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Home , German rearmament

CHAPTER Twenty-seven

World War II

The Causes of the War: Unsettled Quarrels, Economic Fallout, and Nationalism

• The peace settlement • Created more problems than it solved • Eastern European satellite states • Allied naval blockade of • German ―war guilt‖ The Causes of the War: Unsettled Quarrels, Economic Fallout, and Nationalism

• Peace and security • No binding standards created for peace and security • The • Never a league of all nations • Germany and the were excluded • The United States never joined The Causes of the War: Unsettled Quarrels, Economic Fallout, and Nationalism

• Ideologies • Violent nationalism • Glorifying the nation and national destiny • Fascist Italy and formed the ―Axis‖ (later joined by Japan) • Fascist regimes in Eastern Europe • Yugoslavia, Hungary, and Romania Prelude to War

• The “Diplomatic Revolution” (1933-1937) • Hitler becomes chancellor, January 30, 1933 • Slow rearmament • Repudiation of clauses of Versailles Peace Treaty, 1935 • Troops into the demilitarized Rhineland, March 7, 1936 • New Allies • Rome-Berlin Axis, October 1936 • Anti-Comintern Pact between Germany and Japan, November 1936

The 1930s: Challenges to the Peace, , and the “Dishonest Decade”

• Appeasement • Assumptions • The outbreak of another world war was unthinkable • British and American arguments that Germany had been mistreated at Versailles • Fascist states were a bulwark against Soviet communism The 1930s: Challenges to the Peace, Appeasement, and the “Dishonest Decade”

• The League of Nations • Japanese invasion of China turned into an invasion of the whole country • The Rape of Nanking (1937) • The League expressed shock but did nothing • Mussolini invaded Ethiopia in 1935 • Avenging the defeat of 1896 • League imposed sanctions on Italy but without enforcement The

• The new dividing line in Europe between Fascist and Western democracies was made clearer by the Spanish Civil War. • The war broke out in July 1936, between the elected Popular Front Government and the Fascists, led by General (1892–1975). It lasted three years. • Germany and Italy supported Franco. • The Soviets supported the Republicans. • The Western democracies remained neutral. • The Fascists won in 1939.

p. 838 The 1930s: Challenges to the Peace, Appeasement, and the “Dishonest Decade”

• and the politics of appeasement • Hitler played on Germans’ sense of shame and betrayal • Reoccupied the Rhineland in 1936 • France and Britain did nothing • The annexation of Austria (1938) • Hitler declared his intention to occupy the Sudetenland (Czechoslovakia) • • With the Sudetenland, Germany’s ambitions would be satisfied • Believed Germany could not commit to a sustained war • Eastern Europe ranked low in British priorities

The 1930s: Challenges to the Peace, Appeasement, and the “Dishonest Decade”

• German rearmament and the politics of appeasement • Munich Pact—September 29, 1938 • Daladier (France), Chamberlain, Mussolini, and Hitler met • Chamberlain proclaimed ―peace in our time‖ • March 1939—Germany invaded Czechoslovakia • Convinced public of the futility of appeasement • Stalin’s response • Feared the West might strike a deal with Hitler • August 1939—the Nazi-Soviet pact of nonaggression

The Outbreak of Hostilities and the Fall of France

• Poland • Hitler demanded the abolition of the Polish Corridor • Poland stood firm, but Hitler attacked on September 1, 1939 • Britain and France declared war on September 3, 1939 • The (lightning war) • Poland fell in four weeks

The Outbreak of Hostilities and the Fall of France

• Scandinavia—Germans took Denmark in one day (spring 1940) • May 10, 1939—Germans moved through Belgium toward France The Outbreak of Hostilities and the Fall of France

• The fall of France • French army overwhelmed by the German advance • French army poorly organized • 300,000 British and French troops evacuated to England • June 22, 1940—French surrendered • Germans occupied northern France • Southern France fell under the Vichy regime, headed by Marshal Pétain

Map 28-1 p804 Not Alone: The and the Beginnings of a Global War

• The Battle of Britain (July 1940–June 1941) • Went on for five months • Forty thousand civilians dead • Stalemate in the air • British resistance p. 880 Not Alone: The Battle of Britain and the Beginnings of a Global War

• A global war • The • German submarines (―wolf packs‖) sank millions of tons of merchant shipping

The German Attack on Russia

• December 1940, Hitler tells his generals to prepare for an attack on Russia by May 15th, 1941, • - . Not Alone: The Battle of Britain and the Beginnings of a Global War

• A global war • Japan • December 7, 1941—Japanese • Set out to destroy U.S. fleet • Most American ships were out to sea • Japanese swept through British protectorate of Malaya • Singapore fell in December 1941

Not Alone: The Battle of Britain and the Beginnings of a Global War

• A global war • The American navy • Chester Nimitz and William Halsey • Coral Sea, Midway, and Guadalcanal • ―Island hopping‖ The Rise and Ruin of Nations: Germany’s War in the East and the Occupation of Europe

• German victories • 1941—Germany took Yugoslavia • Established a Croatian puppet state • Romania, Hungary, and Bulgaria sided with Germany • Greece ultimately fell to the Germans The Rise and Ruin of Nations: Germany’s War in the East and the Occupation of Europe

