exam revision Flashcards
causes of WW2
impact of the treaty of Versailles
- signed on june 28 1919
- set conditions that were ‘too harsh’ on Germany bc it aimed to remove this country as a major power
- Germany had ti
+ part with its colonies & give to France and UK
+ not unite with Austria
+ reduce its army to 100,000 men and have NO airforce
+ take FULL BLAME for the entire war
- war guilt clause which led to accepting a payment of $31.4 billion as war reparations and compensations to losses they caused - These charges led to hyperinflation and mass unemployment
- Germans viewed the treaty as an insult to nation’s pride = they were pissed
- humiliation caused by the treaty and the economic woes it brought led to rise pf National Socialists (Nazis)
causes of WW2
military and territorial expansion
- once coming to power in 1933, Hitler:
+ increased military size and re-established an air-force
+ increased production of ammunition and weapons
+ took Germany out of the league of nations - 1936: hitler ordered for Germany to march into demilitarised Rhineland
- 1937: tried out new German Weaopns @ spanish war and made anti-communism alliance with Italy
- 1938: annexed Austria + demanded Sudetenland back
+ Britain & France gave it to Germany if Hitler agreed not to touch European territory - march 1939: Hitler invaded Czechoslakia
- 25 august 1939: hitler signed Nazi-Socient non-agression pact = this reassured Germany that if they invaded Poland, USSR won’t attack from behind
- later 1939: Hitler demanded territory back from Poland and britan aided Poland to refuse
- 1 sept 1939: Hitler invaded Poland = WW2 declared
+ this was Hitler’s aim from the start to reclain land taken from the treaty of Versailles
+ initially B&F had a policy of appleasement , but one reliseding they cannot please germany, WW2 was declared
causes of WW2
Japanese Militarism
- japan nationalist were also unsatified with the treaty of Versailles.
+ they felt insulted by the rejection of a racial equality calsue - also pissed that UK refused to renew the alliance with them
- 1930s = japan was essentially a military dictatorship
- as a strong manufacturing nation, the Great Depression hit them hard
+ as a country which gave military a heavy nation in the government, military solutions to the economic problem was the way to fo - 1933: They withdrew from the league of Nations
- the Nanjing massacre from December 1937 to January 1938
- 1936: joined anti-comintern pact with Germany
- sept 1940: joined Tripartite pact with Germany and Italy
- 1941: signed a non-aggression pact with USSR
anti nazi movements
youth- white rose
WHY? (hans & sophie scholl) hated hitler bc of the crimes he and the Nazis committed
HOW? printed phamplets about the Nazi crimes
ND: 3 executed via the guillotine
anti nazi movement
youth - swing movement
WHY? bc Hitler banned jazz music
HOW? they met up to dance and play jazz music + let jews into their clubs
ND: 1942, clubs were raided and all participants were hauled off to camps with beatings and forced labour
anti nazi movements
youth- edelweiss pirates
WHY? reacted against the regiement of the Hitler Youth, which they evaded by leaving school (which they were allowed to at 14)
HOW? helped army deserters and refugees and stole araments. one group even attacked the gestapo
ND: 12 were publically hanged
anti nazi movements
jews- warsaw ghetto
WHY? bc of hitler’s policy of persecuting Jews bc they weren’t Aryan
HOW? jan 1943, jews fired apon G army troops as they rounded up a group of Ghettos for deportation
ND: may revolt ended. 56000 jews were captured. 7000 shot and rest deported to killing centres
anti nazi movements
jews- schinder’s list
WHY? Oskar Schinder opposed Nazis bc they thought it was wrong to kill the Jews
HOW? he saved 1,200 jews by moving them to his own factory as “workers” and gave them food and protection
ND: he was successful in saving those people
Anti- nazi movements
Church - catholics
WHY? hitler was tring to replace christianity with NAzism and though of his polices as wrong
HOW? cardinal Glen campaigned strongly against Nazis
ND: his home was attacked but he campaigned relentlessly until his natural death
anti nazi movements
church - protestants
WHY? same as catholics
HOW? Bonhoeffer & Neimoller critizised nazis in sermons and in poetry
ND: B was sent to concentration camp then died in1945 & N was arrested but given a suspended sentence and survived the war
Anti nazi movements
party- the bomb plot
WHY? some thought hitler was reckless. his failuars in Russia after 1941 led increase in opposition
HOW? 1944 a group of officers tried to kill hitler in a bomb plot. Von Stauffenberg placed a bomb in a briefcase in H’s headquarters
ND: VS was shot at midnight by a firing squad
atomic bomb
Normandy Landing
- 6 june 1944
- france, uk & usa coordinated attack on Europe
- Germany now fighting in eastern and western eurpoe
atomic bomb
battle of berlin
- may 1945
- russia takes berlin
- may 8 germany surrenders
- VE day (victory day in europe)
atomic bomb
The manhatten project
- a military organised porjects to create a powerful bomb using nuclear fusion
- 130,000 pple employed, most didn’t know what they were working on
- augsut 1942 - august1945
- head scientist = robert Oppenheimer
- located across America
atomic bomb
what is the bomb?
- first few decades of 20th centurart, scientist saw a successive landmark discoveries related to the atom: radioactivity, electron, nucleus.
- these discoveries culminated in the spitting of the e atom in 1930s
- power released from the splitting of the atom seemed to suggest possibility of a very powerful weapon
- once WW2 started a group of scientist including albert einstein signed a petition to give Roosevelt to warn him of the possibility of the Nazi creating a superweapon wisong ‘strong nuclear force’
