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French Explorers Five French explorers affected the development of America. In this lesson, you will learn about them. Vocabulary Jesuit a member of a Catholic religious order Jacques Cartier The king of France sent Jacques Cartier to look for a westward passage through America. Cartier sailed in and out among the islands until he found what he thought was a water passage. He and his men did not have enough food to last through the winter. After putting up a cross to show that the land belonged to France, he and his men sailed home. Cartier had found the Gulf of St. Lawrence. The next year, Cartier returned. He sailed westward many miles. An Indian chief tried to tell him he was sailing up a river. The waterway became narrow at the place where Montreal now stands. The Indian continued to tell the Frenchmen that they were sailing up a river. The Great Lakes, the St. Lawrence River, and the rivers that flow into them, drain into a large area. Cartier claimed it all for France, calling it New France. img/img_cartier.jpg Jacques Cartier conversing with Canadian Iroquois Frenchmen were not interested in New France until fox, beaver, and other fur-bearing animals proved to be a source of money. Furs sold for a good price in France. French trading companies sent men to New France to get furs. These men spent years in the forests, trading with Indian trappers for furs. After a while, the men went back home to France. Many years passed before Frenchmen built homes in the New World. img/img_fur_traders.jpg Fur Trading Samuel de Champlain Later, another Frenchman named Samuel de Champlain became interested in Canada. He knew that the St. Lawrence River was the key to the interior of the continent. "We will build our fort on this cliff high above the river," said the French leader. He felt that if France controlled the waterway, she could establish an empire. Quebec was the first French city in America. The king made Champlain governor of New France. He was called the "Father of New France." Champlain set out to find a northwest passage through America. He did not find one, but he did find Lake Huron and Lake Ontario. He also found a small lake that was named Lake Champlain in his honor. Other Frenchmen found the other Great Lakes. img/img_champlain.jpg Samuel de Champlain Joliet and Marquette Priests followed the daring French explorers. With the traders often ahead of them, the brave French Jesuit missionaries went to preach the Catholic religion to the Indians. One of the most famous of these missionaries was a Jesuit priest, Father Marquette. In 1673, he went with a young French trader named Louis Joliet to explore the great river which the Indians said was farther south (the Mississippi). Father Marquette and Joliet, with a few other Frenchmen and Indian guides, left Lake Michigan and paddled canoes up the Fox River to Lake Winnebago in what is now Wisconsin. They carried their canoes on their backs across land to the Wisconsin River and paddled down the Wisconsin until they reached the wide Mississippi. The Marquette-Joliet expedition paddled many days. At last they reached the point where the Arkansas River flows into the Mississippi. There the Frenchmen were met by Indians who carried guns they had gotten from the Spanish. The Indians said that the Spanish were encamped only a few days journey farther south and would not let others visit land claimed by Spain. Now the Frenchmen knew the Mississippi flowed into the Gulf of Mexico, and not into the Pacific Ocean. The Frenchmen turned back, but neither man knew Spain was claiming the land they had already explored. Robert La Salle A few years after Marquette and Joliet returned from their journey on the Mississippi, a wealthy young Frenchman named Robert La Salle determined to complete their work. La Salle was considered the greatest of all French explorers. His ship was the first sailing vessel ever to travel on the Great Lakes. La Salle was known as the "man with an iron will" because he never gave up. He made up his mind to find the mouth of the Mississippi. In spite of many misfortunes, he reached the Gulf of Mexico in 1682. La Salle and his men built a monument and took possession of the entire Mississippi valley. La Salle called the country Louisiana in honor of King Louis. Now France controlled two great waterways into the interior of North America. img/img_salle.jpg Robert De La Salle claims lower Mississippi for France, 1682 The French continued to be more interested in fur trade and establishing missions among the Indians than in the search for the gold that interested the Spanish. Question # 1 Multiple Choice What is a Jesuit? a member of a Catholic religious order a member of a Catholic religious order a member of a Protestant religious order a member of a Protestant religious order a member of a Jewish religious order a member of a Jewish religious order Question # 2 Multiple Choice What was the reason for Jacques Cartier's voyage? to look for new lands for farming to look for new lands for farming to look for a westward passage through America to look for a westward passage through America to find gold to find gold Question # 3 Multiple Choice Why did Champlain think that the St. Lawrence River was important? It was the way to establish an empire. It was the way to establish an empire. It was a good means of transportation. It was a good means of transportation. It had easy access to France. It had easy access to France. Question # 4 Multiple Choice Who found Lake Huron and Lake Ontario? La Salle La Salle Joliet Joliet Champlain Champlain Marquette Marquette © 2004, 2007, 2011, 2016 Glynlyon, Inc. Recommendations Here are all the math and language arts skills recommended just for you, based on what you've been working on recently. Explore the different types of recommendations, and click on any skill you'd like to try! 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Articulation Practice Speech-Language Therapy Complete "Oh Kayleigh, I honestly have no idea how I assigned you all those assignments. I'm so sorry!! If you would rerecord t..." 7 more in the past two weeks … By Instructure Privacy Policy Acceptable Use Policy Facebook Twitter World War II (1939-1945) was the most destructive war in history. It killed more people, destroyed more property, and disrupted more lives than any other war in history. It probably had more far-reaching consequences than any other war. The war brought about the downfall of Western Europe as the center of world power. It led to the dominance of the Soviet Union and the United States. It set off a power struggle between the two countries called the Cold War. World War II also opened the nuclear age. It is impossible to say exactly how many people died as a result of World War II. Estimates suggest more than 20 million soldiers died during the war’s six years. From 30 to 40 million civilians also perished. That makes a combined death toll of 50 million to 60 million people. The battlegrounds of World War II spread to nearly every part of the world. Troops fought in the jungles of Southeast Asia. They battled in the deserts of North Africa. They fought on the islands and seas of the Pacific Ocean. Battles raged on the frozen steppes of the Soviet Union and in the cities, forests, and farmers’ fields of Europe. Submarines fought below the