Download In his final political testament, Hitler blamed the Jews

World History
Chapter 26
World War II
Chapter Objectives
• Identify the steps taken by
Germany & Japan that led to the
beginning of World War II
• Describe the successes of
Germany & Japan in the early
years of the war
Chapter Objectives
• List the major events of the last
years of the war
• Explain the causes & results of
the Holocaust
Chapter Objectives
• Explain the conditions of the
peace settlement & the ways in
which the peace settlement led
to the Cold War
The Impact Today
• By the end of World War II, the
balance of power had shifted
away from Europe.
• Germany & Japan’s search for
expanded “living space” is
comparable to nations fighting
over borders today.
The Impact Today
• Atomic weapons pose a
threat to all nations.
Section 1:
Paths to War
I. The German Path to War
• Adolf Hitler
• Aryan race was superior to all
other races & nationalities
• needed more land to support a
larger population
• land in the east - in the Soviet
Union
Poster, c/ 1938, which proclaims
“One People, one State, on Leader!”
After becoming dictator in 1933, Hitler often held
large rallies to inspire the loyalty of Germans
Land to
support a
larger
population.
I. The German Path to War
• Slavic peoples could be used as
slave labor to build the Third
Reich
A. The First Steps
• Germany wished to revise the
unfair provisions of the Treaty of
Versailles by peaceful means
• Hitler created a new air force &
began a military draft
• This was a direct violation of the
Treaty of Versailles
A. The First Steps
• In the midst of the Great
Depression, France, Great
Britain & Italy were distracted
by their own internal problems
• 1936, Hitler sent troops into the
Rhineland, the demilitarized
area
Rhineland
France
A. The First Steps
• Great Britain did not support the
use of force against Germany
• Thus began a policy of
appeasement
A. The First Steps
• appeasement - the belief that
if European states satisfied the
reasonable demands of
dissatisfied powers, the
dissatisfied powers would be
content & stablitiy & peace
would be achieved in Europe
B. New Alliances
• Benito Mussolini
• Fascist Italy invaded Ethiopia
• 1936, Germany & Italy sent
troops to Spain to help General
Francisco Franco in the Spanish
Civil War
B. New Alliances
• New alliance between Italy &
Germany, called the RomeBerlin Axis
• Germany & Japan signed the
Anti-Comintern Pact,
promising a common front
against communism
C. Union with Austria
• 1937, Hitler proclaimed his
plans of Anschluss, or union,
with Austria, his native land
• 1938, Hitler annexed Austria to
Germany
Maps and
Charts 1a
D. Demands & Appeasement
• Nov. 1938, Hitler demanded the
Sudetenland, an area in
northwestern Czechoslovakia
that was inhabited largely by
Germans
• German troops were allowed to
occupy the Sudetenland
http://www.bbc.co.uk/scotland/education/bitesize/higher/img/history/roadwar/munich/sudetenland_1938.gif
D. Demands & Appeasement
• The Czechs, abandoned by their
Western allies, stood by
helplessly
• Munich Conference, British
Prime Minister Neville
Chamberlain, boasted the
agreement meant “peace for our
time”
http://homepage.eircom.net/~finnegam/war/munich_conference.jpg
“peace for our time”
E. Great Britain & France React
• March 1939, Hitler invaded
Bohemia & Moravia in western
Czechoslovakia
• Hitler’s aggression had made
clear that his promises were
worthless
E. Great Britain & France React
• Hitler began to demand the
Polish port of Danzig, Great
Britain offered to protect Poland
in the event of war
• France & Britain began political
& military negotiations with
Joseph Stalin, the Soviet dictator
F. Hitler & the Soviets
• To avoid a two-front war, Hitler
made his own agreement with
Stalin
• August 1939, Germany & the
Soviet Union signed the NaziSoviet Nonaggression Pact
http://www.historynet.com/pod/0822_l.jpg
F. Hitler & the Soviets
• On September 1, 1939, German
forces invaded Poland
• Two days later, Britain & France
declared war on Germany
II. The Japanese Path to War
• 1931, Japanese soldiers seized
Manchuria, which had natural
resources Japan needed
• Japan renamed Manchuria,
Manchukuo
II. The Japanese Path to War
• By the mid-1930’s militants had
gained control of Japanese
politics
A. War with China
• Chiang Kai-shek sought to
appease the Japanese by
allowing it to govern areas of
Northern China
A. War with China
• 1936, Chiang ended his military
efforts against the Communists
