8- WWII

Hitler’s violations of the Treaty of Versailles

  • Rearmament

    • rebuilds and advances airforce, navy, and army

  • remilitarization of the Rhineland

    • threatens France because of the location, the Rhineland bordered Fracne which made invasion and attack easy

  • Italy joined the Anti-Comintern pact already signed between Germany and Japan

  • involvement in the civil war in Spain

  • Anchsluss

    • union of Austria and Germany

Why the Japanese wanted an imperial empire

  • The Jpanasese wanted to free Asia from Western colonial rule and create an empire equal to the Western powers. They wanted to establish their empire in Asia and treated the conquered people (Chinese, Filipino, and Malaysians) with great brutality. Villages were desolate and the people were forced into slave labor.

Japanese treatment of the Chinese 1937-1938

  • The Japanese withdrew from the League of Nations and overrun East China beginning the Second Sino-Japanese War. Here, they brutalized and tortured them and the West protested. The Japanese brutalized soldier and civilians during an invasion called the Rape of Nanjing. 40,000 - 300,000 dead.

Italian aggression in Ethiopia

  • Ethiopia had previously defeated Italy in 1836 and Itlay sought revenge in 1935. Itlay defeated and invaded them with their modern tanks, airplanes, and machine guns. The Ethiopian king appealed to the League of Nations for help and they placed sanctions (penalties) against Italy. However, they had no real power and Italy conquered Ethiopia in 1936.

Reasons why Western Democracies chose appeasement over declaring war on Germany

  • After Hitler violated the Treaty of Versailles, Western democracies chose appeasement due to exhaustion from WWI, guilt from Britian of being too harsh on Germany in the Treaty of Versailles, favorable views of Hitler’s anti-communism policy, pacifism(opposition to war), US neutrality act, the belief that Hitler’s mein kampf was out of emotion and that he has matured.

Lebensraum

  • Hitler wanted to claim Lebensraum for Germans living in Eastern Europe. This is an example of irredentism since it involves reclaiming territory that was connected to German people.

Anschluss

  • union of Germany and Austria. Hitler sent in an army when the Austrian chancellor refused to give in. He gave a speech at Hapburg establishing his position as leader of Austria.

Sudentenland

  • Hitler demanded the Sudentenland because three million Germans lived there. The Sudentenland is in Czechoslovakia. Hitler believed the area should be autonomous (governed independently) from Czechoslovakia.

The Munich Conference

  • Conference where they decided what should happen with the conflict over the Sudentenland. Britian and France chose appeasement. They convinced the leader of Czechoslovakia to give up the Sudentenland and in return, Hitler would not make more territorial demands. Neville Chamberlain described it as “peace for our time” and “save Czechoslovakia from destruction and Europe from Armageddon”. Winston Churchill had an opposing view and stated “They had to choose between war and dishonor. They chose dishonor and now we will have war”.

  • Hitler did not uphold the Munich pact since in 1939 he took all of Czechoslovakia Democracies admitted that appeasement did not work. They promised to defend Hitler’s next target, Poland.

Nazi-Soviet nonaggression pact

  • the pact was useful since it stated that the other would not fight if one went to war and that they would divide Poland and the rest of Europe. Hitler did not want to fight a two-front war and this protected the Soviet Union from Germany and allowed them to get land in Eastern Europe.

  • surprised the rest of the world because Hitler feared communism and Stalin feared fascism

Tigger start of WWII

  • September 1st, 1939, Germany invaded Poland a week after the Nazi-Soviet pact.

Blitzkrieg

  • lightning war

  • used air and tank power.

  • The German Air Force bombed airfields, factories, cities, troops, and civilians. They encircled Polish divisions until they surrendered.

Dunkirk

  • In May 1940, Germany surprised Britian and France by pushing through a weakly fortified area on the Maginot line. When Germany pushes to France, they trap British troops between the Nazi Army and the English Channel. The British Navy sends every available vessel to rescue their troops from the beach of Dunkirk. It raised British morale.

Hitler’s response to Britain’s refusal to surrender

  • Hitler believed their surrender was inevitable since they were fighting alone. When they did not surrender, Germany bombed Britian almost daily. They continued to bomb major cities for 57 consecutive nights. Operation SeaLionn failed and Britain’sdetermination intensified.

