Crisis and Collapse of the Imperial Order

●​ By the 1900‘s the world order was based on imperialism and the ability of
western countries to dominate others
●​ Imperialist possibilities were provoked among European nations, leading to
World War I in 1914
●​ World War I was followed by an economic depression
●​ By the end of World War II, countries of Western Europe were weakened and the
foundations of European imperialism crumbled
●​ The overall impact of the two wars and depression caused the US and Soviet
Union to emerge as the world’s superpowers by the end of World War II
The Buildup to World War I
●​ The Great War involved more countries than any previous war in history
●​ First total war in which governments mobilize virtually every person and natural
resource available to support the war effort
●​ Nationalism bound civilians to the war
●​ Technologies brought by industrialization increased the number of human
casualties
○​ 9,000,000 soldiers dead, 21,000,000 injured
●​ The war damaged the national economies of European nations on both winning
and losing sides
●​ World War I was the first step toward the loss of western European hegemony
Underlying Causes of the War
●​ European countries had a long history of conflict
●​ Economic and military competition extended to the world stage, as Germany
joined the question for new colonies in Africa and Asia
●​ Rivalries intensified by Nationalism
○​ All industrialized nations of Europe competed for foreign markets
○​ Increase in production in the US was responsible for Britain’s drop
○​ Germany was catching up to Britain’s lead in sea power
●​ Colonial Disputes
○​ Scramble for empire was spurred by nationalist rivalries among European
countries
○​ European countries constantly underwent conflicts between each other
over control of lands
●​ Self-Determination
○​ The spirit of nationalism supported the notion that people with common
national identities have the right to form their own sovereign states
■​ Belief was formalized into the doctrine of self-determination which
inspired many people in eastern Europe to fight for their
independence
 ○​ Many countries gained their independence from the weakening Ottoman
Empire while others had nationalist aspirations which spawned resistance
to Habsburg rule
○​ Russia encouraged Pan-Slavism, a feeling of cultural and ethnic kinship
among the Slavic people
●​ Entangling Alliances
○​ The Great War was sparked by the assassination of Archduke Ferdinant
of Austria-Hungary by a Serb nationalist
■​ Never would have led to the widespread war had it not been for the
system of alliances that had been building in Europe over the
previous decades
○​ Alliances combined with a build-up of each country’s military to divide
Europe into two hostile armed camps
●​ A Serbian nationalist group called the “Black Hand” claimed responsibilty for the
assassination of Archuduke Ferdinand
●​ One by one, countries of Europe took sides and declared war on one another
●​ Ties of empire drew millions of colonists into the war to serve as soldiers and
laborers
World War I (1914-1918)
●​ War began with France, Britain and Russia, the Triple Entente, against Germany,
Austria-Hungary, and the Ottoman Empire, the Central Powers
●​ Central Powers broke up when Italy joined the Entente
●​ Triple Entente came to be known as the Allied Powers
●​ US and Japan later joined the war
War Fronts
●​ War was fought along the Western between Germany and French/British, and
the Eastern Front, between Germany/Austria-Hungary and Russia
●​ When Italy joined the war, a front developed between Italy and Austria
●​ German submarines blockaded British ports and attacked sea lanes that brought
people and supplies to Britain
●​ Attacks on US responsible for US entry
●​ Western front fighting style was called trench warfare
●​ Machine guns and poison gas responsible for great deal of slaughter
●​ Western front was in a stalemate as the countryside was devastated
●​ FIghting on the Eastern Front took place in western Russia
●​ Heavy casualties and lack of leadership in the Russian army and increase
hostilities towards Tsar Nicholas II brought chaos and civil war to Russia
●​ When the US joined the war, soldiers went to the Western front and broke the
stalemate
The War Outside Europe
●​ US tried to remain neutral in the conflict until German submarines attacked US
ships
●​ US was only involved in the war for eighteen months, and no warfare took place
within its lands
○​ Did not suffer the severe negative effects European nations did
●​ Minor skirmishes were fought around the German colonies in Africa
●​ Large numbers of troops from India fought for Britain
○​ Hoped their support would promote India’ independence
●​ Japan and China joined on the side of the Allied powers
●​ Britain sponsored an internal rebellion of Arab nationalists in the Ottoman Empire
