World War II, like World War I, was a total war. Colonies of the Allied Powers, such as India (Britain), also joined the war, making it a truly global conflict on a much greater scope than WWI as it now included more countries in Asia, Africa, Europe, and even the Americas. World War II featured upgrades of previously featured weapons. To name a few, tanks are now better adapted to more environments, more varieties of firearms are used based on the range of combat (new machine guns), and atomic weapons such as those infamously dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki have destructive capabilities hundreds of times deadlier than anything in history. WWII is also the first conflict where civilians are purposely targeted as part of long-term military strategies in war. To encourage surrender, cities in Japan (Tokyo, Kobe) and Germany (Hamburg, Dresden) were continuously bombed, killing people by the thousands. With the development of technology comes higher casualty rates, clear indicators of the inevitability of death and destruction in extreme times like war.
Objective:
G. Explain similarities and differences in how governments used a variety of methods to conduct war.
Theme:
G. GOV (Governance)
Skills:
G. GOV
Explain similarities and differences in how governments used a variety of methods to conduct war.
HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENTS
World War II was a total war. Governments used a variety of strategies, including political propaganda, art, media, and intensified forms of nationalism, to mobilize populations (both in the home countries and the colonies or former colonies) for the purpose of waging war. Governments used ideologies, including fascism and communism to mobilize all of their state’s resources for war and, in the case of totalitarian states, to repress basic freedoms and dominate many aspects of daily life during the course of the conflicts and beyond. New military technology and new tactics, including the atomic bomb, fire-bombing, and the waging of “total war” led to increased levels of wartime casualties.