Download World War Looms

 WWII most devastating total war
 1939-1945
 17 million soldier deaths
 More civilians
 Allies vs. Axis Powers
 Four continents – much of Europe destroyed
 War impacts civilians like never before
 Impact still felt today
 Power shifts from Europe to U.S. & U.S.S.R.
 Many conflicts today stem from WWII
 Atomic weapons pose a threat

Germany’s “defeat”
 German generals request armistice
negotiations with Allies – Nov. 1918
 Never admit defeat
 German army allowed to remain intact
 Size reduced, but it becomes force for
German nationalism
 Generals promote idea Germany could
have won

Germany’s “defeat”
 Weimar Republic in charge
 Constitutional Democracy
 1st Official Act – sign Treaty of Versailles
 Must accept total defeat
 Total responsibility for start of WWI
 German people bewildered
 Believe “Stab in the Back” theory
 Don’t know of Allies threat to destroy
Germany
Treaty of Versailles
 War-guilt clause
 Reparations
 Shifted
boundaries of
nations
 Meanwhile . . .
 Inflation soars
 Political, social
turmoil
The Interior of the Palace des Glaces
during the signing of the Peace Terms.
Versailles, France. June 1919.
(Photo
National Archives)
credit: U.S.
Reparations included
 Costs of war
 Payments to widows & orphans of vets
 Disabled veterans
 Loss of territory to France, Italy, Poland
 Effects on the people
 700 years of Habsburg reign ended
 Felt forced into democracy, betrayed, resentful,
angry, alienated, shaken to their core
 Political extremes – Nazis on the right,
Commies on the left
German
Hyperinflation
This stack of German
marks is equivalent to
one silver dollar
After 7 years, it
stabilizes at $4 trillion
to US $1

Germans looking
 To blame someone for troubles
 Scapegoat
 Jewish people
 For strong leader to bring back
national pride
 Adolf Hitler
 Originally from Austria
 German Soldier during WWI –
angry, resentful afterwards – vows
revenge
 1919 joined the National Socialist
German Workers’ Party (Nazi
Party)
 Quickly rose to power – strong
leader/great speaker (persuasive)
 Called himself “Der Furher” the
leader in German
Adolf Hitler
 Promised to relieve Germany of its horrible state
 Tries to overthrow gov’t – sentenced to 5 yrs prison
 Only there 9 months
 Wrote the book Mein Kampf “my struggle” while
in prison
 ARYAN race or Master Race
 Lebensraum
 Build up the military
 Hitler quotes
Lebensraum – Living Space
Without consideration of "traditions" and
prejudices, it [Germany] must find the
courage to gather our people and their
strength for an advance along the road that
will lead this people from its present
restricted living space to new land and soil,
and hence also free it from the danger of
vanishing from the earth or of serving others
as a slave nation.
--- Adolf Hitler, Mein Kampf 1
Lebensraum & Racism

