AP Euro Unit 4: World War I - Present (up to Cold War)

World War I (1914-1918)

Long-term Causes (1 of 3)

• Nationalism, Militarism, Alliances, Imperialism: These intertwined forces created a volatile environment.
• Rival Alliances: Triple Alliance (Germany, Austria-Hungary, Italy) vs. Triple Entente (Britain, France, Russia).
• Upset Balance of Power (1871): A newly unified Germany's swift defeat of France disrupted the established order.
• Bismarck's Goals: Isolate France and curb Russian expansionism.
• Dual Alliance (1879): Germany and Austria formed an alliance; the enemy of my enemy is my friend.
• Triple Alliance (1881): Italy joined Germany and Austria, seeking allies.
• Russian-German Reinsurance Treaty (1887): Promised neutrality if either country was at war, but Kaiser Wilhelm II refused to renew it after removing Bismarck.
• Diplomatic Blunder: Not renewing the Reinsurance Treaty led to an alliance between France and Russia.
• "Splendid Isolation": Britain's policy of non-alignment, relying on its navy and island status.
• Anglo-Japanese Alliance (1902): Britain and Japan agreed to neutrality to counter Russia.
• Entente Cordiale (1904): Britain and France resolved colonial disputes to protect themselves from Germany.
• Triple Entente (1907): Britain, France, and Russia aimed to check the power of the Triple Alliance, guaranteeing neutrality but not requiring them to join a war.

Long-term Causes (2 of 3)

• Anglo-German Arms Race: Militarism, fueled by the Industrial Revolution, made war seem inevitable.
• Countries wanted to use the new weapons they made.
• Germany's Industrial Growth: Germany surpassed Britain industrially in the 1890s.
• Bertha von Suttner: Wrote Lay Down Your Arms (1889), opposing the arms race, and became the first woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize.
• Dreadnoughts: Both Britain and Germany possessed these new super battleships.
• Imperialism: Increased tensions and nationalism.
• Kruger Telegram (1902): Kaiser congratulated the Boer victory, angering Britain, who regrouped and defeated the Boers.
• Algeciras Conference (1906): Settled the First Moroccan Crisis; Germany tested the alliance systems, believing Britain wouldn't aid France.
• Kaiser's Actions: He pushed for Moroccan independence, opposed by Britain.
• Germany's Isolation: Britain, France, Russia, and the U.S. viewed Germany as a threat.
• "Encirclement": Germany protested being surrounded by potential enemies; the Triple Entente was created in response.
• Second Moroccan Crisis (1911): Germany tested the Triple Entente by sending a gunboat to Morocco, but backed down, being not ready for war.

Long-term Causes (3 of 3)

• Ottoman Empire: The "sick man of Europe" created a power vacuum in the Balkans.
• Pan-Slavism: A nationalist movement to unite all Slavic peoples under their own rule.
• Russia's Role: Russia saw itself as the southern Slavs' "big brother," focusing on the Balkans.
• First Balkan Crisis (Bosnian Crisis): Young Turks established a parliamentary government in the Ottoman Empire; Austria annexed Bosnia-Herzegovina.
• Violations: This annexation violated the Congress of Berlin, but Russia wasn't ready for war, and France didn't want to fight over the Balkans.
• First Balkan War (1912): Serbia, Greece, and Bulgaria allied to drive the Turks out of the Balkans.
• Albania's Creation: Austria created Albania to prevent Serbia from accessing the Adriatic Sea.
• Second Balkan War (1913): Bulgaria attacked Serbia and Greece over territory in Macedonia; Serbia, with Russia's backing, defeated Bulgaria.
• Albania's Status: Austria, supported by Germany, retook Albania, which gained independence.
• "Third Balkan War": The conflict between Austria and Serbia escalated into World War I.

Immediate Causes

• Assassination: On June 28, 1914, Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to the Austrian throne, was assassinated by Serbian nationalist Gavrilo Princip, a member of the "Black Hand," in Bosnia-Herzegovina.
• "Blank Check": Kaiser Wilhelm II pledged support to Austria but demanded immediate action.
• Ultimatum: Austria issued an ultimatum to Serbia, which accepted most terms except joint judicial proceedings.
• Declaration of War: On July 28, Austria declared war on Serbia.
• Mobilization: Russia mobilized troops south (German/Austrian border).
• France mobilize troops east (German border)
• Germany declare war on France (August 1)
• Germany invade neutral Belgium (August 3).
• Britain declare war on Germany (August 4).
• Central Powers: Germany, Austria-Hungary, Ottoman Empire, and Bulgaria.
• Allies: Britain, France, Russia, Japan, Italy, Romania, and the U.S.
• Imperialism: Colonies made the war a world war.

