World War 2

Treaty of Versailles

One of the causes of WW2, harsh reparations, demilitarization, and self-determinations

Appeasement

Accepting demands in order to avoid conflict, during the Munich Conference September 30, 1938, France and Britain gave Sudetenland (western Czechoslovakia) to avoid conflict

Totalitarian State

A country where a single party controls the government and every aspect of the lives of the people

Axis Powers' Land Ambitions

Germany- Austria (1938), Sudetenland (1938), Czechoslovakia (1939), Poland (1939), Denmark (1940), Norway (1940), Belgium (1940), Netherlands (1940), Luxembourg (1940), France (using Blitzkrieg, or lightening attacks) (1940), Yugoslavia (1941), Greece (1941)

Italy- restore the Roman Empire, Ethiopia (1935)

Japan- Manchuria (1931), China (1937), controls Pacific theater by 1942

Scapegoating

Blaming a group for one's own troubles, Germany used scapegoating to blame on Jews and others

Isolationism

A national policy of avoiding involvement in world affairs, U.S. used isolationism to avoid antagonizing either side

Embargo

A ban on trade

Lend-Lease Act

1941, allowed U.S. to lend/lease war supplies to Allies

Franklin D. Roosevelt (FDR)

Atlantic Charter, issued Executive Order 8802 (banned discriminator practices against African American workers), issues Executive Order 9066 (Japanese Internment), death 1945

Atlantic Charter

Declaration of principles issued by Winston Churchill and Franklin D. Roosevelt in August 14, 1941

Principles of Atlantic Charter

Rights of self-determination, freedom from fear and want, freedom of the seas, and freedom from violence

Executive Order 8802

June 25, 1941, FDR passed, pressured by A. Philip Randolph by threatening a mass strike, prohibited discriminatory employment practices in war related industries, established the Fair Employment Practices Commission (FEPC) to enforce it

Executive Order 9066

February 19, 1942, authorized the military to exclude anyone from areas of the United States in certain areas, 112,000 Japanese-Americans forced into camps causing loss of homes & businesses, $400 million loss of property, demonstrated fear of Japanese invasion

Joseph Stalin

Dictator of the Soviet Union, turned the Soviet Union into a totalitarian state, communism, oppression, Bolshevik revolutionary, head of the Soviet Communists after 1924, and dictator of the Soviet Union from 1929 to 1953, controlled everything, those who spoke against government were killed and sent to camps, ~4 million falsely accused

Nazi-Soviet Pact

August 23, 1939, a secret agreement between the Germans and the Russians that said that they would not attack each other

Harry Truman

Became president when FDR died, 33rd preisdent of the U.S., gave the order to drop the atomic bomb, shaped U.S. foreign policy regarding the Soviet Union after the war.

Benito Mussolini

Italian fascist dicator (Il Duce), took advantage of Italy's economic problems to rise to power, dictator in 1922, invaded Ethiopia in October 1935 to February 1937

Nuremberg Laws

1935, laws defining the status of Jews and withdrawing citizenship from persons of non-German blood

Holocaust

Mass killing of ~6 million Jews, Nazis used 6 death camps in Poland to kill millions of people through chambers, torture, or medical experiments; survivors had ribs visible through their shirts, Allies had to try certain Nazis of crimes as it was so terrible

Nazi Party

The political party founded in Germany in 1919 and brought to power by Hitler in 1933, had principles of nationalism, supremacy, antisemitism, anti-communism, and totalitarianism

Adolf Hitler

Dictator (der Fuhrer) from 1933 - 1945 (death by suicide), joined the German Workers' Party in September 1919, put on trial in 1924 "Beer Hall Putsch" which gave him fame and appealed to all, rising to power

Dunkirk

Port in France where 300,000 Allied troops were evacuated when their retreat by land was cut off by the German advance from May 26 to June 4, 1940

Germany attacks USSR

Operation Barbarossa, June 22, 1941 - December 5, 1941, over 4 million troops of the Axis powers invaded the USSR along a 2,900 km (1,800 mi) front, turning point, opened up the Eastern Front, leading to Germany's defeat

Fall of France

May 10, 1940 - Jun 25, 1940, Germany invaded France and set up the Vichey government, which lasted until the Allies invaded in 1944

