An Overview of the 2nd World War. This slide is not mine.

1. An overview of the Major
Events and Key Players.

2. Key Players in the War
Axis Powers Allied Powers
 Adolf Hitler  Neville Chamberlain
 Benito Mussolini  Winston Churchill
 Hideki Tojo  Charles De Gaulle
 Franklin Roosevelt
 Harry Truman
 Joseph Stalin

3. ADOLF HITLER
 Brought prominence to the
National Socialist German
Workers Party (NAZI Party)
 Head of the 3rd Reich
 Believed in Master Race –
Aryan Race
 Unite all German-speaking
people
 1933 took power
 Anti-communist
 Private property with strong
governmental control
 Das Fuhrer

4. Hitler’s Empire (1939 – 1942)
A. The key to Hitler’s military success
was speed and force (the blitzkrieg).
B. He crushed Poland quickly and then
France; by July 1940 the Nazis ruled
nearly all of Europe except Britain.
C. He bombed British cities in an
attempt to break British morale but
did not succeed.
D. Tried conquering Russia
E. 1941 Hitler’s forces invaded After
Japan attacked Pearl Harbor (1941)
Hitler also declared war on the
United States.

5. Nazi Racial Ideology
A. A belief in the superiority
of the German race to the
Latin cultures/races
B. All high culture was the
work of the Aryan race
C. A belief in “racial hygiene,”
eugenics – the purity and
health of the Aryan race
must be maintained
D. Interbreeding would lead
"German bearing, to decline of the race and
German prowess, extinction, and must be
manifest Nordic racial stopped
heritage!"

6. Hitler’s New Order
A. Hitler began building a New Order based
on racial imperialism.
B. Nordic peoples were treated with
preference; the French were heavily
taxed; the Slavs were treated as “sub-
humans.”
C. Polish workers and Russian prisoners of
war did most of the heavy labor.

7. The Concentration Camps
Jews, Gypsies,
Jehovah’s
witnesses, and
communists
were
condemned to
death—six
million Jews
were murdered
in
concentration
camps.

8. BENITO MUSSOLINI
 Led fascist movement in
Italy
 Black-shirt army
 Totalitarian State under
his rule
 AKA - Il Duce- The
Chief
 Anti-communist
 Private property with
strong government
control

9. HIDEKI TOJO
 Militant Japanese general
 Took control of Japan in
1941
 Pushed for vast colonial
empire stretching from
China to Thailand
 Organized attack on Pearl
Harbor

10. NEVILLE CHAMBERLAIN
 British Prime Minister at
the onset of War
 Believed in policy of
Appeasement for dealing
with Hitler.
 Signed Munich Pact to
turn over Sudetenland
 Believed he obtained
“Peace in Our Time”

11. WINSTON CHURCHILL
 Critical of Chamberlin’s
policies toward Hitler.
 Became Prime Minister
During the War (1940)
 Strong Ally for the
United States
 Powerful public speaker
he helped to rally his
troops to fight German
Aggression

12. CHARLES DE GAULLE
 French General
 Fled to England after
Germany took over
France.
 Set up government-in-
exile

13. FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT
 President through
Much of the War
(Died in 1945)
 Lend Lease program
to aid Allies prior to
US entry into the War
 Signed order to intern
Japanese after Pearl
Harbor.

14. HARRY TRUMAN
 VP under FDR
 Took over Presidency
at the end of the War.
 Made Decision to
Drop Atomic Bomb
on Hiroshima and
Nagasaki

15. JOSEPH STALIN
 Totalitarian Regime in USSR.
 Awaited world-wide
Communist revolution.
 Great Purge of the 1930s to
clear out enemies from country
 1939 – Signed nonaggression
pact with Germany. (Divide
Poland)
 Germany broke the pact,
opening up the Eastern Front
of the War.

16. Grand Alliance
Stalin, Roosevelt, and Churchill

17. Background
 Treaty of Versailles (1919) - Harsh treatment of
Germany: land losses, reparations, military reductions,
and war guilt
 League of Nations (1920) – International organization
charged with preventing future wars. United States
senate refused to allow the United States of America to
become a member. The League had neither the will nor
the power to check the rising totalitarian governments.

18. Background
 Washington Conference (1922) – Italy, Japan, the United
States of America, France, and Britain agree to not build
up their navies for ten years
 Mussolini takes over Italy (1922)
 Kellogg-Briand Pact (1928) – sixty-two nations agree to
solve problems diplomatically
 Japan invades Manchuria (1931)
 Hitler comes to power (1933)

19. Short Term Causes
 Italian, Japanese, and German aggression
not stopped by League of Nations

20. Short Term Causes
 Appeasement – Britain and France wanted to avoid war
and therefore gave in to Hitler’s demands
 Western democracies would not act aggressively
– Britain – Sympathetic towards Germany – knew Versailles
Treaty too harsh, wanted to avoid war
– France – Would not do anything without Britain
– United States of America – Isolation from Europe

21. Major Events of World War II-
The War
 1940 – Germany invades Norway and Denmark
 1940 – France Falls
 Summer 1940 – Britain withstands the German
onslaught
 1941- Germany broke pact with USSR
– German setbacks- the harsh winters in Soviet Union;
Bitter defeat in Stalingrad

22. Major Events of World War II -
American Involvement
 Lend-Lease Program to aid Allies
 Attack on Pearl Harbor – December 7,
1941- A Day that will live in infamy
 US enters World War II
 1942 – War turned in favor of the Allies
– Victories in North Africa versus Germany
– Victory in the Battle of the Midway in the
Pacific

23. Major Events in World War II –
The End of the War
 June 6, 1944 – Storming of Normandy
 December 1944- Hitler lost the battle of
the Bulge
 Germany surrendered in May 1945
 Atomic Bomb dropped on Hiroshima and
Nagasaki in August of 1945
 Japan Surrendered in September 1945