●​ Britain gained support from Jewish settlers in palestine
●​ Allied actions set a drive for independence bringing the collapse of the Ottoman
Empire once the Central Powers lost the war
The Home Front
●​ World War I involved both military might and civilian support
●​ Home fronts ran parallel to war fronts
●​ War strengthened the power of central governments
●​ Conscription allowed governments to turn private businesses into enterprises for
war production
●​ Laissez-Faire capitalist notions could not be tolerated
●​ Governments churned out war propaganda to inspire nationalism
●​ Governments established wage and price controls, and sometimes work hours
●​ Freedom of speech and press were reduced for national security
●​ Bad news from the war front was censored
●​ Traditional male jobs in the labor force were filled by women
●​ Women worked in munitions plants
●​ Middle and upper class women reported that the experience was liberating
●​ Women ended up passing women’s suffrage measures after the war was over
●​ War brought fewer changes for working class women
●​ Wages rose, and governments promised equal pay for equal work
○​ Wage gap never closed
●​ Traditional roles resumed after the war
●​ Voting rights were extended
The End of the War
●​ The new russian government led by VI Lenin had little interest in what they
considered to be the “tsar’s war”
●​ Union of Soviet Socialist Republics turned its attention to restructuring Russian
society and to address the civil war that the revolution provoked
 ●​ Soviet government signed Brest-Litovsk Treaty with the Germans
○​ Gave up territories in Western Russia
●​ Germany had to dedicate considerable power to occupy the new territory
●​ Allied powers had the advantage of fresh soldiers from the Us on the Western
front
●​ French, English, and Americans launched counteroffensive in response to the
failed German surge
●​ Habsburg forces in Italy and the Balkans failed, German Kaiser was abdicated
●​ Central Powers surrendered in November 1918
Post War Diplomacy
●​ Diplomats of ​victorious nations gather at Versailles Palace to faction a peace
settlement
●​ No Central Powers or Russia were represented
●​ Britain, France, and US were the most influential leaders
○​ Had very different views about the peace settlement
■​ Woodrow Wilson had a vision of making the world safe for
democracy, and that WW1 would be a war to end all wars; Fourteen
Points presented to other Allied powers
■​ Britain and France Both looked to punish Germany, south
reparations and permanent weakening of Germany
■​ Britain continued to blockade German ports and threatened to
renew the war
■​ Overall agreement heavily penalized Germany, creating
resentments and economic hardships leading to WW2 20 years
later
The Versailles Treaties
●​ War Guilt
○​ Placed sole blame of WW1 on Germany
○​ Germany had to pay reparations
○​ Expensive and psychologically difficult for Germans
●​ Territorial losses
○​ Germany lost about 13% of its land where nearly 10% of people lived
○​ Poland became an independent nation
○​ Germany’s overseas territories were given as mandates to Britain, France,
and Japan; administered on behalf of the League of Nations, new
international peace organization
●​ Military restrictions
○​ Size of the Germany army was strictly restricted; no troops could be
placed in the Rhineland
 ○​ Germany was forbidden to manufacture war materials
○​ Kept Germany from waging war against other European nations
●​ Creation of League of Nations
○​ Allies created an international organized charged with keeping another
war from occurring
○​ One of Woodrow Wilson’s fourteen points
○​ League’s executive council consisted of the winners of the war, while the
general assembly would represent 42 Allied and neutral nations
○​ Germany and Russia did not have representation
●​ Treaty clearly reflected France and Britain’s vengeance
●​ Other Central Powers were penalized in other treaties
●​ Ottoman Empire was dismantled and distributed among newly created countries
and mandates
●​ Russia lost even more land space than Germany
●​ Allies did not seize all of the land for themselves
●​ Principle of national self-determination played a role in the recreation of the map
of Europe
○​ Inconsistencies that stirred problems and resentments
●​ Drawing political boundaries were difficult as populations intermixed or unevenly
divided
The Mandate System
●​ Set up territories as trusteeships under the care of the League of Nations
●​ Many Arab territories were designated as mandates
●​ Areas were “inhabited by peoples not yet able to stand by themselves under the
strenuous conditions of the modern world”
●​ Establishment of mandates among Arab states violated promises made to Arabs
by France and Britain
●​ Jewish nationalists in Europe saw the system as a violation of the Balfour
Declaration
●​ Mustafa Kemal, or Ataturk, managed to negotiate a new Turkish republic by
