the united states and world war ii - ms. wilden · the united states & world war ii •in many...
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THE UNITED STATES AND WORLD WAR II
THE UNITED STATES & WORLD WAR II• In many ways, the economic depression that encompassed the globe during the 1930s
reinforced traditional isolationist impulses in the United States.• The government focused on stimulating the domestic economy, and personal woes caused
by the depression preoccupied the minds and everyday lives of most Americans.• However, unfinished business from World War I combined with the global nature of the
economic downturn to shape a series of events that once again led European nations to war in 1939.
• Just as in 1914, the United States declared neutrality in the conflict, but again – despite fierce objections from isolationists – ultimately could not avoid getting involved.
• The United States played a central role in fighting World War II, and at war’s end, emerged as one of two undisputed leaders in a new world order that defined the second half of the 20th century.
The Road to War
THE ROAD TO WAR• World War II formally began in 1939, but in many ways it resulted from a renewal of
tensions from World War I that had never been resolved. The causes of the war were global, with fascist movements in Europe and Japanese expansion sparking conflicts in Asia and encouraging military aggression in the name of nationalism.
THE RISE OF FASCISM AND COMMUNISM
THE RISE OF FASCISM• Before World War I ended, Russia withdrew from the war, and a new communist government
replaced the traditional czarist regime.• The changes in Russia (renamed the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics) frightened people all
over Europe and North America, and led to a fear that communist elements would take over across the globe.
• The Great Depression made people uncertain of the future, and the two factors together – communism and the apparent collapse of free-market capitalism – made many turn to the radical political solution of fascism.
• The name was derived from the “fasces”, an ancient Roman symbol of power consisting of a bundle of rods wrapped together around an axe.
– Fascism emphasized an extreme form of nationalism and encouraged individuals to subordinate their will to the state.
– Fascist leaders promised to bring back full employment, stop communism, and conquer new territories. – They condemned the communist model for abolishing private property, but they used Stalin’s tactics to
accomplish their goals: one party rule of a totalitarian state with a powerful secret police that terrorized and intimidated the people.
THE RISE OF BENITO MUSSOLINI
FASCISM IN ITALY• Italy faced with inflation, unemployment, strikes• The term fascism was first used by Benito Mussolini,
who gained control of Italy in 1922 and established a one-party dictatorship. The Fascist Party took over all positions in government, the press, and public education, and it gave employers control over their workers.
• Known as “Il Duce” (the leader), Mussolini applied the techniques of modern mass communications to win support/rule through his oratory talents and fascist speeches, playing on fears of communism.
• By the 1930s, the fascist movement had appeared in most European countries, as well as in Latin America, China, and Japan.
• Fascism appealed to people who were frightened by rapid changes and economic insecurity, and placed their hopes in charismatic leaders who promised to lead their countries to glory.
1922 - Marched on Rome with his “Black Shirts”
1935 - Invaded Ethiopia
FASCISM IN ITALYThe original symbol of fascism, in Italy under Benito Mussolini, was the fasces. This is an ancient Imperial Roman symbol of power carried by lictors in front of magistrates; a bundle of sticks featuring an axe, indicating the power over life and death. Before the Italian Fascists adopted the fasces, the symbol had been used by Italian political organizations of various political ideologies (ranging from socialist to nationalist), called Fascio ("leagues") as a symbol of strength through unity.
Italian Fascism utilized the color black as a symbol of their movement, black being the color of the uniforms of their paramilitaries, known as Blackshirts. The blackshirt derived from Italy's daredevil elite shock troops known as the Arditi, soldiers who were specifically trained for a life of violence and wore unique blackshirt uniforms. The colour black as used by the Arditi, symbolized death.[3]
Other symbols used by the Italian Fascists included the aquila, the Capitoline Wolf, and the SPQR motto, each related to Italy's ancient Roman cultural history, which the Fascists attempted to resurrect.
A perched eagle clutching a fasces was a common symbol used on Italian Fascist uniforms.
Flag of the National Fascist Party, bearing the fasces, which was the premier symbol of Italian Fascism.
THE RISE OF ADOLF HITLER
NAZISM ON THE RISE• Weimar Republic-
– Failed to control inflation
– Germans resentful of treaty stipulations
1. War Guilt Clause2. War Reparations3. Disarmament
– Allowed for fascism and totalitarianism
NAZISM ON THE RISE• Great Depression (1930s)
effects global economy and all industrial nations
– 6 million Germans unemployed
– Join Nazis and become Brown Shirts/Storm troopers
• 1932 Nazi Party takes power• Hitler becomes Chancellor
(Prime Minister)– Third Reich-1,000 years
FASCISM IN GERMANY• The most notorious version of fascism grew in Germany
under the Nazi Party led by Adolf Hitler.• Nazi leaders advocated an aggressive foreign policy that
would reverse Germany’s humiliating defeat in World War I and the terrible aftermath that plunged the country into the depths of economic depression.
• Hitler abolished the Weimar Republic and built a totalitarian state under his control.
• In flagrant violation of the terms of the Versailles Treaty, he deliberately reconstructed the German war machine under the premise that war is the main function of the state..
• Hitler expanded arms production, created new jobs, and rebuilt the German economy, and he advocated the doctrine that Germans were racially superior to all others, particularly to the Jewish minority that lived in the country.
Adolf Hitler • WWI soldier• Joined National Socialist
German Workers Party or NAZI Party
• Became party leader• Dubbed Der Fuhrer• Wrote Mein Kampf (My
Struggle)• Promised: German Empire,
Racial Purification-Aryan, Lebensraum-Living space
FASCISM IN GERMANYThe nature of German fascism, as encapsulated in Nazism was similar to Italian Fascism ideologically and borrowed symbolism from the Italian Fascists such as the use of mass rallies, the straight-armed Roman salute, and the use of pageantry. Nazism was different from Italian Fascism in that it was explicitly racist in nature. Its symbol was the swastika, at the time a commonly seen symbol in the world that had experienced a revival in use in the western world in the early 20th century. German völkisch Nationalists claimed the swastika was a symbol of the Aryan race, who they claimed were the foundation of Germanic civilization and were superior to all other races.
As the Italian Fascists adapted elements of their ethnic heritage to fuel a sense of Nationalism by use of symbolism, so did Nazi Germany. Turn-of-the-century German-Austrian mystic and author Guido von List was a big influence on Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler, who introduced various ancient Germanic symbols (filtered through von List's writings) most thoroughly into the SS, including the stylized double Sig Rune (von List's then-contemporary Armanen rune version of the ancient sowilo rune) for the organization itself.