The Western Front

• The Schlieffen Plan: Germany's 42-day plan to invade France through Belgium, then redeploy to the east to defeat Russia before it fully mobilized.
• It failed
• Battle of the Marne (September 1914): French and British forces pushed Germans from Paris, ending mobility on the Western Front.
• Trench Warfare: Resulted in a bloody stalemate with massive casualties and little ground gained.
• Trenches were typically in France (mines, barbed wire, craters).
• Battle of Verdun (Feb-Dec): 2nd bloodiest battle, nearly combined 1 million lost.
• Battle of the Somme (July-Nov): bloodiest battle, more than combined 1 million lost.
• Erich Maria Remarque: All Quiet on the Western Front (1929) illustrated the horrors of trench warfare.
• New Weapons: Machine guns, tanks, airplanes, poison gas, submarines (U-boats), Zeppelins, and radio (German advantage over Russia).

Other Theaters of WWI

• Eastern Front: More mobile than Western Front.
• German Success: Generals Hindenburg and Ludendorff defeated Russian armies at the Battle of Tannenberg.
• Treaty of Brest-Litovsk (December 1917): Lenin took Russia out of the war, ceding territory to Germany.
• Gallipoli Campaign (1915): Allies failed to take the Dardanelles to defeat the Turks and aid Russia.
• Arab Revolts: Arabs revolted against Turks, weakening the Ottoman grip on the Middle East.
• Armenian Genocide: Turks claimed Armenians cooperated with Allies, leading to the deaths of ~1 million Armenians.
• Genocide.
• Japan in East Asia: Japan sided with Entente, conquered German islands and expanded influence in China.
• British Naval Blockade: Strangled Central Powers, leading Germans to use U-boats.
• Lusitania (1915): U-boats sank a British passenger liner, killing 1,200 (including 128 Americans), turning American opinion against Germany.
• Unrestricted submarine warfare become most important reason for U.S. entry into WWI.

Total War

• Mass Conscription: Involved mass civilian populations in the war effort.
• Ignorance: Young men thought the war would be adventurous, short, and glorious.
• Propaganda: News was censored; propaganda glorified soldiers and dehumanized the enemy.
• Economic Production: Focused on the war effort.
• Shift Away from Capitalism: Free-market capitalism was abandoned for central planning.
• Women's Roles: Women replaced male factory workers, changing attitudes and increasing their rights.
• Labor Unions: Supported the war effort and increased their influence.
• War Bonds: Civilians bought war bonds.
• Aim: "Starving out" the enemy by cutting off supplies.
• Dictatorships: Georges Clemenceau in France and Germany becoming the world’s first totalitarian regime.
• Britain: Economy largely planned and regulated, promoting social equality.

Diplomacy during WWI

• Italy's Entry (1915): Neutral Italy joined Allies with promises of territory.
• Zimmerman Note: Germany proposed an alliance with Mexico against the U.S., but Mexico refused.
• U.S. Loans: The U.S. loaned money to Allies.
• Balfour Note (1917): Promised Arabs and Jews autonomy in Palestine, contradicting support for Arab nationalism.
• Wilson's Fourteen Points (January 1918): An idealistic peace plan.
• Abolish secret treaties, freedom of seas, remove economic barriers, reduce armament burdens, “self-determination” for oppressed minorities, adjustment of colonial claims, restoration of several borders, autonomy for non-Turkish parts of Turkish Empire.
• The 14th point was creation of League of Nations.

End of WWI

• Armistice: Central Powers sought peace based on 14 Points; Germany agreed to armistice on November 11; Wilhelm II abdicates.
• Paris Peace Conference (1919): The Big Four (Britain, France, U.S., & Italy) excluded Central Powers; Italy left angry over unmet promises.
• Treaty of Versailles (1919): Mandates were created for former colonies.
• Article 231 ( "War Guilt" clause): Placed sole blame on Germany, pushed by France.
• Huge reparations, reduced military, demilitarization of Rhineland, lose colonies & territory.
• League of Nations: Created but ineffective as Germany and Russia were excluded and the U.S. didn't join. No military.

