CORNELL NOTES: WORLD WAR II-Kirby-CHS
Guiding Questions: Was the road to World War II inevitable? What role did leaders (i.e. Churchill, Roosevelt, Stalin, Hitler, Hideki
Toyo and Mussolini) play in the outcome of WWII? What cost is worth the price of victory? And could another world war ever
happen again?
Questions, Prompts, Thoughts
Lecture Notes
THE ROAD TO WAR: 1919-1939
Aftermath of WW1
 Nearly every major country in Europe was bankrupt
 Many countries had unstable democracies: multiple political parties, little experience with
democracy, many changes in leadership
 Versailles Treaty
 League of Nations: Weak and ineffective, no control of major conflicts, no progress in
disarmament, no effective military force.
 The Great Depression
o After the Crash, Americans quit buying European goods due to tariffs.
o World trade down 65%
o Britain was hurt but recovered due to high tariffs, increased taxes, regulated
currency, and lowered interest rates
o France wasn’t hurt as badly because it wasn’t as dependent on foreign trade.
o Socialist countries like Denmark, Norway, and Sweden did massive work programs
to keep people employed and producing
o Italy – government unable to deal with problems – people were VERY frustrated
o Germany – Crash hits Germans particularly hard because they owed so much to
the U.S.
o Fascism becomes more popular in both Germany and Italy
HITLER’S RISE TO POWER
Fascism:
 Extremely conservative – abortion and divorce are not tolerated
 Totalitarianism – total control of all aspects of life, including mass media
 Anti-democratic - The individual has no significance except as a member of the state.
 Glorification of military and fitness
 Intolerance –toward non-whites and homosexuals. Male-dominated.
 Identification of scapegoats to take the blame
 Very corrupt.
Fascism in Italy
 Benito Mussolini founded Fascist Party in Italy
 He promised to rescue Italy’s economy and give strong leadership
 He and his followers seized power in 1922
 Once in charge, Mussolini made the following changes:
o Democracy was abolished, along with independent political parties & trade unions
o Freedom of the press abolished
o Secret police used to jail opponents
o Never had total control like Joseph Stalin or Adolf Hitler
 Mussolini was Hitler’s role model
Summary
Guiding Questions: Was the road to World War II inevitable? What role did leaders (i.e. Churchill, Roosevelt, Stalin, Hitler, Hideki
Toyo and Mussolini) play in the outcome of WWII? What cost is worth the price of victory? And could another world war ever
happen again?
Questions, Prompts, Thoughts
Lecture Notes
Hitler’s Rise to Power
 Earned two medals of bravery during the Great War
 Joined the National Socialist German Worker’s Party in 1919 – Nazi for short
 Adopted swastika as symbol
 Chosen as “der Führer” or the leader of the Nazi Party in 1921
 Inspired by Mussolini, he attempted to seize power of Germany in 1923 but was arrested
and tried for treason
 While in jail, he wrote Mein Kampt (“My Struggle”). This book discussed:
o His goals for Germany
o His belief in German superiority over all other races
o His belief in the inferiority of Jews, Slavs, Gypsies, and Blacks
o His goal to reclaim lands and increase the size of Germany and create the Third
Reich (Germany Empire)
 Released from jail after just 9 months
 Was ignored by German public until Great Depression hit – this became Hitler’s chance to
gain power
o Was elected Chancellor of Germany in 1932, Just 43% of Germans voted for him
Fascism under Hitler
 Controlled all forms of media
 Destroyed anything that went against him (ex. Burned the Parliamentary Building to scare
Germans into voting for more Nazis)
 Boys were forced to join the Hitler Youth and girls were forced to join the League of
German Girls
 Jews become the scapegoat as early as 1933
PRE-WW2 AGGRESSION AND APPEASEMENT
Italian and German Aggression
 Italy attacks Ethiopia, 1935
 Rome-Berlin Axis, 1936 – Mussolini and Hitler team up
 Germany invades the Rhineland (in France), 1937
o French do not fight back (do not want to risk war)
o Britain encourages appeasement – or giving in to Germany
 Spanish Civil War, 1936-39
o Two sides: Nationalists (Fascism) and Republicans (Democracy)
o Hitler and Mussolini send armed troops to Francisco Franco, a fascist, and leader
of the Nationalist side
o The Republican side receives very little help; only USSR sends equipment and help
o Becomes a “dress rehearsal” for WWII
 Meanwhile, the United States remains neutral
o U.S. Neutrality Acts – signed by Congress in 1934, 1935, 1937, 1939
o America First Committee headed by Charles Lindbergh
Summary
Guiding Questions: Was the road to World War II inevitable? What role did leaders (i.e. Churchill, Roosevelt, Stalin, Hitler, Hideki
Toyo and Mussolini) play in the outcome of WWII? What cost is worth the price of victory? And could another world war ever
happen again?
