreams of renewed greatness for a depressed and divided country
 Philosophies differed from Mussolini’s in emphasis on the superiority of one race over others
 Using Social Darwinism, convinced the Aryan race was the most highly evolved race
 Inferior races, such as Slavs and Jews, had corrupted the German race
 Argued that Jews should be deported, eventually “eliminated”
 Germans should take over Europe
 Nazis gained political power in 1920s with Hitler as its guide (fuhrer)
 At first, Nazis received votes democratically within the Reichstag
 Early 1930s, as the Great Depression devastated the German economy, Hitler received increasing support
 By election of 1930, Nazis had increased their seats in the Reichstag by ten times
 By 1932, Nazis dominated German government
 Many who disagreed with him still backed him, thinking he was their only hope (Ben Kenobi?)
 1933, Hitler becomes chancellor, leader of the Reichstag
 Then seized control of the government
 Known as the Third Reich
 Set his eyes on conquering Europe
 Contrast them: Nationalism in Europe and Nationalism in the Colonies
 Nationalism was a driving force throughout much of the 19th century and 20th centuries
 Different flavor in Europe and Japan than in most colonies
 Europe and Japan, fueled extreme racism, fascism, and domination
 National pride became synonymous with national expansion and conquest of other peoples
The Twentieth Century
 In colonies, nationalism meant self-determination
 Ability to free the nation from rule by another
 Meant national sovereignty, not colonial or territorial expansion
 Appeasement: “Peace in our time”, or just Wishful Thinking?
 1933, Hitler began to rebuild the German military
 Clear violation of Versailles
 Other nations in Europe chose not to object, fearing another war
 Germany withdrew from League of Nations later the same year
 Spain had established a parliamentary democracy in 1931
 Falling apart under the Spanish monarchy
 Summer of 1936, army officer under Francisco Franco took control of large parts of Spain
 Germany and Italy supported Franco’s troops known as “nationalists”
 Not a fascist, Germany and Italy believed defeat of democracy in Spain was a positive step
 France and Britain, still scarred from loss of life and money in Great War, adopted a nonintervention policy
 Refused to aid the supporters of the Spanish democracy
 By 1939, Franco’s troops captured Madrid and installed a dictatorship in Spain
 Managed to stay neutral throughout WW2
 Germany and Italy were willing to exercise their influence to support antidemocratic uprisings
 In Germany in 1935, Hitler took back the Rhineland which had been taken away after WW1
 Rest of Europe stayed quiet
 1937, formed alliance with increasingly militant Japan
 1938, annexed Austria
 Moved to reclaim Sudetenland from Czechoslovakia
 At Munich Conference of 1938, Hitler was given Sudetenland in return for the promise to cease expansion
 Included Hitler, Mussolini, Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain of England
 Czechoslovakia not asked for consent
 Chamberlain gave Hitler what he wanted to avoid war
 Believed German claims would be satisfied with Austria and Sudetenland
 Known as appeasement
 Hitler did stop expansion- for one year
 1939, invades remains of Czechoslovakia
 Rest of Europe was shocked, but did nothing to kick Germans out of Czechoslovakia
 March 1939, while Italy was invading Albania, Britain and France signed a non-aggression pact with Greece,
Turkey, Romania, and Poland
 Stated that if one of them was attacked, they’d all go to war
 Germans signed the Nazi-Soviet Pact in August of 1939
 Stalin and Hitler agreed that Germany would not invade the Soviets if the Soviets stayed out of Germany’s
military affairs
 Determined how Eastern Europe would be divided
 Lithuania and eastern Poland to Germany
 Western Poland and Finland and the Baltic States to Russia
 Stalin received a measure of security
 Hitler got a clear path to take Poland
 German forces march into Poland w/agreement wit Soviets
 Two days later, Britain realizes failure of diplomacy, declares war; France follows
 Need More Aggression? Why not Japan?
