• The former imperial governments of Germany, Russia, AustriaHungary and Ottoman Turkey were gone.
• The first years after the war were not easy ones.
• Peoples in Central Europe suffered from famine caused by a
wartime blockade of foodstuffs.
• Returning soldiers faced unemployment. A major flu epidemic
of 1919 killed as many people as the war itself.
• Farms, cities and railroad lines had been torn up in the fighting.
Europeans spent the next five years rebuilding and recovering
from the war.
• Based on the Treaty of Versailles, Germans had to make huge
reparation payments for the war to France and Britain, slowing
German economic recovery.
• Germany printed extra money to pay the debt, triggering hyperinflation. Workers were known to collect their wages in
suitcases, then spending them immediately.
• During the war, Britain and France had purchased war goods
from the United States on credit. Now they were deeply in
debt.
• Americans faced a brief recession when the war ended.
• Consumers in both America and Europe also benefited from
new electric appliances like the vacuum cleaners, refrigerator,
and toaster.
• They went to the movies and listened to the radio for the first
time Americans invested some of their wealth overseas,
especially in Germany.
• American prosperity spread to Europe by the late 1920s. As
Europeans began once again buying goods from their colonies,
prosperity spread further to Asia, Africa, and Latin America
• October 29, 1929 (Black Tuesday) a stock market crash in New
York started a chain reaction that sent the world economy into the
Great Depression.
• A depression is an economic downturn in which large numbers of
businesses fail and workers are unemployed.
• The prices of stocks started falling and nothing could hold them
up, as people scrambled to sell.
• People who lost money in the stock market stopped spending.
• America banks and investors recalled their loans from Europe,
and the depression quickly spread world-wide.
• Part of the prosperity was due to stock market and real estate
over speculation. Investors borrowed money to invest in order
to make a quick profit. Another problem was overproduction.
• The interrelationship of loans and debts between Europe and
America ensured that the recession would quickly spread.
• Most government leaders reacted poorly. Many stopped
spending, tightened credit and cut off international trade
• People had no safety net such as unemployment insurance or
social security, it they lost their jobs and savings.
• Franklin D. Roosevelt
• Elected in 1932
• Immediately created a relief program called the New Deal.
• The federal government provided money to each state to
provide the needy with clothing, food, & shelter.
• To create jobs the government began a program of public
works.
• Congress all reformed the economic system
• Banks and stock exchanges were put under stricter regulations
• Social Security Act 1935: Provided unemployment and old-age benefits
• Fascism: government doctrine that relies on dictatorial rule and a
totalitarian regime, in which the state maintains rigid control of the
people through force and censorship.
• Formed by Benito Mussolini in Italy
•Benito Mussolini: Provided a clear response to Italy’s problems
•Black Shirts: the followers of Mussolini.
• European fascism shared the following Characteristics:
• Nationalism: extreme nationalist who believed that the highest value was the
nation.
• Unity of all social classes: Felt a single national party should unite all classes
• All-Powerful leaders: A single all powerful leader could best represent the
national and will lead the nation.
• Extreme Militarism: Used violence to defeat their political opponents and
prepared to use war for national expansion.
• Anti Semitism: The hatred of Jews
• Jews frequently faced prejudice and persecution.
• Their unique beliefs and custom made them easy targets in
times of social unrest and economic difficulty.
• Racism
• This is a form of hatred for people of other races
• Social Darwinism:
• Social Darwinists believed that all human groups competed
for survival and that stronger groups had the right to succeed
over weaker groups, who deserved to die out.
•Germany: Kaiser Wilhelm II was forced out when the war was
lost. The new German democratic republic, known as the Weimar
Republic, was weak.
•Blamed the Weimar Republic for accepting the Treaty of
Versailles.
•U.S.S.R
•The Soviet Communists had demonstrated how to build a
totalitarian state, controlling all aspects of life.
•When Lenin died in 1924, Joseph Stalin succeeded him as leader of
the Soviet Union. Stalin quickly moved to eliminate other rivals.
• The leaders of the Weimar government could not agree on how
to cope with this economic catastrophe
• In the elections, the farmers, the unemployed, and members of
the middle class turned to be more radical solutions offered by
both the Communists and the Nazi Party.
• National Socialist Party: Nazi Party came to power in the
1920s.
• Extremely nationalistic
• Anti-Semitic and Anticommunist
•Adolf Hitler (1889-1945) was the leader of the Nazi Party.
•By 1921 he was the head of the Nazi Party
•Hitler spelled out his radical ideas in this book Mein Kampf (My
Struggle)
•Condemnation of the Weimar Republic
•Aryan Race: Believed that Germans were a superior Aryan Race
•Anti-Semitism: Jews were an “evil race” caused Germany’s
defeat in the war.
•Important belief of Nazi’s: loyalty/obedience to
Hitler.
•Nazis built up their power with a private army of “Brown Shirts”
made up of former soldiers and unemployed workers.