& formed a new united front
against the Japanese
• By 1937, the Japanese seized
the Chinese capital of Nanjing
B. The New Asian Order
• Japanese military leaders
wanted Chiang to join a New
Order in East Asia, comprising
Japan, Manchuria & China
• Japan also planned to seize
Soviet Siberia with its rich
resources
B. The New Asian Order
• Japanese became interested in
the raw materials in Southeast
Asia to fuel its military machine
• The United States objected &
threatened to apply economic
sanctions - restrictions
intended to enforce international
law
B. The New Asian Order
• Japan badly needed the oil &
scrap iron it was getting from
the United States
• Japan was now caught in a
dilemma
B. The New Asian Order
• Japan decided
to launch a
surprise attack
on the U.S. &
European
colonies in
Southeast
Asia
Pearl Harbor, December 7, 1941
Section 2:
The Course of World War II
I. Europe at War
• Blitzkrieg, “lightning war”
German’s attack on Poland used
armored columns, called panzer
divisions, supported by airplanes
• Blitzkrieg broke quickly through
Polish lines, within four weeks
Poland had surrendered
http://www.geocities.com/shadow_bitten/Wermacht/blitzkrieg.jpg
I. Europe at War
• On Sept. 28, 1939, Germany and
the Soviet Union divided Poland
A. Hitler’s Early Victories
• After a winter of waiting (called
the “phony war”), on April 9,
1940, Hitler attacked Denmark
and Norway
• One month later Germany
attacked the Netherlands,
Belgium and France
A. Hitler’s Early Victories
• The Germans went around the
Maginot Line (a series of
concrete and steel fortifications
armed with heavy artillery along
France’s border with Germany)
• This trapped British and French
troops on the beaches of Dunkirk
http://www.sitemaps.com/Custom_Map_Design/Historical/Maginot_Line.jpg
A. Hitler’s Early Victories
• The Royal Navy and civilians
evacuated 338,000 Allied troops
A. Hitler’s Early Victories
• After Dunkirk, the British
appealed to the U.S. for help
• The French signed an armistice
on June 22, 1940
A. Hitler’s Early Victories
• President Franklin D. Roosevelt,
denounced the aggressors, but
the U.S. followed a strict policy
of isolationism
• The U.S. passed a series of
neutrality acts in the 1930’s
preventing the them from taking
sides or becoming involved
A. Hitler’s Early Victories
• The acts were relaxed as the
U.S. supplied food, ships, planes
and weapons to Britain
B. The Battle of Britain
• Luftwaffe - the German air force
• Bombed British air and naval
bases, harbors, communication
centers and war industries
• Sept. 1940, Hitler ordered a shift
in strategy, the Luftwaffe began
massive bombing of British cities
B. The Battle of Britain
• Hitler hoped to break British
morale,
• The British were able to rebuild
their air strength quickly
• Soon, the British air force was
inflicting major losses on
Luftwaffe bombers
B. The Battle of Britain
• Hitler postponed the invasion of
Britain indefinitely
C. Attack on the Soviet Union
• Hitler had convinced himself that the
Soviet Union had a pitiful army and
could be defeated quickly
• Mussolini’s failed invasion of Greece
forced him to secure his southern
flank
• Hitler seized both Greece and
Yugoslavia in April 1941
C. Attack on the Soviet Union
• Hitler invaded the Soviet Union
on June 22, 1941
• German troops advanced rapidly,
capturing 2 million Russian
soldiers
• The second army besieged the
city of Leningrad
C. Attack on the Soviet Union
• An early winter and fierce Soviet
resistance halted the German
advance
• Germans had no winter uniforms
• The German armies had for the
first time been stopped
• Soviet army counterattacked in
Dec. 1941
II. Japan at War
• December 7, 1941, Japanese
aircraft attacked the U.S. naval
base at Pearl Harbor in the
Hawaiian Islands
• By Spring 1942, almost all of
Southeast Asia & much of the
Western Pacific had fallen into
Japanese hands
II. Japan at War
• The Japanese community of
nations was called the “Greater
East-Asia Coprosperity Sphere”
• Japan needed the resources of
the region for its war machine
II. Japan at War
• Japanese leaders thought the
American people had been made
soft by material indulgence
• The Japanese miscalculated
• The attack on Pearl Harbor
unified American opinion about
becoming involved in the war
II. Japan at War
• Hitler declared war on the
United States 4 days after Pearl
Harbor
III. Allies Advance
• Grand Alliance or “Allies” - Great
Britain, United States & Soviet
Union vs.
