Since most of us will be moving up to AP US History, I will plan on continuing this blogging of notes on a different page dedicated for AP US @ http://apussurvival.wordpress.com

I have confirmed with Ms. Steffen that I will be in Anderson’s 7th hour AP US class next year so I will have to take notes no matter what.

Have a great summer to you all .

Final grades are updated to Esis. It could be good or bad in this case. If you dare, you can go take a peek. If you can calculate the weighted average then go ahead and find your overall final grade.

Good luck to all AP Exam takers!!!!!!
You’ve made it this far, now the moment of truth.

• Rapid change due to things like computers, TV, jets, contraceptives, and new surgical techniques. A New Society was born.

The Structure of European Society

• Changes in the middle class now including managers and technicians as large corporations and gov’t agencies increased the number of white collar admins and supervisors.
• Specialized knowledge from higher education was a must for the experts and managers. They also took steps to make sure their children were educated for the future.
• Traditional lower classes also moved to more urban areas. Agricultural workers declined but the labor force in industry did not change much. What really increased were the white collar jobs. Increase in real wages allowed the lower class to own the same things that the middle class could own creating a “consumer’s society”.
• However, it was cars that really gave the symbol of a buyer’s market. By 1960s, there were about 45 million cars.
• Rising incomes and short hours gave way to more vacation and leisure time giving 40 hour weeks and paid vacations.
• German and Italian workers received between 32-35 paid holidays a year.
• Everything belonging to pop culture was commercialized with thing such as concerts and sporting events.

Creation of the Welfare State

• Goal of Welfare state was to make people’s lives better and meaningful.
• Postwar reforms extended previous legislation and added new ones such as pensions, medical insurance, and unemployment compensation.
• Men eligible for pensions at 65 and women at 60 but they were not always generous. The British and French only gave $40 a month after 40 years of work.
• Affordable healthcare (something the US sucks at) was another goal for the welfare state. Britain, Italy and Germany gave free medical care to all people with some kind of insurance. France, Scandinavia, and Belgium required people to contribute to their own healthcare which was about 10-25 percent of total cost.
• Family allowances for minimum level of material care for children providing usually a fixed amount per child. Class barrier removal was attempted by expanding # of universities and providing scholarships giving more opportunities. Most students in Western European universities still came from privileged backgrounds.
• The welfare state increase the amount of money spent on social services although critics said the new generation was way too dependent on the state.
• However, when it came to women, there was a debatable classification, whether to treat them as mothers or to treat them as individuals. William Beveridge an economist, drafted the report that was the foundation for the British welfare state saying that women were vital in the adequate continuation of the British race.
• The women that did become employed were treated differently from singles. British welfare system based on a belief that women should stay home with the kids and they received subsidies for children but married women that worked got nothing. Employers encouraged to pay  women lower wages to keep women at home. The West German system also followed suit as it was a differentiation from the Soviet Union and communism which encouraged women to work.
• France wanted to maintain women’s individual rights and gave equal benefits to women as to men but provided extra incentives for women to stay home and bear children.

Women in Postwar Western World

• The return to trad. families created a “baby boom” but the increase in birthrate did not last very long due to the practice of birth control.
• “the pill” was new way to control birth.
• This led women to become eager to enter the workforce but there was still a salary gap.

THE FEMINIST MOVEMENT: THE SEARCH FOR LIBERATION

• WWI gave women the right to vote except France and Italy who gave that right in 1945. After WWII, women tended to return to the traditional ways.
• Late 1960s began to assert rights again with the feminists’ movement.
• Prominent figure of the movement was the work of Simone de Beauvior. She was born into the Catholic middle class family educated in Sorbonne, Paris. She earned money from teaching and becoming a novelist and writer. She never married but had a lifelong relationship with Jean-Paul Sartre.
• De Beauvoir saw her as living a liberated life but still perceived obstacles that men did not have. She published The Second Sex was an argument that women received second class status and took an active role in the French women’s movement.
• Another contributor would be Betty Friedan who was a journalist and mother of 3 children.
• Of course she was uneasy about the traditional life and published The Feminine Mystique arguing women being denied equal rights.
• Her book became famous and Friedan was a celebrity. She went on to form the National Organization for Women (NOW) which was to establish equality of women and men. She called for a constitutional amendment for equal rights for women.

The Permissive Society

• Yeah basically morals went out the window and well stuff went on.
• Sweden took the lead with the first sex ed. program and decriminalization of gays.
• Amsterdam allowed open prostitution and public sale of porn attracting thousand of perverts……I mean tourists.
• Umm yeah, this led to the birth of Playboy magazine.
• Oh yeah, drugs are bad, just say no. And umm…yeah the drug culture rose in this period of time and marijuana was popular among college students.
• It wasn’t just drugs and sex, the youth were also politically conscious and this lead to some protests to the Vietnam War.

Education and Student Revolt

• Higher education was more popular because of the elimination of fees. However, the students overwhelmed the universities and professors paid little attention to the students and acted like little Joseph Stalins.
• They also felt the education did not have much practical instruction.
• This led to student revolts and opposition to the Vietnam War made it all worse.
• The most famous revolt happened in the University of Nanterre outside of Paris but spread to Sorbonne, the main campus of University of Paris demanding a greater voice in society. Then the invited workers to protest with them and they did. Huge debacle.

• The United States obviously became one of the world superpowers and, with tensions against the Soviet Union, became a strong force to combat communism

American Politics and Security

• New domestic policies were mirrored on the New Deal by FDR which basically increased the role of the Fed. Gov’t and the rise of organized labor.
• The democrat presidents that followed FDR, Truman, Kennedy and Johnson and even the republican Eisenhower went with the New Deal policies.
• Wages went up after the War and so did consumer confidence.
• However, the fear of communism led to repercussions at home causing phobia that communism had infested the United States.
• Joseph R. McCarthy was a senator that intensified the “Red Scare” when he attacked “Communist conspirators” of the US Army but he was censured and eventually his anticommunist crusade was crushed.

Decade of Upheaval

• JFK- youngest elected president and also a Catholic. His administration was cut short by an assassin although during his presidency, he focused on foreign policy.
• Lyndon B. Johnson continued the New Deal with his “Great Society” including a healthcare for the elderly, “war on poverty” using food stamps, and the new Job Corps, New Department of Housing and Urban Development.
• In 1954, the Civil Rights Movement got a jumpstart when Brown Vs. Board of Education of Topeka ruled that segregation of schools was unconstitutional.
• This gave way to Martin Luther King Jr. crusade for racial equality and by 1963, Americans believed Civil rights to be the top issue.
• Civil Rights Act created the effort to end segregation and discrimination in the workplace and all public places. Johnson however, did not do enough and the African Americans were bitter. Also opposition to the Vietnam war made him extremely unpopular.
• Local areas of segregation gave way to ghettos for the Blacks. Malcom X of the Black Muslims used violence to protest. This lead to riots in major cities and when MLK was assassinated, even more riots broke out leading to severe division of the population.
• Protests against the war also led to violence when 4 students were killed for protesting by the Ohio National Guard causing anti-war movement to decline.
• Nixon decided to stop this with his “law and order” and the shift to the right in American politics began.