The black-white-red tricolor of the German Empire was utilized as the color scheme of the Nazi flag. The color brown was the identifying color of Nazism (and fascism in general), due to it being the color of the SA paramilitaries (Sturmabteilung, also known as Brownshirts).
Other historical symbols that were already in use by the German Army to varying degrees prior to the Nazi Germany, such as the Wolfsangel and Totenkopf, were also used in a new, more industrialized manner on uniforms and insignia.
Although the swastika was a popular symbol in art prior to the regimental use by Nazi Germany and has a long heritage in many other cultures throughout history - and although many of the symbols used by the Nazis were ancient or commonly used prior to the advent of Nazi Germany - because of association with Nazi use, the swastika is often considered synonymous with National Socialism and some of the other symbols still carry a negative post-World War II stigma in some Western countries, to the point where some of the symbols are banned from display altogether.
NSDAP Parteiadler eagle.The Nazis used the swastika for their uniforms and copied the Italian Fascists' uniforms, with an eagle clutching a wreathed swastika instead of a fasces, and a Nazi flag arm sash on the left arm section of the uniform for party members.
Flag of the National Socialist German Workers' Party (NSDAP), bearing the swastika, the premier symbol of Nazism which remains strongly associated with it in the Western world.
Other fascist countries largely copied the symbolism of the Italian Fascists and German Nazis for their movements. Like them, their uniforms looked typically like military uniforms with Nationalist type insignia of the movement. The Spanish Falange adopted dark blue shirts for their party members, symbolizing Spanish workers, many of whom wore blue shirts. Berets were also used, representing their Carlist supporters. The Spanish Blue Division expeditionary volunteers sent to the Eastern Front of WW2 in (relatively indirect) support of the Germans likewise wore blue shirts, berets and their army trousers.
FASCISM IN GERMANY• He referred to “Aryans” as a superior people who came from
Europe’s original racial stock that traced its ancestry to the Indo-Europeans who began migrating from western Asia around 20000 BCE.
• Nazism appealed to members of the lower-middle classes, many of whom had lost almost everything they had as Germany’s economy collapsed.
• Hitler’s new order required all to subject their will to the government in order to achieve greatness, and the rigid hierarchy that emerged included the reinforcement of traditional roles for women.
• Whereas communism usually had the effect of elevating the status of women through its emphasis on equality, fascist regimes generally limited women’s rights.
– Nazis were alarmed by the declining birth rate spurred by demographic transition in Germany, and they launched a campaign to increase births to strengthen the country.
– Abortions were outlawed, birth control centers were closed, and information about family planning became nonexistent.
– Women with large numbers of children were given special awards, and propaganda extolled the virtues of motherhood.
– Despite these efforts, birth rates remained low, since the demands of urban life made large numbers of children impractical for most families.
After becoming the leader of the National Socialist German Workers’ Party (the Nazis) Adolf Hitler was imprisoned by the German government for staging an attempted coup d-etat. During the nine months that he spent in prison he wrote the first volume of his major work, Mein Kampf (My Struggle). The book excerpt below, explained his racist doctrines that eventually guided his policies and actions as the German Fuhrer (dictator)
“All the great civilizations of the past died out because contamination of their blood caused them to become decadent… In other words, in order to protect a certain culture, the type of human who created the culture must be preserved. But such preservation is tied to the inalterable law of the necessity and the right of victory of the best and the strongest…What we see before us today as human culture, all the yields of art, science, and technology, are almost exclusively the creative product of the Aryans. Indeed, this fact alone leads to the not unfounded conclusion that the Aryan alone is the founder of the higher type of humanity, and further that he represents the prototype of what we understand by the word: MAN… [whose spirit] has permitted humans to ascend the path of mastery over the other beings of the earth. Eliminate him and deep darkness will again descend on the earth after a few thousand years; human civilization will die out and the earth will become a desert…. The Jew provides the greatest contrast to the Aryan… the Jews lack the most basic characteristics of a truly cultured people, namely an idealistic spirit.”
FASCISM IN GERMANY• Nazism also drew on theories of scientific racism from
the 19th century to establish its plan to suppress Germany’s Jewish population.
• According to Hitler’s theories, Jews were not from Aryan stock because their Semantic language was not derivative from Indo-European languages, such as Greek, Latin, Celtic, Persian, Sanskrit, or Balto-Slavonic.
• Starting in the early 1930s, discriminatory laws deprived German Jews of their citizenship and prohibited marriage between Jews and other Germans.
• Jewish civil servants lost their jobs, Jewish professionals lost their non-Jewish clients, and Jewish-owned businesses were seized by the Nazi Party.
• In 1938 many Jews left Germany after the notorious Kristallnacht, or Night of Broken Glass, on November 9-10, when Nazis destroyed thousands of Jewish stores, burned synagogues, and murdered more than 100 Jews.
1933 March 31: Decree of the Berlin city commissioner for health suspends Jewish doctors from the city’s charity services.April 7: Law for the Reestablishment of the Professional Civil Service removes Jews from government service.April 7: Law on the Admission to the Legal Profession forbids the admission of Jews to the bar.April 25: Law against Overcrowding in Schools and Universities limits the number of Jewish students in public schools.July 14: De-Naturalization Law revokes the citizenship of naturalized Jews and “undesirables.”October 4 : Law on Editors bans Jews from editorial posts.
1935 May 21: Army law expels Jewish officers from the army.September 15: Nazi leaders announce the Nuremberg Laws.
1936 January 11: Reich Tax Law forbids Jews to serve as tax-consultants.April 3: Veterinarians Law expels Jews from the veterinary profession.October 15: Ministry of Education bans Jewish teachers from public schools.
