WWII

***If you need IV and V, let me know, I have them ***

WWII

I. Versailles failure – art. 231 – blames Germany entirely for WWI

a. Foolish treaties

i. Washington Naval Conf. (21-22) was supposed to stop the arms race between the west and Japan

ii. 5 Power Treaty – created a 5:5:3 battle ship ratio (US:UK:Japan)

iii. 4 power treaty – UK, US, France, Japan – agreed to status quo in the middle

iv. Locarno Pact (1925) – believed that there would be peace

v. Kellogg-Briand(1928) – 63 nations outlawed war, but there was no enforcement mechanism

b. Great Depression also results in a sort of fascism in Japan

c. Japan invades Manchuria (1931) – and they get a slap on the wrist from the League of Nations, so Japan left the league

d. When the London economic conference fails, Hitler knows that the West isn’t united enough to take on Germany so he starts rearming

e. Stresa Front (1935) – Mussolini gets worried when German leave the League

i. UK and France condemn Germany’s leaving, and promise to use force to keep peace in Europe with Mussolini

ii. In 1936 Mussolini makes a pact with Germany and helps fund the Spanish civil war and take the Spanish side

f. Ethiopia – Italy are defeated, now they go back and make it its colony – 5,000 Italians killed, 500,000 Ethiopians killed

g. League of Nations finally gets tough and puts sanctions on Italy, but not on Oil, don’t restrict the Italian Navy from using the Suez Canal, the only thing UK do it stop British weapons from being sold in Italy

h. Hitler and Mussolini get together and intervene in the Spanish Civil war (1936-39)

i. Spain had fascists and loyalists to the republican government – Franco is the fascist leader - Italy will send 100,000 soldiers to help and Germany will test the Luftwaffe and bomb republican held cities

j. Guernica – Picasso

k. UK and France don’t intervene and even recognize Franco’s government when he wins

l. This leads to the Rome to Berlin axis – Italy and Germany are allied

m. Rhineland (1936) – Germany are testing their military

n. Hitler knew that UK and France weren’t going to do anything, the pacifists in the UK stopped them from intervening and France wouldn’t go without UK

o. Japan will again invade China ( Rape of Shanghai ) – 1937

II. Germany’s Conquest

a. Anschluss (1938) – Germany annexes Austria after the Emperor resigns under the treat of Germany invasion

b. Russia and France propose an alliance with the UK to stop Germany, Neville Chamberlain says no

c. Hitler demands Sudetenland (1938) – German speaking area of Czechoslovakia at the time

i. Chamberlain organizes the Munich Conference: Germany, UK, France, Italy – to decide what to do with Czechoslovakia and they gave it to Germany: appeasement

d. 1939 – Hitler invades Czechoslovakia and takes it all, it surrenders

i. Without much investment Hitler has taken over the Rhineland, Austria, and Czechoslovakia

ii. A week later, Hitler demands the Baltic port city of Danzig in Poland

e. Hitler signs a German Soviet non aggression pact in 1939 so that he can take over Poland without having Russia attack him – they were going to split Poland

f. In 1939, September, as soon as German attack Poland, UK and France declare war on Germany

III. German Conquest (1939-1941) – they used a new kind of warfare Blitzkrieg

a. USSR attacks Finland and annex Estonia, Lithuania and Latvia

b. Germany also has the Sitzkrieg – for 7 months he doesn’t attack anybody

i. April 1940 – Hitler goes for the Nordic countries – Denmark, Sweden ,Norway

ii. May – Luxembourg, Belgium ,Netherlands

iii. June – France (takes him 6 weeks)

iv. Dunkirk – impromptu Armada and evacuated everyone to stop the Germans killing them

c. Germany occupied the Northern part and in the Southern part they set up at puppet government in Vichy – Petain and will later be executed by the French for treason

d. Eventually Vichy France will be completely taken over by Germany

e. French resistance lead by Charles de Gaulle

f. Tripartite agreement – Japan joins Italy and Germany (1940)

g. Hitler has most of Europe his last point is Britain

h. Battle of Britain – Hitler offers UK peace if they accept Germany’s domination, but new Prime Minister Churchill say no

i. Operation sea Lion – invasion of UK

i. They were going to soften UK up with the Luftwaffe, but it was lead by an idiot Goering

ii. The RAF destroyed them, but they are weakened

iii. Hitler orders the blitz of London

iv. The RAF loose 900 planes

v. Germany loose over 2400 planes

vi. Hitler will eventually face a two front war D-Day June 1944

j. June 1941 – he invades the USSR – two front war

i. They react with the Scorched Earth Policy

ii. Siege of Leningrad and Moscow

k. FDR – US President has been looking for a way to help UK, so he starts meeting with Churchill and signs the Atlantic Charter off the coast of Canada, once the axis powers were defeated there would be no territorial changes and they would create the UN, Stalin will also sign it

l. The US had also passed a series of Neutrality acts

i. Lend –Lease Act – give a lot of supplies to UK and later to the USSR and they would give them back when they were finished.

m. UK ally Japan will attack the US because they had put an embargo on Japan and it was hurting Japan, they attack, bye-bye pacifism “there’s nothing left to do but hit the hell out of them”, 4 days later Hitler declares war on US after their declare war on his Ally Japan

n. Hitler assumed the US would go after Japan, he was wrong - Churchill and FDR had agreed to get Hitler first (Grand Alliance: US,UK,USSR)

IV. Nazi Empire in Europe

V. Turning Points

VI. Diplomacy during the War

a. Casablanca Conference (1934) – Churchill and FDR

b. Tehran Conference (1942) - +stalin

c. Yalta Conference (February 1945) – FRD is almost dead, cancer

d. Potsdam Conference (July 1945) – Churchill replaced with Attlee and FDR is replaced with Truman (he finds out about the A-bomb at the conference). Japan must unconditionally surrender, they don’t, drop the A-Bomb

i. Demilitarize Germany

ii. De-Nazification – Nuremburg Trial, held in Germany Public

VII. Results of the War

a. Death HUGE – 55 Million estimate total, dead (12 million of those attributed to the Holocaust

b. Millions left homeless

c. Women now were included in the workforce in the industry, much more than in WWI

d. Two Superpower World = Cold War (US and USSR)

VIII. Why Germany Lost

a. Bad decisions

b. Three front war

c. Should have gone after Britain at the beginning at Dunkirk early in the war before they attacked the USSR - Hitler got cocky HUBRIS

d. Should never have invaded the USSR

e. Shouldn’t have declared war on the US, who only declared war on the Japan

f. They didn’t have the industrial capacity (slave labour doesn’t work too well)

g. Didn’t start a war economy until 1943

h. Germany had crappy allies