The Development of Canada

• Canada experienced similar developments to the United States such as electronics, industrial development, aircraft, and nuclear.
• Canada was financed by the US and businessmen were worried about being dominated by the US.
• Canada did agree to join NATO and sent military forces to fight in Korea the following year along with supporting the UN in order to avoid subordination to the US.
• North American Air Defense Command (NORAD) formed in the 1957 maintained cooperation of the two airforces in order to ward off potential missile attacks.
• Liberal Party continued to dominate Canadian politics until 1957 when John Diefenbaker  won it for the Conservative Party.
• However, major economic problems returned control to the liberals allowing for welfare state and the Canada Pension Plan by Lester Pearson.

• Europeans were able to make a quicker than expected recovery after being stricken by WWII and Nazism.

The Soviet Union: Stalin to Khrushchev

• Soviet Union was devastated from WWII but Stalin’s only recovery policy was to do the same thing he did in the 1930s.

• Soviet laborers were expected to come up with exports without being paid much at all. Loss of millions of men meant that women were filled with the pressure to work.

• By 1947, industrial production was at pre-war steam and three years later it had surpassed by 40 percent. Stalin’s new Five Year Plan of 1946 had success in less than 5 years.

STALIN’S POLICIES

• The people of USSR were sold short however. They did not see any increase in consumer goods and the success from the launch of Sputnik had nothing to do with keeping the people of Russia happy.

• Housing was scarce and one could not find a place to relax and eat in Moscow.

• However, nobody really complained, Stalin had already eliminated any opposition and everyone was basically his puppet. Because of this, everything had to be in compliance with the ideology of the party including literature and broadcasts. A number of Jewish doctors were also allowed to kill high-level party officials until the death of Stalin on March 5, 1953.

KHRUSHCHEV’S RULE

• Collective leadership succeeded Stalin until Khrushchev came to power as the chief policymaker. He was responsible for ending the forced labor camps, a work of Stalin.

• Khrushchev condemned the repressive policies of Stalin at the Twentieth Congress of the Communist Party.

• The aim of the new government was to undo some of the horrors of the Stalin regime. He allowed freedom of thought saying that readers should have the right to make up their own mind.

• He reduced the powers of the secret police and closed some Siberian labor camps. However, this laxing policy led some Soviet satellite countries to think that rebellion would be possible. Soviet troops crushed the Hungary uprising in 1956 causing Khrushchev to slow down his de-Stalinization policies.

• Khrushchev emphasized light industry and consumer goods, but his reputation was damaged by his attempt to plant core in the Ural Mountains to try and increase the food supply.

• Failures and increased military spending damaged the Soviet economy and the industrial growth rate declined 13 percent to 7.5 percent in 1964.

• Khrushchev attempted to crack jokes and play clown at times and the Soviet officials were not pleased. They did not find the curbing of their privileges especially amusing either. Foreign policy failures and the Cuban missile crisis were the last straw and led to his forced retire by vote of the Soviet Politburo. Leonid Brezhnev gained the most power in the leading group soon after. Khrushchev had trusted him but he was the one that ultimately set up Khrushchev’s downfall.

Eastern Europe: Behind the Iron Curtain

• Eastern Europe was under the control of the Soviet Union by influence of the soviet troops and many of the same political reforms in Soviet Union would affect the Eastern states.

• Between 1948 and 47’, one-party Communist governments were established in East Germany, Bulgaria, Romania, Poland, and Hungary. In Czechoslovakia, the elections of 1946 made the communist party the largest party but it shared control with non-Communist governments. When the non-Communists were about to win, the Communists stepped in and seized control of the government and all other parties were dissolved. Klement Gottwald became the new president as he was a Communist leader.

ALBANIA AND YUGOLSLAVIA

• Exceptions to progressive Soviet influence. These countries were taken over by Communists right when the war ended.

• Albania-Local communists established a Stalinist regime but it grew independent from the USSR itself.

• Yugoslavia-Josip Broz aka Tito led the Communist resistance movement and was a loyal Stalinist. After the war he established an independent communist state that Stalin attempted to take over. He refused to give into Stalin’s demands claiming his ways were closer to the Marxist-Leninist ideals and aroused the people to fight to be an independent nation.

• Other Eastern European countries did follow through with Stalinization, setting up their own 5- year plans emphasizing heavy industry rather than goods. Agriculture was collectivized and all opposition was eliminated by use of a secret police.

• However, communism wasn’t too popular in Eastern Europe and Soviet Union exploited the economies of those countries making life harsh. Soviets demanded reparations from eastern European countries claiming plants and factories that were dismantled and moved inward. All of the Eastern European states had to trade with the Soviet Union.

UPHEAVAL IN EASTERN EUROPE

• After the death of Stalin, there was more of a shift toward nationalism and Khrushchev did not disturb the satellite states very much although he did not allow any of the Soviet satellites to become independent.

• Protests erupted after they realized that Khrushchev was denouncing the practices of Stalin esp. in Poland. The Polish Communist Party adopted a series of reforms electing Wladyslaw Gomulka as first secretary. Fearful of Soviet response from this, the Poles initiated compromise pledging to be loyal to the Warsaw Pact. Soviets let Poland follow their own path to socialism.

• Hungary saw Poland and wanted to do the same thing. Debates eventually ousted the Stalinist leader and replaced him with Imry Nagy as the new leader. Internal dissent was also against communism itself, however, causing the Soviet secret police to cause much fear and hatred. Nagy declared Hungary an independent nation on Nov. 1, 1956.

• The Red Army invaded Budapest allowing Soviets to re-control Hungary and established Janos Kadar, a reform-minded minister, to work with the Soviets to crush the revolt.

• Kadar was still able to save many of Nagy’s economic reforms.

• Czechoslovakia did not show the desire to revolt. “Little Stalin” Antonin Novotny, was placed in power by Stalin himself, had firm control. By late 1960s Novotony alienated many of the party members and was hated by the writers. The rebellion of the writers ended up forcing Novotny to resign. In Jan 1968, Alexander Dubcek was elected first secretary of the Communist Party and introduced numerous plans of reform, including freedom of speech and press, travel abroad, and relaxation of the secret police. Dubcek wished to form “communism with a human face” creating a period of euphoria known as “Prague of Spring”.

• Then people were not satisfied and wanted more reforms including withdrawal from Soviet Rule which automatically prompted invasion by the Soviet Union. Gustav Husak replaced Dubcek and removed all of his reforms.

Western Europe: The Revival of Democracy

• Western Europe experienced many of the same problems of Eastern Europe. Communist parties did gain a level of respect for their efforts in WWII and France and Italy both had Communists win elections. But of course the Cold War caused the Communists to be distrusted although France and Italy still had 25 percent of the vote going toward communism.

• Communist parties often joined forces with the other left-wing parties such as Social Democrats.

• Desire to overthrow the old order initially allowed the conservative reforms to be set aside, however, the support soon dwindled.

• The cold war hurt the cause of socialism. Their identification with Marxism and communism hurt them badly too. Continental socialist parties began to call for social justice and liberty rather than the elimination of a class struggle. They no longer wished to eliminate capitalism.

• 1950s saw the rise of the moderate policies again. The Christian Democratic parties were especially important. The new Christian Democrats wanted economic and were interested in democracy.

• Western European countries were able to recover quickly primarily from the Marshall Plan where industrial production was still at its peaks and even above prewar times.