1937 April 9: The Mayor of Berlin orders public schools not to admit Jewish children until further notice.
1938 January 5: Law on the Alteration of Family and Personal Names forbids Jews from changing their names.February 5: Law on the Profession of Auctioneer excludes Jews from this occupation.March 18: The Gun Law excludes Jewish gun merchants.April 22: Decree against the Camouflage of Jewish Firms forbids changing the names of Jewish-owned businesses.April 26: Order for the Disclosure of Jewish Assets requires Jews to report all property in excess of 5,000 Reichsmarks.July 11: Reich Ministry of the Interior bans Jews from health spas.August 17: Executive Order on the Law on the Alteration of Family and Personal Names requires Jews to adopt an additional name: "Sara” for women and “Israel” for men.October 3: Decree on the Confiscation of Jewish Property regulates the transfer of assets from Jews to non-Jewish Germans.October 5: The Reich Interior Ministry invalidates all German passports held by Jews. Jews must surrender their old passports, which will become valid only after the letter “J” had been stamped on them.November 12: Decree on the Exclusion of Jews from German Economic Life closes all Jewish-owned businesses.November 15: Reich Ministry of Education expels all Jewish children from public schools.November 28: Reich Ministry of Interior restricts the freedom of movement of Jews.November 29: The Reich Interior Ministry forbids Jews to keep carrier pigeons.December 14: An Executive Order on the Law on the Organization of National Work cancels all state contracts held with Jewish-owned firms.December 21: Law on Midwives bans all Jews from the occupation.
1939 February 21: Decree Concerning the Surrender of Precious Metals and Stones in Jewish Ownership.August I: The President of the German Lottery forbids the sale of lottery tickets to Jews.
COMMUNISM
THE RISE OF STALIN
THE RISE OF STALIN• By 1918 a civil war had broken out in Russia between the White
Army (led by Russian military leaders and funded by the Allied Powers) and the Red Army led by Lenin.
• The Reds won, and in 1920, the community leader, V.I. Lenin, instituted his new Economic Policy, which allowed a great deal of private ownership to exist under a centralized leadership.
• The plan brought relative prosperity to farmers, but it did not promote industrialization. Would Lenin have moved on to a more socialist approach? No one knows, because he died in 1924 before his plans unfolded and before he could name a successor. A power struggle followed, and the “Man of Steel” who won control led the country to the heights of totalitarianism.
• Joseph Stalin placed the Communist Party at the center of control, and allowed no other political parties to compete with it.
1924 – Stalin takes power over Soviet Russia when Lenin dies• Private farms turned into
“collectives”• Multiple families working on
government owned farms• Five Year Plans• 8-13 million died• Totalitarian State
THE RISE OF STALIN• The Politburo, a group of about 12 leaders, ran the country, and their
decisions were carried out by government agencies and departments. The head of the Politburo was the general secretary, who assumed full power as dictator of the country.
• Stalin was the general secretary of the Communist Party from 1927 until his death in 1953, and under his leadership, the U.S.S.R. embarked on an ambitious program of industrial development, and during the 1930s, oil, steel, and electricity became major industries.
• One advantage was that Stalin’s emphasis on internal development insulated the country from the effects of the worldwide depression of the 1930s, leaving the economy in better shape than in most other countries from the effects of the worldwide depression of the 1930s , leaving the economy in better shape than in most other countries by the end of the decade.
• Despite strong anti-communist feelings in the United States, Franklin Roosevelt formally recognized the Soviet Union as a country in 1933. He was motivated in part by the hope fro trade with Russia, as well as by the desire to encourage the Soviets to avoid alliances with Germany or Japan.
1924 – Stalin takes power over Soviet Russia when Lenin dies• Private farms turned into
“collectives”• Multiple families working on
government owned farms• Five Year Plans• 8-13 million died• Totalitarian State
FRANCISCO FRANCO
FRANCISCO FRANCO• 1936-Spanish Civil War breaks out
against Spanish Republic• Hitler and Mussolini backed Franco• Americans remained neutral
– Abraham Lincoln Battalion-3,000• Russians sent advisors against
Franco• 1939-Won civil war and
established a fascist-totalitarian government
GUERNIKA BY PABLO PICASSO
Probably Picasso's most famous work, Guernica is certainly the his most powerful political statement, painted as an immediate reaction to the Nazi's devastating casual bombing practice on the Basque town of Guernica during Spanish Civil War. Guernica shows the tragedies of war and the suffering it inflicts upon individuals, particularly innocent civilians. This work has gained a monumental status, becoming a perpetual reminder of the tragedies of war, an anti-war symbol, and an embodiment of peace. On completion Guernica was displayed around the world in a brief tour, becoming famous and widely acclaimed. This tour helped bring the Spanish Civil War to the world's attention. Interpretations of Guernica vary widely and contradict one another. Some critics warn against trusting the political message in Guernica. For instance the rampaging bull, a major motif of destruction here, has previouse figured, whether as a bull or Minotaur, as Picasso' ego. However, in this instance the bull probably represents the onslaught of Fascism. Picasso said it meant brutality and darkness, presumably reminiscent of his prophetic. He also stated that the horse represented the people of Guernica.
THE RISE OF JAPAN
THE RISE OF JAPAN• During the last decades of the 19th century, a new regime called the Meiji
Restoration transformed Japan from a relatively isolated feudal society into a modern industrial country.
• The new rulers, oligarchs (several leaders), wanted to protect Japan from being taken over by western countries, but they also believed that western modernization was necessary if Japan was to become a world power.
• They organized a government based on models from Britain and Germany, although the oligarchs favored the German emphasis on a strong military.
• A major goal of the oligarchs was to industrialize Japan as quickly as possible, and their promotion of private enterprise led to rapid industrial development, although the onset of the Great Depression crippled the new prosperity.
• The regime turned more authoritarian as it sought to stave off the ill effects of the Depression. Whereas most Japanese preferred moderate political parties, the 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 in 1931, proclaiming the region to be independent from China. In 1932 the military leadership was responsible for killing the prime minister, and by 1937 Japan’s military rulers began aggressively attacking other areas of Asia.
The Great Depression hit Japan hard
Military takes control• 1932-Military
dictatorship• Wanted an overseas
empire for natural resources
• Invaded Manchuria set up “Manchukuo”
• Hideki Tojo becomes Prime Minister
• Emperor Hirohito used as a puppet
Manchuria Under Japanese Control: “Manchukuo”: The Newborn Empire c. 1937
DEMISE OF THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS
DEMISE OF THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS• Unfortunately, the League of Nations was doomed almost from the start and it could not stop the
onset of World War II, even though 26 of the original 42 members were non-European, signaling a truly international organization.
• One problem was that the League had no power to enforce its decisions, and so even though international disputes were arbitrated, countries that did not want to comply did not have to.
• Another issue was the principle of collective security, or the agreement that if any of the member nations of the League were attacked, the others were bound to give military aid. This clause had been the main reason that the United States refused to join the League, a decision that weakened the organization even before it formally organized.
