Transcript WWII Notes ppt - Northwest ISD Moodle

World War II
Germany gets much of the blame for the start of WWII…
Although WWI ended in 1918, many Germans felt the
terms of the Treaty of Versailles were unfair.
- Germany was forbidden to have
submarines or an air force
- Germany lost territory in Europe
- Germany had to pay reparations
(damages) to other countries
WWI Effects on Germany…
Germany was in an economic downfall between WWI and WWII. The
Treaty of Versailles forced Germany to bear the entire costs of World
War I. The Germans had to pay the reparations to France, England and
all of the other allied powers.. This crippled Germany’s economy and
massive inflation meant that it was cheaper to burn money than
firewood for cooking….this would all lead to the rise of a new leader in
Germany.
Adolf Hitler came to power during
this time. He and his Nazi Party
used propaganda techniques to
give the Germans someone to
blame for the political and
economic troubles German
citizens were facing.
Adolf Hitler was an
extreme nationalist,
meaning that he thought his
nation (Austria/Germany)
was the best on the planet
and that all other nations
were inferior.
He dreamed of creating a new
empire with “vast living
space” for the German
people. To accomplish this,
he built the most powerful
military force in Europe
The Jewish people became scapegoats for all of Germany’s problems.
Hitler and his Nazi party believed in biological racism and antiSemitism…they believed in conspiracy theories that regarded the Jews
as capitalists and materialistic, and claimed that they had deliberately
made Germany lose World War 1 by causing labor strikes and
revolution on the home front.
Hitler also claimed that the Jews had deliberately caused the Great
Depression. Worst of all, some of these conspiracy theories claimed
that the Jews were seeking world domination and were therefore in
competition with Germany's bid to dominate the world. Hitler’s plan
to deal with the Jewish people would become known as his “final
solution of the Jewish question…”
Start of WWII in Europe
• September 1, 1939, Germany
invades Poland and makes it
look like they were
provoked.
• Hitler (Germany) was trying
to take back land lost to
Poland after WWI.
• France and Great Britain,
who were allies with Poland,
declare war on Germany on
September 3, 1939.
• Much like WWI, the U.S.
wants to remain isolationists
and stay out of war…
Pearl Harbor - 1941
• With the war in Europe grabbing headlines,
tensions were rising between Japan and the
U.S.
• Background: Japan had invaded present
day Vietnam, so the U.S. stopped all trade
with Japan. Japan needed oil from America
for their war effort.
• On December 7, 1941, Japan launches a
surprise attack on the U.S. Naval fleet
anchored at the Hawaiian island of Oahu.
• Aboard the USS Oklahoma, loudspeakers
blared out: “Real planes, real bombs; this is
no drill!” The Oklahoma sank almost
immediately and all 415 men aboard
drowned.
Pearl Harbor Continued…
• The attack brought the U.S. into World War II.
• At the time of the Pearl Harbor attack, there were 96 ships
anchored. During the attack, 18 were sunk or seriously damaged,
including eight battleships. There were 2,402 American men killed
and 1,280 injured. Three hundred and fifty aircraft were destroyed
or damaged…
The U.S. Declares War on Japan
December 8, 1941
The next day, December 8, 1941, FDR spoke to a shocked nation. Within an hour of
his address, Congress declared war on Japan. With the declaration of war on Japan,
and a few days later, on Germany, the U.S. would begin the largest manufacturing
initiative in human history. This created jobs and helped pull America out of the Great
Depression.
The U.S. manufacturing strength gave the United States and the Allies an upper hand
in the war…
Effects on U.S. and Texas
The industrial boom that followed the official U.S. entry into
the war had several effects…
• Texas economy moved more toward industrialization
(manufacturing) instead of farming/agriculture.
• There was an increase in industrial jobs nationwide, and
Texas enjoyed full employment.
• Much oil was required to fuel the allies machinery and
weapons…Texas delivered
“Rosie the Riveter”
During WWII, women had
to take on non-traditional
roles and jobs (social
change) to support the
troops overseas as well as
help maintain working
conditions in the U.S.
“Rosie the Riveter” was a
woman who became a
national symbol of that
time.
She represented economic
and social change. From
WWII on, women had a
permanent place in the
workforce in Texas and the
United States.
Women Workers
• The term "Rosie the Riveter" was first used in 1942 in a song that was recorded
by numerous artists and became a national hit. The song portrays "Rosie" as a
tireless assembly line worker, doing her part to help the American war effort.
