World War II and the End of the European Order

1. World War II and the End of the European Order Hey, guys, World War I was such a bummer, let’s try again.

2. Old Causes • Anger over Versailles • Nationalism • Gradual militarization of Japan

3. Newer Causes • The Great Depression • Nazism (along with it’s virulent racism, jingoism, and—with the emergence of the U.S.S.R.—anti-communism) • Western reticence (e.g. appeasement)

4. The Problem of Unchecked Aggression • Japan unchecked in China. • War weariness and economic depression in the West • Invades Manchuria (1931) • Invades greater China (1937) • Germany rejects Versailles terms and tests French and British resolve. • Rebirth of the Wermacht. (1935) • Heim ins Reich • Anschluss (1938) • Sudetenland (1938)—by British permission! • Czechoslovakia (1939) • Munich ultimatum (1939)

5. The Wisdom of Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain "In spite of the hardness and ruthlessness I thought I saw in his face, I got the impression that here was a man who could be relied upon when he had given his word.“ --On Hitler, after telling him that he’d ask parliament to let Germany take over the Sudetenland in exchange for Hitler’s promise to ask for no more.

6. The Non-aggression Pact • August 23, 1939. • Hitler and Stalin agree to divide Poland amongst themselves. • A peace with the Soviets will allow Hitler to conquer Western Europe and avoid a two-front war. • Germany invades Poland 9/1/1939.

7. The Sides • Allies: U.S., U.S.S.R., Great Britain (Wait, what about France?—I don’t know. Something smells Vichy) • Axis: Germany, Italy, Japan

8. Major Theaters • Europe: • East (USSR v. Germany), 1941-1945 • West (Great Britain and the U.S.), 1944-1945 • Mediterranean: • Middle East and North Africa (Great Britain and the U.S. v. Germany), 1942-1943. • Sicily and Italy (Great Britain and the U.S. v. Germany and Italy), 1943-1945. • Pacific and East Asia • Various Pacific Islands (U.S. v. Japan, 1942-1945) • China (Chinese v. Japan 1931-1945)

9. Blitzkrieg • “Lightening War” • Less emphasis on mass; emphasis on mobility • Creates chaos in and behind enemy lines. • Polish, French, and British forces routed. • Any position that refused to yield was destroyed.(remember the Mongols?)

10. Britain Defends Itself • Churchill’s speeches. • Goering’s promises to Hitler. • V2 rockets; Luftwaffe hellfire. • Radar, the spitfire, and the resolve of the royal family and British people. • The Luftwaffe’s inability to destroy British air defenses renders their amphibious assault plans moot.

11. French Surrender • May 10, 1940-June 22, 1940 • The French military large but dated (Maginot-Line?) • German military outstanding • France overwhelmed, Vichy government a sham.

12. Italy Struggles • Mussolini’s big talk yields small results. • Even Ethiopia resisted well. • Bogged down in Albania. • Defeated in Yugoslavia and Greece. • Germany has to step in to reverse Italian failures.

14. More Labensraum • Germany captures the important Mediterranean islands. • Rommel leads the AfrikaKorps across North Africa, even into Egypt—but stubborn British defenses save the Suez Canal. • Betrayal of the non-aggression pact: 3.5 million German soldiers invade the Soviet Union and “liberate” Finland. • Soviet armies retreat but do not surrender—I wonder if they know something…

16. Russia’s Secret Weapon • What Napoleon could have taught Hitler… • Russian defenses save Moscow and Leningrad. • German forces cruel to conquered Slavs—ironic since the Ukrainians probably would have helped (because they hated the Soviets) • German forces move southeast toward oilfields. • Battle of Kursk—thousands of tanks. Got that? THOUSANDS. • Offensive ends with the failure to capture Stalingrad. • After another harsh winter, the Red Army attacks.

17. Go, Red Army, Go! • Germans defeated at Stalingrad and overextended. • German armies flee U.S.S.R. • June 1944, D-Day creates a second European front. • By late 1944, Red Army had expelled the Germans from the U.S.S.R. and “liberated” Poland (talk about between a rock and a hard place!) • Also into the Balkans (story about Ulypa) • Berlin in April, 1945. Hitler commits suicide.

18. The Holocaust • Racial and eugenic component of Nazism • Wannesee Conference (1942): The Final Solution • Concentration camps become death camps • Up to 12 million murdered, half of whom were Jews—mostly from Poland. • Could the Holocaust have been less terrible?

19. British and American Offensives • Step One: Counter German U-boats. • Step Two: Invade North Africa. • Patton and Montgomery v. Rommel. • Tank and infantry combat. • Battle of El Alamin? • Nazi material supplies run low. • Step Three: Invade Sicily and Italy. • Sicily pretty quick; Italian peninsula not so much. • Mussolini toppled in 1945. • Step Four: D-Day • Beachheads to Market Garden to the Bulge to the Elbe

20. The Empire of the Sun Rises & Sets • Gains • Manchuria (1931) • Pearl Harbor (1941)—temporarily neutralizes U.S. fleet and forces. • British Hong Kong, Malaya, and Burma (1942) • Philippines and Dutch East Indies (1942) • French Indochina (1942) • Turning Points • Battle of the Coral Sea (1942)—a tie. • Battle of Midway—greatest naval battle/victory since the Spanish Armada. U.S. neutralizes Japanese fleet. • Island Hopping • The Bomb

22. Making Peace in Europe • Peace with the Germans not the problem; the Soviets v. the West • Tehran Conference (1944) • Yalta Conference (1944) • Potsdam Conference(July 1945) • Soviets absorb Baltic republics and dominate everything East of Germany except for Yugoslavia and Greece.

