The Largest, Costliest, and Deadliest Conflict WHAP/Napp

“Hitler continued to rearm. The building of the autobahns or motor highways and the recovery of the automobile industry did almost as much as rearmament to abolish unemployment in Germany. German morale and self-respect soared. In March 1938 Hitler’s troops entered Austria. In October he suddenly occupied the German-speaking part of Czechoslovakia. France and Britain did not rush to help the 15 million Czechs, and this inertia emboldened Hitler peacefully to occupy the remainder of their country. Bluff and bravado were as much his weapons as were armed forces. Page by page, he had torn up the Versailles treaty. The main loser of the First World War had recovered most of its territorial losses inside Europe.

In explaining why the treaty signed at Versailles in 1919 eventually failed, it is often argued that it was unjust, and being unjust it had fallen apart. But the history of the world does not offer persuasive evidence that an unjust treaty is normally reversed. A war is won primarily by military means: the victorious peace is likewise maintained by threat and implied force. Without doubt the punishment imposed on Germany in 1919 was harsh by European standards, but far less harsh than the peace terms that were to be imposed in 1945. By and large the Versailles treaty was undermined not primarily because it was unfair but because the victors lacked the unanimity and strength to uphold and enforce it.

The new war began in 1939 with Hitler’s invasion of Poland. The Soviet Union joined the invasion. Poland was crushed before France and Britain could give it the aid they had promised. In the years 1940 and 1941, Hitler captured nearly all of central and western Europe except for Italy and Romania, who were allies, and Spain, Portugal, Turkey, Sweden and Switzerland, who were neutral. He caught Stalin by surprise and invaded Russia, and late in 1941 his advance guard reached the outskirts of Moscow. But the further the Germans advanced, the more their supply lines were vulnerable. Hitler’s invasion of Russia proved to be the slow turning point in a war which hitherto favored him.

The Second World War consisted of two distinct wars, one fought mainly in Europe and the other fought mainly in eastern Asia. The Asian war was earlier. It began when Japan invaded Manchuria in 1932, and became more intense in 1937 when Japan and China began to fight on the plains of northern China. Within a year Japan held the eastern half of China and had hope of capturing the remainder, but supply lines became longer and more vulnerable.” ~ A Short History of the World

