WORLD WAR II

Introduction

Wars are a very popular and important topic in history of Social Sciences. How the war started? Why do wars start in the first place? What are the motives of war? How do they end, and what are the political, social, and economic impacts of a war? Why was there a World War II when we just finished World War I? These are all very relevant questions to us so through history, we can learn how past societies, systems, ideologies, governments, and technologies were built. The rich history of the world helps us to paint a detailed picture of where we stand today because past is one big experiment that helps us make better decisions today.

Activity 1

1. What was World War 2 mainly about? Why study World War II?

2. Why World War II considered the biggest and deadliest war in our history?

3. How does World War II affect us?

Task

In this lesson, you are expected to learn about World War II, its survivor and how war affect people and society. Likewise you will understand and identity the cause and effect relationship among wartime events.

Process

Facts and information about World War II 1939-1945

DATES:

September 1, 1939 – September 2, 1945

LOCATION:

Eurpope, Pacific, Atlantic, South-East Asia, China, Middle East, Mediterranean and Northern Africa

Two opposite alliance and Commanders

Axis:

Adolf Hitler (Germany)

Hirohito (Japan)

Benito Mussolini (Italy)

Allies:

Joseph Stalin (The Soviet Union)

Franklin D. Roosevelt (United States)

Winston Churchill (Great Britain)

To enrich your understanding watch this video:

https://youtu.be/HjXr7IkH1wo

World War II also called Second World War, conflict that involved virtually every part of the world during the years 1939–45. The principal belligerents were the Axis powers—Germany, Italy, and Japan—and the Allies—France, Great Britain, the United States, the Soviet Union, and, to a lesser extent, China. The war was in many respects a continuation, after an uneasy 20-year hiatus, of the disputes left unsettled by World War I. The 40,000,000–50,000,000 deaths incurred in World War II make it the bloodiest conflict, as well as the largest war, in history.World War II was one of the great watersheds of 20th-century geopolitical history. It resulted in the extension of the Soviet Union’s power to nations of eastern Europe, enabled a communist movement to eventually achieve power in China, and marked the decisive shift of power in the world away from the states of western Europe and toward the United States and the Soviet Union.

CAUSES OF WORLD WAR II

By the early part of 1939 the German dictator Adolf Hitler had become determined to invade and occupy Poland. Poland, for its part, had guarantees of French and British military support should it be attacked by Germany. Hitler intended to invade Poland anyway, but first he had to neutralize the possibility that the Soviet Union would resist the invasion of its western neighbour. Secret negotiations led on August 23–24 to the signing of the German-Soviet Nonaggression Pact in Moscow. In a secret protocol of this pact, the Germans and the Soviets agreed that Poland should be divided between them, with the western third of the country going to Germany and the eastern two-thirds being taken over by the U.S.S.R.

1. The Treaty of Versailles and the German Desire for Revenge

The Treaty of Versailles held Germany responsible for starting the war and imposed harsh penalties in terms of loss of territory, massive reparations payments and demilitarization.

- Far from the “peace without victory” that U.S. President Woodrow Wilson had outlined in his famous Fourteen Points in early 1918, the Treaty of Versailles humiliated Germany while failing to resolve the underlying issues that had led to war in the first place. Economic distress and resentment of the treaty within Germany helped fuel the ultranationalist sentiment that led to the rise of Adolf Hitler and his Nazi Party, as well as the coming of a World War II just two decades later.

2. Economic Downturns

Economic downturn can always be relied upon to create conditions of civil, political and international unrest. Hyper-inflation hit Germany hard in 1923-4 and facilitated the early development of Hitler’s career. Although recovery was experienced, the fragility of the Weimar Republic was exposed by the global crash that hit in 1929. The ensuing Great Depression in turn helped to create conditions, such as widespread unemployment, that facilitated the National Socialist Party’s fatal rise to prominence.