23. Peace in the Pacific • Japan occupied by U.S.; empire dissolved—China recovers most of its territory. • Korea independent but divided into U.S. and Soviet zones. • French and British colonies returned to French and British (set up for Vietnam war)

24. Africa and the Middle East • Indian soldiers had helped the British. • But British imprison nationalist leaders and post-pone discussion on decolonization. • Africans had helped the French. • Overall, Europe’s imperial grip is weakened. The stage is set for change. • Whole lotta names, boys and girls.

25. A New World Order • Seeds of Cold War planted. • Formation of the United Nations. • Atlantic Charter of 1941 • “right of all people to choose the form of government under which they live” • In opposition to Soviet and Anglo-French Colonization plans.

26. Independence Movements • Weakened Europe inspires nationalists • India • Africa • Southeast Asia • Middle East

27. India • British refuse concessions in exchange for help in war. • Sir Stafford Cripps fails to gain nationalist support. • Quit India Movement (summer 1942) • Communists and the Muslim League support the British.

28. The Muslim League • Led by Muhammad Ali Jinnah • Support for British war effort will go far in promoting partition. • Fear a Hindu-dominated India, want an independent Muslim state.

29. India Unravels • Wartime inflation causes urban unrest. • Wartime famine causes unrest all around. • New Labour government in Britain wants to talk • Communal rioting and Muslim misgivings. • Partition • Violence happens anyways: Hindu v. Muslim; Sikh-v. Muslim. • Up to 10 million refugees! • Gandhi assassinated on Jan. 30, 1948.

30. More Independence • If they jolly well gave India independence… • Burma (Myanmar) • Ceylon (Sri Lanka) • Ghana, Nigeria, and other African colonies in the 1950s and 1960s. • Dutch, French, and American colonies too • Dutch and French resist. • Dutch fight (and lose) Indonesia. • French fight (and lose) Vietnam. • U.S. peacefully cedes independence to the Philippines.

31. Non-Settler Africa • War led to disruptions in African society • Promoted migration and urbanization • Increased unemployment; disgruntled and idle workers turn to nationalists. • Rioting and Radical Rebellions, but violence limited. • Kwame Nkrumah • French grant slow concessions to their African colonies to ensure the rise of moderate African leaders that would keep economic ties to France. (all French colonies free by 1960) • Belgians retreat much faster and leave no educated African class behind (16 college graduates out of 13 million+). Consequences?

32. The Settler Colonies • Where there were large numbers of whites, decolonization meant trouble. • Algieria, Kenya, Rhodesia. • Settlers don’t want to leave OR cede any power to indigenous peoples. • Violence in Kenya • Jomo Kenyatta leads nationalist Kenya African Union • Kenyatta forms the Land Freedom Army • Guerrilla warfare against whites and collaborators. • British settlers fight back fiercely, defeat rebels in 1956 but at alarming costs in lives. • British settle with Kenyatta and give independence in 1963 • Longer and more brutal fighting in Algeria. • White South Africans retain power • Afrikaners and English dominate 23 million Africans • Harsh racial policies of the Afrikaner National Party • Apartheid (1948-1990s)

33. The Middle East • Emergence of Arab States • Egypt, Iraq, Syria—among others. • UN and the formation of Israel • British had sought to limit Jewish immigration to Palestine before WWII. • Haganah—Zionist “terrorists” attack…The British. • After WWII, more Europeans open to Zionism. • UN agrees to a partition of Palestine into Arab and Jewish Zones—even the U.S. and U.S.S.R. agreed on this! • Arab neighbors oppose any Jewish state. • Well armed zionists strike Arab zones and expand territory beyond the 1948 UN approval.

34. So… • WWII led to complete German and Japanese defeat. • Two superpowers emerge: U.S. and U.S.S.R. • British, French, Dutch, Belgian, and Portuguese lose African and Asian colonies to nationalist movements. • The Arab-Israeli debate over Palestine emerges and continues to this day.

35. Preview of the Next Chapter • (but only in fragment)

36. What to make of the Soviets • Stalinist principles continued even after WWII • Restriction of travel, media censorship, isolation • Religion restricted • Lagging in consumer goods, poor agricultural production • Standard of living improves only compared to previous Soviet conditions—far behind the West. • Horrific environmental damage (no property rights) • Nikita Khrushchev signaled a slight thaw following the death of Stalin, ‘de-Stalinization’ (Thanks, Andy!) • Cold War ends when the U.S.S.R. exhausts its limited economy after a failed occupation of Afghanistan.

37. The Iron Curtain • Winston Churchill dubs the separation between East and West as an Iron Curtain with Germany as a focal point. • To the East-Communist, supportive of the USSR, to the West, Capitalist/Democratic, supportive of the USA • To Halt the further spread of communism, the USA enacts the Marshall Plan to rebuild war torn Europe • The Truman Doctrine outlined the help the US would offer according to the policy of containment • Opposition to Soviet rule was crushed • Mass education and Soviet-style propaganda • Industrialization pushed • The divide best signified by the Berlin Wall, built in the early 1960’s.

38. Cold War Alliances • NATO: North Atlantic Treaty Organization • Warsaw Pact: The USSR and its satellite nations • Rivalry would intensify with the USSR’s successful detonation of an atomic bomb in 1949, launching an arms race, later a space race. • The Cold War gets hot with the invasion of South Korea by communist North Korea • The policy of containment would spread around the globe: southeast Asia, the Middle East, Latin America (Thanks, Andy!)

39. Who’s Who?