 Japan had established a sphere of influence over Manchuria after Russo-Japanese War
 British offered them an alliance in 1905
 Japan an imperial and world power
The Twentieth Century
 After WW1, Japan’s economy really started to thrive
 In 1915, Japan sent a list of 21 demands to China
 Required China to give it trading rights and outright control over aspects of the government and economy
 1920s, Japan backtracked a little bit to focus on internal developments
 But by 1930, Great Depression began to affect Japan
 Militarists gained momentum- claimed empire would pull them out of economic trouble
 1931,Japan invaded Manchuria, renamed it Manchukuo, establishing a colony
 After withdrawing from League of Nations, signed the Anti-Comintern Pact against Communism with Germany in
1936
 Forming the beginnings of alliance that would create a formal one during WW2
 Invaded China, pillaging towns and cities as they made their way down eastern shore
 Included “Rape of Nanjing” where 250,000 Chinese were slaughtered in a few weeks by occupying Japanese
forces
 Japan’s war with China eventually merged into global conflagration of WW2 in Europe
 Quick Review of WW2: Tens of Millions Dead
 Hitler’s tactic known as blitzkrieg (“lightning war”) destroyed everything in its path at unprecedented speed
 Poland was well-suited for this type of war
 Acquired so much territory in western Poland that Stalin was forced to quickly mobilize so he wouldn’t lose the
whole country to Germany
 Within ten days, Russia and Germany had divided Poland between them
 Hitler then focuses on western front
 Early 1940, assaults Holland and Belgium
 Two days later, enters France
 Within a year, Axis controlled most of continental
 Hitler assumed Britain would quickly crumble after the fall of France
 New leader, Winston Churchill, replaced Chamberlain
 Resolute and fierce Prime Minister
 Churchill refused to negotiate with Germany
 Hitler launches a massive air bombing campaign known as the Battle of Britain
 British succeeded in keeping German army out
 Used radar to successfully defend the island
 Italy attacks Greece but unable to defeat them until April 1941 when Germany comes to help
 Nazi-Soviet pact gave the Balkans to Russia, so the takeover of Greece had real consequences
 Now that Germany had taken control of the Balkans, their previous agreement was nullified
 Germany went ahead and invaded the Soviet Union
 Relieved pressure on the desperate British, the only allied nation still fighting
 In the Pacific, Japan continued to expand into China, invaded Indochina (Vietnam)
 U.S. viewed this as hostile for trade reasons
 Did not want to get involved in the war
 Imposed economic sanctions and froze Japanese assets in the U.S.
 Japan entered into the Tripartite Act with Italy and Germany
 Also made war plans against the U.S. if they didn’t lift sanctions
 U.S. did not, so Japan bombed Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941
 U.S. promptly declares war against Japan
 Germany declares was on U.S. in response
 Took U.S. and Britain a while to coordinate a land attack against Germany because they needed a foothold in
continental Europe
 Meanwhile, Allies fought the Japanese in the Pacific
 Germans and Italians in North Africa
The Twentieth Century
 U.S. secretly worked on the Manhattan Project- development of the atomic bomb
 1943, Britain and US reads to invade Europe, starting by taking control of Italy
 Next year, launch their biggest offensive, landing on French beaches of Normandy on June 6, 1944 known as DDay
 Battled their way across northern France and liberated France in summer of ‘44
 Opposite side of Europe, the Red Army of the Soviet Union won a stunning victory against Germany at Stalingrad
in 1942
 Advanced steadily west for three years
 By May 1945, Allied forces closed in on Hitler’s troops until they surrounded them
 Hitler commits suicide
 War in the Pacific dragged on
 At great costs, U.S. defeated Japan by island-hopping in south Pacific
 Japanese refused to surrender
 President Truman ordered the dropping of the Atomic Bomb on Hiroshima on August 6, 1945
 Japan still fights- drops another on Nagasaki on August 9
 Japan finally surrenders, ending WW2
 Consequences of World War II
 Holocaust Revealed
 Few knew how horrible the Nazi regime was until after the war was over
 Ongoing slaughter known as the Holocaust
 Known in Germany as “The Final Solution”
 Millions of Jews lived in Germany, occupied lands were blamed for every problem in society, and methodically
killed in gas chambers and firing lines
 Disposed of in ovens and mass graves
 6 million Jews killed
 Also as many as 6 million Poles, Slavs, Gypsies, homosexuals, disabled people, and political dissidents
 When news of the atrocities spread after the war, public support for the creation of Israel as a homeland for Jews
rose sharply
 Peace Settlement
 U.S. and Soviet Union became superpowers
 Germany occupied by the Allies
 War crime tribunals established to prosecute and sentence Nazi officials
 Japan forced to demilitarize and establish a democracy
 Also embraced capitalism and became an economic powerhouse within a decade
 Europe torn to shreds
 In addition to staggering losses of life (Soviet Union lost 20 million soldiers and civilians), infrastructure and
communities of Europe devastated
 To help in rebuilding, U.S. created the Marshall Plan, named for secretary of state George Marshall
 Billions of dollars of American money made available for reconstruction
 Made available to all of Europe but only accepted by Western European nations
 Plan worked, western Europe recovered within a decade
 Decline of Colonialism
 War affected attitudes about imperialism
 Inspired native populations to rise up against their oppressors
 Big Changes for Women
 Women worked outside the home during the war
 Raised money to support their families
 Helped the war effort
 3/4ths of women in Britain under 40 were employed during the war
The Twentieth Century
 After the war, many women kept their jobs or sought higher education
 Creation of International Organizations
 After WW2, Allies believed a network of international organizations could reduce probability of another great war
breaking out
 First one was called the United Nations
 Established in 1945 to replace the League of Nations
 Primary goal was to mediate and intervene in international disputes
 Would increasingly involve itself in the monitoring of human rights
 In addition, the World Bank, International Monetary Fund, and General Agreement on Trade and Tariffs were
formed to create and manage a more integrated global economy
 Allies believed that countries that were more connected economically would be less likely to invade each other
 The Start of the Cold War
 U.S. and Soviet Union had very different worldviews
 One was democratic and capitalistic
 Other was totalitarian and communist
 Neither wanted the other to spread its influence beyond its borders
 Strategizing before the war ended how to contain each other