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World War II Adolph Hitler came to power in Germany in the 1930’s. He was able to rise because he was a fantastic public speaker who was able to reach the German people emotionally. He had originally come on the scene in the 1920’s in protest against the Weimar Republic (the government of Germany set up after World War I). In the 20’s he was seen as too radical and maybe even a nut, because life for many Germans seemed to be getting better while its economy was improving with the help of American money. However, the US stopped sending money to Germany in late 1929 when the US economy fell apart and the Great Depression began. As the US stopped sending money, the German economy fell apart, unemployment rose dramatically, and people began to lose hope. When Germans looked for hope, they found Adolf Hitler. The old “lunatic trouble maker” now seemed to be a wise leader with ideas on how to move Germany forward. The basic message of his speeches was that the German people were the greatest people on earth and they were only having hard times because of the actions of others. His political party, the National Socialist or Nazis moved to take over the Weimar Republic government and its legislature known as the Reichstag. Hitler’s followers were elected to the Reichstag, and Hitler was named as Chancellor. Once he gained complete control of the German government, Hitler began to ignore the agreements of the Versailles Treaty that ended WWI, and began to expand German territory. Hitler was a proponent of a government system known as Fascism. Fascists believe in a very strong central government. In fascist countries, everyone works for the betterment of the country and therefore each other. It is similar to Communism in that everyone is supposedly equal and working for one goal, but it is very different from communism in that a very strong government is necessary for stability and order. Hitler was not the only fascist to come to power in the late 1920’s and 30’s. Italy was led by the fascist Benito Mussolini while Japan was led by the fascist Hideki Tojo. As you might expect, the three fascist leaders joined together to form the alliance known as the Axis Powers, with Hitler as the unquestioned leader of the group. Once he gained complete control of the German government, Hitler began to ignore the agreements of the Versailles Treaty that ended WWI, and began to expand German territory. One of Hitler’s first actions was to improve the German military. He began manufacturing tanks, airplanes, ships, and other military machines. This put Germans to work in factories and also increased Germany’s strength. While this was against the Versailles Treaty, the countries of France and England allowed Germany to get away with it. They had a policy of “appeasement”, which meant that they would allow Germany to get away with some things rather than re-starting a war. The appeasement policy would continue for several years. Once Germany had a strong military again, Hitler began to expand territorially. According to the Versailles Treaty, a 30 mile demilitarized zone ran along the banks of the Rhine River between Germany and France. Neither army could place troops in this region. Hitler sent troops here and nobody stopped him. Germany took over Austria and other Europeans did nothing. Germany took half of Czechoslovakia and other Europeans did nothing. Germany took the rest of Czechoslovakia and other Europeans did nothing. The Appeasement that was intended to stop war was doing nothing but allowing Germany to do anything it pleased and get even stronger. Finally, Germany invaded Poland and England and France were forced to declare war. However it was too late. Germany had become to strong. The Germans, with the same fear of having to fight a two-front war as they had in World War I, signed a “non-aggression” pact with the Soviet Union saying that neither would attack the other. On August 23, 1939 Hitler and Josef Stalin made a pledge that Germany and the Soviet Union would never attack one another again. With the eastern front free from danger, the Germans began to concentrate on their enemies to the west, France and England. While the Germans turned west, the Soviet Union began to invade the Eastern European nations of Latvia, Estonia, Lithuania, and Finland. The map of Europe was quickly being changed. Once England and France declared war on Germany, they began to send troops to the “Maginot line”, an advanced system of fortifications, tunnels, underground trains and barracks designed specifically to stop the Germans from invading France. Both armies sat and watched each other for months. Finally on April 9, 1940 the Germans swept quickly into France and quickly took over the country by the June 22. They establishing their own French government. The Germans used a very fast military strategy known as a “Blitzkrieg” in which they sent airplanes and tanks deep behind enemy lines, basically surrounding the enemy and then defeating all of the enemy they had passed. The Blitzkrieg actions were so fast that the entire armies of France and England were almost captured in early June of 1940. The armies raced to the city of Dunkirk, on the French coast of the English Channel. While the German army closed in, hundreds of British boats were sent to rescue the army. These boats included large naval ships, as well as yachts, motor