surface of the Atlantic Ocean. World War II began on Sept. 1, 1939, when Nazi Germany invaded Poland. Germany’s powerful war machine rapidly crushed Poland, Denmark, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Belgium, Norway, and France. In June 1940, Fascist Italy joined the war on Germany's side. In western Europe, only the United Kingdom remained. The United Kingdom resisted German air attacks that destroyed great sections of London and other cities. German and Italian forces then clashed with the British in Greece and northern Africa. In June 1941, Germany invaded the Soviet Union. Germany thus broke their nonaggression pact of 1939. In that treaty, they had promised not to attack each other. Imperial Japan invaded China in 1937. It allied itself with Germany and Italy in September 1940, creating the Axis Powers. On Dec. 7, 1941, Japan attacked the American military base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. The attack brought the United States into the war. By mid-1942, Japanese forces had conquered much of Southeast Asia. Japan had also swept across many islands in the Pacific. Bulgaria, Hungary, Romania, and the German-created states of Croatia and Slovakia eventually joined the Axis. In opposition, the United Kingdom, the United States, the Soviet Union, and China formed the core of the Allies. The Allies totaled 50 nations by the end of the war. During 1942, the Allies stopped the Axis advance in northern Africa, the Soviet Union, and the Pacific. Allied forces landed in Italy in 1943. They reached France in 1944. In 1945, the Allies drove into Germany from the east and the west. A series of bloody battles in the Pacific brought the Allies to Japan's doorstep by the summer of 1945. Germany surrendered on May 7, 1945. Japan surrendered on Sept. 2, 1945. An uneasy peace took effect as a war-weary world began to rebuild after World War II. Much of Europe and parts of Asia lay in ruins. Tens of millions of people were dead. Millions more were starving and homeless. The United States and the Soviet Union emerged as the world's most powerful nations. But new threats to peace arose. World War II: Overview World War II: the warring nations World Book articles on some major battles of World War II Causes of the war The Peace of Paris. In 1919, after the end of World War I (1914-1918), representatives of the victorious nations met in Paris to dictate the peace. The treaties of the Paris Peace Conference followed more than four years of costly and bitter warfare. They were worked out in haste by countries with opposing goals. The agreements failed to satisfy even the victors. Of the countries on the winning side, Italy and Japan left the peace conference most dissatisfied. Italy gained less territory than it felt it deserved. It vowed to take action on its own. Japan gained control of German territories in the Pacific. It thereby launched a program of expansion. Yet Japan felt slighted by the peacemakers' refusal to endorse the principle of the equality of all races. The defeated countries in World War I—Germany, Austria-Hungary, Bulgaria, and the Ottoman Empire—were especially dissatisfied with the Peace of Paris. They were stripped of territory and arms. They were also required to make reparations (payments for war damages). The Treaty of Versailles punished Germany severely. Its representatives signed the treaty only at the threat of invasion. Many Germans resented the “war guilt clause” that forced Germany to accept sole responsibility for causing World War I. Economic problems. World War I damaged the economies of European countries. Both the winners and the losers came out of the war in debt. The defeated powers had difficulty paying reparations to the victors. The victors had difficulty repaying loans from the United States. The global economic shift from war to peace left millions of veterans unemployed. Millions of others who had worked in munitions factories and other war-related industries lost their jobs. Italy and Japan suffered from overcrowding and a lack of resources after World War I. They eventually tried to solve their problems by territorial expansion. In Germany, hyperinflation (rapid, uncontrolled price increases) made money worthless. People lost their life savings. In 1924, loans from the United States helped stabilize Germany’s currency. The reparation payment schedule was relaxed. By the late 1920's, the economic situation in Germany—and the rest of Europe—had improved. Then came the Great Depression, a worldwide business slump. It began in the United States in 1929. By the early 1930's, it had halted and reversed Europe's economic recovery. The Great Depression caused mass unemployment. It spread poverty and despair. It weakened democratic governments. It also strengthened extreme political movements that promised to end the economic crisis. Two movements in particular gained strength. The forces of Communism, known as the left, called for revolution by the workers. The forces of fascism, called the right, favored strong national government. Throughout Europe and elsewhere, the forces of the left ground against the forces of the right. Political extremes gained support in countries with the greatest economic problems and the deepest resentments of the Peace of Paris. Nationalism was an extreme form of patriotism that swept across Europe beginning in the 1800's. Supporters of nationalism placed loyalty to their nation above any other public loyalty. They defined nationality by language and ethnicity. They viewed foreigners and minority groups with suspicion and scorn. Such beliefs helped nations justify their conquests of other lands. Such ideas also helped justify the poor treatment of minorities within their borders. Nationalism was a chief cause of World War I. It grew even stronger afterward. Versailles armistice talks Nationalism corresponded with feelings of discontent. The more people felt deprived of national honor, the more they wished to see their country powerful and able to insist on its rights. Many Germans felt humiliated by their defeat in World War I and the harsh terms of the Treaty of Versailles. During the 1930's, they enthusiastically supported the National Socialist German Workers' Party—the Nazis. The Nazi Party glorified Germany’s position in the world and vowed to make the nation strong again. The Peace of Paris established an international organization called the League of Nations to maintain peace. But nationalism and individual arguments prevented the League from working effectively. Each country backed its own interests at the expense of other countries. Only weak countries agreed to submit their disagreements to the League of Nations for settlement. Strong nations reserved the right to settle their disputes by threats or even force. Members of the Nazi Party The rise of dictatorships. During the 1920's and 1930's, political unrest and poor economic conditions enabled radical dictatorships to come to power in the Soviet Union, Italy, Germany, and Japan. The dictators held total power and ruled without regard to law. They used terror and secret police to crush opposition to their rule. People who objected risked imprisonment or execution. Communists, led by V. I. Lenin, seized power in Russia in 1917. The Soviet Union was established in 1922. A dictatorship set up by Lenin controlled the country by the time he