Between the Wars & WWII

• Post War
  • Nationalism Movements
  • Pan-Africanism
  • India
  • Australia, Canada, and New Zealand
  • Middle East - Mandate System
  • Revolutions
  • Mexico
  • China
  • Democratic Nations Weakened
  • United States, Britain, France - exhausted from WW1, experience a great depression in 1930s
  • U.S. - becomes isolationist
  • Rise of Authoritarian Government (dictatorship
  • Communism - Russia, China
  • Fascism - Italy, Germany
  • Military Dictatorship - Japan
  • France
  • Experiences economic boom
    • War reparations from Germany
    • Money stops coming in when Hitler rises to power
      • World trade slows
      • Overproduction of goods
      • Unemployment goes up→inflation goes up ↔ great depression
  • France gets Alsace-Lorraine back, turns into huge industrial region (mainly coal)
  • New political party in France = Populist Party (Communism + socialist parties led by Leon Blum)
    • Secret Committee of Revolutionary Action - Backed by fascists of Germany
    • Secret organization of anarchists and revolutionaries in France during the late 19th century
    • Aimed to overthrow the French government and establish a new social order through violent actions such as bombings and assassinations
  • Locarno Pact - France signs military agreement with Germany, Poland, Belgium; vowed to protect Czechoslovakia and keep peace
    • Germany joins League of Nations
    • France sense of security
  • France signs Treaty of Neutral Assistance with Soviet Russia
    • If something happens to you, we will protect you and vice-versa
    • However, Germany sees this as a stab in the back and Locarno Pact becomes void→French start preparing for German attack and Maginot Line
    • Maginot Line - fortification that spread along the French/German border but became a military liability when the Germans attacked France in 1940
    • Germany simply walked around the Maginot Line
    • Stitzkrieg - Troops waited 8 months for an attack that never happened
  • British Empire starts to dissolve
  • By 1920s - British Empire begun to shrink
    • White Dominions became independent, ties to England in name only
    • Irish Republican Army launched Easter Uprising (1916) and declared independence from England
  • Nationalist movements sprung up across Africa, Middle-East, India
    • Pan-Africanism + Negritude Movement - Pushed for pride in African Heritage & unity towards independence
    • Fights against Mandate System saw rise in Pan-Arabism
    • Anti-western movement for independence
    • Arab lands promised to Arabs & Jews, taken by British
      • McMahon Correspondence - British promised Arab state in area of Palestine for revolt against Ottoman EmpireWhite Papers of 1939 - Palestine to be an Arab state, Jewish citizens must be protectedBalfour Declaration - British Promised Palestine to Jewish ZIonists
  • Mohandas Gandhi began pushing for greater equality for Indians in South Africa and against harsh laws in India
    • Self-Rule Movement fully began in 1916
  • 1920s saw expansion of suffrage in England
  • Representation of People Act - Gave universal male suffrage at age of 21 (removed property qualifications for voting as wellEqual Franchise Act of 1928 - Gave women’s suffrage to women over 21
  • George V died in 1936 and British Monarchy became turbulent, King Edward comes to power and is abdicated after 325 days→George VI takes throne
  • Labour Party - Great Depression brought rise of Socialist party in ParliamentThe Munich Government - Neville Chamberlain negotiates with Hitler to prevent war from happening
• International Agreements for US
  • Washington Naval Conference - 3 treaties aimed at the pacific (Goal was to reduce Naval Warship)
  • Kellogg-Briand Pact - 15 counties said war isn’t instrument of national policy (they won’t use war to fix problems)
  • Never considered if war actually happened
  • Neutrality Acts (1935-1937) - Banned sale and transportation of war material to belligerents
  • US saw Germany struggling to make payments
  • Dawes Plan (1924) - Prevent future incidents to repay their loans
    • US loaned Germany money to pay Britain & France so they could repay loans
    • US loaned Germany money to pay for reparations so Britain and France could repay loans
  • US began restriction immigration
  • Immigration Act of 1924 - Barred entry to only those who were eligible for citizenship, Asians not eligible due to earlier laws
• International Struggles for US
  • US saw expansion of US industry & politics in 1920s
