2. The Great Depression and World War II 1929 - 1946

3. The 1920s: Temporary Prosperity  Optimism and prosperity in the 1920s led many to hope that large scale conflict could be avoided.  This hope ended abruptly in October, 1929, with the onset of the Great Depression.

4. The Great Depression’s Causes  After effects of World War I  Overproduction  Tariffs and other trade barriers  Stock market crash  Bank failures in the US and other countries

5. The Great Depression (1929-1941)

6. The New York Stock Exchange in October, 1929

7. Bank Failures

9. The Dust Bowl

10. Responses to the Great Depression  The enormous economic decline led many western governments to take greater control over their nation’s economies.  Many saw the Depression as evidence that democratic governments and capitalism were incapable of solving problems or meeting the needs of modern society.

11. US reaction to the Depression  Under President Franklin D. Roosevelt the US enacted a reform program known as the New Deal.  The New Deal expanded government powers and regulated the US economy more closely than ever before.  Programs such as Social Security were designed to help Americans through the worst effects of the Great Depression and, it was hoped, prevent another.

12. Western European Reactions  Social Democratic governments were elected in Scandinavia. They were socialist but democratic.  In England, the Labour Party took power  France’s government was led by the Popular Front, a mixture of socialist and moderate parties.  These governments attempted to help end the Depression by taking more power over their economies

13. The Soviet Union  Because its economy was independent and did not depend on external trade, the Soviet Union had few economic troubles during the 1930s.  Joseph Stalin boasted that this demonstrated the superiority of socialism over capitalism, and some Westerners agreed.  Stalin’s Five Year Plans and focus on heavy industry and militarization made the Soviet Union a powerful force.

14. Japan  Japan had fought on the Allied side during World War I, but was disappointed with its treatment by the other powers afterwards.  By the 1930s, military leaders or warlords had taken power.  Japan began to construct the Greater East Asia Co- Prosperity Sphere, promising “Asia for the Asiatics.”

15. Germany  After World War I Germany’s economy was devastated, its territory shrunken, and its military force depleted.  Many Germans felt their country had been badly treated by the Treaty of Versailles, and were eager for revenge.  The Great Depression made Germany’s situation worse, and many Germans looked to new leadership.

16. The German Mark

18. The “Stabbed-in-the-Back” Theory Disgruntled German WWI veterans

19. Adolf Hitler  Born 1889, Austria  Obsessed with German racial superiority  Anti-Semitic  World War I veteran, took leadership of the National Socialist German Workers’ Party (Nazi) in early 1920s  Attempted to seize power in 1923, but was imprisoned.  Wrote Mein Kampf  Appointed Chancellor after Nazis won the German elections in January, 1933.

20. The Third Reich  By 1934 Hitler had taken total power and become Der Fuhrer, or “The Leader” of Germany  He began to remilitarize Germany in defiance of the Versailles Treaty.  Anti-Semitic Decrees first separated the Jews from the Germans, then began to limit their rights, eventually leading to the Holocaust.

21. Nazi Propaganda

22. Anti-Semitism

24. The Road to World War II  Many point to the Japanese invasion of Manchuria in Northern China in 1931 as the true beginning of World War II.  During the 1930s, Mussolini’s Italy invaded and conquered Ethiopia, Japan continued to invade and conquer China, and Germany made aggressive moves towards war  The Spanish Civil War of 1936-1938 was another omen of greater conflicts to come.

25. “ Guernica” by Pablo Picasso

26. Germany Invades the Rhineland March 7, 1936

27. The Austrian Anschluss, 1938

28. The Japanese Invasion of China, 1937

29. The “Problem” of the Sudetenland

30. Appeasement: The Munich Agreement, 1938 “Now we have “peace in our time!” Herr Hitler is a man we can do business with.” “Now we have “peace in our time!” Herr Hitler is a man we can do business with.” British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain

31. Rome-Berlin Axis, 1939 The “Pact of Steel”

32. The Nazi-Soviet Non-Aggression Pact, 1939 Foreign Ministers von Ribbentrop & Molotov

33. Poland Attacked: Sept. 1, 1939 Blitzkrieg [“Lightning War”]

34. The “Phony War” Ends: Spring, 1940

35. Rome-Berlin-Tokyo Axis: The Tripartite Pact September, 1940

36. Battle of Britain: The “Blitz”

37. British Prime Minister Winston Churchill

41. Operation Barbarossa: Hitler’s Biggest Mistake

42. Pearl Harbor

43. Pearl Harbor - Dec. 7, 1941 “A date which will live in infamy…”

44. Pacific Theater of Operations

45. Allied Counter-Offensive: “Island-Hopping”

46. “Island-Hopping”: US Troops on Kwajalien Island

47. Battle of Midway Island: June 4-6, 1942

48. Axis Powers in 1942

49. Battle of Stalingrad: Winter of 1942-1943 German ArmyRussian Army 1,011,500 men1,000,500 men 10,290 artillery guns13,541 artillery guns 675 tanks894 tanks 1,216 planes1,115 planes

50. The Italian Campaign [“Operation Torch”] : Europe’s “Soft Underbelly” Allies plan assault on weakest Axis area - North Africa - Nov. 1942-May 1943 Allies plan assault on weakest Axis area - North Africa - Nov. 1942-May 1943 George S. Patton leads American troops George S. Patton leads American troops Germans trapped in Tunisia - surrender over 275,000 troops. Germans trapped in Tunisia - surrender over 275,000 troops.

51. D-Day (June 6, 1944)

52. Normandy Landing (June 6, 1944 ) Higgins Landing Crafts German Prisoners

53. T The Liberation of Paris: August 25, 1944 De Gaulle in Triumph!

54. The Battle of the Bulge: Hitler’s Last Offensive Dec. 16, 1944 to Jan. 28, 1945

55. US & Russian Soldiers Meet at the Elbe River: April 25, 1945

56. Horrors of the Holocaust Exposed

57. Crematoria at Majdanek Entrance to Auschwitz Horrors of the Holocaust Exposed

58. Slave Labor at Buchenwald

59. Horrors of the Holocaust Exposed Mass Graves at Bergen-Belsen

60. Hitler Commits Suicide April 30, 1945 The Führer’s Bunker Cyanide & Pistols Mr. & Mrs. Hitler

61. V-E Day (May 8, 1945) General Keitel

62. Japanese Kamikaze Planes: The Scourge of the South Pacific Kamikaze Pilots Suicide Bombers

63. US Marines on Mt. Suribachi, Iwo Jima [Feb. 19, 1945]

64. The Manhattan Project: Los Alamos, NM Dr. Robert Oppenheimer ‘I am become death, the destroyer of worlds!” Major General Lesley R. Groves

65. Hiroshima – August 6, 1945 70,000 killed immediately. 70,000 killed immediately. 48,000 buildings. destroyed. 48,000 buildings. destroyed. 100,000s died of radiation poisoning and cancer. 100,000s died of radiation poisoning and cancer.

66. Nagasaki – August 9, 1945 40,000 killed immediately. 40,000 killed immediately. 60,000 injured. 60,000 injured. 100,000s died of radiation poisoning and cancer. 100,000s died of radiation poisoning and cancer.

67. Japanese A-Bomb Survivors

68. End of the War (September 2, 1945)

69. V-J Day in Times Square, NYC