Transcript Presentation

World War II
WWI was not the “war to end all
wars” as a series of problems from
1919 to 1939 led to World War II
 Resentment in Germany over the
Treaty of Versailles
 The failure of the League of
Nations to maintain world peace
 A global depression & intense
nationalism led to the rise of
dangerous, aggressive dictators
Causes of
World War II
*The punishing terms of
the Treaty of Versailles
(war guilt &
demilitarization) led to
anger & resentment in
Germany
*Huge reparations
slowed Germany’s
ability to rebuild after
the war
*Britain & France were
leaders of the League of
Nations, but war debts &
post-war rebuilding
meant that they could
not afford another war
In Germany inflation was so bad, that money became
worthless. Here German children use stacks of German money
as play toys
European nations were dependent upon U.S. investment to
help rebuild, …but the Great Depression led to a world-wide
depression in the 1930s, especially in Europe
The Rise of Totalitarianism
 These desperate
conditions led to the rise
of totalitarianism in
Europe
 Dictators seized total
control over the gov’t
& the lives of citizens
 Promoted nationalism
to win support &
promised a return of
jobs, national pride, &
“empire”
 Used propaganda,
police terror, &
persecution to
maintain power
Totalitarian Regimes in Europe & Asia
Totalitarian Regimes in Europe & Asia
Communists like Lenin &
Stalin in the Soviet
Union believed that the
gov’t should control all
property & business
Mussolini & Hitler both
believed in fascism—the
idea that nations need
strong dictators, total
authority by one
political party, but that
people can keep their
private property
Totalitarian Regimes in Europe & Asia
 In the 1920s & 1930s, Japan
was the strongest & wealthiest
nation in Asia; Prime Minister
Hideki Tojo created a military
dictatorship in Japan
Causes of World War II
 In the 1930s, territorial expansion in Europe
& Asia contributed to WWII
 In the 1930s, Mussolini directed the Italian
military to seize Libya & Ethiopia in Africa,
then Albania in Europe
 In the 1930s, Japan began to build a large
Asian empire to provide resources for their
industry & military; Japanese forces
attacked Manchuria, northern China, &
East Indies
To fulfill Hitler’s dream of Lebensraum (living
space); Germany annexed Austria &
Czechoslovakia in the 1930s
Failure of the League of Nations
This expansion threatened world
peace, but the League of Nations
failed to intervene effectively:
 Britain & France relied on
appeasement (giving in to an
aggressor to avoid war)
 The League condemned Japan,
Italy, & Germany but resisted more
severe actions to halt expansion
The Outbreak of World War II
 In 1939, German
expansion led to the
outbreak of World War
II:
 Hitler negotiated the
Nazi-Soviet
Nonaggression Pact
allowing Germany to
seize half of Poland
 World leaders were
shocked by the
agreement & horrified
by German military
expansion
Axis Powers
 On September 1, 1939
Germany invaded
Poland
 England & France
could not use
appeasement any
longer & declared war
on Germany
 In 1940, Germany,
Italy, & Japan signed
the Tripartite Pact (
“Axis Coalition”) to
protect each other in
case any nation was
attacked
Expansion in Europe & Asia
 Once WWII began,
the Axis Powers used
modern militaries to
seize large territories
in Europe & Asia:
 The Germans used
blitzkrieg tactics to
take most of Europe
 Italian forces seized
north Africa
 Japanese military
gained an empire in
Southeast Asia
Blitzkrieg (“lightning war”) tactics
used air raids followed by infantry &
tanks invasions
 In 1940, Germany began
bombing Britain, the
strongest Allied nation
 In 1940, France fell to the
Nazis
 By 1941, the Axis Powers
controlled almost all of
Europe & northern Africa
 In 1941, Germany broke the
Nazi-Soviet Pact & invaded
the USSR
Japan took full advantage
of the European war to
expand in Asia
■ By the end of 1941, the
Axis Powers appeared
close to victory:
– Germany & Italy were
in control of Europe
with Britain & USSR as
the only opposition to
victory
– Japan seemed to go
unnoticed in their
conquest of Asia
■ From 1939 to 1941, the
USA remained neutral,
but not isolated, from the
global conflict
When World War I came to an end in 1919, President Woodrow Wilson’ s
League of Nations would have committed America to help maintain
international peace. However, the U.S. Senate rejected joining the League
of Nations. Through the 1920s, political leaders embraced an isolationist
foreign policy and most Americans seemed happy to enjoy the consumer
goods and entrainment available during the “Roaring Twenties.”In the early
1930s, a flood of books argued that the United States had been dragged into
World War I by greedy bankers and arms dealers, the so called “merchants
of death.” Chaired by North Dakota Senator Gerald Nye, a series of
Congressional hearings documented the large profits that banks and
manufacturers made during World War I. During the 1930s, the Great
Depression led to high unemployment and business failures. President
Franklin Roosevelt began his New Deal initiative to combat the effects of
the depression. The depression triggered a world-wide depression that left
European nations with high unemployment and no American dollars for
investment. In this climate of desperation and intense nationalism,
totalitarian leaders increased their power and initiated plans of conquest.