died in 1924. After Lenin's death, Joseph Stalin and other leading Communists struggled for power. Stalin eliminated his rivals one by one, taking total control in 1929. In Italy, economic distress after World War I led to strikes and riots. As a result of the violence, a strongly nationalistic group called the Fascist Party gained many supporters. Benito Mussolini, leader of the Fascists, promised to bring order and prosperity to Italy. He vowed to restore to Italy the glory it had known in the days of the ancient Roman Empire. By 1922, the Fascists had become powerful enough to force the king of Italy to appoint Mussolini prime minister. Mussolini took the title Il Duce (The Leader). He began to establish an authoritarian state—that is, one that valued obedience to authority above individual freedom. In Germany, the Nazi Party made huge gains during the Great Depression. In 1933, Adolf Hitler, the leader of the Nazis, was appointed chancellor of Germany. Hitler, who was called der Führer (the Leader), rapidly increased his own power. He vowed to ignore the Versailles Treaty and avenge Germany's defeat in World War I. Hitler preached that Germans were a "superior race.” He called Jews and Slavs inferior. He began a campaign of hatred against Jews and Communists and promised to rid the country of them. In this time of distress and depression, Hitler's extreme nationalism appealed to many Germans. In Japan, power rested in the hands of Emperor Hirohito, known in Japan as Showa. But by the 1930’s, military officers had formed a strong government around the emperor. Japan's military regime glorified war. It admired the traditional samurai warrior code of bushido. In 1941, Hirohito named the militarist General Hideki Tojo as prime minister of Japan. Aggression on the march. Japan, Italy, and Germany followed a policy of aggressive territorial expansion during the 1930's. They invaded weak lands that could be easily conquered. Japan had annexed Korea in 1910. In 1931, Japan seized control of Manchuria, a large Chinese region rich in natural resources. Japan ruled Manchuria with brutality. In 1937, Japanese troops invaded the rest of China. By the end of 1938, Japan's military leaders were planning the conquest of all of east Asia. In 1935, Italian troops invaded Ethiopia. At that time, Ethiopia was one of the few independent countries in Africa. The Italians used machine guns, tanks, and airplanes to overpower Ethiopia's poorly equipped army. In 1939, Italy swept through Albania, in southeastern Europe. Albania was another easy conquest for Mussolini. Soon after Hitler took power in Germany, he began to build up Germany's armed forces. The build-up violated the Treaty of Versailles. In 1936, Hitler sent troops into the Rhineland. The Rhineland was an area in western Germany that the treaty had made a demilitarized zone, a neutral zone free from military control. In March 1938, German soldiers marched into neighboring Austria and united it with Germany. Many people in both countries welcomed the Anschluss (union) of Austria and Germany. These acts of aggression were easy victories for the dictatorships. The League of Nations lacked the resources or authority to field an international army. The United States had withdrawn from European affairs after World War I. It refused to join the League or become involved in any disputes. The United Kingdom and France were unwilling to risk another war. In 1936, Germany and Italy agreed to support each other's foreign policy. The alliance was known as the Rome-Berlin Axis. Japan joined the Axis in 1940. It then became the Rome-Berlin-Tokyo Axis. The Spanish Civil War. A civil war tore Spain apart from 1936 to 1939. In 1936, many of Spain's army officers revolted against the government. The army rebels chose General Francisco Franco as their leader. Franco's forces were known as Nationalists or Rebels. The forces that supported Spain's elected government were called Loyalists or Republicans. The Spanish Civil War drew worldwide attention. Hitler and Mussolini sent troops, weapons, aircraft, and advisers to aid the Nationalists. The Soviet Union was the only power to officially help the Loyalists. France, the United Kingdom, and the United States did not intervene. But Loyalist sympathizers from many countries joined the International Brigades to fight in Spain. The last Loyalist forces surrendered on April 1, 1939. Franco set up an authoritarian government in Spain. The Spanish Civil War served as a military proving ground for weapons and tactics that were later used during World War II. The conflict in Spain foreshadowed the coming war. It pitted forces of the radical right—Nazis and Fascists—against the rest of the world. Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini The failure of appeasement. Czechoslovakia had become an independent nation after World War I. Its western region of Bohemia was surrounded on three sides by Germany. Hitler sought control of the Sudetenland, the German-speaking border areas of Bohemia. More than 3 million people of German descent lived there. Urged on by Hitler and his agents, Sudeten Germans began to clamor for union with Germany. Czechoslovakia refused to concede territory. Hitler prepared to strike. France and the Soviet Union pledged to support the young nation against German aggression. As tension mounted, the United Kingdom's Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain wished to preserve peace at all cost. He believed that war could be prevented by meeting Hitler's demands. That policy became known as appeasement. Chamberlain had several meetings with Hitler during September 1938 as Europe edged closer to war. Hitler raised his demands at each meeting. On September 29, Chamberlain and French Premier Édouard Daladier met with Hitler and Mussolini in Munich, Germany. Chamberlain and Daladier agreed to turn over the Sudetenland to Germany. They forced Czechoslovakia to accept the agreement. Hitler promised to demand no more territory in Czechoslovakia. The Munich Agreement marked the height of the policy of appeasement. Chamberlain and Daladier hoped that the agreement would satisfy Hitler. They hoped it would prevent war—or at least prolong the peace until the United Kingdom and France were ready for war. The two leaders were mistaken on both counts. Neville Chamberlain returning from Munich The failure of appeasement soon became clear. Hitler broke the Munich Agreement in March 1939 and seized the rest of Czechoslovakia. He thereby added Czechoslovakia's armed forces and industries to Germany's military might. In the months before World War II began, Germany's preparations for war moved ahead faster than did the military build-up of the United Kingdom and France. German troops enter Prague, Czechoslovakia, in 1939 Early stages of the war During the first year of World War II, Germany won a series of swift victories. It conquered Poland, Denmark, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Belgium, Norway, and France. Germany then attempted to bomb the United Kingdom into surrendering, but failed. The invasion of Poland. The port city of Danzig (Gdańsk) and the province of East Prussia were separated from Germany by the Treaty of Versailles. In March 1939, Hitler demanded the city’s return, as well as access to East Prussia. Poland refused. The United Kingdom and France pledged to help Poland