Pearl Harbor

7:50AM, December 7, 1941 - Surprise attack by the Japanese on the main U.S. Pacific Fleet harbored in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii destroyed 19 U.S. ships and 200 aircraft, 2400 American deaths, U.S. declared war on Japan, entering World War II, "date which will live in infamy"

Guam

Surprise attack on December 8, 1941, initial resistance followed by surrender on December 10

Wake Island

Japan attacked on December 8, 1941, but American marines held them off until a larger force arrived on Desember 23 and it fell, 12 fighter aircraft, 1200 civilians lost by U.S., 2 dozen aircraft, 4 surface vessels, 2 submarines, and 600 armed forces lost by Japanese

Singapore

Japanese attacked and established a beachead on February 8, 1942, Japan advanced and Allies retreated as out of supplies, civilians retreated into last 1% of Singapore by February 15 and Percival surrendered (80,000 British POW), Singapore held until end of war

Midway

June 1942, Japan tried to invade midway, but U.S. sunk 4 Japanese aircraft carriers, 322 aircraft, killed many Japanese pilots, turning point (first Japanese navy loss in 300 years)

North African campaign date

June 10, 1940 - May 13, 1943

Goals of North Afican campaign

Axis wanted to cut off Britain from resources in Asia and Africa, gain access to Middle Eastern oil supplies; Allies wanted to secure the Suez Canal and North African oil

North African campaign locations

Fought in Egypt, Libya, Tunisia, Algeria, and Morocco

Losses in North African campaign

British lost 220,000, U.S. lost ~18,500 in Tunisia, Axis powers lost 900,000

Italy Campaign

1943-1945, invaded Sicily in June 1943, 60,000-70,000 Allied and over 100,000 German soldiers died, led to the collapse of the Fascist Italian regime and the fall of Mussolini who was jailed on July 25th, 1943

D-Day

June 6, 1944, ~155,000 American, British, and Canadian soldiers went across English Channel, landed on 5 beaches in Normandy, faced little resistance except for Omaha Beach; 2500 American soldiers died but suceeded, France taken back August 25, 1944

Fall of Germany

On December 16, 1944, the Battle of the Bulge was Hitler's last offensive, created a bulge in American defenses but didn't break through, Soviet troops had assaulted Berlin on April 16, 1945, and Hitler committed suicide on April 30, Germany's unconditional surrender on May 7

Potsdam Conference

July 26, 1945 - Allied leaders Truman, Stalin and Churchill met in Germany to set up zones of control, create a council of 4 Allied representatives to help Germany and Austria, Poland's western frontier was moved to the Ordor-Neisse line, 10 million Germans were moved to Germany

Declaration at Potsdam Conference

The Japanese were informed there would be total destruction if they didn't agree to unconditional surrender

Hiroshima

Japanese city where an atomic bomb was dropped by the U.S. on August 6, 1945; ~130,000 people died in minutes, more from radiation poisoning; Japan didn't surrender

Nagasaki

Japanese city where an atomic bomb was dropped by the U.S. on August 9, 1945; ~35,000 people died in minutes, more from radiation poisoning; Japan surrendered on August 14

Tuskegee Airmen

African-American unit commanded by black officers, organized by the Army Air Corps and trained in Alabama at the Tuskegee Army Air Field, got an impressive war record

761st Tank Batallion

All black unit, saw first action on November 7, 1944, but didn't get recognition, nominated heroism in action but wasn't awarded until 33 years after the war, 183 straight days in combat and liberated 30 towns going into Germany

Zoot Suit Riots

June 1943, lasted 10 days, Mexican Americans inspired by jazz wore that style of clothing, groups led by sailors, soldiers, and marines forced them to take them off or get attacked, police did nothing, newspapers blamed the Mexican Americans, Eleanor Roosevelt wrote about the discrimination faced by Mexican Americans in her newspaper column

Rationing

US implemented a system of coupons on certain items to ensure equal distribution to US public and ensure that US troops abroad had enough supplies of certain goods

Recycling

Citizens participated in scrap drives to collect materials for the war, recycled scrap metal (for bombs, ammunition, tanks, guns and battleships), rubber (for gas masks, life rafts, cars and bombers), paper, fats, and tin