  • Rapid consumer spending + buying on credit
  • Harlem Renaissance - celebration of African American culture
  • 18th Amendment - Prohibited production, transportation, of sale of alcohol in US (1919-1933)
  • 1929 stock market crash signaled start of Great Depression
  • Massive unemployment in US
  • President Franklin Roosevelt tried to fix the economic crisis with his New Deal
    • Provided Public Works to get people employed
    • Won’t be until US gets involved in WWII and it is fixed
• Success & Failures of the League of Nations
  • Founded in 1920, first worldwide intergovernmental organization with the mission of maintaining world peace
  • Started with 42 nations, reached 58 nations at its height
  • USSR joined 1936, kicked out in 1939 for invading Finland
  • Central and South American nations joined, left by 1930s
  • Germany, Japan, Italy quit when Sanctions applied
• Germany and Hitler’s invasion of Poland sparked start of WW2
• Japan Upset After WW1
  • Washington Naval Conference (1922)
  • Limit size of Navy
  • Eliminates imperialism of CHina
  • Racial injustice
  • Immigration
  • Growing tension between U.S. & Japan
  • Treaty of Versailles
  • Wanted German islands in Pacific
  • Earthquake in 1923
  • 100,000 killed + crushed economy
  • Constitutional Monarchy - emperor as “figurehead”
  • Parliament - Diet
  • Hirohito
  • Zaibatsu - rich military families that wanted to continue imperializing
  • 1931 - invasion of Manchuria
  • Goes against Washington Naval Conference which says that there is no more imperialization of China
  • Assert dominance
  • Hideki Tojo - military dictator
  • 2nd Sino-Japanese war
    • Rape of Nanjing
    • Japan successfully captures Nanjing
  • Tojo elected as Prime Minister of Japan
  • Responsible for bombing of Pearl Harbor
• Totalitarianism
  • Totalitarian State - Any government in which one party dictatorship regulates every aspect of citizens lives
  • Leader complete control over political, economic, social lives of citizens
• Rise of Fascism: Spain
  • After WW1→Industrial class + military wanted to remove corrupt government - unsuccessful
  • By 1931 - Second Spanish Republic started by leftist socialists & liberals
    • Monarch and King Alfonso XIII fled country
  • Francisco Franco
  • Conservative general led 1936 revolt which turns into civil war
  • Nationalists (fascists), Right Wing, Hitler, Mussolini vs. Republicans
  • Spanish Civil War (1936-1939)
  • Dress rehearsal for WWII, German air raid of Guernica
    • German air raid showed Hitler’s power of modern warfare with bombing
    • 1939 - Franco wins + sets off fascist dictatorship
    • Spain eventually sits out of WWII
• Beginning of WWII
  • Western Democracy on decline | Fascism/communism on the rise
  • Appeasement - giving in
  • West gave into Hitler/Mussolini demands
  • Liebestraum - territory which Hitler thinks he needs to create a powerful nation
  • Hitler breaks Treaty of Versailles and militarizes the Rhineland
    • West does nothing
  • Enchleusse - joins Austria with Germany
    • West does nothing
  • Hitler wants Czechoslovakia→West does nothing
    • Neville Chamberlain (Britain prime minister) wants Hitler at Munich Conference
    • Chamberlain gives a sliver of Czechoslovakia to Hitler called to Sudetenland
• West Stays Out
  • Appeasement/Pacifism
  • France - Popular Front = socialists + communist + anarchist + republicansBritain - No war, Treaty of Versailles unfairUnited States - Neutrality Act
    • Can’t send arms to any nation
  • 1939 - Nazi-Soveit Non-Pyganoism Pact
    • Hitler avoids 2 front war
    • Stalin has time to mobilize
• Start of WWII
  • September 1, 1939 - Hitler begins invasion of Poland→Start of WWII and Hitler & Stalin divide Poland
  • Hitler uses blitzkrieg in attacks on other tanks→ quick attacks with use of tanks and luftwaffe (German air force)
  • GB & France declare war on Germany
  • Hitler invades France in 1940 after 8 months of France
  • Maginot Line - defensive network built to protect French eastern border from invasions
  • Germany follows invasion by creating occupation zones in France
  • Northern France demobilized, Southern France becomes puppet state controlled by Germans known as Vichy France
  • France falls→Britain stands alone in Europe, Hitler begins attacking British cities with luftwaffe
  • Hitler begins Operation Sea Lion (planned takeover of Britain)
  • Battle of Britain begins in 1940, including the London Blitz (50 nights of constant bombing on London)
