4º ESO UNIT 7. THE SECOND WORLD WAR

The Second World War

(1939-1945)

INTRODUCTION

LONG WAR

First world war

Second World War

YEARS (1914-1918)

YEARS (1939-1945)

ANOTHER WORLD WAR

First world war

Second World War

60

16

nations + their colonies involved

nations + their colonies involved

It is estimated that the Second World War affected ninety percent of the world population in some way.

More than 100 million soldiers from all countries were mobilised

24 million soldiers died

There were two blocks: The Allies (*Aliados) and the Axis powers (*Potencias del Eje).

There were two scenarios: Europe and the Pacific

EVEN MORE SOPHISTICATED WEAPONS

Second World War

First world war

EVEN MORE SOPHISTICATED WEAPONS

First world war

Second World War

NEW TACTICS

Blitzkrieg (*La guerra relámpago) A modern tactic created by the Axis powers that combined the use of tanks and aircraf. It surprised the Allies who were prepared for trench and infantry warfare.

NEW ADVANCES

The radar The British invented radar, a system for discovering the position of an object by emitting radio waves.

NEW ADVANCES

Guided bombs The Germans invent guided bombs.

NEW ADVANCES

Atomic bombThe first atomic bombs were developed by the United States during World War II, in the context of the Manhattan Project, and it is the only country to have used them in combat (in 1945, against the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki).

Why did he say that?

"I made a big mistake in my life"

Lamented physicist Albert Einstein a few months before his death in 1955.

DEATH

First world war

Second World War

+60m

+30 m

casualties

casualties

Again death of civilians .

HORROR

HOLOCAUST Holocaust means large-scale killing of people, especially one aimed at exterminating a social group for reasons of race, religion or politics. More than 6 million Jews were killed in extermination camps

HORROR

Atomic bombs Japan was surrounded and without resources, yet US decided to drop atomic bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima (6 August 1945) and Nagasaki (9 August 1945). Out of a population of 250,000, 90,000 died immediately and 145,000 died months later (total: 235,000).

After the bomb

Before the bomb

DESTRUCTION

First world war

Second World War

$2500.000.000.000

$400.000.000.000

Material losses

Material losses

It took a long time for the world to recover from this horror (destruction of cities, debt, supply problems, inflation)

THE CAUSES

1.The impact of the First World War

3. The rise of Totalitarism

2. The economic crisis and the Great Depression

4.The weakness of democracies

1.The impact of the First World War

The Peace Treaties of 1919 weakened the countries on the losing side. Italy: despite being one of the winners, they obtained less benefits from the war. Germany: In the Treaty of Versailles was declared solely responsible for the war, they had to pay strong war r eparations, they were demilitarization and they had many territorial and economical losses. This caused resentment, which later contributed to the rise of Nazi extremism.

2. The economic crisis

The Great Depression brought poverty, unemployment, desperation… Every country tried to safe themselves with protectionist and self-sufficiency measures. Loans from USA to Europe were stopped. There was an economic rivalry, a mistrust among countries.

3. The rise of totalitarism

Citizens no longer trusted in democracies, therefore, there was a political radicalization. The fascist movements advocated the need for strong states to solve problems. The communists wanted to extend the Soviet revolution to the rest of the countries. Many people feared them and considered that Fascism was the only way to combat them.

4.The weakness of democracies

Great Britan and France wanted to avoid a new war at any price and allowed the expansionism and rearmament of Germany and Italy. Also, the League of Nations (*Sociedad de Naciones), created in 1919, had big deficiencies and was completely unable to stop a Second World War.

THE ROAD TO WAR

THE ADVANCE OF FASCISM

ITALIA (Mussolini)

JAPAN (Hirohito)

GERMANY (Hitler)

He wanted to rebuild the Roman Empire. (Spazio vitale "living space")

He advocated the unification of all territories inhabited by German speakers.(Lebensraum "living space")

He sought to expand his territories at the expense of China. (Hakkō ichiu "all the world under one roof")

Japan occupied the Chinese region of Manchuria in 1931. Both, China and Japan belonged to the League of Nations, and China appealed to it to stop the Japanese invasion, but the League of Nations couldn´t stop it.

Italy invaded Ethiopia in 1935. Great Britain opposed to that because they used the river Nile to trade and it starts in the mountains of Ethiopia. Italy finally invaded Ethiopia and also Albania, the consequence was the break on the relations with Great Britain and France, and the rapprochement with Nazi Germany.

