Day 1 Notes

2. Day 1 Notes

3. Chapter 31 Lesson 2 Notes – World War II from Sept.3,1939 to Sept.2,1945 BELLIGERENTS (WARRING NATIONS) OF WORLD WAR II AXIS POWERS • Germany led by dictator [Adolf] Hitler • Italy led by dictator [Benito] Mussolini • Japan led by Emperor Hirohito [but Prime Minister / Commander-in-Chief, Hideki Tojo, made all decisions]

4. ALLIED POWERS • GreatBritain led first by P.M. [Neville] Chamberlain; followed by P.M. [Winston] Churchill; followed by P.M. [Clement] Attlee • France led by President Daladier • The SovietUnion led by [Communist] Dictator [Josef] Stalin • The U. S. first led by Pres.[F. D.]Roosevelt; followed by Pres. [Harry] Truman

5. FUNDAMENTAL REASONS FOR WORLD WAR II CAUSED BY THE AXIS POWERS • Militarism: countries as “war machines;” a build-up of armament factories; “War is a glorious adventure.” – Mussolini

6. Imperialism: countries claimed need for “living space” (as Germany’s “lebensraum”); claimed to be “have-not” nations • Nationalism: chauvinism; death for homeland is honorable; determination to reclaim foreign-controlled population

7. Totalitarianism: dictatorships that scorned civil liberties, degraded individual dignity, and displayed an open intent to destroy worldpeace

8. SECONDARY REASONS FOR WORLD WAR II CAUSED BY THE DEMOCRACIES • CollectiveSecurity was missing: the democracies failed to defend one another, or, they failed to support communism against fascism; the democracies hoped for a Russo-German war to lessen the threat to themselves • Appeasement: examples are British PM Chamberlain and the German city of Munich • U.S. Neutrality: its isolationist policy failed; it passed several Neutrality Acts forbidding the sale of armaments to any WWII belligerent

9. FAILURE OF THE INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATION AND TREATIES MADE PRIOR TO 1939 • LeagueofNations: had no means to physically enforce resolutions against aggression • Open-DoorPolicy: freedom to trade in China was not enforced by the United States • Kellogg-BriandPact: outlawing war was too idealistic • LocarnoPacts: France and Germany agree to never war against one another again; but France had no means to prevent Hitler from militarizing the Rhineland as forbidden by the Treaty of Versailles

11. U.S. Open-Door Policy of 1899 & 1900 U.S.: “I’m out for commerce not conquest.”

12. Locarno Pacts 1925 France on the left; Belgium in the middle; and Germany on the right.

13. Day 2 Notes

14. MAJOR EVENTS LEADING TO WORLD WAR II • Hirohito controlled by militarists; • invades Manchuria, a region in China rich in coal & iron; region needed for Japan’s growing population; a need to glorify Japan’s divine emperor; • Japan violates Kellogg-Briand Pact and U.S.’s Open-Door Policy; • 2/3 of China eventually falls to Japan 1931

15. Mussolini invades Ethiopia to continue to build an African colonial empire and plans to make the Mediterranean area his “ItalianLake;” • [Ethiopian] Emperor Selassie begs the League for sanctions against Italy; • League appeases Italy • Britain even allows Italian troops access through the SuezCanal to reach Ethiopia easier 1935

16. Mussolini invades and occupies Albania as part of his “Italian Lake” empire • Hitler openly defies the Treaty of Versailles by militarizing the Rhineland and violates the Locarno Pacts; • British PM Chamberlain appeases Hitler which leads to the Rome-Berlin Axis, followed by the Rome-Berlin-Tokyo Axis (also known as the Anti-Comintern [Com-intern stands for “Communist International”] Pact against the Soviet Union) 1936

17. Spanish fascist Francisco Franco, “ElCaudillo”, of the Falange Party, begins to fight for power from the Spanish Republic and is aided by Hitler and Mussolini using Spain as a testing ground for new and improved weapons; • Spain remains neutral during WW II as its 3-year civil war destroys much territory and people 1936

18. Austria becomes a German province when Hitler marches in, to not only defy the Treaty of Versailles that forbade an Anschluss, but to also secure a large German population living there; • Appeasement by Britain and France encourages Hitler to continue his aggressive moves in the Sudetenland where Hitler reclaims the 3 million Germans living there; • the Munich Conference approves the takeover from Czechoslovakia [no Czech officials invited to meeting]; • Munich and British P.M. Chamberlain become most associated with the failed policy of appeasement 1938

19. Kellogg-Briand Pact 1928

20. MAJOR EVENTS OF WORLD WAR II • Hitler, because of the policy of appeasement, continues his aggressive moves and conquers Czechoslovakia, Eastern Europe’s only democracy; • western democracies promise no further appeasement and any further act of aggression by the Axis Powers will be met with resistance; • Hitler and Stalin sign a 10-year Nazi-SovietNon-Aggression Pact publicly, but secretly both agree to divide Eastern Europe, starting with Poland 1939

