“You would be walking down a street, hearing only the city noises of streetcars and automobiles and people calling to one another, and suddenly, crushing it all out, would be the huge stony deep booming of a falling shell, at the corner. There was no place to run, because how did you know that the next shell would not be behind you, or ahead, or to the left or right?” ( ) World War II Begins

The World: During World War I

The World: After World War I

The London Conference Goal: 66 nations meet to coordinate international attack on global depression by stabilizing currencies American Role: FDR will not send a delegate Result: Conference fell apart without US backing and foreshadowed difficulty with cooperation

Pre-War Foreign Policy -we focused on domestic issues America still isolationist and working on ending Great Depression -extreme anti-war feelings “Merchants of Death” The banks and manufacturers that profit from warfare -Good Neighbor policy in Latin America Policy of non-intervention; withdrew all troops from Latin America -Neutrality Acts ( ) forbids arms sales to warring nations Cannot sail on belligerent ship, sell or transport arms to a nation at war, or make loans to a nation at war Roosevelt gives Quarantine speech – could no longer be neutral “The peace, the freedom, and the security of 90 percent of the population of the world is being jeopardized by the remaining 10 percent who are threatening a breakdown of all international order and law. Surely the 90 percent who want to live in peace under law and in accordance with moral standards that have received almost universal acceptance through the centuries, can and must find some way…to preserve peace.” ~FDR, Quarantine Speech

Prelude to War Countries Want more living space for growing population -Japanese Aggression Manchuria – rich in resources, want the rest of China for people China Emperor Hirohito----Hideki Tojo New emperor in charge, appoints new leader of Japanese military -Italy Fascism – stresses nationalism; puts the state above all other things Benito Mussolini – leader of the Italian Fascist Party who gained power from Italian king Takes over Rome and the independent African kingdom of Ethiopia Benito Mussolini Emperor Hirohito

Mussolini’s March on Rome

Mussolini gains control of Italy by marching on Rome with his Black Shirts. The Italian king surrendered his throne to the new fascist leader.

Italian Propaganda posters, urging Italian citizens to train for military service to their state. In a fascist regime, like that in Mussolini’s Italy, the greatest honor and service one can provide is to their country.

Benito Mussolini addresses his Italian followers in Rome

Mussolini will form an ‘axis’ of power between Rome and Berlin, the capitals of Italy and Germany.

Prelude to War -Rise of Germany Failed Weimar Republic – created chaos in Germany Adolph Hitler & Third Reich Nazi – the Nazis became strongest party; Hitler appointed chancellor in 1933 (the “Fuhrer”) -Russia (USSR) Lenin dies; Stalin takes over Joseph Stalin Wanted to transform USSR to a model communist state Destroyed all who were against him

Hitler served as a German soldier in WWI, shown under the X. After the war, Hitler returned to Germany to work, becoming a member of the National Socialist German Workers’ Party, also known as the Nazi Party. This party has no ties to socialism, as it is an extreme fascist party.

Hitler was arrested for going against the government during the Weimar Republic, and he wrote his book Mein Kampf, “My Struggle,” while in jail. In this book, Hitler set forth the basic beliefs of Nazism that became the plan of action for the Nazi Party. Nazism, the German brand of fascism, was based on extreme nationalism. Hitler, who had been born in Austria, dreamed of uniting all German-speaking people in a great German empire.

Hitler wanted to enforce racial purification at home. In his view, Germans— especially blue-eyed, blond- haired Aryans—formed a master race that was destined to rule the world. “Inferior races,” such as Jews, Slavs, and all nonwhites, were deemed fit only to serve the Aryans.

A third element of Nazism was national expansion. Hitler believed that for Germany to thrive, it needed more lebensraum, or living space. One of the Nazis’ aims, as Hitler wrote in Mein Kampf, was “to secure for the German people the land and soil to which they are entitled on this earth,” even if this could be accomplished only by “the might of a victorious sword.”

The Great Depression helped the Nazis come to power. Because of war debts and dependence on American loans and investments, Germany’s economy was hit hard. By 1932, some 6 million Germans were unemployed. Many men who were out of work joined Hitler’s private army, the storm troopers (Brown Shirts). The German people were desperate and turned to Hitler as their last hope.