Impact of WWI on European Society

• Massive Casualties: Promoted social equality; women received the right to vote.
• Dissent: Increased as the war continued.
• Overthrows: Tsar Nicholas II was overthrown (Russian Revolution), and the Irish Republicans stage insurrection: Easter Rebellion.
• New States: Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, & Yugoslavia were created.
• Germany is split by Polish corridor.
• German resentment of Treaty of Versailles.
• John Maynard Keynes: The Economic Consequences of the Peace (1919) predicted harsh terms would hurt the German economy & cause political unrest.
• U.S. Dominance: The U.S. became a leading creditor and producer.

The Russian Revolution (1917-1923)

Rise of Socialism in Russia

• Russian Social Democratic Workers Party form: With Vladimir Lenin as one of its leaders in 1898.
• Lenin’s ideology (Marxism-Leninism):
• Capitalism can be destroyed only by violent revolution.
• Socialist revolution is possible even in backward Russia which has no proletariat or bourgeoisie.
• Group of intellectuals (bourgeoisie) will lead farmer/worker revolution against the bourgeoisie.
• Mensheviks vs. Bolsheviks: In 1903 Social Democrats split into 2 factions:
• Mensheviks (“minority”) are more Marxist & want more evolved capitalism & proletariat.
• Bolsheviks (“majority”) follow Lenin’s ideas & does not need proletarian consciousness.

The February Revolution (1917)

• Overthrow of Nicholas II: "Russian Revolution" overthrows Nicholas II (not communist revolution).
• Causes: people are unhappy from defeat of Russo-Japanese War, lack of significant reforms from Revolution of 1905, and (most important & immediate cause) terrible showing in WWI; Russia never had Agricultural Revolution, so food shortage is especially bad; boyars are unhappy that Rasputin & Alexandra ruled Russia while Nicholas was fighting war; massive strikes & riots in St. Petersburg (Petrograd).
• Abdication: guards turn against tsar so Nicholas has no choice but to abdicates.
• Duma: Duma declare provisional government.

The Provisional Government

• Dual Government: Effectively a dual government.
• Provisional Gov’t consist of Constitutional Democrats & liberals who want to continue war (more bourgeois & unpopular).
• Petrograd Soviet consist of workers & soldiers who are anti-war (more interactive w/ people, popular).
• Led by Mensheviks, soviets are brought together into national body.
• Alexander Kerensky become leader of Provisional Gov’t while being part of Soviet (more conservative than Soviet).
• Liberal Reforms: Implement liberal program (like western Enlightenment): equality before the law, freedom of speech, etc.
• Army Order No. 1 (March 1, 1917): Petrograd Soviet replace tsarist military officers.
• Create power gap b/c military is a strict hierarchy so implementing elections (democracy) would not work.
• Collapse of army discipline.
• Anarchy: Anarchy become widespread in Russia by summer of 1917.
• Peasants take land from lords (similar to Great Fear of 1789 in France).

Lenin & the October Revolution (1 of 2)

• Lenin's Return: Germans send Lenin back to Russia hoping he would cause revolution & Russia pull out of war.
• April Theses (1917): Lenin reject cooperation w/ bourgeois Provisional Gov’t, call for “Socialist revolution,” & seek to nationalize banks & landed estates.
• All Power to the Soviets”; “All Land to the Peasants”; “Stop the War Now”.
• Ideology: Marxist-Leninist ideology.
• Bolshevik Majority: Bolsheviks become majority in Petrograd Soviet by summer of 1917.
• Kornilov Affair (August 1917): conservatives plot to overthrow Kerensky’s gov’t b/c they are dissatisfied w/ Kerensky’s handling of war Start Bolshevik takeover.
• Overthrow of Provisional Government: Nov. 7, Leon Trotsky lead Soviet overthrow & arrest of Provisional Gov’t w/ Red Army; Bolsheviks officially take over gov’t.