Italian leader Benito Mussolini ordered a successful attack on Ethiopia,
Libya, and Albania. Adolf Hitler of Germany seized Austria and
Czechoslovakia. Military dictator Hideki Tojo of Japan led an attack on
Manchuria and China.
 (A) Do nothing and hope that these problems do not
hurt the United States.
 ____
(B) Send European nations money in order
to revive European economies and to help keep more
dictators from coming to power.
 ____
(C) Join the League of Nations in an effort
to help secure international peace.
 ____
(D) Create a series laws to protect American
neutrality by outlawing U.S. banks or businesses from
loaning money or selling military equipment to
nations at war.
 ____
(E) Declare war on any aggressor nation
that refuses to withdraw from the European, African,
or Asian territories that it conquered.
America’s Response to World War II:
Read Situation #1 (1930—1938)
Answer: D
America’s Response in the 1930s
America’s response to the rise of
totalitarianism was isolationism:
 Congress passed the Neutrality
Acts (1935-1937) that outlawed
weapons sales to nations at war &
required trade during wartime to
be done on foreign ships
 Americans protested when FDR
tried to convince world leaders to
“quarantine” aggressor nations
British and French policies of appeasement did not bring an end to
territorial aggression by Germany. By 1939, Hitler had restored the German
military and taken Austria and Czechoslovakia. 1939, Hitler set his sights on
Poland. In August 1939, Hitler and Stalin surprised everyone by signing a
nonaggression pact. Once bitter enemies, fascist Germany and communist
Russia now committed never to attack each other and agreed to divide Poland
between them. With the danger of a two-front war eliminated, Germany
invaded Poland on September 1, 1939.
As day broke on September 1, 1939, the German Luftwaffe, or German
air force, roared over Poland, raining bombs on military bases, airfields,
railroads, and cities. At the same time, German tanks raced across the Polish
countryside, spreading terror and confusion. This invasion was the first test of
Germany’s new blitzkrieg strategy, using fast tanks and more powerful
aircraft to take the enemy by surprise and then quickly crush all opposition
with overwhelming force. On September 3, two days following the terror in
Poland, Britain and France declared war on Germany. The blitzkrieg tactics
worked perfectly. Major fighting was over in three weeks, long before France,
Britain, and their allies could mount a defense. In the last week of fighting, the
Soviet Union attacked Poland from the east, grabbing some of its territory. By
the end of the month, Poland was conquered—and World War II had begun.
____ A) Do nothing and hope that these problems
do not hurt the United States.
 ____(B) Remain neutral, but join the League of
Nations in an effort to help secure
international peace
 ____(C) Remain neutral but change the
Neutrality Acts to allow the U.S. to sell war
equipment to the Allies but only if these
countries agree to use their own boats.
 ____(D) Remain neutral but give full support to
the Allies by selling war supplies, loaning
money, and delivering equipment to Europe
using U.S. ships
 ____(E) Declare war on Germany and join the Allies.
America’s Response to World War II:
Read Situation #2 (1939)
Answer: C
America’s Response in
1939
 To help Britain & France
defeat Germany, Congress
passed the “cash-and-carry”
provision:
 Amended the Neutrality
Acts to allow arms sales to
the Allies
 But Allied nations had to
agree to pay in cash &
transport supplies on their
own ships
After attacking Poland in 1939, Hitler invaded Denmark, Norway,
the Netherlands, Belgium, and Luxembourg in 1940. By May, the Nazis
began their siege on France which surrendered to Germany on June 22,
1940.
In the summer of 1940, the German air force (the Luftwaffe) began
making bombing runs over Great Britain. On a single day-August 15approximately 2,000 German planes ranged over Britain. Every night for
two solid months, bombers pounded London. The “Battle of Britain” raged
on through the summer and fall. Night after night, German planes
pounded British airfields and cities. During the Battle of Britain, Prime
Minister Winston Churchill inspired the British to fight back and “never
surrender.”
