Prelude to World War II and United States EntryBy: Mr. Edgar

11th grade History Class

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Introduction

In this unit you will learn about how and why World War II started. First we will cover the European powers and how the different dictators came to power. Then we will be focusing on the beginning of the war in Europe and how Germany became such a powerful force. We will then go into the Holocaust in Europe. This section is one that will have sensitive subjects discussed. Lastly, we will learn about the United States neutrality and what brought the United States into the war.

After each lesson you will go back to the Main Menu page and take the quiz that corresponds to that lesson to check for your understanding of the material.

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Lesson 1: World War Looms

Quiz 1

Lesson 2: War in Europe

Quiz 2

Lesson 3: The Holocaust

Quiz 3

Lesson 4: America Moves Towards War

Quiz 4

World War Looms

Nationalism

Peace after World War I brought revolution due to economic depression and struggle.

Rise of powerful dictators with the high belief of nationalism.

These dictators also had dreams of territorial expansion.

Failures of WWI Peace Settlement

Treaty of Versailles caused anger and resentment.

Germany:

Blamed them for the start of the war

Stripped them of their overseas colonies

Soviets:

Resented the carving up of Russia

The democracies set up around the world crumbled and dictators were able to seize power.

Short Answer

Explain why the Treaty of Versailles caused anger through some parts of Europe? Which countries were angry and why? How did this affect Democracies?

Joseph Stalin and the Soviet Union

Hope of Democracy lead to Civil War resulting in the establishment of a communist state known as the Soviet Union.

Joseph Stalin took control after V. I. Lenin died

Prime economic goals:

Agriculture

Industrial Growth

Both were now run by the government

By 1937 was second largest industrial power

Stalin Responsible for 8-13 million deaths

Set up a totalitarian state

Rise of Fascism in Italy

Benito Mussolini established a totalitarian regime in Italy.

Mussolini established the Fascist Party

Fascism: stressed nationalism and put the state before the individual

Followers wore black shirts and they marched on Rome

Italian King appointed Mussolini as head of government

Made Italy more efficient but crushed all in his way (totalitarian)

Nazis Take Over Germany

Adolf Hitler

Jobless soldier after World War I

Joined the Nazi party that had no ties to socialism

Very powerful speaker

Mein Kampf

“My Struggle”

Laid out basic beliefs of Nazism: based on extreme nationalism

Wanted racial purification: Blond hair blue eyes= master race

Believed Germany needed more territory to thrive

People turned to Hitler as their last hope

By 1932 the Nazi Party was the strongest party in Germany

Third Reich

Militarists Gain Control in Japan

Japan military leaders wanted to take control in Japan

Shared Hitler’s view of needing more territory

Surprise attack on Manchuria

Japan left the League of Nations

Militarists now in control over Japan

Discussion

How did the governments of Germany, Italy, and Japan compare? How did they differ?

Aggression in Europe and Africa

Failure of League of Nations

Hitler pulled Germany out

1935 Hitler began to build up his army

(went against Treaty of Versailles)

Sent troops into Rhineland…League did nothing

Mussolini invades Ethiopia…League did nothing

Civil War Breaks out in Spain

1936: General Francisco Franco rebelled against the Spanish Republic

Civil War broke out

Americans went to fight against Franco

To stop Fascism

African Americans bitter about Mussolini’s invasion of Ethiopia

Hitler and Mussolini aided Franco

Planes, troops, advisors, and tanks

Germany and Italy signed the Rome-Berlin Axis alliance

Franco won in 1939

Americans and Isolationism

1930s: Books about America being dragged into WW I due to greedy bankers

Americans wanted to avoid war

Congress passed the Neutrality Acts in 1935

Outlawed arms sales or loans to nations at war or civil wars

Neutrality Breaks Down

Roosevelt found it impossible to remain neutral

Sent arms and supplies to China

Called on peace-loving nations to stop the spread of war

Newspapers made Roosevelt back off

Germany, Italy, and Russia were considered what kind of government?

A. Democracy

B. Dictatorship

C. Oligarchy

A democracy is a system of government elected by the whole population or all the eligible members of a state (United States)

Incorrect

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Congratulations this is the end of the lesson!

Correct!!

An oligarchy is a small group of people having control of a country, organization, or institution

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War in Europe

Union with Austria

Austria was Hitler’s first target

Austria was a small nation made from what was left of the Austro-Hungarian Empire after WWI

Most citizens favored Unification

March 12, 1938 German took Austria unopposed

Bargaining for the Sudetenland

Wanted Czechoslovakia for defense against German attack

More living space and natural resources

Charged the Czechs were abusing Germans

Munich Agreement

Turned Czechoslovakia over to Germany

Soviet Union Declares Neutrality

Poland

Hitler’s next target

Mistreatment of Germans

World knew Poland had alliances with the Soviet Union, France, and Britain

Cause a two front war

Stalin signs the nonaggression pact with Hitler

A secret pact as well to split Poland between the two countries

Blitzkrieg in Poland

September 1, 1939

Blitzkrieg or Lightening War

Luftwaffe, German air force, bomb Poland

At the same time German tanks raced across the countryside with foot soldiers

Britain and France declare war on September 3, 1939

Major fighting over in 3 weeks

Could not mount a defense

Soviet Union from the east to take territory

The Phony War

French and British troops on the Maginot Line

Fortifications along French boarder

German troops on the Siegfried Line

The “Sitting war”

Stalin annexes Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania

Germany surprise attack on Denmark and Norway

Then Belgium, Netherlands, and Luxembourg

The Fall of France

German offensive trapped 400,000

British, French, and Belgium troops fled for the beaches of Dunkirk

Makeshift fleet of 800 vessels

330,000 safe

Italy entered war on side of Germany

Attacked France from South

June 22, 1940 France surrendered Paris

Charles de Gaulle

Battle of Britain

Summer of 1940: Germans assemble invasion fleet

Naval Power

Luftwaffe to bomb airfields and destroy RAF

2,600 planes…2,000 over Britain

Moved to bombing cities

RAF, with use of radar, shot down 185 German planes in one night

6 weeks later Hitler called off invasion

The German Blitzkrieg warfare involved which parts of the army?

