AP Euro WWII Notes

4/29/11

Why is WWII regarded as a “good” war?

WWII is seen as a good war that needed to fight, and the Allies were the good guys.  It really was all Hitler’s fault- no debate

v Basic cause of the conflict- Hitler wanted to expand to the east

¨     Lebensraum- room for the German people to live and expand

v Diplomatic revolution

¨     1933 Germany seemed weak

¨     Hitler’s strategy

Ø  Keep France quiet for a few years

Ø  Play the man of peace- only wanted to get rid of the “unfair” provisions of Versailles

 Exception: withdrew from Geneva Disarmament Conference and the League

Ø  35-36 Germany “pushed” allies to follow a policy of appeasement (England and France really wanted to avoid war.  Also, they did not want Germany to be weak because they had to defend against the communists)

 1935 Hitler publically announced that Germany was rearming, building an air force, and increasing the army to 550,000 à warnings but no action, and by June 1935 the Anglo German Naval pact explicitly allowed a 35% ration for German ships and = submarines (enabling Germany to become a naval power)

 1936 Germany sent soldiers to the “demilitarized” Rhineland (And no one did anything about it!  This convinced Hitler that everyone was weak)

¨     New allies

Ø  Germany and Italy- Rome-Berlin Axis

Ø  1936 Anti-Comintern Pact- Japan and Germany

¨     By 1936 new conditions = a diplomatic revolution

Ø  Treaty of Versailles was a piece of garbage- no one even bothered to enforce it

Ø  Hitler had an extreme amount of power

5/2/11

v Path to War

¨     Neville Chamberlain favored appeasement

Ø  Told Hitler that “changes” in central Europe were “ok” if they were peaceful

¨     1938 Anschluss- annexation of Austria

Ø  Hitler threatened an invasion to get the Austrian PM Kurt von Schuschnigg to put the Austrian Nazis in charge of the Austrian government

Ø  Austrian Nazis invited German troops to “help keep order”

¨     Czechoslovakia

Ø  9/39 Hitler demanded the Sudetenland (he based this claim on the fact that many Czechoslovakians were ethnic Germans.  However, the Sudetenland was Czechoslovakia’s richest and defensive area, where there were no ethnic Germans)- said he was willing to risk World War

Ø  Munich Conference (clearly Germany will dominate since the conference occurred in Germany): Br, Fr, Italians, and Germans (the Russians, and especially the Czechs, weren’t there)

 Munich gave Hitler Sudetenland, and then he just took the rest- wake up call for the western countries that Hitler DOES NOT KEEP PROMISES!

¨     Demand for Danzig (a port in the Baltic in Poland) à Britain pledged to defend Poland in the event of war

Ø  Britain and France began to negotiate with Stalin

¨     Nazi-Soviet Non Aggression Pact (Molotov-von Ribbentrop Pact) August 23^rd, 1939

Ø  Each side agreed not to join an alliance with the other

Ø  Decided to split Poland 50-50

v War

¨     Hitler invaded Poland September 1^st, 1939

Ø  Blitzkrieg- lightening/speedy war (quickly conquered Poland)

Ø  Sitzkrieg- sitting/phony war (nothing much was happening once Poland fell- waited for spring to fight)

Ø  Another blitzkrieg against Denmark and Norway, then Netherlands, Belgium, and France (Germans went around the Maginot line)

Ø  Dunkirk- British were able to evacuate most of their soldiers

¨     France fell

Ø  North- German Occupation, South- Vichy under Petain

¨     Britain

Ø  Came into the war as Hitler defeated Denmark and Norway

Ø  Winston Churchill took over as PM over Chamberlain

 “I have nothing to offer except blood, sweat, toil, and tears”- Churchill was willing to do anything for this war

Ø  Battle of Britain

 Hitler wanted to destroy the British air force so he could easily invade Britain

 British people took shelter in subways

 Hitler began attacking citizens as opposed to military bases to break morale (let the British military rebuild their air force)

Ø  British ended up defeating Germany’s lifnof ???

Ø  Hitler decided to invade the Soviets to Britain would give up à

¨     USSR

Ø  Initially, Germany was successful in sweeping through the Ukraine

Ø  However, once he was near Moscow, the weather was bad (just like Napoleon), the Russians moved everything, burned everything they could not move, leaving Hitler with no supplies or shelter (just like they did to Napoleon).  This stopped the Germans

¨     Japan bombed Pearl Harbor à US joined the war

¨     Turning point

Ø  Britain defeated Germany in North Africa

Ø  Germans ran out of oil

Ø  German disaster at Stalingrad

Ø  Invasion of Normandy

¨     “Soft Underbelly of Europe” = Italy

Ø  Few Italian Jews were killed by Italian fascists, until the Germans took over

v War conferences

¨     Teheran November 1943

Ø  Concerned with war tactics

Ø  Agreed to partition postwar Germany

¨     Moscow Conference

Ø  Between Stalin and Churchill

Ø  Concerned with postwar spheres of influence

¨     Yalta February 1945

Ø  Soviets were strong- Stalin had 11 million soldiers in Eastern and Central Europe

 He wanted a buffer against any future Western aggression (spheres of influence)

 Also wanted resources and strategic military position

Ø  Roosevelt moved toward “self determination” (similar to Wilson)

Ø  Declaration on Liberated Europe

 Liberated countries could create democratic institutions of their own choice through free elections

Ø  Roosevelt wanted Soviets to help them with Japan, so he promised Stalin territory

Ø  UN

 Postwar international organization

 All big three would be involved

Ø  Other issues

 Unconditional surrender of Germany

 4-way partition of Germany- zones for Soviets, Britain, and US (+ French share out of US and Britain)

 Poland

¶ Provisional government with both Polish Communist Lublin Poles and non-Communist London Poles (they both hated each other!)

¶ Future free election but government also supposed to be pro-Soviet

 Problem with self determination- these countries had to be pro-Soviet, but if they had free elections, they would not choose to be Soviet

¨     Potsdam July 1945 (much less friendly)

Ø  Soviets were upset at the end of Lend-Lease (that the US no longer spent fortunes to send them equipment) and US refusal to give $6 billion loan

Ø  West was upset with Soviet failure to honor the Declaration on Liberated Europe (the Soviets put dictators in charge of these places)

 Romania- Soviet coup installed Petra Groza “little Stalin”

 Poland- London Poles were arrested and Lublin Communists took power

Ø  Truman (much stronger and tougher attitude, especially towards Stalin) learned at the conference that the A bomb worked (which meant he did not need the Soviets anymore against Japan à stiffer approach)

Ø  Truman- tougher line to Stalin, and Stalin refused free elections in Eastern Europe

¨     Churchill- iron curtain

¨     New point of views

Ø  ?

v *** Learn on your own what happened in each country during the war (very similar to WWI, but even more extreme)

¨     Russia spent 55% income on war, leaving people starving and suffering

¨     Bombing of civilians

¨     Germany did not go into total war into late into the war