  • Stalin urged Britian to open a second front in Western Europe for their relief. Although Churchill could not do much to help, they agreed to work together.

Battle of Leningrad

  • The Battle of Leningrad broke off the union formed between the Soviets and the Nazis and fueled the Soviet’s determination to fight against them after their betrayal and they joined sides with the British.

President of the US at the time.e

  • Franklin D Roosevelt

Lend-Lease Act

  • a way around the US’s neutrality act which allowed them to “sell or loan war material sot any country whose defense the president terms vital to the defense of the US”.

Atlantic Charter

  • FDR secretly met with Churchill to establish these goals in the Atlantic Charter

    • final destruction of Nazi tyranny and the postwar world

    • support the self-determination of Nations

      • free from axis control

    • create a permanent system of general security

      • united nations

Attack at Pearl Harbor

  • The US banned the sale of war materials to Japan because they invaded French Indonesia for material that would be useful in the fight against the Chinese. Extreme militarists like General Toji Hidaki saw this as a threat to their economy. After the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor, the US declares war on Japan. Japan, Germany, and Italy then declared war on the US.

US and Britain's preparation at home

  • The US and Britian put all their efforts towards the war. They halted the production of goods for war materials. They raised their goods and governments increased political power. They raised money by selling war bonds. Although the war brought shortages and hardships, it ended unemployment during the great depression.

The Big Three

  • Stalin, Churchill, and FDR

  • In Tehran, Iran, FDR, and Stalin agreed that the borders outlined by the Nazi-Soviet pact remain, although it went against the wishes of Poalnd’s government. Stalin wanted another front to be opened in the West to relieve the Soviets, but Churchill and FDR said they did not have the resources. Stalin believed the delay was meant to weaken the USSR.

Key Battles

D-Day (invasion of Normandy)

  • to prepare, they bombed factories with German war material productions. On June 5th, allied troops traveled to Normandy through the English Channel but there were many obstacles to reach the shore. They eventually got inland. American, British, and Canadian forces pushed through defenses to Paris. French resistance rose up and Germans surrendered. By claiming Paris, they opened a second-front war.

Yalta Conference

  • When the big three met at Yalta to plan their post-war strategy

    • The Soviet Union would enter the war against Japan within three months of Germany’s surrender

    • Churchill and FDR promised STaline islands, as well as an occupied zone in Korea

    • Germany would be divided into four divisions, occupied by the British, French, Americans, and the Soviets

    • Stalin promised to hold free elections in Eastern Europe. Nations formally under Axis powers would have self-determination (the right to choose their government)

The main reasons the Allies achieved V-E Day on May 8th, 1945

  • Germany’s location forced them to fight on several fronts

  • Hitler made all the military decisions including the bad ones

  • Hitler underestimated the fighting ability of the Soviets

  • US produced 2x more than all of the Axis powers combined

  • Allied bombs hindered German production

Bataan Death March

  • the Japanese had many uninterrupted victories before US involvement. Japanese took control of the Philippines. They forced several hundred American soldiers and 10,000 Filipino soldiers into a 65-mile march called the Bataan Death March which was incredibly brutal and harsh

Island hopping

  • US Marines began island hopping and hoped to capture Japan by capturing islands as stepping stones along the way. General Douglas MacArthur moved North towards Japan while bombers destroyed cities. MacArthur retook the Philippines while the British force pushed the Japanese toward Burma and Moloya.

Potsdam Conference

  • President Harry Truman decided to continue with what was displayed during the Manhatten project warned Japan and dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima

  • the will of the Japanese was incredibly strong gan when faced with with risking lives during an invasion or bombing, he chose to bomb so he wouldn’t cost more lives.

End of WWII

  • After a second bomb was dropped Emporer Hirohito intervened and forced the government to surrender. Then a formal ready was signed ending WWII on VJ day

Anachronism

  • when something or someone is out of its chronological time, or specifically when they belonged to an earlier time. The power of the Japanese emperors viewed as godless in the 1600s, but not in modern times.

Nuremberg trails

  • showed that political and military leaders were held accountable for their actions during wartime