1. THE SECOND WORLD
WAR
Chapter 28

2. Introduction
 Threats to the balance of power
 A conflict among nations, peoples, and ideals
 The new methods of warfare
 The Holocaust and the atomic bomb

3. From Isolation to Intervention
 Following WWI, successive U.S.
administrations backed away from intervention
in foreign countries

4. Foreign Crises
 Russia
Lenin 1918
Stalin 1924
 Italy and Germany
Benito Mussolini became leader of Italy in 1922
Adolph Hitler became Chancellor of Germany in 1933

5. Lenin and Stalin

6. The Soviet Union under
Stalin
 Stalin succeeded to power after Lenin died in
1924
 Collectivization
Local party and police officials forced peasants to
join collective farms
Peasant resistance: sixteen hundred large-scale
rebellions between 1929 and 1933

7. The Soviet Union under
Stalin
 Collectivization
The famine (1932–1933)
 The human cost was 3–5 million lives
 The Bolsheviks retained grain reserves
 Grain reserves sold overseas for currency
 Stockpiled in the event of war

8. The Soviet Union under
Stalin
 The Five-Year Plans
The human cost
 Large-scale projects carried out with prison labor
 The Gulag system
 By 1940, 3.6 million people were incarcerated by the
regime
 (7.1 Million people incarcerated in the U.S. in 2008)

9. The Soviet Union under
Stalin
 The Great Terror (1937–1938)
One million dead—1.5 million to the Gulag
The elimination of Stalin’s enemies, real or
imagined
Purged the old Bolsheviks
 Stalin wanted to eliminate any disagreement with his
personal views about Communism
Staged show trials

10. The Emergence of
Fascism in Italy
 In the aftermath of WWI
A democracy in distress
Seven hundred thousand dead, $15 billion debt
Territorial disputes

11. The Emergence of
Fascism in Italy
 The rise of Mussolini (1883–1945)
The Fascist platform (1919): universal suffrage,
the eight-hour day, and tax on inheritance
Fascist support
 Gained respect of middle classes and landowners
 Repressed radical movements of workers and
peasants
 Attacked socialists
 Fifty thousand fascist militia marched on Rome on
October 28, 1922

12. Mussolini at the march on Rome

13. The Emergence of
Fascism in Italy
 Italy under Mussolini
Repression and censorship
 Liberals and socialists considered enemies of the
state
Granted independence to papal residence in the
Vatican City
Roman Catholicism established as the state
religion

14. Weimar Germany
 November 9, 1918: Revolution
Bloodless overthrow of the imperial government
of Kaiser Wilhelm
Social Democratic Party (SPD) announced a new
German Republic
The Kaiser abdicated

15. Social Democratic Party
leader, Philip
Scheiderman, announces
creation of a
German Republic
on November 9, 1918

16. Weimar Germany
 Problems
Communists and independent socialists staged
armed uprisings in Berlin
Social Democrats tried to crush the uprisings
The Freikorps
 Former army officers fighting Bolsheviks, Poles, and
communists
 Fiercely right-wing anti-Marxist, anti-Semitic, and
antiliberal

17. Weimar Germany
 Problems
Major changes introduced by unelected Council
of People’s Commissioners
 Introduced 8 hour workday, legalized labor unions,
required re-hiring of WWI veterans; farm labor
reforms; social welfare; national health insurance.
 Conservatives opposed these measures and
Communists thought they did not go far enough
Elections not held until January 1919

18. Weimar Germany
 Communists and independent socialists staged
armed uprisings in Berlin during interim between
Kaiser’s abdication and election
 Social Democrats tried to crush the uprisings
 The Freikorps
 Former army officers fighting Bolsheviks, Poles, and
communists
 Fiercely right-wing anti-Marxist, anti-Semitic, and anti-
liberal

19. Freikorps
Communists

20. Weimar Germany
 The Weimar coalition
Socialists, Catholic centrists, and liberal
democrats
Parliamentary liberalism
 Universal suffrage for men and women
 Bill of rights

21. Why Did the Weimar Republic Fail?
 Social, political, and economic crisis
The humiliation of World War I & conservative
propaganda
 Argument that Germany “stabbed in the back” by socialists
and Jews widely accepted among conservatives
Versailles and reparations
 $33 billion debt: impossible to repay
Parliamentary system and proportional representation
gave too much power to minority parties by
necessitating governing coalitions in a deeply
fractured country.