• They beat up political opponents and Jews, and staged rallies and
parades.
•When the Great Depression hit Germany support for the Nazi party
increased.
•In 1933 Hitler was appointed Chancellor
•Conservatives thought they could control Hitler
•Hitler secured complete control quickly
•Someone set fire to the Reichstag(legislature) building
•Blamed communists and Hitler said it was a communist revolt
•Used these powers to make himself dictator
• In the following months the Nazi Party, like the fascists in Italy,
took over every aspect of German social, economic and
political life.
• The army took a personal oath of loyalty to Hitler.
• He turned Germany into a police state
• Murdered his rivals within the Nazi party
• Gestapo: Secret police with a wide-range of powers.
• Created the “New Order.” Under the New order many
changes took place
• People were arrested and executed without trial.
• Political opponents sent to concentration camps.
• Hitler made use of public works projects like building
highways and military rearmament to secure full employment.
Economic prosperity returned to Germany
• Hitler called his rule the Third Reich
• Secretly began to rebuild his army
• In 1936 he ordered troops into Rhineland. This act violated the treaty of
Versailles.
• Sought an alliance with Mussolini (Italy)
• In 1936 they formed the Rome-Berlin Axis
• In the Soviet Union, Joseph Stalin used terror tactics similar to
those used by Hitler.
• People had to obey the demands of the Communist Party
without complaint or face punishment.
• Government controlled religion and art
• Ordered the imprisonment or execution of ministers, priests, and rabbis.
• The works of artists, musicians, and writers were subject government
control and censorship
• The rise of Fascist dictators in Italy, Germany and
elsewhere made the outbreak of a new war almost
inevitable.
• These dictators glorified war and laid plans for national
expansion.
• WWII could be seen as a continuation of the war that had
ended in 1918
• Japan will launch a war in East Asia in 1931
• Hitler sought revenge from Britain and France for Germany’s
humiliating defeat.
• Hitler planned to enslave whole populations and to exterminate
others.
• WWII became a struggle to the death for mastery of the world.
• WWII will transform the entire world just as WW1
transformed Europe.
•Hitler and Mussolini began taking aggressive step.
•Mussolini invaded Ethiopia.
•Hitler helped Francisco Franco, another fascist dictator,
in Spain.
• Then Hitler demanded Austria and a part of
Czechoslovakia that had many German nationals living
there.
•Hitler next demanded Danzig in Poland for the seaports
but the Poles – now backed by Britain and France –
refused to give in.
League of
Nations
Fails
• The League relied on its members to help each
other to prevent another war. The League
could do nothing to stop Hitler Because its
member states refused to take action. They
feared any such steps might lead to war.
Appeasement
•Hitler next claimed territories where Germans lived. He
annexed (took) Austria early in 1938. British Prime
Minister Neville Chamberlain met with Hitler in Munich
hoping to avoid war, Chamberlain agreed to Hitler’s
demand for western Czechoslovakia.
Invasion
of Poland
• In 1939, Hitler made new demands for
part of Poland. Hitler made a secret deal
with Stalin to keep the Soviet Union out of
the war. Germany then invaded Poland,
starting WWII. Stalin took part of
Eastern Poland.
• Great Britain & France will ask Stalin to become a part of an
alliance against Germany.
• At the same time Stalin was negotiating with Great Britain &
France he was carrying on secret talks with Germany.
• German-Soviet Nonaggression Pact (Nazi-Soviet Pact): August
1939, this agreement publicly stated that Germany and the
Soviet Union would never attack each other.
• Secretly, Hitler and Stalin agreed to divide eastern Europe into
spheres of influence.
• Hitler’s invasion of Poland in September 1939 started the war
• Two days later Great Britain and France decided they would not
stand for any further Nazi aggression and declared war on
Germany.
• Blitzkrieg(German for lightning war): it took place with great
speed and force.
• “Phony War”: Early phase of WWII marked by little activity in
Western Europe.
• April 9, 1940 the “phony war” ended with a German invasion of
Denmark and Norway.
• By the end of 1940, Germany controlled most of Western Europe –
only Britain held out
• The British air force was badly outnumbered and
struggled to help the trapped forces in Dunkerque.
• Every available ship & boat in Britain was ordered to
Dunkerque.
• About 330,000 men were safely transported from
Dunkerque to England.
• Hitler did not attack the retreating Allies which proved
later to be a costly mistake.
• Hitler hoped to overcome British resistance by bombing
London and other British cities from the air.
• Winston Churchill, the new British Prime Minister, rallied
British resistance.
• The use of radar, the bravery of the British air force, and
Britain’s island location helped defend Britain from German air
attacks.
• Fought mostly in the air.
• Fighting continued non-stop during September & October
• Hitler was unable to defeat the British.
•By 1940, Hitler had conquered all of Western Europe except Britain.
According to Hitler, Germany needed to expand eastwards.
•June 22, 1941 Germany invaded the Soviet Union(Hitler betrayed
Stalin)
•Germans first movements were very successful.
