The Second World War

The Second World War - “Great War” Causes 1) Treaty of Versailles pleased no one──Harsh terms on Germany and fail for territorial gains of Italy(Italy fought for Britain and France for that promise) . 2) Great Depression──The economic environment that time was that USA sell good to Europe and lends money to Germany; Germany use it to return money that on the Treaty of Versailles back to Europe. Crash of Wall Street stock market causes the downturn of USA’s economy which came with an domino effect and cause global depression (1929-1933). Base on the downturn of countries, they have no time to look after other’s action and helps the rise of totalitarianism in Germany and Italy. 3) Totalitarianism is that a dictator or political party rules the state with absolute power. Fascism(Italy) ── Postwar Italy had ↑unemployment rate, inflation and taxation. The government is unable to improve life so people looks for a new leader ── Benito Mussolini in Fascist Party (1921). On the next year he got power and call himself Il Duce(the leader). He was unable to improve effectively so that he decided to fight. Nazism in Germany ──The case of Germany was similar to Italy but he was successful to improve the economy by develop infrastructure. Through the book “Mein Kampf”, he was the hope of Germans and he got power in 1933. On the next year he became the führer/ fuehrer (The leader). He also want to revenge. Those expansionist policies led to outbreak of WWII. 4) Aggression of the Axis Powers Japan──Korea, NE and coastal China, SE Asia, Italy──Abyssinia and Ethiopia Germany──Rhineland, NE Europe and Eastern Russia. 5) Appeasement policy of Britain and France means that to give the demands of Axis powers preventing war→Axis power become stronger, stopped in 1939. Anti-Jewish policy Nazis believed in racial theory which Jewish are only ‘subhuman’. Nuremberg Laws passed in 1935 － boycott Jewish shop and no marriage between Germans and Jews. Crystal night in 1938 broke down all glass of Jewish shop. 1942, “final solution to Jewish problem” ── concentration camps/death camps(such as Auschwitz). They were put in poison gas room. 6 million Jews were killed ── the genocide of the Jews.──Nuremburg trial. How the war was fought Germany invaded Poland marked the start, 1939. Attack Pearl Harbor , Hawaii which is naval base of USA. USA declare war on Germany then, 1941-1942. Italy surrendered, 1943. 6th June 1944, invaded Normandy. May 1945, Germany surrendered. Two atomic bomb on Japan (Hiroshima and Nagasaki), 2nd Sept, 1945, Japan Surrendered. Impact 1) Casualties ── 55 millions people killed + 6 million Jews from genocide. Cities & towns destroyed → hard lifetime postwar and huge economic losses. 2) The use of atomic bomb marked the beginning of age of nuclear weapons. 3) End of League of Nations and the start of United Nations. 4) European empires(such as Britain and France) were heavily damaged → the fall of Europeans supremacy and US, USSR rose as superpowers. 5) As the empires fell, decolonization in Asia and Africa started in 1960s. 6) After WWII, US and USSR lost the common enemy (Germany) and gradually they became 2 bloc (capitalist & communist) → start of cold war.