Def and ww2

WW1 causes

1) The assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria-Hungary 2) Growing nationalism in Austria-Hungary and France 3) Colonial expansion in Africa and China 4) Military buildup.

WW2 causes

1. rise of nazism 2. appeasement of Hitler 3. Nazi-Soviet Non-Agresseion Pact, 1939 4. Rise of Imperial Japan 5. Maginot Line

Universilism

A position that holds the truth and morality or universal and cannot be adjusted to specific circumstances

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Adolf Hitler: I want that thing. OverSimplified: And the Allies would say, Neville Chamberlain: You can't have that thinnnnnnnnnng— Okay, you can have that thing, but no more. Adolf Hitler: I want that thing. OverSimplified: And repeat. In 1938, Hitler's army marched into Austria, and just took it with no resistance. Boom. This is Germany now. Next, he demanded to be given the Sudetenland, an area of Czechoslovakia with many ethnic Germans. The Allies held a meeting with Hitler in Munich and said, Neville Chamberlain: Look, we're going to give you wha— Czechoslovakia: HANG ON, this meeting is about MY territory. Shouldn't I come to the meeting too? (Silence) Neville Chamberlain: Aaaaanyway, we're going to give you what you want. Adolf Hitler: Really? Neville Chamberlain: Yeah. Adolf Hitler: Just like that? Neville Chamberlain: Yep. Adolf Hitler: What's the catch? Neville Chamberlain: Just sign this piece of paper promising you won't invade the rest of Czechoslovakia. Adolf Hitler: Okay. Neville Chamberlain: Then, Chamberlain returned home victorious, waving his signed piece of paper in the air, declaring crisis to be averted, and the continuation of World Peace, and we built a statue of Chamberlain in his honor, and every day, on the 30th of September, we celebrate Chamberlain Day— Unspecified character: Hitler's invading the rest of Czechoslovakia. Neville Chamberlain: What? Unspecified character: He's invading the rest of Czechoslovakia. Neville Chamberlain: Oh. (To Hitler) You lied to me. Adolf Hitler: What do you expect? I'm Hitler. OverSimplified: Not to be outdone, Mussolini also wanted to get in on the action. He thought to himself, Benito Mussolini: Isn't there a not-yet-colonized nation somewhere, which is so underdeveloped that the people would be defending themselves against our tanks with literal bows and arrows and wooden spears? (It's Ethiopia) Benito Mussolini: Oh, there is? Fantastic! OverSimplified: And so, he took it. Italy also wanted to control the entrance to the Adriatic Sea, so they occupied Albania. Then, in another incident that was maybe staged by the Japanese, gunfire was exchanged by Japanese and Chinese troops at the Marco Polo Bridge, and the Japanese launched yet another invasion against China. They swept through Beijing and Shanghai, and then advanced through the Yangtze Valley to China's then-capital, Nanking. It was here they saw the worst of Japan's shocking atrocities committed against the Chinese people. Back in Europe, Germany and Italy made their relationship status official by signing the Pact of Steel. Then, Hitler turned his eyes towards Poland and the hated Polish Corridor splitting Germany in two. At this point, the Allies really had to put their foot down, and they warned him that an invasion of Poland would mean war. Hitler had planned to continue his advance eastward, but he didn't want to end up fighting a war on two fronts, so for now, he made an alliance with Stalin, saying, Adolf Hitler: How about we both invade Poland and split it between the two of us, and I definitely won't not refrain from not betraying you sometime in the future. Joseph Stalin: Sounds... good. OverSimplified: This new alliance stunned the West. On 1 September 1939, German troops entered Poland, and Britain and France declared war on Germany. The Poles fought hard, but they were no match for the two giants crashing down on them from either side. Then, came a period known as "The Phony War," where everyone just sort of sat around not doing much. The French had launched a small invasion into the Saarland, but they maintained mostly defensive positions, and after a while, decided to just turn around and call it a day. Speaking of France, the French were still super proud of their victory in World War I, and they hadn't really moved on from it. They still used horses, they dispatched messages by motorbike instead of using the radio, orders from the commander-in-chief were usually pretty vague, and the troops were rarely inspected. They built a line of defenses along their German border, but didn't bother extending it all the way to the Channel, and they wouldn't launch artillery strikes against Germany out of fear of being retaliated against. In a war, they didn't want to attack the enemy, and at first, the UK wasn't much better. Chamberlain still naively hoped that the war could be ended diplomatically. Instead of bombing raids, the RAF dropped propaganda leaflets over German cities, which one air marshall said likely did nothing but provide the continent with toilet paper for the duration of the war. They also only sent 200,000 men to France, while the French had mobilized millions. Both Britain and France wanted to avoid a repeat of the First World War, and so, they wanted to keep the war as far from home as possible. So they turned their eyes north towards Norway. Neutral Sweden was exporting iron ore to Germany through neutral Norway, so the Allies asked them if they could please stop exporting iron ore to Germany, but this request was refused. Then, the Soviet Union attacked Finland, so the Allies said,

