World War II The World in Flames

1. World War IIThe World in Flames Chapter 20

2. The Treaty of Versailles • Massive Reparations - Germany pay $33 billion in reparations to the Allies. • Military Limitations- reduced size of Ger. forces and prohibited them from crossing west of the Rhine River. • Territory ReductionsGer. territory divided to reestablish Poland, gives it access to Baltic Sea. territories were seized by France and in the south to help create Czechoslovakia.

3. Italy • 1919: Benito Mussolini started the Fascist movement in Italy. • Mussolini promised to protect Italy from communism and restore prosperity. • 1922: Mussolini threatened to march on Rome with the Fascist militia known as the Blackshirts. • The king appointed Mussolini premier. Mussolini assumed the title of Il Duce, meaning “The Leader” and set about pressing a Fascist agenda.

4. Germany • The Nazi Party, led by Adolf Hitler, end Treaty of Versailles and expand territory. • 1923: Nazis marched on city hall in Munich in an attempt to seize power. Hitler was arrested, and the party was banned. • In prison, Hitler wrote Mein Kampf (“My Struggle”), in which he claimed that Germans belonged to a master race called Aryans and that Slavic and Jewish peoples were inferior. • Once out of prison, Hitler pursued political power. Economic depression often results in support for more radical parties. • 1932: The Nazi Party held the most seats in the Reichstag, or German Parliament. • 1933: Hitler was appointed chancellor and called for new elections. • 1934: Hitler gave himself the title of Der Führer, or “The Leader.”

5. A chance to test their strength… • 1936, the Spanish Civil War erupted. • Fascist military forces revolted against the Communist-backed government. • General Francisco Franco led the Fascist forces, and received military support from Hitler’s Germany and Mussolini’s Italy. • Franco declared himself head of state in 1936, and won control of the country in 1939. • The Spanish Civil War gave Italy and Germany, whose military force was reduced by the Treaty of Versailles, the chance to build up and test their military power. • Italy exercised its military might in Ethiopia as well. In 1935, Mussolini ordered an invasion of Ethiopia in response to a border dispute with the Italian colony of Somaliland. Ethiopia fell to Italian rule the following year. 

6. USSR • 1922: The Communist Party declared the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics following the Russian Revolution. • 1924: Joseph Stalin took power following death of Communist leader Vladimir Lenin. • Stalin imposed a series of Five-Year Plans designed to industrialize the country and encourage economic growth. • Stalin held absolute power and sought to eliminate all political and social opposition. • Nearly 2 million people were imprisoned in concentration camps by 1935.

7. Japan • The Japanese military blamed the country’s economic woes on government corruption. • Japan imported most of its resources and faced high tariffs as a result of global depression. • The military pushed for territorial expansion to acquire more resources. • 1931: Japan invaded Manchuria in northern China. In response to U.S. pressure, Emperor Hirohito ordered troop withdrawals, but Minister of War Hideki Tōjō refused. • 1937: Japan invaded Nanjing, killing as many as 300,000. • 1941: Tōjō became prime minister.

8. German Violations of the Treaty and Expansion • 1935: Hitler initiated draft and built new air force. • 1936: Occupy the Rhineland, a stretch of German territory that had been demilitarized under the treaty. • 1937: Called for reunification of German-speaking peoples. • March 1938: Austria and announced Anschluss, or unification, of Austria and Germany. • September 1938: Britain, France, Italy, and Germany: Munich Conference to resolve German claims to the Sudetenland, a region in Czechoslovakia. • In exchange for peace, the Sudetenland was ceded to Germany. This policy became known as appeasement. • March 1939: Despite promises, Hitler invaded and divided Czechoslovakia.

9. Movement Toward War • March 1939: Hitler demanded the return of Danzig, Poland • British and French support, Poland refused. • August 23, 1939: Germany and the USSR signed the Nazi-Soviet Pact. • Stalin believed conflict among Europe’s capitalist nations would benefit the USSR. • Hitler also promised to divide Poland between Germany and the USSR.

