British Civilisation

Weeks 9-10

World War II Dr. Granville Pillar

World War II 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 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

World War II 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 war-related causes.

World War II 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.

World War II 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.

World War II 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.

World War II 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 Causes of the War:

The Peace of Paris of 1919 Economic Problems Nationalism The Rise of Dictatorships Aggressive Territorial Expansion The Spanish Civil War The Failure of Appeasement

World War II The Peace of Paris of 1919

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.

World War II Economic Problems

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.

World War II Economic Problems

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

World War II Nationalism

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.

World War II The Rise of Dictatorships

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.

World War II Aggressive Territorial Expansion

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.

World War II Aggressive Territorial Expansion

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.

World War II The Spanish Civil War

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.

World War II The Failure of Appeasement

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.

World War II The Failure of Appeasement

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.

World War II 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.

World War II 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 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.

World War II The Yalta Agreement

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”