A. Tanks, submarines, and foot soldiers

B. Navy, Air force, and tanks

C. Tanks, Air force, and foot soldiers

Submarines were not a part of the Blitzkrieg warfare. They are what made up the “wolf packs”

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The navy had no part of Blitzkrieg warfare because this type of warfare was only done on land

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The Holocaust

Persecution Begins

April 7, 1933

All “non-Aryans” removed from government jobs

First of many of the Holocaust

Systematic murder of 11 million people across Europe

Jews Targeted

Jews were not the only victims

Anti-Semitism

Germans used Jews as the scapegoat for their failures

Hitler blaming them for economic problems

Nuremberg Laws

Stripped their citizenship, jobs, and property

Kristallnacht

“Night of Broken Glass”

November 9-10, 1938

Nazi storm troopers attacked Jewish:

Homes, Businesses, and Synagogues

100 killed, 300 injured, 30,000 arrested

Nazis blamed Jews for destruction

A Flood of Jewish Refugees

Jews fleeing had trouble finding countries to accept them

Limits:

40,000 in France

80,000 in Britain

30,000 in Palestine

100,000 in United States

US citizens wanted to deny Jews

The St. Louis

The Condemned

Hitler imposed the “Final Solution”

Genocide

Aryans=superior people and must be preserved

Targeted groups were:

Jews, Gypsies, Freemasons, and Jehovah’s Witnesses

Homosexuals, mentally deficient, mentally ill, physically disabled, and the incurably ill

Nazi death squads

Forced Relocation

Ordered into ghettos

Segregated areas sealed off with barbed wire

Life was miserable

Bodies piled up

Forced to work in German factories

Jews hung on:

Resistance, newspapers, secret schools and theaters

Concentration Camps

Herded into train cars and shipped to concentration camps

Families separated

Cycle of hunger, humiliation, and work that ended in death

Wooden barracks

Hunger

Too weak to work were killed

The Final Stage

Early 1942

Hitler’s top officials meet

Add a third method of killing: poison gas

Mass Exterminations

Other methods did not kill fast enough

6 death camps in Poland

Several huge gas chambers

Could kill 12,000 a day

Separated the strong and weak

Told to undress for a shower

Gas came out the vents

Dead set on fire

Medical experiments

The Survivors

Estimated 6 million Jews died in death camps

Some survived

Lives changed forever

The Holocaust was persecuting which social groups?

A. Jews only

B. Jews, mentally disabled, homosexuals and more

C. None of the above

There were more minorities that were part of this genocide other than just jews

Incorrect

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Please go back and read the answers more carefully

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America Moves Toward War

Moving Cautiously Away from Neutrality

“Cash-and-Carry” law

Keep US out of war

Congressed passed the Neutrality Act of 1939

The Axis Threat

Roosevelt aided British with “all aid short of war”

500,000 rifles

80,000 machine guns

50 old destroyers for British Military bases

Axis Powers (Tripartite Pact)

Germany, Italy, and Japan

Meant to keep US out of war

If US went to war with 1, it went to war with all 3

Two ocean war

Building US Defenses

Increase in National Defense

Selective Training and Service Act

16 million men drafted between the ages of 21-35

Roosevelt Runs for Third Term

Ran for reelection

Running against basically the same candidate as him

Won nearly 55% of votes cast

The Lend-Lease Plan

US would lend or lease arms

“any country whose defense was vital to the United States”

Congress passed it in March 1941

Supporting Stalin

Hitler broke agreement with soviet Union

Invaded Russia in June of 1941

“the enemy of my enemy is my friend”

Lend-Lease with Soviet Union

German Wolf Packs

Hundreds of submarines to stop lend-lease shipping

Wolf pack attack

350,000 tons of shipment sunk in 1 month

US warships to attack for self defense

Radar by 1943

The Atlantic Charter

Roosevelt and Churchill held secret meeting

On USS Augusta

The Atlantic Charter

Collective security

Disarmament

Self-determination

Economic Cooperation

Freedom of Seas

A Declaration of the United Nations

Allie powers=nations that had fought against Axis Powers

Shoot on Sight

US Destroyer Greer incident

Ordered to shoot German subs on sight

Pink Star and Kearny

Reuben James: Killed more than 100 sailors

Japan’s Ambitions in the Pacific

July 1937

Hideki Tojo launched attack into China

European countries could not stop their expansion

Only the US

US cut off trade with Japan

Oil

Two options:

Stop oil embargo

Seize oil fields in Dutch East Indies

Peace Talks are Questioned

Hideki Tojo=Primer Minister of Japan

Promised to keep peace with US

November 5, 1941 he ordered Navy to prepare for an attack against the US

US broke codes

Where or When?

“War Warning”

December 6, 1941

Japan to reject all American peace proposals

The Attack on Pearl Harbor

Pearl Harbor=largest US naval base in the Pacific

Virtual Field Trip!

Reaction to Pearl Harbor

Washington went from outrage to panic

Worried about a two front war

Pacific navy now badly hurt

“A date that will live in infamy”

Congress approved Roosevelt's declaration of war

Italy and Germany declared war on US 3 days later

All-out American war effort

What was the date of the attack on Pearl Harbor?

A. December 6, 1941

B. December 7, 1941

C. December 7, 1942

December 6th is the day that Japan rejected all peace offers from the United States

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This may be the correct day but it is not the correct year of the attack

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