Questions, Prompts, Thoughts
Lecture Notes
Creation of 3rd Reich
 Hitler announced he would create the Third Reich – or a German Empire by creating a
union between Austria, Czechoslovakia, and Germany
o This was prohibited by the Versailles Treaty
 Hitler sent his army anyway and took over Austria in 1936. Austria did not fight back.
 Now that he had Austria, Hitler announced he would enter Czechoslovakia next
o The Czechs refused and asked France for help
o France and Britain decide to “appease” Hitler again by giving him the Sudetenland
in 1938, hoping this would be enough
 Six months later, Hitler takes Czechoslovakia anyway.
o Hitler is now convinced that Europe won’t risk war
 Mussolini takes Albania soon after
 Hitler now had his eyes on Poland
o Signs the Nonaggression Pact with USSR – promises to not take over USSR (and
secretly promises to give Stalin part of Poland)
THE WAR “OFFICIALLY” BEGINS!
Alliances and Basic Timeline
 Alliances at the beginning of the war:
o Allies = Great Britain
o Axis = Germany, Italy, and Japan
 European Front Timeline:
o 1933 – Hitler in power
o 1936 – Austria falls
o 1938 – Sudetenland and Czechoslovakia
o 1939 – War officially begins when Germany invades Poland
o 1940 - France invaded; Battle of Britain
o 1941 - Germany invades the Balkans and Russia
o Dec. 1941 – Pearl Harbor; America joins war
o 1943 - Germans surrender in Russia
o June 1944 – Normandy invasion (D-Day)
o May 1945 – Germany surrenders
Invasion of Poland
 Sept. 1st, 1939 – right after signing the Nonaggression Pact
 First test of “Blitzkrieg” strategy – or “lightning war”. This included:
o Fast moving planes and tanks
o Heavy infantry
o Take by surprise and overwhelm enemy
 On Sept. 17th, 1939, Soviet troops occupy Eastern Poland.
o Soon Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia are taken over by the Soviets.
o Next, Soviets try to take Finland. After much fighting, Finland surrenders
 Meanwhile, Britain and France declare war on Germany but only wait for Germany to make
next move
o Germans call this the “sitzkrieg” or the “sitting war”. British call it a “phony” war.
Summary
Guiding Questions: Was the road to World War II inevitable? What role did leaders (i.e. Churchill, Roosevelt, Stalin, Hitler,
Hideki Toyo and Mussolini) play in the outcome of WWII? What cost is worth the price of victory? And could another world war ever
happen again?
Questions, Prompts, Thoughts
Lecture Notes
GERMAN OCCUPATION OF FRANCE
The Phony War Ends: German occupation of France
 May 1940 – Hitler takes Netherlands, Belgium, and Luxemburg. Why?
o Needs to take these to get to France.
o Hitler’s troops then pushed through the Maginot Line, France’s only defense
o The troops reach the French coast in just 10 days, then went north to Belgium and
trapped Allied soldiers at Dunkirk
o Great Britain did a massive rescue mission and was able to rescue 338,000 troops
o Germany controlled France in June, less than two months after they started
 Germany occupies the north
 Germany sets up a “puppet” government in the south
French Resistance
 General Charles De Gaulle sets up a government-in-exile in London
 De Gaulle organizes the Free French military to fight back
 The French form their own resistance group - the Maquis – A group of guerilla fighters in
France
BATTLE OF BRITAIN
 With France gone, Britain is only major power left in Europe
 Hitler decides to invade Britain. His plan:
o Take out Royal Air Force (RAF) and land 250,000 soldiers on England’s shores
o How? By bombing Britain.