In 1940, France had fallen and Britain was under siege. On
September 27, Germany, Italy, and Japan signed the Tripartite Pact. The
three nations became known as the Axis Powers and agreed to come to
the defense of each other in case of attack. This meant that if the United
States were to declare war on any one of the Axis powers, it would face its
worst military nightmare—a two-ocean war, with fighting in both the
Atlantic and the Pacific.
 (A) Do nothing and hope that these problems do not
hurt the United States.
 ____
(B) Do not declare war but secretly
negotiate with the British to send American soldiers to
fight in Europe.
 ____
(C) Help Britain defend itself by offering
the Soviet Union money and war equipment if they
agree to break the Nazi-Soviet Pact and attack
Germany
 ____
(D) Remain neutral but give full support to
Britain by selling war supplies, loaning money, and
delivering equipment to Europe using U.S. ships
 ____
(E) Declare war on Germany and join the
fight with Britain to keep fascism from taking total
control of Europe.
America’s Response to World War II:
Read Situation #3 (1940)
Answer: D
America’s Response in 1940-1941
 By 1940, Britain needed U.S. aid to hold
off the German assault:
 The Lend-Lease Act allowing the U.S.
to send war supplies to Allied nations
& transport goods to Europe on
armed U.S. ships
 FDR began preparing America for a
possible war by calling for the 1st ever
peacetime draft
Lend-Lease Act of 1941
The United States will become
the “Arsenal of Democracy”
In June 1941, Hitler broke the Nonaggression Pact and
invaded the Soviet Union. The action brought the USSR into the war
as an Allied Power, but Hitler believed that Britain would soon fall
and the vast Russian territory would provide Germans with enough
“Lebensraum” (living space) to satisfy the Aryan race.
With the 1941 Lend-Lease Act in effect, American war
equipment began flowing into Britain. To prevent delivery of lendlease shipments, Hitler deployed hundreds of submarines to attack
supply ships, hunting “wolf packs.” Wolf packs were successful in
sinking as much as 350,000 tons of shipments in a single month. In
September 1941, President Roosevelt granted the navy permission
for U.S. warships to attack German U-boats in self defense.
Germany’s European victories created new opportunities for
Japanese expansion. Japan controlled Manchuria and parts of China.
In 1941, Hideki Tojo ordered an attack on the unprotected French,
Dutch, and British colonies in East Asia and Indochina (Vietnam,
Cambodia, and Laos). The British and French were too busy fighting
Hitler to block Japanese expansion. Only the U.S. and its Pacific
 A) Do nothing and hope that these problems do not hurt




the United States.
____ (B) Concentrate on Europe: Give Lend-Lease aid to
Stalin so that the USSR can defend itself and fight
Germany, but avoid confrontation with Japan.
____ (C) Concentrate on Asia: Negotiate a peaceful
settlement with the Japanese to keep Hawaii and the
Philippines safe from Japanese attacks. Keep giving aid to
Britain.
____ (D) Remain neutral, but offer any and all assistance to
Britain and the Soviet Union in Europe and stop Japanese
aggression in Asia by cutting off the sale of oil.
____ (E) Enough is enough; the world needs the United
States. Declare war on the Axis Powers in order to end
totalitarian control of Europe, Africa, and Asia.
America’s Response to World War II:
Read Situation #4 (1941)
Answer: D
America’s Response in 1941
The success of the Axis Powers in
Europe brought the USA closer to an
undeclared war on Germany
 FDR gave the navy & merchant
ships authority to fire on u-boats
 FDR secretly drafted the Atlantic
Charter with Churchill: planned a
war strategy if the USA entered
WWII & a post-war United Nations
America’s Response in 1941
 The USA attempted to stop Japanese
aggression in Asia:
 FDR wanted to protect U.S.
territories & allies in the Pacific
 The USA created an embargo &
stopped selling iron & oil to Japan
 Hideki Tojo sent an envoy to
negotiate a resolution, but secretly
plotted to attack the U.S.
The United States protested Japanese aggression by cutting off
trade with Japan. Japanese military leaders warned that without oil, Japan
could be defeated without its enemies ever striking a blow. The leaders
declared that Japan must either persuade the United States to end its oil
embargo or seize the oil fields in the Dutch East Indies. On November 5,
1941, Tojo ordered the Japanese navy to prepare for an attack on the United
States. The U.S. military had broken Japan’s secret communication codes
and learned that Japan was preparing for a strike. What it didn’t know was
where the attack would come. Late in November, Roosevelt sent out a “war
warning” to military commanders in Hawaii, Guam, and the Philippines.