Lenin & the October Revolution (2 of 2)

• Cheka: Cheka (secret police) is created to eliminate opponents.
• New Elections: New elections in 1918; Lenin’s campaign: “Peace, Land, Bread,” appealing to soldiers, peasants, & workers respectively; Bolsheviks lose but overthrow new gov’t w/ Red Army (dictatorship), Bolsheviks rename to Communist Party, maintain power.
• Decree on Land: Lenin give land to peasants (although Lenin had no real control over land but it makes it seem like he’s a friend of the peasants).
• Decree on Peace: Lenin take Russia out of WWI (prolonging war would worsen Russia).
• Treaty of Brest-Litovsk: Russia lose ⅓ of population & ¼ of land to Germany (lose Baltic states, Poland, Ukraine, Finland), but Germany’s defeat later nullify treaty.
• Lenin move capital from Petrograd to Moscow (break connection of tsar).
• These actions result in much opposition & ultimately the Russian Civil War.

Russian Civil War (1918-1920)

• "Reds" vs. "Whites": "Reds" (Bolsheviks) vs. "Whites" (literally everyone else w/o a leader to unify them).
• Peasant Support: Peasants fear Whites, support Reds (Reds gave them land).
• War Communism: Reds apply total war to civil war, nationalize all land, state take control of heavy industries & end private trade, force peasants to deliver food, Cheka hunt down opponents (including tsar).
• By 1921, Reds are victorious, Communists are extremely well organized & disciplined, Whites were too divided & poorly organized.
• Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) is created in 1922 (Soviet Union).

Democracies in the 1920s

Weimar Republic (1918-1933) (1 of 3)

• End of WWI: SPD take control of gov’t.
• Kaiser Abdicates: Kaiser Wilhelm II abdicate, Allies force a republic.
• Spartacists: Spartacists (communists, leftists) threaten new Republic.
• Freikorps crush communist uprising.
• No Military: the Republic has no military to fight off (military was significantly reduced in Versailles Treaty).
• Elections create center-left coalition in charge of gov’t (coalitions are weak).
• Treaty of Versailles (1919) & Article 231"seen as "stab in the back" or the "diktat," the "dictated peace"; British have "buyer’s remorse as they need trade but harsh treatment on German economy affect British economy.
• John Maynard Keynes: The Economic Consequences of the Peace.

Weimar Republic (2 of 3)

• Threats from Right: Threats from the right happen (both left & right hate the Republic).
• Kapp Putsch (1920): conservative politicians & businessmen take control of Berlin w/ help from army officers, set up new gov’t.
• However, conservative groups continue to gain seats in gov’t; SPD eventually withdraw, leaving fragile center-right coalition in change.

Weimar Republic (3 of 3)

• Ruhr Crisis (1923)
• $33 billion reparations make already weak German economy even weaker.
• In 1923, France, led by Raymond Poincaré, occupy industrial Ruhr region of Germany; Weimar order Ruhr residents to passively resist French occupation (tensions rise again).
• Hyperinflation: Runaway inflation occur when Germany print more money.
• Accumulated savings of many retired & middle class people are wiped out; middle class resent gov’t & blame West, big business, workers, Jews, & communists; many later support Hitler as a result.
• Beer Hall Putsch (1923): Hitler & Nazi party fail their attempt to overthrow the state of Bavaria, but everyone hates gov’t so judges only sentence Hitler to 1 year in jail (writes Mein Kampf, emphasizing on Aryan superiority & anti-semitism).
• Dawes Plan (1924): U.S. lend money to Germany so that Germany can pay back Britain & France, who likewise pay back the U.S. (U.S. gave war loans to Britain & France during WWI); German economy recovers.

Great Britain

• Social Welfare: Conservative still focus on social welfare to prevent communist revolution.
• The Irish Question: Extremist faction Sinn Fein (“We Ourselves”) gain prominence in Ireland, fight for home rule).
• Irish Free State is created by Ulster withdrew as Northern Ireland; then southern, Catholic Ireland is given full autonomy.

The Great Depression (1 of 2)

• Causes: WWI debt, nationalistic tariff policies overproduction, depreciated currencies, disrupted trade policies, and speculation create weakness in the economy worldwide (Stock Market Crash (1929).
• U.S. start recalling loans from European countries, hurt Europe; institute extremely high Hawley-Smoot Tariff; realize how internationally intertwined they were.
• Decline of Production: Decline of production occur in every country.
• Mass Unemployment: Germany 43%, Britain 18%, U.S. 25%.
• Hitler is able to rise in power by promising jobs.