• During the 1930s, the economic depression increased the tension in Europe as Hitler, Mussolini, and Japan’s military leaders sought to boost their prestige and avoid economic catastrophe. These leaders all wanted to expand their empires, and they were undeterred by the League of Nations’ efforts to stop them. Many political leaders in France and Britain sought to avoid war through negotiation, since they believed that the powers had rushed too quickly into World War I.
DEMISE OF THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS• Inspired by its defeat of Russia in the Russo-Japanese War, Japan occupied German lands in east
Asia after World War I, and invaded Manchuria in 1931. Since China claimed Manchuria, the country’s leaders appealed to the League of Nations to help control Japanese aggression.
• The League condemned the Japanese attack, but the powers refused to impose sanctions. Japan reacted by withdrawing from the League and keeping control of Manchuria.
• In 1937, Japan attacked China south of Manchuria, justifying the attack as an attempt to liberate the region from Western imperialism.
• President Franklin Roosevelt embargoed U.S. exports of airplane parts to Japan, and later put stringent economic sanctions o crucial materials for Japanese industry (oil and raw industrial materials).
• However, the western powers did not effectively check Japan’s territorial expansion in Asia.• Like Japanese leaders, Mussolini and Hitler rode the waves of nationalism, playing on their citizens’
beliefs that their countries suffered at the hands of the old imperialist powers –Britain and France. Hitler demanded Lebensraum, or living space for the Aryan race to be taken from Slaves and Bolsheviks, who he viewed as inferior people.
DEMISE OF THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS• In 1933, Germany withdrew from the League of Nations, and in 1935 Hitler denounced the
clauses of the Versailles Treaty that limited German military strength and began to publicly rearm the country.
• In defiance of the Versailles Treaty, Hitler sent his troops to the Rhineland in 1936. • In 1935, Mussolini invaded Ethiopia, one of the few African states that remained
independent after imperialist takeovers of the continent during the 19th century. • The attack was intended to establish Italy as an imperialist power, and although the
Ethiopians put up strong resistance, their capital, Addis Ababa, fell in 1936. The League of Nations imposed an embargo on Italy, but France and Britain would not support any strict sanctions, so Italy remained in control of Ethiopia.
THE UNITED STATES IN A MENACING
WORLD
UNITED STATES CLAIMS NEUTRALITY• Isolationism• Claims that arms dealers and
bankers dragged U.S. into WWI• ND Senator Gerald Nye
– Nye committee - ’Merchants of Death”
• 1935-Neutrality Acts (3)– Outlawed sales of arms and
loans to nations at war/civil war
THE U.S. IN A MENACING WORLD• As conditions deteriorated in Europe and Japan marched on China, many Americans clung
to traditional reliance on isolationism.• Some feared higher taxes and increased executive power if the nation went to war again,
and others worried that domestic problems might go unresolved as the nation spent more on the military.
• The vast majority of isolationists opposed fascism and condemned aggression, but they though that blocking Hitler was the responsibility of other European powers.
• Pacifism spread on college campuses, where thousands of students took part in a “Strike for peace” in 1935.
• Just as in pre-World War I era, ethnicity played a role in shaping attitudes toward events in Europe.
– German and Italian Americans often approved of the expansion of national power in their countries of origin, even when they rejected their dictatorial governments.
– Irish-Americans remained strongly Anti-British.
THE U.S. IN A MENACING WORLD• Reflecting the popular desire to stay out of Europe’s disputes, President Roosevelt signed a
series of neutrality acts designed to avoid the conflicts over freedom of the seas that had contributed to involvement in World War I.
– The Neutrality Act of 1935 outlawed arms shipments to either side of the war.– The Neutrality Act of 1936 forbade loans to countries at war.
• In 1937, Congress introduced the cash-and-carry principle: warring nations wishing to trade with the United States would have to pay cash for their nonmilitary purchases and carry goods from the U.S. in their own ships.
• President Roosevelt expressed support for the isolationist point of view by declaring that the U.S. would not become involved in the European conflict, even though he disapproved of the aggressive behavior of Germany, Italy, and Japan, whom he dubbed the “three bandit nations.”
– However, he included in his New Deal public works programs funding for the construction of new warships, and in 1935 the president requested the largest peacetime defense budget in American history.
AMERICAN NEUTRALITY - CASH & CARRY• 1939-“Cash and Carry”
policy– Congress still
isolationist– Policy allowed for
weapons to be paid for in cash by allies at war and weapons had to be transported on their own ships
• Prevented German U-Boat aggression
BEGINNING OF THE END FOR NEUTRALITY• Despite Congress’
Neutrality Acts FDR found a way around
– Japan renewed attacks on China in 1937
– Since no “official” declaration of war FDR sold weapons to China
• Called for “quarantine”• 1941-Lend Lease Act
• In 1940, breaking with the tradition that dated back to George Washington, Roosevelt decided to run for a third term as president.
– He insisted that the international situation was too dangerous and domestic recovery too uncertain for him to leave office.
– Republicans choose Wall Street businessman Wendell Willkie to oppose him, but Wilkie agreed with many of Roosevelt’s initiatives, including the nation’s first peacetime draft and most of the New Deal social legislation.
– Despite Roosevelt’s bold break from tradition by running for a third term, he won the election easily, although with a narrower margin than in 1936.
• 1940 - FDR breaks with tradition and runs for a third term
– Support Britain– Stay out of war
• Wendell Willkie (R-challenger) same positions
THE U.S. IN A MENACING WORLD
DEFENDING THE U.S.• Selective Training and Service Act (1940)
– First peacetime draft– 21-35– 16 million registered– 1 million to serve-only in
Western Hemisphere
THE ONSET OF WAR
EUROPE AFTER WWI
THE ONSET OF WAR• In 1938, Hitler invaded the Sudetenland, a German-speaking part of Czechoslovakia, and the
Munich Conference among European powers was called to address Czechoslovakia’s protests.
– The response from Britain and France was weak, as they agreed on British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain’s appeasement policy, which allowed Germany to keep the Sudetenland in return for Hitler’s promise to cease his aggression.
– However, Hitler did not keep his word, and he went on to capture all of Czechoslovakia in March 1939.
– In August, Germany and the U.S.S.R. signed a nonaggression agreement that provided that if one country became embroiled in war, the other country would remain neutral.