10. Blitzkrieg • September 1939: Germany invaded Poland: blitzkrieg, meaning “lightning war.” • army attacked across land, the Luftwaffe, (German air force) bombed cities, railroads, bridges, and other key targets. • USSR invaded from the east. Within weeks, the country was divided between Germany and USSR.  • May 1940: new blitzkrieg, invading the Netherlands, Luxembourg, and Belgium. • British and French troops rallied to defend Belgium, but German forces swept through French lines into northern France. • June 1940: The Allied forces became trapped in Belgium. • Allied forces successfully evacuated from Dunkirk. • German forces overwhelmed France. • June 22, 1940: France surrendered. Hitler installed Marshal Philippe Pétain as leader of the new Vichy government.

11. French and British Defiance • Charles de Gaulle refused to acknowledge French surrender. • led the French resistance forces to Algiers, where the forces of Free France continued to fight. • Winston Churchill declared that Britain would not surrender to German aggression. • The Luftwaffe began a bombing campaign against Britain and fought the British Royal Air Force. Following the Battle of Britain, Hitler abandoned the planned invasion of the island.

12. Maginot Line • Maginot Line was a series of fortifications constructed across northeastern France to defend against German invasion. • Built from concrete, the barrier was designed to prevent attack and support French troops. It included arsenals, living quarters, called bunkers, and underground rail lines. • However, the Germans did not attack from the northeast. They attacked through Belgium, skirting the Maginot Line and entering France from the north, where the French were unprepared.

13. American Neutrality • War FatigueToo much $ and lives • did not want to get involved in another world war. • International Debt Former allies had not repaid much of the war debt owed to the United States. • Nye Committee:Senator Gerald Nye (R) ND • committee reported that many arms manufacturers had profited greatly from World War I. Led many Americans to think that they fought in World War I to benefit arms companies and disinclined them to support World War II.

14. Neutrality Acts • 1935: In response to Nye Committee, this first act prohibited Americans from selling arms to countries at war. • 1936: Following onset of the Spanish Civil War, prohibited Americans from selling arms to either side fighting in a civil war. • 1937: After Germany, Italy, and Japan allied as the Axis Powers, this act again banned the sale of arms to countries at war. It also required U.S. companies to sell nonmilitary supplies to warring countries only on a cash-and-carry basis to prevent attacks on U.S. ships and ensure payment.

15. Roosevelt’s Internationalism • During the 1930s, Roosevelt focused on Great Depression with his New Deal legislation • Roosevelt supported internationalism • international trade generated prosperity and encouraged peaceful resolution to conflicts • Opposed but did not veto the Neutrality Acts. • Roosevelt authorized sale of arms to China when Japan invaded the country in 1937. • Claimed the Neutrality Acts did not apply because Japan had not declared war on China.

16. Neutrality Acts • 1939: Neutrality Act allowed the sale of weapons on a cash-and-carry basis only. • Spring 1940: Destroyers-for-Bases - Britain received 50 old U.S. destroyers in exchange for the right to build American bases on British soil. • July 1940: Congress authorized embargo against Japan. • March 1941: Lend-Lease Act, allowed U.S. to lend or lease arms to countries deemed “vital to the defense of the United States.” • April 1941:Hemispheric Defense Zone: western half of the Atlantic Ocean to be neutral, and ordered the U.S. Navy to disclose the location of any German submarines to the British. • August 1941: Roosevelt and Churchill signed Atlantic Charter, committing the United States and Britain to postwar security, peace, free trade, and freedom of the seas.

