Path to War 1933-1939World War II 1939-1945

Put these events in chronological order and include any dates you can find

• European powers accept German rearmament• Germany invades Poland• Hitler declares himself President of Germany• Hitler demands port city of Danzig, Poland• Hitler demands self-determination for Germans in Austria and

Czechoslovakia • Hitler given Sudetenland (NW Czech.)• Hitler threatens to take Czechoslovakia by force• Munich Conference• Nazis and Hitler (Chancellor) control Germany• Nazis seize Austria• Nazi-Soviet Non-Aggression Pact• Rhineland occupied by German military

Path to War1933-1939

• 1933-Nazis and Hitler (Chancellor) control Germany• August 1934-Hitler declares himself President of Germany• 1935-European powers accept German rearmament• March 1936-Rhineland occupied by German military• February 1938-Hitler demands self-determination for Germans in

Austria and Czechoslovakia • March 1938-Nazis seize Austria• September 27, 1938-Hitler threatens to take Czechoslovakia by

force• September 29, 1938-Munich Conference• October 1938-Hitler given Sudetenland (NW Czech.)• April 1939-Hitler demands port city of Danzig, Poland• August 1939-Nazi-Soviet Non-Aggression Pact• September 1939-Germany invades Poland

Questions?

Discuss and Write your answers on the back of your timeline

• Why did European powers accept German rearmament and continue to meet Hitler’s demands?

• Why did Chamberlain and the other countries accept the promises Hitler made at Munich?

• Why did the European powers final act in 1939? Was it to late? Why or why not?

World Leaders-1933

• Germany-Adolph Hitler

• Italy-Benito Mussolini

• Japan-Hideki Tojo

• Great Britain-Neville Chamberlain

• France-Albert Lebrun

• United States-Franklin D. Roosevelt

Adolf Hitler

• Goal to create the Third Reich (German Empire)• Hitler as Fuhrer (leader) of the Nazi party• Believed Germans were descended from the

Aryan race– Decedents of the Greeks and Romans– Superior to all others

• Needed more land to support population– Looked East– Austria, Czech, Poland, Russia– Must be prepared to take rightful lands

• Lebensraum (living space)• By force if necessary (militarism)

German rearmament

• Treaty of Versailles prohibited a German army• League of Nations could not enforce treaty

– Distracted by the Great Depression– Not prepared to use force

• March 1935– European powers accept German rearmament

• Hitler knew the West was not prepared to use force to enforce the Treaty of Versailles

• Luftwaffe-German Air Force created• Military draft-100,000 men to 550,000 men

Rhineland

• March 1936– Germany invades the Rhineland (part of

Germany)– Should remain demilitarized according to the

Treaty of Versailles– France had the right to use force, but did not

act because they did not have British support– Britain viewed move as a reasonable act

• “going into their own back garden”• Begins policy of appeasement

Appeasement

• European policy toward Hitler and Nazi Germany

• Belief that the satisfaction of reasonable demands would maintain peace in Europe

• Neville Chamberlain– British Prime Minister– Practiced appeasement to maintain peace

New German Allies

• 1936– Benito Mussolini-Fascist leader of Italy

• Il Duce- “The Leader”• Germany and Italy send troops to Spain to support

Francisco Franco• Form Rome-Berlin Axis

– Hideki Tojo-Japan• Anti-Comintern Pact

– Pledge a common front against communism

Anschluss“connection”

• March 1938– Hitler’s goal to join Austria (his birth land) and

Germany– Austria annexed March 1938– Great Britain and France continue

appeasement policy

Sudetenland

• Northwest Czechoslovakia

• Large German population

• Land Hitler demanded

• Threatened to wage war to get it

• Great Britain, France, Italy, and Germany meet in Munich to negotiate a peace

Munich Conference

• Met all of Hitler’s demands– Promises not to make anymore demands

• Height of appeasement

• Neville Chamberlain– “peace for our time”

