Transcript World War II

WORLD WAR II
World War II – Big Picture
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In contrast to the disorganized beginning of World War I,
World War II was provoked by deliberate aggressions of
Germany, Japan, and Italy.
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The failures of the Western policy of appeasement
encouraged the Axis Powers’ militaristic expansions.
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The most deadly conflict in history, World War II, resulted in
the rise of the United States and the Soviet Union to world
supremacy and competition.
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Western European hegemony came to an end.
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Independence movements in Africa and Asia succeeded in
the decades after the war.
WWII Era Timeline
Causes of World War II
Officially started in 1939 after decade of aggression
 Grievances from World War I’s aftermath
 Economic havoc resulted in militarist responses from
Japan, Germany and Italy.
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Japan attacked Manchuria (Mukden Incident) in
1931; little response from politicians in the West
 Japan had gradual militarism while Germany’s was
abrupt
○ Adolf Hitler promised to restore Germany’s once-
impressive economic and military place in Europe and to
eliminate the Communist threat within its borders.
In alliance with Italy, Germany assisted the fascist
takeover of Spain
Old and New Causes of WWII
China vs. Japan
 China looking stronger - Chiang Kai-shek uniting/defeating
warlords
 Nationalist (Guomindang) party pose a threat to Japan’s ambitions
 Afraid Chinese would retake Manchuria
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By the late 1930s interaction between the new totalitarian states
of Germany, Italy, and Japan and Western democracies.
 Unchecked aggression led to yet more aggression.
○ This lesson was taught most clearly at Munich.
Aggression of Axis powers went unchecked – appeasement
why?
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Failure to unite…
Nationalism plus Red Scare of Soviets prevented early alliance
Each government disagreement on how to respond
Some actually felt guilty about Versailles
League of Nations a failure
 Italy & Japan merely left the League after censured
 Axis/Fascist leaders laughed at treaties
 Methods of delaying intervention of enemy
Old and New Causes of WWII
Germany - Weimar Republic weak - blamed for
Versailles
 Great Depression made life look worse
 Adolf Hitler takes advantage through the political
and ideological leader of the National Socialist
Party.
 Nazis made a ton of promises
○ Put German people back to work
○ Ignore orders of Versailles
○ Turn back Communist push
○ Enslave Slavic peoples
Unchecked Aggression in
Europe & Pacific
US, Britain, France appeasement
of Hitler
 Sacrifice small nations to protect themselves
 Fear of another world war
 Want to focus on welfare states, not military states
Japan first to attack - invaded China from
Manchukuo
 Japanese moderate political leaders silenced
○ Fear of assassination from military officers
 Rape of Nanjing(Nanking) - horrific treatment of Chinese
civilians - 1937
○ Symbolic beginning of horrific war of suffering
 Japan and China in war for Asia far before 1941
Unchecked Aggression in
Europe & Pacific
Japan, Germany, Italy did not coordinate
attacks
 Germany needs to attack Soviet Union
– wrote in Mein Kampf “lebensraum” living space
 Signs Non-Aggression Agreement with
Soviets
○ Buys time, splits Poland,
 Later invades USSR from Poland
British/France declare war once Poland
is attacked
 Prepared for another trench warfare,
unfortunately Hitler doesn't play fair
Main Theaters of World War II
Philippe Petain
Blitzkrieg, Hitler’s Strategy
Hitler's victories stunningly fast
 West's reluctance to arm/react decisively
War shifts once Germans get stuck in Russian winter
 Anglo-American, Soviet alliance has more #s, industry, technology
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Nazi Blitzkrieg, Stalemate, and the Long Retreat
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Blitzkrieg - lightning fast war
Coordinate tanks, mechanized troop carriers, fighter aircraft/bombers
Penetrate deep into nation - hit capital hard
Severely punished civilian population that didn't surrender
In months, French defeated, British pushed back across the Channel
○ Phony War before France….Sitzkrieg Sep 39-May 40
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Why did France lose so quickly?
