Questions & Answers: World History – World War II

Discuss and describe the beginning and initial years of World War II in Europe.
After Chamberlain had tried to forestall German aggression at the Munich Conference of 1938, Germany nevertheless invaded Czechoslovakia in 1939. It was also during this year that Hitler signed a secret agreement with Stalin pledging not to attack Russia so long as Russia stayed out of German affairs. Hitler then declared war on and conquered Poland. At this step, Great Britain and France were finally forced to declare war upon Germany.
Germany at this point was a dominating military adversary. New advances in motorized military vehicles made it possible for Germany to conquer large areas of land quickly in a new form of warfare called Blitzkrieg (lightning-war). The Axis powers conquered almost the entire European continent, including France, over the course of 1940. Only Great Britain remained in opposition, and the Nazis undertook a ferocious aerial assault on the British, who were by then led by Winston Churchill, but failed to do enough damage to make an invasion of the island country practical. Instead, Hitler turned East and decided to violate his truce with Stalin, invading Russia in 1941 and overwhelming much of the Soviet military and advancing deep into Russian territory in a huge surprise offensive.

List some of the military actions that Germany, Italy, and Japan, took immediately prior to World War II.
The invasion of Poland in 1939 is often considered to be the official beginning of World War II. It is important to note, however, that the Axis powers (Germany, Italy, and Japan) were involved in several military actions immediately prior to the invasion of Poland. In fact, Japan, had sent forces to seize control of Manchuria in 1931 and then later sent troops to seize control of the rest of China in 1937. Japan was actually engaged in a series of battles with the Chinese throughout most of the 1930s. (These battles actually lasted until the end of World War II.) Italy, like Japan, attempted to expand its influence by sending forces into Ethiopia in 1935 and by later sending troops to seize control of Albania in 1939. Finally, Germany, who left the League of Nations in 1933 so that it could begin its massive expansion campaign, had sent forces to reclaim the Rhineland in 1936 and then later sent forces to claim Austria in 1938 and Czechoslovakia in 1939.

Review the United States’ entrance into WWII.
Isolationism refers to the political belief that a country shouldn’t interfere in the affairs of other nations and that a country should avoid any activity that would involve the country in the activities of another nation whenever possible. The United States and the nations of Europe began to move away from isolationism after World War I, but many nations still had a strong desire to avoid a conflict. Appeasement refers to a political tactic in which a country seeks to avoid a conflict by simply allowing another nation to conduct whatever activities it wants. Both tactics were used by countries prior to World War II and allowed Hitler to operate uncontested until

Give an overview of the Pacific arena in WWII.
The Japanese, like the Germans, became seduced by the notion of their own racial superiority during the 1930s. As in Germany, this inevitably led to a lust for territorial expansion. By 1941, Japan had conquered Korea, Manchuria, and parts of China. Japan was also threatening to invade American interests in the Philipines. The United States imposed economic sanctions on Japan making it difficult for the Japanese war industry to function. In response, the Japanese launched a surprise attack on the United States by bombing the US naval base of Pearl Harbor. After the attack on Pearl Harbor, the United States would declare war upon Japan (and Germany would in turn declare war on the United States).

Review the blitzkrieg and Battle of Britain.
The blitzkrieg, or “lightning war,” consisted of fast, powerful surprise attacks that disrupted communications, made it difficult if not impossible for the victims to retaliate, and demoralized Germany’s foes. The “blitz,” or the aerial bombing of England in 1940, was one example, with bombings occurring in London and other cities 57 nights in a row. The Battle of Britain, from 1940 to 1941, also brought intense raids by Germany’s air force, the Luftwaffe, mostly targeting ports and British air force bases. Eventually, Britain’s Royal Air Force blocked the Luftwaffe, ending Germany’s hopes for conquering Britain.

