World War II Causes, Events and Impact

The name of Hitler's political text was called...

"Mein Kampf." The text espoused extreme nationalism, racism, and anti-Semitism.

The connections of the depression era history to contemporary times are three:

(1.) Government monitoring of or control of national economies, banks, credit, and stock markets (2.) continuation of social programs (3.) monitoring of worldwide economic developments by international agencies. A question to consider, "Does the conflict between socialism and "laissez faire" economic policies continue today?"

The rise of dictatorships in Europe from 1917 to 1939 with the following countries under dictatorships...

(1.) Portugal 1926 (2.) Spain 1939 (3.) Italy 1922 (4.) Germany 1933 (5.) Austria 1938 (6.) Hungary 1932 (7.) Yugoslavia 1929 (8.) Albania to Italy 1939 (9.) Greece 1936 (10.) Bulgaria 1935 (11.) Romania 1938 (12.) Czechoslovakia 1938-1939 (13.) Poland 1926 (14.) Lithuania 1926 (15.) Latvia 1934 (16.) Estonia 1933

Totalitarianism has six (6) basic features...

(1.) a single-party dictatorship, (2.) state control of the economy (3.) use of police spites and terror to enforce the will of the state (4.) strict censorship and government monopoly of the media. (5.) use of schools and the media to indoctrinate and mobile citizens and (6.) unquestioning obedience to a single leader.

Postwar issues were...

(1.) jobs for returning veterans (2.) rebuilding war ravaged lands (3.) huge large national debt (4.) social unrest made radical ideas more popular (5.) fear of communism (6.) dissatisfaction of the peace agreements (7.) socialism as the answer and (8.) rise of nationalistic movements.

Three scientific events to note are...

(1.) radioactivity that was pioneered by Marie Curie (2.) Albert Einstein's theories of relativity (3.) probing the mind with Sigmund Freud.

Marshall Plan was a...

(1948) massive transfer of aid money to help rebuild postwar Western Europe; was intended to bolster capitalist and democratic governments and prevent domestic communist groups from riding poverty and misery to power; the plan was first announced by Secretary of State George Marshall at Harvard's commencement in June 1947

D-Day

(FDR) , June 6, 1944, 160,000 Allied troops landed along a 50-mile stretch of heavily-fortified French coastline to fight Nazi Germany on the beaches of Normandy, France. General Dwight D. Eisenhower called the operation a crusade in which "we will accept nothing less than full victory." More than 5,000 Ships and 13,000 aircraft supported the D-Day invasion, and by day's end on June 6, the Allies gained a foot- hold in Normandy.

Cold War

(HT) 1946-1988, Churchill said it was a "iron curtain" between eastern and western Europe, A conflict that was between the US and the Soviet Union. The nations never directly confronted eachother on the battlefield but deadly threats went on for years, US against Communism (containment)

Premier Gorbachev gave the west the term...

-perestroika (economic reform)--improved living standards and allowed private ownership of business. The economy failed and he opened to foreign investment. The Berlin Wall came down and both East and West Germany were re-united. There was a implied understanding that NATO would not interfere with the Eastern European states.

The immediate causes of World War II were...

The immediate causes were: the NewYork stock market crash, farmers unable to repay loans, banks demanding repayment of loans, American loans to other countries dried up, and without capital, businesses and factories failed.

The immediate effects from various causes of World War II are...

The immediate effects of from both the long and immediate causes were: (1.) Vast unemployment and misery (2.) protective tariffs imposed (3.) loss of faith in capitalism and democracy (4.) authoritarian leaders emerge.

The immediate effects and long terms effects from the causes of WWII are...

The immediate effects of from both the long and immediate causes were: (1.) vast unemployment (2.) imposed protective tariffs (3.) the loss of faith in capitalism and democracy (4.) authoritarian leaders emerged. The long term effects were: (1.) rise of fascism (2.) governments experiments with social programs (3.) scapegoats (4.) World War II begins

Hitler served in...

World War I and became embittered at the Weimar Republic. He joined a radical conservative right wing group of extremist. Within one year he was the leader of the National Socialist German Workers or the Nazi Party. Like Mussolini, Adolf Hitler formed Nazi "Storm Troopers" that physically battled the political opposition.

The definition of fascism as quoted by Mussolini is...

a corporate state.

Nuremberg trials...

a series of 13 trials carried out in Nuremberg, Germany, between 1945 and 1949. The defendants, who included Nazi Party officials and high-ranking military officers along with German industrialists, lawyers and doctors, were indicted on such charges as crimes against peace and crimes against humanity. Nazi leader Adolf Hitler (1889-1945) committed suicide and was never brought to trial. The trials took place in the Hague.