if Germany attacked it. Yet the two powers could aid Poland only by invading Germany. Neither wanted to take that step. The United Kingdom had only a small army. France had prepared to defend its territory, not to attack. The United Kingdom and France hoped that the Soviet Union would help defend Poland. But Hitler and Stalin shocked the world by becoming allies. On Aug. 23, 1939, Germany and the Soviet Union signed a nonaggression pact. In the agreement, they promised not to go to war against each other. They secretly planned to divide Poland between themselves. On Sept. 1, 1939, Germany invaded Poland, beginning World War II. Poland had a large army but little modern equipment. Polish leaders expected to fight along the country's frontiers. However, the Germans introduced a new method of warfare called blitzkrieg (lightning war). It stressed speed and surprise. Rows of tanks smashed through Poland's defenses and rolled deep into the country before the Polish army had time to react. Swarms of German dive bombers and fighter aircraft knocked out communications and pounded battle lines. More than 1 million German troops swept across the Polish plains. The Poles fought bravely. But the German attack threw their army into confusion. Adding to Poland’s troubles, Soviet forces invaded from the east on Sept. 17, 1939. Within two weeks, the Soviet Red Army occupied the eastern third of Poland. Germany had swallowed up the rest. When the fighting stopped on October 6, over 60,000 Polish troops were dead. So were tens of thousands of civilians. The Germans lost more than 10,000 killed in action. World War II in Europe: 1939-1942 Important dates in Europe and northern Africa: 1939-1942 German troops in Poland The Phony War. The United Kingdom and France declared war on Germany on Sept. 3, 1939, two days after the invasion of Poland. But the two countries did little while Poland collapsed. France moved troops to the Maginot Line. The line was a belt of steel and concrete fortresses it had built along its border with Germany. The United Kingdom sent a small force into northern France. Germany stationed troops on the Siegfried Line, a strip of defenses Hitler built in the 1930's opposite the Maginot Line. The two sides avoided fighting in late 1939 and early 1940. Journalists called the period the “Phony War.” The conquest of Denmark and Norway. After the outbreak of war in September 1939, Denmark, Finland, Norway, and Sweden announced their neutrality. Germany depended heavily on Swedish iron ore shipments through neutral Norway. Hitler feared British plans to cut off those shipments by laying explosives in Norway's coastal waters. On April 9, 1940, German forces invaded Norway and Denmark. Denmark surrendered the same day. The United Kingdom tried to help Norway. But Germany's air power prevented many British ships and troops from reaching the country. Norway surrendered on June 10, 1940. The conquest of Norway secured Germany's shipments of iron ore. It also provided bases for German submarines and aircraft. About 5,000 Germans were killed in the conquest. So were over 6,000 Allied troops (British, French, Norwegian, and Polish). Chamberlain, who had favored appeasement, resigned after the invasion of Norway. Winston Churchill replaced him as the United Kingdom's prime minister on May 10, 1940. Churchill told the British people he had nothing to offer them but "blood, toil, tears, and sweat." The invasion of the Low Countries. The Low Countries—Belgium, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands—hoped to remain neutral after World War II began. However, Germany launched a blitzkrieg against them on May 10, 1940. Luxembourg surrendered in one day. The Netherlands gave up in five days. British and French forces rushed into Belgium and fell into a German trap. As the Allied forces raced northward, the main German invasion cut behind them through the Belgian Ardennes Forest to the south. The Germans reached the English Channel on May 21. They had nearly surrounded the Allied forces in Belgium. Maginot Line King Leopold III of Belgium surrendered on May 28, 1940. The surrender left the Allied forces in Belgium trapped. They retreated to the French seaport of Dunkerque on the English Channel. To rescue the troops, the United Kingdom sent all available seacraft. The fleet of “little ships” included destroyers, yachts, ferries, fishing vessels, and motorboats. Under heavy enemy fire, the hastily assembled fleet safely ferried about 338,000 troops to England from May 26 to June 4. The relief of Dunkerque saved many soldiers to fight another day. About 35,000 Allied troops were left behind. So were tens of thousands of vehicles and tanks. The British Royal Air Force (RAF) lost more than 100 warplanes protecting the evacuation. Evacuation of Dunkerque The fall of France. France had expected to fight along a stationary battlefront. The country had built the Maginot Line to defend the front. But in May 1940, German tanks and aircraft passed around the line. They swept through Luxembourg and Belgium and into northern France. On June 5, the Germans launched a major assault along the Somme River. The Somme had been the scene of brutal slaughter in World War I. The blitzkrieg overwhelmed the French forces, driving them mercilessly backward. Seeing an opportunity to profit from Germany’s success, Italy declared war on France and the United Kingdom on June 10. The French government fled from Paris to Bordeaux the same day. German troops entered Paris on June 14, 1940. Paul Reynaud, the new French premier, wanted to fight on. But many of his generals and cabinet officers believed that the battle for France was lost. Reynaud resigned. A new French government agreed to an armistice (truce) on June 22. Under the terms of the armistice, Germany occupied the northern two-thirds of France and a strip of western France along the Atlantic Ocean. Southern France remained in French control. The town of Vichy became the capital of unoccupied France. Marshal Henri Philippe Pétain, a French hero of World War I, headed the Vichy government. He largely cooperated with the Germans. Then in November 1942, German troops occupied all France. One of the French generals, Charles de Gaulle, escaped to the United Kingdom after France fell. In radio broadcasts to France, he urged the people to carry on the fight against Germany. The troops who rallied around de Gaulle became known as the Free French. During the conquest of the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, and France, about 27,000 German troops died. More than 100,000 Allied soldiers lost their lives. The dead included about 90,000 French. German troops in Paris France surrenders to Germany in June 1940 The Battle of Britain. The Royal Air Force (RAF) Fighter Command of the United Kingdom lost nearly half its strength in the Battle of France. The Germans took some time to coordinate newly captured air bases and prepare to attack yet again. The British took advantage of this precious time to replace the planes and pilots lost over France. Flyers from Australia, Canada, Czechoslovakia, New Zealand, Poland, South Africa, and elsewhere helped replenish the ranks. Prime Minister Churchill told Parliament: "What General Weygand called the Battle of France is over. The Battle of Britain is about to begin.” Hitler believed that the United Kingdom would now