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Adolf Hitler: We need to turn this thing around, and I've just the trick. Remember a few years back when we blitzkrieged through the Ardennes and trapped the Allied forces in Belgium? Well, I'm gonna do the exact same thing... again. OverSimplified: He gathered his forces and tried to pound them through the Ardennes. He used up the remainder of Germany's strength and resources, and he managed to create quite a nice bulge. He also trapped some American forces in the Belgian town of Bastogne. The Germans sent the trapped Americans a message saying, "Surrender or be annihilated." When it was read out to the commanding officer, he said, George S. Patton: They want to surrender? American soldier: No, sir. They want us to surrender. George S. Patton: NUTS! OverSimplified: And that's what they sent off as their official reply. General Patton's Third Army then managed to break the siege from the Southwest, and the Germans were pushed back. Hitler's last-ditch attempt had failed, and what followed was a total collapse of the German forces. The Allies pushed into Germany from both sides. The Soviet Union took Warsaw and kept pushing to Berlin. In his bunker, Hitler realized all hope was lost. Berlin fell, and with it, Hitler's dreams of a great German Empire. Two of the Axis nations had been knocked out, one to go. The Americans began their assault on Okinawa, the last island before they would reach the Japanese mainland. The desperate Japanese fought hard, launching kamikaze attacks on the US ships. The citizens of Okinawa suffered through the terrible fighting, but in two months, the island was captured. The Allies now had to make a choice: either continue the devastating struggle up the Japanese mainland or they could try to coerce the Japanese into surrendering now. In July, the first successful atomic bomb test took place in New Mexico, and the destructive weapon was ready for use. America and the UK were also seeing the Soviet Union not so much liberating as occupying its captured territories, and so they wanted to put on a show of force. On August 6th, the A-bomb fell on Hiroshima. Then, on the 9th, Nagasaki. (short silence) The cities were reduced to rubble, and for the people living there, it was a terrible fate, but for the Allies, it achieved their main aim; in September, the Emperor announced Japan's surrender, saying, "The war situation has developed not necessarily to Japan's advantage." After six years, war was finally over. The Allies occupied Japan for eight years. The Emperor was allowed to keep his position, but General MacArthur made sure this picture was printed in the Japanese press to display to the Japanese people that their emperor was not the divine, powerful being they had believed. Germany was divided between America, the UK, France, and the Soviet Union. In 1949, the Allied sectors were united into West Germany. The Second World War had been more terrible and destructive than the First. In its aftermath, two major superpowers with two very different ideologies had come out victorious, and the tension between the two of them would create a new kind of war: a very, very cold one. Harry S. Truman: Wow, Churchill. That looks just like me, and your app is doing really well, and this quesadilla is to die for. How'd you learn to do all this stuff? Winston Churchill: I used the link in the description to get two months of Skillshare for just 99 cents. Harry S. Truman: Wow, tell me more. Winston Churchill: OK. OverSimplified: Skillshare is an online learning community with more than 19,000 classes in design, business, technology, and more. Premium Membership gives you unlimited access to high-quality classes taught by genuine experts working in their field, so you can improve your skills, unlock new opportunities, and do the work you love. If you want to learn how to create games, you can check out the courses on using Unity. Or creating vector art? There are courses for software development, music production, arts, and crafts. Or, if you want to learn how to animate like I do, you can find loads of courses for beginning animation, and Skillshare won't take a heavy toll on your wallet compared to other learning platforms with an annual subscription being under $10 a month. If you'd like to give it a try first, then I've got a deal just for OverSimplified viewers. The first 1,000 people to use this link, which can also be found in the description, will get their first two months of Skillshare for just 99 cents; that's right, just one cent short of a dollar, so be sure to sign up using the link in the description, improve your skills, and learn something new today.

Realism vs. Liberalism

Both theories share basic assumptions that states are unitary actors in an archaic system Liberals divert from realism by emphasizing possibility for cooperation, while realists believe that security will be decreased with cooperation The complex interdependence theory believes that the state is not the central actor, and there are many other actors

