World War II

1. World War II Sruthi Narayanan Period 3 Mr. Marshall AP World History March 29, 2009 Iwo Jima Achives http://www.medalofhonor.com/IwoJimaArchives.jpg

2. How did it start?? • There were many causes of the Second World War and many people thought that it would be similar to World War 1 which really scared them. (Armstrong 251) • The said causes were: 1. The Versailles Treaty did not work, 2. Hitlers actions as chancellor of Germany 3. Failure of Appeasement (Versailles Treaty) and 4. The League of Nations failed. • The claims of the Versailles treaty were said to be too far-fetched and people did not keep there promises. • Hitler as well is blamed because he is said to have created the World War II as a personal war that he wanted. (World War Two) • Weapons and Technology: This war was big on weapons and technology and they worked against each other using man and fire power. (Bulliet 779) • The Wehrmachtwas the German armed forces, they used a technique called Blitzkrieg which was translated into “lightning war”. • They used high-tech weapons including tanks, trucks, and firearms that had incredible power. • The U.S. and Japan had developed aircraft carriers that could launch planes against targets, this was a major opposing force to the amazing things that Germany had. (Spodek 608) • Instead of going into small land battles, their battles were long and ranged over terribly long distances. • Everything became faster because weapons were more efficient. They could conquer countries in weeks and even days!! • Their main aim was to exterminate and make the opponent weak. German Blitzkrieg http://www.conservapedia.com/images/0/0b/German_invasion.-.jpg

3. Europe and North Africa… • The Second World War officially started on September 1st, 1939 when Germany invaded Poland. (The Second World War) • The next action taken was when Britain and France declared War on Germany on September 3rd. (Bulliet 780) • Soviets invaded on September 17th and two weeks later Warsaw surrendered. (The Second World War) • In 1940 Hitler went on a “spree” and he conquered Denmark, Norway, the Netherlands, and Belgium and later attacking France. • By the end of that June Hitler was the controller of all of Europe between Spain and Russia. The only enemy that Germany had not conquered was Britain, and they had Winston Churchill…! (Spodek 609) • Germans were smart, and had an aerial attack on Britain because they knew Britain had other assets other than weapons such as, the English Channel, and the Royal Navy. (Bulliet 780) • The Battle of Britain! • Hitler got help and support from Stalin (Russia) and they were Gemany’s suppliers. • On June 1941 Hitler launched the biggest attack in history! 3 MILLION soldiers conquered the Baltic States, Ukraine and half of European Russia, the USSR was on the verge of collapsing. • In August, because of Hitler’s want for Oil, they conquered Stalingrad for their oil. • But, Hitler lost his chance when the Red Army counterattacked, and he lost everything. (Spodek 610) • This war then moved to Africa from Europe and the British forces tried to conquer, but the German forces were finally expelled in May 1943. • During this was when Hitler thought up his plan of eliminating the Polish race and he exterminated Polish Jews, called the Holocaust. The Battle of Britain Aerial Attacks http://www.rusi.org/images/magic/cache/LI45373890E0D2D-370x278.jpg

4. Holocaust!! • The Holocaust was all Hitler’s doing and his aim was to completely exterminate all Polish Jews, it was mass genocide. (Bulliet 788) • Auschwitz was the biggest concentration camp and it could kill up to twelve thousand people a day. • There were three ways that people could be killed in concentration camps: Gassed, Cremated, Starved. • Usually Jews were put in ghettos and then taken from there on a train to a concentration where males were separated from females and the well from the healthy and the old from the young. (Spodek 614) • The Nazis would make them do hard labor, they were starved and they had different methods of killing them, for the simple reason that Hitler wanted them to. • Not only did they exterminate Jews but also: Polish Catholics, homosexuals, Gypsies, Jehovah’s Witnesses, and the disabled. (Holocaust) • This was considered to be their solution to their so called “Jewish problem”. • They wanted to cleanse their territory of all people who not “racially pure”. (Bulliet 788) • Nazis were forced to kill the people and the concentration camps were filled with dead bodies, when the U.S. Armies came to see what happened they found these concentration camps and the Nazis were sent to prison. (Holocaust) Auschwitz Concentration Camp http://www2.dsu.nodak.edu/users/dmeier/Holocaust/auschwitz1.jpg

5. Asia and the Pacific… • The previous actions in Europe presented Japan with the perfect opportunity to start war. • Japan plotted a surprise attack on the United States and this was to be followed by an attack on Southeast Asia. (Bulliet 782) • On December 7, 1941 Japan planes bombed the U.S. Naval Base, Pearl Harbor. (Spodek 612) • They bombed Southeast Asian countries after that as well. • They began to colonize but they began to also treat the people unkindly and with no respect. They made them do hard labor and they gave them no food, instead stealing it all for themselves! • Japan’s dream was to have an East Asian Empire but the Japanese admiral, Yamamoto, got scared when the U.S. allied with Britain, and The Soviet Union to form the United Nations which was preparing for war. (The Second World War) • In April 1942 Americans bombed Tokyo and a month later there was the Battle of Midway. • At the Battle of Midway Japan was basically destroyed and they knew they were going to fall into a helpless and fearful country in the war. (Armstrong 232) The Bombing of Pearl Harbor http://maryt.files.wordpress.com/2007/12/pearl-harbor-uss-virginia.jpg

6. The End!! • The Western powers staged two invasions of Europe: They captured Sicily and invaded Italy, and then D-Day. • D-Day is when 156,000 British, American, and Canadian troops landed on the coast of Normandy and this was the largest ship borne assault ever staged. (Bulliet 782) • They collected allies and they had millions by the time it was all over. • Then , on May 7, 1945 which was a week after Hitler committed suicide, Germany surrendered from the war. • Japan fought a while longer after Germany surrendered. (Spodek 615) • By June of 1944, U.S. was capable of attacking Japan. • The U.S continued to sink merchant ships and to cut off Japan’s sources of oil. (World War II) • U.S. then resorted to planes and air bombing of Japan in order to mess them u completely and not only by sea. • On August 6, 1945 the U.S. dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima and three days later on Nagasaki. (Bulliet 784) • On August 14 Japan wanted to surrender and Emperor Hirohito told them to stop and lay down arms. • THE WAR IS OFFICIALLY OVER!!!!! Hiroshima one hour after the bombing http://whyfiles.org/020radiation/images/mushroom.jpg

7. Bibliography • Bulliet, Richard W., Pamela Kyle Crossley, Daniel R. Headrick, Steven W. Hirsch, Lyman L. Johnson, and David Northrup. The Earth And Its Peoples A Global History. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 2004. • "The Holocaust." United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. 29 Mar. 2009 <http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/article.php?lang=en&ModuleId=10005143>. • Review, Princeton. Cracking the AP World History Exam, 2008 Edition (College Test Prep). Princeton: Princeton Review, 2007. • "The Second World War." Redirecting... 29 Mar. 2009 <http://www.kasprzyk.demon.co.uk/www/history/WW2.html>. • Spodek, Howard. The World's History Combined (2nd Edition). Upper Saddle River: Prentice Hall, 2000. • "World War Two - Main Causes." History on the Net Main Page. 29 Mar. 2009 <http://www.historyonthenet.com/WW2/causes.htm>. • "World War Two in Europe Timeline." The History Place. 29 Mar. 2009 <http://www.historyplace.com/worldwar2/timeline/ww2time.htm>. Versailles Meeting http://www.navy.gc.ca/project_pride/all_images/photo_archive_images/Large/C-000242.jpg