Grad School

Europeon Union as a Peace System

Historical Context of WWII My Notes for Class on the reading packet:


Agression in the 1930s

Japanese Agression and Chinese Response
Japan Siezes Manchuria (p240)
Japan Attacks China (p241)
United Front (p242)
China during the War (p243)
U.S. Moves toward Confronting Japan (p244)

NAZI Threat to Peace & Allied Response
German Remilitarization of the Rhineland
“If the French had then marched into the Rhineland, we would have had to withdraw” (p245)
Soviet Response to Japanese & German Agression
Franco triumphs in Spain
Leftist support to the Spanish Government not as effective as that given by Italy and Germany to Franco (p247)
German Agression: March 1938 to March 1939
Anschluss should be a German goal (p247)
Poland & Hungary sieze parts of Czechoslovakia (p249)
March 1939 Hitler takes the rest of Czecho, moves on Lithuania, Poland (p249)
The U.S. Remains Neutral
Congress forbids U.S. vessels from transporting war material to belligerents, prohibited loans to belligerents, declared U.S. neutral in Spanish civil war, & forbade U.S. citizens to travel on belligerent ships. Effect of the Neutrality Acts was to strengthen Hitler, Mussolini and Franco, Togo. (p250)
Europe on the Eve of War
Stalin deals with Hitler

World War II

Hitler’s conquests in Europe
Poland again disappears from Europe (p254)
Hitler chooses same spot & railcar where Armistice signed in 1918 (p256)
Soviet Union consolidates in Eastern Europe (p256)
Great Britain stays in the War (p257)
Hitler’s ‘New Order’ & the Holocaust
Autumn 1941 - Greater German Nation
The Final Solution, genocide: a systematic process to destroy a particular national, ethnic, or racial group (p258)
Jews sent to special extermination camps (p258)
Anne Frank “courage and cheerfulness” (p260)
6M Jews, 75% Europe’s Jewish population (p261)
Jews nationalists support independant Jewish state in Palestine. Jew would control the government, rather than a minority group (p261)
The U.S. and European Affairs
U.S. Neutrality Legislation aid to G.B. buy and import U.S. goods & G.B. blockade Germany (p261)
U.S. public hope for peace, U.S. leaders prepare for war (p261)
Confrontation Between U.S. & Japan
Embargo on aviation fuel & scrap metal, general trade continues (p262)
Summer 1941 U.S. freeze Japanese assets, Dutch, British, mutual defense
December 1941 Japan attacks Dutch, British in Asia, U.S. at Hawaii (p262)
Japan Conquests in Asia-Pacific
Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere, alienated local peoples
‘Grand Alliance’ Against the ‘Axis’
halt agression, not to gain foreign teritory. 1942-1945 Churchill, Stalin Roosevelt (p264)
2nd Front, post-war Europe, soft underbelly
Industrial Mobilization For Total War
Industrial and agricultural output of the U.S. equipped 12 million troops, plus G.B., S.U., other allies; 300,000 airplanes, 88,000 tanks, 2.5M trucks, 20M rifles, 315,000 artillary, 3000 ships, farmers increased production by 1/3, double the combined output of the Axis (p266)
Government, Industry, Military Alliance of Total War (p266)
When WWII ended the citizens of the Western democracies had become conditioned to function in a national environment in which the government was thoughoughly integrated into economic and social life (p266)
Women in the workforce (p266)
The Sea War
German U-boats, British Blockade, U.S. code breakers, Japanese shipping (p267)
The Air War
Strategic bombardment of the enemy’s economic and military installations, terror bombing, shoot down German planes faster than they could be replaced (p268)
New Technologies - Jet Plane & Guided Missle
Pacific War U.S. positining to bomb Japan
Allies Defeat the Axis
Soviet Victories and Nazi Defeat
Nazi atrocities united ethnic groups (p269)
Summer 1943 Soviet armaments, 6M troops, double the German Army, 3:1 in planes, tanks, artillary (p270)
D-Day and Final Phases
Summer 1944 Normandy Beachhead
Autumn 1944 Germany Borders
Spring 1945 Cross Rhine, Vistula
May 1945 Surround Berlin (p270)
Campaign against Japan 1942-1945
Summer 1944 Regular Bombardment of Japanese cities, Phillipines reconquered (p271)
The Atomic Bomb: Climax of Total War
200,000 deaths & radiation long after explosions (p271)
shaping of post war era, quick end, surrender August 1945 (p272)