resisting Italy and Greece taking lands
●​ Middle East was fragmented and western nations gained a legacy of resentment
Problems with the League of Nations
●​ League of nations signaled a new type of international organization with
purposes beyond nation-states
●​ 14 points states it is formed for mutual guarantees of political independence and
territorial integrity to great and small states alike
●​ The League was viewed as a power that could help countries avoid war in the
future
●​ Reflected the creation of a truly international organization
 ●​ League had no power to enforce its decisions; countries did not have to comply
●​ Collective security violated isolationist foreign policy of the US
●​ Wilson embarked on a tour to gain public support but suffered a stroke
●​ US refused to sign Versailles Treaty and did not join the League
●​ Germany and Japan believed that the League only served Allied needs and
withdrew in 1933
●​ Soviet Union joined in 1934 but was expelled in 1940
●​ League was unable to stop the onset of WW2 and collapsed as the war began
●​ League of Nations set the precedent for a new type of international organization
●​ Plans for the United Nations were made before the organization collapsed
New Forces of Revolution in Russia and China
●​ Revolutionary forces overcame traditional monarchies in both Russia and China
●​ Last tsar in Russia was abdicated in 1917
●​ Last emperor in China was deposed in 1911
●​ Russia settled into a new-style authoritarian regime
●​ Different forces continued to struggle for control of China
The Rise of Lenin and the Revolution of 1905
●​ Marxism - message of proletariat revolution - was powerful in promoting the
crisis in Russia
○​ Appealed to some Russian intelligentsia, Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov, or Lenin
●​ According to Marxism, socialist revolutions would take place in more developed
capitalist countries
●​ Russia was still primarily an agricultural society in the early stages of industrial
development
●​ In “What is to be Done?” Lenin changed the meaning of Marxism when he
argued for democratic centralism
○​ A vanguard group that would lead the revolution since the people were
incapable of providing leadership themselves
○​ Democratic centralism provided for a hierarchical party structure
●​ Lenin’s followers were known as Bolsheviks, which grew in numbers as Russian
workers were attracted to Lenin’s political ideas
●​ Russia’s loss in a the Russo-Japanese war sparked the Revolution of 1905
●​ Russian army fought the Russo-Japanese war in Manchuria, and received
supplies through the Trans-Siberian railroad
●​ Japanese army and navy were better trained and equipped than Russians
●​ Revolution of 1905 forced Tsar Nicholas II to concede a constitution and an
elected parliament called the Duma
●​ Russians followed the growing anger of radical intellectuals, who supported
Marx’s vision of an egalitarian society that contrasted with the unequal lifestyles
in Russia
The Russian Revolution of 1917 and the Creation of the Union of Soviet Socialist
Republics
●​ World War I caused a political crisis in Russia
●​ Last Romanov tsars clung to absolutism despite the growing number of
dissidents
●​ Russian army lacked food and essential equipment, and officers were unable to
stop the large-scale mutiny of troops
●​ Street riots broke out in petrograd under pressure from a council of workers
called a soviet
●​ Tsar abdicated his throne
●​ Provisional government briefly took control under revolutionary leaders eager to
institute parliamentary rule based on western liberalism
●​ Alexander Kerensky supported religious and other freedoms, but resisted the
major land redistribution expected by the peasants
●​ VI Lenin arrived from exile in Switzerland to lead Bolsheviks in a second
revolution that toppled the provisional government
●​ His vanguard of the revolution forced its way to the top by dismantling other
parties and declaring the victory of the proletariat
●​ Lenin’s assertion of power resulted in the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics but
many elements did not support his rule
●​ Outside efforts to reinstate provisional government failed
●​ Aristocrats, army general, faithful Russian Orthodox peasants, and minority
nationalities united in order to unseat the new government
●​ Lenin’s decree to redistribute land to peasants and the nationalization of industry
sparked major protests from land-owning peasants
●​ Civil war raged from 1918-1921 until Lenin regained stability through the use of
his Red Army
●​ Lenin’s ability to promote army officers from humble backgrounds and his ability
to make recruits believe in the brave new regime of communism helped him to
control the dissidents
●​ New Economic Policy promised small business owners and land-owning
peasants the retention of their rights and freedoms