boats, paddle steamers, fishing boats, and rafts. The armies just escaped the Germans and crossed the Channel to England. In all, 338,000 troops were rescued. These soldiers remained in England for years, as the Germans tried to invade the island nation and end the war. Because it was an island nation, England could only be invaded by the sea. The British had the advantage of a strong navy, so this was not going to happen. Instead the Germans decided to simply bomb the British into submission. Daily bombing runs were carried out over the cities of England in the hopes of forcing British surrender. Germans were not concerned with attacking military targets. They wanted to crush the spirit of every day citizens so they bombed large cities such as London. This bombing was known as the “Battle of Britain”. It was very successful in destroying property, but the British, led by their new Prime Minister Winston Churchill refused to give up, while they continued to look westward across the Atlantic for help from the United States, who wished to stay out of another European war. Germany also formed an alliance with Italy and its leader Benito Mussolini. With France taken over, Germany and Italy began to take over all of Europe except island nation of England, and the massive Soviet Union. They tried to take England and wanted to keep the Soviets out of the fighting. All in all, the first year of the war was a total victory for the Germans and their allies. Germany controlled pretty much all of mainland Europe, as well as the middle east and northern Africa. Even though the Americans did not want to get involved in another European war, we did not want the Germans to take over all of Europe. The “lend-lease” program was started, in which the US would “loan” military supplies to the English to help them fight. Items loaned included airplanes, bullets, antiaircraft guns and other weapons. With our help the British were able to hold off the Germans. Even though they were dominating the fighting in Europe, the Germans were running out of fuel and were forced to attack the Russians to get to oil fields in the middle east. In “Operation Barbarossa” the Soviet Union was invaded. This caused the Soviet Union to also enter the war against Germany on June 22, 1941. Germany now had the possiblitiy of a two front war. They made an alliance with Japan in the hopes of keeping the US out of the war. While the Germans were fighting in Europe, the US was having disagreements with Japan in the Pacific. Japan is an island nation with very few natural resources. In order to grow economically, Japan needed resources from outside countries. However, many of the areas that Japan wanted resources from, were controlled by the US or traded with the US. Japan wanted to take over these small islands so that they could control their trade. This caused major arguments between Japan and the US. Japan knew that in a fight with the US that they would eventually lose Japan’s only chance of defeating the US was to fight a very fast war that crippled the US. Their plan was a sneak attack at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii to knock out the US Navy. On Sunday morning, December 7th, 1941, the Japanese attacked and wiped out several American ships and killed over 3000 Americans. It was a devastating attack, but not enough to destroy the US fleet of ships. The US was able to recover and War was declared against Japan and Germany. US factories went to work building military weapons and the war was on. The US now had a two front war with Japan and Germany, while Germany had a two front war of its own now. In Europe, Germany was being attacked on two sides. While the Russians were fighting in the East, the US and England were fighting in the West. To gain ground and weaken the Germans, the Americans and its allies first started fighting against the Germans and Italians in Northern Africa. Led by American commander George Patton and British commander Bernard Montgomery, we took the lands of Algeria, Tunisia, Morocco, and Libya, and then jumped across the Mediterranean and began fighting in Italy, and working our way north. Strangely, in a move similar to that of World War I, in September of 1943, the Italians overthrew Benito Mussolini and swapped sides from the Axis Powers to the Allies. The main fighting in Europe began at Normandy in France on D-Day, June 6, 1944. The Americans, English, and French (under the leadership of Allied Commander Dwight D. Eisenhower) invaded the beaches and began pushing the Germans back. Over the next few years the Americans, French, and English began pushing from the west, while the Soviets moved from the east and eventually met in Germany forcing the German surrender. The fighting in the Pacific was mostly between the Japanese and the Americans. The Americans had a plan called “island hopping” in which they would fight on some islands and jump past others on their way to Japan. Several hundred thousand Americans died in the Pacific before the Americans were about to reach Japan. President Harry Truman (who had taken office in April 1945 after the death of Franklin Roosevelt) decided to drop atomic bombs on Japan rather than invade and have over a million people killed. After two bombs, nicknamed Fat Man and Little Boy, were dropped, Japan surrendered. VJ day was on August 15, 1945 when the Japanese officially surrendered to the United States.