Monday, January 4, 2016

WWII Introduction

What did it take for our country to truly pull itself out of the Great Depression?  When United States entered World War II in 1941, two years after the war had begun, the increased production of weapons and military materials, put our country back on its feet again.
 
World War II (WWII or WW2), also known as the Second World War, was a global war. It took place between 1939 to 1945. Most of the world's countries, including all of the great powers, fought as part of two military alliances: the Allies and the Axis Powers. 

The war was fought as a "total war", meaning all resources a country had were used in the war, even those that didn't belong to the army, such as factories. It involved more countries, cost more money, and killed more people than any other war in human history. 

It is estimated that over 50-70 million people died during the conflicts of WWII. The official numbers can never be confirmed because of the staggering number of deaths. To put that number in perspective, the current population of the entire United Kingdom is approximately 64.1 million people. The death toll in World War 2 is equivalent to every single person in the United Kingdom losing their lives.


World War II was caused by the Treaty of Versailles and the German people’s resentment toward the League of Nations.


Remember, the Treaty of Versailles was created in 1919 to ensure peace in Europe following World War I. The treaty said that land was to be taken away from Germany. It also stated that Germany would pay for damages caused by the war, and that Germany could only have a small army with no air force, submarines or tanks.


Adolph Hitler was able to convince the German people to give him the power to improve conditions in Germany and restore the country’s strength and dignity. He vowed to tear up the Treaty of Versailles.


Hitler began invading Austria and Czechoslovakia. He also built up the German army and their weapons. On September 1, 1939, Germany invaded Poland. When that happened, Britain and France declared war on Germany.


Germany made treaties with Italy and Japan. The three became the Axis powers. Leaders of the Axis powers were Adolf Hitler, Emperor Hirohito and Benito Mussolini.
 


The countries that made up the Allied powers included Russia, France, British Empire, Italy, United States, Romania, Serbia, Belgium, Greece, Portugal and Montenegro. Major Leaders of the Allies were Joseph Stalin, Franklin D. Roosevelt and Winston Churchill.


The war covered territories in Europe, the Pacific, the Atlantic, South-East Asia, China, Middle East, the Mediterranean and Africa.

Watch the videos then complete the Crash Course Questions worksheet. 
We all know that Steve Green is the ultimate speed talker so be ready to pause the video at parts to write down your answers.


Watch Crash Course WW2 13 minutes


Comment on the BLOG: 
Tell us one thing you already knew about WWII and one piece of information that is new to you. 




26 comments:

  1. Something I did know prior to reading this blog about WWll were bits and pieces about Hitler. Although I did not know that 50-70 million people died during this war. That was astonishing!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tanah its true, hitler was not very nice. In my opion WWII was the worst war other than the Cold War.

      Delete
    2. This comment has been removed by the author.

      Delete
  2. I did not know a ton about Word War II so a lot of it is new and one of the new things I learned was what countries were in the deferent alliances, what I did know was stuff about Hitler but not this much.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I do not have crash course worksheet.

    ReplyDelete
  4. i knew that Hitler was involved in WWII and that he committed suicide, and even though all of this WWII stuff is new to me, i did not know about the hunger plan

    ReplyDelete
  5. I knew that Hitler did a lot of damage during WWII and that he commited suicide. What I didn't know was that Germany made treaties with Italy and Japan.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. What's crazy is that he got married the day before and then his wife committed suicide right beside him.

      Delete
  6. I knew the basics of Peal Harbor and how the Nazis treated the Jews. I did not know about the amount of deaths or that Germans and Europeans needed land for food.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I didn’t know that either! I thought it was actually quite funny! Just that food was a part of the reason WWII started.

      Delete
  7. One thing that was semi-new to me is that Hitler actually wanted to "tear up the treaty of Versailles" and not really did it as a declaration of war. I have studied WWII before on my own time and have read a history book that focused on it. The most memorable fact that I learned was that Japan didn't declare war on America, instead attacked without actually "being at war" with them. The Japanese used this technique (attacking before declaring) before with Russia (many, many, MANY years before the war) and had decided to use it again with America.
    Another interesting fact I had learned before is that Russia had signed a non-aggression act with Germany in 1939 making them practically be ok with Germany, and making it so Germany doesn't invade Russia. But eventually Hitler thought of the Russians as a communist threat and thought he could take over prime land in Russia, so in 1941 Germany invaded Russia, breaking the non-aggression act.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. This comment has been removed by the author.

      Delete
    2. I think that was Hitler's biggest mistake. Who knows how beneficial Russia would have been as an ally, rather than an enemy? I bet Stalin was so mad.

      Delete
  8. I did know about the holocaust and that Hitler and Germany hated all Jews. What I didn’t know was that so many countries were a part of the allied powers! I’ve always thought of it as just Britain, France, and the U.S! But then again, my family never really looked closely at WWII. This is going to be very interesting

    ReplyDelete
  9. i knew that it was a very terrible war, and just like tanah said bits and peices about hitler. i learned that food pretty much started the war.

    ReplyDelete
  10. The video was very helpful for me to be able to understand WW2 better than before.

    ReplyDelete
  11. I knew most of the stuff written above, mostly because I took a year of World War II and it is my favorite time period ever (Not because of all the death and stuff, just because it's fascinating). I did not know about Portugal and Montenegro being on the Allies side. I think Canada should be added to the list even though they declared war independently. I just finished a book called 'Hitler's last days," by Bill O'Reilly. It was a fantastic book and I recommend it to anyone in this class. It was super insightful on Hitler's life.

    ReplyDelete
  12. I didn't know about the Holocaust or the hunger plan. It surprised me a bit when he said he invaded Poland to gain land for more settlements. I thought Hitler was just mean and did it just because he wanted to...

    ReplyDelete
  13. i had no idea so many people from the soviet union died in the war!i would have guess most people from japan died. i also didn't know parts of Asia were fighting before the rest of the world got involed. i did know about the holocaust however. hearing about the holocaust is sad because of how evil the whole thing was, but i still think its very interesting.

    ReplyDelete
  14. i had no idea so many people from the soviet union died in the war!i would have guess most people from japan died. i also didn't know parts of Asia were fighting before the rest of the world got involed. i did know about the holocaust however. hearing about the holocaust is sad because of how evil the whole thing was, but i still think its very interesting.

    ReplyDelete
  15. I didn't know that 50-70 million people died in WWII and 20 million came from Russia but I did know about Germany betraying Russia

    ReplyDelete
  16. I did not know that an estimated 50-70 million people died during WWII.
    But I did know Hitler persuaded the Germans to give him power, and how he abused that power to murder many innocent people including Jews.

    ReplyDelete
  17. Before I read all this, I didn't know how many people died during the war, but I did know about the axis powers.

    ReplyDelete
  18. Before I read all this, I didn't know how many people died during the war, but I did know about the axis powers.

    ReplyDelete
  19. I knew that Germany betrayed Russia but I didn't know that that many people died in WW2.

    ReplyDelete