– Additionally, Stalin and Hitler secretly agreed to divide Poland and the Baltic States - Latvia, Estonia, and Lithuania - at some future date.
– The Nazi-Soviet Pact ensured that Germany would not have to fight a two-front war as it had in World War I.
• France and Great Britain promised to protect the Czech Republic
• Hitler invited Neville Chamberlain (GB) and Edouard Daladier (France) to Munich
• Annexation of Sudetenland would be last demand
• Appeasement-Giving up principles for peace or the “greater good”
• “Peace in our time.”– Neville Chamberlain
MUNICH AGREEMENT-1938
WINSTON CHURCHILL AND APPEASEMENT• Winston Churchill
– Not pleased with Chamberlain
– Warned Hitler not finished• Appeasement-Giving up
principles for peace or the “greater good”
FALL OF AUSTRIA AND CZECHOSLOVAKIA1. Austria-
– Over half German speaking– March 12, 1938– Anschluss = Union
2. Czechoslovakia-– 3 million Germans lived in
Sudetenland– Claimed Czech Republic
abusing those Germans
GERMAN OFFENSIVE1. March 15, 1939-Germans invade Czechoslovakia2. Hitler turns to Poland/September 1, 1939-Hitler invades
Poland– Potential war with GB, France and Russia– Uses Blitzkrieg-Lightning War
• Combination of air and ground assault• Fast and powerful• Luftwaffe
– September 3-France and Great Britain declare war on Germany-WWII begun
3. August 1939-Stalin signs Non-Aggression Pact with Hitler
– Does not have to fight a two front war
BLITZKRIEG
THE ONSET OF WARSince he had no resistance up till then, Hitler attacked Poland on September 1, 1939, hoping that Britain and perhaps even France would not fight. However, this action was so provocative that it resulted in a formal declaration of war by Britain and France on Germany.
Germany and Italy joined together in an alliance called the Rome-Berlin Axis as Mussolini declared that the rest of Europe would revolve around the central pact between these two countries.
THE ONSET OF WAR• By the time that war began in Europe, fighting was already underway in Asia between Japan
and China.• Skirmishes broke out in 1937 in the Beijing areas as Japanese forces occupied cities and
railroads in eastern China.• Although the conflict drifted into a long-lasting stalemate in China, Japan used the outbreak
of war in Europe as a reason to attack other areas in Asia, seizing Indochina from French troops and attacking British Malaya and Burma.
• In 1940 the two remaining areas of fighting came together when Germany, Italy, and Japan signed the Tripartite Pact that united the three countries as leaders of the Axis Powers.
• Even though Japan never cooperated closely with Germany and Italy, the alliance clearly spread the war into two major theatres: the Pacific and Europe.
• Whereas much of World War I was fought along fairly well-defined fronts, the areas of fighting were much broader in World War II, spreading from Hawaii to the South Pacific and East Asia, and from North Africa across the Mediterranean over most of Europe.
THE LEND-LEASE PLAN
LEND LEASE• 1941 Lend Lease Act
– Britain out of cash– FDR would lend weapons to
countries whose defense was vital to the U.S.
– 1941 Hitler invades Russia against the 1939 Non-Aggression Pact
– FDR begins Lend Lease with Russia
THE LEND-LEASE PLAN• As war tensions increased between 1937 and 1939, Britain and France did little to prepare for
war since both countries were still feeling the debilitating effects of World War I and had little appetite for another conflict.
• Only in late 1938 did Britain begin an expansion of its army and aircraft production that proved to be important in defending the island, and to shore up the military, Britain turned to the United States for help.
– Roosevelt responded with the controversial lend-lease plan.– He announced the plan at a press conference on December 17, 1940, explaining that the
United States would lend or lease military supplies to Britain for the duration of the war, and then, when peace came, Britain was to return the materials to the United States.
– This policy would allow aid to Britain to continue even though Britain was reaching the point where its government no longer had the money to pay for war supplies.
– Despite strong opposition to the plan, Congress passed the Lend-Lease Act in March 1941, beginning with an appropriation of $7 billion that increased rapidly.
Roosevelt’s Explanation of the Lend-Lease ActTHE LEND-LEASE PLAN“Suppose my neighbor’s home catches on fire, and I have a length of garden hose four or five hundred feet away. If he can take my garden hose and connect up with his fire hydrant, I may help him put out his fire. Now what do I do? I don’t say to him before that operation, ‘Neighbor, my garden hose cost me $15; you have to pay me $15 for it.” What is the transaction that goes on? I don’t want $15 - I want my garden hose back after the fire is over. All right. If it goes through the fire all right, intact, without any damage to it, he gives it back to me and thanks me very much for the use of it.”
• To ensure the safe delivery of lend-lease goods, Roosevelt ordered the U.S. Navy to patrol halfway across the Atlantic, and he sent American troops to Greenland and Iceland, where they helped British forces to keep the strategic island free from German invasion.
• In Europe, the way expanded as Italian troops invaded Greece and Romania fell under German control.
• In the spring of 1941, Axis troops invaded Yugoslavia, and
in June, Hitler declared war on the Soviet Union, breaking the non-aggression pact the two nations had signed in 1939.
• The Soviets then joined the Allies, and American lend-lease was extended to them.
THE ATLANTIC CHARTER AND
SUBMARINE WARFARE
ATLANTIC CHARTER• Atlantic Charter-• Winston Churchill (GB) and FDR
(U.S.) meet secretly aboard USS Augusta
• FDR states that he cannot declare war but would do “everything to force an incident.”
– Ordered shoot on sight against German U-boats
– Allies-Those powers fighting against the Axis
THE ATLANTIC CHARTERIn August 1941, Roosevelt met secretly with Winston Churchill, who had become the British prime minister in May 1940. At their meeting in 1941 on a ship in Argentia Bay off Newfoundland, they drew up the Atlantic Charter, which listed goals for the world once the war was over.• The two leaders endorsed Wilsonian principles, such as collective security,
disarmament, self-determination, economic cooperation, and freedom of the seas.• Although the United States had not officially joined the war, Roosevelt endorsed
Britain’s war aims by signing the Charter, which called openly for the “final destruction of the Nazi tyranny.”
THE ATLANTIC CHARTER AUGUST 14, 1941The President of the United States of America and the Prime Minister, Mr. Churchill, representing His Majesty's Government in the United Kingdom, being met together, deem it right to make known certain common principles in the national policies of their respective countries on which they base their hopes for a better future for the world.