In Germany Adolf Hitler was electec German Chancellor in 1933. He advocated Pan-Germanism (*Pangermanismo) or the unification of all territories inhabited by German speakers. He rejected the national borders established in the Treaty of Versailles, and advocated territorial expansion to ensure acces to raw materials. He wanted Germany to be a great and military powerful empire again (the III Reich).

In March 1936, Hitler sent armies into the German Rhineland region (*Renania), in breach of the 1919 Treaty of Versailles, which forbade sending troops to this region bordering France and Belgium.

German-Italian relations grew stronger in 1936, when they both supported Franco in the Spanish Civil War, and formed the Rome-Berlin Axis (*el Eje Roma-Berlín). The Spanish Civil War (1936-1939) was the “prelude” to the Second World War.

In November 1936, Germany and Japan signed the Anti-Comintern Pact (*Pacto anticomunista) against the USSR, which Italy later joined in 1940 (Tripartite Pact)

In March 1938, Germany sent troops into Austria, where there were some Nazi supporters, and annexed it without meeting any resistance and Austria became an additional province of Germany. This was called by Hitler the Anschluss (*connection).

The British and French democracies tried to stopped Germany´s aggressive expansionism with the strategy of appeasement (*apaciguamiento), which consisted on the acceptance of all of Hitler´s demand in the hope that this would avoid another war.

Munich Agreement (September 1938) Britain and Franced cede Sudeteland region (*Sudetes), the German-Speaking part of Czechoslovakia, to Germany

March 1939 Germany broke the Munich Agreement and occupied the rest of Czechoslovakia.

Germany claimed territory that it had lost to Poland following First World War. But France and Britain had signed treaties with Poland to mantain its independence so it was better protected than Czechoslovakia had been.

On 30 March, British Prime Minister Chamberlain indicated that they would act decisively if Germany attacked Poland, and France also joined the agreement.

Hitler wanted Poland. In order to ensure the neutrality of the USSR (and thus avoid a war on two fronts), the Nazi-Soviet Non-Agression Pact was signed in 1939. Nobody expected this pact. The pact included a secret agreement to divide Poland between the two powers.

1st September 1939 Hitler invaded Poland. France and Britain declared war on Germany two days later. World War II had begun.

THE WAR

Two blocks:

The Allies (*Aliados) The Axis powers (*Potencias del Eje)

Two scenarios:

Europe The Pacific

Three phases

2. Globalisation of the war

1. The Axis offensive

3. The Allied victory

2nd September 1945

1941

1942

1st September 1939

The Axis offensive (1939-1941)

The war began with the invasion of Poland on 1 September 1939.

The German armies conquered large parts of Poland in just over a month, while the USSR occupied the rest of the country.

Blitzrieg warfare

Since 1940, the Germans launched a series of highly effective mobile operations known as the Blitzrieg warfare (*guerra relámpago).

In June 1940 they invaded France.

In May 1940 they invaded Belgium, Netherlands and Luxembourg.

In June 1940 they tried to invade Great Britain.

In April 1940 they invade Denmark and Norway

Winston Churchill became British prime minister in 1940 and he promised not to surrender to the Germans.

The Nazi New Order

The Nazis imposed a policy of economic exploitation and political repression in all the territories that they occupied. This "New Order" was based on the myth that the Germans belonged to a master race called the Aryans (*raza aria). It involved the persecution of Jews and other groups who were considered "racially inferior". Opponents and Jews were held in concentration camps and extermination camps, where millions of people were killed.

Globalisation of the war (1941-1944)

Two main facts

Germany invades the USSR(Operation Barbarossa)

Japan attacks USA (Pearl Harbor)

USA enters the war

The USSR changes sides

Germany invades USSR

Why? Hitler always considered communism his main enemy and also he wanted to control the production of grains and oil in the Caucasus region in order to continue the war. Therefore, once he had continental Europe under control, his forces invaded de USSR in the summer of 1941. This is called the "operation barbarossa".

Stalin change sides and ally itself with Britain and, later, USA.

However, the operation failed due to the sudden coming of winter, lack of fuel and the Soviet scorched earth tactic (*táctica de tierra quemada) a premeditated destruction of all assets in a territory before it falls into enemy hands. 263,069 Germans were killed or wounded, and 92,090 were taken prisoner, of whom only 5,000 would survive.

Japan attacks USA

Why? Japan was a militaristic power and invaded parts of south east Asia. This caused great concern in the United States, where it was felt that North American interest in the Pacific region were in danger. USA reacted by imposing tough economic sanctions to Japan and demanded to withdraw their conquered territories, as well as to break the alliance with Nazi Germany.

