1. Introduction

   World War II, although officially beginning in 1939, can be seen as part of a series of clashes that began as early as 1931. It began because of deliberate aggression by Germany, Italy, and Japan. Suspicion of the Soviet Union by Western democracies prevented a coordinated response, as did divisions within the democracies themselves. The League of Nations was shown to be powerless to prevent aggression, and Hitler and Mussolini could not be checked by diplomacy

2. Old and New Causes of a Second World War

   Social and political upheavals of the 1920s and grievances resulting from World War I led to the Second World War. In Japan, the rise of fanatical militarists led to expansionist polices in China. The success of the Guomindang in China led Japanese officers to worry about their informal control of the Chinese province of Manchuria, causing them to seize direct control of it in 1931. In Germany, the Depression led to the rise of the Nazis, who promoted an aggressive foreign policy. In power, they dismantled democracy, increased militarization, and seized territory from their neighbors, emboldening Mussolini to invade Ethiopia. Hitler and Mussolini also intervened in the Spanish Civil War, enabling Franco to seize power.

3. Unchecked Aggression and the Coming of War in Europe and the Pacific

   Britain, France, and the United States seemed unwilling to confront Hitler and Mussolini. In 1937, Japan launched a campaign to conquer all of China, wreaking incredible destruction, and forcing the Guomindang into the interior. They did this without coordination with Italy and Germany. Hitler signed a nonaggression pact with the Soviets to buy time to prepare his assault on Eastern Europe. His invasion of Poland in September 1939 forced Britain and France to declare war.

4. The Conduct of a Second Global War
   
   
   1. Introduction

      World War II would take place over a much larger area than World War I. Initially, the failure of the Soviets and the Western democracies to confront the Axis powers before 1939 made possible stunning Axis victories. However, once initial momentum was lost, it became clear the American-Soviet alliance was much more powerful than the Axis.

   2. Nazi Blitzkrieg, Stalemate, and the Long Retreat

      Rapid full assaults enabled Germany to quickly conquer Poland, France, and other small countries. France's divided leadership left it helpless. Germany quickly took northern France, while a Nazi puppet government, the Vichy, held the south. Of the European democracies. soon only beleaguered Britain remained free of Nazi rule. Winston Churchill's leadership and the British air force prevented a Nazi invasion. By 1940, most of Europe and the Mediterranean was in Axis hands. Frustrated by British resistance, Hitler turned east and south, pushing the Soviets to the brink of defeat. The Russian winter of 1941-42 stalled German forces, while Soviet resistance in 1942 and the disastrous attempt to take Stalingrad in 1942-43 turned the tide of the war. Germany was pushed out of Soviet lands by late 1944, and time was running out for the Nazis.

   3. From Persecution to Genocide: Hitler's War Against the Jews

      Frustration in Russia led to increased persecution of the Nazi's perceived enemies, particularly the Jews. At the Wannsee Conference in 1942, the Nazis drew up plans for systematic genocide, and the concentration camps became factories of death. Vital resources were diverted to aid in imprisoning, enslaving, and eliminating Jews and other "undesirables." As many as 12 million people died in the Holocaust, including at least 6 million Jews. The Holocaust was notable for the degree to which it was premeditated, systematic, and carried out by government bureaucracy. Denial by Europeans and the refusal of Western allies to accept fleeing Jews abetted the Holocaust. The Holocaust intensified the campaign for a Jewish homeland in Palestine.

   4. Anglo-American Offensives, Encirclement, and the End of the 12-Year Reich

      The United States provided assistance to beleaguered Britain even before Pearl Harbor. In 1942-43, Britain and the United States cleared the Nazis out of North Africa and the Middle East, then tackled Italy, defeating the last Fascist resistance in 1945. The invasion of Normandy overcame intense German resistance, and in 1945, the United States and the Soviet Union invaded Germany, ending Hitler's rule.

   5. The Rise and Fall of he Japanese Empire in the Pacific War

      With the United States temporarily neutralized by Pearl Harbor, Japan extended its rule over much of the Pacific, China, and Southeast Asia, believing that European powers were too bogged down in Europe to stop them. This empire proved vulnerable to Allied attack. Japanese brutal efforts to extract resources from this empire produced growing resistance, which cooperated with Allied powers. Allied submarines wreaked havoc on Japanese shipping. The United States quickly recovered from Pearl Harbor and began a campaign of island hopping to reach the home islands of Japan. By 1944, the United States began intensive bombing of Japan. In August of 1945, Japanese resistance was finally broken by the atomic destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

5. War's End and the Emergence of the Superpower Standoff
   
   
   1. Introduction

      The end of World War II led to confrontation between the United States and the Soviet Union. In the peace settlement that followed World War II, the United Nations was created. All of the great powers were included (the United States, Britain, France, China, and the Soviet Union). The United Nation came to include the Axis powers and former colonies and in time took on a wide variety of roles in the international arena.

   2. From Hot War to Cold War

      In postwar Europe, tensions emerged between the Soviet Union on the one hand and the United States and Britain on the other. In a series of conferences during the end of the war, spheres of influence within postwar Europe were established. Western leaders conceded Soviet control of much of occupied Eastern Europe but insisted on a Germany divided among the victorious Allies. The United States occupied Japan, which lost its imperial possessions. Korea, a former Japanese colony, was divided between the Soviet Union and the United States. Former European colonies in Asia were briefly reestablished prior to successful independence movements. European colonialism in Africa, the Middle East, and India was also shaken. The Soviet Union rapidly established communist regimes in those Eastern European nations created after World War I. Western Europe was free to reestablish democracy, but under the watchful eye of the United States. Increasingly, a bipolar world dominated by the United States and the Soviet Union emerged.