 Gov't couldn't agree on what to do - left vs. right argued
 Weapons painfully outdated
 Civilian population demoralized
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Only the French capital of Vichy in South exists – A puppet
government of the Nazisʹ regime
The Conduct of a Second Global War
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Battle of Britain - holds off Hitler
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Strong leadership of Churchill/war cabinet
Radar detection discovered Nazi flight plans
Bravery of Britain's Royal Family
High morale of citizens
 Efficient use of their Air Force
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Land invasion called off, can't fight off British
Navy
 But Germany had taken over W. Europe,
Scandinavia, Mediterranean, N. Africa
 Conquered areas must provide
○ War materials, soldiers, slave labor
Hitler turns on USSR
Soviets easily pushed out of Finland,
Poland, Baltic states, but then winter
 Soviets don’t surrender – “body for
bullet?”
 Just kept retreating eastward
 Nazi mass killings inspire guerilla warfare
behind front lines
 Stopped at Moscow, Leningrad, Stalingrad
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Fought most severe battles - Stalingrad
 Momentum shifts - Germany on the run
 1943 Soviets push west,
 1944 on doorstep of Berlin
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Sacrifices of Soviet
soldiers/women/civilians led to victory
Operation
Barbarossa
Hitler's War Against the Jews
First years of war Hitler persecuted non-Aryans
 Gypsies, leftist politicians, homosexuals, Jews, Polish intellectuals,
communists, especially after invading Poland & Soviet Union
Once war seemed lost, and on defensive
 “Final solution" - Wannsee Conference - 1942 - extermination camps
 Resources from front used or transportation, imprisonment, mass murder
 Shipped from all over empire to the East
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Physically fit > hard labor
Women, children, ill - murdered immediately
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Used for scientific experiments
Holocaust - 12 million killed, 6 million (50%) of them Jews
 Armenian genocide the root
 Horrific - premeditated, systematic, carried out by the state
 Essentially allowed by occupied countries
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Only really Danish & Italians resisted in any degree
Allied countries refused Jewish emigrants/refugees
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Also didn't attack railway lines or extermination camps
Effect - creation of Zionist state in Israel
 Emigration to Palestine only option
 Some even made deals with Nazis to take to Palestine
Anglo-American Offensives Europe
American interaction
 Primarily supplies at first - US gov't hesitant, Roosevelt
sympathetic
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Pearl Harbor December 7, 1941 - US enters
Tank divisions and infantry join in Africa
Next attacked Sicily, Italy
Eventually Mussolini toppled, assassinated
June 1944, Western front - invasion of Normandy
 Moved East to Germany,
 Stopped only briefly Dec 1944, at the Hitler’s last ditch
effort at the “Battle of the Bulge”
 Hitler desperate attempt to force ending with V-1/V-2
Rockets
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By June 1945 US and Soviets divisive over how to
divide Germany
 Hitler kills himself - goes down believing he was
betrayed by German people
The Rise and Fall of the Japanese
Empire in the Pacific
1/3 of Japanese forces fight in China throughout war
 After Pearl Harbor, Japan takes over Asia
 Thailand becomes neutral, cooperates
 Australia and New Zealand provide support
 But...US on its own
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Took over too much, angered all of the European Allies
 Colonial regimes worse than European
 Needed natural resources, raw materials
 Led to resistance movements - requires even more soldiers/resources
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Main theaters of conflict islands - "island hopping“
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Victories at Battle of the Coral Sea and Midway Island
Joint air, sea, land assaults against Japan
1944 America begins firebombing Japanese cities
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Guerrilla forces harassed Japanese
Coordinated w/ Americans and British
Destroyed wooden homes, hundreds of thousands of civilians killed
