TEKS 8C: Calculate percent composition and empirical and molecular formulas.
World War II to 1941 and the Holocaust TEKS 8C: Calculate percent composition and empirical and molecular formulas.
Objectives
• Describe how the Axis powers came to control much of Europe, but failed to conquer Britain.
• Summarize Germany’s invasion of the Soviet Union.
• Understand the horror of the genocide the Nazis committed.
• Describe the role of the United States before and after joining World War II. TEKS 8C: Calculate percent composition and empirical and molecular formulas.
Terms and People
• blitzkrieg – “lightning war” using improved tanks and airpower
• Luftwaffe – German air force
• Dunkirk – site of British troops stranded in France, and their rescue by sea
• Vichy – location in France of Germany’s “puppet state”
• General Erwin Rommel – German general known as the “Desert Fox” TEKS 8C: Calculate percent composition and empirical and molecular formulas.
Terms and People (continued)
• concentration camps – Nazi detention and killing centers for civilians considered enemies of the state
• Holocaust – the systematic genocide of about six million European Jews by the Nazis during World War II
• Lend-Lease Act – law allowing FDR to sell or lend war materials to those who were fighting for freedom TEKS 8C: Calculate percent composition and empirical and molecular formulas.
Which regions were attacked and occupied by the Axis powers, and what was life like under their occupation?
Diplomacy and compromise did not bring peace with Nazi Germany, Fascist Italy, or imperial Japan. The Axis powers advanced, attacking countries in Eastern and Western Europe. In the Pacific, Japan captured countries and colonies on the islands and the mainland of Asia. The Axis powers brought misery to the peoples they conquered. TEKS 8C: Calculate percent composition and empirical and molecular formulas.
Hitler used the tactic of blitzkrieg, or “lightning war,” to overrun much of Europe, starting with Poland.
The German air Meanwhile, force, the Luftwaffe, Stalin’s forces bombed airfields, invaded Poland factories, and cities from the east. in Poland. Then, fast- Within a month, moving tanks and Poland ceased troops pushed their to exist. way in from the west. TEKS 8C: Calculate percent composition and empirical and molecular formulas.
Hitler waited out Next, German British vessels the winter. Then, troops poured crossed the in the spring of into France, English Channel 1940, German trapping the and ferried forces overran retreating more than British forces Norway, at Dunkirk. 300,000 British Denmark, the troops to safety. Netherlands, and Belgium. TEKS 8C: Calculate percent composition and empirical and molecular formulas.
Germany continued to attack Western Europe.
• German forces headed to Paris. With Italy attacking from the south, France was forced to surrender in June 1940. • Germany occupied northern France and set up a puppet government at Vichy in southern France. • Next Hitler set his sights on Britain, calling this planned invasion “Operation Sea Lion.” • In September of 1940, the Luftwaffe began 57 straight nights of showering high explosives and firebombs on London. This is known at the London blitz. TEKS 8C: Calculate percent composition and empirical and molecular formulas.
London did not break under the Nazi blitz.
• Citizens carried on with their daily lives, seeking protection in shelters and subways.
• The Luftwaffe could not gain superiority over Britain. Operation Sea Lion was a failure. TEKS 8C: Calculate percent composition and empirical and molecular formulas.
Despite his failure to conquer Britain, Hitler seemed unstoppable.
• German armies under the command of General Erwin Rommel pushed into North Africa.
• In addition, Axis armies invaded Greece, Yugoslavia, Bulgaria, and Hungary.
• By 1941, the Axis powers or their allies controlled most of Europe. TEKS 8C: Calculate percent composition and empirical and molecular formulas.
In June 1941, Hitler broke the Nazi-Soviet Pact when he attacked the Soviet Union.
The attack stalled during the winter when thousands of unprepared Germans froze to death.
Leningrad withstood a two-and-a-half-year siege. Stalin made an agreement to work with Britain. TEKS 8C: Calculate percent composition and empirical and molecular formulas.
Japan and Germany set out to build a “new order” in the lands they occupied.
• Japanese troops seized crops, destroyed cities, and brutally treated local Chinese, Filipinos, and other conquered people.
• The Nazis sent millions of Jews and political opponents to concentration camps.
• The Nazis also targeted other groups they considered “inferior,” including Gypsies, Slavs, homosexuals, the disabled, and the mentally ill. TEKS 8C: Calculate percent composition and empirical and molecular formulas.
By 1941, Hitler had devised plans for his “Final Solution”—the extermination of all Jews in Europe. At special death camps in Poland, some six million Jewish men, women, and children were systematically murdered. TEKS 8C: Calculate percent composition and empirical and molecular formulas.
The scale and savagery of the Holocaust are unequaled in history.
Young survivors of Auschwitz, the largest Nazi death camp. TEKS 8C: Calculate percent composition and empirical and molecular formulas.
The United States declared neutrality, but Roosevelt wanted to be prepared for war.
• In August 1941, he met secretly with British Prime Minister Winston Churchill to create the Atlantic Charter. Its goal was to destroy the Nazi reign.
• Roosevelt persuaded Congress to pass the Lend- Lease Act, allowing the United States to sell or lend supplies to Britain.
• At the same time, tensions between the United States and Japan grew after the United States banned sale of war materials to Japan. TEKS 8C: Calculate percent composition and empirical and molecular formulas.
In a sneak attack on December 7, 1941, Japanese airplanes bombed the American fleet docked at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.
The next day, President On December 11, Roosevelt asked Germany and Italy Congress to declare war declared war on the on Japan. United States. TEKS 8C: Calculate percent composition and empirical and molecular formulas.
The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor brought the United States into World War II.
As the United States mobilized for war, Japan expanded deeper into Asia.