Essential Questions

2. Essential Questions • What were the causes of WWII? • Why do we describe World Wars I and II as total wars? • What are the causes and consequences of genocide? • How did the United Nations attempt to promote global interdependence in the face of global imperialism? • What are the causes of the Cold War?

3. Major Causes of WWII • Failure of the Treaty of Versailles • Global economic depression • Fascism, militarism and imperialism in Germany, Italy and Japan • Weakness of the League of Nations • British and French appeasement • Japanese Aggression • Italy Aggression – Attack Ethiopia • German Aggression-After taking Austria & Czechoslovakia, Hitler invades Poland

6. AGGRESSION & APPEASEMENT Hitler’s main goal territorial expansion for Superior German race Hitler withdraws from League of Nations in 1933 Hitler breaks Treaty of Versailles – occupies demilitarized Rhineland British policy of appeasement lasts into 1939

7. EVENTS LEADING TO WAR • Mussolini attacks Ethiopia • German, Italy & Japan form an alliance • Hitler annexed Austria & takes part of Czechoslovakia(Sudetenland), later takes all of Czechoslovakia • Germany attacks Poland, and Britain & France declare war on Germany (1939)

9. THE BLITZ OF BRITAIN • Following fall of France, German Luftwaffe air force bomb military targets in Britain for 57 consecutive nights • Germans advance to populated areas, factories, and dock yards • Hitler’s aim was to break British morale, then invade

10. HITLER’S EMPIRE – 1939-1942 • Hitler uses speed & force -The Blitzkrieg • Hitler takes Poland then France • Nazi rule most of Europe by 1940 except Britain • 1941 Hitler invades Russia & conquers the Ukraine • Defeated by General Winter • Japan attacks Pearl Harbor • U.S. declares War on Japan • Germany declares war on U.S. – 1941

11. PEARL HARBOR

12. THE GRAND ALLIANCE & VICTORY • U.S. concentrated on European Victory first, then Japan • U.S. & Britain put military needs before political issues which avoids postwar settlements • Allies adopt principle of “unconditional surrender” of Germany and Japan, denying Hitler the chance of dividing his foes

13. THE BATTLE IN EUROPE • Allies drive Axis powers from North Africa • Italy surrenders • Germany seizes Rome and northern Italy • Allies liberate Italy from 1943-1945 • British & U.S. invade German held France • Allied invasion of Normandy led to liberation of France & defeat of Germany • D-DAY • June 6, 1944 – Gen. Eisenhower lead the invasion of the Beaches in Normandy,France-Operation Overlord • 2 ½ million men & ½ million vehicles landed on beaches • Allies gain momentum

14. THE END OF THE WAR • Soviets push from East crossing Elbe meeting Americans • April 26, 1945 Hitler committed suicide • Germany surrenders on May 7, 1945 – VE Day • U.S. drops 2 atomic bombs on Japan in Aug.1945 • Japan surrenders

15. END OF THE WAR IN EUROPE • After Hitler’s Suicide, Italian resistance fighters assassinate Mussolini and surrender • May 7, 1945 German Commanders surrender and the War in Europe was over

16. THE WAR IN EUROPE IS OVER

17. END OF WWII • Germany surrenders, May 1945 • Potsdam Conference Germany divided occupied by allies Germany de-Nazified Nuremberg Trials: War Criminals, Holocaust Collaborators tried Crimes Against Humanity developed European countries bankrupted by war USA & USSR –World Superpowers

18. Benito Mussolini “El Duce”

19. What is Fascism? • Historians still debate the real nature of Mussolini’s fascist ideology. • Mussolini coined the term, but fascists had no unifying theory as Marxists did. • Today, we generally use the term fascism to describe any centralized, authoritarian govern-ment that is not communist whose policies glorify the state over the individual and are destructive to basic human rights. • Fascism meant different things in different countries.

20. Fascism Compared to Communism • Fascists were the enemies of socialists and communists. • While communists worked for international change, fascists pursued nationalist goals. • Fascists supported a society with defined classes. • They found allies among business leaders, wealthy landowners, and the lower middle class.

21. Communists touted a classless society. • They won support among both urban and agricultural workers. • The products of these two ideologies had much in common. • Both drew their power by inspiring a blind devotion to the state, or a charismatic leader as the embodiment of the state.

22. Hitler and the Rise of Nazi Germany • In November 1923, a German army veteran and leader of an extremist party, Adolf Hitler, tried to follow Mussolini’s example by staging a small-scale coup in Munich. • The coup failed, and Hitler was soon behind bars. • But Hitler proved to be a force that could not be ignored. • Within a decade, he made a new bid for power. • This time, he succeeded by legal means.

23. Adolph Hitler Rises to Power

24. Night of Broken Glass • November 7, 1938, a young Jew shot and wounded a German diplomat in Paris. • Hitler used the incident as an excuse to stage an attack on all Jews. • Kritallnacht, or the “Night of Broken Glass,” took place on November 9 and 10. • Nazi-led mobs attacked Jewish communities all over Germany, Austria, and annexed portions of Czechoslovakia. • Hitler and his henchmen were making even more sinister plans for what they called the “Final Solution”—the extermination of all Jews.

25. Policy of Appeasement • Western democracies denounced his moves but took no real action. • They adopted a policy of appeasement, or giving in to the demands of an aggressor in order to keep the peace.

26. “Peace for Our Time” • British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain told cheering crowds that he had achieved “peace for our time.” • Winston Churchill warned of Nazi threat. • As Churchill predicted, Europe plunged rapidly toward war. • March 1939, Hitler broke promises and gobbled up the rest of Czechoslovakia. • Appeasement had failed. • Democracies promise to protect Poland.

27. The Axis Attacks • Hitler’s blitzkrieg, or “lightning war”-Poland • Blitzkrieg utilized tank and airpower technology to strike devastating blow. • Germany attacked from west, Stalin invaded from east, grabbing lands promised under the Nazi-Soviet Pact. Poland falls in month. • Stalin’s armies forced Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania to agree to host bases for the Soviets. • Soviet forces also seized part of Finland

28. The Nazis Commit Genocide • Hitler pursued a vicious program to kill all people he judged “racially inferior,” particularly Jews. • Nazis also targeted Slavs, Gypsies, homosexuals, and the disabled. • German leaders had devised plans for the “Final Solution of the Jewish problem”—the genocide of all European Jews. • Hitler had six special “death camps” built in Poland.

29. They were herded into “shower rooms’ and gassed. • Nazis worked others to death or used them to perverse “medical” experiments. • By 1945, the Nazis had massacred some six million Jews in what became known as the Holocaust. • Nearly six million other people were killed as well. • Jewish people resisted the Nazis but efforts failed.

30. The D-Day Assault • Allies chose June 6, 1944—known as D-Day—for the invasion of France. • American General EISENHOWER helped the joint British and American forces break through German defenses and advance toward Paris. • Under pressure from all sides, the Germans retreated. • On August 25, the Allies entered Paris. Within a month, all of France was free.