  • Despite failure in GB, Hitler has control of most of continental Europe and next focused on North Africa
  • Erwin Rommel plans to seize Suez Canal and cut off British control→ defending North Africa vital to allies
  • Summer 1941, Hitler initiates next phase of conquest into Soviet Union through Operation Barbarossa to taken control of USSR’s natural resources + destroy communism
  • With this invasion, pact between Hitler & Stalin ends
    • Stalin is still greatly unprepared for war and lacked military leadership from Great Purge
  • Instead of going straight to Moscow, Hitler focuses on natural resources in Ukraine→winter begins and Stalin has time to reinforce his troops
    • Through use of scorched earth policy, Soviets withstand long battles
    • German lack resources to survive winters
    • By 1942, Hitler fails to conquer Moscow, Stalingrad, Or leningrad in Soviet Union
  • Hitler used invasion of Eastern Europe to increase his Final Solution
  • Hitler took resources from battlefront to aid transportation of imprisonment of Jews, communists, other victims
  • Soviets begin pressuring GB & US to invade Western Europe and relieve pressure
• United States
  • Neutral (1935)
  • Land-Lease (1948)
  • Military and
  • No aid to Japan
    • Precursor to Pearl Harbor (Coral Sea Midway in 1492-1943)
  • U.S. enters War
  • Nationalism
  • Total war (mass production, war propaganda, recruitment, gender roles
• Tehran Conference (1943- Iran) - Stalin, FDR, Winston
  • Europe 1st - then Pacific
  • Stalin wants US & GB to invade on Western Front
  • Need time to mobilize (trust issues involved)
  • D-Day - France is liberated
  • Germans gaining to launch final offensive - Battle of the Bulge through Ardennes Forest & take France again
  • Allies launch Battle for Berlin & Nazi Germany surrenders on May 7th, 1945 (V-E Day)
• Yalta Conference (1945) - Ukraine
  • Soviet Union says “we need 3 months following Germany’s surrender”
  • Time to mobilize along with trust issues
  • Germany split into 4 different zones
    • US/GB/France/Soviet
    • Self-determination in Eastern Europe
• WWII: Pacific
  • Most of the war in the Pacific was fought between Japan and the U.S.
  • U.S. used “Island Hopping” campaign to take over Pacific Island by Island
  • Japanese spent most of early 1940’s quickly expanded in the Pacific
  • Japan planned to capture Midway as a base to launch another attack on Pearl Harbor
    • Battle of Midway in 1942
  • August 1942, first major offensive led by U.S. against Japanese in Battle of Guadalcanal
  • Goal to break supply + communication routes for Japanese
  • March 1945, US won Battle of Iwo Jima, providing Us airfields to launch aerial attacks on Japanese main islands
  • April 1945, the Battle of Okinawa successful amphibious assault led by US firebombing and kamikaze attacks by Japan
• WWII: Europe
  • All of Western Europe liberated by March of 1945 all the way to German border
  • Germans launched final offensive and surprise attack in Battle of the Bulge (January 1945) in Ardennes Forest
  • The Big Three (FDR, Winston Churchill, Stalin) met for final time at Yalta Conference (February 1945)
  • Soviets enter war in Pacific 3 months after German surrender
  • Germany & Berlin divided into 4 zones controlled by Soviet Union, GB, US, France
  • Self determination for occupied regions especially eastern Europe
  • Soviet Union achieve final victory over Germans with success of Battle for Berlin (April 1945)
  • Russia had greater army
  • By April, many of major leaders of WW1 dead→Mussolini executed, Hitler suicide, FDR stroke
  • By May 7, Germany surrenders and VE Day is announced
• WWII
• \
  • Allies met for final time at Potsdam Conference in July 1945→Stalin, Truman (FDR death), Atlee (Churchill replaced)
  • Nuremberg Trials for war crimes by Nazi leaders
  • US gave Japan ultimatum to surrender or “meet prompt & utter destruction”
  • Stalin begins breaking from GB & Us to promote spread of communism
  • US responds with idea of containment to halt spread of communism
    • Inform Stalin of atom bomb
  • Japanese refused to surrender, US pushed forward with their plans to invade homelands
  • First nuclear test completed in Los Alamos in July 1945→Trinity Test of the Manhattan Project
  • Seen as option to not have to invade
  • On August 6, 1945 US dropped “Little Boy” on Hiroshima
  • August 9, 1945 US dropped “Fat Man” on Nagasaki
  • By August 15th, the Japanese surrendered→VJ Day & End of WWII

\