• Axis Powers - Germany, Italy &
Japan
III. Allies Advance
• Unconditional surrender
principle, required the Axis
nations to surrender without any
favorable condition
A. The European Theater
• 1942, in North Africa the Afrika
Korps, German forces under
General Erwin Rommel, broke
through the British defenses in
Egypt & advanced toward
Alexandria
http://nacismus.mysteria.cz/fotobox/rommel_1.jpg
A. The European Theater
• By the fall of 1942, the war had
turned against the Germans
• In North Africa, British forces
had stopped Rommel’s troops at
El Alamein
• Nov. 1942, British & American
forces invaded French North
Africa
A. The European Theater
• On the Eastern Front, Hitler
decided that Stalingrad, should
be taken
• Between Nov. 1942 & Feb. 1943,
the Soviets counterattacked &
stopped German troops
A. The European Theater
• German troops were encircled,
supply lines cut off, all in frigid
winter conditions
• The Germans were forced to
surrender
• The entire German 6th Army, was
lost
B. The Asian Theater 1942
• The Battle of the Coral Sea,
American naval forces stopped the
Japanese advance & saved Australia
from threat of invasion
• The Battle of Midway Island, U.S.
planes destroyed 4 attacking
Japanese aircraft carriers to
establish naval superiority in the
Pacific
B. The Asian Theater 1942
• Douglas MacArthur
commanded the forces in Asia
• “Island hopping” capture some
Japanese-held islands and
bypass others up to Japan
http://www.e-yliko.gr/Fyyl/Istoria/prosopawwarII/Douglas%20MacArthur.gif
http://img42.photobucket.com/albums/v129/daftanddemented/worldwartwo/WorldWarII15.jpg
IV. Last Years of the War
• By 1943 the tide of battle had
turned against the Axis forces
• Germany surrendered in Tunisia
in 1943
• Allies then invaded Italy an area
Winston Churchill called the “soft
underbelly” of Europe
A. The European Theater
• After the fall of Sicily, Mussolini
was removed from office &
placed under arrest
• Mussolini was liberated by
Germans in a daring raid
• Germans troops moved in &
occupied much of Italy
A. The European Theater
• June 6, 1944 (D-Day) Allied
forces under U.S. general Dwight
D. Eisenhower landed on the
Normandy beaches in history’s
greatest naval invasion
• In Paris, partisans, or resistance
fighters helped liberate Paris by
Aug. 1945
A. The European Theater
• In March 1945, the Allies crossed
the Rhine River and advanced
into Germany
• Using newly developed heavy
tanks, German forces were
defeated by the Soviets at the
Battle of Kursk in July 1943, the
greatest tank battle of WWII
A. The European Theater
• Soviet troops now began a
steady advance westward
• Soviet troops occupied Warsaw in
Jan. 1945 & entered Berlin in
April
• By Jan. 1945, Adolf Hitler had
moved into a bunker
A. The European Theater
• In his final political testament,
Hitler blamed the Jews for the
war.
• Hitler committed suicide on April
30, 1945, two days after
Mussolini had been shot by
Italian partisans
A. The European Theater
• On May 7, 1945, German
commanders surrendered
B. The Asian Theater
• US forces advanced slowly
across the Pacific
• 1945, Harry S. Truman became
president after the death of
Roosevelt in April
• U.S. had now developed atomic
weapons
Harry S. Truman
http://lcweb2.loc.gov/pnp/cph/3c10000/3c17000/3c17100/3c17122r.jpg
B. The Asian Theater
• Using atomic weapons would,
Truman hoped, enable the U.S.
to avoid an invasion of Japan
• American troops would suffer
heavy casualties if they invaded
Japan
The Atomic Bomb
Scientists at the beginning of the
twentieth century discovered that
atoms contained an enormous
amount of energy. The discovery
gave rise to the idea that
releasing this energy by splitting
the atom might create a
devastating weapon.
Read the excerpt on page 834
of your textbook and answer the
question on the following slide.
B. The Asian Theater
• Truman decided to use the
bombs
• The first bomb was dropped on
Hiroshima on Aug. 6, three days
later a second on Nagasaki
• Japan surrendered on Aug. 14,
1945
http://mothra.rerf.or.jp/ENG/A-bomb/photo-1/p9.jpg
Atomic bombs were
more powerful and left
behind radiation.
The destruction was so
overwhelming that Japan
surrendered.
Possible answer: The fear
that the prospect of using
atomic weapons caused,
and the power that
resulted from having
atomic weapons.
Costs of the War
• 17 million had died in battle
• 20 million civilians had perished
as well
• Some estimates place total
losses at 50 million