UNIT 13World War II

Part One: The Rise of Totalitarian governments in

GermanyItaly

JapanSoviet Union

Terms of the Versailles Treaty punished Germany severely… to remember the basics, think

B.R.A.T.

Blame: Germany forced to accept entire blame for WWI…the War Guilt Clause

Reparations: req’d. to pay France & Britain $30 billion

Armed forces: allowed only 100,000 man army and 6 battleships…no subs…no planes…no troops next to France

Territory: most went to Fr. And GB…lost possessions globally

•National humiliation

•Resentment

•Anger

•Betrayal

Most Germans naturally felt

•Wrecked economy…little hope things would change

1. High unemployment…lots of veterans, filled with anger, nothing to do and all day to do it

2. Inflation…German currency losing value, doesn’t buy much

•Weak & ineffective gov’t…the Weimar Republic was incapable of solving problems

•Germany became a “petri dish” for anyone with a plan…guess who???

Germany in the 1920s

Adolph Hitler– Why Germany lost the

War: “stabbed in the back” theory

- Unemployed after the war—no jobs

– Couldn’t get into art school—claimed only Jews got in. He had limited artistic talent

The Nazi Party– Small political party early

1920s

– The 1923 Munich “putsch”

– Hitler imprisoned and writes Mein Kampf

– Party grows in the 1930s…wins majority in Reichstag & passes laws giving AH more power

What about Italy?

•Similar conditions as in Germany…disgruntled vets, unemployment, etc.

•Many Italians felt that Italy did not receive fair compensation as one of the victors on WWI…expected to get territory on the Adriatic Sea but…NOT!

Benito Mussolini

• Created Fascist Party• Core beliefs:

– Individual subservient to state– Gov’t control of industry and citizens– Censorship– Secret police

• Why did Italians follow him?• Appealed to their pride to return Italy to the “Glory

Days of the Roman Empire”

Japan

• Like Italy, Japanese believed they did NOT receive their fair share of spoils of WWI…

• Worried about losing influence in world affairs

• “Co-Prosperity Sphere of Influence”

• Japan needed resources…oil, iron ore, etc.

• Right-wing militarists gained control of Japan’s gov’t…strongly influenced the “boy Emperor’s (Hirohito) decisions

Soviet Union

• Bolshevik Revolution 1917…– Vladimir Lenin leader until death

(1924)– Josef Stalin takes control

– 1930s: The Purge - Stalin eliminated ALL political opponents and others who threatened his power…executed or sent to the Gulag

UNIT 13 (con’t.)

Totalitarian Aggression and U.S. Foreign Policy

Japan and Asia

• Japanese lack natural resources…

• 1931: Create an “incident” in Manchuria

• Take military action and set up the puppet state of Manchukuo

• 1937: Japan attacks China– Japanese brutalities v. Chinese…the “Rape

of Nanking”

Situation in Europe deteriorates

• Hitler suspended reparation payments

• 1935 Germany begins to rearm

• 1936 German troops move into the Rhineland

• 1936 Rome-Berlin Axis

• 1936 Spanish Civil War- Germany and Italy support Spanish right under General Franco

• “rehearsal for war”General Francisco Franco

Europe (con’t.)

• 1938 “Anschluss”- union of Germany and Austria

• 1938 Hitler demanded the Sudetenland

• 1938 Munich Conference-

“APPEASEMENT”

Chamberlain and Hitler

Chamberlain

HitlerMussolini

Munich Conference (1938)

German Troops in the Sudetenland

Signs reads “One People, One Reich, One Fuhrer”

A beaming Neville Chamberlain proudly proclaimed to have achieved “peace in our time…”

Europe (con’t.)

• March 1939 German troops invade Czechoslovakia…

• August 1939 Nazi-Soviet Non-Aggression Pact

• September 1939: “blitzkreig”

Poland attacked by Germany and Russia- Russia also takes the Baltic states and attacks Finland…

war begins in Europe

WWII

• Starts with Nazi invasion of Poland Sept. 1939

• The “Phony War”

• Nazis overrun Norway, Denmark

• The Fall of France (1940)

Hitler in Paris: June 1940

Battle of Britain

• Gr. Britain ONLY democracy remaining in Europe not under Nazi control

• “Operation Sea Lion”

• The battle in the skies (RAF v. Luftwaffe)– Ben Affleck Saves England

• Hitler gives up…turns to the East…USSR!

U.S. foreign policy

• A strong isolationist mood in America:1. Senate’s rejection of the League of

Nations

2. Our own problems: Great Depression

U.S. Isolationism (con’t.)

3. Nye Committee (1935):

A. U.S. banks and munitions makers made HUGE profits during WWI…they pushed us into the war…called “merchants of death”

Isolationism (con’t.)

Neutrality Acts (1935-37)Congress passed series of laws to keep us out of future conflicts

Terms:

• embargo on munitions, arms and implements of war to nations at war

• all indirect war materials (steel, cotton, food, etc.) must be handled on a “cash and carry” basis – they must be taken from the United States on the ships of a belligerent and paid for in cash

U.S. Isolationism (con’t.)

FDR’s “Quarantine Speech” (1937)FDR compared aggression around the world to a disease…

Said the world’s democracies should quarantine (isolate) aggressive nations as we would a diseased patient

If Gr. Britain fell, U.S. would be alone in fight v. tyranny

• American neutrality in the 1930s

• By 1941, Europe under Nazi control…situation desperate

• Congress passes

Lend-Lease Act

Europe 1941

Lend-Lease Act

• FDR authority to sell, lend, exchange or transfer weapons and other materials to help defend nations vital to U.S. security

• Example: – FDR traded 50 American destroyers to

Gr. Britain for naval bases in the Caribbean

Hmmm…

Click hereBattle of Britain