Katie Felton

Mr. Haskell

World History

6 May 2005

 

Ch. 31 Outline

 

Early Challenges to World Peace

a.       Throughout the 1930’s challenges to world peace patterns. Dictators took aggressive action and met only verbal protests and pleas for peace from the democracies.

b.      Japanese felt they should have an empire equal to those of western powers.

c.       Hitler had tested the will of the western democracies and found it weak.

 

The Spanish Civil War

a.        In 1936 Spain plunged into civil war and it soon grew so large it drew other European powers into the fighting.

b.      In the 1920’s Spain was a monarchy dominated by the landowning upper class, Catholic Church and the military.

c.        Franco started a major civil war in Spain. Francisco Franco’s forces were called Nationalists and the supporters of the republic were known as the Loyalists.

 

German Aggression Continues

a.       Hitler believed that the Aryans had a right to conquer the ingerior Slavs.

b.      In 1938 Hitler started his plan towards annexing Austria.

c.       Hitler set his mind on Czechoslovakia put another plan went into action and Britain and France were not willing to go to war to help them.

 

The Plunge Toward War

a.        Munich did not bring peace but instead, Europe plunged rapidly toward war.

b.      In 1939 Hitler astonished the world when he made a pact with his great enemy Joseph Stalin

c.       A week after the Nazi-Soviet Pact, German forces invaded Poland and Britain and France declared war on Germany.

 

Why War Came

a.        People didn’t believe that  Hitler would do anything even though he published his goals in Mein Kampf.

b.      The Versailles treaty had divided Europe into 2 camps

c.       Many people believe that if Britain and France would have taken military action in 1936 Hitler would have had to retreat.

The First Onslaught

a.       In September of 1939 Nazi forces stormed into Poland and Hitler’s lighting war took place.

b.      After a month of the invasion Poland ceased to exist

c.       The whirlwind Nazi advance revealed the awesome power of modern warfare.

 

The Battle of Britain

a.       With the fall of France, Britain stood alone.

b.      On August 12, 1940, the first wave of German bombers appeared over England’s southern coast and the Battle of Britain had begun.

c.        57 night bombing went on in England

Charging Ahead

1.  Mussolini sent forces from Italy’s North African colony of Libya into Egypt.
2. In 1940, Italian forces invaded Greece.
3. By 1941 Axis powers controlled most of Western Europe.

 

Operation Barbarossa

1. In 1941 Hitler embarked on operation Barbarossa - the conquest of the Soviet Union. 
2. In operation Barbarossa Hitler unleashed a new lightening war where about 3 million Germans poured into Russia.
3. the Russians lost 2 ½ million soldiers trying to fend off the invaders.

Growing American Involvement

1.  When the war began in 1939 the United States declared neutrality.
2. In 1941 President Roosevelt convinced congress to pass the Lend-Lease-Act which allowed him to sell or lend war materials to any country whose defense seemed vital to the defense of the United States.

 

Japan Attacks

1. In December of 1941 the Allies gained a vital boost when Japan attacked and pitched the US into the war.
2. General ToJo ordered a surprise attack on the American fleet at Pearl Harbor.
2.  The Japanese damaged or destroyed 19 ships, smashed American planes and killed more than 2,400 people. 

Occupied Lands

1. While the Germans rampaged across Europe, the Japanese conquered an empire in Asia and the Pacific.
2. Hitler’s new order grew out if his racial obsessions and he set up governments in Western European countries that were ruled by Aryans.
3. The most savage of all policies was Hitler’s program to kill Jews and others such as Slavs, Gypsies, and the mentally ill.

 

The Allied War Effort

a.       Once the US entered the war, the Allied leaders met periodically to plan their strategy on the war effort.

b.      Like the Axis powers, the Allies were committed to total war and so the US and Britain increased their political power.

c.       As men joined the military and war industries expanded, millions of women replaced them in essential jobs.

 

Turning Points

a.       During 1942 and 1943, the Allies won several victories that would turn the rush of battle.

b.      The British finally stopped Rommel’s advance at the Battle of El Alamein and then turned the tables and drove the Axis forces back.

c.       Victory in North Africa let the Allies leap across the Mediterranean into Italy.

 

The Red Army Resists

a.       After the Germans triumphant advance in 1941 they were stalled outside Moscow and Leningrad.

b.      The Battle of Stalingrad was one of the costliest of the war.

c.       Hitler was determined to capture Stalin’s namesake city and Stalin was equally determined to protect it. 

 

Invasion of France

 

a.       By 1944 the Allies were finally ready to open the long-awaited second front in Europe.

b.      The Allies chose June 6, 1944, D-Day, for the invasion of France.

c.       French resistance forces rose up against the occupying Germans.

 

War in the Pacific

a.       A major turning point in the Pacific war occurred just 6 months after the bombing of Pearl Harbor.

b.      The US took the offensive under the command of General Douglas MacArthur.

c.       In October 1944, MacArthur began to retake the Philippines.

The Nazis Defeated

a.        Hitler scorned talk of surrender and he said, “If the war is to be lost, the nation also will perish”.

b.      The Allies battled toward Germany and a massive counterattack was thrown upon them which caused the bloody Battle of the Bulge.

c.       Germany was reeling under bombing and this type of air war had only become real during this war.

 

Defeat of Japan

a.       The Allies poured their resources into defeating Japan.

b.      People were worried because they believed that the invasion was going to cost the US a million or more casualties and because of this Truman ended up using the new atomic bomb.

c.       Dropping the atomic bomb on Japan brought a quick end to World War II.

 Looking Ahead

a.       After the surrender, American forces occupied the smoldering ruins of Japan.

b.      Meanwhile in Germany, the Allies had divided Hitler’s fallen empire into four zones of occupation.

c.       In both countries, the Allies faced difficult decisions about the future and how they could avoid mistakes such as in 1919.

 

Aftermath of War

a.        As the Allies celebrated their victory the appalling costs of the war began to emerge.

b.      The Allies knew about the existence of Nazi concentration camps, but only at wars end did they learn of the true horror and misery that was in them.

c.       The Allies had agreed that Axis leaders should be tried for “crimes against humanity”

 

The United Nations

a.       As in 1919, the WWII Allies set up an international organization to secure the peace.

b.      Under the UN Charter, each member nation had one vote in the General Assembly, where member could debate issues.

c.       The UN’s work would go far beyond peace-keeping and it ended up taking on many world problems such as preventing diseases.

 

The Crumbling Alliance

a.       A new power structure emerged that would shape events in the postwar world.

b.      The Soviet Union and the nations of the West had cooperated to defeat Nazi Germany.

c.       Stalin has 2 goals in Eastern Europe, first he wanted to create a buffer zone of friendly governments as a defense against Germany, and second he wanted to spread communism.

 

Containing Communism

a.       President Truman saw communism as an evil force creeping across Europe and threatening countries around the world.

b.      Truman wrote the Truman Doctrine and it outlined a new policy to Congress.

c.       Postwar hunger and poverty made Western European a good place to spread communist ideas.