6. Nationalism and Decolonization
   
   
   1. Introduction

      World War II proved fatal to the European colonial empires. The rapid collapse of the Allies in Europe and Asia destroyed illusions of colonial strength. Even though the Allies recovered sufficiently to defeat the Axis powers, they were unable to restore the validity of their colonial governments. The war drained European resources. Because the United States. viewed World War II as a war of liberation, they supported nationalist movements in the colonies. The Soviet Union also condemned colonialism.

   2. The Winning of Independence in South and Southeast Asia

      During World War II, Indian resistance to the British government produced a campaign of civil disobedience called the Quit India movement. Only the Muslim League under Muhammad Ali Jinnah supported the war effort. Economic disruption during the war increased support for the nationalist party. When a Labour government replaced Winston Churchill's wartime ministry in 1945, the new British ministers began negotiations for independence. The Muslim League insisted on the creation of separate Muslim and Hindu states. Fearing a possible sectarian bloodbath, Congress party leaders agreed to the partition of India in 1947. Congress emerged as the political leaders of independent India, while Jinnah took over in Muslim Pakistan. Until the borders of the new nations could be secured, sectarian violence marred the independence movement. In 1948, a radical Hindu assassinated Gandhi. With India gone, the British rapidly arranged for independence in the other Asian colonies, including Burma and Ceylon. With the British withdrawal from colonialism, the French, Dutch, and the United States also began the process of decolonization in Asia. The United States granted independence to the Philippines. Although they resisted nationalist movements, the Dutch withdrew from Indonesia in 1949. The French continued to hold Indochina until they were forced to withdraw.

   3. The Liberation of Nonsettler Africa

      World War II shattered the image of the colonizers in Africa while producing some industrialization. There were two primary paths to decolonization in Africa. Kwame Nkrumah led a more radicalized independence movement based on confrontation with the colonial government of the Gold Coast through boycotts, mass rallies, and strikes. Nkrumah's ability to construct mass support for his Convention Peoples party eventually led the British to recognize him as prime minister of independent Ghana in 1957. Other nonsettler colonies within the British Empire also received independence during the 1960s. France followed a more gradual path to independence marked by political concessions to African leaders who wished to retain ties to the mother country. Between 1956 and 1960, most French colonies in Africa achieved independence. The Belgians simply abandoned their colony in the Congo in 1960 in the absence of any nationalist movement. Only Portugal attempted to retain control of its African possessions.

   4. Repression and Guerrilla War: The Struggle for the Settler Colonies

      Settler colonies with substantial white populations resisted the process of decolonization. When it became apparent that nonviolent political movements could not succeed, African groups turned to violent revolution. Radicals in Kenya, discouraged with the Kenya African Union under Jomo Kenyatta, formed the Land Freedom Army in the 1950s and began a guerrilla war against white settlers and the British colonial government. Although the British were able to defeat the military threat, the British agreed to negotiations for decolonization with Kenyatta. Kenya achieved independence in 1963. In Algeria, the struggle for independence was longer and bloodier. The National Liberation Front began a guerrilla war against the French in the 1950s, but independence negotiations did not begin until 1958. Even after negotiations began, the violence in Algeria was sustained by white settlers organized in the Secret Army Organization against Arabs and Berbers. The OAS attempted to assassinate Charles de Gaulle and overthrow the French government to undo the independence agreements. Independence was finally granted in 1962.

   5. The Persistence of White Supremacy in South Africa

      Only in South Africa was a white minority able to hold onto power into the 1990s. With a larger white population than elsewhere, the Afrikaner population of South Africa had no European homeland for retreat. They regarded themselves as white Africans. To maintain their political superiority, the Afrikaners depended on blatantly racist systems of social and political organization. In the 1930s and 1940s, the Afrikaner National party dominated the political scene. Under its direction, South Africa achieved independence in 1961. Imposing apartheid, a rigid system of racial discrimination, the Afrikaner minority imposed economic and political discrimination on blacks, mixed-race peoples, and Indians living in South Africa. A police state enforced the dictates of apartheid.

   6. Conflicting Nationalisms: Arabs, Israelis, and the Palestinian Question

      The fate of Palestine, more than liberation of other Arab states, continued to be a source of difficulty in the Middle East. In the aftermath of the Holocaust, many supported Zionist demands for the creation of a Jewish state. Increasing Arab resistance to additional Jewish settlement in Palestine forced the British to limit Jewish immigration. The Zionist military force, the Haganah, then began a violent resistance to British government. In 1937, a British commission proposed the partition of Palestine, which was endorsed by the United Nations in 1948. The Arab states surrounding the newly formed Israel immediately attacked. Despite being outnumbered, the Israelis were able to defend their new nation and expand at the expense of their Arab neighbors.

7. Global Connections: Persisting Trends in a World Transformed by War

   In many parts of the world, decolonization was not a revolutionary procedure. Power passed from one class of elites to another. Little social and economic reform was involved. Decolonization also did little to disrupt Western economic dominance of the system of global trade.

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