FRANCE: THE DOMINATION OF DEGAULLE

• De Gaulle influenced all French politics for almost 25 years. He led some of the resistance parties and made sure a provisional government was established after the war. However the Fourth republic was too weak and de Gaulle withdrew from politics although he formed the French Popular Movement, a rightist organization.

• Indochina was a disaster for the French and they were determined not to do the same thing to Algeria. However, differences in opinion almost led to civil war and De Gaulle was forced to take over again by est. the fifth republic and a new constitution enhancing the power of the president. He pulled France out of NATO high status increasing her prestige among third world countries by giving Algeria her independence.

• Nuclear program, economic centralized. Eventual large deficit and increased dissatisfaction. Series of strikes and student protests. De Gaulle resigned April 1969.

WEST GERMANY

• Three Political parties- Social Democrats, Christian Democrats, and Free Democrats

• Founding Hero of fed republic-Konrad Adenauer leader of CDU

• Cooperation with the Western states and reconciliation with France. Korean War created fears that security of West Germany was compromised therefore calling for rearmament of Germany and induction into NATO later.

• Adenauer’s chancellorship was primarily due to the “economic miracle” in West Germany. Ludwig Erhard was the key here because he was the minister of finance.
• West Germany had 75 percent of the original population and 52 percent of the original territory but its economic prestige exceeded that of prewar Germany
• Germany even took in guest workers as the unemployment rate dropped below 8 percent.
• Germany was still troubled by the Nazi past, however, and the Nuremburg Trials were held to convict former Nazi leaders of war crimes. German courts took over these trials beginning in 1950.
• Adenauer resigned in 1963 after 14 years. He wanted Germany to gain equilibrium.
• Ludwig Erhard succeded Adenaur and continued his policies. The social democrats began to rise, however, when the mid-1960s had an economic downturn.

GREAT BRITAIN: THE WELFARE STATE

• Great Britain ended up with a lot of problems  The Labor Party defeated Churchill with an landslide. The Labor Party promised social reforms, appealing to the masses in a country of scarcity.
• The new labor government was controlled by Clement Attlee who proceeded to enact those welfare reforms.
• The first step was to create a Bank of England that was nationalized, sort of like our Federal Reserve. Industries such as coal and steel, public transportation, and public works.
• National Insurance Act and National Health Service Act established social security and required doctors and practitioners to work with state hospitals.
• This forced Britain to reduce abroad expenses causing the British to dismantle their empire and tone down military assistance for Greece and Turkey.
• Conservatives came back into power due to continuing unrest in the economy in 1951 to 1964.
• Favoring private ownership of businesses, the conservatives still supported the social reforms.
• However the economy was still depressing and the failure of British to adopt new industrial methods did not help out.
• The British seemed to have lost most of her prestige as a world power. The Suez Crisis occurred when Colonel Gamal Abdel Nasser, leader of Egypt, nationalized the Suez Canal which threatened British vital interests. British, French and Israeli forces attacked Egypt but were force into a UN ceasefire by the United states.

ITALY THE WEAKNESS OF COALITION GOV’T

• Italy sustained almost as much damage as Germany. They were in a period of reconstruction.
• They abolished the monarchy and became a democratic republic in 1946
• At first the Christian Democrats were in power with Alcide de Gasperi serving as the from 1948-1953.
• There were coalition governments but none of them included the communist party and the Christian Democrats stayed in power due to the support of the middle and upper classes.
• Italy also experienced an “economic miracle” but it wasn’t as publicized and it was greatly helped by the Marshall Plan.
• Production of consumer goods and private enterprise with government support helped out greatly but Southern Italy was still backward.

Western Europe: Toward Unity

• National sovereignty hindered the development of full unity in Western Europe but the economic arena was open to unity.
• France, W. Germany, Benelux (Belgium, Luxembourg, Netherlands) countries, and Italy formed the European Coal and Steel Community to create a common market for coal and steel products. Soon the European Atomic Energy Community was also created and in the same year the Rome Treaty created the European Economic Community aka Common Market
• The six member nations no longer had customs barriers and created a large free trade area and also encouraged cooperation. EEC nations were an important trading bloc and all benefited economically.
• Only US passed EEC in steel production.

• WWI created nationalist movements that were against colonial rule and all WWII did was reinforce and speed up that process. The Japanese had already overrun the colonial empires and the colonies that fought on the Allied side were aware that the Allied forces were under the principle of self-determination.
• Countries also had no more resources to rule the colonial empires, especially Great Britain. Between 1947 and 1962 most colonies were freed from their countries that ruled them.

Africa Struggle for Independence

• Europeans realized that they had to let go of their colonies but the colonies obviously were in no condition for self-rule. Political parties were also created in Africa that had goals of independence. Kwame Nkrumah formed the Convention People’s Party which was the first African political party and Jomo Kenyatta formed the Kenya African National Union which was primarily for economic issues but also covered self rule.
• Most political activities were none violent and led by smart Western educated Africans but the Mau Mau Movement used terrorism to demand uhuru or freedom and British were finally willing to promise independence.
• Egypt’s political party, Wafd, was formed to promote Egyptian independence. They got independence in 1922 but were still controlled by the British. Egyptian monarchy was overthrown due to British and Egyptian dissatisfaction and King Farouk was overthrown giving way to an independent republic.
• North Africa just gained independence because the French were too weak to do anything. Morocco and Tunisia were independent but Algeria was home to 2 million French settlers and was still under French control. Algerian nationalists organized the National Liberation Front (FLN) and started guerilla warfare. The French became divided over this issue and therefore Charles de Gaulle, French leader, granted American independence in 1962.
• South Africa was more complicated as there was more European influence. African National Congress was at first a group of intellectuals that wanted econ. and political reforms and full equality for educated Africans. ANC had little success and South African whites were strengthening control and segregation. The whites repressed any protests and arrested Nelson Mandela the leader of the ANC for armed resistance to the government.
• Late 1950s-60s was when most African nations gained independence. The Gold Coast was renamed Ghana and under control of Kwame Nkrumah. Other nations soon followed and by late 1960s, all nations but the south African ones were independent.

Middle East

• Fall of Ottoman and Persian empires began new formation in the Middle East. Turkey and Iran formed and fiercely independent gov’t was established in Saudi Arabia in 1932. Iraq also gained independence from Britain. The British and French still had control over Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, and Palestine.
• Jordan Syria, Lebanon and Palestine became independent after the war. The Arab League created to unite but soon was disbanded because of difference in opinion.
• Jews and Arabs could not get along, British slowed down immigration of the Jews and denied them a state in Palestine but the Zionists were not to be denied and the holocaust allowed many to give them more sympathy. The Zionists looked to the US for support and March 1948, Truman admin. approved est. of Jewish state and an Arab state, proclaiming the state of Israel. The new state was seen as betrayal to the Palestinians . Outraged that the Western countries did not support the Muslim cause, the Arabs invaded the Jewish state which failed but the both sides hated each other from then on.
• Palestinian Liberation Organization was formed to represent Palestinian interests. Guerilla movement called al-Fatah led by Yasir Arafat launched terrorist attacks on the Israeli territory. Israel gov’t invaded the PLO bases in Jordan.
• Israel adopted a policy of immediate retaliation against the PLO if any hostile act occurred. Colonel Gamal Abdel Nasser, ruler of Egypt, imposed a blockade against Israeli shipping through the Gulf of Aqaba. June 5, 1967, Israel launched air strikes bombing 17 Egyptian airfields and wiped out the Egyptian Air Force. The blockade was broken and Israeli armies settled in the Sinai peninsula. Jordan territory also seized, occupation of Jerusalem, attacked Syrian military position. Six-Day War devastated Nasser’s forces, tripling size of territory. Israel still has the territories but Arab and Israel still cannot get their act together to this day.

