Chapter 7: The Second World War, 1940–45
Chapter 7 begins by explaining how the Europe war of 1939 escalated into a global war and how the fall of France in May–June 1940 drew the United States and the Soviet Union deeper into the ongoing crisis of world order. This chapter addresses the question, why did the Allies win despite the setbacks they suffered at the hands of the Axis Powers in Europe and East Asia. A comparison between the two opposing coalitions reveals a huge disparity in productive resources and fighting power. The Allied Powers, moreover, fought a co-ordinated war that prioritized the destruction of the German armed forces as a prerequisite to global victory and the establishment of a new world order. Despite wartime tensions between the Western Allies and the Soviet Union over grand strategy, particularly the issue of a second front in Western Europe, the anti-Axis coalition achieved a joint victory in Europe and East Asia. The victorious Grand Alliance only began to fall apart once Germany’s defeat appeared on the horizon and the question of how to redraw the map of Europe came to the fore.
Multiple Choice Questions
Exam Questions
Discussion Questions
What part did values play in the outcome of the Second World War as compared to material factors?
How did Britain and France hope to defeat Germany in 1939?
What was the Phoney War?
Contrast the plans for a post-war order of Britain, the United States, and the Soviet Union.
How and why did the Axis states escalate a European conflict in 1940-1941?
How did the Allies out-mobilize the Axis in the Second World War?
How did the fall of France influence strategies by the great powers?
How well was the Axis able to coordinate war efforts and strategies?
How did the US, Soviet Union, and Britain disagree over war strategies?
It what ways can the Second World War be described as a total war?
Exam Questions
Why did the Grand Alliance break down towards the end of the Second World War?
Why did the Allies win the Second World War?
Account for the escalation of a conflict over Poland to a global conflict by 1942.
Weblinks
http://avalon.law.yale.edu/wwii/yalta.asp – text of Protocol of Yalta Conference 1945
http://avalon.law.yale.edu/wwii/atlantic.asp – text of Atlantic Charter 1941
http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/The-War-Years-1931-1941-Clipreel-Part-7/1f7293d05bac43e119045a6c5f1d49f9?searchfilter=Compilations%2fUniversal+Newsreels%2fThe+War+Years+1931-1941+Clipreel%3a+Part+7%2f19621 – video of newsreel clip on the “Phoney War”
http://www.emersonkent.com/speeches/we_shall_fight_on_the_beaches.htm – text and audio of Churchill’s speech in House of Commons “We Shall Fight on the Beaches.”
http://www.realwarphotos.com/ – database of photographs from the Second World War
http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/The-War-Years-1931-1941-Clipreel-Part-14/429b5262c292039639c231e6ea1834a7?searchfilter=Compilations%2fUniversal+Newsreels%2fThe+War+Years+1931-1941+Clipreel%3a+Part+14%2f19621 – newsreel clip of the fall of France 1940
https://www.ibiblio.org/hyperwar/Dip/PaW/200.html Text of 1941 Lend-Lease Act
https://www.osti.gov/opennet/manhattan-project-history/Resources/einstein_letter_photograph.htm – letter from Einstein to Roosevelt regarding the atomic bomb, 1939
http://www.ourdocuments.gov/doc.php?doc=70 – Roosevelt speech setting out Four Freedoms, over which war was being fought 1941
http://www.ibiblio.org/hyperwar/ETO/Overlord/GreatCrusade.html – leaflet from Eisenhower on the allied landings in Normandy June 1944
Bibliography
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