Chapter 36 (WWII and Cold War)

Factors like resentment towards the Treaty of Versailles, economic depression, appeasement, and land grabs led to the outbreak of World War II.

Germany, under Hitler's leadership, violated treaties, annexed territories like Austria and Czechoslovakia, and initiated WWII with the invasion of Poland using Blitzkrieg tactics

Major theaters of the war included the Atlantic, Europe, Pacific, and North Africa, where significant battles and strategies shaped the outcome of the conflict.

The tensions between the US and USSR after WWII, stemming from differing ideologies and actions in Eastern Europe, led to the Cold War era characterized by political and military standoffs

• Rape of Nanjing

• Aerial Bombings

  • of Shanghai and Nanjing

• Conquest of Manchuria

Axis Powers

Germany, Italy, and Japan

Nationalist: Chiang Kai-shek
Communist: Mao Zedong

China resisted Japanese invasion through guerrilla warfare, unified leadership under Chiang Kai-shek, and international support during World War II.

encapsulated his goal of reviving Italy's influence and strength

• Wanted more land after WWII

  • fought for winning Allied Powers

• Ethiopia invaded and conquered in 1935

  • warned by League of Nations

  • 1937- Leaves league

• 1939: Invades and annexes Albania

• to connect German-speaking people (Pan-Germanism)

• Get rid of “undesirables” and replace them with Germans

• Goal was to do this all over the world

• Neville Chamberlain, the PM, goes to speak to the Axis powers

• Hitler claims he only wants the German speaking parts of Czechoslovakia

Chamberlain allies with Hitler in order to maintain peace

• Chamberlain has paper and says “Peace in Our time”

• Hitler was never going to abide by the piece of paper

  • basically the thing Shep yapped about

Agreement between USSR and Germany in 1939 to not attack each other and divide Eastern Europe. Broken by Germany in 1941.

A military tactic emphasizing speed, surprise, and overwhelming force to quickly defeat an opponent

Used by the Germans in WWII.

Germany Attacks USSR

• June 1941

  • breaks non-aggression pact

  • Russia predicted attack and moved factories away from front and mobilized troops

• Russia joins Great Britain in Allied Powers

• scorched earth strategy

• employing harsh winter conditions

• mobilizing large numbers of troops and resources.

• December 7, 1941: Pearl Harbor

  • Japan bombs US naval base in Hawaii

    • destroys majority of Pacific fleet

• December 11, 1941: Germany/Italy declare war on USA

• The US previously had a cash-and-carry and then a lend-lease policy with Britain

  • but did not join war

• Eastern Front

• Major players: Soviet Union and Germany

• Allied Strategy: push Germany out of Russia

  • Capture Berlin

• Axis Strategy:

  • Captures Moscow

Allied Success

• German soldiers weakened

  • division of troops between Eastern and African fronts

  • harsh winter

• August 1943- Soviets push Nazis back to Germany

  • prepares Allies for invasion of France

• Major players: United States and Japan

• Allied goal: “Island hop” across Pacific to position land invasion of Japan

• Axis Goal: remove US and European influence from Pacific

  • “Asia for Asians”

• Japan controls fighting until May 1942

  • US rebuilding after Pearl Harbor Attack

• May 1942: Battle of Midway

  • US destroys majority of Japanese carriers

• Bomb drops on Hiroshima and Nagasaki

  • better option than a land invasion (for US)

Devastating weapons that use nuclear reactions to release immense amounts of energy

Dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki

Forced Hirohito to finally surrender

• High ranking German Officials meet (@ Wannsee)

• Under Hitlers request

  • Come up with Final Solution (for “handling” the Jews in Europe)

  • Establishment of death camps in Poland

• served as nurses, factory workers, pilots, and more

• contributing significantly to the war effort while men were at war

• expanded career opportunities for women

• Went back to being trad wives in the 1950s tho

• U.S. policy to contain communism by providing aid to countries threatened by Soviet influence

• Announced by President Truman in 1947

• United States provided economic assistance to restore the economic infrastructure of postwar Europe

• Basically meant to stop communism from spreading

• Cold War Alliance

• (1955)

  • USSR and Eastern European communist countries

• Opposses NATO

• Germany and capital Berlin divided into 4 occupied zones

  • Berlin is in USSR zone

• June 1948-May 1949

  • USSR wants to control all of Berlin

  • blocks supplies to Western Berlin

  • NATO dropped supplies for Western Berliners

• May 1949: US, UK, France merge zones creating free country of Western Germany (Republic of Germany)

• October 1949: USSR establishes communist country of East Germany (German Democratic Republic)

• 1961: Cuba becomes communist country after revolution

• 1962: USSR builds Missile launch site on Cuba

• Bay of pigs invasion:

  • US trains anti-communist Cubans to invade and overthrow government

    • FAIL

• US and USSR negotiate peace

• Closest to actual war in Cold War

• 13-day confrontation between the governments of the United States and the Soviet Union, when American deployments of nuclear missiles in Italy and Turkey were matched by Soviet deployments of nuclear missiles in Cuba