Asia Nationalism

• British Indian Muslims and Hindus did not want to create a single Indian state. British created Pakistan for the Muslims and India for the Hindus. Only one Indian National Congress member opposed,  Mahatma Gandhi. Gandhi was correct when Aug. 15, 1947 arrived and violence erupted as Muslims and Hindus scurried across the new borders.
• A Hindu militant assassinated Gandhi.

China Communism

• Nationalist Government under Chiang Kai-Shek was supported by the Americans while Mao Zedong (Communist party) built a strong base in North China. People’s Liberation Army had over 1 mil. troops. Coalition government failed so therefore civil war broke out.
• Millions of peasants were supportive of the People’s Liberation Army under Mao Zedong. This army then surrounded Beijing, crossed the Yangtze, and occupied Shanghai. Chiang and his government plus 2 million followers fled to Taiwan during this time. Mao mounted the Gate of Heavenly Peace in Beijing declaring victory.
• Great Leap Forward – the plan Mao had to create a socialist regime involving collectivization of farming and nationalizing industry and creating communal villages of more than 30 thousand people. This plan ended in disaster.
• 1966- Mao unleashed his Red Guards that were to purify the nation of capitalism and scrutinized just about everything including schools, universities, factories, and some government ministries.
• The forced step toward communism was called the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution that lasted for about 10 years. Mao believed that a constant revolutionary fervor would achieve communism by overcoming the past. Red Guards were sent out to eliminate 4 oldies: old culture, old ideas, old customs, and old habits.
• Temples books written by foreigners and jazz records were destroyed. Street signs were replaced with revolutionary names. Property was destroyed and people that deviated from Mao’s ideals were attacked. Many party members did not agree with Mao’s approach of permanent revolution.. When Mao died, more practical approach was implemented.

• Yep WWII wasn’t succeeded by total peace and everything was far from hunky dory. The Cold War started and lasted through much of the 1980s.

The Conferences at Tehran, Yalta, and Potsdam

• Stalin, Churchill, and Roosevelt, leaders of the Big 3, met at Tehran to decided the future course of the war during November 1943. They were concerned about how to deliver a final blow to Germany. Churchill wanted to take a difficult route through the Balkans giving the Western allies a better position. Roosevelt and Stalin disagreed and wanted an American-British invasion through France during Spring of 1944.
• This plan obviously meant that Soviet forces would end up liberating the eastern portion of Germany. They also agreed to partition Germany as a post-war agreement. However, Poland’s fate was left undecided. Although Roosevelt was pleased with his agreements with Stalin, Churchill was still a bit wary. Churchill met with Stalin again in Moscow in October 1944 in order to create more specific agreements written on a scrap piece of paper that would draw out the lines of where each Allied countries would have influence over. USSR got 90 percent influence on Romania, 75 in Bulgaria and Britain would influence 90 percent of Greece. Yugoslavia and Hungary were fifty-fifty.
• Churchill then thought this was an invasion on the sovereignty of the countries. He asked if Stalin wanted to burn the paper. Stalin told Churchill to keep it.
• The conference of Yalta in Ukraine in Feb. 1945 was held when Germany obviously was going to be defeated. The Western powers once thought the Soviet forces were weak but now concluded that 11 million Red Army soldiers were taking much of eastern and central Europe. Stalin had hoped to spread his Communist influence using the ideal of the “spheres of influence” because he did not trust the Western forces. He wanted a buffer to protect his regime from Western aggression. He also wanted important resources and strategic military positions
• However Roosevelt was moving away from the spheres of influence and self determination.
• Grand Alliance approved the “Declaration on Liberated Europe” as a pledge to assist liberated countries in creation of their own democratic nations. Liberated countries were to hold free elections to determine political systems.
• At Yalta, Roosevelt also wanted Stalin’s help in the Pacific. They were not sure about the A-bomb yet and Americans feared that the offensive in Japan would involve losing one million men. Roosevelt made the deal with Stalin that he would take Sakhalin and Kurile Islands and warm water ports in and railroad rights in Manchuria.
• The United Nations was also created at Yalta. Roosevelt wanted to make sure that the Big Three would be inducted into this international organization for peacekeeping before they were all afflicted by political differences.
• After compromises, Churchill and Stalin agreed to create a United Nations and scheduled the first meeting in San Fran in April 1945.
• Germany must unconditionally surrender and 4 occupation areas were already set up. Churchill insisted on giving France an occupational area despite protests from Stalin and Roosevelt. German reparations were set at $20 million. A provisional government was to be set up in Poland with both Lubin (Communists in exile) and London (non-Communists in exile) Poles.
• Stalin even agreed to allow free elections to choose the form of government in Poland. But down the road free elections would be an issue between Soviets and Americans.
• Eastern governments were to be democratic but also had to be pro-Soviet. Democratic and soviet just never will mix.
• Before conference at Potsdam, Western and Soviet relationship were quickly down the crapper. The Grand Alliance was no longer truly in effect after the German defeat and therefore political differences once again rose to the surface.
• United States terminated the Lend-Lease aid to the Soviets prior to the end of the war and refused to provide a $6 million loan to Soviets for reconstruction and this revealed that the Western countries wanted to keep the Soviet Union weak.
• On the other hand, the Soviet Union refused to fulfill the Yalta pledge on the “Declaration on Liberated Europe” made the Eastern world look quite dangerous. Stalin came into Romania and installed his own Communist coup government under Communist Petra Groza aka “Little Stalin”
• Soviet Union then arrested the London Poles and sympathizer and put the Lubin Poles into power. Soviets seemed to want to control eastern Europe with communist puppet states.
• Potsdam Conference of July 1945 was filled with distrust and Roosevelt had died with Truman as his successor. Truman received word that the A-bomb had been tested and it was ready. This may have contributed to Truman stiffening his resolve against the Soviets. Tensions were rising and relationships were already getting cold.
• Truman DEMANDED that free elections be set up in Eastern Europe while Stalin claimed governments like that would be anti-Soviet and therefore he will not allow. Stalin wanted absolute military security only gained by the presence of Communist states in Eastern Europe.
• Middle of 1945, only invasion by Western forces would undo what Stalin did and few people wanted to start World War III.
• Soviets believed that their actions were just legitimate security measures. It was the west that attacked the east and Stalin simply wanted to defend himself but nobody had any sympathy for poor Stalin.
• American Secretary of State, James Byrnes, proposed 25 year disarmament of Germany, the Soviets rejected it. Western states thought Stalin’s motive was to create a Eastern Germany Communist state.
• Byrnes said it would be necessary for American troops for an indefinite time and this led to the creation of an independent western Germany.
• Soviets were seen as trying to create a worldwide communism policy while Americans were seen by Soviets as trying to create global capitalism. Winston Churchill declared that an Iron Curtain had descended upon the world dividing up two hostile camps. Soviets considered his speech as a “call for war against the Soviet Union”

Development of the Cold War

• Prior to the end of the war, there were already disagreements between USSR and US about postwar agreements and they were only united by the desire to defeat the Axis powers.