22. Why did the Weimar Republic Fail?
 The failure of Weimar
Global Economic Depression further
weakened Weimar government
 U.S. stock market crash
 Unemployment
 Peasants staged mass demonstrations
 Government cut welfare benefits for veterans
Opponents seized economic setbacks to
undermine Weimar government

23. By 1930, the two best organized
opposition parties were the
Communist Party and the
National Socialist German
Worker’s (NAZI) Party

24. Hitler and the National
Socialists
 Adolf Hitler (1889–1945)
Born in Austria, rejected by the Academy of
Fine Arts in Vienna in 1907 and 1908.
Supported by orphan’s benefits and his
mother. After her death, Hitler lived in a
homeless shelter in 1909 and later in a hostel
for poor laborers.
 Apparently adopted Anti-Semitism, anti-
Marxism, and pan-Slavism while in Vienna.
Hitler moved to Munich in 1913.
Viewed the outbreak of World War I as his
liberation

25. Hitler and the National
Socialists
 Adolf Hitler (1889–1945)
After the war, Hitler joined the German
Workers’ Party
 Refused to accept the November (1918)
Resolution ending WWI
 1920: German Workers Party reorganized into
National Socialist Workers’ Party (Nazi)

26. Hitler and the National
Socialists
November 1923: Munich (Beer Hall) putsch
 Along with other Nazi’s Hitler attempted a coup d’etat
 Hitler imprisoned and Dictated Mein Kampf while in
prison
 Portrayed himself as the savior of the German people
Weimar elections
 1924: Nazis polled 6.6 percent of the vote

27. Beer Hall Putsch Defendants

28. Proportional Representation and
the Parliamentary System
 Parliamentary System: Political parties offer a slate of
candidates
 Voters elect a party not individual candidates
 Many parties may participate in parliamentary elections
 Each party receives seats in parliament equal to the
proportional number of votes it received in the election
 If no one party gets 51% or more, the party with the most
seats has an opportunity to form a coalition with other
parties. The leader of the party with the most votes is
usually the Prime Minister
 Parliamentary system differs from U.S. system where
voters elect a candidate

29. How did Hitler come to power?
1930 election
 Nazis won 107 of 577 seats in the Reichstag
 No party gained a majority
 Conservative Party attempted for form a coalition
government with the Nazis who refused to support a
coalition government unless Hitler was Chancellor
(Prime Minister)
 Nazi refusal to join the coalition caused the failure of
the conservative coalition government requiring new
elections
 Street battles between Nazis and Communists

30. How did Hitler come to power?
 July 1932 elections
Nazi party became the largest party in the Reichstag
(Parliament) but did not have a majority
Two largest parties were Hindenburg’s Conservative
party and Nazi party
 Nazi party refused to join any coalition unless Hitler was made
Chancellor
 Conservatives refused to name Hitler Chancellor
 Stalemate resulted in caretaker government
 Street battles continue between Communists and Nazis
 Government paralyzed and cannot perform basic functions
 Economic situation worsens

31. How did Hitler come to power?
 November 1932 elections
Nazi Party lost significant seats but still the
largest party
Communist Party and National Conservative
German National Party increased seats
significantly
Hindenberg finally agreed form a government with
Hitler as Chancellor
 Nazis appointed to major posts in the government

