World War II

1. World War II • Stearns, Chapter 30

2. Buildup • The rise of fascist governments in Italy and Germany • Hyper-nationalistic, one party authoritarian regimes • Adolf Hitler’s rise to power with designs to redress the perceived humiliation of Germany at Versailles and to expand German territory • The rise of military rule in Japan

3. Expansionist Policies • 1931: Japan invades Manchuria • 1935: Hitler begins rearmament • 1935: Mussolini invades Ethiopia • 1936-39: Spanish Civil War • 1937: Japan invades China • 1938: Anschluss-German/Austrian ‘unification’ • 1938: Hitler annexes the Sudentenland (Western Czechoslovakia) • 1938: Western appeasement at the Munich Conference • 1939: Annexation of the remainder of Czechoslovakia • 1939: Hitler signs a non-aggression pact with the USSR • 9/1/39: Hitler invades Poland

4. Axis vs. Allies • Axis Powers: Germany, Italy and Japan • The Allied Powers: Great Britain, France, and the USSR-with the US joining in late 1941

5. Two Theaters of War • Pacific: Japan seized Indochina from France and attacked Malaysia and Burma • US Embargoes against Japan result in Japan’s attack of the US Pacific fleet at Pearl Harbor. • Europe: Early successes of the Axis began to be rebuffed with Hitler’s unsuccessful invasion of the USSR. Soviet armies from the East and British and American troops from the West and South would end the Axis threat

6. A ‘new’ kind of war • Stalemated World War I-style trench warfare lost out to German ‘Blitzkrieg’ and even greater force-and destruction • Deliberate targeting of civilians on a massive scale • The development and use of nuclear weapons

7. The End of the War • Allied armies reached Germany in April of 1945 with the European war ending officially in May • The Pacific war would end after Japan’s unconditional surrender following the dropping of two atomic weapons on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

8. The Peace • Peace settlements began before the war had ended. • 1943, Tehran Conference: Allies would focus on the liberation of France • 1945, Yalta Conference: USSR agrees to join the war against Japan and provides for the division and occupation of Germany after the war

9. Following the War • The US occupies Japan • Korea was divided into US and Soviet occupation zones • China regained most of its territory • The USSR absorbs or occupies much of Eastern Europe • New push for colonial independence • Creation of the United Nations • A two-superpower world: the USA and USSR and the ensuing Cold War

10. Enhanced anti-colonialist and nationalist movements in African and Asia • Independence and division of British South Asia into Pakistan (Muslim) and India (Hindu) • Widespread African independence movements • Relatively easy independence in non-settler colonies (Ghana) • Great violence in settler colonies (Algeria) • UN Sponsored creation of Israel

11. The Cold War Years • Stearns, Chapter 31

12. An Iron Curtain Descends • Winston Churchill dubs the separation between East and West as an Iron Curtain with Germany as a focal point. • To the East-Communist, supportive of the USSR, to the West, Capitalist/Democratic, supportive of the USA • To Halt the further spread of communism, the USA enacts the Marshall Plan to rebuild war torn Europe • The Truman Doctrine outlined the help the US would offer according the the policy of containment

13. Cold War Alliances • NATO: North Atlantic Treaty Organization • Warsaw Pact: The USSR and its satellite nations • Rivalry would intensify with the USSR’s successful detonation of an atomic bomb in 1949, launching an arms race, later a space race. • The Cold War gets hot with the invasion of South Korea by communist North Korea • The policy of containment would spread around the globe: southeast Asia, the Middle East, Latin America

14. Soviet Eastern Europe • Opposition to Soviet rule was crushed • Mass education and Soviet-style propaganda • Industrialization pushed • The divide best signified by the Berlin Wall, built in the early 1960’s.

15. Soviet Domestic Policies • Stalinist principles continued even after WWII • Restriction of travel, media censorship, isolation • Religion restricted • Lagging in consumer goods, poor agricultural production • Nikita Khrushchev signaled a slight thaw following the death of Stalin, ‘de-Stalinization’

16. The End of the Cold War • Ultimately, the economic strength of the United States would lead to the collapse of Communist USSR

17. Comparing East & West during the Cold War • Both sides blamed the other for starting the Cold War • Great suspicion between both sides: Cuban Missile Crisis • Both would be sellers of arms on the world market to peddle their influence in newly decolonized areas. • Both offered new emphasis on science and technology • Some attempts at cooling: Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, detente

18. Changes in Western Europe • Spread of liberal democracies • Western Europe would become more politically united than at any other time in history • The Common Market, and later the European Union • A growth in the ‘Welfare State,’ but politics smoothly transitioning from left to right

19. Changes in Western Society • Social lines blurred by increased social mobility in the West. • Increase in the number of married working women. • Continuation of female enfranchisement. • Access to divorce and birth control • Marriage and children came later-falling birthrates. • Maternal care replaced by day-care centers.

20. Soviet Society • Lagging the west in consumer goods. • Living standards did improve, but only in relation to earlier Soviet years. • Great environmental damage. • A similar plunge in birthrates