• The Nazi • A patchwork affair • Occupied countries paid ―occupation costs‖ in taxes, food, industrial production, and manpower • Puppet regimes • Norway and the Netherlands • Dedicated party of Nazis governed • At the same time, well-organized resistance movement

Racial War, Ethnic Cleansing, and

• World War II as a racial war • Fall 1939—Himmler directed massive population transfers • Ethnic Germans moved into the Reich • Poles and Jews were deported • A campaign of terror • Poles deported to forced-labor camps • Special death squads shot Jews in the streets

Racial War, Ethnic Cleansing, and the Holocaust

• From systematic brutality to atrocities to murder • More than 5 million military prisoners marched to camps to work as slave labor • The Einsatzgruppen (death squads) • 1943—2.2 million Jews killed Racial War, Ethnic Cleansing, and the Holocaust

• The Holocaust • Nazis discussed plans for mass killings in death camps • Auschwitz-Birkenau • Systematic annihilation of Jews and Gypsies • 1942–1944: one million killed • Anonymous slaughter? • People were tortured, beaten, and executed publicly • Death marches

Racial War, Ethnic Cleansing, and the Holocaust • The Holocaust • Who knew? • Extermination involved the knowledge and cooperation of many not directly involved in killing • Most who suspected the worst were terrified and powerless • The Jewish ―problem‖ • Many Europeans believed problem needed to be solved • Nazis tried to conceal the death camps • Little resistance was possible Racial War, Ethnic Cleansing, and the Holocaust

• The Holocaust • Human costs • 4.1–5.7 million Jews killed • Some long-standing Jewish communities were annihilated • A new Europe? : Home Fronts, the War of Production, Bombing and “the Bomb”

• War demanded massive resources and a national commitment to industry • United States, Britain, and Soviet Union • Long work shifts • Effects on women and the family • Production • Propaganda campaigns encouraged the production of war equipment • Patriotism, communal interests, and a common stake in winning the war • Allies built tanks, ships, and airplanes by the tens of thousands

Total War: Home Fronts, the War of Production, Bombing and “the Bomb”

• New targets • Centers of industry as military targets • American and British strategic bombing • Dresden firebombed

The Tide Turns

• Spring 1942, the U.S. has a string of victories against Japan in the pacific. • Summer 1942, the raged for months, with the Russians eventually prevailing. The Germans lost an entire army. • November 1942, an Allied force landed in French North Africa, defeating German forces there. Total War: Home Fronts, the War of Production, Bombing and “the Bomb”

• The race to build the bomb • Nuclear fission • German experiments • Best specialists were Jews or anti-Nazis now working for the Allies • Lacked crucial bits of technical information • The • Managing the effort to build an American atomic bomb • Los Alamos, New Mexico (1943) • Laboratory that brought together most capable nuclear physicists • First atomic test on July 16, 1945, near Los Alamos

The Allied Counterattack and the Dropping of the Atomic Bomb

• The Nazi penetration of the Soviet Union • The • Lasted 844 days The Allied Counterattack and the Dropping of the Atomic Bomb • The Eastern Front • The turning point—1943 • Germans aimed an all-out assault on Stalingrad • January 1943—German surrender • Six thousand of 250,000 Germans survived • One million Soviet deaths • Soviet offensives • Ukraine back in Soviet hands, Romania knocked out of the war 1944 • Soviet victories in Yugoslavia and Czechoslovakia

p813 p. 862 p. 862 The Defeat of Nazi Germany (cont.)

• By March 1945, the Allies were near Berlin. On April 30th, 1945 Hitler committed suicide. Germany surrendered within the week.

The Allied Counterattack and the Dropping of the Atomic Bomb

• The Western Front • Stalin pressured the Allies to open a second front in the west • The Allied invasion of Sicily • Mussolini surrendered in summer 1943 • The Normandy invasion (June 6, 1944) • The (August 14, 1944) p. 864 The Allied Counterattack and the Dropping of the Atomic Bomb

• The Western Front • Allies crossed the Rhine in April 1945 • Germans preferred to surrender to the Americans or British rather than face the Russians • Soviets entered Berlin on April 21, 1945 • Hitler committed suicide on April 30, 1945 • Germany surrendered unconditionally on May 7 The Allied Counterattack and the Dropping of the Atomic Bomb

• The war in the Pacific • Okinawa fell to the Americans (June 1945) • Chinese communists and nationalists pushed the Japanese back on Hong Kong • Soviet forces marched through Manchuria to Korea

The Allied Counterattack and the Dropping of the Atomic Bomb

• The war in the Pacific • United States, Britain, and China called on Japan to surrender or be destroyed on July 26 • B-29s began systematic bombing of Japanese cities • Japan refused to surrender • The decision to drop the bomb • Was it necessary? Japan had already been beaten • Harry Truman

The Allied Counterattack and the Dropping of the Atomic Bomb

• The war in the Pacific • August 6, 1945—Hiroshima, August 9— Nagasaki • Japan surrendered unconditionally on August 14, 1945

Conclusion

• A new world ravaged by war • Western imperialism • Mass killing • Technology, genocide, and global war