Confrontation of the Superpowers

• There really wasn’t a clear country responsible for the Cold War. US and USSR both made some pretty dumb decisions. Different historical and political ambitions created the tensions. It was long established that competition for political and military supremacy was the way to go in the Western world. Both countries wanted more influence.
• Neither side was going to budge when Soviet Union wished to have eastern territory to defend herself. Stalin feared that the creation of democracies in East Europe would end up creating an anti-Soviet collection of states and therefore wanted to take over the territory as a buffer zone from the Western Europe.
• Civil war in Greece increased tensions. The Communist People’s Liberation Army were against anti-Communist forces backed by Britain. Truman feared that Britain would lose and therefore issued his Truman Doctrine stating that the US would provide money to any country that felt threatened by communism. If the Soviets were not stopped, then the whole world would be “infected by Communism”.
• June 1947, European Recovery Program aka the Marshall Plan, named after General George C. Marshall, intended to rebuild prosperity and stability in economy of Europe believing communist aggression was because of econ. turmoil.
• Marshall Plan was not meant to exclude the Soviet Union or the Eastern countries but neither ended up being a part of it. Soviets believed the plan to be “construction of bloc states bound by obligations to the USA and to guarantee the Am. loans in return for the relinquishing of economic and later political independence”.
• The United States initially wanted to end all commitments with Europe but the Soviets ended up keeping the US in the European affairs.
• In the article Foreign Affairs by George Keenan advocated containment to prevent further Soviet aggression. Soviets blockaded Berlin prompting this policy to go into effect.
• Fate of Germany was also a source of disagreement. There was no further agreement other than the occupational policies.
• Soviets took reparations from Germany as booty and dismantled factories moving them inward into the USSR.
• British, French, and Americans merged their zones into what they wanted …. unification of the three zones in western Germany. Soviets blockaded west Berlin allowing neither truck nor trains to enter West Berlin. Soviet wanted to stop the creation of the western German state.
• Nobody wanted a WWIII and at attempt to break the blockade was out of question. Berlin Air Lift was the solution where supplies, 13000 tons, were flown into Berlin. The Soviets did not interfere and lifted the blockade in May 1949.
• West German Federal Republic formally created in September 1949. Same year that the Cold War spread to the rest of the world. Victory of the Chinese Communists increased the fears of the United States. Soviet Union also announced they had created the first A-bomb.
• Nobody wanted nuclear war for if one side nuked the other, then the other side would still have nukes left and then nuke back.
• NATO was formed, basically an alliance of nations that would defend each other in the case of an attack. The eastern countries formed the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance (COMECON) for economic assistance and then the Warsaw Pact was the counter organization to NATO.

New Sources of Contention

• Soon the United States put themselves into the Korean War. North Korea was called the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea supported by Soviet Union.
• South Korea aka. Republic of Korea was defended by the US. Don’t ask me why North Korea was called “democratic” and South Korea wasn’t.
• Soviets invaded into South Korea, Douglas MacArthur marched American troops across the 38th parallel to push back and unify Korea under a democratic government. China, under Mao Zedong, came back and pushed US troops all the way back. Two years of fighting did not produce a victory and the armistice was signed in 1953 declaring the 38th parallel as the official divide.
• Dwight D. Eisenhower realized the fear of Soviet influence and established a policy that would nuke Soviet Union if they tried anything, even a ground attack. The CENTO (Central Treaty Organization) was intended to prevent the USSR from expanding southward into the Middle East.
• Then to protect the Eastern Asian countries, SEATO or Southeast Asia Treaty Organization was created.
• Death of Stalin in 1953 allowed for new hope but that was soon diminished. Conference between Eisenhower and NIkolai Bulganin, leader of Soviets, lead to no optimism. Soviets had the first intercontinental missile and their first satellite up and were able to play on the fears of the American people.
• Then another new leader, Khrushchev, came to power and demanded West Germany or he would take access routes. His ultimatum was ignored and he eventually backed down and the Berlin Wall was constructed.
• JFK came to office and Khrushchev tried his plan again but one again renounced it.

Cuban Missile Crisis

• American supported Cuban attempt to overthrow Castro and that failed. Since this totalitarian rule was backed by Soviets, they decided to station nuclear missiles in Cuba. JFK feared this despite the fact he had nuclear missiles pointing toward Russia in Turkey.
• JFK chose to blockade and prevent the missile shipment. Khrushchev agreed to stop as long as the USA would not invade Cuba. Hotline comm. system from Washington DC to Moscow was established to increase communications between the two superpowers and the two also agreed not to do any nuclear testing in the atmosphere.

Vietnam

• Vietnam was divided with strong Nationalists in the north under Ho Chi Minh with Soviet aid. American sponsors worked for a proWestern country in South Vietnam. JFK continued Eisenhower’s policy of aiding economically Ngo Dinh Diem, autocratic ruler of South Vietnam. Unfortunately the south government was corrupted and did not have much support for Kennedy’s policies. There was no aid against the Vietcong or southern communist guerillas.
• 1963, USA supported military coup to overthrow Diem but the new coup was even less capable of governing.
• Lyndon B Johnson sent US troops into the region to overthrow Vietcong but strong nationalist feelings and the south Vietnamese hating their government and supporting the Vietcong led to disaster followed by Anti-War feelings. Richard Nixon withdrew troops and Vietnam was reunited by the Communists. New era of US soviet relations, called the detente.

• Hitler believed only the Germans could dominate and organize Europe.

The Nazi Empire

• Nazi empire stretched from English Channel to the outskirts of Moscow. It wasn’t anything close to an organized empire with an efficient government.
• There were some neutral states and there were some states that felt increasingly restricted by the Germans as the war progressed.
• Some areas were annexed by Nazi Germany and became a province of Germany while occupied Europe was controlled by German military or civilian officials. However, the existing authorities did not want German control and some were competing against German rule, resulting in inefficiency.
• Civil admins were established in Norway, Denmark, and Netherlands because the peoples were Aryan and related to the Germans therefore giving them leniency while the rest were “inferior” latin peoples such as those of France controlled by military administrations.
• Territories were exploited for resources because Germany could not keep up with the war effort.
• Nazi’s mistreated nations that were not occupied by Aryans and began to implement that racial program.
• Heinrich Himmler, leader of the SS, was put in charge of the Nazi racial ideals and was to evacuate the Slavic peoples and replace them with Germans. This policy was applied to the lands of west Poland and the new German provinces. Poles were uprooted and dumped in southern Poland. People were given designated areas in Poland. Hitler’s plan was to Germanize the lands to the east having Slavs, Poles, Ukrainians, and Soviets. SS officers commented that it was necessary to destruct 30 million Slavs in order to clear the way for German plans.
• Nazi New Order also meant the economic domination of conquered Europe to take resources. Germans seized everything from raw materials to food leaving only just enough to keep the inhabitants alive.
• Labor shortages led to German exploit of the human resources of the conquered nations. POWs were used in heavy labor but soon were wasted by maltreatment leading to death of 3 million.
• 1942- special office created to recruit labor for German farms and summer 1944, Germans had seven million foreign workers, 20 percent of the labor force.
• Another seven million were forced to work on their own lands. However, the labor created economic chaos in the countries and disrupted industrialization that could have possibly helped the Germans. The brutal treatment by the recruitment policies led to more  resistance against the Nazi occupants.

