A+Second+Global+Conflict+and+the+End+of+the+European+World+Order



__Old and New Causes of a Second World War:__ __Unchecked Aggression and the Coming of War in Europe and the Pacific:__ __The conduct of a Second Global War__ __Nazi Blitzkrieg, Stalemate, and the long retreat__
 * MI: The path to WWII was paved in large part by major social and political upheavals in several of the nations that had fought in WWI. Grievances related to WWI were compounded in each case by the economic havoc, and resulting social tensions, bought on by the Depression.**
 * Militarization of Japan takes place in 1930s despite moderate party.
 * China's Chiang Kai-shek was able to gain popular support in order to militarily defeat the southern and northern warlords and unite China
 * Japanese military captures Manchuria in 1931.
 * While japan's shift to a military regime was gradual, Germany's was radical and abrupt. Hitler and the National Socialist Party gained ground during the depression and political turmoil.
 * Nazi promise to put the people back to work, restore political stability, and set in motion a re-militarization program.
 * Hitler and Mussolini begin to execute their agendas and expand their military might.
 * Hitler and Mussolini intervene in Spanish civil war in order to gain Spain on their side.
 * leads to Franco's destruction of the elected republican government and seizure of power.
 * The USSR provides the Spanish republicans with feeble support; the fascist Franco yet refuses to participate in the second global war (WWII).
 * MI: By the late 1930s, the leaders of the new totalitarian states acted on the lessons that international rivalries in the preceding decades seemed to offer - that blatant aggression would succeed and at little cost.**
 * WWII begins with the German invasion of Poland on Sept. 1, 1939.
 * Western power hope to give up some small concessions in order to please fascist Germany; but Winston Churchill warns that Hitler's appetite was insatiable.
 * Through Manchuria, the Japanese were able to launch a whole-scale attempt to conquer China as a whole.
 * The city of Nanjing epitomized the horrific killing that would later coming in this war.
 * Tripartite Act officially allied Japan, Germany, and Italy.
 * MI: The forces that gave rise to WWII meant that there would be more of a balance between a number of theaters spread across Europe, north Africa, and Asia. The largest and most costly front in lives lost and physical destruction resulted from the Nazi invasion of the vast expanses of the USSR, but the Germans were also forced to defend a hastily built empire against an alliance that struck in north africa, Italy, and by mid-1944 across nothern europe. After December 1941, the decade-long contest between Japan and China spread across southeast Asia and GB emerged as Japan's most determined adversary.**
 * The Nazi war machine captured France and drives deep into Eastern Europe.
 * German attacks were based on the concept of **blitzkrieg,** or lightning warfare where air, artillery, and ground forces were utilized in succession to produce a deadly effect.
 * Used successfully in Poland to overwhelm Polish forces and led to eventual capture.
 * The speedy collapse of France was due to numerous reasons; one of the most prominent is the divided and weak leadership of the Republic during the depression era
 * Southern France was replaced with a puppet Nazi regime, centered around Vichy.
 * A weaker British airforce was able to withstand the Nazi ait offensive, including the bombing of London.
 * Hitler stops his advance into England and captured Eastern Europe and the Balkans, causing the Red Army to retreat eastward.
 * The Battle of Stalingrad halted the German offensive in the East and proved to be a turning point in the war.