Nazi-Soviet Non-Aggression PactAugust 1939

• Hitler and Stalin

• Peace between Germany and Russia for 10 years; promise not to attack each another during war

• Soviet Union was the only country capable of stopping a Nazi takeover of Europe

• Last obstacle to Hitler’s decision to wage war

Germany Invades PolandSeptember 1, 1939

• Split Poland with the Soviet Union

• Great Britain and France give Hitler an ultimatum-withdraw or prepare for war

• September 3-Great Britain and France declare war on Germany

• World War II had begun

blitzkrieg

• Form of attack that used tank (panzer)divisions supported by air attacks; “lightning war”

• Poland-one month• Denmark, Norway,

Netherlands, Belgium

Maginot Line

• Series of fortifications along France’s German border

• Hitler went around through

Luxembourg

Dunkirk

• Site of heroic efforts by the British Royal Navy and civilians in private boats to evacuate 338,000 Allied troops

Vichy France

• June 22, 1940-French sign armistice

• Unoccupied France, governed by authoritarian regimes under German control

Luftwaffe

• German Air Force

• Battle of Britain• August 1940-Begins

bombing British military targets

• September 1940-begins bombing civilian targets

Germany invades Soviet Union

• June 22, 1941• German success at

Leningrad, pushing toward Moscow

• German advance stopped by Soviet resistance and an early winter

isolationism

• Policy that initially kept the U.S. from becoming involved in the war against Germany

History of Isolationism in the U.S.

• Fear Alliances– 1776-Thomas Paine– 1796-George Washington

• “steer clear of permanent alliances”

– 1801-Thomas Jefferson• “Peace, commerce, and honest friendship with all,

entangling alliances with none”

History of Isolationism in the U.S.

• Unilateral conflicts– War of 1812, Mexican War, Spanish American

War

• U.S. was an “associated power” during World War I

• League of Nations

• (7) Neutrality Acts-1935, 1936, 1937

History of Isolationism in the U.S.

• Building insecurity as Hitler marches through Europe

• Selective Service Act-1940

• “steps short of war”– Lend-Lease Act– Cash and Carry program– Relax neutrality acts– Economic sanctions on Japan

Path to War-Japan

• Japanese expand to gain natural resources• 1931-Japanese soldiers seize Manchuria• Japan attacks China• December 1936-Chiang Kai-shek turns his focus to the

Japanese threat• July 1937-Clash between Japanese and Chinese forces• December 1937-Japanese capture Nanjing• Summer 1940-Japan demanded resources of IndoChina;

US threatens economic sanctions (restrictions)-depended on US for oil and scrap iron

Japanese/U.S. Relations

• Economic Sanctions-1940

• Pacific fleet at Pearl Harbor

• Japan believed war was inevitable

December 7, 1941

• Japan launches a surprise attack on the U.S. Pacific Fleet at Pearl Harbor

• Franklin Roosevelt– “a day that with live in

infamy”

December 7, 1941

U.S. Loses• (10) 2430 killed• 1178 wounded• 187 aircraft• 8 battleships• 3 cruisers• 3 destroyers• 2 auxiliary craft• 1 minelayer• 1 target ship

Japanese Loses

• 64 killed• 29 planes• 6 submarines

USS Arizona

• 1,103 soldiers entombed still today

• 1.4 (11) million gallons of fuel on board– 6 quarts rise to the

surface each day

“soft” Americans

• Japan thought the U.S. would accept Japanese domination of the Pacific after Pearl Harbor

• “Remember Pearl Harbor”

