World War II and the Aftermath of

the Cold War

World War II lasted from 1939 to 1945.
There were several major events leading up
to the war and then during the war. Here is
a timeline listing some of the major events:
Leading up to the War
1933 January 30 - Adolf Hitler becomes
Chancellor of Germany. His Nazi Party, or
the Third Reich, takes power and Hitler is
essentially the dictator of Germany.
1936 October 25 - Nazi Germany and
Fascist Italy form the Rome-Berlin Axis
treaty.
1936 November 25 - Nazi Germany and
Imperial Japan sign the Anti-Comintern
Pact. This was a pact against communism
and Russia.
1937 July 7 - Japan invades China.
1938 March 12 - Hitler annexes the
country of Austria into Germany. This is
also called the Anschluss.
World War II

1940 May 30 - Winston Churchill becomes

leader of the British government.
1940 June 10 - Italy enters the war as a
member of the Axis powers.
1940 July 10 - Germany launches an air
attack on Great Britain. These attacks last
until the end of October and are known as
the Battle of Britain.
1940 September 22 - Germany, Italy, and
Japan sign the Tripartite Pact creating the
Axis Alliance.
1941 June 22 - Germany and the Axis
Powers attack Russia with a huge force of
over four million troops.
1941 December 7 - The Japanese attack
the US Navy in Pearl Harbor. The next day
the US enters World War II on the side of
the Allies.
1942 June 4 - The US Navy defeats the
Japanese navy at the Battle of Midway.
1942 July 10 - The Allies invade and take
the island of Sicily. 1943 September 3 - Italy
surrenders to the Allies, however Germany
helps Mussolini to escape and set up a
government in Northern Italy.

1939 September 1 - Germany invades

Poland. World War II begins.

1944 June 6 - D-day and the Normandy

invasion. Allied forces invade France and
push back the Germans.

1939 September 3 - France and Great

Britain declare war on Germany.

1944 August 25 - Paris is liberated from

German control.

1940 April 9 to June 9 - Germany invades

and takes control of Denmark and Norway.

1944 December 16 - The Germans launch

a large attack in the Battle of the Bulge.
They lose to the Allies sealing the fate of
the German army.

1940 May 10 to June 22 - Germany uses

quick strikes called blitzkrieg, meaning
lightning war, to take over much of western
Europe including the Netherlands, Belgium,
and northern France.

1945 February 19 - US Marines invade the

island of Iwo Jima. After a fierce battle they
capture the island.

1945 April 12 - US President Franklin

Roosevelt dies. He is succeeded by
President Harry Truman.
1945 March 22 - The US Third Army under
General Patton crosses the Rhine River.
1945 April 30 - Adolf Hitler commits suicide
as he knows Germany has lost the war.
1945 May 7 - Germany surrenders to the
Allies.
1945 August 6 - The United States drops
the Atomic Bomb on Hiroshima, Japan. The
city is devastated.
1945 August 9 - Another atomic bomb is
dropped on Nagasaki, Japan.
1945 September 2 - Japan surrenders to
US General Douglass MacArthur
Leaders of the Axis Powers The three main
member countries of the Axis Powers were
ruled by dictators. They were:
Germany: Adolf Hitler - Hitler became
Chancellor of Germany in 1933 and Fuhrer
in 1934. He was a ruthless dictator who
hated Jewish people. He wanted to purge
Germany of all weak people. He also
wanted to take control of all of Europe.
Italy: Benito Mussolini - Mussolini was
supreme dictator of Italy. He founded the
concept of a fascist government where
there is one leader and one party that has
total power. He was an inspiration to Adolf
Hitler.
Japan: Emperor Hirohito - Hirohito reigned
as Emperor of Japan from 1926 until 1989.
He remained Emperor after the war. The
first time his subjects heard his voice was
when he announced Japan's surrender on

the radio.
CAUSES OF WW2
. A lot of events throughout the world led to
the beginning of World War 2. In many
ways, World War 2 was a direct result of
the turmoil left behind by World War 1.
Below are some of the main causes of
World War 2.
Treaty of Versailles
The Treaty of Versailles ended World War I
between Germany and the Allied Powers.
Because Germany had lost the war, the
treaty was very harsh against Germany.
Germany was forced to "accept the
responsibility" of the war damages suffered
by the Allies. The treaty required that
Germany pay a huge sum of MONEY called
reparations. The problem with the treaty is
that it left the German economy in ruins.
People were starving and the government
was in chaos.
Japanese Expansion
In the period before World War II, Japan
was growing rapidly. However, as an island
nation they did not have the land or the
natural resources to sustain their growth.
Japan began to look to grow their empire in
ORDER to gain new resources. They
invaded Manchuria in 1931 and China in
1937.
Fascism
With the economic turmoil left behind by
World War 1, some countries were taken
over by dictators who formed powerful
fascist governments. The first fascist
government was Spain which was ruled by
the dictator Franco. Then Mussolini took

control of Italy. These dictators wanted to

expand their empires and began to look for
new lands to conquer. Italy invaded and
took over Ethiopia in 1935. Adolf Hitler
would emulate Mussolini in his take over of
Germany.
Hitler and the Nazi Party
In Germany, Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party
rose to power. The Germans were
desperate for someone to turn around their
economy and restore their national pride.
Hitler OFFERED them hope. In 1934, Hitler
was proclaimed the "Fuhrer" (leader) and
became dictator of Germany. Hitler
resented the restrictions put on Germany
by the Treaty of Versailles. While talking
about peace, Hitler began to rearm
Germany. He allied Germany with Mussolini
and Italy. Then Hitler looked to restore
Germany to power by expanding his
empire. He first took over Austria in 1938.
When the League of Nations did nothing to
stop him, Hitler became bolder and took
over Czechoslovakia in 1939.

