Lesson 1- The Rise of Dictators

Two reasons for the rise of dictators in Europe.

1. The Treaty of Versailles.

2. The economic depression after WW1.

1919 Benito Mussolini-

• Founded the Italian Fascist Party.

• Fascism was a type of aggressive nationalism.

Fascism-

• Believed that the nation was more important than the individual.

• A nation became great by expanding its territory and building its military.

• Fascists were anti-Communists.

Mussolini was backed by the militia known as the Black Shirts.

• Mussolini became premier of Italy and set up a dictatorship.

Joseph Stalin-

In 1917 the Bolshevik Party, led by Vladimir Lenin, set up communist governments throughout the Russian empire.

• The Russian territories were named the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics in 1922.

• The communists set up a one- party rule.

By 1926 Joseph Stalin became the new Soviet dictator.

• In 1928 he began a massive effort to industrialize the country.

• Millions of peasants who resisted the communist policies were killed.

Adolf Hitler-

• After WW1, the politics and economic chaos in Germany led to the rise of new political parties.

• The Nazi party was nationalistic and anti- Communist.

• Adolf Hitler, a member of the Nazi party, called for the unification of all Germans under one government.

• He wanted Eastern Europeans enslaved and felt all Jews were responsible for many of the world’s problems.

• In 1933, Hitler was appointed prime minister of Germany (Chancellor).

Difficult times in Japan after WW1 undermined the country’s political system.

• Many Japanese officers and civilians wanted to seize territory to gain needed resources.

• In 1931, the Japanese army, without the government’s permission, invaded the resource-rich Chinese province of Manchuria.

• The military took control of Japan

Peace in Our Time-

• In February 1938, Adolf Hitler threatened to invade Austria unless Austrian Nazis were given important government posts.

• In March 1938, Hitler announced the Anschluss, or unification of Austria and Germany.

• Hitler claimed the Sudetenland, an area of Czechoslovakia with a large German speaking population. Czechs strongly resisted Germany’s demand for the Sudetenland.

• France, the Soviet Union, and Britain threatened to fight Germany if it attacked Czechoslovakia.

The Munich Conference-

• A meeting between France, Great Britain, and Germany.

• France and Great Britain, hoping to prevent war, agreed to Hitler’s demands for the Sudetenland in a policy known as appeasement.

• In March 1939, Germany sent troops into Czechoslovakia, bringing the Czech lands under German control.

• Hitler then takes appeasement another step forward and demands the return of Danzig, which is Poland’s Baltic sea port.

• He also wanted a highway and railroad across the Polish Corridor.

• These demands convinced Britain and France that appeasement had failed.

• In May 1939, Hitler ordered the invasion of Poland by the German army.

• On August 23, 1939, Germany and the USSR signed a nonaggression treaty, with a secret agreement to to divide Poland.

  • Called the Nazi-Soviet Pact.

The War Begins-

• On September 1, 1939, Germany and the USSR invaded Poland.

• On September 3, 1939, Britain and France declare war on Germany- starting WW2.

• The Germans and Blitzkrieg-

  • Blitzkrieg- lightening war

  • Rapid moving tanks, aircraft, and troops to overrun and destroy the enemy.

  • Germans learned from WW1 and are trying to avoid trench warfare.

• October 5, 1939- The Polish army was defeated.

The Maginot Line-

• Built by France after WW1

• Concrete bunkers and fortifications.

• Located on the French- German border and was designed to stop a German invasion.

• When Hitler decided to attack France, he went around the Maginot Line by invading the Netherlands, Belgium, and Luxembourg.

  • The French and British troops quickly went into Belgium, becoming trapped there by German Forces.

Miracle at Dunkirk-

• May 1940, Germany begins the invasion of France.

  • German soldiers will cut through the Arden Forest in Belgium and drive the Allied Armies back to the port city of Dunkirk.

• The Miracle at Dunkirk-

  • The French and British troops were pushed back by the Germans into the city of Dunkirk.

  • Surrounded by the Germans, the British and French needed to be evacuated by boat in order to be saved.

  • On June 4, 338,000 British and French troops were evacuated from Dunkirk by all different types of ships and were taken back across the English Channel to England.

• With the Allied Army saved, Germany turned South and attacked France.