•Soviets used the scorched-earth method their ancestors used against
Napoleon.
•Germans had to fight during the Russian winter.
•Soviets counter attack during the winter which forced the Germans to
retreat. This causes the Battle of Stalingrad which lasts for 6 months.
•Germans are defeated and it’s a turning point in the war.
•December 7, 1941: Japan launched a surprise attack on
American ships at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.
•More than 2,300 American military dead.
•December 8, 1941: USA and Britain declared war on Japan
•December 11, 1941: Germany and Italy declared war on USA
•Allied Powers: Britain, Soviet Union, and USA
•Axis Powers: Germany, Italy, Japan
• The Holocaust refers to the attempted genocide of the Jews in
Europe during WWII.
• The Final Solution: Hitler decided to execute all European
Jews under the cover of the war.
• Henrich Himmler: the head of the Schutzstaffel (SS) was the
head of the final solution.
• Wannsee Conference: January 1942, German officials met to
set out a systematic plan for exterminating Jews in
concentration camps.
• Nazi’s moved Jews by the hundreds of thousands to
concentration camps in Germany & Poland.
• Dachau & Buchenwald two of the largest camps in
Germany
• Treblinka & Auschwitz huge death camps in Poland
• Not everyone was killed immediately some worked in the
camps
• 6 million Jews were murdered (2/3 of those living in Europe)
• Finally, on D-Day on June 6, 1944, allied troops landed in
Normandy, in Northern France.
• This was the largest amphibious assault in history. The tide of war now
turned in favor of the allies.
• August 25, 1944: Allied troops enter Paris and by September they
reached Germany’s western edge.
• Several weeks after D-day the soviets began a major drive
against Germany from the east.
• Germans began to fall apart in spring 1945
• At the end of April 1945 the army in Italy surrendered.
• May 8, 1945 V-E day (The day of victory in Europe)
• Several of the most important Nazi leaders were tried and
convicted by an international court at Nuremberg for
“crimes against humanity.”
• The Nuremberg trials revealed to the world the full extent
of Nazi atrocities.
• The trials reaffirmed that not just a country but its
individuals were accountable for violations of
international law.
Germany itself was divided into
separate zones and occupied by the
four victorious allied Powers.
•Just as German ambitions had triggered the war in Europe,
Japan’s aggressive designs led to war in Asia.
•Japan’s military began to influence Japanese national policy
•They set Japan on a policy of expansion in Asia. They
successfully invaded Manchuria, a northern province of
China, 1931.
•Japan next went on to invade the rest of China in 1937.
• Japanese leaders saw the war in Europe as an opportunity
to gain control of mainland Asia.
• Only the United States was in a position to prevent
Japan’s expansion.
• When the United States threatened to blockade the
shipment of oil supplies unless Japan gave up some of its
conquests, Japanese leaders decided on a surprise attack.
•To carry out this strategy, Japan launched a massive surprise air
attack from aircraft carriers on the U.S. fleet stationed at Pearl
Harbor, Hawaii on December 7, 1941.
• Japanese leaders badly miscalculated the ability of the USA.
•The tide began to turn in 1943 when the USA regained naval
superiority in the Pacific at the Battle of Midway.
•In early1945 Roosevelt and Churchill met with Stalin and agreed
that Germany would be divided and occupied by allied troops.
•In July 1945 Truman and Attlee meet and demanded an
unconditional surrender from Japan.
•When Japan refused to surrender President Truman had an
important decision to use the atomic bomb against Japan.
•A German Jewish physicist, Albert Einstein played a key role in
developing the atom bomb.
•Manhattan Project: Leading scientists gathered in New Mexico to
develop an atomic bomb.
•August 6, 1945 an atomic bomb is dropped on the city of
•Hiroshima.
•80,000 people were killed instantly
•August 9, 1945 another atomic bomb was dropped on Nagasaki.
•40,000 people were killed instantly
•August 14, 1945 the Japanese surrender unconditionally.
•General Douglas McArthur was assigned the task of rebuilding
post-war Japan.
•Reforms made Japan less imperialistic and less aggressive
•Japan lost its overseas empire and was stripped of its army and
navy.
•Japan’s leaders were put on trial and punished.
•A democratic constitution was created
•Emperor Hirohito was allowed to remain on the throne with
reduced powers.
• As many as 70 million people died
• More than 34 million were wounded
• In Europe and Asia more than 16 million civilians
died.
• Violated human rights on scale that had never been
seen before.
• Some estimates place the war cost at 2 trillion dollars.
•A new international peace keeping organization launched in
1945.
•In April 1945 they agreed to the U.N. Charter
•Established its purpose to maintain peace in the world.
•Primary purpose was to maintain international peace and security.
•General Assembly: included all member nations
•Security Council: made up of leading powers. They are responsible for
ensuring peace and deterring aggression. China, Britain, France, Soviet
Union, & USA were permanent members.