Download December 8th, 1941

Introduction to
WW II
Introduction:
• Most devastating war in human history
• 55 million dead
• 1 trillion dollars
• Began in 1939 as strictly a European
Conflict
• Widened to include most of the world
How It Began
• WWI leftovers
– Germany defeated and had to pay cost of
war. Caused huge economic depression
– Italy victorious but wanted more territory
– Japan victorious but wanted China
Causes of WW II
I. Treaty of Versailles
1. Germany lost land to
surrounding nations
2. War Reparations
• Allies collect $ to pay back
war debts to U.S.
• Germany must pay $57 trillion
(modern equivalent)
• Bankrupted the German
economy & embarrassed
Germans
Lloyd George, Georges Clemenceau, and Woodrow 4Wilson
during negotiations for the Treaty
Causes of WW II
II. World-wide Depression
1. The Depression made Germany’s
debt even worse
2. Desperate people turn to desperate
leaders
• Hitler seemed to provide
solutions to Germany’s
problems
• Hitler provided scapegoats for
Germany’s problems (foreigners,
Jews, communists, Roma (Gypsies),
mentally ill, homosexuals))
1923 - Wallpapering with
German Deutchmarks
•
Kristallnacht - vandalism &
destruction of Jewish property &
synagogues
Causes of WW II
III. Rise of Totalitarian
Regimes
Fascist
Dictatorship
(Germany,
Italy)
1. In a Totalitarian country,
individual rights are not
viewed as important as the
needs of the nation
Totalitarian
Communist
Dictatorship
(USSR)
Military
Dictatorship
(Japan)
2. Fascism: military
government with based on
racism & nationalism with
strong support from the
business community
Causes of WW II
IV. Isolationism of Major Powers
1. Why was the U.S. Isolationist?
• Great Depression (problems at home)
2. Perceptions of WWI
• WWI did not seem to solve much
• People began to think that we’d got
into WWI for the wrong reasons
(greedy American businessmen!)
3. Opposition to war (Pacifism)
•Washington Conference - Limits on size
of country's navies
•Kellogg-Briand pact - condemned war as
a way to solving conflicts
Causes of WW II
IV. Isolationism of Major Powers
4. This led to policies of “Appeasement”
• Appeasement: give dictators what
they want and hope that they won’t
want anything else
• Begins with Japanese invasion of
Manchuria, Italian invasion of
Ethiopia, and continues with Hitler . . .
Rise of Hitler
• Nazi Party organized, 1920s
• Nazi party largest in Germany, 1932
• Hitler voted as chancellor, 1933
• New parliament created
• 450, 000 members
• Larger than German army
Hitler Gets Busy
• Gestapo Created -- April, 1933
• Jewish Boycott – April, 1933
• Jewish Books Banned & Burned – May,
1933
• 27,000 People in Camps – July, 1933
• 60,000 People in Camps – 1938
• Illegal to Leave Germany – October, 1941
K ristallnacht ("Crystal night")
or the Night of Broken Glass
• an anti-Jewish program in Nazi Germany on November 9–10, 1938. It is
often called Novemberpogrom or Reichspogromnacht in German.
• Kristallnacht was triggered by the assassination of German diplomat Ernst
vom Rath by Herschel Grynszpan, a German-born Polish Jew. In a
coordinated attack on Jewish people and their property, 91 Jews were
murdered and 25,000 to 30,000 were arrested and deported to
concentration camps. More than 200 synagogues were destroyed and
thousands of homes and businesses were ransacked.[1][2] Kristallnacht also
served as a pretext and a means for the wholesale confiscation of firearms
from German Jews.[3]
• While the assassination of Rath served as a pretext for the attacks,
Kristallnacht was part of a broader Nazi policy of antisemitism and
persecution of the Jews.[4] Kristallnacht was followed by further economic
and political persecutions and is viewed by many historians as the beginning
of the Final Solution, leading towards the genocide of the Holocaust.[5][6]
Burning synagogue on Kristallnacht
So What Was Hitler Asking For?
I. Return of German Speaking Lands - “Lebensraum”
Austria – Peacefully
Annexed in 1938
Sudentenland - (now
part of Czech Republic)
German Troops Parade in Streets of
Czechoslovakian Town, ca. 1939
Munich Conference Great Britain & France
give to Hitler in return
for peace; Hitler then
invades the rest of
Czechoslovakia
(Appeasement)
How Did Hitler Make War?
Blitzkrieg “Lightning War”
- a swift and violent military offensive
with intensive aerial bombardment
German Territorial Gains
•
•
•
•
Austria – March, 1938
Border of Czechoslovakia – Sept., 1938
All of Czechoslovakia – March, 1939
Poland – Sept. 1st, 1939
– Germany attacks with 2,000 tanks & 1,000 planes
– This marks the start of WWII
– Great Britain & France Declare war on Germany
• Sept. 3rd, 1939
• By Summer of 1940, Germany Controlled Most
of Europe
So What Was Hitler Asking For?
I. Return of German Speaking Lands - “Lebensraum” cont.
Nonaggression Pact
- Russia stays out
of the war in return
for 1/2 of Poland
Great Britain & France
finally declare war on
Germany
Hitler's triumphal entry into Danzig, Poland 1939
Europe
1940
• 1940
– April 9, Germany conquers
Norway & Denmark
– May 10, German forces
invade W. Europe
• Campaign last less than 6
weeks; France is Occupied
– June 14, Paris Falls to
Germany
Hitler in Paris
Europe
1941
• June 22 -Hitler
invades the Soviet
Union
Those Dumb Enough To Ally With Hitler
• Stalin and the Soviet Union, 1939
• Betrayed by 1941
• Mussolini and Italy, 1939
• Off and on betrayed until Italian defeat in 1943
Major Leaders
Adolf Hitler
Nazi Germany
Benito Mussolini
Italy
Major Leaders
Hideki Tojo
Japanese Prime Minister
Winston Churchill
British Prime Minister
Major Leaders
Joseph Stalin
Russian Leader
Franklin Delano Roosevelt
US President
US Assistance
• Roosevelt provided aid to the Allies:
Lend-Lease - 1941
US “lent” war
materials to cashstrapped Great Britain
Atlantic Charter
US secretly meets with
England to commit to
defeating Germany
London Firefighter Tackles an Air Raid Blaze
Meanwhile … in the Pacific
• Pearl Harbor: “a date which will live in infamy”
What?
Surprise attack by the
Japanese on American
forces in Pearl Harbor,
Hawaii
Effect?
US declares war on
Japan & other Axis
powers
USS Arizona Sinking in Pearl Harbor
December 7th, 1941
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December 8th, 1941
U.s. & Great Britain Declare war on Japan