In December 7th 1941, Japan attacked the American military base of Pearl Harbor in Hawaii. The attack began at 7:48 a.m. local time, and was carried out by 353 Japanese aircraft. The Americans lost 188 aircraft, 2403 Americans were killed and another 1178 were wounded. The Japanese lost 29 aircraft and five mini-submarines, and suffered 65 military casualties, both killed and wounded. As a result, United States entered WWII on the Allied side.

Pearl Harbour - Surprise Attack Movie Title : Pearl Harbor (2001)

The Allied victory (1942-1945)

After Pearl Harbor and USA´s entry into the war the fortune of the Axis powers began to change. The war reached a turning point in 1942, when the Allies began a series of successful offensives.

Battle of El Alamein (October 1942)

Battle of Midway (June 1942)

Battle of Stalingrad (February 1943)

Battle of Stalingrad (February 1943)

After the Allies conquered the north of Africa, they invaded Italy from the South in July 1943. The King then deposed Mussolini. However, the Germans managed to retain northern Italy.

In the Pacific, the Allied forces defetaed the Japanese in the Battle of Guadalcanal (February 1943). The Allies then advanced using the "leapfrogging" strategy (*estrategia de saltos): an island was conquered and then a military base was created in order to attack the next island.

Research about the Enigma code, Alan Turing and his role in World War II.

In 1944, the Allies launched the Normandy landings (*desembarco de Normandía) on the French coast. The battle began on June 6, 1944, also known as D-Day, when some 156,000 American, British and Canadian forces landed on five beaches along a 50-mile stretch of the heavily fortified coast of France’s Normandy region. The invasion was one of the largest amphibious military assaults in history and required extensive planning.

El desembarco en Normandía Junio 1944

Saving Private Ryan - Omaha Beach Scene

Who was Robert Capa and how is he related to the Normandy landings?

The Allies broke through the German defences and liberated Paris in August 1944.

The Allies continued their advances which were accompanied by strategic bombing of German cities. Tens of thousands of civilians were killed in the bombing of cities like Hamburg and Dresden.

The Soviets occupied Berlin in April 1945 and Germany surrended. The war in Europe was over.

What was Hitler's end?

What was Mussolini´s end?

The Pacific War went on for a few more months. Japan was surrounded and without resources, yet US President Truman decided to drop the recently invented atomic bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima (6 August 1945) and Nagasaki (9 August 1945). Japan surrender on 2nd September and World War II had ended.

Research about the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and its effects.

The War ended with several Peace treatments, some of them occur during the conflict:

Yalta conference (February 1945)

Paris Conference (1947)

Potsdam Conference (July-August 1945)

Research about this famous kiss.

WWII: Short version

To fix contents

THE CONSEQUENCES OF WAR

4.1. HUMAN LOSS

At least 60 million people died in World War II, and the figure rises to as high as 80 million if we include people who died from disease and famine. Over half of the dead were civilians. The USSR suffered the most deaths.

The war also caused massive displacement of individuals, either through the liberation of prisoners or through peace treaties that changed borders.

Around 40 million people had to look for a new place in Europe where they could live.

4.2. MORAL CONSEQUENCES

War survivors suffered intense trauma after witnessing human cruelty al first hand. The Nazi concentrations camps, the Japanese masacres in the Far East, the Allied bombing of German cities, and teh atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki all raised huge ethical questions.

As a result, a new type of International Humanitarian Law was formed, and the new legal concept of crimes against humanity was created.

Research about the Nuremberg trials.

4.3. ECONOMIC CONSEQUENCES

By 1945 the communications network in central Europe had disappeared, petroleum was scarce and industrial production had been reduced. Cities, farms and production infrastructure had been destroyed in the war.

The war proved economically beneficial to the United States, as it had been the main producer of arms and supplies for the Allies. Its production capacity grew enormously and it was consolidated as a major industrial al financial power.

To avoid situations like the crash of 1929, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) was created and the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (later called the World Bank).

The goal was to rebuild the economy after the war and create a new world economy system that favoured economic agreements between countries.

4.4. POLITICAL CONSEQUENCES

Many borders were redrawn after the war. Western Europe lost political world dominance and the major European powers lost their colonial empires. Many leaders saw a new for a unified Europe.

In western Europe parliamentary democracy and capitalism were restored, while eastern Europe saw the rise of so-called popular democracies, which in reality were communist dictatorships under Soviet control.

The United Nations (UN) was founded on 24th October 1945. It was originally made up of 51 countries, but there are now 193 member states.

The division of the world in two blocs: The political world dominance now belonged to the United States and the USSR. Their relations soon grew tense, leading to the Cold War.

Apocalypse second world war

For further content. If you want to broaden your knowledge of the Second World War, I recommend this documentary (they are 6 documentaries)