• First, their countries seek no aggrandizement, territorial or other;• Second, they desire to see no territorial changes that do not accord with the freely expressed wishes of the peoples concerned;• Third, they respect the right of all peoples to choose the form of government under which they will live; and they wish to see sovereign
rights and self government restored to those who have been forcibly deprived of them;• Fourth, they will endeavor, with due respect for their existing obligations, to further the enjoyment by all States, great or small, victor or
vanquished, of access, on equal terms, to the trade and to the raw materials of the world which are needed for their economic prosperity;
• Fifth, they desire to bring about the fullest collaboration between all nations in the economic field with the object of securing, for all, improved labor standards, economic advancement and social security;
• Sixth, after the final destruction of the Nazi tyranny, they hope to see established a peace which will afford to all nations the means of dwelling in safety within their own boundaries, and which will afford assurance that all the men in all lands may live out their lives in freedom from fear and want;
• Seventh, such a peace should enable all men to traverse the high seas and oceans without hindrance;• Eighth, they believe that all of the nations of the world, for realistic as well as spiritual reasons must come to the abandonment of the
use of force. Since no future peace can be maintained if land, sea or air armaments continue to be employed by nations which threaten, or may threaten, aggression outside of their frontiers, they believe, pending the establishment of a wider and permanent system of general security, that the disarmament of such nations is essential. They will likewise aid and encourage all other practicable measure which will lighten for peace-loving peoples the crushing burden of armaments.
Franklin D. RooseveltWinston S. Churchill
Submarine WarfareThe United States became more deeply involved in the war in the fall of 1941 when submarine warfare in the Atlantic became intense.• After a German submarine attacked an American cruiser off Newfoundland, Roosevelt -
in a move to make significant changes in the Neutrality Act of 1939 - issued a “shoot on sight” order to United States naval commanders in American coastal warfare.
• American naval vessels began to convoy merchant ships as far as Iceland. • After German submarines torpedoed two American destroyers, Congress approved
Roosevelt’s demands that armed American merchant vessels could take their cargoes directly to Allied ports.
• From the Axis point of view, the United States was no longer a neutral country, but the Germans did not initiate the action that finally pushed the U.S. to declare war.
• Instead, such action came from Japan half a world away from the Atlantic Ocean’s submarine warfare.
PEARL HARBOR
JAPAN READIES FOR WAR1. 1937-Hideki Tojo launches Japanese invasion into China from Manchuria2. 1941-European powers too busy fighting Hitler
– Japan takes French and British imperialist colonies of Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos (Indochina)
3. U.S. protests actions and cuts of oil and scrap metal trade– Japanese fear loss of resources and take more territory
4. General/Prime Minister Hideki Tojo informs Emperor Hirohito that he will try and preserve peace with the U.S.
5. November 5, 1941-Tojo orders Navy to prepare for an attack6. U.S. cracks Japanese codes and knows an attack is coming but does not know when7. FDR warns commands at Hawaii, Philippines, Guam 8. December 6, 1941 Japan breaks all diplomatic communication with U.S.
PEARL HARBORThe United States came into conflict with japanese expansionist policies primarily because of its relationship with China. • After japan captured Manchuria in 1932 and launched a full-scale invasion of China,
Roosevelt harshly denounced these actions, and refused to renew a ten-year trade treaty with japan in 1940.
• As a result, japan found it increasingly difficult to buy military supplies, so it turned to new allies and signed an alliance with Germany and Italy to form the Axis coalition.
• The United States then stopped all shipments of steel and scrap iron to japan, forcing japan to extend its search for military supplies.
• In july, 1941, japan invaded farther into China, aiming to capture the rich oil reserves of the nearby Dutch East Indies (present-day Indonesia). The United States cut off shipments of aviation fuel and warned the japanese that they must halt their aggression.
• The American embargo threatened to hamper japanese plans for military conquest, and when a more militant group of leaders gained control of the government in October 1941, they began to plan an attack on the United States.
AXIS POWERS• September 27, 1940 • Tripartite Pact-Germany, Italy
and Japan sign peace treaty• Become known as the Axis
Powers• Used to keep U.S. out of the war
since it would force a two front/ocean war
PEARL HARBORJapanese diplomats had little success in negotiating with officials in Washington, who insisted that the U.S. would open its supplies of oil to the japanese only if they gave uprecent territorial gains.• Japanese leaders decided their best hope was to strike quickly in order to cripple the United
States long enough to allow japan to carve an empire in Southeast Asia.
How U.S. Economic Warfare Provoked Japan’s Attack on Pearl Harbor
JAPANESE FIGHTERS AND CARRIERS AT PEARL HARBOR
“Kate” Torpedo Bomber“Zero” Fighter
Akagi class carrier
ATTACK ON PEARL HARBOR-DEC. 7, 1941
THE NATURE OF THE WAR
THE NATURE OF WAR• Like World War I, World War II was a total war in which vast resources and emotional
commitments of civilians supported massive military efforts. Mobilization for war was extensive and required government control of natural and labor resources.
• The steadily more destructive technologies of World War I - battleships, tanks, poison gas, machine guns, and long-range artillery - were used in World War II, along with airplanes, aircraft carriers, new bombing technology, rockets, and ultimately the atomic bomb.
• Since the areas of fighting were so much greater in World War II, the increasingly sophisticated technology insured that the war would be far more destructive than any other in history.
• World War II also saw the blurring of the distinction between military personnel and civilians, so that whole civilian populations not only supported the war, but were also subject to its destruction.
• Bombing raids were launched on cities, killing large numbers of civilians, and the final actions of the war - dropping atomic bombs on Nagasaki and Hiroshima - targeted civilian populations.
SOLDIER UNIFORMS
UNITED STATES NAZI - GERMAN
WEAPONSUnited States Nazi
THE NATURE OF WAR• An important aspect of total war during World War II was the Holocaust, a mass
extermination of targeted people by Nazi Germany. The first victims were Jews who were sent in huge numbers to extermination camps in southern Germany and eastern Europe in what Hitler called the “final solution to the Jewish problem.”
• This genocide - the wholesale murder of an entire people - took place in the camps, where modern industrial methods were used to execute people by asphyxiation with poison gas and dispose of their bodies by cremation in large ovens.
• Some became victims of “medical experiments” in which they were tortured or killed, and others worked in camps until they starved to death.