Hideki Tojo

• Military ruler of Japan

• Gave the order to attack Pearl Harbor

Franklin D Roosevelt

• President during the attack on Pearl Harbor

Alliances-1941

• Allies– United States– Great Britain– Soviet Union

• Allies will accept nothing less than unconditional surrender

• Axis– Germany– Italy– Japan

North Africa

• First US troops fight in North Africa

Dwight D. Eisenhower

• Leading US General in Europe

• Led troops in North Africa

Bernard Montgomery

• Leading British General in the North Africa campaign

Erwin Rommel

• Known as the Desert Fox

• Led the Afrika Corps-German forces

• Victories in North Africa during the first half of the war

El Alamein

• Allied victory

• Rommel is defeated

• Germany and Italian troops surrender May 1943

Eastern Front-European Theater

• Germany attacks Soviet Union

• Soviet Union-allowed women to serve in battle

Battle of LeningradSept 1941-Jan 1944

• 900 day seige

• Soviets refused to surrender

Battle of StalingradNov 1942-Feb 1943

• Turning point of war of Eastern Front

• Soviet Union defeats the entire German Sixth Army

Battle of KurskJuly 1943

• Greatest tank battle in history, a remarkable Soviet victory

• Soviets begin moving West toward Germany

Pacific Theater

• Battle of the Coral Sea

• Battle of Midway

Battle of the Coral SeaMay 1942

• American naval forces stop Japanese advance

• Saved Australia from capture

Midway IslandJune 1942

• Turning point of the war in the Pacific

• US Navy destroys 4 Japanese aircraft carriers

• US establish superiority in the Pacific

Douglas McArthur

• Leading US General in the Pacific

• Led campaign to capture Japanese islands of the Pacific

• “Island hopping” all the way to Japan

Western Front-European Theater

• Sicily

• Normandy (D-Day)

• Paris

• Germany

The Big Three Conferences

• Tehran- Nov 1943• Yalta- Feb 1945• Potsdam-• US

– FDR-Tehran, Yalta– Harry s. Truman-Potsdam

• Great Britain-Winston Churchill– British Prime Minister through the majority of World

War II• Soviet Union-Joseph Stalin

Tehran ConferenceNov 1943

• Discuss opening a Second Front in Europe to coincide with Soviet campaign

• Allies agreed to the establishment of a United Nations organization after the war

Sicily

• Axis powers defeated in North Africa

• Sicily was the first Allied invasion of Europe in efforts to regain control from the Nazis

• “soft underbelly” of Europe

• Mussolini removed from power

D-DayJune 6, 1944

• Allied invasion of France (Normandy)

• Turning point of the war on the Western front of the European Theater

• Allies break through German defenses and create a foothold in Europe

• Paris liberated-August 1944

Battle of the BulgeDecember 1944

• Last Germany offensive before Allies take Berlin

• Named for the bending “bulge” of the Allied lines, but not breaking

Yalta ConferenceFeb 1945

• Stalin, Roosevelt, and Churchill agree to a partition of post war Germany

• Stalin promises to enter the war against Japan after the surrender of Germany

Germany surrenders

• April 30, 1945-Hitler commits suicide

• Allied forces from the west meet Soviet troops from the east in Berlin

• May 7, 1945-Germany surrenders

The Holocaust

• Begins with Slavic resettlement-1942

• Slavic– Czech, Polish, Serbo-Croatian, Slovene,

Ukrainian

• Germans saw the inhabitants of Eastern Europe as inferior to the Aryan race

• Removed Slavic people from conquered areas to make way for German people

Heinrich Himmler

• In charge of resettlement plans

• Nazi leader of the Schutzstaffen (SS)

• Replace Slavic people with Germans

• Slavs become slave labor for Germany

The Final Solution

• Nazi plan to eliminate all Jews from Europe

• Schutzstaffen(SS) given responsibility to enact the Final Solution

• Genocide of the Jewish people

Einsatzgruppen

• Special strike forces to carry out Nazi plans

• Mobile killing units

• Reinhard Heydrich- leader of the Einsatzgruppen

Death Camps

• Nazis believed the Einsatzgruppen was too slow• Jews rounded up and sent to ghettos

– Crowded, designated Jewish containment or holding areas within cities

• Germany built death camps in Poland in 1942– Auschwitz-largest extermination camp in Poland– Belzec– Treblinka

Death Camps (Cont.)