On December 7, 1941, the Japanese began a surprise attack on Pearl
Harbor—the largest U.S. naval base in the Pacific—launching more than
180 Japanese warplanes from six aircraft carriers. In less than two hours,
the Japanese had killed 2,403 Americans and wounded 1,178 more. The
surprise raid had sunk or damaged 21 ships, including 8 battleships—
nearly the whole U.S. Pacific fleet. More than 300 aircraft were severely
damaged or destroyed. These losses constituted greater damage than the
U.S. Navy had suffered in all of World War I. By chance, three aircraft
carriers at sea escaped the disaster. President Roosevelt referred to the
December 7, 1941 attack as “a date which will live in infamy.”
 (A) Declare war on Japan and mobilize for a war in
Asia. Hope that Britain and the Soviet Union can
defeat Germany and Italy by themselves.
 ____
(B) Declare war on all the Axis Powers
(Germany, Italy, and Japan), but prioritize Japan as the
biggest threat to U.S. safety. Start preparations for an
Asian war.
 ____
(C) Declare war on all the Axis Powers
(Germany, Italy, and Japan), but prioritize Germany as
the biggest threat to U.S. safety. Focus on Europe first.
 ____
(D) Declare war on all the Axis Powers
(Germany, Italy, and Japan) and split the U.S. military
into two equal fighting forces. Focus on Asia and
Europe equally.
America’s Response to World War II:
Read Situation #5 (1941)
Answer: C
America’s Response in 1941
 The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on Dec 7, 1941
brought the USA into World War II
 On Dec 8, Congress declared war on Japan
 On Dec 11, Germany & Italy declared war on the U.S.
 The USA had to fight a two-front war in Europe & Asia;
Despite the attack by Japan, FDR viewed Germany as
the immediate threat
The U.S. Government
American Home Front in WWII
 To win wars in Asia & Europe & meet
civilian demands, the U.S. gov’t grew to its
largest size ever:

The U.S. gov’t spent $250 million per day from
1941 to 1945
 This is 2x as much as all previous gov’t
spending combined
 The War Powers Act gave the president
power to expand the gov’t & limit
liberties (censorship)
 The gov’t imposed rations, sold war
bonds, drafted soldiers
 War Production Board directed factories
to produce war supplies so that the Allies
could out produce the Axis Powers
Mobilizing
Soldiers: The Draft
War bonds
helped raise
$187 billion
WWII propaganda: was
directed by the Office of
War Information
The War Mobilization
Board oversaw
production of war
equipment
Henry Ford’s factories
made one
B-24 bomber every hour
The War Mobilization Board oversaw
production of war equipment
Pre-fabrication allowed shipbuilders to make
a battleship in 14 days (rather than 355 days)
Consumers
 War production stimulated the
economy & created new jobs:
 Business & farm profits doubled
 Wages rose & people wanted to
buy, but wartime production led
to shortages of consumer goods
 Office of Price Administration
fixed prices & distributed ration
books to save gas, meat, butter
 Americans recycled & planted
victory gardens for the war effort
Wartime Ration Books
Victory Gardens
Wartime production led to
shortages on consumer goods
GIs
 When the USA declared war, the military needed
soldiers to fight a two-front war in Europe & Asia:
 6 million men volunteered
 10 million more were drafted
 Everything soldiers were given was “government issue” so
WWII became known as “GIs”
 Homesickness among soldiers was common
Preparing for a
jump into
Nazi-occupied
France
Marines at Iwo
Jima
GIs missed the
freedoms of
“home”
GIs with movie
star Marlene
Dietrich
African Americans
 During WWII, African Americans
fought in the military & at home:
 The war led to factory jobs &
increased the Great Migration of
blacks in the North & west coast
 African Americans faced racial
discrimination; civil rights leader
A Philip Randolph forced FDR to
offer equal pay for black workers
by creating the Fair Employment
Practices Commission
African Americans
 During WWII, African Americans
fought in the military & at home:
 More than 1 million black soldiers
served in segregated units under
the command of white officers
 Unlike WWI, black soldiers were
allowed to fight; the “Tuskegee
airmen” in the U.S. military were
recognized for heroism & bravery
Randolph led the “Double V” campaign:
 A. Philip
victory at home & abroad
Randolph
threatened a
“March on
Washington”
to protest war
time
discrimination
Other groups, like the Congress of Racial
Equality (CORE), staged sit-ins in restaurants
in major cities to protest discrimination
African Americans fought in segregated units
Tuskegee
Airmen
Women
 World War II led to opportunities for
women in the workforce & military:
 6 million women entered the
workforce, many did clerical work
but others did “men’s work”
 200,000 women joined special,
noncombat military units
 Led to an increase in daycare
centers & child delinquency
 After the war, women were forced
out of high-paying factory jobs
“Rosie, the Riveter”
Women’s Army Corps
(WACs)
Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency
Service (WAVES)
Women served as military nurses &
photographers
Japanese-Americans
Due to Pearl Harbor, people feared
that Japanese-Americans were spying
or helping prepare for a Japanese
invasion of the USA
 In 1942, FDR issued Executive
Order 9066 which ordered 112,000
Japanese-Americans to move to
internment camps
 The Japanese in camps faced bad
living conditions & a lack of rights
 Faced racial stereotypes (“Japs”)
Executive Order 9066 forced
Japanese Americans into
internment camps
Rise ofWorld
Totalitarianism
in Europe & Asia
Quick
War 2 Review
U.S. Reaction:
Neutrality Acts of 1935-1937
Quick World War 2 Review
German invasion of Poland &
the outbreak of World War II in 1939
U.S. Reaction:
Cash & Carry Program 1939
Axis control of Europe & Asia in 1941;
Battle of Britain; German invasion of USSR
U.S. Reaction:
Lend-Lease Act, Atlantic Charter, Embargo of Japan
Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor
(December 7, 1941)
U.S. Reaction:
Declaration of war & entry into WWII
Quick World War 2 Review
War Production Board directed U.S. industry
Office of Price Administration fixed priced
& created ration books to save resources
Office of War Information directed
press, print, radio, & film propaganda
Mobilization for war
Changes on the American Home Front
Impact on women, African Americans,
Japanese Americans
 The U.S. Military Strategy in Early 1942
 Free Europe
 Supply lines
 2nd step- War in the Pacific
 A major breakthrough came when the British cracked
Germany’s Encryption Code-Imitation Game Movie (2014)
 Fighting in Europe in 1942-
1943
 The Allies’ first land offensive
came in November 1942. U.S.
General Dwight Eisenhower
led 107,000 Allied troops
ashore in Morocco and Algeria
in North Africa.
 Summer 1943 Allied attacks
were aimed at military and
industrial targets
 The longer the war goes on,
Allied air forces target city
centers for so called “strategic
bombing” designed to
demoralize the German public.
 Winning the War in Europe,
1944-1945
 The mission was codenamed
Operation Overlord, but history
would remember it as “D Day”
(June 6, 1944).
 It was the largest military
operation ever mounted.
 Within a month, there were
hundred of thousands Allied
troops on the continent
fighting their way across
France.
 By September 1944, France,
Belgium, Luxemburg, and much
of the Netherlands were free of
Hitler while the Soviet Red Army
moved from the East.
Battle of the Bulge
Fall of Berlin
 Allies pushed the Germans back
after German tanks broke through
American defenses.
 After Germany’s defeat at the Battle
of the Bulge, the war in Europe
rapidly drew to a close.
 Hitler and his long time
companion, Eva Braun married
April 29 and then committed
suicide the next day.
 May 7, 1945 Eisenhower accepted
the unconditional surrender of the
Third Reich from Germany Army.
Chapter 32.2 Japan’s Campaign
 US knew that Japan wanted to
conquer Southeast Asia.
 Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto
called for an attack on the U.S.
fleet in Hawaii
 Pearl Harbor- December 7, 1941
 19 ships and more than 2,300
people were killed
Japanese Victories
 Goal for Japan: Pacific
Empire including Hong
Kong, Thailand, Guam,
Wake Island, Burma,
Singapore,etc.
 Bataan Death March-
March of more than 50
miles up the peninsula of
Malay.
 Of 70,000 Allied POWs,
only 54,000 survived the
march.
Battle of Midway
 Japan wanted Midway
Island which was a key
American airfield 1,500
miles west of Hawaii.
 American decoding
allowed for the US to be
prepared for the attack.
