A Global History of World War II

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About Course

World War Two changed the world more than any other conflict in the 19th or 20th centuries. The bid by Nazi Germany and authoritarian Japan to create radically racist imperial spheres brought the old global empires of Western Europe to their knees. In its genocide and brutal occupation policies the Nazi regime imposed a colonial-style rule in Europe itself, the trauma of which Europe is still dealing with today. Through its military expansion Japan created the space for national movements to flourish in India and Southeast Asia, movements that eventually turned decolonization into a reality. The war firmly entrenched communist economic regimes in Eastern Europe, while it moved Western Europe far to the left socially and economically and it catapulted the United States and the Soviet Union into positions of world power. Finally, war forced Europeans, Americans, and Asians to rethink the meaning of democracy, individual rights, and the place of the nation-state in a modern world.

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What Will You Learn?

  • The Roots of Global Conflict: Explore the causes of World War II, tracing back to the aftermath of World War I. This lesson delves into the collapse of empires, the economic turmoil of the Great Depression, and the rise of revanchist leaders in Europe and Asia. You'll gain an understanding of how these factors set the stage for the global conflict that would reshape the 20th century.
  • The Rise of the Axis Powers: Discover the aggressive expansion strategies of Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan. This lesson examines the early successes of the Axis powers, from Japan's invasion of China to Germany's blitzkrieg across Europe. You'll learn about the military tactics, racial ideologies, and strategic errors that defined the early years of World War II.
  • The Turning Tide: Learn how the Allied powers responded to the Axis threat. This lesson focuses on the critical period when the United Kingdom stood alone against Nazi Germany, and the eventual entry of the United States and the Soviet Union into the war. You'll explore the factors that allowed the Allies to turn the tide, including economic mobilization, technological advancements, and strategic coordination.
  • Moral and Political Mobilization: Examine the genocidal policies of Nazi Germany and the atrocities committed by Imperial Japan. This lesson explores how these crimes against humanity shaped the Allies' understanding of what they were fighting for. You'll gain insight into the moral, political, and economic implications of the war and the efforts to create a more just and accountable postwar order.
  • The War’s End and Its Legacy: Analyze the final years of World War II and the immediate postwar period. This lesson covers the Allies' strategies for ending the conflict, including the use of atomic weapons and the occupation of defeated Axis powers. You'll also explore how the war's end planted the seeds of the Cold War and how its legacy continues to influence global politics and memory today.

Course Content

Clash of Imperialisms and the Coming of War
The First World War broke apart old empires and created profound instability in economic relations, political rights, and the treatment of minorities around the world, all of which would create the seed for future conflict. Between 1917 and 1919 the Habsburg, German, Ottoman, and Russian empires all collapsed, creating revanchist leaders throughout Europe who hoped to rebuild their nations at the expense of the victors of the war. In Asia, many Japanese elites felt left out of the postwar settlement. After 1929 Economic depression added to the turmoil by upending domestic and international politics. This class will explore how, for many leaders, above all those in Nazi Germany and Japan, forging some form of new empire seemed to be the answer to their nation’s challenges.

  • Readings
  • Lecture
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Axis Powers on the March
In July 1937 Japanese and Chinese troops clashed near the Marco Polo Bridge outside of Beijing, with Japan launching a massive, successful invasion of China. Two years later, in August 1939, after annexing Austria and Czechoslovakia, Nazi Germany launched a full-scale invasion of Poland. World War II had begun, as an effort by Japan and Germany to build imperial zones that could compete in a world of empires. Through intense mobilization, cutting edge military tactics, and some luck, these Axis powers shocked the world by taking power over large swaths of Europe and East Asia. This class explores the reasons behind the Axis’ early successes in the first half of the Second World War, and explains why racial, genocidal violence became a core part of their war aims.

The Allies Respond
At the end of 1940 the United Kingdom found itself the lone Great Power facing Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan, and the future seemed to belong to the Axis. But within a year the war would transform as both the United States and the Soviet Union—the world’s two largest economies—entered the war to defeat the Axis. By adapting to modern mechanized warfare, mobilizing their economies, coordinating global supply networks, and exploiting errors made by Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan, the Allies began to transform the course of the war by 1942-1943. This class explores the reasons behind the Allies slow-rolling success and seeks to explain how they gradually turned the tide of the Second World War.

Genocide and Moral, Economic, and Political Mobilization
As it built its empire, Nazi Germany committed genocide against European Jews, and terrible violence against numerous other groups. Japan, too, committed a welter of atrocities in occupied territory. Racial warfare and the violation of human and minority rights combined with the striking early success of the Axis powers—militarily and economically—to force the Allies to think critically about what, exactly, they were fighting for. This class will explore how the Allies thought about the moral, political, and economic implications of the war, and how they tried to create a new postwar order that would be more just, equitable, and more accountable than the one that had allowed Nazi Germany to flourish.

Ending the War and Remembering the Fight
1944 and 1945 saw the endgame of the Second World War, as the Allies gradually clawed back territory from the Axis powers at great cost. Through a combination of economic mobilization, combined land campaigns, strategic and fire bombing, and the use of atomic weapons the Allies brought Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan to total defeat and occupied both nations. But even as the war came to a close, the seeds of a new Cold War began to sprout. This class will explore how the Allies achieved victory and how tensions began to emerge between the United States and the USSR as both aimed to create their type of informal empires in Europe. It will also reflect on how the war has been remembered in Europe and East Asia, and how the fraught legacy of this conflict shaped political culture after 1945.

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