• Although women took on male dominated trades during World War II, they were
expected to return to their everyday housework once men returned from the
war.
• Government campaigns targeting women were addressed solely at housewives,
One government advertisement asked women "Can you use an electric mixer? If
so, you can learn to operate a drill."
• "Rosie the Riveter" inspired a social movement that increased the number of
working American women from 12 million to 20 million by 1944, By 1944 only
1.7 million unmarried men between the ages of 20 and 34 worked in the defense
industry, while 4.1 million unmarried women between those ages did so.
Allied Powers
• U.S., Great Britain, France, Soviet Union, and China
Other Allies included
Belgium, Brazil,
Czechoslovakia, Ethiopia,
Greece, India (as part of
the British Empire),
Mexico, the Netherlands,
Norway, Canada, and
Yugoslavia.
(Winston Churchill, Great Britain – F.D.R., USA - & Joseph Stalin, Russia)
Axis Powers
• Germany, Japan, Italy
Flags of Germany, Japan, and Italy, in
Berlin (September 1940)
D-Day (Invasion Day) – June 6, 1944
• Marked the beginning of the Allied invasion of western Europe.
• Allied forces invaded German occupied France on June 6, 1944,
along the beaches of Normandy in northern France.
• Allied forces commanded by General Dwight D. Eisenhower
• The D-Day invasion was the largest combined land-sea-air
operation in history.
The Allied invasion included:
• 176,000 troops
• 5,000 ships and landing
craft
• 50,000 vehicles
• 11,000 planes
WWII in Europe Ends
The final battles of the European Theatre of World War II as well as the German
surrender to the Western Allies and the Soviet Union took place in late April and
early May 1945.
War with Germany was over but war with Japan continued. Japan was losing but
had the mentality of ‘fight til the end.’ At the Potsdam Conference Japan was
warned by the U.S. and China on July 26, 1945 to surrender or face “prompt and
utter destruction". Japan ignored the ultimatum, the U.S. bombed Hiroshima on
August 6. Japan still did not surrender and so Nagasaki was bombed on August 9.
Japan then surrendered on August 15th – describing the weapon as “a new and most
cruel bomb.“
Afterwards images and depictions of the effects of the bombs were censored by the
U.S. government. A likely reason for the banning was that the images depicting burn
victims and funeral pyres were similar to the widely circulated images taken in
liberated Nazi concentration camps.
Hiroshima
• U.S. dropped a nuclear bomb “Little Boy” on August
6, 1945, on the city of Hiroshima in Japan.
• The blast destroyed everything within a 1 mile
radius of the impact point. Radiation poisoning
would follow
• Killed more than 100,000 people over the course of
a few months.
Atomic Bomb – Japan, 1945
Nagasaki
• U.S. dropped the second nuclear bomb “Fat Man”
on the city of Nagasaki in Japan on August 9, 1945.
• Killed between 60,000-80,000 people.
• Japan surrendered 6 days later to the Allies.
WWII Over
• WWII ended on September 2, 1945, with Japan signing the
surrender on the U.S.S. Missouri in Tokyo Bay.
• WWII resulted in the downfall of Europe as a center of world
power and led to the rise of the U.S. and Russia as super
powers. This set up conditions for both the US-USSR cold war
and the nuclear age
WWII Interesting Facts and Statistics
•
There were between 50 and 70 million casualties in WWII. More than 80% came from 4
countries: Russia, China, Germany, and Poland. More than ½ of these were civilians, most of
whom were women and children
•
William Hitler, a nephew of Adolf Hitler, was in the U.S. Navy during WWII. He changed his
name after the war and also wrote an article called “Why I Hate My Uncle”
•
The Nazis killed millions of Polish people, but they thought that some Polish babies looked
German and kidnapped about 50,000 to be adopted by German parents & become “Germanized
•
Hitler kept a framed photo of Henry Ford, founder of the Ford Motor Company, on his desk.
•
Before Nazi Germany decided to eliminate the Jews by gassing them, it had considered sending
them to the island of Madagascar.
•
If it became necessary to drop a third atom bomb on Japan, the next target was Tokyo…
•
In 1938, Hitler was Time magazine’s man of the year
•
More than 650,000 Jeeps were built during WWII. American factories also produced 300,000
military aircraft; 89,000 tanks; 3 million machine guns; and 7 million rifles