Lecture 21 Civilization s Ashes the Second World War and the Reordering of the Globe I Key Themes Europe and Asia turned against them How did the Nazis and the Japanese squander their opportunities to build new orders in How did the Nazis plans for their racial inferiors radicalize and accelerate as the war How did the war in both Europe and Asia single an end to European global dominance II A war to the death III Inferior specimens War that signals the end of European hegemony Nazis take France in 6 weeks due to Blitzkrieg Britain remains in conflict after battle of Britain New Order Nazis trying to instill new order across all of Europe new order consists of racial inequality with Germans being on top Start to build a system that oppresses people because that s all they knew acquired countries are meant to be turned into assets for Germans to assist in the war Puppet regimes are set up to keep order but economic exploitation leads to backlash French people volunteered to fight for the SS in the Soviet Union resistance Cleaning up Germany is essential for the Germans have to win WWII since they weren t racially pure and that s why they lost WWI defective stock removed from population racial purification laws ppl with disabilities homosexuals people with mental problems removed from population People kept in asylums Allowing 100s of thousands of ethnic germans into acquired territories but in order to Jews even bigger problem escape route cut off at start of war house them kicked Jews out of their homes and moved them to ghettos Ghettoization Nazis debated creating a colony for the Jews Madagascar but it became impossible IV Lebensraum Eastern Front Invasion of the Soviets by Nazis Belief that communism was inherently Jewish Hitler believed he didn t have enough time to wait to defeat Britain first but also because the Soviets were a corrupt weak structure War launched in June 1941 Soviets warned repeatedly but Stalin refused to believe it was so flabbergasted by the invasion that he went and hid in his country home Finally regains his nerve and orders a counterattack but 3 million Soviet soldiers had Brought to camps in Poland many died on way to camps and most others died within already been taken prisoner camps Nazis anticipated that the war with Russia would be over by winter started in June weren t given sufficient clothing food supplies fuel to survive the winter Don t have enough resources to get into major Russian cities V End of Empire War going on between China and Japan since 1937 Most of northern china is under Japanese control When war breaks out in Europe allows Japan to take advantage of another goal they had opportunity for them to expand their empire into former colonial territories of Europeans Move into IndoChina French territory Americans believe this to be an attack and issue a huge trade embargo with Japan Japan believes it is now inevitable to fight the US Pearl Harbor Dec 7 1941 dramatically successful for Japan Destroyed the USS Arizona strongest warship in the world The fleets aircraft carriers were already out at sea before the attack so the US were able to salvage essential war supplies Fall of Singapore Japanese won victory after victory in the Pacific including the fall of Singapore British surrendered Singapore had largest military base in the world Image Japan sends image of British surrendering to show that the notion of Western imperialist superiority is no longer the truth huge blow to western imperialism VI Empire of the Rising Sun Japanese made same mistake germans did set up puppet governments in new territories because they needed resources plundered stuff from territories Began to train people to fight in other countries Used form of execution to resistance execution leads to more resistance and guerrilla armies form and begin to fight with allies but not fighting for allies they just want their independence not going to give back their land to imperialists after war is over VII The Final Solution Einsatzgruppen Nazis fully embrace policies of genocide death squads show up in towns and villages and gun down Jewish people Guys that aren t even Nazis are being told to machine gun men women and children and they do it out of an odd sense of duty Germans aren t only ones to do this either Ukranians Czechs Slovacs begin to participate as well Suicide drug abuse alcoholism is more frequent among german soldiers because of having to massacre innocent people leads to creation of death camps The Final Solution 1942 1944 was the main stage where almost 4 million Jews murdered of gas chambers Labor camps and death camps built with slave labor mostly operated in Poland Complete lack of moral outbreaks seen as something that needed to be done Use of gas chambers seen as civilized way to kill VIII Armageddon Elite Nazi unit the German SS led brutality Americans supply the Red Army and issues a major counterattack in 1942 Battle of Stalingrad Stalingrad is important because it is the gateway to a ton of oil also important because it is called STALINgrad becomes single greatest battle in entire war Hitler refuses to retreat even when it becomes apparent they will be surrounded in Feb Defeat increases radicalization of their war effort if Germans cant have libernstraum 1943 nobody can War to the final death on the eastern front Invasion of Normandy June 6 1944 95 of germany s casualties in the war came on the eastern front Americans British only responsible for 5 German civilians begin to flee in massive numbers in eastern germany because the Soviets are creeping closer and closer to German borders By April 1945 Red Army reaches Berlin and there is a gruesome battle in 2 weeks April 30th Hitler realizes he loses and shoots himself May 8th 1945 the war ends in Europe IX I am become death Japanese army in just as hopeless a state as the Germans but they are relentless and will fight until the end Manhattan Project Huge technical advances throughout war many Americans plead the gov t not to use this weapon of the atomic bomb Secret project in which the smartest men in the allied world came together to create the atomic bomb costs the equivalent of 26 billion dollars After first test of the first bomb scientists plea Harry Truman not to use one because of how powerful it is Issues a vague warning to Japanese and they ignore his ultimatum Truman orders the dropping of the bombs in Hiroshima and Nagasaki spread Estimated that between 65 90 million people lost