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Commander: Can we please dig in for the winter and wait until spring Adolf Hitler: No, keep going. Commander: But oil is literally freezing inside our vehicles. Adolf Hitler: That's fine; keep going. Commander: We're having to leave the corpses of our frozen horses by the side of the roads so we can still find a way in the snowdrift. Adolf Hitler: PERFECTLY NORMAL!! KEEP GOING! OverSimplified: Hitler hadn't given his millions of men winter clothing and supplies because he thought he really should have won by now. Then, Stalin called in troops from the Siberian front specially trained to fight in the extreme cold, and the Germans were no match; they were now being pushed back. They had no choice but to dig in and wait for winter to end. Germany's victories were staggering and Japan was eager not to miss the victory bus. Their war in China had come to a standstill, but they wanted to keep expanding the sphere of influence and getting the sweet, sweet raw materials. They began making plans to expand southward, but there was a problem: Southeast Asia was heavily colonized by America and Great Britain. It was also full of ocean. Ocean meant naval combat, and there was no way the Japanese navy could stand up to the US and the UK, so they thought, "Wouldn't it be nice if we could destroy their navies before we begin our conquest?" And so it was. On December 7, 1941, the Japanese launched a surprise air raid on the US Pacific Fleet at Pearl Harbor and inflicted a huge amount of damage. They also attacked British colonies in Southeast Asia. Roosevelt had no choice but to declare war on Japan, and so did Churchill. Hitler then declared war on America, even though he totally didn't have to. The attack on Pearl Harbor seemed like a big Japanese victory, but they didn't attack any of the naval repair yards, fuel storage tanks, or the submarine base, meaning the Pacific Fleet would be up and running again pretty soon. In the meantime, though, the Japanese were able to begin their conquest. They took Guam, the Gilbert Islands, Wake Island, Hong Kong, and the Philippines, they forced Thailand to join them so they can march their troops through to Malaya, they swept through Singapore, North Borneo, the East Indies, New Guinea, the Solomons, and they were now threatening northern Australia and the borders of India. Japan's victory had been as staggering as the Germans and re-enforced the Japanese idea that this was a divine war which they were destined to win, but their victories had been based on speed, not power, and power would eventually catch up with them. For now, though, in all occupied nations, the people suffered persecution, forced labor, harsh punishments for any who spoke out against their occupiers. In Europe, the Nazis were rounding up ethnic minorities and other unwanted groups and individuals; in particular, millions of Jewish people would suffer through the terrible events of the Holocaust. Brave resistance movements rose up in defiance of their invaders while the people held out for hope, and hope was coming. Winter was over, and Hitler could continue his push eastward, but this time, he switched his strategy: he wanted to focus on the south. His plan was to cut off the Russian armies in the Caucasus, an area full of oil, and then invade the Caucasus and take all the oil. His forces moved across the north with ease and Hitler got cocky: he rerouted the fourth Panzer army south early, leaving the 6th army to complete the encircling movement alone. To do so, the sixth army had to reach and take the key Soviet city of Stalingrad. The Russians defended it fiercely, and Stalingrad saw some of the harshest fighting of the entire war. The Soviets held up the German advance for five months as they battled in the war-torn city, which bought them valuable time. When the Germans had first launched their invasion a year earlier, the Soviets had moved their factories to the east. Those factories had been building a ton of tanks and aircrafts, and getting the Soviet army to scratch now, it was ready. Stalin gathered his new and improved forces around the city, and in an attack that resembled Hitler's own encirclement tactics, they began surrounding the 6th army. Hitler's commanders came to him and said, Commander: Hey, maybe we should retreat. OverSimplified: But Hitler said, Adolf Hitler: No, no. You stay. OverSimplified: The entire sixth army was trapped and had to surrender. With complete air superiority, the Soviets started pushing westward. For Stalin, it was a resounding victory; for Hitler, an absolute catastrophe. Things also weren't looking too good for Hitler elsewhere. With America now and the war, Allied bombing over German cities reached devastating levels. In Africa, the British had pushed Rommel back again. Then, they were pushed back again, and finally, after a decisive battle at El Alamein and with American and British troops arriving in the West, the Germans