Great Depression
The period before World War II was a time
of great economic suffering throughout the
world called the Great Depression. Many
people were out of work and struggling to
survive. This created unstable governments
and worldwide turmoil that helped lead to
World War II.
Interesting Facts about the Causes of
World War 2

Appeasement
After World War 1, the nations of Europe
were weary and did not want another war.
When countries such as Italy and Germany
became aggressive and began to take over
their neighbors and build up their armies,
countries such as Britain and France hoped
to keep peace through "appeasement." This
meant that they tried to make Germany and
Hitler happy rather than try to stop him.
They hoped that by meeting his demands
he would be satisfied and there wouldn't be
any war. Unfortunately, the policy of
appeasement backfired. It only made Hitler
bolder. It also gave him time to build up his
army.

Because of the Great Depression,

many countries were experiencing
strong fascist and communist
movements including France and
Great Britain prior to the war.
Prior to World War 2, the United
States attempted to stay out of
world issues with a policy of
isolationism. They were not
members of the League of Nations.
As part of their appeasement policy,
Britain and France agreed to let
Hitler have part of Czechoslovakia
in the Munich Agreement.
Czechoslovakia had no say in the
DEAL. The Czechoslovakians called
the agreement the "Munich
Betrayal."
Japan had taken over Korea,
Manchuria, and a significant part of
China before World War 2 began.

After the War:

Many things changed once World War II
was over. Much of Europe and Eastern Asia
had been destroyed by the fighting and
bombings that had taken place over many
years. Also, many country's borders needed
to be set and governments re-established
where Germany or Japan had taken over.

Europe
Germany had occupied much of Europe
during World War II. Many of the countries
in the west returned to the same
governments and borders they had prior to
the war. However, Germany was divided up
into Eastern and Western Germany. The
Eastern part was controlled by the USSR
(Russia) and the Western part by the
Allies.
The USSR also took control of many of the
countries in Eastern Europe where they had
fought the Germans. These included
Poland, Romania, Bulgaria, Albania,
Hungary, and Czechoslovakia.
Europe was in much need of financial aid
due to all the roads, bridges, buildings and
more that had been destroyed in the
fighting. The United States OFFERED Aid in
the form of the Marshall Plan to help Europe
recover.
Japan and Eastern Asia
The US and the Allies occupied Japan.
They maintained control as Japan
recovered from the war. Japan would
become an independent nation again in
1952.
In Korea, the Allies and the USSR (Russia)
divided up the country into North and South
Korea. The plan was for Russia to control
the North and the Allies the South until a
free election could be held for the entire
country. This never happened as Russia
later refused and the country is still split to
this day with North Korea controlled by
communists.

In China, a civil war continued that had

started prior to World War II. It was between
the communists and the nationalists. The
communists won and the nationalists fled to
Taiwan.
War Crimes
After the war, many leaders from Japan and
Germany were brought to trial. They had
violated the rules of war according to the
Geneva Convention and had also
committed crimes against humanity. These
crimes included the Holocaust, slave labor,
and the terrible treatment and torture of
prisoners of war. Many of these leaders
were executed for their crimes.
United Nations
The Allies formed the United Nations in
ORDER to try and prevent World War III
from happening. The United Nations was
formed on October 24, 1945. There were 51
original member nations including 5
permanent Security Council members:
China, France, the Soviet Union, the United
Kingdom, and the United States.
The Cold War Begins
Europe became divided into the Eastern
Bloc of nations and the West. The Eastern
Bloc was led and controlled by the Soviet
Union (Russia). These countries were run
by communist governments and had their
own alliance called the Warsaw Pact. The
Western countries, including the United
States, formed an alliance against
communism called NATO.
These two alliances, NATO and the Warsaw
Pact, would take part in an arms race war
called the Cold War. The Cold War never
escalated into full war due to the fear of

what would happen to the world if many

countries started dropping atomic bombs.
The Cold War would last for the next 45
years.

After the Cold War:

Even as Reagan fought communism in
Central America, however, the Soviet Union
was disintegrating. In response to severe
economic problems and growing political
ferment in the USSR, Premier Mikhail
Gorbachev (1931-) took office in 1985 and
introduced two policies that redefined
Russias relationship to the rest of the world:

glasnost, or political openness, and

perestroika, or economic reform. Soviet
influence in Eastern Europe waned. In
1989, every other communist state in the
region replaced its government with a
noncommunist one. In November of that
year, the Berlin Wallthe most visible
symbol of the decades-long Cold Warwas
finally destroyed, just over two years after
Reagan had challenged the Soviet premier
in a speech at Brandenburg Gate in Berlin:
Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall. By
1991, the Soviet Union itself had fallen
apart. The Cold War was over