 Turned the tide of the war
in the Pacific
The Manhattan Project
 Based on scientific research,
FDR created the Manhattan
Project, the code name for
developing an atomic bomb:
 Robert Oppenheimer was
put in charge of
developing the bomb
 From 1942-1945, a
number of secret labs
across the country
developed & built the
bomb
In July 1945, the bomb was
The bomb
was constructed
successfully
tested in
at Los Alamos,
a secret city
Oak Ridge,
TNProject Trinity
NewinMexico
during
Physicist Enrico Fermi at the
Nuclear
plant in Hanford, WA
University of Chicago
developed
developed the plutonium
the nuclear reaction
Whether to Drop the Atomic Bomb:
Critical Thinking Decision B
Fighting Japan
 By 1944, Americans gained
supremacy of the air & ran
daily fire bombings on
Japanese cities
 In addition, Japanese soldiers
resorted to horrific acts of
barbarity on the battlefield
 The Japanese refused to
surrender even in the face of
defeat
Dropping the Atomic Bomb
Truman issued the Potsdam
Declaration to Japan: surrender or
face prompt & utter destruction
 When Japan refused to surrender
Truman ordered the bombing of
Hiroshima on August 6, 1945
 After 3 days, the Japanese gov’t did not respond to the
bombing
 The U.S. dropped a 2nd atomic bomb in the city of
Nagasaki
Whether to Drop the Atomic Bomb:
Critical Thinking Decision C
Hiroshima and Nagasaki
Dropping the Atomic Bomb
 Effect of the atomic bomb:
 Saved hundreds of thousands of lives because it
prevented a U.S. land invasion of Japan
 Revenge for Pearl Harbor
 Showed the USSR that the USA had the ultimate
weapon (began the Cold War nuclear arms race)
 Profiles of Courage Video
https://app.discoveryeducation.com/learn/videos/9C9C4
4B6-ED66-4CD2-8A4BD5376C0768DB?hasLocalHost=false
Total War – What was its impact?
As with WWI, World War II used
total war tactics:
On the battlefront, blitzkrieg
tactics were used, cities were
firebombed, kamikaze attacks &
atomic bombs were used
On the homefront, gov’ts used
propaganda, conscription,
rationing, & raised money to win
the war
MODERN WARFARE
 Unlike WWI, WWII was not a war of attrition in
Europe; these battle lines
 Hitler used a new “lightning war” tactic called
blitzkrieg that relied on using strong attacks by air
raids & tanks to take over new territories
 In August 1945, the USA dropped atomic bombs on
Hiroshima & Nagasaki
 The Allies used napalm to firebomb Dresden,
Germany & Tokyo, Japan
 Germany bombed London in the & Japan attacked
Pearl Harbor
Buy, Buy, Buy, Buy a Bond:
It Will Lead to VICTORY!
War bonds
helped raise
$187 billion
to support
the war
effort
The Costs of WWII
Yalta Conference
 In February 1945 (while the war was still being
fought), the “Big Three” Churchill (England),
Roosevelt (USA), Stalin (USSR) met in Yalta,
USSR to discuss Europe after WWII
 This is FDR’s last meeting(died in April 1945)
 At Yalta, the Allies discussed:
 The Axis Powers must unconditionally
surrender
 The League of Nations should be replaced by
a United Nations to keep the peace after the
war
 Germany would be divided into occupied
zones to help rebuild
 Eastern European nations have the right to
choose to be democratic or communist
**SELF DETERMINATION
Potsdam Conference
 After Germany surrendered, the
USA, England, & USSR met at
Potsdam, Germany to discuss the
end of the war
 Two important things happened
 Potsdam ended any sense of
friendship between the USA &
USSR & began an era of bitterness
& distrust called the Cold War
 At Yalta, Stalin agreed to allow
self-determination in Eastern
Europe
 Stalin broke his promise at Yalta
& began pressuring Eastern
European countries to become
Communist
(Stalin, Truman, Churchill)
Potsdam Conference
 Germany was divided into 4
occupied zones: 3 were
democratic & 1 was
communist
 By Potsdam, Stalin had
extended his control over
Eastern Europe to create a
buffer zone between the
USSR & its future enemies
 Potsdam presents a major
Cold War theme: Because
they could not agree on how
do govern Europe, Truman &
Stalin divided it
Potsdam Conference
 President Truman was
told that the atomic
bomb was ready
 Truman issued the
“Potsdam Declaration”
& told Japan to
unconditionally
surrender OR face
"prompt & utter
destruction"
Tokyo War
Crimes Trials
(Japanese)
Nuremburg Trials
(for Nazis)
Decolonization
Cold War
When the World War II finally ended, 2
superpowers remained: US & USSR
USA—capitalist &
democratic; USSR—
communist
Different beliefs led to
a
Cold War & a fight
for
supremacy
throughout
the world
VS