32. How did Nazis Consolidate
Power?
 Hitler as chancellor
January 1933: Hindenburg appointed Hitler
chancellor
February 27, 1933: Reichstag set on fire by Dutch
anarchist
 Hitler suspended civil rights
March 5, 1933: New elections
 Hitler granted unlimited power for four years
 Hitler proclaimed the Third Reich

33. Hitler and Hindenberg
January 1933.
Hindenberg believed
that Hitler could be
Controlled by
Conservatives

34. The Reichstag Fire,
27 February, 1933.

35. How did Nazis consolidate
power?
 Nazi Germany
A one-party state
 Hitler’s first acts sharply limited freedom of the press and
enabled the cabinet to issue decrees without the consent or
approval of the Reichstag.
 Reichstag Fire Decree suspended all civil liberties
guaranteed by the German constitution.
 Widespread arrests of known or suspected opponents of
the Nazi party—mainly outspoken liberals and Communists.
Opposition tactics
 Storm troopers (SA)—used to maintain party discipline
 June 30, 1934: Night of the Long Knives purged SA not
believed to be loyal to Hitler personally.

36. Hitler and the
National Socialists
 Nazi Germany
Support
 Played off fears of communism
 Spoke a language of national pride
 Hitler as the symbol of a strong, revitalized Germany
(the Führer cult)
 The recovery of German national glory

37. Nazis and German Racism
 Nazi racism
Nazi racism inherited from nineteenth-century social
Darwinism
 Nations and people struggle for survival
 Superior peoples strengthen themselves through struggle
Anti-Semitism
 Joined by nationalist anti-Jewish theory: The Jew as outsider
to the German nation
 An “international Jewish conspiracy” based in part on
Protocols of the Elders of Zion – a conspiracy theory claiming
that International Jewish leaders were intent on taking over the
world.
 Protocols of the Elders of Zion thought to be created in 1903
by the Tsar’s Security police.

38. Nazi Racism
 Nazi racism
April 1933: New racial laws excluded Jews from
public office
1935 Nuremberg Decrees
 Deprived Jews of citizenship (determined by bloodline)
November 1938: Kristallnacht (Night of Broken
Glass)

39. Still Image from Leni Riefenstahl, Triumph of the Will (1935),
a Film about a Nazi Party Rally in Nuremberg, Germany, 1934

40. Nazi Boycott of Jewish Shops in Berlin, 1933

41. Hitler and the
National Socialists
 National socialism and fascism
Both arose in the interwar period as responses to
war and revolution
Intensely nationalistic
Opposed parliamentary government and
democracy

42. The 1930s –
The “Dishonest Decade”
 An atmosphere of fear and apprehension
Aggression as a challenge to civilization
Avoiding another war

43. The 1930s –
The “Dishonest Decade”
 Appeasement
Assumptions in Europe and the U.S.
 The outbreak of another world war was unthinkable
 Fascist states were a bulwark against Soviet communism
Ends—how to maintain Europe’s balance of power?
 Soviets the greater threat, so accommodate Hitler
 U.S. Isolationism
Nye Committee 1934-1936
 Formed in the U.S. Senate to investigate the Munitions industry
profits from WWI
 Headed by Senator Gerald Nye of North Dakota (R)
 Questioned U.S. entered WWI because the munitions industry profited
by selling arms to both sides
 Claimed that bankers pressured Woodrow Wilson to enter WWI to
preserve their loans

44. The 1930s –
The “Dishonest Decade”
 The League of Nations
Japanese invasion of China turned into an
invasion of the whole country
 The Rape of Nanjing (1937)
 The League expressed shock but did nothing
Mussolini invaded Ethiopia in 1935
 Avenging the defeat of 1896
 League imposed sanctions on Italy but without
enforcement

45. Spanish Civil War
 The Spanish Civil War (1936–1939)
A weak republican government could not
overcome opposition
Extreme right-wing military officers rebelled
Francisco Franco (r. 1936–1975)
Hitler and Mussolini sent in troops and tested new
weapons; war was a dress rehearsal
 Saw the war as a test of the West’s determination to
resist fascism