seek peace. The British, however, were determined to resist the Nazis. The United Kingdom fought on alone. Hitler prepared to invade southern England in a military operation with the code name Sea Lion. But before an invasion force could safely cross the English Channel, Hitler had to clear the RAF from the sky. The Battle of Britain was the first battle ever fought solely for air supremacy. Winston Churchill in Coventry, England, 1941 In July 1940, the German air force, the Luftwaffe, began to attack RAF and Royal Navy bases. Germany's bombers and fighter planes outnumbered the RAF’s fighters by more than 4 to1. But the previous victories of the Luftwaffe had come against nations with inferior air forces. The RAF had two outstanding types of pursuit plane—the Hurricane and the Spitfire. The RAF had also greatly developed the new technology of radar. RAF radar stations could detect German squadrons as they left their airfields in France. The air campaign was violent and costly for both sides. Of the nearly 3,000 British and Allied pilots who took part in the Battle of Britain, more than 500 were killed. The RAF lost about 900 aircraft. For the Germans, it was worse. Germany lost around 1,750 aircraft along with 2,600 aviators and crew. Operation Sea Lion was scrapped. But the bombing continued. A flight of Spitfires Hitler had originally ordered that no civilian targets should be attacked. But in late August, a lost Luftwaffe pilot violated his orders and bombed central London. An outraged Churchill retaliated with a bombing attack on Berlin. Hitler then unleashed his air force against English cities. He thus began what is known as the Blitz. German planes bombed cities from London to Manchester day after day, then night after night for months. Raids continued throughout the winter and spring. Finally, in May 1941, Germany gave up its attempts to defeat the United Kingdom from the air. More than 40,000 British civilians had lost their lives. Hitler's decision to switch attacks from RAF bases to British cities effectively won the battle for the United Kingdom. It allowed the RAF to constantly replace both planes and pilots. The United Kingdom's survival became important later in the war. The island served as an airfield and base for the Allied invasion of Europe. The British Army and High Command also made crucial contributions to the ultimate Allied victory. Bombing of London The war spreads By the end of 1941, World War II had become a global conflict. Battles erupted in Africa, the Balkan Peninsula of southeastern Europe, and the Soviet Union. The Axis and the Allies also battled each other at sea and in Asia. In December 1941, the United States entered the war. The Western Desert Campaign. The Italian army opened battlefronts in Africa in the summer of 1940. In August, Italian troops pushed eastward from Ethiopia. They overran the British forces in British Somaliland (now Somalia). The following month, forces from the Italian colony of Libya invaded Egypt. Fighting seesawed back and forth across the Mediterranean coasts and deserts of Libya, Tunisia, and Egypt. The United Kingdom fought to protect the oil fields of the Middle East. It also tried to defend the Suez Canal, the shortest sea route for the crucial exchange of supplies and troops with Asia. British and Commonwealth troops struck back at the Italians in December 1940, sweeping them from Egypt. But an Axis invasion of Greece drew part of the Allied force from Africa and ended the Allied advance. Early in 1941, Hitler sent panzer (tank) units trained in desert warfare to help the Italians in North Africa. German Field Marshal Erwin Rommel led the panzer units. They were known as the Afrikakorps. Rommel's clever tactics earned him the nickname "The Desert Fox." After a series of battles in Libya, Rommel drove into Egypt. But the British again repelled the Axis forces. In May 1942, Rommel broke through into Egypt again. He threatened the port of Alexandria, the capital city of Cairo, and the vital Suez Canal. British forces led by Lieutenant General Bernard Montgomery met Rommel at El Alamein on Oct. 23, 1942. The ensuing tank battle raged until November 5, when Rommel’s defeated forces withdrew. The Desert War, however, was far from over. Allied dead in the Western Desert amounted to more than 35,000. More than 30,000 German and Italian soldiers were killed. Fighting in the Balkans. Hitler pressured Bulgaria, Hungary, and Romania into joining the Axis. These countries provided Germany with vast supplies of food, petroleum, and personnel. Yugoslavia's government signed an agreement with the Axis in March 1941. But the Yugoslav military rebelled and overthrew the government. An enraged Hitler ordered the young nation crushed. German troops poured into Yugoslavia on April 6. Yugoslavia surrendered on April 17. But underground resistance there remained stubborn and deadly until the end of the war. Mussolini had tired of playing Hitler's junior partner. He wanted a victory to boost his standing. On Oct. 28, 1940, Italian forces based in Albania invaded Greece. They expected to defeat the poorly equipped Greek army easily. Though outnumbered, the Greeks fought fiercely. By December, they had driven the Italians out of Greece and had overrun part of Albania. The United Kingdom sent a small force to help the Greeks. But in April 1941, a much larger German force came to the aid of the Italians. By the end of the month, the Axis was in control. British troops had withdrawn to the island of Crete. British and Commonwealth troops march past Egypt’s pyramids On May 20, 1941, thousands of German paratroopers descended on Crete and seized an airfield. More German troops then landed, securing the island. The victory gave Germany an important base in the Mediterranean. Thousands of Allied and Axis troops died in the Balkan Campaign. The defeats in the Balkans were blows to the Allies. However, the detours into Yugoslavia and Greece were costly for Hitler too. They delayed his invasion of the Soviet Union. The invasion of the Soviet Union. The Soviet Union and its enormous Red Army were constant threats to Hitler. He privately viewed them—and Communism itself—as Germany's chief enemy. He feared Soviet ambitions to expand in eastern Europe, while planning to expand there himself. The German dictator desired more lebensraum (living space) for his people. Hitler also wanted control of the vast wheat and oil fields of Ukraine and elsewhere within the Soviet Union. The 1939 nonaggression pact with Stalin was a stalling tactic on both their parts. It served merely to keep the Soviet Union out of the war while Germany overran western Europe. Stalin sought to obtain more naval bases and strengthen Soviet borders. In November 1939, the Soviet Union invaded Finland. An outnumbered and outgunned Finnish army fought fiercely for five months in what came to be known as the Winter War. Finland surrendered in March 1940, giving Stalin minor territorial concessions. The much smaller Finnish Army lost about 25,000 troops killed in action. The Red Army lost about 200,000. In the summer of 1940, the Soviet Union seized the countries of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania along the Baltic Sea. British troops return from Crete The length and difficulty of Stalin’s Winter War with Finland helped give Hitler a low opinion of the Red Army. The