World War II

A fascist (totalitarianism) was rising in Europe

• fascist governments were powerful dictators with powerful
militaries
• included Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini
• League of Nations had no power over stopping nations from
their actions
• 1935: Italy invades Abyssinia [Ethiopia] (few independent
African nations)
• Problems in Germany
a) Germany was charged with huge reparations from WWI
b) Their economy and labor systems were damaged
c) Unemployment was at a high, and nation feared communist
influence
d) 1933: Hitler becomes Chancellor of Germany, names self dictator
essentially
e) Wanted to create a large German landmass in Europe - lebensraum
f) Germany would be composed of the “master race,” and those that
did not fit the specifications for this “race” (Jews, Gypsies,
homosexuals, mentally impaired) were to sent to concentration camps
such as Dachau and Auschwitz
• German Actions
a) PM Neville Chamberlain engaged in the practice of appeasement:
allow
Germany to do as they like in order to not risk war
b) 1935: Germany proceeded to violate the Versailles Treaty and re-
arm the nation
c) 1936: Germany invades the demilitarized zone of the Rhineland
d) 1936: Hitler and Mussolini agree to the Rome-Berlin Axis - Spanish
civil war
e) Appeasement policy still being used: France and GB did nothing still

B. Roosevelt: thought that it was possible for the US to be involved,

and the US should be involved in world affairs
• Isolationism: lit. isolation from affairs of other countries

C. War is triggered
• 1938: started military forces with goal of annexing Austria –
Anschluss
• 1938: started military forces with goal of invading
Czechoslovakia
 • 1938 September: Munich Conference: GB and France allowed
Germany to annex the Sudetenland, in return for no more
territorial expansion
• Germany agreed, but didn’t go by the provisions of the
agreement, and proceeded to invade Czechoslovakia
• 1939 August: Non-Aggression Pact with the Soviet Union signed
• 1939 September: invasion of Poland starts, GB and France
declare war on Germany
• Germany took over Poland, and through blitzkrieg, and then
proceeded to take Denmark, Norway, the Netherlands, Belgium
and Luxembourg.
• 1940 June 22: France falls to the Germans
• 1941: Germany breaks the Non-aggression Pact with Soviets,
and Soviets became part of the Allies
D. Pearl Harbor
• 1941 December 7: Japanese bombers attacked Pearl Harbor,
Hawaii
• 2,400 Americans killed
• 8 battleships, 3 cruisers, 3 destroyers, 200 aircraft destroyed

E. The War
A. Costs
• 55 million killed
B. War in Europe
• 1942-1943: Soviets stop German advance in Battle of Stalingrad
• 1943: Generals Eisenhower and Patton defeat Germany’s Afrika
Corps in N. Africa
• Proceeding after that, attacks in southern Europe (Northwards
through Italy)
• 1945: German forces in Rome surrender
C. D-day, June 6, 1944
• Landed on beaches of Normandy
• August, liberated Paris
• September, most of Germans out of France and Belgium
D. Battle of the Bulge, 1944 December
• Soviets arrive in Berlin from the east
• April 30: Hitler commits suicide
• V-E Day, May 8, 1945 marked the German surrender
E. The Holocaust
• 1935 Nuremberg Laws: restricted Jewish social and political
• Division of Germany into 4 slices
• GB, US, France, and Soviet Union
 • United Nations
F. End of War
• 100,000 dead in Hiroshima, 60,000 in Nagasaki, many died of
radiation – atomic bombs

Major events of World War II

1939 • Invasion of Poland
1940 • Denmark and Norway Conquered
• Invasion and fall of France
• Dunkirk
• Battle of Britain
• The Blitz
1941 • Invasion of Russia – Operation Barbarossa
• Japanese attack of Pearl Harbour
1942 • Battle of El Alamein
• Battle of Stalingrad
1943 • End of Battle of Stalingrad
1944 • D-Day
1945 • Hitler’s suicide
• VE Day
• Atomic bombs in Japan
• VJ Day

Why did the Allies win WWII?

- Population and armies
- American wealth
- Oil production

The results of WWII

Death In total, 55 million people, both soldiers and
civilians, died.
Destruction Cities, industries, roads, railways and harbours
were destroyed throughout Europe.
War trials Nazi war criminals were tried at the Nuremberg
trials, and some were executed.
The fate of Germany was divided in two.
Germany
The Cold War Relations between the allies deteriorated after the
war.
The end of European supremacy was at an end; the USA and
European USSR dominated post-war world politics.
supremacy
European unity European leaders wanted peace.