Demanded unconditional surrender
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Atomic bombs - August 1945
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Threat that Japanese would fight to the death
War's End & Emergence of the
Superpower Standoff
Wanted to avoid failed peace treaties of World War I and the results of WWII:
 The most destructive war in history
 22 million military
 34 million civilians
 Established United Nations
 More representative of world than League of Nations
○ U.S. participates
 Security Council made up of victors - US, France, Britain, China, USSR
 Though China is really represented by Taiwan, communist gov't not acknowledged
 Colonies and defeated powers granted membership
 Europe retained control of post-war global policy through 3 votes on security council
 Forum for negotiating international disputes
 World Court of Justice
 Human Rights organizations - food, labor, women
 Unsuccessful at times - large and small nations resent role
○ But...played important role in humanitarian, refugee relief
 Sponsored conferences to deal with social issues
 Child labor, women's rights, environmental protection
Hot War to Cold War
USSR vs. USA - no direct conflict, but tons of related
global conflicts
 Began with how to decide post-war Europe
 USSR wanted territorial gains - tired of getting
invaded
 Tehran Conference - 1944
 By setting up Western front in France, USSR takes over
Eastern Europe
 USSR doesn't pull out of many occupied lands - Iron Curtain
 Doesn't allow nations to "self-determine" themselves
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Yalta Conference – Feb.1945 (Big 3, Churchill,
Roosevelt, & Stalin) Roosevelt dies April
USSR gets Manchuria and northern Japanese
islands
Divide Germany into 4 spheres of influence
Germany industry allowed to continue - needed to
control Soviets
USSR wants friendly gov'ts in small European
nations
 West wants democratic gov'ts
 Stalin lies
Yalta: Churchill,
Roosevelt,
& Stalin
Hot War to Cold War
Problems still after Potsdam Conference, July 1945
 Austria divided, occupied then independent in 1956
 Poland gain East Germany, but lost land to Russia
 USSR/USA sign separate treaties with Japan
 German peace treaty not even agreed upon ‘til 80s
Clement Attlee, Harry
 Korea divided between USSR and USA
Truman & Joseph Stalin
 European colonies returned to Europeans
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But...independence movements start right away
China war starts
Soviets aid communists
US aids Nationalists
Independence movements
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Middle East, Africa, India want independence
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Europe fought nationalism during war, but had to revisit after
Soviet Union pushes boundaries West
 New independent nations created in 1918 gobbled up by
USSR
 US heavily influenced W. Europe
 Occupied troops, economic aid (Marshall Plan), policy manipulation
Two movements roots
 Occupied people push for independence/decolonization
 World's allegiances divided between US and USSR
Nationalism & Decolonization
No more illusions of European dominance
 Destroyed by Nazis and Japanese
 Japanese victories over Europeans destroyed myth
 Pearl Harbor, Singapore, Philippines
 "death marches" of Europeans, Americans
Harsh rule of Japanese inspired nationalism - want to control own fate
 Harsh total war sapped European desire to maintain empires
 U.S. propagandizes notion of anti-colonialism (Guam?)
 Atlantic Charter of 1941
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Roosevelt and Stalin persuaded Churchill to sign clause
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Recognize "right of all people to choice the form of government"
The Winning of Independence in South and Southeast Asia
 Indian National Congress demands independence in exchange for
fighting
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Sir Stafford Cripps sent to India to get a deal, doesn't work
Quit India movement - civil disobedience campaigns 1942
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Gandhi, Nehru thrown in jail- 2years!
British have backing of Communists and Muslim League
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Muslim League - Muhammad Ali Jinnah - wartime support
British like him, he wants separate Muslim India
Nehru & Gandhi
Changes after World War II
Churchill loses 1945 election
 Labor Party ready to deal
 1945-1947 - what type of India?
