World War II: Causes and Beginning

• World War II was a global conflict from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's countries, total war, and the targeting of civilians

Causes of WWII

• The unsustainable peace settlement after WWI and a weak League of Nations
• German humiliation and revenge after WWI
• The global economic crisis – the Great Depression
• Continued pursuit of imperial aspirations
• The rise of fascist and totalitarian regimes
• Aggressive militarism from Germany under Adolf Hitler

WWII Begins

• WWII started on September 1, 1939, with Germany's invasion of Poland
• The Germans used "blitzkrieg", a strategy of coordinated airstrikes and fast-moving tanks and infantry
• Great Britain and France declared war on Germany but Poland was quickly overrun
• The Soviets also invaded Poland, taking over territory as part of a deal with Germany
• During the "Phony War", British and French troops built fortifications along the German border
• Germany invaded Belgium and bypassed France's fortifications
• Italy joined the Germans
• By the summer of 1940, France had fallen to the Nazis
• Hitler then set his sights on Great Britain
• Germany repeatedly bombed Great Britain (including London) in the Battle of Britain, beginning in the late summer of 1940
• The British fended off the German attacks with radar and their air force
• The British people rallied around Prime Minister Winston Churchill
• Japan, Germany, and Italy signed a mutual defense treaty in September 1940, forming the Axis Powers
• Hitler invaded the Soviet Union after being frustrated with the British campaign
• The Nazis were later halted at the Battle of Stalingrad in 1941
• Over 1.1 million Russians died in the battle, exceeding the total U.S. war casualties
• Most Americans initially opposed getting involved in another war (isolationism)
• The Lend-Lease Act was passed under President FDR in early 1941, to lend arms and supplies to Britain
• On December 7, 1941, Japan attacked Pearl Harbor in Hawaii
• The U.S. then became fully engaged in WWII
• WWII was a war of movement, unlike WWI (e.g., Blitzkrieg vs. trench warfare)
• WWII was larger and fought on a global scale
• The war had three theaters: North Africa, Europe, and the Pacific

North Africa

• Stalin wanted Churchill and FDR to open a second front in Europe against the Germans
• He wanted this to relieve his soldiers in the East
• FDR and Churchill planned an invasion into Axis controlled North Africa, which was called Operation Torch in 1942

Europe

• The Allies were victorious in North Africa and moved north through the Italian peninsula
• At the end of 1943 Italy surrendered, planning to invade France and create a 2nd front for Stalin
• The D-Day operation took place on June 6, 1944
• The Allies fought the Germans at the Battle of the Bulge in December 1944
• The Battle of the Bulge was the Nazi's last-ditch offensive
• The Germans were being squeezed out of the war by the British and Americans in the west and the Soviets in the east
• Allied troops marched into Germany and found concentration camps where millions of Jews and other persecuted people had been imprisoned, tortured, & mass murdered in the Holocaust
• Hitler escalated his treatment of Jewish people over time

The Nuremberg Trials

• In 1946, Allied forces held Nuremberg Trials for prominent Nazi leaders

The Pacific

• The Allies focused on defeating Hitler first, but war against the Japanese was also taking place

• By 1942 Japan had controlled S.E. Asia and much of the Pacific

• The American objective was called "island hopping"

• They wanted to take back island after island the Japanese had invaded

• The Americans surprised Japanese aircraft carriers at the Battle of Midway in June 1942

• Japan's war production capabilities were limited

• This battle signaled a turning point

• The Japanese began using kamikazes or suicide planes

• The 3 Allies met in February 1945 to discuss plans for post-war Europe (Yalta Conference)

• Hitler committed suicide, Mussolini was killed, and the war in Europe was officially over on May 8th

• FDR also died in April

• The island-hopping campaign warfare was exceptionally brutal

• The desire to defend the homeland to the death indicated the war would be costly

• Example: After a month of fighting in Okinawa, over 7,600 American men died and 110,000 Japanese individuals were killed

• President Truman ordered the dropping of two atomic bombs on Hiroshima & Nagasaki, Japan

• Japan surrendered on September 2, 1945 ending WWII

Warfare

• WWII caused 60 million deaths, half of whom were civilians
• 1/3 of the deaths were Soviets; 10% of their population
• Millions became refugees, left without homes
• The Axis & Allied Powers targeted civilians
• Germans bombing Britain, Allies bombing Dresden, and the U.S. dropping firebombs on Japanese cities
• Scientists developed radar and the atomic bomb, synthetic rubber, & broke enemy codes

The Home Front

• All sides of the war believed production was essential
• Women found jobs building planes and other machinery
• Women made up about 1/3 of US work force, percentages were even higher in Britain & the USSR
• Private companies went from producing consumer goods to war-related items (ex: Ford Motor Company)
• Production facilities were specifically targeted during bombing raids
• Armies in Europe & Asia raided towns for food & supplies
• The enlistment of men in the military and in factories helped end the Great Depression
• The U.S. economy soared due to massive war production thus by 1944 they were producing twice as much as all the Axis Powers combined
• Japanese-Americans were viewed as the enemy, and were rounded up and put in internment camps along the West Coast
• Over 100,000 Japanese Americans were sent to 10 different camps
• African Americans and Latinos found employment, but encountered racism
• Black Americans often migrated to Northern cities to search for better opportunities, encountering new areas of discrimination
• The "Double V campaign" promoted the fight for democracy in overseas campaigns and at home for African Americans
• The Zoot Suit Riots broke out in LA
• Due to wartime labor shortages, the US gov't "rented" Mexican laborers who were often exploited

Recap of the War

• Nazi Germany seized territory in Europe, but was halted when it attacked Britain
• It then invaded the Soviet Union causing there to be two fronts in the European war
• Japan expanded its Pacific empire, but was rolled back by American forces
• The Allies defeat the Axis Powers
• WWII saw the targeting of civilians, the Holocaust, atomic weapons, fighter planes, and home fronts affected worldwide
• Millions of people became refugees, thousands of Jews languished in "displaced persons" camps throughout liberated Europe
• By the end of WWII China erupted into a civil war between the Guomindang and Mao Zedong's communists