1-How did Hitler violate the terms of the Treaty of Versailles? ______

2-According to the author, why did the Treaty of Versailles fail? ______

3-Discuss Hitler’s actions during the Second World War. ______

4-What were the two distinct wars of the Second World War? ______

5-What were the causes of the Second World War? ______

Notes:
  1. World War II (September 1939 – September 1945)
  1. Largest, costliest, and deadliest armed conflict in human history
  2. The Axis Powers – Nazi Germany, Fascist Italy, and Japan
  3. The Allied Powers were Great Britain, Soviet Union, and United States, etc.
  4. Between 55 million and 60 million people were killed during war
  5. Also twelve million victims – 6 million Jewish, 6 million non-Jewish – perished in German campaign of racial extermination known as Holocaust
  6. When over, U.S.A. and U.S.S.R. only superpowers Cold War ensued
  7. And from 1940s through 1970s, a massive wave of decolonization
  8. World War II resulted from straightforward pattern of aggression
  9. Hamstrung by Great Depression, anxious to avoid another global conflict
  10. Letting aggressors have what they wanted, hoping will stopappeasement
  11. League of Nations proved almost useless
  12. And by 1933, Hitler withdrew from the League of Nations
  13. In 1935, Hitler openly rebuilt German military, violating Treaty of Versailles
  14. In 1936, Hitler sent German troops into Rhineland, a demilitarized zone
  15. In 1937, Hitler signed the Anti-Comintern Pact with Italy and Japan
  16. Hitler made public desire for Lebensraum or “living space” for Germany
  17. In 1938, Germany annexed Austria in the Anschluss (“union”)
  18. Hitler also took over Sudetenland which had formerly been German territory and given to Czechoslovakia after World War I
  19. On September 1, 1939, Germany invaded Poland and World War II began
  20. Meanwhile, by 1936, Italy had completed its conquest of Ethiopia
  21. Spain experienced civil war (1936-1939)Franco came to power until 1975
  22. Japan invaded ChinaRape of Nanking
  23. In 1939, Hitler and StalinNazi-Soviet Pact, keeping the USSR neutral
  1. A Different Kind of War
  1. Germany’s Blitzkrieg (“lightning war”), using tanks and airplanes
  2. Britain and France waited for Germany to attack them
  3. Historians refer to winter of 1939 and 1940 as the Sliztkrieg, or “phony war” due to British and French strategy of waiting
  4. Germans attacked France on May 10By June 22, France surrendered
  5. French had been confident that chain of border fortifications, Maginot Line, would protect them but German Blitzkrieg sidestepped it
  6. But Hitler’s attempt to knock Britain out of war failed
  7. On June 22, 1941, Germany invaded the Soviet Union, starting the largest ground war in historyOperation Barbarossa
I.German forces surrounded Leningrad, USSR’s second largest city, placing it under worst siege in modern times
III. The Changing Tide of War
  1. Japan’s goal was to establish its Greater East Asian Co-Prosperity Sphere
  2. U.S.A.’s response to Japanese aggressionimposing economic sanctions
  3. Japanese viewed as act of war, December 7, 1941, Pearl Harbor
  4. The second half of the war, 1942 through 1945, much different
  5. Battle of Midway (June 1942), Battle of El Alamein (fall 1942), Battle of Stalingrad (August 1942-February 1943), Allies experienced victories
  6. June 1944, in the famous D-Day invasion, British, Canadian, and American troops crossed the English Channel and landed on the coast of France
  7. In 1945, the Axis surrendered
  8. On August 6, 1945, a B-29 bomber named Enola Gay dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshimathree days laterNagasakiunconditional surrender
IV. Crimes Against Humanity
  1. Even before war, Nazis operated apparatus of terror, formation of a secret police (the Gestapo), concentration camps (such as Dachau)
  2. Nuremberg Laws of 1935, deprived all German Jews of their civil rights
  3. November 1938, Kristallnacht (“Night of Broken Glass”), Jewish shops, synagogues, and homes throughout Germany and Austria were attacked
  4. Sometime in 1941 that order for genocide came down from above
  5. Final Solution resulted in 12 million deathsOf Europe’s 11 million Jews, approximately 6 million were killed and 6 million non-Jewish victims
  6. Nuremberg Trials (1946), to try remaining Nazi leadership

Complete the Review Quilt Below (Place Key Points in Each Box):

Axis Powers: / Allied Powers: / Holocaust: / Appeasement:
Hitler’s Aggression: / League of Nations: / Blitzkrieg: / 1939:
Operation Barbarossa: / Greater East Asian Co-Prosperity Sphere: / Pearl Harbor: / Hiroshima and Nagasaki:
Nuremberg Laws: / Kristallnacht: / “Final Solution”: / Nuremberg Trials:

Questions:

  • Describe Hitler’s acts of aggression which led to the Second World War.
  • Explain the policy of appeasement and its failure.
  • Discuss the changing relationship between the Nazis and the Soviets.
  • Discuss the changing nature of the war.
  • Discuss the crimes against humanity committed during the Second World War.

  1. Which of the following had NOT experienced fascist aggression or takeover prior to World War II?
(A)Ethiopia
(B)Czechoslovakia
(C)Great Britain
(D)Spain
(E)China
  1. The invasion of which country led to the slowing and eventual reversal of the German blitzkrieg?
(A)France
(B)Belgium
(C)The USSR
(D)Great Britain
(E)Spain
  1. Which is NOT true of the Nazi death camps?
(A)Most were located in Poland.
(B)Escape was impossible.
(C)A variety of methods were employed in carrying out executions.
(D)They were staffed by German and non-German guards.
(E)They were carefully planned and constructed. /
  1. Which member of the victorious Allies emerged most dissatisfied from the Versailles settlement?
(A)Germany
(B)France
(C)United States
(D)Japan
(E)Great Britain
  1. Which belligerent power of the First World War carried out an early exit from the hostilities and negotiated a separate peace treaty?
(A)France
(B)The United States
(C)Russia
(D)Austria-Hungary
(E)Germany
  1. Which of the following periods have been grouped together by world historians into a time called an “Age of Catastrophe” lasting from 1914 to 1945?
(A)World War I, Great Depression, Cold War
(B)Napoleonic Wars, World War I, World War II
(C)World War I, Great Depression, World War II
(D)World War II, Cold War, post-Cold War era
(E)Great Depression, World War II, Cold War

Thesis Statement: Change Over Time: Germany 1914 – 1945

______

______