World War Two, 1941-1945
Main Points
Causes of War
U.S. Entry into Conflict
Impact on Society, Economy,
Politics
Main Events
End of the War
An Unstable World
Global Depression
New Countries in Europe
(Inter)National Debt
U.S., Japan, German Expansion
No International Organizations
Germany and the U.S.
 Hitler elected leader of Germany
 Expansion into Rhine River, FR-G
Border
 U.S. Neutrality
 Italy into Ethiopia 1935
 1937: Italy, Germany & Japan signed
Anti-Comintern Act, against Russia
German Expansion
 1938 Nazis entered Austria
 Sacrificed Czechoslovakia for
“Peace” with Hitler
 1939 total invasion of Czech
 1939 G-Soviet Non-Aggression Pact
 1939 G-invaded Poland
 BR & FR declare war
U.S. Response
Slow and contradictory
1941 Lend-Lease to allies
Military modernization
Awareness of German expansion
American embargo and quarantine
of Japan in Pacific
December 7, 1941: Pearl Harbor
Burning Ships in Pearl Harbor
A Global War
European Theater
Pacific Theater
War in Mediterranean, North Africa
All of British possessions in India
and Australia
Total War for U.S.
Fear of invasion
Yellow = Allies
Pink = Axis
Orange = Axis
controlled
Cream = Neutral
A Total War
War Mobilization
Federal Control of the Economy
Westward Shift of people and
industry
Sacrifice and Patriotism
Millions of men to war
Building Support for War
 Office of War Information
 War as fight for American
Way of Life, freedom
 Censorship
 Only positive images
 http://www.youtube.com/
watch?v=A4o0kVX7iNc&f
eature=related
War Propaganda
Masculinity and War
Women in Industries
Industries vacated by soldiers
Single & Married
45% of workers in shipbuilding
Women’s “duty” to work on the
“home front” while men were “away”
fighting
High wages, freedom, enjoyment,
personal pride
Rosie the Riveter
Women in the War
 140,000 in WACS
 100,000 in Navy
WAVES
 Challenge to gender
roles and norms
 Women’s freedom
and independence
Gendered Propaganda
Women = Home = Homefront
African Americans
 Segregated Units
 125,000 into San
Francisco & Oakland
 Housing & school
shortages
 Segregation in schools
increased
German Expansionism
 Two fronts
Western Europe &
France
 Russia
 Blitzkrieg and massive
industrial output
 Air Raid on England
 Control of Northern Africa
through Italy

Allied Successes
 Battle of Coral Sea, May 1942

Pacific Success
 Battle of Midway, June 1942

Overturned J- Supremacy
 Battle of El Alamien, Fall 1942

Northern Africa
 Operation Torch, May 1943

Eisenhower’s invasion
Hitler Weakens
 Turned east and tried to invade
Russia
 Stalled for months, winter hit, millions
died
 August 1942-February 1943
 Hitler pulled out of Russia and lost
momentum in war
The End is Near
 Operation Overlord, Summer 1944
 Second Western front
 Landed in France
 Beaches of Normandy
 D-Day, June 6, 1944
 2 million participated
 Liberated Paris
D-Day June 6, 1944
End of the War
 Germany Surrounded
 Island Hopping in
Pacific
 February 1945: Yalta
Conference (UKR)



Britain: Churchill
Russia: Stalin
US: Roosevelt
Race and the War
 Home front
 Segregated Units
 A. Philip Randolph
 Fair Employment
Practices Commission
Zoot-Suit Riots
 1940s LA
 Death of a Mex. Am
youth
 Police arrested,
convicted several for
murder
 Anti-Mexican riots
 Stripped “zoot-suiters”
Japanese/American
Internment
 Executive Order 9066 on





February 19, 1942
110,000 relocated to “War
Relocation Camps”
150,000 in Hawaii
1944 US Supreme Court
supported it
Over half were US citizens
$1.6 billion in reparations
Bracero Program
 1942-1964
 1 yr contracts paid
 Over 4 million
 Some $ kept by gov’t
 Racism and economic
exclusion
Holocaust
Holocaust
 Over
six Million killed in gas
chambers & concentration camps
 “Final Solution”
 U.S. State Department had
information
 Anti-Semitism in U.S
End of the War
 Roosevelt Died
 Poland Sacrificed to
Stalin
 Atomic Testing
 “Manhattan Project”
 $2 billion = $20 billion
today
 Trinity Test Site, NM
Post-War Situation
 Japan
 Truman agreed to dropping two Atomic Bombs
 Hiroshima & Nagasaki, 1945
 Nearly 120,000 died immediately
 USSR
 Roughly 25-35 million dead
 Fear of Germany
 Suspicion of the U.S.
 Control over eastern Europe
Continued
 World Economy
 International Monetary Fund
 Investment, loans, economic growth
 World Politics
United Nations
 Security Council
 Member nations
 Debate, conflict resolution

Significance
 Ended the Great Depression
 Migration to the American West
 New economic opportunities for Women
and People of Color
 Brief unity and ongoing racism
 Defeat of Nazis and crippled Germany
 Destroyed Europe
 U.S. and Soviet Union became superpowers