Dates to memorize:
1939-1945: World War II
December 7, 1941: Bombing of Pearl Harbor
June 6, 1944: D-Day
May 8, 1945: V-E Day
September 2, 1945: V-J Day
1945: founding of the United Nations, start of the Cold War
Axis Powers
Germany - Adolf Hitler (Nazism), wrote autobiography "Mein Kampf" (My Struggle)
Italy - Mussolini (Fascism)
Japan - Tojo, Hirohito (Samurai)
Allies
United States - FDR
Britain - Neville Chamberlain, Winston Churchill
France
Soviet Union - Joseph Stalin (Communism)
China
1. International Tensions to led up to WWII
A. High war debt laid on Germany by the Treaty of Versailles. The impact on the German economy was devastating, making the Germans bitter toward the Allies. In turn, the Allies still blamed Germany for the death and destruction of WWI and demanded reparation.
B. The competition for colonies, resources and markets among the leading nations of the world. Germany, Italy and Japan, in particular, sought to expand and claim lands that would give them more of the world's resources and broaden their markets.
C. Extreme nationalism
These three tensions were compounded by religious unbelief. The influences of modernism, evolution and socialism were strong in Europe. As materialism became increasingly prevalent, many people focused solely on economic circumstances. Being spiritually blind, the peoples of Germany, Italy and Japan became easy prey for dictators that promised better times.
2. Appeasement
Appeasement in a political context, is a diplomatic policy of making political or material concessions to a dictatorial power (or powers) in order to avoid a threatened conflict. Appeasement was used by European democracies in the 1930s who wished to avoid war with the dictatorships of Germany and Italy, bearing in mind the horrors of World War I.
3. Winston Churchill
A. Saved the world
B. Never, never, never give up
C. The last lion
4. FDR & America: The Sleeping Giant, from neutrality to war
At first, Congress adopted an official policy of neutrality, but as the Nazis marched across Europe, the war became more of a concern to the U.S. It soon became apparent that this war was not merely a struggle for empires but a confrontation between two opposing ideologies: democracy and totalitarianism. Slowly the US prepared to come out of isolation into direct intervention. Soon America became an "Arsenal of Democracy," supplying the Allies with weapons, munitions and other supplies. By the summer of 1941, teh US Navy was patrolling the North Atlantic, guarding shipments bound for Britain. America stood on the verge of active involvement in WWII on the high seas. Meanwhile, tensions between the US and Japan mounted. Finally, on December 7, 1941, the Japenese bombed Pearl Harbor, and on the following day, America officially entered WWII. American intervention was important because the toalitarian regimes of Hitler, Mussolini and Tojo threatened not only Europe and the Pacific Rim but also all of the free world.
Allied Commander in Europe - Dwight D. Eisenhower
General in Pacific - Douglas MacArthur
5. WWI vs. WWII
A. America's Entry
America entered WWI for the purpose of defending her territory (threatened by the Zimmerman note) and her economic interests (threatened by submarine warfare). She also entered late in the war, just a year before it ended. America entered WWII in response to a direct attack (Pearl Harbor). Another reason that she entered the war was to combat the threat of the Axis Powers to the free world; Pearl Harbor simply justified her entry into the war. America also entered the second world war much earlier than she entered the first four years before it ended).
B. How the wars ended
WWI ended on November 11, 1918 (Armistice Day / Veterans Day) with an armistice at the request of Germany. The second world war was divided between Europe and the Pacific, however, and therefore ended differently in each theatre of the war. The war in Europe ended in May 1945 with Germany's unconditional surrender after the Allies had crushed the Third Reich. The war in the Pacific ended in September 1945 with Japan's surrender, but only after atomic bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, demolishing both cities.
C. The devastation
WWII was far more devastating than WWI because of the advances in military technology, especially aircraft. Bombers from both sides destroyed many cities in Europe. About 60 million died in WWII, including many civilians, whereas less than 10 million were killed in WWI, most of which were soldiers. WWII also involved much more of the globe than WWI, which affected mainly Europe. Thus, the state of the world after WWII was much worse than it was after WWI, and it would take much longer to rebuild and recover.
The Nazis' systematic slaughter of the Jews during WWII - holocaust
The Nazi leaders were put on trial after the war in Nuremberg, Germany
6. Yalta and the wartime conferences
A. Churchill, FDR, Stalin
B. Gave Stalin all of Eastern Europe
C. Beginning of the Cold War
Yalta conference was in February 1945 in Ukraine.
The wartime conferences were held to determine the fate of the liberated countries and the need for a postwar international peace-keeping organization. These conferences failed, however, because Roosevelt generally catered to Stalin's demands, in spite of Churchill's warnings. Stalin, a Communist dictator, intended to take over the countries of Eastern Europe once the Nazis were out of the way, and he had little interest in international peace. The failure of these conferences is significant because it determined the fate of Eastern Europe; for the next 45 years, Eastern Europe would be under Communist control.
Stalin would send near 40 million people to gulags in Northern Russia because they didn't agree with him. He influenced the Chinese dictator, Mao Tsetung, who murdered 20 million people. For the Soviet regime to work, they couldn't believe in God.
The Cold War was fought by fear and words. The Berlin Wall was put up by the Soviets to keep people in, not to keep others out. It was a war about control and freedom (Capitalism vs. Communism, West vs. East). The Cold War started in 1945 and lasted until 1989 when the Berlin Wall came down. In 1964, JFK declares war on the Soviet Union.
7. The United Nations
The United Nations is based on a false faith in man's ability to achieve a permanent peace, a belief which the very nature of man makes impossible. However, the UN is flawed not only in its purpose but in its practices as well. Historically, the UN has been manipulated by the Communist powers. As a result, many UN decisions have been contrary to the will of the United States and other free nations of the West. The UN failed to bring peace or freedom to mankind. In fact, since the UN was founded, over 75 wars have been fought around the world, and over 1 billion people have been enslaved by Communism.
8. The Nuclear Bomb (1945)
A. Ended WWII
Saipan suicide hill
the Japanese hid underground
the bomb saved lives because they would surrender
more died not impacted by the bomb then from it, because they wouldn't surrender
B. Scientists
America was willing to protect Jews. Jewish scientists spend their lives building nuclear bombs in America (i.e. Manhattan project). If Jewish scientists stayed in Germany, they would've had the bomb first. Bomb created by Jewish physicists (Albert Einstein, etc.)
C. Cold War begins (a nuclear war)
fought with fear and words, will have peace through strength
- I think that evolutionary anthropologists conveniently forget that "social Darwinism" was behind many of the atrocities of World War II. Without an understanding of being created in God's image, we literally become like animals, or worse:
- "The final development leading to the crisis in human self-understanding relates to traumatic occurrences in national life. We are sometimes brought to the point of asking, “What is our country, or our world, doing?” Since the 1960s a series of political assassinations and assassination attempts, terrorism, and wars cause us to wonder where we are going and whether the human race as a whole has gone mad. The contradiction in the human race is deep and profound. On the one hand, we are capable of incredible accomplishments, including space travel and huge leaps in communication, information processing, and medicine, but seem unable to control ourselves. Morally neutral technology is employed to evil ends. Crime increases, as do class and racial tension and strife. The humans on one hand seem to be almost gods, reaching for the stars; on the other hand they seem to be devils, capable of cruelty not found in the animal kingdom. The self-understanding of the human is indeed at a crisis point, calling for intensive investigation and careful reflection" (Erickson, 485).
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