• Jews were starved or worked to death

• Sent to gas chambers

• Used for medical experimentation

The Holocaust

• Slaughter of European civilians, particularly European Jews by the Nazis

• Death Toll:– 6 million Jews (1.2 million children) – 9-10 million Non-Jewish– 4 million Poles, Ukranians, Belorussians– 3-4 million Soviet prisoners of war

How could this happen?

• Disbelief– WWI propaganda exaggerated German

atrocities

• Pretend not to notice

• Collaborators

• Allies focused on ending the war

V-E DayMay 8, 1945

• Victory in Europe

• Official day of German defeat

Grand Alliance

• Phrase coined by Churchill to describe the relationship between the US, Great Britain, and the USSR

• Leaders who would direct the post war world

“island hopping” to Japan

• Battle for Iwo Jima-19 February 1945– US expected to take island in 14 days– Took 36 days– Allied casualties-5,931 Killed; 17,372

wounded

“island hopping” to Japan (Cont.)

• Okinawa-1 April 1945– Essential air base to Allies in planning

invasion of Japanese mainland – Fierce fighting– Japanese use kamikaze pilots to attack fleet

• Suicide missions

– Allies capture island– Casualties

• 12,513 killed• 36,631 wounded

New President Harry S. Truman

• FDR dies 12 April 1945

• Truman becomes President and leader of the war against Japan

Soviet Aggression

• Threat to the Grand Alliance

• Truman believed USSR violated Yalta agreement concerning treatment of Poland during march on Berlin

• Would lead to conflict at Potsdam Conference

• Beginnings of the Cold War

Potsdam ConferenceCodename: Terminal

17 July-2 August 1945• Truman, Churchill, Stalin

• Churchill lost General Election in Great Britain; replaced by Clement Atlee as Prime Minister-July 28

• Potsdam Declaration-Allies will only accept unconditional surrender of Japan

New Confidence

• Churchill said Truman stood up to the Russians at Potsdam

• Truman demanded freely elected governments throughout Eastern Europe

• 16 July 1945-First successful atomic bomb test in Alamogordo, NM

• Atomic bomb was a military weapon, but also a political weapon

Nuclear physics glossary

• Radioactivity-Spontaneous emission of energy through the disintegration of atomic nuclei

• Nuclei-central portion of an atom that compromises nearly all the atomic mass including protons and neutrons

• Neutrons-uncharged particle present in all known atomic nuclei except hydrogen

• Bombard-subject to rapidly moving particles• Isotope-two or more atoms with the same atomic number

with differing atomic mass• Fission- Using neutrons to split a heavy atom; does not

occur naturally

Nuclear physics glossary (Cont.)

• Fusion-fussing two or more lighter atoms together; occurs in nature

• Chain reaction-self sustaining nuclear reaction yielding energy or products that cause further reactions

• U238-natural state of uranium isotope; contains U235• U235-more unstable uranium isotope• 1 Kiloton-explosive measurement-equivalent to 1000

tons of TNT• 1 Megaton-equivalent to 1000 Kilotons or 1,000,000 tons

of TNT

Discovery of Atomic Energy

• 1896-French scientist Henri Becquerel discovers radioactivity

• 1903-British scientists Ernest Rutherford and Frederick Soddy conclude atoms contain massive stores of energy in their nuclei

• 1920-Arthur Eddington discovers the fussing of hydrogen nuclei would release massive amounts of energy

• 1932- James Chadwick discovers the neutron

Discovery of Atomic Energy (Cont.)

• 1934-Leo Szilard patents term “chain reaction”• 1938-Otto Hahn and Fritz Strassmann study the effects

of bombarding uranium with neutrons; notable energy release

• December 1938-Hahn and Strassmann discovered neutrons were penetrating the uranium, splitting the nuclei while producing smaller particles. These particles could be used to create a chain reaction

• 1939-Niels Bohr and John Wheeler find natural Uranium contains a ratio of 140:1 U238 and U235 isotopes respectively; U235 isotopes split when bombarded with neutrons

Discovery of Atomic Energy (Cont.)