Hitler believes
 Jews by nature (born with) are
 “Rootless”
 “Strangers”
 Customs, traditions differ from Christians
 Rumors of Jews killing Christian children
 Jews are running Russia
 Only matter of time until they “decompose”
 Only “right” Germany take land to east
 Promised to
 improve employment,
inflation
 stabilize country, rebuild
economy
 1932 elections
 Places 2nd to Hindenburg
 1933 appointed Chancellor
-
 Suspends freedom of press, speech
 Storm troopers, police – “Brown Shirts”
 Silence opposition
 Reichstag passes Enabling Act – makes
Hitler a dictator
 1934 Hindenburg dies
 Hitler becomes President in
addition to Chancellor – creates
“Third Reich”
 Country in turmoil
 Peasants starving, unhappy,
exploited
 WWI – ill prepared, millions
dying, no hope of winning
 Czar abdicates 1917
Nicolas II - Czar
 Provisional gov’t – overthrown by
Communists
 Family killed - 1918
 Vladimir Lenin and
Bolsheviks: 1917
 “Workers of World Unite”
 “To each according to his
need; from each according
to ability.”
 As head of the Party, he
becomes head of country –
not a Czar
 Death - 1924
Vladimir Lenin
 Joseph Stalin
 “Man of Steel” - Strong dictator
 Under his Vision
 Soviet model state
 Industrial leader
 Worldwide overthrow of
capitalism
 Collectivized farms
 Millions starve
Joseph Stalin
 Some industrial success – state owns businesses
 Centrally planned economy
 Eliminates any threat to power
 Closest supporters
 Death or camps in Siberia
 1934 Great Purge -- Eliminate saboteurs
 Show Trials – 1936-1938
 Forced to plead guilty, executed
 Virtually all political & military elite
 Sends millions of citizens to
Siberian camps
 Benito Mussolini (1922) “Il Duce”
 By 1921 he created a Fascist Party
 Wealthy feared Communism
 “Black Shirts”
Benito Mussolini
 Mid-20s – Italy: political, economic instability
 Mussolini – efficiency, order
 Suspends elections - outlaws political parties
 Centralizes economy
 Modernizes armed forces
 1935 – invades Ethiopia -
Independent
 Warplanes & poison gas
 Huge army
 Despite appeals, League of
Nations does nothing – shows
its weakness
 African Americans helped
“It is us today, it will be
you tomorrow.”
Haile Selassie,
Ethiopian Emperor
 Nationalistic
military leaders get
control of imperial
Gov’t
 Attack, take over
Chinese Province:
Manchuria 1931 –
renames Manchuka
 League of Nation
investigate s– Japan
quits League
 Spanish Army led by Francisco
Franco rebelled against the Spanish
Republic
 Revolts erupted throughout Spain
 Spanish civil war erupts
 3,000 American/African volunteers
fight to stop Franco
 Democratic countries don’t help
 Hitler & Mussolini help Franco, he
becomes another fascist dictator
Francisco Franco
 Failure of action with Japan
 Hitler removed Germany from
the league - 1933
 Mussolini and Ethiopia
 Kellogg-Briand Pact – 62 countries
signed – no way to enforce
 Isolationism – Depression & don’t want
to be involved
 Neutrality – Bans arms sales to nations
at war, even civil wars
 President FDR delivers
Quarantine Speech on
Oct. 5, 1937.
 Speech reflects major
shift from isolationism to
need to “preserve peace.”
 “Need to protect
ourselves from epidemic”
 Borders Belgium and France – key industrial area
 Direct violation of TOV – Demilitarized zone
 Hitler & Mussolini sign Rome-Berlin Axis -1936
 Hitler pushes for Austria
 German troops enter in ’38 – most welcome Nazis
 Britain & France protest– “German affair”
 Czechoslovakian region
 Crucial to defense
 Large German population
 Hitler, Mussolini
 British Prime Minister
 Neville Chamberlain
 French President
 Edouard Daladier
 Meet in Munich
 Gave Hitler Sudetenland – hope for peace
 Averted War?
 Appeasement?
“Britain and France had
to choose between war
and dishonor.
Winston Churchill
They chose dishonor.
They will have war.”
 March 1939 – Hitler occupies western Czech
 Meanwhile . . . Italy invades & occupies Albania
 Britain, France
pledge support to
Poland
 Germany, Soviets
sign
Nonaggression
Pact - 1939
 Secret
attachment to
split Poland
 Sept. 1, 1939 – Hitler invades Poland
 Sept. 3, 1939 - Britain, France declare
war on Germany
 Blitzkrieg – Poland
 Lightening War
 Fast, concentrated attack via air &
land
 Germany takes Poland < Month
 Fortifications along
France, German border
 Maginot Line
 Concrete walls
 Heavy artillery
 The Phony War
• April 1940 – Hitler attacks
Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg
 Splits French, British, Belgium troops
 Northern troops trapped at Dunkirk beaches, harbor
 Cross English Channel under fire
 9 days
 Makeshift fleet – 900 – many manned by
civilians
 340,000 soldiers
After Dunkirk
 Troops enter Paris
 Take over North
 Vichy Gov’t in South
 Charles de Gaulle
 Gov’t in exile – England
 French Resistance
 Germany controls France, goes after Britain
 New Prime Minister – Winston Churchill
 German attack by air
 1-2 months continuous bombing
 1,000 planes drop bombs
 Targeting civilians prohibited
 Attack ports, airfields, radar installations
 Aircraft factories, oil tanks
 Late Aug start attacking London
 Britain’s Royal Air Force (RAF)
 20,000 Londoners dead
 70,000 injured
 Invasion of Poland
U.S. Cash & Carry – 1939
 Any country can buy arms, must pay cash & use own ships
 Tripartite Pact – Germany, Japan, Italy – Mutual
defense
 Axis Powers
Lend-Lease Act
 US will lend money or lease war armaments to any
country whose defense is crucial to US
 Shift out of neutrality
 Building U.S. defenses
 Selective Training & Service Act – 1st peace draft
 16 million registered – 1 million drafted
 1940 Election – FDR 3rd Term
 US = Arsenal of Democracy – March 1941
 Hitler invades Soviet Union – June 1941
 Breaks Non-Aggression Pact
 Atlantic Charter
 Churchill & Roosevelt pledge
 collective security, disarmament
 Self-determination, economic cooperation
 Freedom of the seas
 Battle in Atlantic – “Rattlesnakes”
 German wolf packs sinking merchant ships
 FDR says “Shoot on site”
 Hideki Tojo – Now Prime Minister
 Japan invades Indochina military bases
 U.S. create trade embargo
 No oil for war
 Peace talks
 Meanwhile Japan prepares attack
 Dec. 7, 1941 “Day of Infamy”
 U.S. now in World War II