Resistance Movements

• The east especially had resistance to the brutality. Ukraine and the Baltic region once thought the Germans were liberators from the Communist regime but the maltreatment and brutality led them to fuel the guerilla warfare in the East.
• Active resistance involved the assassination of German officials, sabotage, anti-German newspapers, and spying on German military positions.
• Some countries created government in exile in Britain. In Yugoslavia, Josip Broz aka Tito, led a band of guerilla forces of 250000 and 100000 were women.
• Communist governments also led underground resistance movements.
• Women even joined in carrying messages, planting bombs in Nazi headquarters, smuggling Jews out into Neutral Sweden and dressing their husbands as women to protect them from the Nazi slaughters of males as a punishment for resistance.
• The White Rose Movement was a resistance movement within Germany where a small group of students and one professor at the University of Munich distributed pamphlets denouncing the Nazi regime as lawless criminals. Members were executed.
• Only one plan to overthrow the Nazis came close to success. Colonel Count Claus von Stauffenberg believed that elimination of Hitler would stop the Nazis. July 20, 1944, Stauffenberg plants a bomb in Hitler’s East Prussian headquarters and it goes off. It failed to kill Hitler and the plan was discovered. Hitler executed 5000 people.

The Holocaust

• The deliberate attempt to exterminate Jews was the most terrifying part of Nazism. Hitler believed the Jews to be the parasites that were hindrance to the Aryan race. At first he just wanted the Jews to leave with emigration policies. The Madagascar Plan was a plan by the Nazis to ship Jews to the island of Madagascar. The plan was impractical and a more drastic plan was implemented, called the Final Solution to the “Jew Problem” — total annihilation.
• After defeating Poland, Himmler created a special strike force Einsatzgruppen which was to round up all Jews and put them into ghettos. They were ordered to kill Jews in June 1941. They ordered Jews to dig pits and then would shoot them as the were finished digging and bury them there.
• Executioners had morale problems but their conscience was not impaired as they were to carry out commands unconditionally. Still this execution plan was too slow. Therefore a systematic approach was initiated using death camps, rounding up Jews on trains like cattle and shipped to Poland where the extermination centers were built with the most famous being Auschwitz-Birkenau.
• Medical technicians chose Zyklon B (Hydrogen Cyanide [HCN]) as the gas used to effectively kill people.
• Jan. 20, 1942, was when a conference was held to discuss the plan for the Final Solution. Reinhard Wannsee outlined the steps. He said it was more practical to sweep from west to east and bring them in group by group into transit ghettos, then further east. Death camps began operation in 1942 Spring. Jews were also being shipped from France, Belgium and Netherlands. The final solution took priority over the use of railroad for supplies and war necessities.
• Jews that arrived at camp were examined by doctors and those fit were sent into the camp to work while those that were not were sent to the extermination centers. 30 percent at Auschwitz were sent to labor while the rest were gassed. The goods and even the bodies of the Jews were sold. Some inmates received painful “medical” experiments. 5-6 million Jews were killed. 2/3 Jews in Europe died and 90 percent of Jews in Poland, Baltic, and Germany were killed.
• Nazis also killed another 9 million by shooting, starvation, and overworking. Gypsies of Europe were also an alien race and exterminated. Slavics were also deliberately killed and an addition of four million Poles, Ukrainians, and Belorussians lost their lives as slave laborers. Germans also killed homosexuals.

The Home Front

• WWII was total war on steroids. Economic mobilization and mobilization of women escalated as also the civilian deaths rose exponentially from bombings, extermination and attacks.

Mobilization of Peoples: Four Examples

GREAT BRITIAN

• Summer 1944, 50 percent of the British people were armed forces or civilian “war workers”. British were determined to utilize women and most under 40 years of age were called to do war work of some kind. Women took almost 50 percent of the civil service positions and women in agriculture doubled as “land girls”.
• Government encouraged “Dig for Victory” campaign to increase food production. Fields were dug up and used for “Grow Your Own Food” campaigns.
• There was still a food shortage in Britain due to German submarines sinking merchant ships.
• Food rationing became prominent while the diet became bread and potatoes.
• Hours after work were spent on the “Dig for Victory”, the Civil Defense, and the Home Guard. Even elderly were expected to manufacture airplane parts.
• British emph. on planned economy creating ministry for fuel and power to control the coal indust. and ministry for production to oversee supplies for armed forces.
• Most people seemed to accept that total war required government intervention.
• Tank production did manage to quadruple and aircraft grew three times as much.

THE SOVIET UNION

• Soviets treated the war as the Great Patriotic War because the greatest land battles were between Soviets and Germans. 2/5 people killed in the war were the Soviets. Joseph Stalin used supercentralization as his policy, conducting all military and political affairs. All organizations, civil and military, fell under Communist control.
• In the beginning, the defeats of the Soviets led to drastic emergency mobilization. Leningrad experienced nine hundred days of siege where the civilians ate dogs, cats, and mice. Factories in the exterior of Russia were packed up and moved inward. Machines were set in the ground and walls built around them. Kharkov Tank Factory created 25 T-34 tanks only then weeks after rebuilding.
• Widespread mobilizations created another Industrial Revolution. Stalin called it the “battle of machines” which the Soviets won. 78000 tanks and 98000 artillery were created and 55 percent of national income went for war materials.
• Soviet citizens experienced food shortages and housing scarcity. Workers lived in dugouts or dilapidated barracks.
• Women and girls also worked in the industries, mines, an railroads; holding 26-35 percent of the laborers in mines and 48 percent in oil industry. Soviet women were also to dig anti-tank ditches and be wardens for air-raids.They were also used as snipers and female pilots were known as “Night Witches”.
• Peasants bore the most burdens furnishing 60 percent of military forces but were also expected to feed the Red Army, Soviet people.
• German occupation reduced the farmland by 47 percent. Shortage of labor and equipment also hindered agricultural production as tractors were being used to carry military supplies.
• Overall the victory was won by total mobilization. Stalin quickly realized that people were not going to fight for communism but rather for “Mother Russia”. He use this propaganda to arouse the soviets and even gave speeches about past heroes including past Tsars.

THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

• It wasn’t as hard in the US because they were not really being attacked at home other than the surprise Pearl Harbor attack. Eventually the US ended up being the arsenal for the Allies as the economy and labor force mobilized slowly at first but later quickly.
• The economy was never fully mobilized because of the reluctance of the industries to switch over to full time war operations. Too much production could lead to another depression after the war.
• Unemployment did not decrease until 1943 and women were not necessarily needed in the workforce. Small factories were shut down eventually because of fear of overproduction, a factor in the Great Depression.
• Partial mobilization caused social problems. Construction of new factories led to creation of boomtowns where many moved to in order to find employment but there was not enough housing, health facilities, and schools. This rapid growth led to social breakdown including the rise of teenage prostitution.
• Widespread movement of people was seen. Sixteen million men and women were in the military and another 16 million, wives and sweethearts, were looking for jobs and relocated. Over 1 million Af. Americans migrated from south to north to look for jobs in industry. Racial tensions resulted and led to even attacks on Af. Americans.
• Japanese American were treated the worst and force to go into camps and forced to take an oath of loyalty.