Albert Einstein...

advanced his theory that time and space are not absolutes. The nineteenth century view of the universe as a well balanced machine failed to stand the test of Einstein.

When Hitler was 18, he traveled to Vienna to enter an...

art school and was turned down. He was embittered.

The problems with the Weimar Republic were many...

because the coalitions that were formed fell apart. The democratic socialists came under attack from both the left and right. Communists demanded radical changes as were occurring in Russia. The conservatives were the far right that included the middle class and demanded their agenda as well.

Like Mussolini, Hitler preserved...

capitalism by bringing large business and labor under government control. While the loss of freedom was noted, wages rose. Propaganda highlighted the improvements. Programs such as "Strength Through Joy" offered workers vigorous outdoor vacations that encouraged physical fitness for military service.

The economy of the U.S. during the 1920's...

was known as a "Boom and Bust" economy. The middle class enjoyed the benefits of capitalism with modern items such as radios, refrigerators, and automobiles. President Calvin Coolidge was quoted as saying, "the business of America is business."

Adolf Hitler's Aryan race...

was seen as the superior race. They had blonde hair and blue eyes. The Holocaust targeted everyone who was not Aryan.

Fears of Britain...

were concerned about Germany's war reparations because Britain feared the Soviet Union would expand its territory and France would expand its influence in Europe.

The long term causes of World War II were...

worldwide interrelationship of governments and economies, huge war debts , American loans to Europe, widespread use of credit, overproduction of goods, and industrial wages rise as farming earnings fell.

Literature from the era...

would be T.S. Elliott's "The Waste Land" representing the spiritual emptiness of humankind. Ernest Hemingway's narrative of the wanderings of the lack of conviction of youth that he stated as a quote, "I did not care what it was all about. All I wanted to know is how to live in it." These two authors would be examples of a loss of faith. The next examples would be the British novelist Virginia Woolf ("Mrs Dalloway") and the Irish novelist James Joyce ("Finnegans Wake") stream of consciousness taken from Freud.

The United States stayed out of the...

League of Nations because of possible future involvement of the U.S. Instead, the U.S. insisted on a free hand regarding foreign diplomacy.

Fundamentalism

Literal interpretation and strict adherence to basic principles of a religion

The "Red Scare" in the United States occurred when and what was the consequence?

The "Red Scare" occurred in 1919 and 1920. Police rounded up suspected foreign-born radicals with many of them expelled from the United States. Immigration from the Mediterranean and eastern European countries was at an all time high. Congress passed laws limiting immigration. Also, at this time, the false science of eugenics became popular and was published in popular magazines such as "Life".

Benito Mussolini came into power in the year...

1922

Irish independence was granted in...

1922, but only with the southern Catholic portion while the protestant north still remained under British rule. Guerilla warfare occurred and continued for several decades.

Inflation in the Weimar was rampant in...

1923 and 1924. 100 marks in July 1922 rose to 944,000 marks by August 1923.

Hitler was elected in...

1933 to the Weimar Republic. With the fear of communism, the conservatives turned to Adolf Hitler. Many conservatives despised Hitler, but they felt they could control him.

Adolf Hitler came into power in the year...

1933.

Socialism

A political ideology based on strong support for economic and social equality. Socialists traditionally envisioned a society in which major businesses were taken over by the government or by private employee cooperatives such as farm cooperatives. A discussion point. Is the privatization of government agencies with assured profit socialism? An example would be agricultural subsidies to flatten the commodities prices. The industries that supply military research and equipment? The interstate highway throughout the United States is both built and maintained by private contractors. The final question is, "is socialism acceptable in certain areas or is it a threat to "laissez faire" economics?"

Liberalism

A political or social philosophy advocating the freedom of the individual, parliamentary systems of government, nonviolent modification of political, social, or economic institutions to assure unrestricted development in all spheres of human endeavor, and governmental guarantees of individual rights and civil liberties.

Hitler was born in...

Austria in 1889.

General strike. A general strike occurred in...

Britain where approximately three million workers walked off the job and lasted nine days. In the political arena, the labor party exceeded the liberal party and promoted a move towards socialism. The middle class was backing the Conservative party and held onto power due to the fear of communism. Conservatives passed legislation limiting the power of workers to strike. A coalition was established from all three groups with some relief granted.

The British Commonwealth of Nations converted four former colonies of...

Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa into self-controlling dominions of the British Commonwealth of Nations. During this time, Britain provided education and improved agriculture to its colonies with the promise of independence at a later date.

Hitler despised...