Battle of Britain
 First Germany targets airfields and factories but then shift to major cities
 The RAF use radar and a smuggled German code-making machine to fight back
o Able to uncover upcoming bombings and stop Germans
o Germans have to switch to night raids
 The Battle of Britain lasted for almost a year until May 1941
o This taught Europeans that Hitler could be blocked
o Hitler decides to focus energy on Eastern Europe and the Mediterranean
THE ROAD TO WAR IN THE PACIFIC
Japanese Aggression
 Japanese blame government for Depression, allow military leaders to take control
 Goals of military leaders:
o Create economic stability through expansion
o Create a Pacific empire that includes China
 Invades Manchuria (China) in 1931 – 1st direct challenge to League of Nations
o The League of Nations protested but had no power to stop Japan
o Manchurian crisis and the “Rape of Nanking”
o Then invades China even further
 Rape of Nanking: 20,000 Chinese women were raped. 200,000+ civilians killed.
 Next step: to create a Japanese Empire in the Pacific Ocean (where many U.S. colonies
exist)
 Japan goes into alliance with Hitler and Mussolini
 This benefits Japan – doesn’t have to worry about Hitler invading
 Benefits Hitler because Hitler knows that Japan will keep the U.S. occupied
Summary
Guiding Questions: Was the road to World War II inevitable? What role did leaders (i.e. Churchill, Roosevelt, Stalin, Hitler,
Hideki Toyo and Mussolini) play in the outcome of WWII? What cost is worth the price of victory? And could another world war ever
happen again?
Questions, Prompts, Thoughts
Lecture Notes
AMERICA JOINS THE WAR
Pre Pearl Harbor
 Lend-Lease Act 1941
o This allows the U.S. to lend equipment to Allies without joining the war.
o The amount totaled: $48,601,365,000
 Atlantic Charter:
o Roosevelt and Churchill sign treaty of alliance in August 1941.
o Future peace plan.
o Fashioned after Wilson’s 14 Points.
o Calls for League of Nations type organization.
Day of Infamy: Pearl Harbor
 U.S. knew that Japan planned to attack but didn’t know when
 Dec. 7, 1941 – Japan attacks Pearl Harbor. Within two hours:
o 19 ships sink or damaged
o 2,300 American soldiers killed, 2887 Americans die in total
 Roosevelt called it “a date which will live in infamy” and asked Congress to declare war.
They did.
 Japanese Admiral in charge: Isoroku Yamamoto
THE AMERICAN HOME FRONT
Mobilizing the troops
 Men ages 21-36 are required to sign up for the draft
 16 million Americans serve in the war
 Much diversity:
o 300,000 Mexican Americans
o 25,000 Native Americans
o 1,000,000 African Americans (segregated)
o 350,000 women (no combat duty)
Paying for the war
 Converted factories from civilian production to military production
 The war effort essentially ends unemployment (and the Depression!)
 Federal spending jumped from $8.9 billion to $95.2 billion a year. This money came from:
o Increased taxes
o Private investors
o Borrowed money (national debt)
The Home Front
 Rationing of goods – examples:
o Nylon stockings vanish because nylon is needed to make parachutes
o Metal used to produce guns instead of zippers or typewriters
o Point values assigned to scarce items like coffee, sugar, meat, butter, fruit, shoes,
gas. If you used up your points, you couldn’t buy anything else.
 Bracero Program – The U.S. actively recruited Mexicans to work on farms
 New jobs for women:
o High paying manufacturing jobs suddenly available
o Women made up over 30% of the total workforce
o Rosie the Riveter – a way to recruit female welders and steelworkers
Summary
Guiding Questions: Was the road to World War II inevitable? What role did leaders (i.e. Churchill, Roosevelt, Stalin, Hitler,
Hideki Toyo and Mussolini) play in the outcome of WWII? What cost is worth the price of victory? And could another world war ever
happen again?
Questions, Prompts, Thoughts
Lecture Notes
Japanese Internment
 Only 127,000 Japanese Americans, mostly on the West Coast
 110,000 Japanese Americans were forced to move to internment camps in 1942:
o Were seen as a threat to national security
o They had little time to secure belongings – many lost everything
o The Supreme Court decided that it was legal and was not racial discrimination
o Were released in early 1945
 It wasn’t until 1988 that the U.S. government admitted it was wrong – survivors were
awarded $20,000 each
 Regardless, 17,000 Japanese immigrants fought for the United States starting in 1943
 Foreign-born Italians and Germans were told to move away from the West Coast but this
was not enforced
THE PACIFIC THEATRE
Pacific Front timeline:
 1931 – Japan invades Manchuria, China and later Korea
 Dec. 1941 – Pearl Harbor, America joins the war
 Early 1942 – US loses Philippines to Japan; Japan takes much of the Pacific
 June 1942 – Battle of Midway (tide turns in US favor).