●​ States set basic economic policies
●​ Food production recovered from its fall during the civil war period
●​ Lenin’s democratic centralism was firmly in place by 1923
○​ Soviet Socialist republics were set up in recognition of different ethnic
minorities
●​ Central government was controlled by ethnic Russians
○​ Competitive elections were prohibited
 ○​ Communist Party established an authoritarian system under central party
bureaucracy
●​ Lenin died suddenly in 1924 without leaving a clear path for leadership
succession
●​ Joseph Stalin ruled from 1927-1953
○​ Turned his back on the promotion of international communist revolutions
○​ Built socialism in one country
○​ Emphasized industrialization and strengthening agriculture from within
Russia’s borders
●​ Russia remained isolated from the rest of the world for most of 1930s
●​ Old dynamics of the political culture were much at work as Stalin settled in as an
old style authoritarian Russian ruler
End of China’s Qing Dynasty
●​ Resistance to China’s Qing Dynasty was strong
○​ Many young gentry and merchants joined secret societies with the goal of
overthrowing the regime
●​ Disintegration of Chinese power after defeat by the Japanese, cession of ancient
tributary, and domination of Manchuria by Russia fed discontent
●​ Many of those who received European-style educations dreamed of reshaping
China into a nation-state
●​ Young Chinese still resented spheres of influence and blamed Manchu for losing
control
●​ Many cut off their queues to express disgust with the dynasty’s weakness
●​ Unrest led to the Revolution of 1911
○​ Last emperor of China was deposed
○​ Sun Yat-sen attempted to establish a republican form of government in
China
●​ China’s power was eclipsed by the West before it settled on a different regime in
1949
China’s Struggle for Stability
●​ China’s regional generals continued to struggle for power
●​ Cause was hampered by the decision at the Versailles peace Conference which
allowed Japan to keep the German enclaves they seized
●​ Guomindang found much to admire in Lenin’s revolutionary tactics
●​ Soviet adviser was invited to help the party organize the country
●​ Sun welcomed members of the newly created Chinese Communist Party into the
political party
●​ Sun’s leadership fell to Jian Jieshi, or Chiang Kai-shek
●​ Chiang was less accommodating to the communists and lacked commitment to
revolutionary principles
 ○​ Sought to crush the regional warlords with his armies, and turned on the
communists
●​ Chiang established a dictatorship that had none of the strength of the Bolsheviks
or the Meiji oligarchs
●​ Mao Zedong continued to attract followers to the Chinese Communist Party,
causing Chiang to get rid of him
●​ Long March strengthened the communist cause
●​ Chiang tried to depose his rival but had the opposite effect
○​ Mao eluded him until Chiang had to turn his attentions to the invading
Japanese
●​ Decision as to who would rule China was postponed until after WWII ended
Economic Instability and the Great Depression
●​ A great deal of economic instability characterized the 1920s
●​ Industrial productivity returned to prewar levels but recovery was fragile
○​ Stock market crashed in major western cities sparked a deep economic
depression that reflected the collapse of the old capitalist system
●​ Industrial production shrank
●​ World trade dropped dramatically
●​ Unemployment rose to unprecedented levels
●​ Worldwide economic patterns did not change for the better until after WWII
○​ Demand for war production was pivotal in bringing a return to prosperity
Economic Problems of the 1920s
●​ Economies of European countries and the US were grounded in war debts
●​ US loaned Germany money for rebuilding their economy
●​ When the US pulled back on investments in Europe, the lack of capital caused
the whole repayment structure to collapse
●​ The Weimar Republic faced ultimately insurmountable problems
●​ German communists staged a coup d’etat in order to emulate what Lenin had
achieved
●​ German army payed 33 billion in reparations to the allies: Germany's total gross
national product for five years
●​ Government managed to make payment for 2 years before asking for a 2 year
moratorium
●​ French responded by sending troops to occupy the heart of Germany’s industrial
production
○​ Seized iron and coal
○​ Govt. instructed workers to go on strike
●​ Germany slipped even further into economic chaos, severe inflation drastically
reduced the value of the German mark
●​ German middle class was wiped out
 ●​ Dawes plan provided for French withdrawal from the Ruhr and reduction in
reparation payments

●​ France had a well-balanced national economy

○​ German reparations could only gradually make up war debts in France
●​ Britain’s economic health slipped before the war began
●​ Britain declined while capital was supplied from the US, causing British