The Great Depression (2 of 2)

• Attempted remedies: FDR’s “New Deal” increase gov’t intervention in economy to try to get out of Depression by spending; Scandinavia’s response to Depression is most successful under socialist gov’t.
• France is not impacted immediately. French population divides over what actions to take in Spanish Civil War destroy Popular Front in 1936.

The Age of Anxiety (1914-1950)

Background: The Impact of WWI

• Age of Anxiety: Stress has a stressor, anxiety does not (afraid of unknown).
• WWI end the old order.
• Changed World: People feel as if the world flipped upside down & had little control to change things and see themselves living in era of continual crisis.

Modern Philosophy (1 of 2)

• Reject Enlightenment: Before 1914, most people believe Enlightenment ideals of progress, reason, & rights of individual; optimism of Enlightenment change to pessimism after disastrous WWI.
• Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900): Thus Spake Zarathustra (1883-5) / Will to Power (1888).
• Sigmund Freud (1856-1939): Freudian Psychology.
• ID (what a person wants to do), Ego (what a person can do), Superego (what a person should do).

Modern Philosophy (2 of 2)

• Oswald Spengler: The Decline of the West.
• T. S. Eliot: The Waste Land.
• Franz Kafka: The Metamorphosis / The Trial / The Castle.
• Erich Maria Remarque: All Quiet on the Western Front.
• Stream of Consciousness narrative focus on individual (James Joyce / Virginia Woolf).
• Existentialism.
• George Orwell: Animal Farm / 1984.

Science

• New Physics: "New Physics" challenge long-held ideas & lead to uncertainty.
• Werner Heisenberg: "uncertainty principle".
• Niels Bohr: model for atomic structure.
• Erwin Schrödinger: Schrödinger's Cat.
• Enrico Fermi: develop first nuclear reactor, lead to development of nuclear bomb.

Art & Entertainment (1 of 2)

• Louis Sullivan pioneer skyscrapers - “form follows function”.
• Bahaus Movement (Walter Gropius). - clean, light, elegant building of glass & iron representing jump into mid 20th century.
• The movement is later subdued by Nazis who considered it degenerate (fascists want more traditional/nationalistic design).
• Pablo Picasso: develop Cubism; Guernica.
• Dadaism.

Art & Entertainment (2 of 2)

• Surrealism (Salvador Dali).
• Leni Riefenstahl: The Triumph of the Will (1935).
• Guglielmo Marconi develop transatlantic “wireless” communication in 1901 (radio; control of radio by gov’t). British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC).

Totalitarianism (c.1920-1940)

Totalitarianism Characteristics

• Conservative authoritarianism vs totalitarianism.
• Fascism vs. Communism.

Soviet Union (USSR) (1 of 3)

• Lenin: Marxist-Leninist philosophy (Comintern); replaced by Stalin.
• War Communism / Cheka.
• NEP - New Economic Policy (1921-8): some capitalist measures allowed as “necessary step backwards” (Lenin skipped steps for purely Marxist communism, so step back).
• complete equality of rights for women: divorce, abortion, work, etc.

Soviet Union (2 of 3)

• Lenin's Death: power struggle between Stalin vs Trotsky.
• Stalin win over Trotsky b/c: Stalin gain effective control over gov’t in 1927, total control in 1929; purge opposition from Politburo to take absolute power.
• The Five-Year Plans (economic plans; resulted in massive increase of steel & oil production & urbanization).
• Collectivization: state-run enclosure to bring peasantry under absolute control of communist state (similar to Enclosure movement.)

Soviet Union (3 of 3)

• General Secretary (Stalin)/ Politburo / Central Committee.
• The Great Terror (1934-8): “terror” first directed at peasants after 1929 (economy is not working) & move onto leading Communists & ordinary people; result in 8 million arrests.