GERMANY

• Hitler believed the cause of the first loss in Germany was because of the collapse of the Home Front.
• To maintain morale, he refused to cut the consumer good production in replacement for armament. Blitzkreig allowed for quick victories and easy plunder for the Germans. But German losses and the joining of the US in the war led to economic change.
• Hitler needed to increase his armaments and put Albert Speel under control of the armaments. Elimination of waste and rationalizing procedures led to triple the production of armaments. Total mobilization was not implemented until 1944 when schools, theaters, and cafes were closed and Speer used all the remaining resources. It was too little and too late and therefore Germans still got defeated.
• Nazis reversed the ideology of the traditional women and allowed them to be employed as more men went to military service. But this increase of women was not enough and middle class women resisted employment. Labor conscription for women also did little to help

The Frontline Civilians: The Bombing of Cities

• Bombing was the common way of getting rid of military targets, enemy troops, and civilians. It was believed that the bombing would coerce the governments into surrender but this was not the truth. The luffwafe bombings set the standards for other British as the civilians did not panic. German bombings were sections of the cities and did not affect the entire city. Morale problems were not present…but the British still went and bombed the Germans, not learning that they would not panic also. Arthur Harris was the wartime leader of the British Bomber Command rearmed with 4-engine heavy bombers. Cologne was the first German city to be bombed.
• New strategy as the U.S. entered. American planes flew to accurately bomb transportation and war industry facilities. Command continued bombing the German cities with more than 100000 citizens. These raids led to shortage of foods, clothing and fuel. Incendiary bombs were bombs that created fires sweeping across cities. Hamburg was destroyed with 1800 degrees F temperatures and 50000 civilians died. Allied leaders began to stop because they saw the bombing terror as unnecessary.
• Evacuation of people in Germany was a failure as the rural villagers did not like the urban newcomers. Bombing failed to destroy morale and industrial capacity. The loss of the war could be blamed on the destruction of transportation systems.
• Bombing reached a new height when the A-Bomb was dropped. Americans sabotaged the Germans so they could not create a superbomb from uranium and then went on working with British scientists to create an atomic bomb under the direction of J. Robert Oppenheimer with his secret laboratory in Los Alamos, New Mexico. The first A-bomb was created and tested. B-29 Superbombers were first used as the bombing strategy in 1944.  Japanese factories were destroyed but the Japanese were still mobilizing. Fearing it would mean loss of American troops, Truman ordered the dropped A-Bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. 76000 near the epicenter of the explosion were destroyed. 140k people died in the city by end of 1945 and 50k more died from radiation effects. That was Hiroshima alone.

• Hitler made clear to his generals that victory was the only important thing in war. The destruction of Poland was his objective. The generals were not to pity anyone. This was a precursor to the worst war in history.

Victory and Stalemate

• Hitler stunned Europeans by unleashing his Blitzkrieg  or “lightening war”. His armored columns or “panzer divisions” (a strike force of about 300 tanks and forces/supplies)
• Airplanes were also present and this overwhelmed the Polish. Infantry then came in to secure the territory. Four weeks later, Poland surrendered and USSR and Germany divided the land. France and Britain declared war on Sept. 3rd although Hitler was optimistic that he would come out on top. France and Britain did not go on the offensive thinking it was another war of blockade.
• Maginot Line – steel fortifications armed with heavy artillery built by the French, France was quite satisfied by her protective shell and didn’t do any further intervention. Hitler did not do anything for the winter but the resumed the war on April 9, 1940 with a Blitzkrieg against Denmark and Norway. May 10, Germans launch attack on Netherlands, Belgium, and France. British and French troops were caught off guard by Hitler’s attack through Luxembourg and Ardennes forest.
• Panzer divisions broke through weak French defensive positions and outflanked the Maginot Line. The maneuver split the Allied troops and trapped the French and British against the beaches of Dunkirk. Britain came to the rescue with her ships and 330000 men on the Allied side were rescued to Britain to fight another day.
• June 5- Germans launch offensive on southern France. 5 days later, Mussolini, thinking the war was over, declared war on France and invaded from the south. France surrendered on June 22. German army occupied 3/5ths of France while the rest was ruled by authoritarian Marshal Henri Petian, a WWI hero for France. This regime was called Vichy France.
• Allies thought Vichy France was a puppet state of the Nazis. Former French gov’t exiled and escaped to Britain. Germany controlled west and central Europe…except Britain.
• May 10th, 1940, Winston Churchill replaces Neville Chamberlain.
• Churchill was optimistic that Britain could win. He was an inspiring leader with powerful speeches directed at the British. Hitler only wished that Britain would go for peace and leave Germany alone to her eastward expansion.
• Britain refused to back down under Churchill and Hitler was forced to invade Britain, something he was not optimistic about. His only way was to invade and control airspace. The Luffwaffe (German air force) launched offensive against British Air and naval bases, comm. centers, and war industries.
• The British had a radar system to alert them ahead of time of German attacks. Extra intelligence managed to obtain information about what the Germans would target next. The air force still suffered lots of damage and Hitler changed his strategy to intense bombing of cities.
• The British rebuilt the air force and inflicted major losses on the Luffwaffe. Germany had lost the Battle of Britain and postponed the invasion of Britain.
• Hitler planned to capture the Suez Canal, cutting off the Mediterranean to British ships closing off the supply of oil if they could take Egypt. He wasn’t ever fully committed to this plan and this intial plan was to let the Italians secure the Balkan and Mediterranean and to defeat the British in Northern Africa. Of course the British routed the Italians and ruined that plan for Hitler. Hitler was not concerned for he wanted to get his land in the east.
• July 1940, Hitler told leaders to prepare for invasion of the Soviet Union. Hitler believed the British were only in the war because they hoped the Soviet Union would come and help. If the Soviet Union was defeated, then the British would stop fighting too. He believed the Soviets, with the Jewish-Bolshevik leaders, could be annihilated easily. The attack was scheduled for Spring of 1941 but delayed due to Balkan problems. Hitler got Hungary, Bulgaria, and Romania to cooperate with him but Mussolini failed in his invasion of Greece in October 1940 therefore exposing Hitler’s southern flank to British air bases in Greece. German troops seized Yugoslavia and Greece in April reassuring Hitler that things would go according to plan. He turned to the east and invaded USSR on June 22, 1941.
• The attack on the Soviets stretched out on a 1800 mile front. Germans managed to capture two million Soviet soldiers. November, one German army group swept thru Ukraine while another swept through Leningrad. A third was advancing 25 miles away from Moscow. Then the Germans were stopped early winter by an unexpected Soviet resistance.
• The Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor and were occupied with the U.S while the Germans were stopped. Stalin was able to launch a counterattack by transporting troops away from the Siberian Front to the Moscow Front. On December 1941 exhausted the Nazi victories and ended the Germans’ year on a low note. Then Hitler declared war on the U.S…not the best idea. Now it was indeed “world” War II.

