Download world war ii - mrgilliamsworldhistory

Standard 8
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Axis Powers
Appeasement
Blitzkrieg
Munich Conference
D-Day
Dwight Eisenhower
Island-Hopping Campaign
Manhattan Project
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Holocaust
Nuremberg Laws
Pearl Harbor
Hiroshima
Winston Churchill
Franklin D. Roosevelt
VE Day
• In other countries, leaders took different measures. In
Italy, the postwar economy was failing as well, and in their
desperation the people turned to Benito Mussolini & his
new gov’t, fascism
• Mussolini gathered his followers into combat squads called
Black Shirts; these groups attacked gov’t officials but were
widely supported because of Italians’ distrust of the gov’t.
In 1922, the Fascists marched on Rome. Fearing a bloody
conflict, the king asked Mussolini to take over as the prime
minister of Italy
• Mussolini brought the economy under state control &
helped improve the situation.
• In Italy, like other Fascists states, the state was the highest
priority. Propaganda urged people to defer their goals to
the state’s goals
• Stalin took power in the Soviet Union after the death of
V.L. Lenin. The economy developed into a command
economy, where officials make all the basic decisions
• Stalin implemented what he called “five-year plans” that
got mixed results & forced collective farming. Any wealthy
farmers who resisted their land being confiscated were
sent off to prison camp
• Stalin’s reign in Russia is full of human rights violations &
constant purging of his political opponents
• Despite this cruelty, Stalin used the media as a tool to
spread his message about what a great leader he was.
He had pictures & statues made of himself that portrayed
him as a divine figure. We call this a “cult of personality.”
• Soviet authors had to write & create work that pushed the
glory of socialism (socialist realism)
• Stalin undertook to russify other countries, building a very
large group of nations called the Union of Soviet Socialist
Republics (USSR)
• Organized religion took a hit under Stalin; atheism (the
belief that there is no god) became the state policy. All
other religions were intimidated into fleeing
• The gov’t of Germany after WWI was called the Wiemar
Republic, a democracy set up with a chancellor. The
problem with this group was that Germany was divided
• In this setting, control was up for grabs, & would be
grabbed by a political group call the National Socialist
German Workers Party, or Nazis for short. The group’s
leader was Adolf Hitler, a former soldier from Austria who
organized them into a force of “storm troopers” to take
power
• They tried to overthrow the gov’t once in 1923, & Hitler was
arrested. In prison, he wrote Mein Kampf, a book of Nazi
goals & ideology. It’s full of racism, fierce nationalism, &
anti-Semitism
• After his release, he began to make more great speeches (he
was good at that). Germany was still desperate & Hitler’s
promise led to more Nazis getting seats in the legislature
• In 1933, Hitler was appointed chancellor & he made
Germany into a one-party state under his empire which he
called the Third Reich. He enacted public works programs
to rebuild the country
• Like Stalin, Hitler was also very paranoid & would execute
anyone with the help of his troops (the SS) & his secret
police (the Gestapo). Also like Stalin, he became wellloved & revered through a system of propaganda
• Campaigns of Aggression
• Japan, Italy, & Germany all push the envelope by invading nearby nations &
conquering:
• Japan invades Manchuria & China (“Rape of Nanjing”)
• Italy invades Ethiopia
• Germany break the Treaty of Versailles, annexes Austria & announces
intentions to occupy the Sudetenland, a highly industrial district of
Czechoslovakia
• The League of Nations is not empowered to fight the aggression; they issue
condemnations that meant nothing
• At the Munich Conference, Hitler promises to stop invading if he is given the
Sudetenland. The European nations follow an appeasement policy, give him the
land, and he breaks his word months after the conference when he takes all of
Czechoslovakia
• Hitler signs nonaggression pact with Russia in August 1939
• After Hitler invades Poland, war is declared in September 1939
• Axis Powers
• Germany, Italy, Japan
• Allies
• Great Britain, France (United States is neutral in the beginning)
• The Blitzkrieg
• Hitler’s attack strategy is called the blitzkrieg (“lightning war”) which involves
aerial bombing, fast-moving tanks & infantry.
• Once the war begins, Hitler conquers all of Poland & France by summer of 1940
• In Africa, General Erwin Rommel conquers much of North Africa in 1941-1942
• Operation Sea Lion
• At this time, Great Britain is all that stands between Hitler & full occupation of
Europe
• The German Luftwaffe begins to bomb first military targets, then cities like
London nightly
• The British stood strong & kept morale high, the Royal Air Force fought hard &
Hitler was forced to call off the invasion in May 1941
• Momentum Stalls
• Hitler invades the USSR, breaking the non-aggression pact, in June 1941. They
were about to conquer the entire country when the winter set in. After a 2 ½ yr
siege of Leningrad, & an equally bloody attack on Stalingrad, Hitler had to
leave Russia without taking it.
• Pacific Theater
• Japan pretended to negotiate for peace with the US when the war broke out, all
the while planning an attack on the US Pacific fleet
• December 7, 1941- Japanese forces launches a massive multi-phased attack on
the Pacific fleet anchored at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii. The fleet is crippled but
not destroyed
• The next day, FDR asked Congress to declare war on Japan, calling the attack
“a date that will live in infamy.” The declaration opened up the Pacific Theater
of the war
• Early on in the Pacific Theater, Japan conquered a lot of territory
• Allies Fight Back
• Dwight Eisenhower take command in 1942 in Africa, traps Rommel’s army &
forces their surrender in May 1943
• In the Pacific, the Japanese suffer huge losses at the Battle of the Coral Sea &
the Battle of the Midway
• D-Day & V-E Day
• D-Day (June 6, 1944)- A combined Allied army invades occupied France at the
beaches of Normandy. Through hell & fighting, they re-take France & liberate
Paris on August 25
• In March 1945, Russia and the Allies were closing in to Germany. At this point,
Axis powers began to fold
• Mussolini was caught & executed
• Hitler commits suicide on May 6
• The Germans surrender on May 7th (V-E or Victory in Europe Day)
• The Pacific War
• Japan continued to fight after the European War ended
• General Douglas MacAthur begins an “island-hopping” campaign, taking back
the Pacific island by island
• Facing the cost of an invasion of Japan, the US unleashed a new technology it
had been developing – an atomic bomb – dropping it on Japan on August 6,
1945 at Hiroshima. More than 70,000 were killed
• After a second bomb fell in Nagasaki on August 9th, the Japanese surrendered
• Allies uncover atrocities of the Holocaust on their march through
Europe. Germans and Austrian involved in the Holocaust were tried
in late 1940s at Nuremberg. Several top officials received death
sentences. Similar trails were held in Japan over atrocities committed
there.
• The United Nations was formed to mediate conflicts in the future.
• Alliances break apart & the foundation is set for the Cold War