Results of World War II 40 – 50 million dead. Millions left homeless and mass unemployment Physical destruction of much of Europe

Predicting History So, What does your crystal ball show?

Establishment of two superpowers in: the United States and the USSR US came out better off at the end of the war War production helped overcome the Great Depression New advances in science, ex. Atomic bomb USSR came out as great power despite the lose of over 20 million & soon would develop atomic bombs

Defendants At Nuremberg Trials

Nuremberg Trials Perpetrators of Nazi Holocaust & war crimes would be tried & punished War Crimes Tribunal, Nuremberg, Germany – 22 Nazi leaders charged with crimes against humanity – 12 sentenced to death & later more were tried Tokyo Trials – Gen. MacArthur brought 25 Japanese leaders to trial for crimes against Chinese – 7 sentenced to death & 16 to life in prison

Yalta Conference - February 1945 Wartime meeting b/t the Big 3 – Churchill, Stalin & FDR Stalin agreed to hold free elections & to declare war on Japan agreed to divide defeated Germany into occupation zones Occupied by 4 victorious nations; US, Britain, France & USSR US to occupy Japan Potsdam Conference - July 1945 -Truman replaces Roosevelt -Stalin refuses to keep promise of free elections

How did the Allies promote reconstruction of the defeated powers? Democratic government installed in West Germany and West Berlin Germany and Berlin divided among the four Allied powers (US, France, Britain & Russia) Emergence of West Germany as economic power in postwar Europe recovered quickly & are today industrial powers

Japan after WWII

Efforts for reconstruction of Japan U.S. occupation of Japan under MacArthur’s administration Democracy and economic development Elimination of Japanese offensive military capabilities (disarmament); United States’ guarantee of Japan’s security Emergence of Japan as dominant economy in Asia

The Iron Curtain March 5,1946 Winston Churchill delivers his “Iron Curtain” speech at Westminster College in Fulton, Missouri. The US responded with the Truman Doctrine.

The Curtain Iron Speech (Excerpt) “From Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic an iron curtain has descended across the Continent. Behind that line lie all the capitals of the ancient states of Central and Eastern Europe. Warsaw, Berlin, Prague, Vienna, Budapest, Belgrade, Bucharest and Sofia; all these famous cities and the populations around them lie in what I must call the Soviet sphere, and all are subject, in one form or another, not only to Soviet influence but to a very high and in some cases increasing measure of control from Moscow” (Churchill, 1946). Winston Churchill gave this speech at Westminster College, in Fulton, Missouri on March 5, 1946

The Truman Doctrine Background: British economic support to the governments of Greece and Turkey in 1947 National Liberation Front (Greece) Soviet pressure over the Dardanelle Straits India & Iran (Communism) U.S. role

The Truman Doctrine U.S. President Harry Truman asks: Military and economic aid ($400 million) Support free peoples who resist subjugation by armed force or third-party pressures Policy lasts for 40 years Cold War Begins U.S. ends pattern of Isolationism

Dardanelle Straits A narrow strait in northwestern Turkey, 38 miles (61 km) long, linking the Aegean Sea with the Sea of Marmara. It is ¾ to 4 miles wide and lies between the peninsula of Gallipoli in Europe (northwest) and the mainland of Asia Minor (southeast)

The Berlin Airlift

“Iron Curtain”

United Nations International peace keeping organization 1945 - 50 nations signed UN Charter Strongest part = Security Council = US, Britain, Soviet Union, France & China humanitarian work Has almost 200 members