• By the end of the war, about 6,000,000 Jews were exterminated and the executions extended to many others judged to threaten the purity of the Aryan race - such as gypsies, homosexuals, Polish Catholics, and the mentally and physically disabled.
WAR IN EUROPE AND AFRICA
WAR IN EUROPE AND NORTH AFRICA• In World War I, defensive fighting characterized the Western Front, so in World War II the
Germans took advantage of new motorized technology to benefit from offensive movements.
• Their warfare was called blitzkrieg (“lightning war”) that involved three carefully synchronized steps:
– First, fighter planes scattered enemy troops and disrupted communications– Second, tanks rolled over enemy defense lines– Third, the infantry invaded and actually occupied the targeted land
• Blitzkrieg forced the surrender of Poland, Austria, Norway, Denmark, and Belgium within the early days of the war, and France quickly collapsed to German attack in mid-1940.
FALL OF FRANCE• Maginot Line fails• Germany from the North, Italy from the
South• 400,000 British and French soldiers flee
Dunkirk• Germany would control northern France • Until 1944, France was ruled by Germans
in Paris and a southern puppet government in Vichy controlled by Germany, although French Resistance troops staged guerrilla attacks in the southern half o f the country where German troops were less entrenched.
BATTLE OF BRITAIN
• Summer of 1940• Started to plan invasion of Great
Britain but could not compete with naval power
• Germany launched an air war to soften Great Britain
• Royal Air Force (RAF) fought Luftwaffe– Radar
• The quick defeat of France in 1940 left Britain essentially alone in resisting Germany until Russia and the United States joined the war in 1941.
• Britain was protected from Germany’s lightning war tactics because it was an island, and under the leadership of Winston Churchill, Britain withstood a massive air attack from the German Luftwaffe (air force) that lasted from June through September.
• In this Battle of Britain, the British Royal Air Force successfully counterattacked German planes, using the new technology of radar to detect the enemy’s approach.
WAR IN EUROPE AND NORTH AFRICA• Unable to defeat Britain, Hitler turned eastward to Russia even though he had signed a
nonaggression pact with Stalin in 1939. • In reaction to his 1941 attack - the largest in history- Russia hastily joined the war on the
side of the Allies, but within five months the German army conquered the Baltic states, Ukraine, and half of European Russia.
• However, Hitler suffered the same fate that Napoleon had experienced more than 100 years earlier: the weather turned cold, supply lines became overextended, and his army was so seriously diminished that his summer of 1942 attack on Stalingrad (now Volgograd) failed.
• Since Russia had joined on the side of the Allies after Hitler’s invasion, the victory of Stalingrad was the first major Allied victory of the war.
WAR IN EUROPE AND NORTH AFRICA• After the United States joined the war in late 1941, the U.S. and Britain planned a strategy
of striking the Axis from northern Africa, at the “soft underbelly” of Europe in Italy, clearly the weaker of the two European Axis powers.
• The British victory in October 1942 at El Alamein in northern Egypt was achieved partially because of the Allies’ ability to break German codes.
• The following month, 400,000 British, Canadian, French, and American soldiers landed at various points on the coast of North Africa.
• This campaign, called Operation Torch, was a test for coordinated Allied planning, and an American, General Dwight D. Eisenhower, was joint commander of the troops that finally expelled the German army from Africa in May 1943. From there Allied armies captured Sicily and invaded Italy.
THE WAR IN ASIA AND THE PACIFIC
MAP OF THE PACIFIC THEATRE
THE WAR IN ASIA AND THE PACIFIC• Once France fell to Hitler’s invasion in 1940 and Britain was
busy defending its territory from german air attack, the Japanese saw their opportunity to seize European colonies in Southeast Asia.
• Britain and the United States responded by stopping shipments of steel and oil to Japan.
• After Pearl Harbor, the American fleet of warships was decimated by losses at the naval base there, and the Japanese were able to capture Hong Kong, Singapore, Thailand, the Philippines, and Malaya by March 1942.
• In the Philippines in 1942, Japanese soldiers forced half-starved American and Filipino prisoners to walk 65 miles, clubbing, shooting, and starving 10,000 of them. The Bataan Death March inspired the American Commander, Douglas MacArthur to famously promise, “I shall return,” an often repeated mantra that boosted American morale.
• 80,000 Filipino and American troops battled the Japanese
• General MacArthur leader of American forces
• Ordered to leave March 11, 1942
BATAAN DEATH MARCH
THE WAR IN ASIA AND THE PACIFIC• The Americans were able to stop the Japanese at a great sea/air battle in the Coral Sea
northeast of Australia May 1942, protecting Australia from japanese invasion.• The next month the Japanese lost four of its six large aircraft carriers at the Battle of
Midway, west of Hawaii, and the U.S. navy and air forces began an “island hopping” campaign to capturing key islands in the Pacific while making their way slowly toward Japan.
• Australia was saved as a base for allied operations in the Pacific, and the last Japanese attempt to begin a new offensive ended at Guadalcanal in the fall of 1942.
• In the island-hopping campaign, Americans sent their carriers and bombers to sea to attack carefully selected Japanese-held islands, usually the more weakly defensed ones in any chain. Once one island was captured, it could be used as a base for attacking Japanese islands on all sides
DOOLITTLE’S RAID• April 18, 1942• 16 bombers to attack Japan
mainland for revenge of Pearl Harbor
• Let the Japanese know we were still in the fight
BATTLE OF CORAL SEA• Americans and Australians main Pacific Allied
force• May 1942-
– 5 day fight• Carrier based aircraft fought to push back a
Japanese invasion fleet
Corsair
Hellcat
BATTLE OF MIDWAY• U.S. broke the Japanese
code-Midway Is. would be next
• Admiral Chester Nimitz commanded the Pacific fleet
• June 3, 1942• U.S. fighters and torpedo
bombers find Japanese fleet• Japanese losses-
– 4 carriers– 1 cruiser– 250 planes
THE END OF THE WAR
THE END OF THE WAR• The Battle of Stalingrad in 1942 was a major turning point of the war in Europe, and by 1943 the
Russian army began pushing the Germans westward. • In western and southern Europe, the United States, Britain, and other Allies staged two invasions:
one across the Mediterranean Sea to Italy in 1943, and the other across the English Channel to the coast of Normandy in June 1944.