Christianity as weak and formed the church into a state church. However, Christian theology was introduced to assure compatibility. Notice the harmony of militant nationalism and the Nazi insignia on the Christmas tree as representative of patriotism.

What is fascism?

Fascism is still a matter of debate. The term in contemporary times means an authoritarian government. In the 1920's and 1930's, the meaning of fascism was skewed. Some basic tenets can be agreed upon. (1.) Extreme nationalism that comprised of glorified action, violence, discipline, and blind obedience to the state. (2.) Antidemocratic. The rejected the Age of Reason (The Enlightenment) outright. The concept of egalitarianism and liberty spread by the French Revolution. There belief was that democracy lead to corruption and weakness and individual or class interests above national interests. Social Darwinism "survival of the fittest" justified warfare as a necessity for survival.

Chairman Mao

The leader of the Communist Party in southern China where Ji-li lives. He wants to change China into a great and wonderful place for everyone to live by saying that everyone is and should be equal. He is a stern leader and will severely punish people who rise against him. Chairman Mao is also a manipulative leader. He is part of the Communist Party, and expects all citizens of China to be Communist too. He instituted many far-reaching but ill-advised reforms which led to some modernization and collectivization, but caused untold famine, death, and terror. Jefferson's fourth estate, the freedom of the press, was suppressed. Freedom of speech was tightly controlled with the lack of it.

The five long term and five immediate causes of WWII are...

The long term causes are: (1.) worldwide interrelationship of governments and economies (2.) huge war debts (3.) American loans to Europe (4.) Widespread use of credit (5.) overproduction of goods (6.) industrial wages rise as farm earnings fall. The immediate causes are: (1.) New York stock market crash (2.) Farmers unable to repay loans (3.) Banks demand repayment of loans (4.) American loans to other countries dry up (5.) Without capital, businesses and factories fail.

The long term effects from various causes of World War II are...

The long term effects were: (1.) rise of fascism and Nazism (2.) Governments experiment with social programs (3.) people blame scapegoats (4.) World War II begins.

Hitler repudiated the...

Treaty of Versailles.

Division of Germany came after...

WWII, in 1947 Germany was divided into four zones controlled by the U.S., Great Britain, France and Russia; eventually the first three zones would unite as West Germany whereas the Russian zone became East Germany.

Overproduction prior to the war is a...

condition in which production of goods exceeds the demand for them. The first world war had increased demand for raw materials from Latin America, Africa and Asia. Improved technology and farming methods also contributed to higher output. After the first world war, demand for raw materials fell. When the demand fell, the prices for raw materials fell. The consumer benefited from the lower prices. The producer of commodities suffered hardship. Examples would be agriculture and mining for raw materials such as coal, iron ore, and copper. The producers of commodities could not afford the products from industry. The supply and demand was out-of-balance. The industrial platform of inexpensive products failed setting the stage for a depression.

Modern Art and architecture...

departed from the traditional views. Artists like Henri Matise used bold colors and lines. The Spaniards Pablo Picasso and is friend Georges Braque created cubism. The Russian Vasily Kandinsky and German Paul Klee became abstract with little semblance of actual figures. Salvador Dali used surrealism to describe Freud's dreamscapes. Bauhaus architects used glass, steal, and concrete with minimal ornamentation.

Marie Curie...

discovered that certain elements, radium and uranium, release charge particles

The flapper from the era danced to the Charleston, smoked cigarettes, and...

drank in nightclubs.

Charlie Chaplin was a famous movie star...

during the silent movie era.

Manhattan Project was...

established in 1942 under the direction of Major General Leslie Groves and J. Robert Oppenheimer, it was a research and development program that developed the first atomic bomb. It originated out out Szilard's letter to Roosevelt which warned of the potential of extremely powerful bombs of a new type. It urged the government to accelerate the research of Enrico Fermi. 2 Billion project iniatiated by FDR to design atomic weapons. The products of the Manhattan Project were Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Hitler's "Lebenstraum" was a policy of...

expanding living space for the German people by conquering neighboring countries and cleansing the land of undesirables.

French notes during this era...

favored coalition governments in order to allow a voice from extreme points-of-view. The Maginot Line was built along the border between France and Germany. The line was a military defensive line. An important note to remember is France favored keeping Germany weak with continued war reparations to France.

The Weimar Republic was set up...

in 1919. The parliamentary form of government was installed. The leader of the parliamentary form of government is called a chancellor or prime minister.

A changing society from this era...

included a new popular culture that embraced cars and radios. Cars increased mobility. Radios brought news, sports, music.