• On June 22, 1940, France surrendered to the Germans.

  • Battle lasted 1 month and 12 days.

  • Germany installed a puppet government in France.

Britain Remains Defiant-

• With the surrender of France, Hitler thought that the British would negotiate peace.

• Hitler doesn’t anticipate the bravery of the British people and their prime minister Winston Churchill.

• On June 4, 1940, Churchill delivered a defiant speech that rallied the British people and alerted the United States to Britain’s plight.

Battle of Britain-

• In order for Germany to invade Britain with an army, Hitler knew that he would have to defeat the British air force (RAF).

• In the Battle of Britain, the German air force (Luftwaffe) under Field Marshall Hermann Goring launched an all- out battle to destroy the British air force.

• The Germans bombed English cities including London.

  • In return the British bombed Berlin.

• Lasted from July to October 1940.

• The RAF was greatly outnumbered by the Luftwaffe.

• The British had radar stations and were able to detect the incoming German aircraft.

  • This allowed the British to direct fighters to intercept them.

• The British would outlast the Germans and this victory would boost British morale.

Battle of Britain-

• British

  • 544 aircrew killed

  • 422 aircrew wounded

  • 1547 aircraft destroyed

• German

  • 2698 aircrew killed

  • 967 captured

  • 638 missing bodies identified by British Authorities

  • 1887 aircraft destroyed

Lesson 2: From Neutrality to War:

America Turns to Neutrality-

• Americans supported isolationism because of:

  • The rise of dictatorship in Europe and Asia after WW1

  • The refusal of European countries to repay war debts owned to the US.

  • The Nye Committee finding that arm factories made huge profits.

    • Many Americans just wanted to avoid international commitments.

The Neutrality Acts-

• Neutrality Act of 1935

  • Passed by Congress.

  • Made it illegal for Americans to sell arms to any country at war.

• Neutrality Act of 1937

  • Continued the ban of selling arms to countries at war and required warring countries to buy nonmilitary supplies from the U.S. on a “cash and carry” basis

• FDR supported the idea of Internationalism

  • Internationalists believed that trade between nations creates prosperity and helps prevent war.

• Japan aligned itself with Germany and Italy, became known as the Axis Powers.

• After Japan launched a full-scale attack on China in 1937, FDR authorized the sale of weapons to China.

  • FDR said that the Neutrality Act of 1937 didn’t apply since neither China nor Japan had actually declared war.

FDR Supports England-

• Two days after Britain and France declared war against Germany, President Roosevelt declared the U.S. Neutrality Act of 1939-

  • Allowed warring countries to buy weapons from the U.S. as long as they paid cash and carried the arms away on their own ships.

• Loopholes in the Neutrality Act-

  • FDR used a loophole in the Neutrality Act of 1939 and sent 50 old American destroyers to Britain.

  • In exchange for the right to build American bases on British-controlled Newfoundland, Bermuda, and Caribbean Islands.

    • Known as the Destroyers for Bases Agreement.

The Isolationist Debate-

• After the German invasion of France and the rescue of Allied forces at Dunkirk, American public opinion changed to favor limited aid to the Allies.

• The America First Committee

  • Opposed any American intervention or aid to the Allies.

Election of 1940-

• FDR ran for an unprecedented third term as president under the Democratic Party.

• Republican candidate was Wendell Willkie.

  • Both candidates had an idea to keep the U.S. neutral but assisting the Allied Forces.

  • FDR won by a large margin.

Edging Toward War-

• The Lend-Lease Act

  • Stated that the U.S. could lend or lease arms to any country considered “vital to the defense of the United States.”

• Hitler breaks the Nazi-Soviet Pact-

  • June 1941, Hitler invades the Soviet Union

The Hemispheric Defense Zone-

• Developed by FDR, declared the entire Western half of the Atlantic as part of the Western Hemisphere, and therefore neutral.

• This allowed FDR to order the U.S. Navy to patrol the western half of the Atlantic Ocean and reveal the location of German submarines to the British.

The Atlantic Charter-

• August 1941

• Between FDR and Prime Minister of Great Britain Winston Churchill.