and Italians were squeezed out of Africa. Japan was also already seeing its rapid success being turned around. They attempted to take the island of Midway, but the US Navy was ready for the attack, and they sank Japan's carrier. Actually, they sent a lot of them. It was a battle from which the Japanese Navy would never recover. British, Indian, and Chinese troops held the line in the harsh jungle terrain of Burma, and the Japanese suffered losses in the Solomon Islands and New Guinea. They began to realize they were not invincible. With the Axis out of Africa, the Allies had to decide their next move. Churchill still wanted to attack from the south, while the Americans preferred an invasion in northern France. Franklin D. Roosevelt: Alright, OverSimplified: said the Americans. Franklin D. Roosevelt: We'll do it your way. OverSimplified: Allied forces successfully landed in Sicily and began moving north. They also carried out bombing raids over Rome. The thing was many of the people in Sicily had relatives living in America, and they greeted the American troops quite warmly. With the war reaching home territory, most Italians just weren't that into it, and Mussolini was suddenly very unpopular. He was voted out by his own fascist grand council and was toppled from power. Italy immediately began negotiations for surrender. Hitler wasn't surprised and had already sent reinforcements southward in an operation he ironically called Operation Axis. German troops quickly disarmed Italian troops in the north. The Allies continued fighting the Germans up through Italy, but then winter set in, meaning mud, and everything slowed to a halt. Franklin D. Roosevelt: Alright, OverSimplified: said the Americans. Franklin D. Roosevelt: Let's do it our way as well. OverSimplified: Germany had made itself a lot of enemies, and millions of Allied troops had been gathering in England as factories worked around the clock producing the war material needed for a super crazy massive the-likes-of-which-the-world-has-never-seen-before invasion of Europe. The Germans knew an Allied invasion would come, but they didn't know where it would land. Thanks to Allied deception tactics, they thought there was a pretty good chance it would come at Calais, but the Allies were really gonna land in Normandy because it was less fortified and the beaches were nicer. Under the careful planning of General Dwight Eisenhower, the invasion that had been long in the making was just about ready to go. Just one thing was preventing the launch: the British weather. While everyone sat around waiting for a decent day, and then it came on the night of June 5th. Over a thousand bombers took off the rated coastline defenses, while paratroopers were dropped inland in a bit of a chaotic operation tasked with sabotaging defenses and capturing key bridges to stop any German reinforcements from reaching the beaches. Early the next morning, the barrage came as Allied ships fired a huge number of shells at the German fortifications and then the landings the Americans at Utah and Omaha, the British at Gold and Sword, and the Canadians at Juno. It was a tremendous struggle with a great loss of life, particularly at Omaha, but the Allied troops captured the beaches and the landings were a success. Then, they began their movements inland. They took the port of Cherbourg and the city of Caen. The Americans moved south to capture Brittany. Then, in a massive disaster for the Germans, British and Canadian troops from the north and Americans from the south trapped a German Seventh Army in a near-wipeout encircling movement. In August, Allied troops landed in the south of France with little resistance. On one beach, all they found was a French man handing out champagne. Paris was liberated, and the Germans were pushed out of France as the Allies entered Belgium. In the Far East, the Allies started to push the Japanese out of Burma as the Americans launched a two-pronged offensive in the Pacific in the south. General MacArthur led the push to liberate the Philippines while General Nimitz oversaw the brutal island-hopping campaign. American forces had to make hard-fought landing after a hard-fought landing on fiercely defended small islands. As they moved steadily towards the Japanese mainland, the Japanese believed that the greatest thing a person could do was to die in battle, and the most dishonorable act was to surrender. As a result, they fought ferociously to the very end, and the closer the Americans got to the mainland, the more ferocious the resistance became. In February 1945, the Americans captured the island of Iwo Jima, and an intense fire bombing campaign of Japan's wooden cities began. The Allies suffered some setbacks trying to liberate the Netherlands, but they were making progress, and were now threatening the industrial heartland of Germany. Hitler's health, both mentally and physically, was rapidly deteriorating. Things were looking bad, and he was desperate. He said,