Discuss the success of the Allied Powers when the United States entered WWII.
The tide turned against Hitler once the United States entered the war. The harsh Russian winter halted the German advance into Russia short of Moscow in 1941. The Germans made further gains in the summer of 1942, but were decisively beaten at the battle of Stalingrad and were slowly pushed back out of Russia from then on. American and British troops landed in North Africa in 1942 and used that as a springboard to invade Italy in 1943.
The Japanese made huge territorial gains before the US turned the tide at the Battles of Midway and Guadalcanal. The war in the Pacific would take much longer than the war in Europe due to the island hopping nature of the fight. The Japanese unwillingness to surrender made it almost impossible for America to entirely vanquish them without enormous lose of life. So the United States decided to drop atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki to force Japan to surrender and finally end the war in the Pacific in August 1945.

Explain the importance of the Battle of the Bulge.
Following the D-Day Invasion, Allied forces gained considerable ground, and began a major campaign to push through Europe. In December of 1944, Hitler launched a counteroffensive, attempting to retake Antwerp, an important port. The ensuing battle became the largest land battle on the war’s Western Front, and was known as the Battle of the Ardennes, or the Battle of the Bulge.
The battle lasted from December 16, 1944 to January 28, 1945. The Germans pushed forward, making inroads into Allied lines, but in the end the Allies brought the advance to a halt. The Germans were pushed back, with massive losses on both sides. However, those losses proved crippling to the German army.

Review the D-Day invasion.
In 1944, the Americans and British opened yet another front with a massive invasion of northern France in the D-Day landings. Fighting numerically superior forces on multiple fronts, the Germans steadily lost ground and the Allies pushed into Germany from both East and West in 1945. Surrounded and with the war lost, Hitler commited suicide in his bunker in Berlin in April, 1945 and the remaining German forces surrendered shortly afterwards.

Discuss the final results of the Holocaust and actions taken afterward by the UN.
The Holocaust resulted in massive loss of human life, but also in the loss and destruction of cultures. Because the genocide focused on specific ethnic groups, many traditions, histories, knowledge, and other cultural elements were lost, particularly among the Jewish and Gypsy populations.
After World War II, the United Nations recognized genocide as a “crime against humanity.” The UN passed the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in order to further specify what rights the organization protected. Nazi war criminals faced justice during the Nuremberg Trials. There individuals, rather than their governments, were held accountable for war crimes.

Discuss the Holocaust including its causes, how it was accomplished, and who was affected.
As Germany sank deeper and deeper into dire economic straits, the tendency was to look for a person or group of people to blame for the problems of the country. With distrust of the Jewish people already ingrained, it was easy for German authorities to set up the Jews as scapegoats for Germany’s problems.
Under the rule of Hitler and the Nazi party, the “Final Solution” for the supposed Jewish problem was devised. Millions of Jews, as well as Gypsies, homosexuals, Communists, Catholics, the mentally ill and others, simply named as criminals, were transported to concentration camps during the course of the war. At least six million were slaughtered in death camps such as Auschwitz, where horrible conditions and torture of prisoners were commonplace.
The Allies were aware of rumors of mass slaughter throughout the war, but many discounted the reports. Only when troops went in to liberate the prisoners was the true horror of the concentration camps brought to light.

Discuss how World War II and the ensuing diplomatic climate led to the Cold War.
With millions of military and civilian deaths and over 12 million persons displaced, WW II left large regions of Europe and Asia in disarray. Communist governments moved in with promises of renewed prosperity and economic stability. The Soviet Union backed Communist regimes in much of Eastern Europe. In China, Mao Zedong led communist forces in the overthrow of the Chinese Nationalist Party and instituted a Communist government in 1949.
While the new Communist governments restored a measure of stability to much of Eastern Europe, it brought its own problems, with dictatorial governments and an oppressive police force. The spread of Communism also led to several years of tension between Communist countries and the democratic west, as the west fought to slow the spread of oppressive regimes throughout the world. With both sides in possession of nuclear weapons, tensions rose. Each side feared the other would resort to nuclear attack. This standoff lasted until 1989, when the Berlin Wall fell. The Soviet Union was dissolved two years later.