WWI/Interwar/WW2

AHHHHHHH there is soooo much to learn

Dates of WWI

1914-1918

Who was involved in WWI

Central Powers vs Allies

The Central Powers (WW1)

Germany, Austria-Hungary, Ottoman Empire (Turkey)

Triple Entente (Allies) WW1

France, Britain, Russia (later USA replaces Russia)

Schlieffen Plan

German plan to invade France through Belgium then invade Russia to avoid fighting a two front war

Alliances at the end of the war (How it ended)

Russia exits war, then the Ottoman Empire, followed by Austria-Hungary. There is an uprising in Germany.

Treaty of Versailles

The treaty imposed on Germany that forced them to return/ give away territories, pay for damage, and accept blame for the war; restricted army size and the manufacturing of military equipment.

Weimar Republic

Officially known as the German Reich, a constitutional federal republic, Nazis hated it because it was seen as a historical aberration.

Mussolini

understood the power of media and rose through the ranks of the Fascist party; people liked him a lot.

Nazis

group of veterans who hated the Weimar Republic and who rose because people hated the Republic and loved Hitler

Reichstag Fire

the German Parliament building, Reichstag, was set on fire a few days before elections and blamed on the communists

Enabling Act

created a state of emergency and allowed Hitler to pass legislation without other approval, gave Nazis total power

Reichstag and Enabling Act

Hitler is able to get the Enabling Act through the Reichstag without the opposition of communists who were targeted and arrested after the fire

Blackshirts

Italian veterans, the paramilitary army of the Fascist party

Brownshirts

Nazi militarized core of supporters, many of whom were veterans, and the Freikorps aka SA or Stormtroopers

Freikorps

German paramilitary group (militia) formed of unhappy veterans who used violence to undermine other groups, they hated the Weimar Republic and wanted the monarchy

Russian economy plans

War Communism, New Economy Plan, 5 Year Plan

War communism

production is run by the state and extra food needed to be given to the army first, it tried to abolish money, failed

New Economy Plan

abolished state confiscation of extra food but instituted a 10% tax, brought private businesses back and currency reform

5 Year Plan

Stalin's plan to reorganize the industry and agriculture to catch up with the west with collectivization of farms and unrealistic production quotas in factories

Big Three (WW2)

Great Britain - Winston Churchill, The U.S. - FDR, The Soviet Union - Joseph Stalin

Axis Powers (WWII)

Germany - Hitler, Italy - Mussolini, Japan - Emperor Hirohito

appeasement

give Hitler what he wants to avoid a war

Territories Hitler took before the war

March 7, 1936 - Nazis occupy the Rhineland, March 12/13, 1938 - Nazi troops enter Austria, Oct 15, 1938 - Nazi troops occupy Czechoslovakia

why did Hitler take territories before the war

so that Germans could have more "living space", and to unify all German regions to make one large country with shared nationalism

Hitler-Stalin nonaggression pact

the Soviet Union signed the treaty after attempts to create a military alliance with France and Britain failed, for Germany it protected against another two-front war

Germany and USSR after the war

Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere

the propaganda for Japan's new empire, focused on Japanese racial purity and supremacy

Fall of France

In June 22, 1940, it was occupied by Germany who got northern France and the coast

What happened after France fell

the country was split in two but the south (Vichy) was run by Marshall Henri Pétain who collaborated with Germany. Britain was now alone

Battle of Dunkirk May 26 - June 4, 1940

German soldiers cornered French and British soldiers at the coast, they were rescued at Dunkirk by civilian crafts

The Blitz 7 Sept 1940

Hitler assumed Britain would surrender but they didn't so they were bombed a crazy amount destroying many English cities, Britain never surrendered

Battle of Stalingrad Aug 1942 - Feb 1943

turning point because Germany lost a lot, the largest and bloodiest battle ever with 1.7-2 million Axis and Soviet casualties

D-Day

Allied invasion of France to establish a second front, allowed them to gain a foothold on the continent to push Germany back

Midway

Turning point in the Pacific, Japan was defeated, its advances stopped, and there was a shortage of pilots after, important to move forward into Japan

Iwo Jima

an invasion was needed to push towards Japan, one of the bloodiest battles in the war, with 20,000 out of 21,000 Japanese soldiers killed

Okinawa

an invasion to provide a staging area for invasion of Japanese mainland, all 110,000 Japanese defenders killed

Turning point on Western Front

Operation Torch - allied victory in North Africa and invasion of Italy. D-Day - allies invade Normandy and took hold of the continent to push Germany back

Turning point on Eastern Front

the battle of Stalingrad - German army defeated and captured, began a long retreat, largest and bloodiest single battle in history

Turn in the Pacific

the battle of Midway - Japanese hoped to capture the atoll to use as a base, US caught Japanese by surprise after overhearing plans on the radio, Japanese advances were stopped

Operation Barbarossa

Nazi operation consisting of an attack army of 4 million men on a 2,000 mile front to invade the Soviet Union, 90% of German deaths happened on the eastern front

Operation Torch

Allied victory in North African colonies which lead to an invasion of Italy

Operation Sea Lion

Hitler's plan to invade Britain by air and sea

How did the European war end

turning points on the western and eastern fronts led to a race to Berlin. Germany surrendered unconditionally on May 7, 1945

What happened to Hitler and Mussolini

Hitler committed suicide on April 30 as Russian troops took Berlin, Mussolini was captured and killed by Italian Partisans on April 28

V-E day

German surrender and victory in Europe, May 8, 1945

V-J day

Japanese surrender and victory in the Pacific, August 15, 1945

the boycott of Jewish businesses

April 1, 1933, a response to the so-called anti-German "atrocity propaganda" that was allegedly being spread abroad by the "international Jewry" Germans were told to buy only from german owned businesses

Book burnings

German students gather in Berlin to burn books with unGerman ideas

which authors were targeted in the Nazi book burnings?

Freud (Jewish), Einstein (Jewish), Marx (communist), Remarque (anti-war), London (individualist), Wells (socialist)

The Ghettos

created as holding areas for Jews awaiting deportation, food rations were insanely low, very crowded, many died of disease and starvation, not allowed to leave

Nuremberg Laws

1935 laws that took away Jewish German citizenship, forbid Jewish/Aryan marriage and sexual relations, defined a "full Jew" as someone with 3 Jewish grandparents

the Manhattan project

began in 1939, a secret government project to create a nuclear weapon in response to German nuclear ambitions, and was the best-kept secret of the war, partially run by Oppenheimer

Potsdam Declaration

an ultimatum to Japan about terms of surrender, and promised "prompt and utter destruction" if they did not comply

Trinity test

secret testing of the atomic bomb in New Mexico on July 16, 1945

Nagasaki

August 9, 1945, a plutonium bomb named Fat Man is dropped at 11:02 am, 70,000 people killed

Hiroshima

August 6, 1945, a uranium bomb named Little Boy is dropped at 8:15 am with no warning, 140,000 people killed

arguments against the bomb

1. evidence that Japan was already planning surrender 2. its use was militarily unnecessary because of previous fire bombing 3. effect on civilians may be a war crime

arguments for the bomb

1. a warning to the Soviets 2. wanted and needed unconditional surrender from Japan 3. to prevent an invasion of Japan, saving millions of lives