3. Nazi ideology and Lebensraum

Hitler exploited the Treaty of Versailles and the dents in German pride that it and defeat in war had created by instilling a renewed sense of (extreme) national pride.This was predicated in part by ‘us and them’ rhetoric that identified the German nation with Aryan supremacy over all other races, amongst whom particular disdain was reserved for the Slavic, Romany and Jewish ‘Untermenschen’. This would have dire consequences throughout the years of Nazi hegemony, as they sought a ‘final solution’ to the ‘Jewish question’.As early as 1925, through the publication of Mein Kampf, Hitler had outlined an intention to unite Germans across Europe in a reconstituted territory that included Austria, before securing vast tracts of land beyond this new Reich that would ensure self-sufficiency. In May 1939 he explicitly referred to the oncoming war as being bound up with the pursuit of the ‘Lebensraum’ to the east, with this referring to the whole of Central Europe and Russia up to the Volga.

4. The rise of extremism and the forging of alliances

Europe emerged from World War One a very changed place, with swathes of political ground being taken up by players on the extreme right and left. Stalin was identified by Hitler as a key future adversary and he was wary of Germany being caught territorially between the Soviet Union in the east and a Bolshevik Spain, together with a leftist French government, in the west. Thus, he chose to intervene in the Spanish Civil War in order to bolster the right-wing presence in Europe, whilst trialling the effectiveness of his new air force and the Blitzkrieg tactics it could help deliver. During this time the friendship between Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy was strengthened, with Mussolini also keen to protect the European right while gaining the first place from which to benefit from German expansionism. Germany and Japan signed the Anti-Comintern Pact in November 1936. The Japanese increasingly distrusted the West following the Wall Street Crash and held designs on subjugating China and Manchuria in a manner that echoed Nazi objectives in the east of Europe. Superficially, the most unlikely of diplomatic agreements was established in August 1939, when the NaziSoviet non-aggression pact was signed. In this act the two powers effectively carved up the perceived ‘buffer zone’ that existed between them in Eastern Europe and paved the way for the German invasion of Poland.

5. The failure of appeasement

American isolationism was a direct response to the European events of 1914-18 that the US had ultimately become embroiled in. This left Britain and France, already terrified by the prospect of another war, without a key ally in world diplomacy during the tense interwar period. This is most commonly highlighted in relation to the toothless League of Nations, another product of Versailles, which patently failed in its mandate to prevent a second global conflict.Through the mid-1930s the Nazis re-armed Germany in spite of the Treaty of Versailles and without sanction or protest from Britain or France. The Luftwaffe was founded, Naval forces were expanded and conscription was introduced. With continuing disregard for the Treaty, German troops reoccupied the Rhineland in March 1936. Simultaneously, these developments added to Hitler’s legend within Germany and provided much-needed employment, whilst encouraging the Führer to push foreign appeasement to the limit.

EFFECTS OF WORLD WAR II

World War II proved to be the deadliest international conflict in history, taking the lives of 60 to 80 million people, including 6 million Jews who died at the hands of the Nazis during the Holocaust.The legacy of the war would include the spread of communism from the Soviet Union into eastern Europe as well as its eventual triumph in China, and the global shift in power from Europe to two rival superpowers–the United States and the Soviet Union–that would soon face off against each other in the Cold War.

Evaluation

Written Work:

Answer the following questions:

1. What countries fought in World WarII?

2. Who were the leaders during World War II?

3. What were turning points of the war?

4. How did the war end?

Performance task:

Creat a creative timeline of World War II

Conclusion

The war in Europe concluded with the liberation of German-occupied territories, and the invasion of Germany by the Western Allies and the Soviet Union, culminating in the fall of Berlin to Soviet troops, the suicide of Adolf Hitler and the German unconditional surrender on 8 May 1945.

World War II was one of the greatest conflicts in history and was carried out on a scale almost impossible to grasp. In many ways it was the first modern war, in which airpower played a vital role both on land and at sea, but many actions were ultimately won by the determination and grit of the foot soldier. It is especially important for us to study World War II because it involved so many different countries. We must understand that history shapes us. We learn from history about our society today and how it came to be and of course wars play a huge factor.The biggest reason why we should study about wars like World War II, are so that they can be knowledgeable about the atrocities and costs of war, and how we as a country and society can try to avoid wars in the future.