World War II
Causes
of World War II
Major Events
Leaders of WW II
Causes of World War II
 Failure of Treaty of Versailles
 Appeasement
 Nationalism
 Militarism
 Alliances
 Isolationism & Pacifism
 League of Nations
Treaty of Versailles
Germany
Had to take BLAME (War Guilt Clause)
 Had to PAY ($33 Billion USD)
 NO submarines and NO Air Force

 Only 6 battle ships
 Limit to Army of 100,000 men
 No troops in the Rhineland (50 mile strip of land
near France)

LOST territory in Europe
 Colonies given to Britain and France
Failure of Treaty of Versailles
Not enforceable
 Germany has no
choice but to try and
break it…why???

Appeasement - “if we don’t get involved
in small fights, we’ll avoid a big fight”

Munich Conference – 1938
 England and France give in to
some of Hitler's demands in the
hopes that he will not take more
Nationalism

Germany
 Prove its superiority and get revenge for
Treaty of Versailles

Italy
 Return to the glory days of Rome when
Italy was powerful

Japan
 Establish its dominance in Asia
Militarism

Germany
 Annexes surrounding areas
 Creates the "Third Reich“

Italy
 Invades Ethiopia

Japan
 Invades Manchuria, Korea, and China
Alliances

Axis
 Germany
 Italy
 Japan

Allies
 Great Britain
 France
Isolationism & Pacifism

U.S.
 Avoid involvement in European
conflict

Europe
 Avoid another war and continue
to recover from WWI
League of Nations

Unable to back up demands -no military strength
Major Events
German Blitzkrieg
 Fall of France
 Battle of Britain
 Holocaust

Invasion of Soviet Union
 Pearl Harbor
 D-Day
 Atomic Bombs

German Blitzkrieg

Lightning warfare
 fast-moving troops combined with
damaging weapons
Fall of France
"Occupied France" - northern
half of the country, controlled
by Germany
 “Vichy France" - southern
portion of the country, remains
somewhat independent
 Charles de Gaulle - French
general that escapes to
England and continues to fight
the Germans

Battle of Britain
German "Luftwaffe" vs. British
“Royal Air Force” (RAF)
 First use of radar
 British defeat Germans, despite
being outnumbered

Holocaust
Caused because of German "anti-Semitism"
 Hitler believed in a master race - "blondhaired, blue-eyed Aryans" were genetically
superior
 Phase 1: Kristallnacht - night of broken glass
- attack on Jewish businesses and
synagogues
 Phase 2: segregation of Jews in "ghettoes"
 Phase 3: Genocide - mass extermination
using concentration camps (Auschwitz), firing
squads, gas chambers and crematoriums

Invasion of Soviet Union
"Non-Aggression Pact" Germany and Russia sign a
truce at beginning of war
 Hitler breaks treaty and invades
after France is conquered
 Russians use "scorched earth"
in defense
 Battle of Stalingrad - turning
point in war - Russians defeat
Germans

Pearl Harbor
December 7th, 1941 - "a
date that will live in infamy"
 Surprise bombing of
American naval fleet by
Japanese military
 Forces U.S. Into the war

D-Day
June 6th, 1944 - Allied
invasion of France
 Allows Allies to begin
pushing back the
Germans

Atomic Bombs
Bombs were named “Little Boy"
& “Fat Man"
 Bombs were dropped on the
cities of Hiroshima and
Nagasaki
 Kills 110,000 Japanese
 U.S. Believed bombs would
save American lives by not
having to invade Japan

Leaders of WW II
Russia
 Germany
 United States
 Great Britain
 Japan
 Italy

Russia
Joseph Stalin - replaces Lenin as
ruler of Russia
 Executes over 2 million Russian
citizens during his rule

Germany
Adolf Hitler "Führer" of Germany
and leader of Nazi
party
 Josef Mengele Known as the "Angel
of Death", he
performed medical
experiments on Jews
in concentration
camps

United States
Franklin D. Roosevelt - President
during most of the war
 Harry S. Truman - FDR's Vicepresident, takes power after his death,
drops the bomb on Japan
 Dwight Eisenhower - led the D-Day
invasion
 Douglas McArthur - led Pacific
campaign against Japanese

Great Britain
Neville Chamberlain - Prime Minister
who believed in appeasement
 Winston Churchill - Prime minister after
Chamberlain, refused to surrender to
Hitler

Japan
Hirohito - Emperor of Japan
 Hideki Tojo - General of Japanese
military

Italy

Benito Mussolini - Known as “Il Duce",
he was the dictator of Italy and allied
himself with Hitler