Purging German culture...

involved denouncing modern art stating it was corrupted by Jewish influences. They condemned jazz because of its African roots. Book burning was common. "All Quiet on the Western Front" was of the books that was burned and viewed as an insult to the German military.

Kellogg-Briand Pact of 1928...

involved virtually every independent nation to "renounce war as a national policy." This was the product of the "spirit of Locarno" where Germany's disputes were settled with France, Belgium, Czechoslovakia, and Poland. The diplomats settled these disputes without an act of war.

The definition of a dictatorship is...

is a government governed by an absolute authority. The synonyms of a dictatorship or absolute rule are: undemocratic rule, despotism, tyranny, autocracy, autoarchy, authoritarianism, totalitarianism, fascism, oppression, and repression

Margin buying

is partially purchasing stock with personal funds and borrowing the rest to purchase more. If the stock rises in value, then both the investor and broker benefits. If the stock loses value, both the investor and broker loses. In a bear market such as the crash of 1929, virtually all equity was wiped out.

To combat the Great Depression Hitler...

launched a large public works project like Britain and the United States. Tens of thousands of the unemployed were put to work building highways, housing, and replanting forests. In addition he did a crash program to rearm Germany because the military complex reduced unemployment.

Laissez faire economics is defined as a...

n.noun 1.An economic doctrine that opposes governmental regulation of or interference in commerce beyond the minimum necessary for a free-enterprise system to operate according to its own economic laws. 2.Noninterference in the affairs of others.

Fascism in Italy...

was enabled by Benito Mussolini who in his younger days was a socialist, but the first world war changed his mind. He used black shirted "combat squads" that rejected the democratic process in favor of violent action which saw the breakup of socialist rallies, demolished the leftist presses, broke up farming cooperatives.

Duke Ellington the jazz musician...

was from the big band era.

The New Deal...

occurred in 1932. President Franklin D. Roosevelt argued that the government had to take an active role to combat the depression. The New Deal regulated the stock market and protected depositor's money. The government provided jobs for the unemployed. A pension system was put in place for seniors. The New Deal failed to end the depression but relieved the suffering for many. A continued discussion is that Americans came to depend on the government for intervention. Adam Smith issue and laissez faire economic policies. Whether for the interests for both commercial and citizen interests, the government continues to support in time of need. The argument still continues.

Night of the Broken glass...

occurred on November 9 and 10, 1938. Nazi led mobs attacked the all Jewish establishments . "Kristallnacht" was viewed as negative. But Hitler made the Jew's pay for the damage.

Louis Armstrong the jazz musician...

played the saxophone during the big band era.

Gertrude Stein represented the younger generation that...

rejected the moral values and rules of the Victorian Age. He famous quote was, "the lost generation".

Social classes from this era of the 1920's...

saw rising wages for factory workers and the wealth increased for the capitalist, but the lower middle classes felt pinched and moved towards radical right wing groups during the depression.

Sigmund Freud...

started the idea of psychoanalysis. He entertained the the subconscious mind drives a large portion of human behavior. In his view, Freud believed a civilized society that learned values such as morality and reason repress or check powerful urges, but the tension between repressed drives and social training my cause psychological illness whether mental or physical.

Mussolini's social policies were...

that men were to be selfless and ruthless warriors for the nationalism of Italy. Women were pushed out of the workforce and were encouraged to have children. If they had fourteen children, they were given a medal buy Il Duce himself. The most important goal was to target the youth groups to be tough and to obey military regimen. Torchlight parades, patriotic hymns and chants aided in the molding of the fascist character. The process was successful.

Jazz came from...

the African culture.

Mussolini took the name "fascism" from...

the Latin "fasces", a bundle of sticks wrapped around an ax that was the symbol of authority in Rome.

The conservatives in the Weimar Republic were...

the old Junker nobility, military officers, and wealthy bourgeoisie. They attacked the government as too liberal and weak.

The economic policy of Mussolini was...

the preservation of capitalism but brought the economy entirely under state control. The corporations were the government. The corporate state had representatives from business, labor, government, and the Fascist party. The Fascist part controlled industry, agriculture, and trade. Production did increase but at the expense of the workers with wages that did not keep pace.

Disarmament is defined as...

the reduction of armed forces and weapons. The United States, Britain, France, Japan and other nations signed treaties to reduce weapons and navies. The nations could not agree on the size of their armies.

The social policy was similar to the fascist Mussolini and that...

the young people were indoctrinated with German ideology. The "Hitler Youth" pledged absolute loyalty to Hitler.

Notes on Prosperity and Depression in the U.S. are...

to be expected. The United States came out of the war in exceptional shape. The war created a very large industrial base plus increased agriculture production. The U.S. invested into the European economy.