Download WWII AP notes - Owen County Schools

World War II
Essential Questions
• In what ways did the peace settlement with Germany at the end of
World War I make a new world war with Germany more likely?
• How was Hitler able to rise from obscurity and lead millions of
Germans to embrace the extreme and violent ideas of the
Nazi Party?
• Why were the Western democracies unable to find a way to contain
or stop Hitler from rearming and seizing one territory after another
in the run up to all-out war?
• What led the Japanese to attack the U.S., thereby provoking it into
entering the war in the Pacific?
• What advantages ultimately enabled the Allied forces to prevail
against both Germany and Japan in World War II?
• In what ways was World War II a “total war”?
Versailles, June 1919
From left to right:
– Prime Minister David
Lloyd George of
Great Britain
– Prime Minister Vittorio
Orlando of Italy
– Prime Minister Georges
Clemenceau of France
– President Woodrow
Wilson of the
United States
The Versailles Treaty
•
•
•
•
Land
Reparations
War guilt
League of Nations
The Versailles Treaty (continued)
Map showing German territory lost and the
Rhineland DMZ
• German
army reduced
• Germany barred
from having
tanks, an air force,
or submarines
• Occupied DMZ
west of
the Rhineland
The League of Nations
Although President
Wilson was the driving
force behind the
creation of the League
of Nations, the United
States did not join it.
Rise of the Nazis
• Germany’s
economic woes
• Political instability
• Fascism
• National Socialist
German Workers’ Party
Adolf Hitler
The Nazis
promoted a view
of Germany as
surrounded by
enemies and
threatened on
all sides
The Nazis Gain Power
Hitler sworn in as Chancellor, 1933
Japan
The Invasion of Manchuria and the
“Rape of Nanking”
Italy
Dictator Benito Mussolini addresses his followers
The Invasion of Ethiopia
Emperor Hailie Selassie of Ethiopia
Discussion Questions
1. What aspects of the Versailles Treaty seem fairest to
you? Which do not seem fair?
2. The cartoon in slide 6 of the PowerPoint shows Wilson
blowing bubbles from a bowl labeled “idealism.” One of
the bubbles is labeled “League of Nations.” What point
does the cartoon make by showing the League as one of
Wilson’s bubbles? Do you think the cartoon is fair to
Wilson and to his idea of the League of Nations? Why
or why not?
3. In what ways might the terms of the Versailles Treaty
have aided Hitler in appealing to other Germans for
support for his Nazis?
Discussion Questions (continued)
4. Many of the groups that supported Hitler for Chancellor
in 1933 thought they could control him and get what
they wanted from him. Why do you think so many of his
supporters (as well as his opponents) underestimated
him in this way?
5. Germany, Japan, and Italy united to form the “Axis”
nations that started and fought together in World War II.
What, if anything, do you think they had in common
that might have led them to go to war together as
they did?
Germany Rearms
German troops march back into the Rhineland, 1936
Building an Axis
Signing of Tripartite pact to form the
Axis Alliance
Hitler and Mussolini Rome-Berlin Axis
The Spanish Civil War
Generals Francisco Franco and Emilio Moré, leaders of the coup
The Spanish Civil War (continued)
Italian soldiers in Spain
New Weapons and Tactics
Hitler tests weapons
in Spanish Civil War
The Destruction of Guernica
Germany Takes Austria
Nazi troops enter Austria
The Munich Conference
British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain
(left) and Hitler confer at the
Munich Conference
A weeping Czech woman
reluctantly salutes Nazi soldiers as
they march into the Sudetenland
Nazi-Soviet Nonaggression Pact
German Advances, 1939
Discussion Questions
1. Many historians use the word “appeasement” to
describe French and British actions regarding Hitler
from 1936 to 1939. Most of those historians have been
harshly critical of this policy of appeasement. Do you
agree with them? If so, what should France and
Britain have done instead?
2. The policy of appeasement is usually criticized most
harshly with regard to Neville Chamberlain’s meeting
with Hitler in Munich in 1938. What was agreed to
there, and why has Chamberlain so often been harshly
criticized for it?
Discussion Questions (continued)
3.
Some say the worst act of appeasement actually came
earlier in 1936 when Hitler re-occupied the
Rhineland. Why might some see this as the worst act
of appeasement?
4.
Many socialists and communists in the Western
democracies were shocked when Stalin agreed to the
Nazi-Soviet Nonaggression Pact in August 1939.
Why do you suppose they were shocked? Why was
this agreement so important to Hitler at that moment?