Constructivism

Constructivism is an important theory to analyze international relations and Alexander Wendt is considered to be one of the most vocal proponents of this theory. All through 80's and 90's, constructivism has become a major force when it comes to analyzing international relations. According to Alexander Wendt, international relations are determined more by shared ideas rather than material interests. Though constructivism is a separate theory of international relations, it does not necessarily contradict realism and liberalism. Constructivism is more of a social theory that explains the actions of states and actors belonging to these states.

Relativism

Exhibition that holds the truth and morality and relative to each individual or culture and that one should live and let live

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He began favoring a military campaign from the south and started sending British troops to Greece. All of this had Hitler pretty concerned, and he moved to protect his southern flank. He had been getting friendly with Hungary and twisted their arm into signing the Tripartite Pact and joining the Axis Powers. Romania was also eager to join for protection against the Soviet Union. The Tripartite Pact was designed to prevent any other countries from deciding to join the Allies; specifically, Britain's old ally the pesky United States of America. When war first broke out, American public opinion was strongly against joining in. In 1940, there was an election. The Republican candidate said, Wendell Willkie: I will NOT send any young Americans to die in Europe. OverSimplified: And sitting president Franklin D. Roosevelt said, Franklin D. Roosevelt: I will also NOT send any young Americans to die in Europe... unless I have to... then I might. OverSimplified: And Roosevelt won. Churchill asked him to join the war, but Roosevelt said, Franklin D. Roosevelt: No can do, Winston. But ya know what? Here, have some weapons. OverSimplified: America began supplying the Allies with food and munitions, but there was one problem: German u-boats were sinking thousands of Allied supply ships in the Atlantic, including American ones. If the Germans could sever Britain's supply line, the UK would starve. Throughout the war, the Allies had to come up with better technology to fight the u-boats: improved radar aircraft with longer range, better weaponry, and convoy tactics. At one point, a man even called a meeting and said, "Pykrete!" You take some wood, you take some ice, you put them together, you get pykrete. And then, he pulled out a gun and shot some wood, and it shattered, and then he shot some pykrete, and the bullet ricocheted off and hit someone else in the conference room. (Applause) OverSimplified: Then they tried to make a pykrete aircraft carrier, but that idea was scrapped because that's a really dumb idea. In the end, Alan Turing and his team of code-breakers cracked Germany's Enigma code and the u-boats gradually became less and less of a threat. Back in Africa, Britain decided to push Italy out of Egypt. United Kingdom: Hey, that was pretty easy! OverSimplified: So they kept going. Hitler realized he was going to have to finally step in and do something. He went to Bulgaria and Yugoslavia and said, Adolf Hitler: Hey, I'm gonna move troops through you to get to Greece, so either join us or, ya know, be invaded. OverSimplified: Bulgaria opted to join them; Yugoslavia opted to be invaded. Then, Greece finally fell to the joint German-Italian invasion. The British had moved troops from North Africa to fight in Greece, which helped Rommel and his tank divisions push the British back to Egypt, and they could have kept going, but a small, mostly Australian force held out under siege for eight months in Tobruk, denying the Germans a strategic port city and disrupting their supply line. Despite having some success in the Middle East, the British didn't seem like any real threat for now. Hey, Soviet Union! Look out! (Punch) OverSimplified: With three million troops, Hitler launched the largest ground invasion in history, and Stalin was far from ready. Both Churchill and Roosevelt had warned him of an impending attack, but he dug his head in the sand, and the Soviets didn't stand a chance. Germany made staggering progress with huge encircling movements capturing mind-boggling numbers of Russian troops: a quarter-million at Białystok-Minsk, 300,000 at Smolensk, nearly 700,000 at Kyiv, and again at Vyazma and Bryansk. Leningrad was put under a siege that would last and insufferable four years. The invasion of Russia had been Hitler's main ideological goal from the beginning, and his hatred for the ethnic peoples there was now unleashed in all its fury. The Eastern Front of the Second World War was brutal for all that endured it. The Germans were now inside of Moscow, and that's it: it's all over. But then, it happened: It got cold... Stupid cold. Hitler had hoped the Soviets would give up before winter, but they kept fighting. His commanders came to him and said,

Oversimplified ww2

It's 1902. A young man by the name of Benito Mussolini moves from Italy to Switzerland to avoid military service. He gets big into socialism, working for trade unions, writing for socialist newspapers, advocating a violent overthrow of European monarchies, the whole shebang. This gets him in a bit of trouble with the Swiss police, so he gets arrested, sent back to Italy, set free, returns to Switzerland, is arrested again, goes back to Italy AGAIN, completes his military service after previously avoiding it, and then after a brief stint as an elementary school teacher, he finally returns to work as an avid socialist. His speeches and journalistic abilities made him famous among Italian socialists. He was anti-war, so when Italy colonized Libya in 1910, he rioted and got arrested. Then, World War I came along, and once again, he protested Italy's involvement. But then he thought, "Wait a minute. This war could bring about the social climate needed to overthrow European monarchies and bring about the socialist revolution everywhere," and suddenly, he was pro-war. But his fellow socialists didn't like his new pro-war stance, so they kicked him out of his party. (Glass shatters) So then he said, Benito Mussolini: You know what? I'm done with socialism. We need something new, not based on class divisions tearing us apart, but based on unity through nationality. We'll conquer the Mediterranean, and reunite all Italian peoples, just like the days of the Roman Empire. I'll call it "Fascismo" and it will guide the Italian nation to greatness! Fabio: That's all well and good, Mr. Mussolini, but what kind of haircut am I giving you? Benito Mussolini: Let's go with... bald. (Tchaikovsky - 1812 Overture plays) (Gunshot) W (Gunshot) W (Gunshot) 2 OverSimplified: Italy had been on the winners' side in World War I, and they hoped they were going to get a lot of it. But in the end, they only got a little, and they felt cheated. On top of that, a bad economy and weak governments meant that the Italian people were a little unhappy, so when Mussolini came along and said that he could fix everything, his fascist movement gained a lot of support. In 1922, he went to the king and said, Benito Mussolini: Make me prime minister or I'll make me prime minister. OverSimplified: And the king said, Victor Emmanuel III: You and what army? Benito Mussolini: This army. Victor Emmanuel III: Fair enough.

Liberalism vs constructivism

Liberalism vs Constructivism • There are many theories put forward to explain international relations and constructivism and liberalism are two such popular theories. • Liberalism tries to explain international relations as having been based upon as much on economics as on politics. • Constructivism places more importance on shared ideas than on material interests.