 Feb -March 1945 – Iwo Jima
 Aug. 6, Aug. 9 1945 – Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombed
 Sept. 2 1945 – Japan surrenders
Japanese Victories
 Japan had many victories in 1942
 Easily took Hong Kong, Guam and Wake Island
 Japanese fought American and Filipino forces on the Bataan Peninsula of the Philippines
 The U.S. surrenders the Philippines in May 1942
 Bataan Death March: 76,000 prisoners [12,000 Americans], Marched 60 miles in the blazing
heat to POW camps in the Philippines. 20,000 died.
 Within a few months, Japan was able to invade Singapore, Malaya (Malaysia), The Dutch
East Indies (Indonesia), New Guinea, and Burma
 Japan planned to take India next. Japan seemed unstoppable
Tide Turns at Midway
 The tide turns with the Battle of Midway in June, 1942: U.S. code breakers had advanced
warning. Americans were able to cripple Japanese fleet
“Island Hopping” with Douglas MacArthur
 General Douglas MacArthur’s plan:
o “Island hop” by seizing only islands close to Japan instead of every island
o First target: Guadalcanal because Japan is building a huge air base here
o The Battle of Guadalcanal lasts 6 months before Japan surrenders
 From here on out, U.S. is able to slowly pick off strategic islands
 U.S. also begins regularly bombing Tokyo
Summary
Guiding Questions: Was the road to World War II inevitable? What role did leaders (i.e. Churchill, Roosevelt, Stalin, Hitler,
Hideki Toyo and Mussolini) play in the outcome of WWII? What cost is worth the price of victory? And could another world war ever
happen again?
Questions, Prompts,
Thoughts
Lecture Notes
THE WAR ENDS IN EUROPE
Operation Barbarossa
 A.K.A. Hitler’s biggest mistake
 Hitler’s campaign to invade the Soviet Union
o Begins June 1941
o 3,000,000 German soldiers and 3,400 tanks
o The Soviet Union isn’t prepared
o Germans are able to push 500 miles into the Soviet Union
 As the Soviets retreat, they burn and destroy everything to starve the Germans.
 Hitler’s troops then surround the city of Leningrad and cut off all supplies
o 1,000,000 Russians die during the winter but the city refuses to surrender
 Hitler grows impatient and sends troops toward Moscow in Oct. 1941
o Refuses to retreat even though troops do not have enough warm clothing
o 500,000 German troops die
 Germany finally surrenders Leningrad and Russia in 1943
Invasion of Italy
 Allied forces decide to take Italy before taking France (Italy was “Europe’s soft underbelly”)
 First capture Sicily in 1943, Mussolini is arrested
 Germany sends troops, seize back control of northern Italy, and place Mussolini back in power
 Fighting continues until Germany falls in May of 1945. This keeps Italy too busy to help Germany
with the rest of Europe.
D-Day Invasion
 Allies secretly begin building invasion force in Great Britain
 The plan: Send thousands of ships, planes, tanks, and 3 million troops to the beaches of
Normandy, France. Set up fake army headquarters to trick Hitler. Code-named “Operation
Overlord”.
 D-Day begins June 6, 1944; 2,700 Americans die in the first day
 Within one month, 1,000,000 Allied troops have landed in France
 By September, Allies are able to liberate France, Belgium, and Luxembourg
 Liberation of France: August 25, 1944
 After a botched assassination plot, it was obvious that the Allies would have to invade Germany
 General Dwight D. Eisenhower leads the attack
Assassination Attempts on Hitler
 Over 40 different plans to assassinate Hitler, all are unsuccessful.
 Closest attempt:
o Briefcase bomb exploded July 20, 1944
o Allies fail, now they MUST invade Germany to get Hitler
Germany Surrenders
 Allies begin to surround Berlin – 3 million soldiers in west and 6 million in the east
 Allies begin fire-bombing Berlin – destroying much of the city
 April 12, 1945 – FDR dies and Harry Truman becomes President. Hitler hides out in underground
headquarters
 April 28 – Mussolini and mistress are executed
 April 29 - Marries long time companion Eva Braun
 April 30 – Hitler and wife commit suicide
 May 8, 1945 – Ger. unconditionally surrenders. Called “V-E Day” or Victory in Europe Day
Summary
Guiding Questions: Was the road to World War II inevitable? What role did leaders (i.e. Churchill, Roosevelt, Stalin, Hitler,
Hideki Toyo and Mussolini) play in the outcome of WWII? What cost is worth the price of victory? And could another world war ever
happen again?