Soviet Union may have had the largest army in the world at the time. But the German army was better trained, better equipped, and better led. The German invasion of the Soviet Union, Operation Barbarossa, began on June 22, 1941. It started five weeks later than Hitler had intended. His generals warned of the dangers of the Russian winter. But Hitler was confident the fighting would be over before the first snowfall. Stalin ignored Allied warnings of the coming invasion. The attack took the Soviet Union by surprise. More than 3 million German and Axis troops invaded along a 2,000-mile (3,220-kilometer) front. Germany’s Panzerkorps, an armored and mechanized unit, smashed through the Soviet lines. Luftwaffe squadrons devastated the Red Air Force. In just a few weeks, the Germans killed or captured hundreds of thousands of Soviet soldiers. The Germans pushed far into Soviet territory. As the Red Army and civilians retreated, they destroyed factories, dams, railroads, and food supplies. They wanted to deprive the enemy of anything that might be useful. Looking for the killer blow, Hitler's generals wanted to press on immediately to Moscow. Instead, Hitler sent his Panzerkorps to join the German armies heading through Ukraine toward the Crimean Peninsula on the Black Sea. While the Germans weakened their center and spent time transferring forces, Stalin reinforced. The German advance slowed. But on September 19, the Germans took the city of Kiev. It was Germany’s greatest single victory of the war, Germany captured nearly 665,000 Soviet soldiers. A total of 1 1/2 million Soviets had been taken prisoner thus far in the campaign. Another 700,000 had been killed. German dead had already passed 100,000. In October, the Panzerkorps returned to the German center for the advance on Moscow. But the autumn rains had come. German tanks and artillery bogged down in the mud just 40 miles (64 kilometers) from the Russian capital. On Nov. 15, 1941, exhausted German soldiers attacked Moscow. Fresh Soviet troops from the Far East combined with the onslaught of winter to stop the Germans 20 miles (32 kilometers) from the city. The Germans had no winter clothing. Temperatures plunged to –40 °F (–40 °C). The German soldiers suffered terribly. Tanks and weapons seized up. Stuck vehicles became a part of the frozen earth. As it had been in wars past, winter was once again Russia’s greatest ally. By December 1941, Operation Barbarossa had claimed the lives of 200,000 German soldiers. Thousands of Croatians, Hungarians, Italians, Romanians, and Slovaks were among them. The Red Army had already suffered hundreds of thousands killed and more than 3 million captured. The worst fighting, however, was yet to come. Operation Barbarossa during World War II The Battle of the Atlantic. The Allied war effort depended heavily on shipments of food, military equipment and supplies, and other provisions across the Atlantic Ocean from North America. Germany tried to stop the shipments. The Allies struggled to keep the supplies coming. Germany's surface fleet could not seriously challenge the United Kingdom's Royal Navy. But German warships attacked merchant vessels (commercial ships). The Royal Navy hunted down and sank such raiders one by one. The biggest operation was against the powerful German battleship Bismarck. In May 1941, a fleet of British warships chased, trapped, and finally sank the Bismarck. Afterward, Germany‘s large warships rarely left harbor. The greatest threat to Allied shipping came from German submarines, called Unterseeboote or U-boats. The U-boats prowled the Atlantic. They torpedoed any Allied ships they spotted. The conquests of Norway and France gave Germany bases for its U-boats. As a defensive measure, the United Kingdom began to use a convoy system in which merchant ships sailed in large groups escorted by warships. From 1940 to 1942, Germany appeared to be winning the Battle of the Atlantic. Each month, U-boats sank thousands of tons of Allied shipping. But the Allies gradually overcame the U-boat danger. They used surface radar and an underwater detection device called sonar to locate German submarines. Long-range aircraft bombed U-boats as they surfaced. Shipyards in North America stepped up their production of warships to accompany convoys. Eventually, the Allies were sinking U-boats faster than Germany could replace them. After terrible losses in “Black May” 1943, the U-boat “wolf packs” retreated and regrouped. The U-boats resumed action in the fall. But they never regained their previous success. The Battle of the Atlantic was the longest military campaign of World War II. It lasted the length of the war. The Germans launched nearly 1,200 submarines. Of these, close to 800 were sunk. Out of about 40,000 German submariners sent into action, 28,000 never returned—the highest death rate of any armed service in the history of modern warfare. About 3,000 Allied ships sank to the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean, and more than 70,000 Allied merchant mariners, sailors, and aviators lost their lives. The Battle of the Atlantic during World War II The United States enters the war After World War II began in 1939, President Franklin D. Roosevelt announced the neutrality of the United States. Canada, as part of the Commonwealth of Nations, entered the war on Sept. 10, 1939, one week after the United Kingdom. Roosevelt and many other people wanted to do more to help the Allies. These people, called interventionists, argued that an Axis victory would endanger democracies everywhere. Roosevelt urged “all aid short of war" to nations fighting the Axis. Isolationists, on the other hand, thought that the United States should not interfere in European affairs. They opposed aid to warring nations. They accused Roosevelt of steering the nation into a war it was not prepared to fight. The majority of people in the United States thought the Allied cause was just. But they wanted their country to stay out of World War II. The arsenal of democracy. Roosevelt hoped to contribute to the defeat of the Axis powers by equipping the Allies. Roosevelt asked his fellow Americans to become what he called "the arsenal of democracy," meaning that the United States would supply military equipment to the Allies. The United States sent ships, tanks, aircraft, and other war equipment. The United States then took several steps toward war. In November 1939, U.S. neutrality laws were changed to allow the sale of arms to warring nations—specifically the United Kingdom and France. In September 1940, the U.S. Navy gave the United Kingdom 50 destroyers to protect Atlantic convoys. In March 1941, with the Allies nearly broke, the U.S. Congress approved the Lend-Lease Act. The act permitted President Roosevelt to lend or lease raw materials, supplies, and weapons to any nation fighting the Axis. In all, 38 nations received a total of about $50 billion in aid through the Lend-Lease Act. More than half the aid went to the British Empire. About a fourth went to the Soviet Union. The world at war, part 1 The world at war, part 2 Japan attacks. By 1940, Japanese forces were still bogged down in China. To force the Chinese to surrender, Japan wanted to cut off the supply route from Southeast Asia. Japan also wanted the rich resources of Burma (now Myanmar) and Indochina (parts of modern Laos and Vietnam) for itself. Japan's