Overview of World War 2

Rise of Nazi Germany

• German National Socialist party (Nazi)

• From party to power: In 1932 elections Nazis won plurality in Reichstag

• Hindenberg named Hitler chancellor to quell chaos; Nazis passed Enabling Act giving Hitler dictatorial power

• 1934: Hitler abolishes presidency, declares himself führer

• Restores national pride in Germanic nation

• Dramatic economic recovery through military hiring and industrial production

• Scapegoating of Jews raised German pride, placed blame on others, foretold Holocaust

Propaganda poster, showing Hitler with a pseudo-messianic image

Hitler’s Expansion of Germany

• Hitler’s expansion policy– Unify all German-speaking

peoples– Create lebensraum for Aryan

race• 1938: Anschluss unified

Germany with Austria• 1938: seized control of German-

speaking Sudetenland in western Czechoslovakia

• England’s Chamberlain and France’s Daladier agreed in a policy of “appeasement”

• 1939 Nazi-Soviet non-aggression pact

• 1939: Nazi invasion of Poland• England and France attacked

Germany to defend Poland

Japanese Expansion

• Japanese industrialization demanded raw materials for rapid growth, especially wood, petroleum, coal, rubber, steel

• 1895: Japanese occupation of Taiwan

• 1910: Japanese occupation of Korea (with US tacit approval)

• 1931: Japanese occupation of Manchuria

• Japanese colonialism threatened US, UK, and French possessions in Asia

US-Japanese Conflict

• US reacted to Japanese expansion in China:– Ended 1911 Treaty of

Trade and Navigation with Japan

– Stopped shipments of oil and metal to Japan

• Japan occupied Indonesia and signed Tripartite Alliance with Germany and Italy

• Expansionist General Tojo became Prime Minister

• Oil reserves fell to critically low levels: Tojo believed Japan had to act

Racist wartime US propaganda poster.

Towards US Involvement

• Axis countries: Germany, Austria, Italy

• War began 1939 with German invasion of Poland, followed by English and French attack on western front

• 1941 Despite warnings from his generals, Hitler attacked USSR

• US agreed to Lend-Lease policy of supplying England

• 1941 Pearl Harbor: Japanese air force attacked US Pacific fleet in Hawaii

• December 1941: US declared war on Japan; Germany and Italy declared war on US

• 1942 Axis controlled France, Poland, Yugoslavia, Greece, western Russia etc.

End of War in Europe

• 1943: Allies defeated Axis in northern Africa

• 1943: Italy surrendered to Allies

• 1944 D-Day: Eisenhower led Allied landing in Normandy, in northern France

• 1944-45: Battle of the Bulge in Belgium, was last Nazi attempt at victory in west

• 1945: FDR died, Truman became president

• April 30, 1945: Hitler committed suicide in bunker

• May 8, 1945: Germany surrendered unconditionally

End of War in Asia

• “Island hopping” • Fierce naval battles over islands,

e.g., Midway, Iwo Jima, Guadal Canal

• Gradual constriction around Japan, to shut off industrial supply

• July 1945: Manhattan project succeeded in detonating atomic bomb at Alamogordo, NM

• August 1945: After warning Japan of “utter destruction,” Truman ordered atomic bombs dropped in Hiroshima, killing 70,000

• Japan again refused surrender, and US bombed Nagasaki

• August 14, 1945: Japan surrendered

Yalta and Potsdam

• Yalta, February 1945– Allied powers met at Yalta to

decide fate of future Germany– Agreed on concept of

reparations via seized goods– Agreed to partition Germany, but

left details undecided– USSR agreed to fight Japan– Agreed to establish United

Nations• Potsdam, July 1945

– Allied powers met at Potsdam after German surrender

– Heightened tensions between US and USSR: USSR allowed tacitly to control eastern Europe

– Divide Germany into four zones of control (US, UK, France, USSR)

– Demilitarize Germany– Try Nazi leaders and SS

members to be tried at Nuremburg