Fascist Italy (1 of 2)

• Causes: Versailles Treaty did not give Italy any Austrian or Ottoman territory (both Italy & Germany feel betrayed by Allies), 1919 depression cause nationwide strikes & class tension, wealthy class fear communist revolution (start moving right).
• Benito Mussolini rise to power; organize the Fascist party: combination of socialism & nationalism; Blackshirts (Mussolini’s paramilitary forces).
• the March to Rome (October 1922) lead to Mussolini taking power legally (dictatorial powers).
• the Corporate State: economic basis for Italian fascism / top-down authority.

Fascist Italy (2 of 2)

• Create dictatorship.
• Traditional Roles: Italian social structure emphasize traditional role for women.
• the Lateran Pact (1929) result in reconciliation with papacy (Vatican).

Nazi Germany (1 of 3)

• Extreme nationalism + racism = Nazism.
• Adolf Hitler; NAZI party; S.A. (“Brown Shirts”).
• Beer Hall Putsch / Mein Kampf.
• Lebensraum (“living space”).
• Great Depression.

Nazi Germany (2 of 3)

• The Third Reich.
• Reichstag fire used by Nazis to crack down on the communists; Enabling Act allow Hitler to become absolute dictator for 4 years.
• Hitler outlaw strikes.
• “Night of the Long Knives” (June 1934): Hitler’s elite personal guard (the S.S.) arrest & shoot 1,000 S.A. leaders & other political enemies w/o trial
• S.S. led by Heinrich Himmler.

Nazi Germany (3 of 3)

• Hitler Youth.
• most Jewish lawyers, doctors, professors, civil servants, & musicians lose jobs & right to practice job.
• Nuremberg Laws (1935): deprive Jews of all rights of citizenship.

World War II (1939-1945)

Failure of Peace (1 of 2)

• Treaty of Versailles (1919): no enduring peace. League of Nations have no will or support to maintain peace.
• Great Depression result in rise of fascism in Japan & Germany. Japanese invasion of Manchuria. Hitler pull out of League in 1933.
• Italian invasion of Ethiopia (1935): Italy’s revenge for earlier defeat by Ethiopians in 1896.League impose light sanctions.

Failure of Peace (2 of 2)

• Spanish Civil War (1936-9): Generalissimo Francisco Franco lead the fascist Falangist to overthrow republican gov’t in Spain; Franco win war & impose fascist dictatorship.
• Germany reoccupied the Rhineland (1936): directly violate Versailles Treaty ; League’s uselessness in earlier crises convince Hitler that Britain & France would do nothing.

Germany’s Conquests Before WWII (1 of 2)

• Germany’s conquests in Europe lead to WWII; Anschluss (March 1938): Germany annex Austria (British PM Neville Chamberlain does nothing - pacifism).
• Czechoslovakia - the Sudetenland - Munich Conference (1938): solution was Czechoslovakia is forced to give away Sudetenland (if not, Britain & France would not give any military support)& Germany guarantee Czechoslovakia independence -Chamberlain adopt policy of appeasement .Hitler promise not to invade anything else, Chamberlain return Britain a hero.

Germany’s Conquests Before WWII (2 of 2)

• Germany’s invasion of Poland begin WWII; Hitler demand city of Danzig in Polish Corridor; Chamberlain threaten to fight war to protect Poland if Germany attack.
• Nazi-Soviet Non-Aggression Pact (1939): Germany invade Poland on September 1, 1939, beginning WWII;Britain & France declare war on Germany on September 3.

Germany’s Conquests in WWII (1 of 3)

• Hitler use the Blitzkrieg / Luftwaffe over countries quickly.
• Fall of France happen in less than 6 weeks; Hitler set up puppet gov’t in Vichy France, w/ Marshal Henri-Philippe Pétain in charge / “Free France” is led by General Charles De Gaulle: gov’t-in-exile in Britain.
• Tripartite Pact (1940): Japan join Rome-Berlin axis

Germany’s Conquests in WWII (2 of 3)

• Battle of Britain (July-Oct 1940): very critical battle of WWII; Hitler try to soften Britain for German invasion.
• New Technology: Britain use radar to detect air attacks.
• Luftwaffe try to destroy Royal Air Force (RAF); Britain use radar.
• Hitler order bombing of London (“the Blitz”).\n* German invasion of the Soviet Union. aka Operation Barbarossa, for Hitler’s dream of “lebensraum” (“living space”);
• Soveits used "scored earth." policy.
• In USSR, WWII is called “Great Patriotic War of the Fatherland."
• Churchhill and Us PResidet FDR meet secretly after invasion of USSR/ U.S not in war yet - Atlantic Charter (Aug 1941): after Axis defeated, self- determination granted.
• December 07, 1941 Japan bomb Pearl harbor, so us joins WWII.
• Grand Alliance form in 1942: Britain, Soviet Union, U.S., & three dozen other countries.