military leaders had hopes of an empire. They called it the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere. Japan's expansion in Southeast Asia troubled the United States. In September 1940, as Japanese troops occupied northern Indochina, the United States cut off vital exports to Japan. Japanese industries relied heavily on petroleum, scrap metal, and other raw materials from the United States. After Japan seized the rest of Indochina in 1941, Roosevelt barred the withdrawal of Japanese funds from American banks. Attack on Pearl Harbor General Hideki Tojo became prime minister of Japan in October 1941. Tojo and Japan's other military leaders realized that only the United States Navy had the power to block Japan's expansion in Asia. They decided to cripple the U.S. Pacific Fleet with one forceful blow. On Dec. 7, 1941, the Japanese launched a surprise attack upon the U.S. Pacific Fleet at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. Two waves of Japanese warplanes sank several U.S. ships, including four battleships. They also destroyed more than 180 U.S. aircraft. The Japanese killed 2,400 Americans but lost only about 100 of their own troops. The attack was a success. But bringing the United States into the war would prove disastrous for the Japanese Empire and its citizens. The United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom declared war on Japan on Dec. 8, 1941. Germany and Italy declared war on the United States on December 11. The world was now truly a world at war. Roosevelt responds to Pearl Harbor attack READ MORE The war in Europe and North Africa Soviet forces held off the German advance in eastern Europe in 1942. The Soviets won a major victory at Stalingrad (now Volgograd) in 1943. The Allies invaded North Africa in 1942 and forced Italy to surrender in 1943. Allied troops swarmed into France in 1944 in the largest seaborne invasion in history. Allied attacks from the east and the west forced Germany to surrender in 1945. The strategy. Churchill, Roosevelt, and Stalin—the leaders of the three major Allied powers—were known during World War II as the Big Three. Churchill and Roosevelt conferred frequently on overall strategy. Stalin directed the Soviet war effort. But he distrusted his allies’ intentions and rarely consulted them. The main wartime disagreement among the Big Three concerned an Allied invasion of western Europe. Stalin constantly urged Roosevelt and Churchill to open a second fighting front in western Europe and thus draw German troops from the Soviet front. Both Roosevelt and Churchill supported the idea. But they disagreed on where and when to invade. The Americans wanted to land in northern France as soon as possible. The British argued that an invasion of France before the Allies were fully prepared would be disastrous. Instead, Churchill favored invading Italy first. His view won out. Roosevelt and Churchill first met in August 1941 aboard ship off the coast of Newfoundland. They issued the Atlantic Charter, a statement of the postwar aims of the United States and the United Kingdom. After the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, Roosevelt and Churchill conferred in Washington, D.C. The two leaders felt that Germany was a nearer and a more dangerous enemy than Japan. They decided to concentrate on defeating Germany first. In January 1943, Roosevelt and Churchill met in Casablanca, Morocco. They agreed to invade the Mediterranean island of Sicily after driving the Germans and Italians from northern Africa. At the conference, Roosevelt announced that the Allies would accept only unconditional (complete) surrender from the Axis powers. Churchill supported him. Roosevelt and Churchill first met with Stalin in November 1943 in Tehran, Iran. The Big Three discussed plans for a joint British and American invasion of France in the spring of 1944. They did not meet again until Germany neared collapse. In February 1945, Roosevelt, Churchill, and Stalin gathered at Yalta, a Soviet city on the Crimean Peninsula. They agreed that their countries would each occupy a zone of Germany after the war. France was to occupy a fourth zone. Roosevelt died on April 12, 1945, less than one month before the end of the war in Europe. World War II in Europe: 1943-1945 Important dates in Europe and Northern Africa: 1943-1945 The Big Three Atlantic Charter adopted in 1941 The Battle of Stalingrad. The Red Army struck back at the Germans outside Moscow on Dec. 5, 1941. The Soviets pushed the invaders back about 100 miles (160 kilometers). But as the weather broke in the spring months of 1942, the Germans regrouped and prepared for a summer offensive—Operation Blue. Hitler was now personally directing the war. He bolstered his battered armies with divisions from Hungary, Italy, Romania, Slovakia, and Spain. The combined Axis forces overran the Crimean Peninsula and headed eastward toward the rich oil fields in the Caucasus. Hitler ordered General Friedrich von Paulus to take the city of Stalingrad. About 1 million German soldiers poured into the city. The Soviets rose to meet them. Stalin had ordered, “Not one step back.” The savage battle for Stalingrad began in September and dragged through the autumn. The Germans took most of the city but could not hold it. Neighborhoods, city blocks, even individual buildings were fought over for days or weeks. Thousands of people died. Then the same buildings were fought over again. Battle of Stalingrad Paulus’s losses mounted. The German commander repeatedly asked permission to pull out. Hitler repeatedly refused. Soviet troops counterattacked in mid-November. Eventually, they trapped Paulus's army. The Luftwaffe attempted to resupply the army by air. But it was too little, too late. Each day, thousands of German soldiers froze, starved to death, or died of disease. On Feb. 2, 1943, after months of suffering, the last German troops in Stalingrad surrendered. The Battle of Stalingrad halted Germany's eastward advance. it marked a turning point in the war as advantage swung to the Soviets. It was one of the largest battles in human history. Its cost was horrific. About 450,000 Axis troops were killed. The Soviets lost at least 500,000 soldiers and hundreds of thousands of civilians. The Siege of Leningrad. In September 1941, the northern group of German armies surrounded the Russian city of Leningrad (now St. Petersburg). German warplanes and artillery bombarded the city. Nearly all supplies were cut off. The more than 2 million citizens and soldiers of Leningrad held out. They suffered through winters without electric power. They endured shortages of water, food, and medicine. All the while, they suffered bombardment by German artillery. By the time the Red Army broke through and lifted the siege in January 1944, 1 1/3 million Soviets were dead. The Tunisia Campaign. The Battle of El Alamein in late 1942, like Stalingrad, had marked a turning point in the war. The Axis never again attacked in North Africa. On Nov. 8, 1942, Allied troops commanded by Lieutenant General Dwight D. Eisenhower of the U.S. Army landed in Algeria and Morocco. Vichy French forces initially resisted the Americans. But within two days they had joined the Allied cause. German soldiers at Soviet front The Allies hoped to advance rapidly into Tunisia and cut off the Axis forces from their home bases in Italy and Sicily. But Axis