World War II Era

World War II and its Aftermath Vocabulary

Changes in the Boundaries on a Map

This map below will show you the changes to the boundaries in Europe following World War I and the signing of the Treaty of Versailles. Many empires such as the German Empire, the Russian Empire as well as the Austro-Hungarian Empire were broken up. Here is a summary of the changes:

- Lithunia and Latvia were created from the land in the Russian Empire

- Poland was created from a portion of the German Empire and the Russian Empire

- Austro-Hungarian Empire became in part Austria and Hungary. However, it lost a great deal of land!

- Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia are created as part of Pan-Slavism

- Bosnia, Serbia, and Montenegro unite into Yugoslavia.

Map of Europe in 1938.....

Causes of World War II

Many things led to the World War II. This graphic gives you a quick overview. The Google Presentation will give you much more detail about each of these and how it leads to war.

This Google Presentation will look at the Causes of World War II in more detail.

This graphic below explains how each of these nations were led to war, eventually.

- Germany, Italy, and Japan all had nationalist ideas that led to them wanting to expand their territories.

- Britain and France used the policy of appeasement and allowed Germany to expand. This led to want to continue their quest for more land.

-The U.S. acted as isolationists and turned the other way. Later, they gave lend-lease aid to the Allied Nations: Britain, China, and the U.S.S.R.

War time Technology During World War II

The World War II era saw many technological advancements, so of which are used in our everyday lives today such as computers, the walkie talkie (the ancestor of the cell phone), nylon, jets, and pesticides. Some of these advances have been controversial such as the atomic bomb and the use of pesticides as an environmental concern.

Effects of World War II

World War II redrew the map of Europe. It led the U.S. and the Soviet Union to become Super Powers in international affairs. It caused more civilian casualties and destruction than all other wars combined. It brought to light the worst example of genocide to date with the Holocaust that cost the lives of nearly 6 million Jews. It brought about nuclear technology that remains a major security concern still today.

One of the most controversial aspects of WWII was the number of civilians that died due in part to the Holocaust but also using precise arial bombing such as Germany used on London and other targets and the U.S. use of atomic bombs against Japan in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The first chart compares each nation and their military and civilian deaths. While the next chart shows a comparison to to you of WWI and WWII deaths so you can see the dramatic increase in civilian casualties that indiscriminate bombing created.

Creation of the United Nations

World War II resulted in the formation of a new international body. In April 1945, representatives from nations around the world met in San Francisco to establish the United Nations. To get a quick overview on the United Nations, please watch this short video RMIT University. The purpose of the United Nations is to provide a place to discuss world problems and develop solutions. This graphic below shows the goals or objectives of the United Nations which include securing peace, protecting human rights, and economic and social development.

The two bodies of the United Nations are:

- The General Assembly- it includes representatives from all member nations; each representative has one vote. The General Assembly has three main committees: an international court of justice, an international criminal court, and an economic and social council.

- The Security Council- has 15 member nations, 5 which are permanent; the United States, Russia, France, Great Britain, and China

To learn more about the organization of the United Nations, check out this graphic below.

To learn more about how the United Nations work take a good look at this Infographic below. You can see how the United Nations has grown from 51 member states in 1945 to nearly 200 with 193 current members. You can also see that the U.S. fits a large chunk of the bill....it contributes 22% of the total funds! The United Nations currently has 16 peacekeeping missions throughout the world including: Haiti, Kosovo, India, Pakistan, and many in Africa. To learn more about current peacekeeping missions, you can click here.

Human Atrocities and Mass Murders

British Prime Minister Winston Churchill after hearing about the extent of the Jewish Holocaust called genocide "a crime that has no name." As a result of the Nuremberg Trials in which Nazi officials were tried for "crimes against humanity," The United Nations drew up a treaty defining and criminalizing genocide. Genocide is an act committed with the idea of destroying an entire national, ethnic, racial, or religious group. The Holocaust is perhaps the most well-known case of genocide but there are others.

The Holocaust

When Hitler's forces invaded the Soviet Union in 1941, Hitler began implementing what he called the "Final Solution." It was the organized murder of all European Jews under his control. At first, Nazi troops began rounding up Jews, executing them and burying them in mass graves. Other Jews were sent to forced labor camps, where many were worked to death. But the Nazis were not satisfied with the pace of these ruthless murders. Beginning in 1942, they began to force Jews from Nazi-occupied Europe into specifically designed death camps. By 1945, the Nazis had mercilessly killed more than 6 million Jews- nearly two thirds of all European Jews. In addition, nearly six million other people were killed as well as this pie graph below shows. Even though Jews were the main targets, he also wanted to destroy or enslave Slavs, Gypsies, and the mentally or physically disabled.

Other wartime atrocities

The Holocaust stands for the starkest example of wartime inhumanity. Several other incidents, however, also stand out as especially brutal aspects of World War II.

The Japanese invasion of Nanjing in 1937 involved mass shootings and terrible brutality. As many as 250,000 Chinese were killed in an event that is now known as the Rape of Nanjing.

In the Philippines, Japanese soldiers forced American and Filipino prisoners of war on a march up the Bataan peninsula. Along the way, prisoners were beaten, stabbed and shot. This even became known as the Bataan Death March.

In Poland, Soviet troops subjected thousands of Poles to imprisonment, torture, and execution.

Armenian Genocide in the Ottoman Empire

In 1915, as World War I raged, the government of the Ottoman Empire ordered the systematic extermination of most of the male Armenian population and forced the deportation of Armenian women, children, and elderly. By the end of the brutal deportation, up to 1.5 million Ottoman Armenians had been exterminated. Several German military leaders who later became Nazis were stationed in the Ottoman Empire during World War I, and may have applied what they observed there to their persecution of Jewish people during World War II.

In Cambodia

In 1975, after years of civil war, Pol Pot, leader of the Khmer Rouge, came to power in Cambodia, a Southeast Asian country. Pol Pot attempted to transform Cambodia into a communist agricultural society by exterminating the country's professional and educated middle class. Over the course of four years of Khmer Rouge rule, between one and two million people were massacred or worked to death through forced labor.

In Rwanda

In the African nation of Rwanda, the Tutsi and Hutu groups share the same language and other cultural characteristics. But social, political,and economic factors divide them. In 1994, the Hutu-led governmetn called on military personnel to eliminate the Tutsi political opposition. The hatred and violence spread quickly. Soon Hutu and civilians were murdering their Tutsi neighbors. In 100 days, more than 800,000 Tutsis were slaughtered.