46. The 1930s –
The “Dishonest Decade”
 The Spanish Civil War (1936–1939)
The Soviets sided with the troops fighting for the
Spanish Republic
Britain and France failed to act decisively,
America stayed out of the dispute
April 1937: The destruction of Guernica
Hitler’s lessons
 Britain, France, and the Soviet Union would have a
hard time containing fascism
 Britain and France would do anything to avoid another
war

47. The 1930s –
The “Dishonest Decade”
 German rearmament and the politics of
appeasement
The unification of all ethnic Germans
Reoccupied the Rhineland in 1936
The annexation of Austria (1938)
Hitler declared his intention to occupy the
Sudetenland (Czechoslovakia)
 Neville Chamberlain
 Believed Germany could not commit to a sustained war

48. The 1930s –
The “Dishonest Decade”
 German rearmament and the politics of
appeasement
Munich: September 29, 1938
 Daladier (France), Chamberlain, Mussolini, and Hitler
met (Soviet Union excluded)
 France and Britain agree to German expansion into
Czechoslovakia
 Chamberlain proclaimed “peace in our time”
 March 1939: Germany invaded Czechoslovakia
 Persuaded public of the futility of appeasement
 What is appeasement?

50. The 1930s –
The “Dishonest Decade”
 German rearmament and the politics of
appeasement
Stalin’s response
 Feared the West might strike a deal with Hitler
 August 1939: the Nazi-Soviet (Hitler-Stalin) pact of
nonaggression
 Stalin promised a share of Poland, Finland, and the Baltic
States

52. The Outbreak of Hostilities
and the Fall of France
 Poland
The Blitzkrieg (lightning war)
Soviet troops invaded from the East
Poland fell in four weeks

53.  Statements and treaties which outlaw war are
ineffectual to stop war
 Appeasement = trading land for commitments
to “Peace”
 Isolationism
 Hitler believed that Britain, France and the
U.S. lacked the moral will to fight
 Stalin believed that Britain, France and the
U.S. were unwilling to fight and could not be
counted upon should the USSR be attacked
by Germany
What Were the Lessons from the
Dishonest Decade?

54. The Outbreak of Hostilities
and the Fall of France
 Scandinavia—Germans took Denmark in one
day (spring 1940)
 The fall of France
French army overwhelmed by the German
advance
French army poorly organized

55. The Outbreak of Hostilities
and the Fall of France
 The fall of France
Mid-June 1940: the Germans reached Paris
June 20, 1940: French surrendered
 Germans occupied northern France
 Southern France fell under the Vichy regime, headed
by Marshall Pétain
The Free French movement

56. The Battle of Britain & the
Beginnings of a Global War
 The Battle of Britain (July 1940–June 1941)
Forty thousand civilians dead
Stalemate in the air
British resistance

57. London during the Battle of Britain

60. Foreign Crises
 Degrees of Neutrality
Neutrality Acts prevented the U.S. from shipping
key materials to aggressor nations

61. Degrees of Neutrality
Selective Service Act of 1940
 First peace-time conscription in U.S. history. Drafted men between 18
& 45 for one year
 FDR’s request that term of service be extended beyond 1 year
passed the House of Representatives by 1 vote on August 12, 1941
Lend-Lease Program
 March 11, 1941
 U.S. sent armaments to Great Britain, Free France, China and the
USSR in return for leases on military bases around the world
 Public Opinion
 February 1941: Gallup 54% of Americans favored Lend-Lease without
qualifications
 22% (primarily among Republicans)opposed to any aid
 Senate Vote: 49 Democrats and 10 Republicans voted in favor; 13
Democrats and 17 Republicans voted against
 House vote: Democrats 238 to 25 in favor; Republicans 135 against,
24 in favor