troops moved faster and seized Tunisia first. There, Rommel prepared for battle. The first major clash between American and German combat troops was in mid-February during the fight for Kasserine Pass. Rommel defeated the inexperienced Americans. But thereafter, the Allies steadily closed in. Rommel returned to Germany. The last Axis forces in North Africa surrendered in May—about 250,000 of them. The Allies had saved the oil fields of the Middle East. They also sustained the supply route to Asia and cleared a path for the invasions of Sicily and Italy. Axis dead in the Tunisian Campaign numbered over 14,000. The British, Americans, and French lost over 10,000 troops. Allied troops at Kasserine Pass The air war. Before World War II began, many aviation experts claimed that the long-range bomber was the most advanced weapon in the world. They believed that bombers could wipe out cities and industries. In this way, bombing could destroy an enemy's desire and ability to go on fighting. The theory was tested during World War II. By May 1941, Germany’s bombing of the United Kingdom had largely stopped. But RAF bombers pounded Germany until the end of the war. At first, the bombing was costly and ineffective. British losses were heavy. Bomber Command relied on area bombing. Area bombing involved dropping a large number of bombs on an area without pinpointing targets. Bomber Command also favored nighttime raids. Night raids were safer than daytime raids, but bombers too often missed their targets in the dark. In 1942, the United Kingdom turned to saturation bombing of German cities. Such bombing involved dropping enough bombs to totally destroy the target area. A massive group of more than 1,000 aircraft battered the railyards and city of Cologne on May 30, 1942. Bomber Command continued its nighttime raids on German cities to the end of the war. It made 35 raids on Berlin alone. Air war against Germany Meanwhile, the U.S. Army Air Forces had arrived. They joined the air campaign against Germany in 1942. The American B-17 bomber carried a better bombsight than British planes. B-17's were known as Flying Fortresses because of their heavy armor and many guns. They could take much punishment. For those reasons, the Americans favored precision bombing. It involved placing bombs with a high degree of accuracy. The Americans directed their bombing at mostly industrial and military targets. They carried out their bombing raids during the day. Over the course of the war, American and British bombers dropped more than 2.7 million tons (2.45 million metric tons) of explosives onto European targets. Nearly 160,000 Allied aviators were killed in the bombing campaign. About 500,000 German civilians also died. In spite of the bombardment, German industries continued to increase production. German morale failed to crack. The air war achieved its goals only during the last 10 months of World War II. In that time, nearly three times as many bombs fell on Germany as in all the rest of the war. By the end of the war, Germany's cities lay in ruins. Its factories, refineries, railroads, and canals had nearly ceased to operate. B-17 Flying Fortress The air war during World War II Germany's air defenses rapidly improved during World War II. The Germans used radar to spot incoming bombers. They used fighter planes and antiaircraft guns, called flak, to shoot them down. In 1944, Germany introduced the first jet fighter, the Messerschmitt Me 262. The plane was known as the Schwalbe (Swallow). The Swallow easily overtook the propeller-driven fighters of the Allies. Also in 1944, Germany used the first guided missiles against the United Kingdom. The V-1 and V-2 missiles caused great damage and took many lives. But these innovative weapons were too few and came too late to affect the war's outcome. The invasion of Italy. The Allies planned to invade Sicily after driving the Axis forces out of northern Africa. Axis planes had bombed Allied ships in the Mediterranean Sea from bases in Sicily. The Allies wanted to make the Mediterranean safe for their ships. They also hoped that an invasion of Sicily might knock a war-weary Italy out of the war. Allied forces under Eisenhower landed along Sicily's south coast on July 10, 1943. For 38 days, they engaged in bitter fighting with the enemy over rugged terrain. The last Germans left Sicily on August 17. Mussolini had fallen from power on July 25. The Italian government imprisoned him. But German commandos later rescued the former dictator. Italy's new prime minister, Field Marshal Pietro Badoglio, began secret peace talks with the Allies. Badoglio hoped to prevent Italy from becoming a battleground. Italy surrendered on September 3. But Field Marshal Albert Kesselring, Germany's commander in the Mediterranean region, was determined to fight the Allies for control of Italy. Allied forces led by U.S. Army Lieutenant General Mark W. Clark landed at Salerno, Italy, on Sept. 9, 1943. It was a struggle just to stay ashore. Another Allied force had already landed farther south. The Allies struggled up the Italian Peninsula in a series of head-on assaults against well-defended German positions. By early November, the Allies had reached the Gustav Line. The line was Germany’s formidable defensive line about 75 miles (120 kilometers) south of Rome. Repeated Allied assaults on Monte Cassino resulted in some of the most brutal fighting of World War II. The Gustav Line held. The Messerschmitt Me 262 In January 1944, the Allies landed at Anzio, west of Cassino, in an effort to attack the Germans from behind. However, German forces kept the Allies pinned down on the beaches at Anzio for four months. The Allies finally broke through German defenses in Italy in May 1944. Rome fell on June 4. The Germans held their positions in northern Italy through the fall and winter. But in the spring, the Allies swept toward the Alps. Italian resistance fighters captured Mussolini on April 27, 1945. They shot him on April 28. German forces in Italy finally surrendered on May 2. About 70,000 Allied soldiers died taking Italy. Around 48,000 Germans died defending it. Fighting at Anzio during World War II D-Day. Soon after the evacuation of Dunkerque in 1940, the United Kingdom started to plan a return to France. In 1942, the United States and the United Kingdom began to discuss a large-scale invasion across the English Channel. To test the German defenses, the Allies raided the French port of Dieppe in August 1942. The mostly Canadian landing force suffered disastrous losses. The Allies learned hard lessons at Dieppe. Among the lessons was that landing on open beaches had a better chance of success than landing in a port. Throughout 1943, preparations moved ahead for an invasion of northern France the following year. The invasion plan received the code name Operation Overlord. Huge amounts of equipment and great numbers of troops massed in southern England. General Eisenhower, as supreme commander of the Allied forces, directed the
Answer:
the pecan pie has only a bottom crust, unlike the blueberry pie
Explanation:
Answer:
A SCARY MOMENT OF MY LIFE IS MA JOWA BRAKE UP WITH ME
Answer:
B)
Huang's family was not wealthy, but they were
grateful for what they had.
Explanation:
Huang was already successful as his family were quite grateful for what they had as their situation was much better than that it used to be.