Questions, Prompts, Thoughts
Lecture Notes
THE HOLOCAUST
The Holocaust Begins
 Hitler and the Nazis pass the Nuremburg Laws in 1935:
o Forbade Jews / non-Jews from marrying, deprived Jews of rights
 More laws passed later that limited what Jews could do
Kristallnacht
 A 17-year-old Jew shoots a German soldier after learning his father has been deported to
Poland. Nazis are outraged and storm Jewish homes, synagogues, and businesses.
 So many windows are smashed that the night is now referred to as kristallnacht or “Night
of Broken Glass”
Isolating the Jews
 After kristallnacht, millions of Jews flee Germany to countries that would later be
controlled by Germany
 These Jews are forced to live in ghettos – segregated Jewish areas. These were sealed with
barbed wire and stone walls
 Hitler grows impatient and decides to move on to a more permanent solution
The “Final Solution”
 Hitler decides to systematically kill all Jews, Gypsies, Poles, Russians, the disabled, and
homosexuals. Some are rounded up and shot. Others are sent to elimination camps to
work or be killed.
 Largest elimination camp: Auschwitz
 Overall, an estimated 11 million people die including 6 million Jews
THE WAR ENDS IN THE PACIFIC
Japanese in Retreat
 After Guadalcanal, Japanese forces in retreat
 U.S. is bombing Tokyo heavily
 Japan gets desperate, devises plan to take out entire Allied fleet with use of suicidebombers called kamikazes
Iwo Jima
 March 1945 – Marines fight to take Iwo Jima, an island close to Tokyo
 Battle lasts for a month
 After Allies win, they can now bomb Tokyo even more heavily
 Still no sign of surrender from the Japanese
Manhattan Project and the A Bomb
 Truman is advised that taking Japan could cost ½ million American lives; despite the fact
that Japan is almost completely exhausted
 The atomic bomb is created to end the war quickly
 This top-secret bomb was developed in 1945 by the Manhattan Project under General
Leslie Groves and scientist J. Robert Oppenheimer
 August 6, 1945 – Atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima, Japan
o 70,000 killed instantly
o 200,000 eventually die
 August 9, 1945 – Atomic bomb dropped on Nagasaki, Japan
o 50,000 killed instantly
o 180,000 eventually die
 Japan officially surrenders Sept 2nd, 1945 (V-J Day)
Summary
Guiding Questions: Was the road to World War II inevitable? What role did leaders (i.e. Churchill, Roosevelt, Stalin, Hitler,
Hideki Toyo and Mussolini) play in the outcome of WWII? What cost is worth the price of victory? And could another world war ever
happen again?
Questions, Prompts, Thoughts
Lecture Notes
RESULTS OF WORLD WAR II
Complete Devastation
 Europe:
o 40 million Europeans dead; 2/3 of them civilians
o London, Warsaw, Berlin nearly destroyed
o Many people without homes or displaced in wrong country
 Soviet Union:
o Nearly 6 million soldiers died
o ¼ of all Russians dead; most major cities destroyed
 Japan:
o 2 million dead
o All major cities destroyed
 Massive Human Dislocations
Nuremburg Trials
 22 Nazi war criminals faced trial
o 23 nations present
o Charged with waging a war of aggression and “crimes against humanity”
o Those sentenced to death had their bodies burned at Dachau, a concentration
camp
Post War Japan
 Japan is now occupied by U.S. forces under General Douglas MacArthur
 All military forces are disbanded except for small police force
 War criminals are brought to trial and hung
 Japan adopts a democratic constitution in 1946
 U.S. forces still present in Okinawa
 Japanese war crimes trials
Other consequences
 The U.S. & the U.S.S.R. Emerge as the Two Superpowers of the later 20th Century
o Division of Germany into West and East Germany
o Beginning of the Cold War
o The race for space
 The Division of Germany: 1945 - 1990
 The Bi-Polarization of Europe: The Beginning of the Cold War
 The Race for Space
 The Creation of the U. N.
 7 Future American Presidents Served in World War II
 The De-Colonization of European Empires
 Early Computer Technology Came Out of WW II
 The world we live in today was formed by the events of world war ii & its immediate
aftermath
Summary