WW2 in the west

On April 9, 1940, Germany simultaneously invaded Norway and occupied Denmark, and the war began in earnest. On May 10, German forces swept through Belgium and the Netherlands in what became known as "blitzkrieg," or lightning war. Three days later, Hitler's troops crossed the Meuse River and struck French forces at Sedan, located at the northern end of the Maginot Line, an elaborate chain of fortifications constructed after World War I and considered an impenetrable defensive barrier. In fact, the Germans broke through the line with their tanks and planes and continued to the rear, rendering it useless. The British Expeditionary Force (BEF) was evacuated by sea from Dunkirk in late May, while in the south French forces mounted a doomed resistance. With France on the verge of collapse, Italy's fascist dictator Benito Mussolini formed an alliance with Hitler, the Pact of Steel, and Italy declared war against France and Britain on June 10.

Outbreak war ww2

Outbreak of World War II (1939) In late August 1939, Hitler and Soviet leader Joseph Stalin signed the German-Soviet Nonaggression Pact, which incited a frenzy of worry in London and Paris. Hitler had long planned an invasion of Poland, a nation to which Great Britain and France had guaranteed military support if it were attacked by Germany. The pact with Stalin meant that Hitler would not face a war on two fronts once he invaded Poland, and would have Soviet assistance in conquering and dividing the nation itself. On September 1, 1939, Hitler invaded Poland from the west; two days later, France and Britain declared war on Germany, beginning World War II. On September 17, Soviet troops invaded Poland from the east. Under attack from both sides, Poland fell quickly, and by early 1940 Germany and the Soviet Union had divided control over the nation, according to a secret protocol appended to the Nonaggression Pact. Stalin's forces then moved to occupy the Baltic States (Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania) and defeated a resistant Finland in the Russo-Finnish War. During the six months following the invasion of Poland, the lack of action on the part of Germany and the Allies in the west led to talk in the news media of a "phony war." At sea, however, the British and German navies faced off in heated battle, and lethal German U-boat submarines struck at merchant shipping bound for Britain, sinking more than 100 vessels in the first four months of World War II.

3

OverSimplified: Japan had isolated itself from the rest of the world for over 200 years, until the Americans showed up and said, United States: You're gonna trade with us and you're gonna like it. OverSimplified: Then the Western powers imposed a bunch of "Unequal Treaties," meaning Japan's economy was bust. They also had no natural resources, so they decided to go get some. They went to war with China to gain a sphere of influence over Korea, and they took a bunch of China's stuff, but then, the West said, France: Hey, cut that out! OverSimplified: And since Japan couldn't take on the West, they said, Empire of Japan: Okay, I guess we'll just go home— Wait a minute! What are you doing? German Empire: Taking advantage of a weakened China and setting up spheres of influence. Empire of Japan: But I was the one who weakened them. German Empire: We know. Empire of Japan: And you guys didn't let me have anything. German Empire: We know. Empire of Japan: That seems unfair. German Empire: We don't think so. (Silence) German Empire: Okay, see ya. OverSimplified: So Japan thought, Empire of Japan: Screw this! OverSimplified: and went to war with Russia, and stunned everyone by actually winning. Then, they fully annexed Korea, but they didn't stop there. In World War I, they took Germany's colonies and islands in Asia. And then, in an incident that was maybe staged by the Japanese army, a bomb blew up a Japanese train in Manchuria, giving them an excuse to launch an invasion and take over. So, here's the situation: Nazi Germany, Fascist Italy, and Japan all believe they're racially superior, all feel hostility towards the Allies, and all want to militarize and take over more stuff, and so they did. Let's start with Germany. Hitler hated the Treaty of Versailles, and now he was ready to begin undoing it. In complete violation of the treaty, the first Luftwaffe squadrons were set up, conscription was introduced, and he pimped up his army. The Allies did nothing. Then, Hitler sent his army back into the demilitarized Rhineland, giving orders to immediately retreat if the Allies showed up. The Allies did nothing. With his military re-strengthened, he could now move on to Step 2. He wanted to rapidly increase the Aryan population, and to do so, he needed Lebensraum, or, in other words, he would have to take over the world, but for now, a good portion of Europe would do, and he began eyeing up his neighbors. The Allies finally started to get worried, so they implemented a fairly useless diplomatic strategy called appeasement, and it went a little something like this: Hitler would say