• August 1939-Szilard, Eugene Wigner, and Edward Teller approach Albert Einstein about concerns over the development of atomic weapons in Germany

• October 1939-Einstein’s letter to President Roosevelt, dated August 2, 1939 is delivered to Roosevelt. Outlines the potential of atomic energy and the danger if other countries, especially Germany, develop the technology.

• 1940-Otto Frisch and Rudolph Peierls work to isolate U 235 isotope

• 1940-Hans von Halban and Lew Kowarski bombard natural uranium to create plutonium-U 239 (fission)

Discovery of Atomic Energy (Cont.)

• 1941-American scientists visit the UK to study current atomic research

• 1941-US begins the Manhattan Project; codename for development of the atomic bomb

• May 1942-USSR begins massive espionage program to uncover atomic energy secrets from the US

• 16 July 1945- First successful nuclear explosion- Alamogordo, NM known as “Trinity”

Manhattan Project

• Los Alamos, NM-main bomb development and assembly

• Oak Ridge, TN-separate U235 from U238• Hanford, Washington-Plutonium manufacturing• Robert J. Oppenheimer-Nuclear physicist; head

of bomb development in NM• General Leslie R. Groves-military engineer;

head of Manhattan Project• Project cost: $2,000,000,000• Employees: 600,000

Should the bomb be used?• Humanitarian

– Countless number of lives lost– Scientists were unsure of the affects of a nuclear explosion in an urban

environment• Military

– The destructive power of the bomb could lead to an end to the war– Save soldiers lives– Was not central consideration– Some argue decision was made to use the bomb before Roosevelt’s

death• Political

– The successful detonation of an atomic weapon would give the US the ability to control post war decision making

– Limit role of Soviet Union

Decision

• Truman gives the order to use the atomic bomb in Japan

• Hiroshima-6 August 1945

• Nagasaki-9 August 1945

Hiroshima

• 6 August 1945• Uranium (U235) fission bomb-“Little Boy”-

reference to Roosevelt• 9ft 9in long• 8000 lbs.• 12.5 Kilotons (.125 Megatons)• Targeted because it had not been bombed by

Allies-wanted to get an accurate assessment of the damage

• Dropped by B29 bomber-”Enola Gay”

Destruction of Hiroshima

• 5 mile radius reduced to ashes• 62.9 % of buildings destroyed• 50% death rate within ¾ mile• 118,661 deaths by August 10• 82,000 injured• Long term effects

– Radiation sickness– Genetic and chromosome injury– Unborn children experienced stunted growth and

mental disabilities

Nagasaki

• 9 August 1945• Plutonium (U239) fission bomb-“Fat Man”-

reference to Churchill• 11ft long• 9000 lbs.• 22 Kilotons (.22 Megatons)• Secondary target- Primary target of

Kokura was aborted due to heavy cloud cover

Destruction of Nagasaki

• 2.6 mile radius reduced to ashes• 22.7 % of buildings destroyed• 73,884 deaths• 74,909 injured• Long term effects

– Radiation sickness– Genetic and chromosome injury– Unborn children experienced stunted growth

and mental disabilities

Japan Surrenders

• 14 August 1945-Emperor Hirohito announces the “unconditional surrender” of Japanese forces (Military government)

• Terminology is important in this case because Japanese were allowed to keep their Emperor (Imperial government); some viewed this fact as a condition

• Believed the Japanese would have never surrendered had the Emperor been removed from power as part of “unconditional surrender”

V-J Day

• 15 August 1945

• Victory over Japan

• 2 September 1945 is also known as V-J Day– Japanese sign surrender aboard the USS

Missouri in Tokyo Bay– Accepted by General Douglas MacArthur

Cold War

• Period of political tension following World War II

“iron curtain”

• Winston Churchill speech

• Reference to the divide between the communist Soviets and the democratic West