production to fall further and unemployment rates to stay high
●​ US suffered little damage and few casualties
○​ Industrial power and pool of capital grew
○​ Became the prime creditor nation in world trade
●​ Economies around the world became dependent on the prosperity of the US
●​ New York Stock Exchange falter triggered a chain reaction of economic collapse
around the world
●​ As colonial people lost the ability to buy manufactured goods, economies of
industrialized countries suffered in a situation where global interdependence
reinforced problems that generally were ignored by the nations’ leaders
●​ Western nations turned to protectionism, characterized by high tariff barriers
The New York Stock Market Crash and the “Great Depression”
●​ Europe was unable to produce crops during the war while farmers in
non-European countries expanded their production
●​ European farmers returning to work caused worldwide food surpluses and
triggered falling prices
●​ Many urban workers and middle-class businessmen in the US continued to earn
enough to invest in speculative ventures on the stock market
●​ When the New York Stock market crashed, US banks collapsed because they
dependent heavily on their stock investments
●​ Banks failed, depositors lost money, and the economic impact spread beyond
financial markets
●​ Infrastructure built on repayment of war debts caved in as investment funds
vanished and creditors went bankrupt or tried to call in their loans
●​ Criss expanded to affect almost every sector of industrial societies and their
colonies globally
●​ Businesses in europe were unable to export goods to the US due to high tariffs
on foreign products
●​ Japanese economy was very dependent on the US market
○​ Value of Japanese exports dropped by 50%, leaving workers with
decreased incomes or out of work entirely
●​ Primary-producing economies plummeted as demand from industrialized
countries decreased
 ●​ Latin American countries tried to raise prices by holding supplies off the market
but failed
○​ Unemployment rates increased rapidly
●​ Most imperialist countries suffered from the depression but their colonies could
provide some of the products they needed
●​ Joseph Stalin emphasized the development of socialism in one country, so they
did not feel the negative effects of the Great Depression
●​ China’s large agriculture based economy was produced since largest share of
Chinese markets were domestic
●​ International financial and commercial networks of capitalist economies was
destroyed
●​ Governments reacted by practicing economic nationalism through high tariffs and
import quotas and prohibitions, which provoked retaliation from others
●​ International trade dropped sharply
Political Reactions to Economic Woes
●​ The Great Depression showed that Laissez-Faire does not naturally work without
government interference due to the stock market crash of 1929
●​ Herbert Hoover waited for the natural upturn
○​ Conditions worsened and he was voted out of office
●​ Franklin Roosevelt used philosophies from John Maynard Keynes
○​ If people do not consume enough or invest enough, the national income
will fall
○​ The best way to increase national income is for the government to do the
spending and investing if private enterprise can’t or won’t
●​ Roosevelt argued that people and businesses in the US had been too afraid of
consuming or investing due to the early days of the Great Depression
●​ Roosevelt began “New Deal” programs which involved massive government
spending aimed to
○​ Prevent the collapse of the banking system
○​ Provide jobs and farm subsidies
○​ Give workers the right to organize and bargain collectively
○​ Guarantee minimum wages
○​ Provide social security in old age
●​ First government in Japan was passive but leaders eventually intervened
forcefully in the economy with programs to build public works, incentives and
subsidies for selected industries, devaluation of the currency,m and wage control
○​ Measures stimulated economic recovery in Japan by 1931
●​ Hitler’s government intervened aggressively in Germany
○​ Large public works projects to stimulate employment and and deficit
spending directed toward military preparation
 ■​ Economic recovery by mid-1930s

The Rise of Fascism

●​ The Soviet people had to endure the terrorist tactics of Stalin’s government as
Russia modenrized
●​ Government collectivized agriculture by consolidating small private farms into
vast commonly owned fields
○​ Expected to supply the government with a fixed amount of food
●​ Collectivization was met by resistance by kulaks, or prosperous peasants who
stood to lose their farms to the government
○​ Slaughtered their own livestock rather than give it to the government
●​ Kulaks were sent to labor camps and executed
●​ Stalin’s secret police force, the NKVD, executed and sent any people displaying
forms of resistance to gulags.