Part 2

OverSimplified: Then he went about establishing a dictatorship with himself at its center. Europe had its first fascist dictator. Next up: Germany. Germany had been on the losers' side, and they absolutely got wrecked by the Treaty of Versailles: they lost territory, had to demilitarize the Rhineland, had to reduce their army to just 100,000 men, couldn't have an air force, had to pay the Allies a huge amount of money that it didn't have, and a new rule was established that every Englishman withheld the right to walk into the center of Berlin, pick out any German they wanted and spank the hell out of them. I made that last one up, but it helps you understand how all of this felt to Germans. On top of that, a bad economy and weak governments meant that when a small, angry man with a silly mustache came along and said he could fix everything, the German people loved it. Hitler had been a soldier during World War I, and he was crazy patriotic (Hitler kissing the German Empire map), and nobody was madder than him about Germany's humiliation. He helped start a new political party, and in 1923, attempted a march on Munich with his boys, and then he got arrested. But his popularity grew and grew, and in 1933, the president made him chancellor. He believed he was Germany's great destined savior, and he went full megalomaniac, establishing a dictatorship with himself at its center. Europe had Fascist Dictator Number 2. Hitler and Mussolini had a lot of the same ideas, but more importantly, they had the same enemies, and they started to get along. Nazi Germany: Anyone else wanna be friends? Franco? No? You good? Empire of Japan: I do. Nazi Germany: Who's that? OverSimplified: It's Japan, and they've taken over Northern China. Let's rewind a bit— (Rewinds)

6

So, what else is happening? Well, when I said Britain was all alone, that wasn't entirely true; many Commonwealth nations and other allied colonies had joined the war in Britain's support. They would play a key role throughout the war, particularly in the African and Italian campaigns. On the Axis side, Germany, Italy, and Japan signed a defensive Tripartite Pact, bringing their military lines even closer together. The Soviet Union's war against Finland should have been an easy victory, but it became a humiliating struggle, and their military ineptitude was put on full display. In the end, they did force the Finns to sue for peace. Then, they continued their honorable campaign of pushing around much smaller countries by annexing the Baltic States and part of northern Romania. France's colonies in Equatorial Africa were like, "Heck no; we aren't going to join the Germans," and they all pledged their allegiance to Free France except for Gabon, which had to be taken by military force. The Allies also tried to capture the strategic port of Dakar, but that ended in failure. Mussolini had seen Hitler's successes, and he thought now, it was Italy's time to shine, so he tried to take British Somaliland, and that went pretty well. Then, he tried to take Egypt, and that went less well. Then, he tried to take Greece, and that went really badly. Churchill began referring to Italy as "Europe's soft underbelly."

WW2 (summary)

The instability created in Europe by the First World War (1914-18) set the stage for another international conflict—World War II—which broke out two decades later and would prove even more devastating. Rising to power in an economically and politically unstable Germany, Adolf Hitler, leader of the Nazi Party, rearmed the nation and signed strategic treaties with Italy and Japan to further his ambitions of world domination. Hitler's invasion of Poland in September 1939 drove Great Britain and France to declare war on Germany, marking the beginning of World War II. Over the next six years, the conflict would take more lives and destroy more land and property around the globe than any previous war. Among the estimated 45-60 million people killed were 6 million Jews murdered in Nazi concentration camps as part of Hitler's diabolical "Final Solution," now known as the Holocaust.

Liberalism

This theory of international relations arose primarily after World War I as it dawned upon analysts that there was an urgent need to regulate international relations so as to limit the number of wars breaking around the world. This theory gained popularity through some of the prominent public figures such as Woodrow Wilson and Norman Angell who saw and understood the futility of wars and stressed upon mutual cooperation for the benefit of all concerned. Liberalism is of the view that international relations should not be guided by politics alone and economics plays a vital role in bringing states closer to each other. One perfect example of this thinking is reflected by extreme popularity of Hollywood and how it helped many types of American exports to other countries. Liberalism further states that mutual cooperation leads to interdependence that is a prerequisite to avoid contentious issues and to achieve peace.