17. Embargo on Japan • 1939: As Britain moved its forces to the Atlantic, it left its colonies along the Pacific vulnerable to attack from Japan. Japan had embarked on expansionist policies to gain more resources. • 1940: Roosevelt restricted the sale of airplane fuel and scrap iron to pressure Japan to pull out of China and to deter Japan from invading British colonies. Japan responded by joining the Axis Powers. • 1941: US granted lend-lease aid to China to keep Japan bogged down, but Japan continued with plans to invade French holdings in Indochina. • 1941: US froze Japanese assets, stopped oil shipments to Japan, and sent additional forces to Philippines. • 1941: Japan plans invasion of French, British, and Dutch colonies. Japan also planned to attack Pearl Harbor and the Philippines.

18. Pearl Harbor • December 7, 1941: Japan attacked the Pearl Harbor naval base in Hawaii. • U.S. forces had been anticipating a Japanese attack—but not on Pearl Harbor because of its great distance. • The attack killed 2,403 Americans and destroyed or severely damaged numerous battleships and other naval vessels. • The next day, Roosevelt asked Congress to declare war.

19. Holocaust • Nazi effort to exterminate the Jewish population of Europe during World War II. • Hitler and the Nazis viewed Jews as an inferior race of people and blamed them for World War I and the economic devastation that followed. • Nazis killed nearly 6 million Jewish people. • They also killed Roma (formerly known as Gypsies), homosexuals, and Slavic peoples, and those who opposed Nazi rule.

20. Nuremberg Laws • 1935Strip German Jews of citizenship and prohibit • Jews from marrying Germans • Jews from voting or holding public office • requires Jews with German names to adopt names considered Jewish • marking Jewish passports with a red “J.” • 1936 Jews are barred from working as civil servants, teachers, journalists, farmers, and actors. • 1938 Jews are barred from practicing law and medicine or owning businesses. • Despite such laws, many Jews remained in Germany. They believed that, in time, conditions would improve.

21. Kristallnacht • Assassination: November 7, 1938, Herschel Grynszpan, a Jewish refugee, killed a German diplomat in Paris in response to the deportation of Polish Jews from Germany to Poland. • Response Hitler staged retaliatory attacks against Jews that would seem like a reaction to news of the murder. • Night of Broken Glass:November 9, violence broke out against Jewish peoples in Austria and Germany. More than 90 Jews were killed. Thousands of businesses and hundreds of synagogues were destroyed • Ongoing PersecutionGestapo, arrested 30,000 Jewish men. Only those who relinquished their property and emigrated were released. Insurance money owed to Jewish business owners went to the government instead.

22. Jewish Refugees • Escape From 1933 to 1939, a quarter of a million Jews fled Nazi-controlled Germany. Among these were Anne Frank and her family, who fled to the Netherlands. Unfortunately, the Nazis later took control of the Netherlands, too, and she and her family were found after two years spent in hiding and sent to an extermination camp. • United StatesLow quota for Jewish peoples. • Great Depression • anti-Semitic attitudes • International Response • US, Europe and Latin America met in 1938. • Expressed regret, but did not change their laws.

23. Where to flee? • Turned Away Thousands of Jews fled on ships only to be sent back to Germany and German-occupied lands. • U.S.S. St. Louis Nearly a thousand Jews were aboard when it docked in Cuba in 1939 and refused entry. • The ship went on to U.S. waters, where it circled the coast of Florida for several days before the U.S. government denied it entry. The ship was forced to return to Europe, where its Jewish passengers were returned to their countries of origin.

24. The Final Solution • Wannsee Conference: 1942 Nazi leaders met to devise a more efficient method of exterminating the Jewish population. • decided to capture Jews and transport them to camps. • Healthy persons taken to concentration camps would work until they no longer could. • Young children, elderly persons, the sick, and others who could not work were separated on arrival and taken to extermination camps where they were killed.

25. The Final Solution • The Camps: hundreds of concentration and extermination camps throughout German-controlled lands. • Each camp housed thousands of prisoners. • Auschwitz could hold as many as 100,000. • Its gas chambers could kill 2,000 people at a time. • About 1.6 million people were executed at Auschwitz alone, including 300,000 non-Jewish individuals.