American Foreign Policy, 1932–1941
•
•
•
•
•
Isolationism
Neutrality Acts
FDR
Lend-Lease
The Atlantic Charter
Churchill and FDR at sea during
the Atlantic Charter talks
Germany Takes France
• France surrenders, 1940
• The French Resistance
A Frenchman weeps as German troops
march into Paris
The Battle of Britain
A London air raid shelter
The Battle of Britain (continued)
Germany Invades Russia
Japanese Aggression
General Hideki Tojo
Locations of Japanese forces in November 1941
Pearl Harbor
The U.S. Declares War
FDR signs the declaration of war against Japan
Discussion Questions
1. Why was the Battle of Britain such an important
turning point in the war for Britain, for Germany
and for Russia?
2. After Pearl Harbor brought the U.S. into the war,
Winston Churchill seemed certain of ultimate
victory against both the Nazis and Japan. If he was
right to be so certain, why did Japan attack the U.S.
anyway and provoke it as it did?
The Battle of Midway
The USS
Yorktown receives
a direct hit during
the battle
of Midway
The Battle of Stalingrad
North Africa
Italy Surrenders
Allies enter Rome
The D-Day Invasion
U.S. troops wade ashore at Normandy
The Liberation of Paris
Paris, 1944
The Battle of the Bulge
An American soldier guards German troops
captured during the Battle of the Bulge
U.S. troops advance through the snow
toward the town of St. Vith, Belgium
The Firebombing of Dresden
Germany Surrenders
V-E Day
The Pacific War, 1944–1945
U.S. soldiers raise the American flag after capturing Iwo Jima
Birth of the Atomic Bomb
Preparing the atomic bomb to be dropped on Hiroshima
Hiroshima
Japan Surrenders
Discussion Questions
1. The battles of Midway, Stalingrad, and El Alamein
could all be seen as turning points of a similar sort. Can
you explain what they have in common?
2. Before launching the D-Day invasion of Europe through
France, the Allies had forced German and Italian troops
out of North Africa back up through Italy. The Russians
meanwhile had pushed German forces back into
Germany itself. Yet the Germans continued fighting
until nearly all of Germany was conquered. Why do you
think Germany fought on long after it should have been
clear its cause was hopeless?
Discussion Questions (continued)
3. In the spring of 1945, the battles for the islands of Iwo
Jima and Okinawa convinced many that it might take a
million Allied deaths to finally defeat Japan. Do you
think they were right to conclude this? Why or
why not?
4. Many Americans today remember World War II as “the
good war.” What do you think they mean by labeling it
this way? Do you think it can still be labeled “the good
war” in spite of such things as the bombing of Dresden
or the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki?
Why or why not?
Total War
Two old women stand amidst the ruins of an
almshouse in Berkshire, England
• Concept of
“total war”
• Mobilizing
the economy
• Rationing
• Women in the
work force
• Propaganda
• Military tactics
Mobilizing the Economy
A worker inspects 1000-pound bomb cases
Rationing and Victory Gardens
• Gasoline, coffee, sugar, meat,
other goods are rationed
• “Victory Gardens” and other measures
Women in the Work Force
Propaganda
Journalists interview Tokyo Rose
Military Tactics
Family in the wreckage of their Liverpool home
Injured survivors of the Nagasaki blast
Civilian Deaths
The Holocaust
The Nuremberg Military Tribunal
Discussion Questions
1. In the U.S., the concept of total war meant such things
as rationing and victory gardens. These imposed
burdens on civilians, but they may also have improved
their morale during the conflict. Can you explain how?
2. Do you think the propaganda efforts by the Allies during
WWII were justified? Why or why not?
3. Many at the time felt that the horrors of the Holocaust
more than justified holding the International Military
Tribunal in Nuremberg to try and punish Nazi leaders
for “crimes against humanity.” Do you think this trial
was justified? Why or why not?
The Yalta Conference
The “Big Three” at Yalta
The Potsdam Conference
Attlee, Truman, and Stalin at Potsdam
Divisions
within
postwar
Germany
U.S. Occupation of Japan
MacArthur and Emperor Hirohito
The Marshall Plan
• Europe’s economy was in shambles after World War II
• Marshall proposed aid to “all European countries who
needed it”
• Plan also worked to keep communism from spreading to
western Europe
The United Nations
• International peacekeeping
organization
• FDR was the “principal
architect” of the UN
• Goals
• Successes and failures
The Postwar World Order
Discussion Questions
1.
Post-war tensions between the Soviet Union and the United
States quickly came to center on the way Germany and
Berlin were divided up. How were they divided up, and why
do you think U.S.–Soviet tensions centered so much
on Germany?
2.
The Marshall Plan helped revive Western Europe. Most
historians say it also kept the nations of Western Europe
from falling under communist control? Why do you think it
might have done that?
3.
About 20 years after World War I, Europe plunged back into
another huge war. After World War II, despite the Cold War,
this did not happen. Why do you think Europe has been able
to avoid another general war?