●​ Great Depression and fears of communism led to the collapse of free-market
capitalism
○​ Radical political solution of fascism was used
●​ Fascism emphasized an extreme form of nationalism
○​ Encouraged individuals to subordinate their will to the state
●​ Fascist leaders promoted to bring back full employment, stop communism, and
conquer new territories
○​ One party rule of a totalitarian state with a powerful secret police that
terrorized and intimidated the people
●​ Benito Mussolini gained control of Italy and established a one-party dictatorship
●​ Fascist party took over the government, press, and public education
●​ Mussolini applied techniques of modern mass communications to rule italy
through his oratory talents
●​ Fascist movements appeared in most European countries
○​ Appealed to people who feared rapid change and economic insecurity and
placed their hopes in charismatic leaders who promised to lead their
countries to glory
●​ Most notorious form of fascism grew in Germany through the Nazi Party led by
Adolf Hitler
●​ Nazi leaders advocated an aggresive foreign policy that reversed the effects of
Germany’s defeat in WWI and economic depression
●​ Hitler abolished the Weimar republic and built a totalitarian state under his control
○​ Reconstructed the German war machine under the premise that war is the
main function of the state
 ○​ Expanded arms production, created new jobs, rebuilt German economy,
and advocated the doctrine that Germans were radically superior to
others, particularly the Jewish
●​ “Aryans” were referred to as superior people who came from Europe’s original
racial stock
●​ Nazism appealed to lower-middle classes who lost nearly everything as
Germany’s economy collapsed
●​ Hitler’s new order required all to subject their will to the government in order to
achieve greatness
○​ Rigid hierarchy emerged, reinforcement of traditional roles for women
●​ Fascist regimes generally limited women’s rights
●​ Abortoins were outlawed, birth control centers were closed, and information
about family planning was erased
●​ Women with large numbers of children were given awards
○​ Propaganda extolled the virtues of motherhood
●​ Birth rates continued to remain low as demands of urban life made large
numbers of children impractical for most families
●​ Nazism drew on theories of scientific racism in order to suppress the Jewish
population
●​ Discriminatory laws deprived Jews of their citizenship and prohibited marriage
between Jews and other Germans
●​ Jewish lost their jobs
○​ Jewish stores and synagogues were destroyed on Kristallnacht, and more
than 100 people were murdered
●​ Regime turned more authoritarian in Japan in hopes of staving off the ill effects of
the Great Depression
○​ Country’s leadership fell into the hands of a military group that advocated
a “defense state” under its control
●​ The Japanese army marched into Manchuria, proclaiming it to be independent
from China
●​ Military leadership was responsible for killing the prime minister
○​ Japan’s military rulers began aggressively attacking other areas of Asia

World War II
●​ WWII resulted from a renewal of tension from WWI that had never been
resolved
●​ Japanese expansion sparked conflicts in Asia
●​ Fascist movements in Europe encouraged military aggression in the name of
nationalism
●​ Germany withdrew from the League of Nations as Hitler rebuilt the military
 ●​ Mussolini attacked Ethiopia as a nationalistic attempt to make up for Ital’y failure
to claim the area
●​ Fascism gained support in Spain which triggered a civil war between liberals and
authoritarians
The Onset of War
●​ Hitler invaded the Sudetenland
○​ Munich Conference among European powers called to address
Czechoslovakia’s protests
○​ Appeasement policy allowed Germany to keep the Sudetenland in return
for Hitler’s promise to cease aggressions
●​ Hitler continued to take over all of Poland
○​ Britain and France declared war on Germany
○​ Germany and Italy formed an alliance called the Rome-Berlin axis
●​ Japanese forces occupied cities and railroads in eastern China
●​ Japan used the outbreak of war in Europe as a reason to attack other areas in
Asia
●​ Germany, Italy, and Japan signed the Tripartite Pact, becoming the Axis powers
●​ Areas of fighting were much broader in WWII which took place in the Pacific and
Europe