5

United Kingdom: How about we land troops in Norway and move them across Sweden to go help out your good pal Finland? (Quickly) And then, along the way, maybe take control of all your iron fields. OverSimplified: But Norway and Sweden still said no, so the UK mined the waters around Norway to force any transport ships into international waters, and they also attacked a German tanker they found in the area. Hitler realized what the Allies were up to, and he quickly moved to secure his supply of iron ore. He launched an invasion through Denmark into Norway. The Allies rushed to land troops at key ports along the coast, but Germany had taken control of Norway's airfields, and their air superiority decided to fight. The Allies had to retreat. After this slightly embarrassing failure, Chamberlain resigned and was replaced with Winston Churchill, who had a slightly different approach to dealing with the Germans. Hitler's overall strategy was similar to Germany's WW1 strategy: Attack France, defeat France, knocking out the UK in the process, then, turn on the Soviet Union, and win the war. During the Phony War, the Allies had given Hitler enough time to prepare his forces. Now, he was ready to attack. The Allies had wanted to place troops in Belgium, but Belgium had refused, and in a move that surprised pretty much no one, Hitler launched an invasion to get around France's defenses. The Allies charged into Belgium at full speed to meet the German invasion head-on, and it looked like a repeat of the First World War was coming. But this time, Hitler had a trick up his sleeve: Blitzkrieg. As the Germans advanced, they sent thousands of refugees westward, slowing down the Allies. Then, to the south, the French had left the Ardennes, an area filled with hills and forests, pretty under-defended because they thought it was naturally impenetrable. Well, the Germans were about to penetrate it with everything they had. They smashed 50 Wehrmacht divisions through and encircled the Allied armies at lightning speed. The best of the Allied forces were now trapped. The Germans squeezed in from all sides, taking out France's best armies and nearly wiping out the British, too, but they managed to make a desperate last-minute escape at Dunkirk, with British civilian ships even making the perilous journey to bring their young men home. With most of the French forces depleted, the Germans breezed through, taking Paris, and France fell. What the Germans couldn't do in World War I, Hitler had done just like that. Hitler hoped that with the fall of France, the UK would also lose hope and sue for peace, but quite annoyingly, it didn't, and he needed to secure the Western Front, so he tried to force them into submission with mind games. The UK were now all alone and Hitler wanted to emphasise that. First of all, just before France fell, Italy finally declared war on the Allies, making the UK's situation even worse. Next, instead of just occupying all of France, Hitler occupied the coastal areas for defense, but allowed France to continue its existence as a German puppet state. This way, it looked like the UK's old ally had decided to switch sides. Hitler also hoped that the UK wouldn't attack any of her old ally's navy bases or colonies in Africa, giving Hitler an extra line of defense to the south, but the UK made sure to respond to this by sailing down to France's navy base in Algeria and wrecking a bunch of ships, so have at it. Hitler then began laying down plans for an invasion of Great Britain. Before German troops could land on British soil, he would first need air and naval superiority across the channel. Waves of German bombers came, while the completely outnumbered RAF worked bravely around the clock in an attempt to quell the German attacks. At first, the Luftwaffe targeted British ports and coastal facilities, then it attacked RAF bases, crippling the RAF's ability to defend the nation, and it looked like Hitler's great British invasion was coming, but then, Churchill ordered a small, pretty insignificant bombing raid over Berlin. It didn't do much damage, but Hitler was Führer-ous (/j), and he immediately ordered the Luftwaffe to refocus its attacks on civilian targets in London. Children were sent off to the countryside, away from their parents to avoid danger, and frequent trips to air-raid shelters became a daily occurrence. But British morale held firm. Smiling, knitting, lounging casually, these people have balls of steel. This refocusing on London also gave the RAF breathing space to reorganize, so Hitler kind of shot himself in the foot there. Just the foot for now. Finally, the Luftwaffe sent one massive, all-out attack on London, and the RAF successfully repelled it, destroying many of the German aircraft, and placing air superiority firmly in British hands. Hitler's invasion had to be postponed, but the bombing of British cities continued for some time.

Ww1 summary

World War I, also known as the Great War, began in 1914 after the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria. His murder catapulted into a war across Europe that lasted until 1918. During the conflict, Germany, Austria-Hungary, Bulgaria and the Ottoman Empire (the Central Powers) fought against Great Britain, France, Russia, Italy, Romania, Japan and the United States (the Allied Powers). Thanks to new military technologies and the horrors of trench warfare, World War I saw unprecedented levels of carnage and destruction. By the time the war was over and the Allied Powers claimed victory, more than 16 million people—soldiers and civilians alike—were dead.

More ww2

World War II grew out of issues left unresolved by that earlier conflict. In particular, political and economic instability in Germany, and lingering resentment over the harsh terms imposed by the Versailles Treaty, fueled the rise to power of Adolf Hitler and National Socialist German Workers' Party, abbreviated as NSDAP in German and the Nazi Party in English.. After becoming Chancellor of Germany in 1933, Hitler swiftly consolidated power, anointing himself Führer (supreme leader) in 1934. Obsessed with the idea of the superiority of the "pure" German race, which he called "Aryan," Hitler believed that war was the only way to gain the necessary "Lebensraum," or living space, for the German race to expand. In the mid-1930s, he secretly began the rearmament of Germany, a violation of the Versailles Treaty. After signing alliances with Italy and Japan against the Soviet Union, Hitler sent troops to occupy Austria in 1938 and the following year annexed Czechoslovakia. Hitler's open aggression went unchecked, as the United States and Soviet Union were concentrated on internal politics at the time, and neither France nor Britain (the two other nations most devastated by the Great War) were eager for confrontation.

Constructivism

an extension of symbolic interaction theory which proposes that reality is what humans cognitively construct it to be

realism vs constructivism

to what degree can we accurately discern "reality"