WWII

1939-1945
 WWII

Causes
When?
Who?
Phases and Key events
Fronts
Peace conferences
Consequences

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 CAUSES: What were the four main causes of WWII? Short term – Trigger
(Poland’s invasion)
1. Economic Factors:
All countries suffered the effects of the Great Depression (Wall
Street Crash of 1929)- Germany. Unsuccessful autarky- look for
new markets.
2. Totalitarian regimes and
Nationalism:
Extreme nationalism gave rise to Fascism in
Italy and Nazism in Germany and caused
Japan to colonize Asia. It is an extreme form
of having pride in one’s country. It creates
a situation in which people think, “My
country and people are the best, we deserve
the best, and we’re going to take it from
you.”
•Rome-Berlin Axis
•Anti-Comintern Pact (GE and JA against
4. Territorial conflicts and URSS)
expansionism:
3. Rearmament – Germany violated
England and France were still
the Treaty of Versailles
recovering from WWI and
Germany’s borders were changed, and
unsuccessfully tried to use
its economy was bankrupted by
diplomacy to stop Hitler
reparations payments. Aggressive
(appeasament). Germany claimed
discourse, military parades and
Austria, Sudetenland, Saarland and
uniforms were commonplace in
3 Alsace and Lorraine (Lebensraum);
Europe…
Italy…Japan…
 1923 - Wallpapering
with German
Situation in Europe Deutschmarks

England and France were still recovering from WWI and unsuccessfully tried to use
diplomacy to stop Hitler. Some countries, such as the United States, isolated
themselves to try to avoid being drawn into other nations’ wars.

Desperate people turn to leaders who make them feel better about
themselves and put the blame on others. In this case, Hitler blamed
the former government, Jews, foreigners, communists, Roma
(Gypsies), the mentally ill, and homosexuals.

1938- Evidence of Kristallnacht, or the

Night of the Broken Glass
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 Situation in Europe

Appeasement: give dictators what they want and hope that they won’t
want anything else.
Appeasements included allowing the Japanese invasion of Manchuria, the Italian
invasion of Ethiopia, and Germany’s invasion of taking part of Czechoslovakia called
the Sudetenland.

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 Who?

Allies Axis
(major powers) (major powers)
Great Britain Germany
France Italy
USSR Japan
USA
Slovakia
(note: France surrendered to Hungary
Germany in 1940 after 6 Romania
weeks of fighting)
Bulgaria

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 Major Leaders
Adolf Hitler
Nazi Germany

Benito Mussolini
Italy

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 Major Leaders
Hideki Tojo
Japanese Prime Minister

Winston Churchill
8 British Prime Minister
 Major Leaders
Joseph Stalin
Russian Leader

Franklin Delano Roosevelt

9 US President
 Rise of Totalitarian Regimes
In a Totalitarian country, individual rights are not viewed as
important as the needs of the nation. The government controls
every aspect of public and private life.

Communist Fascist Dictatorship

Dictatorship (USSR) (Germany, Italy)

Fascism: military
Totalitarianism government with based on
racism & nationalism with
strong support from the
business community

Military Dictatorship
(Japan)

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 • In 1938 Hitler
What triggered the peacefully annexed
Second World War? Austria and the
Sudetenland.
• In 1939 Hitler signed a
nonaggression pact
(Molotov-Ribbentrop
Pact) with the USSR and
invaded Poland.
-They agreed not to fight
each other. Hitler would
later break the pact and
attack the USSR
(Operation Barbarossa).
Hitler's triumphal entry into Danzig, Poland 1939
• The USSR then became
one of the Allies fighting
Germany.
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 PHASES AND KEY EVENTS WWII (1939-1945)
1.GERMAN 2. ALLIED COUNTER- 3. DEFEAT OF THE
DOMINANCE (1939- OFFENSIVE (1942- AXIS AND JAPAN
1941) 1944) (1944-45)

-Poland, Denmark,
-USA enters the war -British and American
Norway
-Battle of Stalingrad troops invade western
- Blitzkrieg: Belgium and
-North-Africa Germany
The Netherlands
-Sicily -Soviets invade Poland,
- Paris Occupation Totalitarianism
-Normandy landings Hungary, Bulgaria and
- Battle of Britain
(D-Day) Romania
-Suez Canal
-Hitler committed suicide
-Balkan Area
MAP PAGE 165 -Germany surrenders in
-Operation Barbarossa
May 1945
-Pearl Harbour (Hawaii)
-Many US victories in the
MAP PAGE 164
Pacific (Okiawa, Iwo
Jima…)
12 -Atomic Bombs: over
240.000 people died
 GERMANY’S EXPANSION

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 How Did Hitler Make War?
Blitzkrieg = “Lightning War”
In the next year,
Hitler invades:

• Denmark
• Norway
• The Netherlands
• France

14 Hitler in Paris
 •Key events (I)

Phase I Events
German • German invades Poland, Denmark and Norway
dominance • “Blitzkrieg” (Lightning war): rapid advance
in Europe • German troops occupied Paris in 1940 -
(39-41) collaborationist government between France and
Nazis (Vichy-Pétain)
• Battle of Britain – Luftwaffe against RAF
• Suez Canal- German troops landed in Africa to
expel the British out of Egypt and control the canal
• Balkan Area Control of Southern Europe
• Germany attacked USSR - Operation Barbarossa
• Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour (Hawaii) and
invasion of European colonies in Asia.

See maps pages 164-165

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June 22, 1941: Germany broke Non-Aggression Pact
and attacked USSR: Operation Barbarossa
 German domination (1942)

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 •Key events (II)

Phase II Events

2. The allied • USA enters the war after the attack on Pearl
counter- Harbour
offensive • Battle of Stalingrad – one of the bloodiest in
(42-44) history
• Battle of El Alamein – North Africa
• Normandy Landings (D-Day) – liberation of
Belgium and the Netherlands

DO ACTIVITIES PAGES 164-165

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 WWII in 1942

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 •Key events (III)
Phase III Events
3.Defeat of the Allied troops liberated Paris. They reached the Rhine
Axis and destroyed many German cities. British and
American troops occupied western Germany.

Several attempts to kill Hitler.

4.Defeat of After German defeats in Europe and the US was able

Japan to send more troops to the Pacific:

-Philippines, Marshall Islands, Iwo Jima, Okinawa

(Map page 167)
-Japan didn’t surrender and US President Harry
Truman ordered atomic bombs to be dropped on
Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

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 •Main Fronts

Fronts Countries

Eastern Front Soviet Union against Germany

Western Front France, GB, Belgium against Germany

Pacific Front Japan against USA

Northern Africa Germany and Italy against GB and USA

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 MAPS WWII

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Germany’s division
 Consequences of the war
DO diagram book - page 168

Around 60 million people died (compared to 15 million

in WWI)

• 21.3 million Russians (7.7 million civilians)

• 11 million died as a result of the HOLOCAUST

(6 million Jews + 5 million others)

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 •Turning points: When, Where, What…

1. Rome-Berlin Axis
2. Anti-comintern Pact
3. Appeasement
4. Blitzkrieg
5. Battle of Britain
6. Barbarossa
7. Pearl Harbour
8. Stalingrad Battle
9. D-Day
10. Hiroshima and Nagasaki

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