War in Asia

• Japan had defeated Chine in 1895, Russia in 1905, and took over many of Germany’s eastern and Pacific colonies in WWI. The Japanese empire also included Korea, Formosa (Taiwan), Manchuria, and Marshall, Caroline, and Mariana Islands.
• Japan had internal tensions in early 1930s because of a population increase from 30 to 80 million. Japan was only able to feed and pay [for resources] depended on manufacture of heavy indust. goods and clothing. Tariffs because of the depression such as the Harley-Smoot Tariff set by the U.S. pretty much messed with the Japanese economy and that led to political disaster.
• Sure political power still rested in the hands of the emperor and his cabinet but Japan was leaning toward some democracy with universal male suffrage in 1924 and mass political parties were formed.
• 1930s economic crisis stopped this democratic growth. Right wingers pushed themselves with the army and navy to push for expansion at expense of China, and USSR. Navy hoped to make Japan self-sufficient in raw materials by conquering British Malaya and Dutch East Indies.
• Japan accomplished…
• 1935- Modern navy
• 1936- Gov’t influenced by military
• 1937 July- started war in Asia by invasion of China
• Expansion caused conflicts with European nations esp Britain and France because of their Asia possessions, namely India/Burma/Malaya and Indochina respectively. Also the East Indies and Netherlands. Even United States disliked it because they were attempting Pacific expansion.
• July 1941- Japanese invade Indochina causing the U.S. to cut oil supplies to Japan. Japan attacked the American Naval fleet.
• Dec. 7, 1941- Pearl Harbor attack. Also attacks on Philippines and advances on Malaya. US declared war on Japan the next day. Three days later Hitler declared war on the US but he wasn’t required to because his alliance with Japan was loose. Roosevelt was able to bring the US into the European conflict and knock down the barrier of isolation.
• Japanese invaded the Dutch East Indies and took over numerous islands in the Pacific. Some cases, Battan peninsula and island of Corregidor in the Philippines, resistance was fierce but not enough and almost all of southeast Asia fell into Japanese hands in Spring 1942.
• Tokyo created the Great East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere, declaring the entire region under Japanese control. He intended to liberate the colonial areas of Southeast Asia from Western control. For now she needed resources though and est. marital law upon the countries.
• Japanese hoped the destruction of the naval fleet would thwart them into admitting defeat but this wasn’t the case. It just made the Americans more acceptant toward Roosevelt’s war policy and US united with European nations and Nationalist China against Japan to push them away from the pacific again.

The Turning Pt (1942-1943)

• The Grand Alliance was created when the U.S. entered. This eventually defeated the Axis powers. However at first the Allied powers (Britain, U.S, and Soviets) had to overcome distrust of each other first before being an effect alliance against the Axis (Germany, Italy and Japan)
• Things that made the Grand Alliance possible
• Germany’s declaration of war on U.S. allowed the U.S. to empathize with the USSR and the British and Germany’s defeat would be top priority meaning the US exports of trucks, planes, and arms to British and USSR increased.
• The agreement to stress military operations above all political differences and post-war agreements.
• 1943- Allies agreed to fight until the Axis powers surrendered unconditionally. This cemented the Grand Alliance and Hitler could do nothing to divide his foes.
• Japanese forces advanced into Southeast Asia while Hitler continued to fight the war in Europe. It seemed that the Germans would claim victory in north Africa and the Afrika Korps under General Erwin Romel broke through British defenses in Egypt and advance toward Alexandria. Germans were also successful in the Battle of the North Atlantic as their subs continued to bash Allied ships that carried supplies to GB. The renewed offensive in USSR by Germans also led to the capture of the entire Crimean peninsula allowing Hitler to give his last optimistic outburst.
• North Africa- British Forces stop Rommel’s troops in El Alamein in summer 1942 forcing the Germans back across the desert.
• November 1942- British and American forces invade French North Africa forcing German and Italian troops to surrender March 1943.
• New detection devices allowed the Allies to destroy more German subs. Eastern front, turning point occurred at Stalingrad, major indust. center. Hitler, instead of concentrating on the Caucasus and the oil fields, charged to Stalingrad. November 1942- Feb 1943, German troops were stopped, surrounded and surrendered on Feb 2. Entire German Sixth Army of 300,000 men died. By Feb. German forces in USSR forced back to positions of June 1942. Spring 1943, Hitler knew he lost against the USSR. Tides were also turned in Asia in the Battle of the Coral Sea. May 7-8, 1942, Am. Naval forces stopped the Japanese allowing Australia to breathe easy for a bit.
• June 4th, Battle of Midway Island, Am. planes destroyed all 4 attacking Japanese aircraft carriers est. Am. naval superiority in Pacific. Bitter engagements near the Solomon Islands led to faded Japanese fortunes.

The Last Years

• Beginning of 1943- tides turned against Axis. Unconditional surrender still miles away. Axis forces first surrendered in Tunisia on May 13, 1943. The Allies carried the war into Italy (Winston Churchill called this the soft underbelly of Europe) Allied forces began invading mainland Italy. Benito Mussolini was arrested and a new government was put in and offered to surrender to the Allied powers. Mussolini was liberated by the Germans and set up a puppet state in northern Italy. German troops then moved in. The allied advancement was quite a blow because of the loss of troops. Rome did not fall to the Allies until July 4, 1944. Italy wasn’t too important and the Allies est. a second front.
• Allies planned a cross channel invasion of France since Fall 1943. They tricked the Axis powers into thinking that they would invade from the northern plains. Americans under Dwight D. Eisenhower landed five assault divisions on Normandy beaches on June 6th. They were able to est a beachhead and within 3 months they landed 2 million men and half million vehicles that broke German defensive lines.
• Allied troops moved south and east to liberate Paris. Supply probs and last minute failed offensive occured at the Battle of the Bulge slowing the Allied advance. March 1945, Allied troops crossed Rhine River and into Germany. End of April, moved into northern Germany moved toward Elbe River finally meeting the Soviets.
• Soviets had advanced a long way since the Battle of Stalingrad. Hitler’s generals urged him to build an east wall based on river barriers to stop the Soviets but he gambled and relied on his heavy tanks. German forces were defeated by the Soviets at the Battle of the Kursk, the greatest tank battle of WWII.
• Germans lost 18 panzer divisions and Soviets could advance westward reoccupying Ukraine at end of 1943. Siege of Leningrad was lifted and they moved back into the Baltic in 1944 moving to the northern front. Occupied Warsaw in Jan. and Berlin in April 1945. Soviet troops also swept the southern Balkan front. Jan 1945, Hitler moved into his bunker in Berlin to direct the end of the war. He continued to arrange his troops as if he could still win. Hitler continued to blame the Jews for his loss and committed suicide on April 30 after Mussolini was shot in Paris. May 7th, Germany surrenders. War in Asia continued, 1943 Am. forces gone on offensive and advanced their way across the Pacific. Am. forces ate up enemy resources esp. at sea. Pres. Harry S Truman and advisers convinced that the loss of Am. Troops could not continue. Finally they decided to drop the A-Bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Japan surrendered unconditionally on Aug. 14th 1945….marking the end of WWII. SEVENTEEN MILLION DIED IN BATTLE AND EIGHTEEN MILLION CIVILIANS DIED. SOME ESTIMATES SAY ALMOST 50 MILLION DIED. WWII was finally over.