• The agreement committed the two leaders to a postwar world of

  • Democracy

  • Nonaggression

  • Free trade

  • Economic advancement

  • Freedom of the seas

• “Shoot-on-Sight”-

  • After a German U-boat fired on the American destroyer Greer, FDR ordered American ships to follow a “Shoot-on-Sight” policy toward German submarines.

  • Germans torpedoed and sank the American destroyer Reuben James in the North Atlantic.

Japan Attacks the United States-

• FDR’s primary goal between August 1939 and December 1941 was to help Great Britain and its allies defeat Germany.

• When Britain began moving its warships from Southeast Asia to the Atlantic, FDR introduced policies to discourage the Japanese from attacking the British Empire.

Export Control Act-

• In July 1940, Congress passed giving FDR the power to restrict the sale of strategic materials to other countries.

  • Strategic Materials- materials important for fighting in a war.

• FDR immediately blocked the sale of airplane fuel and scrap metal to Japan.

  • The Japanese signed an alliance with Germany and Italy.

• By July 1941, Japanese aircraft posed a direct threat to the British Empire.

  • FDR responded to the threat by freezing all Japanese asset in the United States and reducing the amount of oil shipped to Japan.

  • FDR also sends general MacArthur to the Philippines to build up American defense there.

• The Japanese decided to attack resource-rich British and Dutch colonies in Southeast Asia, seize the Philippines, and attack Pearl Harbor.

The Day of Infamy-

• December 7, 1941

  • Japan attacks the U.S. Pacific fleet at Pearl Harbor.

    • The Japanese sink and damage 21 ships, killing 2,043 Americans and injured hundreds more.

    • The next day, FDR asks Congress to declare war on Japan.

• On December 11, 1941- Japan’s allies Germany and Italy declared war on the U.S.

Lesson 3: The Holocaust

Nazi Persecution of the Jews-

• The Holocaust-

  • The Nazis killed nearly 6 million Jews and millions of other people during the Holocaust.

  • Shoah- the Hebrew term for the Nazi campaign to exterminate the Jews before and during WW2.

Nuremberg Laws-

• The Nuremberg Laws-

  • Introduced in September 1935.

  • Took citizenship away from the Jewish Germans and banned marriage between Jews and other Germans.

    • German Jews were deprived of many rights that many citizens of Germany had long held.

    • By 1936 half of Germany’s Jews were jobless.

Kristallnacht-

• November 9, 1938

• “night of broken glass”

• Anti-Jewish demonstrations broke out across Germany, Austria, and Czechoslovakia.

• Nazi officials depicted the riots as justified reactions to the assassination of German foreign official Ernst vom Rath, who had been shot two days earlier by Herschel Grynszpan, a 17-year old Polish Jew distraught over the deportation pf his family from Germany.

• Over the next 48 hours, violent mobs destroyed hundreds of synagogues, burning or desecrating Jewish religious artifacts along the way.

• Acting on orders from Gestapo headquarters, police officers and firefighters did nothing to prevent the destruction.

• 7,500 Jewish-owned businesses, homes, and schools were plundered, and 91 Jews were murdered.

• An additional 30,000 Jewish men were arrested and sent to concentration camps.

• Nazi officials immediately claimed that the Jews themselves were to blame for the riots, and a fine of 1 billion reichsmarks (about 400 million dollars at 1938 rates) was imposed on the German Jewish community.

  • From 1933 and the beginning of WW2 in 1939, about 350,000 Jews escaped Nazi- controlled Germany.

    • Many immigrated to the United States.

    • Millions remained trapped in Nazi-controlled Europe. Why?

    • Many couldn’t get visas to the U.S. or any other country.

The Final Solution-

• Wannsee Conference-

• January 20, 1942

• Nazi leaders met to decide the “final solution” of the Jews and other “undesirables”.

• The plan was to round up Jews and other “undesirables” from Nazi- controlled Europe and take them to concentration camps.

  • Concentration camps-Detention center where healthy individuals worked as slave laborers.

  • The elderly, the sick and young children were sent to extermination camps to be killed in large gas chambers.

• After WWII began, Nazis built concentration camps throughout Europe.

  • Extermination camps were built in many concentration camps, mostly in Poland.

  • first concentration camp was established at Dachau (Germany)

    • Thousands of people were killed each day at these camps.

• In only a few years, Jewish culture had been virtually obliterated by the Nazis in the lands they conquered.