62. Mothers urge defeat of the Lend-Lease program, kneel in prayer in front of the Capitol

63. FDR signs Selective Service Act
into Law

64. The Storm in the Pacific
 Japanese Aggression
As Japan’s invasion of China became bogged down, Japan was
forced to look to other Pacific Islands for natural resources
As Japan became more aggressive, FDR limited exports of
American goods to Japan
 Oil, scrap, and iron shipments prohibited
 Japan decided to eliminate U.S. Pacific fleet
 The Attack on Pearl Harbor
December 7, 1941
 19 American ships sunk or disabled
 2,400 people killed; 1700 wounded
 FDR asked for a declaration of war against Japan on December 8
 Germany and Italy declared war on the U.S. on December 11

65. Doolittle Raid
 April 18, 1942
Joint action by the Army and Navy to retaliate
against Japan by bombing Japanese industrial
centers on Japanese home islands
Primary purpose: boost morale at home and hurt
Japanese morale

66. Photos by Doolittle Raiders: http://www.doolittleraider.com/raid_photos.htm

67. Early U.S. Losses in the Pacific
 Guam, Wake Island, Hong Kong and Manila fell to
Japanese in early 1942
 Bataan Death March: April 8, 1942
Forcible transfer of 60,000- 80,000 American and
Philipino POW’s following the 3 month battle of
Bataan Peninsula
80 mile march
Japanese atrocities
Racism?
General Homma tried and executed for war crimes in
1946

71. American public did not learn about the “Death March” until January 1944

73. Battles of Coral Sea and
Midway
 Coral Sea—May 4-8, 1942
Americans took more damage than Japanese
Repulsed Japanese threat to Australia
 Midway—June 4-7, 1942
U.S. had broken the Japanese code
 Knew attack coming but not exactly where
 Confirmed location by sending a false message
3 of 6 Japanese aircraft carriers that attacked Pearl
Harbor destroyed at Midway
 Cumulative effect of these two battles was turning
point in Pacific theatre

74. Japanese carrier destroyed in Battle of Coral Sea

75. Photo by Kiyoshi Oniwa: Sinking of Hiryu

76. Mobilization at Home
 Economic Controls
Congress authorized office of Price Administration in 1942
to set wages and prices
War Production Board
Allowed for central control of industry from peacetime
production to war production
Congress forced FDR to sell war bonds to finance the war
Did not raise taxes
 Domestic Conservatism
FDR won election of 1940
Midterm elections of 1942: Republicans regained many
seats in Congress and attempted to abolish most New
Deal Programs

77. Franklin D. Roosevelt E.C. 449 Popular: 27,243,218
Wendell Willkie E.C. 82 Popular: 22,334,940

80. African American Soldiers in
WWII
 Segregated units
 Separate accommodations
 Job opportunities
 Tuskegee Airmen
 Red Ball Express: African Americans drove
500,000 TONS of supplies to 1st and 3rd
Armies’ advance through France
 D-Day 1,700 African Americans in units in 1st
Army at Omaha and Utah beaches

83. Double V Campaign
 Victory at Home and Victory Abroad
 Attitudes of white servicemen who saw the
courage of African American servicemen
 Latinos
Southern farmers recruit Mexican workers for
harvest time
Zoot Suit Riots: series of riots in Los Angeles in
1943 between white U.S. servicemen stationed in
California and Latino youths

84. Native Americans
 Supported war effort
1/3 of all eligible Native Americans served
Code Talkers

86. Japanese-American Internment
 1942: 110,000 Japanese Americans

88. Name State Opened Max. Pop'n
Manzanar California March 1942 10,046
Tule Lake California May 1942 18,789
Poston Arizona May 1942 17,814
Gila River Arizona July 1942 13,348
Granada Colorado August 1942 7,318
Heart Mountain Wyoming August 1942 10,767
Minidoka Idaho August 1942 9,397
Topaz Utah September 1942 8,130
Rohwer Arkansas September 1942 8,475
Jerome Arkansas October 1942 8,497