22. Sept. 1 – German blitzkrieg (lightning war) by the Luftwaffe (German air force) and panzer units (armored tanks) begin attack of W. Poland; • Stalin invades E. Poland • Sept. 3 – Britain & France declare war on Germany: WorldWarII officially begins 1939

23. Stalin invades, occupies, & reclaims Finland but is expelled from League of Nations (publicly humiliated for becoming communistic) • Hitler invades Norway, Denmark for airfields and for a submarine bases-outlet to the Atlantic Ocean • Churchill replaces Chamberlain • Hitler invades the LowCountries for surprise attack on France from the north • The French port, Dunkirk, is evacuated successfully by Allies but they unsuccessfully leave France without Allies 1940

24. French Gen. Pétain surrenders to Germany and leads the VichyRegime that collaborates (works closely together) with the Nazis • French Gen. DeGaulle, from his headquarters in London, England, leads the FreeFrenchMovement (resistance fighters) to struggle against the Nazis in Occupied France 1940

25. Hitler’s Operation SeaLion (Battle of • Britain) is abandoned • (Britain’s R.A.F. is badly outnumbered • by Germany’s Luftwaffe but Churchill and • British people swear to “never surrender”); • Hitler turns his attention instead to • the • SovietUnion • Neutral U.S.’s Cash & Carry and Lend- • Lease policies provide aid to Britain 1940

26. Day 3

27. Hitler invades the Balkans to invade the SovietUnion with his Operation Barbarossa to gain Lebensraum, wheat from the Ukraine, and the Caucasus Mts. oil reserves, but Germany temporarily retreats due to Soviet Union’s scorched-earth policy • Churchill, Roosevelt secretly meet to state the war aims of the democracies and sign the AtlanticCharter • German Gen. Rommel, (“the Desert Fox”), takes most of N. Libya away from Britain 1941

28. Hitler’s NewOrderPlan to conquer Europe for his Aryan race; extermination of undesirables with savagery;6 million massacred by use of genocide = of those under his FinalSolution Plan, another 6million, those being Jews, are massacred in what becomes known as the Holocaust 1941

29. Japan signs the Tripartite Pact (Rome-Berlin-Tokyo Axis) • Japan attacks U.S. naval base at PearlHarbor on Dec.7 (“a date that will live in infamy” - Roosevelt) because of the U.S. ban on scrap iron / oil shipments to Japan • U.S. declares war on Japan on Dec.8 • U.S. forcibly houses Japanese Americans in internment camps until war is over • Battle of the Atlantic: with the Allied- sinking of the Bismarck, German surface ships no longer capable of winning battles at sea 1941

31. Battle of Stalingrad: Soviet Union broke the back of the Nazi military machine by capturing/ killing 200,000 Germans & taking needed German military equipment • Battle of ElAlamein: Allied American Commander Eisenhower and British Gen. Montgomery secure Suez Canal & North Africa using a pincer strategy to defeat German Gen. Rommel 1942

32. Battle of Midway: Hawaii is saved from Japanese • Battle of Guadalcanal: Australia is saved, using U.S. strategy of island-hopping (taking out only a few of the more important islands being used as supply depots by the Japanese) 1942

33. Japan begins kamikaze attacks on Allied bases/ships in the Pacific • Allies conquer Sicily, leading to fall of • Mussolini but Italy continues to be occupied by Germany • Operation Overlord: Allied invasion of Normandy known as D-Day (begins June 6, 1944) to liberate France; • Vichy Regime, led by Pétain in France, falls, eventually leading to Germany’s surrender 1943 & 1944

34. Yalta Conference held on Crimean Pen.: Stalin declares war on Japan; Allies Roosevelt, Churchill, Stalin agree to divide / occupy Germany once war is over • Roosevelt dies; Truman becomes U.S. president • Mussolini is captured / shot by Italian partisans (fighters who attack an enemy within their occupied territory) • Hitler commits suicide 1945

35. Eva Braun, Hitler’s wife of one day, died of cyanide poisoning on April 30, 1945 shortly before Hitler shot himself. Hitler, with his German shepherd, Blondi, ordered a doctor to give his “beloved” dog a cyanide capsule to see if it would kill her. It did.

36. V – E Day: WW II ends in Europe on May 8 • Potsdam Conference: Truman, Stalin, Attlee (Churchill was defeated for his PM election bid) issue Japan an ultimatum to surrender; kamikaze attacks continue • “LittleBoy,” U.S. atomic bomb, dropped on Japanese munitions center, Hiroshima Aug. 6; no response from Emperor Hirohito 1945

37. “Little Boy” More than 70,000 Japanese instantly killed

38. “FatMan,” 2nd U.S. atomic bomb, dropped on Japanese port city, Nagasaki on Aug. 9 1945

39. More than 40,000 Japanese killed instantly

40. The last Axis Power, Japan, surrenders in Tokyo Bay on American warship, the USS Missouri on Aug. 14 • V–JDay: officially ends the 2nd World War on Sept.2 • A ColdWar (a war of ideologies, with the threat of [nuclear] warfare always looming), begins soon afterwards between the U.S. and the U.S.S.R. (beginning with U. S. Pres. Truman and communist dictator Stalin to start the Cold War) 1945