○ Muslims propagandize that Hindu dominated
India would persecute Muslims
 Created Pakistan in northwest and east India
 Communal rioting spreads across nation
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To avoid civil war, Pakistan and India gain independence in
1947
 Summer of violence - Hindu-Muslim and Muslim-Sikh violence
○ Led to massive refugee movement - moving to safe area
India and civil disobedience inspired independence
movements across globe
 French and American empires start to fall
○ Filipino independence comes after help during WWII, 1946
○ Dutch Indonesia 1949 (New Guinea 1962)
○ French fight to keep colonies, Vietnam 1954. (Most Africa 1960)
Liberation of Non-settler Africa
Africa more dramatically affected by WWII
 Forced labor, Confiscation of crops/minerals
 Inflation/controlled markets > less money for Africans
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More chances to kill Europeans with European weapons
 Fight for freedom, return to oppression
 France controlled by Nazis and Vichy French (Confusion)
Change in colonial policy
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Industrialization created in colony
 Rapid urbanization to take advantage of work
○ But…few jobs…millions of angry people living together
Paths to independence
 Kwamee Nkrumah – radical African leader – British Gold Coast
 Establishes Convention People’s Party
○ Mass rallies, boycotts, strikes
○ Doesn’t back down regardless of threats, imprisonment
 By 1957, Ghana created – after decade of gradual concessions
 Peaceful devolution of power
○ Worked with French, tired of fighting, maintaining colonies
○ France gradually pulls out and leaves moderate leaders in place
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Belgian get out and run plan (1960 Congo [Zaire] & 1962 of Rwanda and Burundi)
○ No western educated elite to lead – 16 college graduates/13 million chaos
Map
Exercise
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The Struggle for the Settler Colonies
Gradual withdrawal tough in settler colonies – Europeans live there
 Blocked nationalistic movements and concessions on part of
overlords
 Fought attempts to turn power over
 African leaders forced to turn to violent, revolutionary struggles
Kenya – Land Freedom Army – 1950s – guerilla warfare against
British
 British react with violence
 Kenyatta forms Kenya in 1963 – British tired of fighting
Algeria – French – National Liberation Front
 French fight back – make up for defeat in Vietnam
 After years of fighting Charles de Gaulle & France want to get out
 Huge financial drain on country
○ Secret Army Organization
○ Eventually Parisian gov’t overthrown – end of 4th Republic
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Settlers + Algerian sympathizers have to move to France
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Too much hatred violence between them
White Supremacy in South Africa
Why did South Africa remain white dominated?
 Larger white settler population – Afrikaners + British
 Afrikaners have no nation to return to – two centuries in S. Africa
 White racist supremacy ideology
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British made concessions to Afrikaners – felt guilty after Boer War
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Afrikaner racism elaborate and explicit – written, detailed
Gave political control to Afrikaners
Afrikaner National Party
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Independence from Britain
Establish lasting white domination
Apartheid (separateness) 1948-1994
 Thousands of laws to separate
 Best jobs for whites
 Africans/colored denied vote/political representation
 Limited educational opportunities
 Vigilant/brutal police force to enforce
 Kept populations geographically separated
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Nelson Mandela, anti-apartheid activist
 27 years in prison until 1990
 Became President of Democratic South Africa
Arabs, Israelis, and the Palestinians
Egypt, Syria, Iraq gained independence during Interwar Period
 Others all liberated by 1960s, but…
Palestine because…
 Zionist movement gains momentum due to Holocaust
 International sympathy
 US/Britain reluctant to accept Jews
 Palestinian violence forces British to try and slow immigration
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Jews/Zionists create military – Haganah
 to fight British too…
 Deadly stalemate
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Zionists want independent Jewish nation
Palestinians want multi-religious nation w/ Palestinians dominating
Britain just wants to get out of unsolvable situation (1947)
 United Nations suggests partition
May 14, 1948 – Israel recognized, but all out war starts next day
 1948 Arab-Israeli War - Egypt, Syria, Jordan, Lebanon and Iraq—
attack (Later: Sudan, Yemen and Saudi Arabia)
 Jews win – 1) better weapons, 2) better prepared
 Led to thousands of Palestinian Arab refugees
 The
Partition
of Palestine
After World
War II
Global Connections
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Were there really revolutions?
 Or merely transfer of power from one elite group to
another w/ new nation name attached
○ Western-educated African and Asian classes merely took
over
 Both jobs and homes
○ For the most part big landholders kept land and didn’t
redistribute
 Exceptions – Algeria, Kenya, Zimbabwe
 Culturally kept many Western ideas
○ Western sciences now taught
○ Administration often conducted in English
 Western dominance of trade maintained
○ One of criteria for independence was protection of existing
merchants/traders