Propaganda in Germany, urging Aryans to follow Hitler

By mid-1932, the Nazis had become the strongest political party in Germany. In January 1933, Hitler was appointed chancellor (prime minister). Once in power, Hitler quickly dismantled Germany’s democratic Weimar Republic. In its place he established the Third Reich, or Third German Empire. According to Hitler, the Third Reich would be a “Thousand-Year Reich”—it would last for a thousand years.

Nazi Party salute to Hitler – 1938

German recruiting posters for Hitler’s Storm Troopers

Recruiting Hitler youth through propaganda

The Hitler Youth

The Hitler Youth Saluting

+ The Hitler Youth

By the mid-1930s, Hitler had successfully recruited enough soldiers to mass an active army, openly defying the terms of the Treaty of Versailles, ending the German depression, and well on the road to making his Third Reich a reality

Joseph Stalin becomes the Communist dictator of the U.S.S.R., promising to make the U.S.S.R. a great industrial power

“The Spirit of great Lenin and his victorious banner inspires us during this Great Patriotic War.”

As part of his “reign of terror,” Stalin sent those who spoke out against the government to work camps. Those who were not sent, where often disposed of.

Joseph Stalin’s personal propaganda posters lined the streets of the U.S.S.R., reminding its citizens that he was always watching them (through secret police and spies).

Stalin’s Propaganda

“Stalin Cares About Everyone” ~Propaganda~

Appeasement Giving in to the demands of an aggressor to keep peace -Kellogg-Briand Pact Non-war pact signed after WWI; many countries broke their pledge to not declare war -Hoover-Stimson Doctrine refuse to recognize lands taken by force -German rearmament Hitler breaks Treaty of Versailles and begins to rebuild military; brings Germany out of the Depression

Appeasement -Taking of the Rhineland German region bordering France and Belgium – Hitler takes it back -Austria Hitler’s homeland; 6 million Germans took it unopposed -Munich Peace Conference Meeting with France and Britain about the Sudetenland; gave land to Germany to avoid war (appeasement) -American Neutrality Early in the crisis, both France and Great Britain promised to protect Czechoslovakia. Then, just when war seemed inevitable, Hitler invited French premier and British prime minister Neville Chamberlain to meet with him in Munich. When they arrived, the fuhrer declared that the annexation of the Sudetenland would be his “last territorial demand.” In their eagerness to avoid war, Chamberlain chose to believe him. On September 30, 1938, they signed the Munich Agreement, which turned the Sudetenland over to Germany without a single shot being fired. Chamberlain returned home and proclaimed: “My friends, there has come back from Germany peace with honor. I believe it is peace in our time.”

Europe at War Results of appeasement -Japanese are invading China, 1937 First Manchuria, then the rest of China falls (Rape of Nanking) -Germany annexes Austria, Germany takes Czechoslovakia, 1938 At Munich promises only to take Sudetenland, but takes all of Czech. -Germany-Russia sign non-aggression treaty, 1939 Germany does not have to worry about a two-front war and could concentrate on Europe -Germany attacks Poland Sept. 1, 1939 Easy defeat using blitzkrieg -France, England declare war – WW2

Hitler’s Accomplishments by March 1938

The Rape of Nanking

Blitzkrieg -lightning warfare -heavy use of machinery and aircraft Drop bombs on military bases, airfields, roads, cities; use tanks to cause confusion (Diagram) -quick victory over Poland (3 weeks) -Phony War begins – sitting war Maginot Line - French waiting on Germans to attack them Siegfried Line – Germans waiting on French to attack them -Stalin attacks Finland, Hitler attacks Denmark, Norway, then Belgium Want bases to attack Britain

Blitzkrieg -Invasion of France -Massive Allied evacuation at Dunkirk “Miracle of Dunkirk” ferried 300,000 across the English channel -France signs surrender, June 1940 Italy invades from the South, Germany from the North

Battle of Britain -Germany controls most of Europe Britain on its own -Lutwaffe begin bombing of Britain German air force bombed Britain for 2 solid months -RAF defends British homeland Royal Air Force Hitler moves from military targets to civilians; hurts his success; calls off invasion -”Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few” Praise of RAF pilots (aided by American volunteers) Winston Churchill Britain’s prime minister -Germany never launches invasion of Britain (cities still bombed; civilians at war) “After an explosion of a nearby bomb, you could actually feel your eyeballs being sucked out. I was holding my eyes to try and stop them going. And the suction was so vast, it ripped my shirt away, and ripped my trousers. Then I couldn’t get my breath, the smoke was like acid and everything round me was black and yellow.”