●​ Britain and France did little to prepare for war, had not yet recovered from WWI
●​ Britain began expansion of its army in late 1938 but it took until 1942/1943 for
the Allies to stop German and Japanese successes
The Nature of War
●​ WWII was a total war in which vast resources and emotional commitments of
civilians supported massive military efforts
●​ More destructive technologies of WWI were used in WWII, along with airplanes,
aircraft carriers, new bombing technology, rocketry, and atomic bomb
●​ WWII was more destructive than any other war in history
●​ Civilian populations supported the war and were subject to its destruction
○​ Atomic bombs targeted civilian populations
●​ Holocaust began in WWII, mass extermination of specific groups by Nazi
Germany
○​ Genocide of Jews called the “final solution”
○​ Jews were experimented on and put into concentration camps to die
○​ Other groups such as gypsies, homosexuals, Polish Catholics, and the
disabled were also targeted
War in Europe and North Africa
●​ Germans took advantage of motorized technology, blitzkrieg
●​ France quickly collapsed due to German attack in mid-1940
 ●​ French Resistance troops staged guerilla attacks in the southern half of the
country where German soldiers were less established
●​ Defeat of France left Britain alone until Russia and the US joined the war in 1941
●​ Britain was inland allowing for the protecting of lighting war tactics
●​ Winston Churchill led Britain to withstand a massive air attack
●​ British Royal Air Force counterattacked the German planes using the radar
●​ Hitler turned toward Russia even though he signed a Nonaggression Pact with
Stalin
●​ Russia joined the war on the side of the Allies
○​ Within five months, German army conquered Baltic states, Ukraine, and
half of European Russia
●​ Weather turned cold, supply lines were overextended, German army was
diminished
○​ Attack on Stalingrad failed which was the first major Allied victory of the
war
○​ US and Britain planned an attack of striking the Axis from northern Africa
■​ British victory at El Alamein in Northern Egypt was achieved partly
because of the Allies’ ability to break German codes
■​ German army expelled from Africa and Allied armies captured sicily
and invaded Italy
The War in Asia and the Pacific
●​ Japanese saw the opportunity to seize European colonies in Southeast Asia
●​ Britain and US stopped shipments of steel and oil to Japan
●​ Japanese war cabinet made plans to attack the US Navy in Hawaii
○​ Attack at Pearl Harbor prompted US to declare war on Japan
○​ Mobilization of American war effort began
●​ American fleet of warships was decimated by losses at Pearl Harbor
●​ Japan captured Hong Kong, Singapore, Thailand, Philippines, and Malaya by
March 1942
●​ Americans were able to stop Japanese in a sea/air battle in the Coral Sea
●​ Japanese lost four of six aircraft carriers at Battle of Midway
●​ US navy began an island-hopping campaign to capture key islands in the Pacific
The End of the War
●​ Battle of Stalingrad was a major turning point of the war in Europe
●​ Allies staged invasions across the Mediterranean Sea to Italy and across the
English Channel to the coast of Normandy
●​ Italy signed an armistice, invasion of France was successful as Allied troops
landed in Normandy on D-Day
●​ Allies advanced into Belgium and decisively defeated Germany at the Battle of
the Bulge
●​ British/American armies joined by French forces met with Russian army at the
Elbe river
○​ Signified the conquest of Germany
○​ A week after Hitler committed suicide, German military leaders
surrendered to the Allies
●​ US made their way to Iwo Jima and Okinawa, and took the islands and prepared
for an invasion of Japan
●​ US dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima, killing about 80,000 people and
leaving another 120,000 to die from after-effects of burns and radiation
●​ A second bomb was dropped on Nagasaki
○​ Emperor Hirohito of Japan ordered surrender on August 14
●​ WWII marked the end of the age of European domination
○​ The most widespread, deadliest war in history, illustrating the powers
unleashed by the technologies of the industrial era
●​ Interdependence of the nations of the world was greater than it ever had been
before
●​ United States and Soviet Union emerged to compete for control of technological
knowledge and assert their hegemonic power over most of the world