World War II

Our focus today is how the war came about in connection with the things we have been discussing in the previous sessions: nationalism, imperialism, socialism, Nazism and Fascism, and the course of World War II.

Hitler’s use of tradition

Hitler made good use of many Germans’ nostalgia for tradition and the old community in his battle against the modern and socialist and pinned the latter two down on international Jewry. He also made good use of history.  He called his empire the Third Reich, after the Holy Roman Empire (961-1800), and the German Reich (1871-1918).  But he had no intention of reviving the German past or the Keiser himself. For him, the modern state was to be equipped with advanced technology.

Hitler’s advances in Europe

Hitler’s ultimate goal was to conquer eastern Europe. He moved to test the English and the French in the case of Sudetenland (with 3 million Germans) of Czechoslovakia (1938), on the basis of German self-determination. After his success, he moved on to annex the whole of Czechoslovakia, and then struck Poland in 1939.

Hitler’s strategies

Hitler played on the importance of nationalism in 20^th century Europe, annexing Austria on the basis of nationalism in 1938, and creating dissension among eastern European countries in the name of national self-determination so that they would be disunited.

England and France

England and France practiced appeasement in the interwar years, but once Poland was attacked, they decided to join the war to fight Hitler.

The USSR

Not knowing Hitler’s plan, but forever suspicious, Stalin tried methods to delay possible German invasion of the USSR. In 1935-36, Stalin even allowed Germans to test their weapons and planes in the Ural Mountains in Russia. In 1939, Stalin entered into a non-agression act with Hitler, which in effect gave each other the right to attack Poland. When Hitler attacked Poland in the west, Stalin attacked Poland in the east two weeks later.

Hitler’s war tactics

After the fall of Poland, before the invasion of the USSR, for fear of fighting on two fronts, Hitler moved westward first, to take over Norway, Sweden, and France in 1940, and fought an air war over Britain from July 1940 to summer 1941. When Britain did not fall quickly as Hitler imagined, Hitler turned east again, and attacked the USSR in June 1941.

The Battle of Stalingrad and after

Initial Russian losses were heavy, but after the Battle of Stalingrad in Feb., 1943, the tide began to turn in favor of the Russians.

American participation in the war

Although the U.S. knew it would be involved in the war at some point, President Franklin Roosevelt was reluctant to commit himself because of the fear of fighting on two fronts: the Atlantic and the Pacific.

World War II started in 1937 in Asia with the invasion of China by Japan. The U.S. protested by stopping the supply of aviation fuel to Japan, something Japan had primarily bought from the U.S. before.

Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor

Because of the U.S. refusal to supply what Japan most needed, and because the U.S. did not agree with Japan’s goal to establish an East and Southeast Asian empire, Japan attacked Pearl Harbor in Hawaii in Dec., 1941, prompting the U.S. to declare war on Japan.

The military alliance between Japan and Germany led to German declaration of war on the U.S. But up to 1944, American participation was limited to Asia/Pacific and North Africa.

The Second-Front and end of WWII in Europe

The German invasion of the USSR pushed Stalin and Churchill, leaders of USSR and Britain, into an alliance. After Pearl Harbor, Franklin Roosevelt joined them. From the beginning, Stalin asked for a second-front other than the Russian one to alleviate the pressure German forces had on Russia.

In June 1944, the second front was opened to speed up the end of the war. Hence the famous landing on Omaha Beach in Normandy, France, by American and British soldiers.

The end of WWII in Asia

In May 1945, after the end of the European phase of the war, the USSR sent soldiers into Chinese Manchuria to fight against Japan.

Following the bloody battles of the Pacific Islands, in August 1945, President Truman decided to use the atomic bomb, in Hiroshima, on Aug.5, and Nagasaki, on Aug.7. Japan surrendered on Aug.15.

Deterioration of relations between the west and the USSR

As soon as the war was over, differences deepened between the USSR, Britain, and the U.S. Besides ideological differences, there were also ones on what to do with European countries after the war.

Stalin wanted to build up a buffer zone in eastern Europe with Communist regimes to deter a future German war.

Britain wanted a Europe dominated by liberal governments.

The Cold War started.