• In July 1943, Benito Mussolini was removed from office, and Italy signed an armistice in September. However, the Germans still held the territory north of Naples, and it took another nine months of difficult fighting before Rome was taken.
• By the spring of 1943, the Allies had the upper hand in the Atlantic, ending much of the threat to Allied shipping.
– From then on, Britain could be supplied, and American troops could be transported across the Atlantic. American ships brought war materials as well, and American airbases and bombers helped Britain defend against Axis raids and coordinate bombing attacks on the Continent.
• Although most German factories escaped destruction, the Allies managed to destroy German highways, rail lines, and oil refineries, creating difficulties in furnishing German tanks, trucks, and airplanes with fuel.
D-Day and V-E
OPERATION OVERLORD
• United States given command under Gen. Dwight Eisenhower
• Combined sea and air invasion of the beaches in Normandy, France
– 3.5 Million Allied soldiers– 10,000 casualties, 6,600
American lives lost
• An important milestone occurred on D-Day, June 6, 1944, when the Allied invasion of France - known as “Operation Overlord” - succeeded. Eisenhower, the Allied commander in Chief, supervised planning this massive undertaking, the largest amphibious landing in the world’s history with more than 4,600 vessels and 167,000 Allied troops landing on several beaches on the coast of Normandy, France.
• Despite heavy Germany resistance, the Allies made their way to Paris by August.
• From there, the Allies advanced from Belgium where they decisively defeated the Germans at the Battle of the Bulge.
• As Britain and the United States - now joined by French forces - marched east across Germany, the Russians marched west, and the two armies met at the Elbe River, signifying the conquest of Germany. On May 7, 1945, (V-E Day), a week after Hitler committed suicide, German military leaders surrendered to the Allies.
SECRECY IS KEY• Operation Fortitude
– Fool the Nazis to believe the invasion would take place at Pas-de-Calais– Fake radio chatter and inflatable tanks
INVASION OF NORMANDY – JUNE 6TH, 1944
GERMAN DEFENSES
THE WAR IN THE PACIFIC AND V-J
(VICTORY IN JAPAN) DAY
THE WAR IN THE PACIFIC AND V-J DAY• By 1943, the Japanese advance through Asia and the Pacific was halted, and the Allies could
give more attention to broad strategy.• While the main strategy in the Pacific was “island hopping,” General MacArthur directed
American and Australian forces that slowly fought their way on land across New Guinea. • On the Asian mainland, American planes flew across the Himalayas to supply forces, and
Allied soldiers and engineers carved out the “Burma Road” to supply their invasion of that region.
• In June, 1944, the American navy met the Japanese in the Battle of the Philippines Sea, and in October, American battleships all but destroyed the surviving Japanese navy in the Battle of Leyte Gulf.
• In November, giant bombers based in the Mariana Islands were close enough to launch bombing attacks on the Japanese mainland, and the Philippines were recaptured in February 1945. After the war in Europe ended in May, the war in the Pacific continued until August, with a formal Japanese surrender signed in early September.
• By early 1945, U.S. forces had island-hopped their way to Iwo Jima and Okinawa, two islands south of Japan. After bitter fighting the U.S. took the islands and prepared for an invasion of Japan.
ISLAND HOPPING AND THE BATTLE OF LEYTE GULF• Island Hopping• August 1942-• Guadalcanal first Japanese defeat on
land• October 1944-• Leyte Gulf (Philippines)
– Bulk of remaining Japanese fleet– 178,000 Allied troops– 738 ships
• “People of the Philippines: I have returned.”
– MacArthur
IWO JIMA• Iwo Jima-Critical for heavy bombers to reach
mainland• Defended by 20,000+ Japanese soldiers
– Only 200 would be left• 6,000 Marines lost their lives
OKINAWA• Final assault before the mainland• April 1945• 1,900 Kamikaze-”Divine Wind”• U.S. losses
– 30 ships sunk– 300 ships damaged– 5,000 sailors died
• June 21, 1945– 7,600 American dead– 110,000 Japanese dead
THE WAR IN THE PACIFIC AND V-J DAY• Despite heavy losses, the Japanese showed no willingness to surrender.• The army drew up a plan to land troops in Japan, which predicted heavy casualties on both
sides.• After President Roosevelt’s death in April 1945, it fell to the new president Harry Truman, to
authorize the use of America’s neweest weapon of war, the atomic bomb.• Developed in the strictest secrecy in carefully guarded laboratories, the bomb was intended to
convince the Japanese that there was no hope in continuing to fight.• Truman gave the Japanese one last ultimatum, warning the enemy that it faced “prompt and
utter destruction,” and then on AUgust 6, 1945, the United States dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima, killing 80,000 people immediately, and leaving another 120,000 to die from the after-effects of burns and radiation.
• Three days later, a second bomb was dropped on Nagasaki, and Emperor Hirohito of Japan ordered surrendered on August 14. On September 2 (V-J Day), Allied and Japanese commanders signed a treaty of surrender on the battleship Missouri in Tokyo Bay, effectively ending World War II.
MANHATTAN PROJECT AND V-J DAY• Mainland Japan would be worse than
Okinawa (1+ million lives est.)• Manhattan Project
– 600,000 workers but kept secret– July 16, 1945 first test @ Alamogordo,
N.M.– July 25, 1945 Truman orders two
bombs to be used– “I regarded the bomb as a military
weapon…any doubt it should be used.”
• Truman
B-29 Super Fortress
THE ATOMIC BOMB
Fat ManNagasaki8/9/45
Little BoyHiroshima8/6/45
Victims
The explosion
The destruction
OCCUPATION OF JAPAN• MacArthur placed in command of
the occupation• 1,100 Japanese soldiers placed on
trial for war crimes– Tojo found guilty and put to
death• Occupation lasted 7 years• Wrote a new Constitution for Japan
– Free market– Representative – Women's’ rights
RETURNING HOME
CONSEQUENCES OF WAR
CONSEQUENCES OF WAR• World War II marked the end of European domination of the globe and the rise of a new
configuration of power in which the United States played a vital role. • The war was the most widespread, deadliest in world history, illustrating the powers unleashed
by technologies of the industrial era.• It raised moral issues, such as the treatment of victims in concentration camps and the use of
the atomic bomb to target civilian populations.• By the mid-20th century, the interdependence of the nations of the world was greater than it
had ever been before, as two superpowers - the United States and the Soviet Union - emerged to compete for control of technological knowledge and assert their hegemonic power over most of the world.