Germany’s Conquests in WWII (3 of 3)

• Germany control all Western Europe (except neutral Switzerland & Sweden); Nazi “new racial order”.
• Genocide of Jews, Gypsies, Jehovah’s Witnesses, & captured communists start in Poland, Jews are forced to live in ghettos. the “Final Solution” to the Jewish Problem (The Holocaust): begin in late 1941; 6 death camps in Poland + 100s of concentration camps. - Auschwitz is most notorious; ~1 million deaths.

Turning Points in the War (1 of 2)

• allied victory in North Africa set up invasion of Italy in July 1943 (soft underbelly; StalinGrad (Nov 1942-Feb 1943): critical southern battle of Eastern Front.; D-Day, “Operation Overlord” (June 6, 1944).
  Germany surrenders unconditionally May 8, 1945.
• Battle of the Bulge (Dec 1944): last attempt for Germany to push Allies away from westen German, but fails.
• Turning points in the War 2 of 2.
  U.S. drop atomic nuclear bombs Hiroshima.
  August 15th, Japan surrender.

Diplomacy during WWII

• Tehran Conference (1943): plan invasion of Western Europe (Operation Overlord)
• Yalta Conference (1945): "Big Three" meet again: US Churchill, FDR, Stalin -
• Stalin agree to “Declaration of Liberated Europe” (free elections)
• Potsdam Conference (July 1945): Stalin, U.S. President Harry Truman (FDR died), & British PM Clement Attlee (US, England to issue ultimatum to Japan : surrender unconditionally , face devastation, also. Stalin reverse position free election. . Agree to disagree)

Results of WWII

• Europe lay in ruins / U.S. & USSR emerge as 2 dominant powers in postwar world. Resulted in cold war.
• Germany lost because- 3 front war. / Blunders loss of battle of British, invasion of vs. USA.
  *Germany lack capacity/ Allies Alliance.

The Cold War (1946-1991)

Background (1 of 2)

• Potsdam Conference (July 1945): U.S. President Truman demand free elections in Eastern Europe but Stalin refuse (agree to disagree).
• Soviets dominate their zone in divided Germany & not allow reunification.
• Winston Churchill’s “Iron Curtain” alert future conflict.

Background (2 of 2)

• West demand heavy reparations in form of agricultural & industrial goods (no cash to prevent inflation; Soviets dominate their zone.
• In 1949, West Germany unite & become independent country, Democratic Republic of Germany. The Federal Republic of Germany

Containment (1 of 3)

• “Containment”: U.S. pledge to stop spread of (but not preexisting) communism ( Truman Doctrine (1947/ U.S. give aid countries on brink communist insurgency. / Marshall plan).
  Europe recover economically ("economic miracle")
• Berlin Blockade/Airlift (1948-9): Soviets attempt to remove Allies from Berlin by cutting off access.Blockaid is from Stalin. After 11 months, Soviets agree to lift blockade.

Containment (2 of 3)

• United Nations. Need unanimous votwe Security Council, however tension between USSR makes things impossible. North alatic Treaty organized (NATO) West create NATO in response Only democracy can join. In 1949 , communists in China to have bad blow communism.
• In 1960 Space race.Usa longer had nuclear monopoly-Cold War can become nuclear war:

Containment (3 of 3)

• Korean War(1950-3/ after WWII, Korea is divided ); communist in north, U.S. in south North Korean Invade.. . security Council is able to act ( Soveits boycott UN & Taiwanese gov’t is still recognized.
  UN forces / China send 100ds Troops to push back forces USA/ Result ceasetire.
  Eisenhowers massively retaliated 11953-5; remove communism..
• Hydrogen bomb developed by U.S. in 1952.

USSR & the Eastern Bloc (1945-1964)

• after war = Stalin.
• USSR & Eastern Bloc.
  USSR & the Eastern Bloc (1945-1964).
  ( YUGOSLavia - liberates itself-