World War II

Although the fighting took place simultaneously, the European theater and the Pacific theater of World War II had significant differences. In Europe, more nations were engaged with each other. On...

The Japanese hoped that by crippling the US Navy with a surprise attack on Pearl Harbor, they would score a decisive victory and head off a longer war that they expected would follow. The Japanese...

The nature of Mussolini's dictatorship was somewhat different to those of Hitler and Stalin. For one thing, he was never able to exert complete control over his party. The Italian Fascist Party was...

The most powerful Western European democracies, Great Britain and France, responded to Axis aggression with a policy of appeasement. This meant they did not interfere militarily with Nazi land...

The main way in which the United States got the upper hand in this war was through industrial might. It also gained the upper hand to some degree through intelligence and luck. The US started to...

In the wake of the Second World War, international communism was in a greatly strengthened position. Soviet troops were in Eastern Europe, including the eastern half of Germany. These boots on the...

To add to what was already stated, and an important fact that is almost always overlooked when looking at 20th century Germany is that the United States kept the Weimar Republic afloat during the...

I would certainly argue that appeasement was a mistake. I suppose you could argue that it was a mistake before WWII and not a mistake in that war. However, it seems hard to say that appeasement...

In connection to Germany, it’s reasonable to claim that militarism contributed to the origin of World War II to a great extent. Many acclaimed historians, like Richard J. Evans, speak to the...

It seems weird to call one of the bloodiest wars in history “the good war,” but that is the nickname that World War II is known by. World War II took place between 1939 and 1945, and its nickname...

In the Pacific, we also did not really have a forward base from which to stage invasions, like we did in Europe with England against Germany, and the bombing raids against Japan had to assemble...

The name World War II seems to indicate that ever country around the globe was involved in some way. However, there were a few countries who were able to keep out of the war, or at least remain...

Tanks became a war weapon during WWI. The tanks of that war were quite slow but they could be used against enemy fortifications since they were nearly impervious to machine gun fire. Tanks could...

While Churchill objected strongly to the Munich agreement, he had earlier made positive statements about Hitler, saying, according to Richard Holmes's book In the Footsteps of Hitler "I will not...

The end of World War II shaped the postwar world because it gave the Allies the opportunity to make decisions about Europe as a whole. Particularly important were the Allies’ decisions about...

On May 10, 1940, Germany began invading the nations to its west. The advanced and overpowering German army cut through France using blitzkrieg tactics. In six weeks, France was defeated, and...

The most important single motive shared by the so-called Axis powers was the establishment of empire. To that end, Germany, Italy, and Japan felt unable to subscribe to the prevailing norms of...

Winston Churchill opposed Neville Chamberlain mainly because of the events leading to the start of World War II and how the Allies were doing when World War II began. When Germany was taking land...

The United States military entered World War II in December 1941, in the aftermath of the Japanese bombing of American vessels in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. A number of drastic economic impacts were...

The consequences of President Roosevelt's decision to issue Executive Order 9066 was to remove many Japanese Americans from their homes in the US and relocate them to detention camps for the...

If we are discussing goals rather than what actually occurred in the messiness of reality, yes, the goals of the United States overseas were consistent with its goals on the home front at that...

The Allied invasion of Italy was significant for several reasons. One reason was that the invasion of Italy meant that the Allies were successful with their invasion of North Africa. The Allies...

1. European victory was accomplished through the size of the Soviet force, American military might, Germany's flawed strategy of a two-front assault, and allied aerial bombardment. Although...

The Battle of Midway, which resulted in the loss of four Japanese Aircraft Carriers, was the first major defeat for the Empire of Japan, and was the farthest their forces would advance in the...

World War II allied military strategy for Europe: Churchill and Roosevelt and their advisers met in Washington in late 1941. They decided that they must fiirst make a big effort at defeating...

Coming out of World War II, the primary consequence was the rise of the United States as one of two dominant world powers along with the Soviet Union. The United States and Soviet Union had the...

The overwhelming threat of a centralized authority figure that faced no internal check or limitation was reality under the rule of Hitler and Mussolini. Both leaders were quite "efficient" in...

The fate of Poland was very important to both the United States and the Soviet Union, though the Soviet Union managed to maintain control of Poland. The war against the Nazis had left Stalin's army...

Stalin delivered this speech to an audience of soldiers who, immediately afterwards, were going to fight against the Nazis in the Battle of Moscow. The primary purpose of the speech was to inflame...

Even though the United States did not enter World War II until the attack on Pearl Harbor in December of 1941, it had been preparing for the likely possibility of joining the conflict for some...

The battles of Iwo Jima, along with other similar battles like that on Saipan, influenced the US decision to drop the atomic bombs because they convinced the Americans that an invasion of the...

While global decolonization was already under way by the time World War II broke out, the devastation suffered by colonial powers during that war made their ability to sustain colonial holdings far...

The Japanese chose the date and time for the attack on Pearl Harbor to maximize the element of surprise and therefore maximize the damage they could inflict to the U.S. naval base in Pearl Harbor....

I am basing my answer to this question on the excerpt in the link below. In this excerpt, Hand starts by saying that all Americans either chose to come to America or are the descendants of those...

The main advantage that Britain had over Germany in this battle was the fact that it was fighting a defensive battle and therefore would have an easier time being victorious. One aspect of this was...

The Czech president, Benes, was prepared for war in case Germany launched an offensive. He had already taken steps to secure military support by approaching the USSR, France and Britain. These...

The reason for this is simple. No one knew what an atomic bomb was at that time. The Manhattan Project that was making the atomic bomb was one of the most closely guarded projects of the war....

Truman's decision to use the atomic bomb against Japan changed the future of international relations in a number of ways. First, in the short term, this move led to further distrust between the...

The main events that led to the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor were actions that Japan took in pursuit of an empire in Asia and the Pacific. Added to this was the United States’ reaction to...

From a strategic perspective, the Bataan Death March had little impact on the course of the war. The march happened after American forces surrendered the Philippines to the Japanese. The Japanese...

Japan's geography was a prime motivator for its territorial expansion in the 1920s and 1930s. First of all, Japan's population was rapidly growing and modernizing during those years, and space and...

A good war is surely a contradiction in terms as all wars involve death, suffering, and misery, often on a massive scale. And World War II was no exception. It's estimated that somewhere in the...

As World War II approached, the United States responded to totalitarian aggression while staying neutral. There were several actions that we took. In 1937, President Roosevelt warned Americans of...

Stalin Stalin was involved in revolutionary activities as a young man. Right from the start of his political career, he was a common criminal, staging daring bank robberies to help raise funds for...

Obviously, President Roosevelt and Congress had a choice in whether the US would enter the war or not. The issue, however, is not as simple as that. One should also consider the repercussions if...

Typically, the Fall of France is not seen as a turning point. Turning points are those events like the Battle of Stalingrad where the Axis advance is stopped and the war turns in favor of the...