Transcript 1. World War II

British Civilisation
Weeks 9-10
World War II
Dr. Granville Pillar
World War II
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Winston Churchill (1874-1965), was the
minister of Great Britain during World War
II.
He offered his people only "blood, toil,
tears, and sweat" as they struggled to
keep their freedom.
Churchill's personal courage and his faith
in victory inspired the British to "their
finest hour."
World War II
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Adolf Hitler (1889-1945), ruled Germany
as dictator from 1933 to 1945. He turned
Germany into a powerful war machine
and provoked World War II in 1939.
Hitler spread death as no person has
done in modern history.
Hitler's forces killed about 6 million
European Jews, more than two-thirds of
the Jews in Europe
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Japan and Germany, defeated in the war,
later made dramatic economic recoveries.
The war brought new technologies that
were to change the postwar world.
The development of the atomic bomb
during the war opened the nuclear age.
Military deaths totalled about 17 million.
Civilian deaths were even greater as a
result of starvation, bombing raids,
massacres, epidemics, and other warrelated causes.
World War II
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World War II began on Sept. 1, 1939,
when Germany invaded Poland.
Germany's dictator, Adolf Hitler, had built
Germany into a powerful war machine.
Germany rapidly crushed Poland,
Denmark, Luxembourg, the Netherlands,
Belgium, Norway, and France.
In 1940 Italy joined the war on Germany's
side.
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In June 1941, Germany invaded the
Soviet Union.
Japan attacked United States military
bases at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii on Dec.
7, 1941, bringing the United States into
the war.
By mid-1942, Japanese forces had
conquered much of Southeast Asia and
had swept across many islands in the
Pacific.
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Germany, Italy, and Japan formed an
alliance known as the Axis.
Six other nations eventually joined the
Axis: Albania, Bulgaria, Finland, Hungary,
Romania, and Thailand.
Great Britain, the United States, China,
and the Soviet Union were the major
powers fighting the Axis.
These powers were called the Allies.
The Allies totalled 50 nations by the end
of the war.
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Germany surrendered to the Allies on
May 7, 1945, and Japan on Sept. 2, 1945.
The United States and the Soviet Union
had become the world's most powerful
nations.
But their wartime alliance broke down
soon after the war.
New threats to peace arose as the Soviet
Union sought to spread Communism in
Europe and Asia.
World War II
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Causes of the War:
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The Peace of Paris of 1919
Economic Problems
Nationalism
The Rise of Dictatorships
Aggressive Territorial Expansion
The Spanish Civil War
The Failure of Appeasement
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The Peace of Paris of 1919
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The Treaty of Versailles, which was signed
with Germany, punished Germany severely.
Germany, Austria, Hungary, Bulgaria, and
Turkey - were especially dissatisfied with the
Peace of Paris.
They were stripped of territory and arms and
were required to make reparations
(payments for war damages).
Many Germans particularly resented a
clause that forced Germany to accept
responsibility for causing World War I.
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Economic Problems
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World War I seriously damaged the
economies of European countries.
Both the winners and the losers came out of
the war deeply in debt.
The defeated powers had difficulty paying
reparations to the victors, and the victors had
difficulty repaying loans from the United
States.
The shift from a wartime economy to a
peacetime economy caused further
problems.
Many soldiers could not find jobs after the
war.
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Economic Problems
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The Great Depression in 1929 caused mass
unemployment and spread poverty and
despair throughout the world.
It weakened democratic governments and
strengthened extreme political movements
that promised to end the economic problems.
Two movements in particular gained
strength. The forces of Communism called
for revolution by the workers. The forces of
fascism favoured strong national government
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Nationalism
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Nationalism was an extreme form of
patriotism that swept across Europe during
the 1800's.
Supporters of nationalism placed loyalty to
the aims of their nation above any other
public loyalty.
Many Germans felt humiliated by their
country's defeat in World War I
During the 1930's, they enthusiastically
supported Hitler’s violently nationalistic
organization called the Nazi Party.
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The Rise of Dictatorships
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During the 1920's and 1930's, dictatorships
came to power in the Soviet Union, Italy,
Germany, and Japan.
Joseph Stalin became dictator of the Soviet
Union
Benito Mussolini became dictator of Italy
Adolf Hitler became dictator of Germany
General Hideki Tojo became dictator of
Japan.
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Aggressive Territorial Expansion
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Japan was the first dictatorship to begin a
programme of conquest. In 1931, Japanese
forces seized control of Manchuria, a region
of China rich in natural resources.
Japan occupied most of eastern China by the
end of 1938.
Japan's military leaders began to speak
about bringing all of eastern Asia under
Japanese control.
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Aggressive Territorial Expansion
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In 1935 Italian troops invaded Ethiopia, one
of the few independent countries in Africa.
Soon after Hitler took power, he sent troops
into the Rhineland, which under the Treaty of
Versailles, was to remain free of troops.
In March 1938, German soldiers marched
into Austria and united it with Germany.
Many people in Germany and Austria
welcomed that move.
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The Spanish Civil War
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The Spanish Civil War served as a military
proving ground for World War II because
Germany, Italy, and the Soviet Union used it
to test weapons and tactics.
The war in Spain was also a rehearsal for
World War II in that it split the world into
forces that either supported or opposed
Nazism and Fascism.
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The Failure of Appeasement
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Hitler sought control of the Sudetenland, a
region of western Czechoslovakia where
most of the Germans lived.
Czechoslovakia was determined to defend its
territory. France and the Soviet Union had
pledged their support.
Britain's Prime Minister, Neville Chamberlain,
wished to preserve peace at all cost.
He believed that war could be prevented by
meeting Hitler's demands. That policy
became known as appeasement.
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The Failure of Appeasement
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Hitler sought control of the Sudetenland, a
region of western Czechoslovakia where
most of the Germans lived.
Britain's Prime Minister, Neville Chamberlain,
wished to preserve peace at all cost.
He believed that war could be prevented by
meeting Hitler's demands. That policy
became known as appeasement.
Hitler marched into Sudetenland, but March
1939 and seized the rest of Czechoslovakia.
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World War II killed more people,
destroyed more property, disrupted more
lives, and had more far-reaching
consequences than any other war in
history.
It brought about the downfall of Western
Europe as the centre of world power and
led to the rise of the Soviet Union as a
"super-power" to rival the United States.
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The Yalta Conference: In February 1945,
President Franklin D. Roosevelt, Winston
Churchill, and Joseph Stalin gathered at
Yalta, a Soviet city on the Crimean
Peninsula.
The Yalta Agreement
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To accept the structure of a world
peacekeeping organization that was to
become the United Nations.
To reestablish order in Europe and to help
the defeated countries create democratic
governments.
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The Yalta Agreement
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To divide Germany into four zones that
would be occupied by Great Britain, the
United States, the Soviet Union, and France.
To support the Soviet-backed government
and hold free elections in Poland, and to
extend the Soviet Union's territory into
Poland. Stalin later broke that pledge.
To force Germany to give the Soviet Union
equipment and other resources to make up
for Soviet losses.
World War II – The Yalta Conference
Winston Churchill, President Franklin D. Roosevelt, and Joseph Stalin
“The Big Three”