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Germany invades Poland and WW2 begins
Cause and Effect: Adolf claimed that to defend Germans in Poland he decided to invade it to which Britain and France declared war on Germany as they did not believe it was for a defensive action.
Historical Perspective: Adolf Hitler invaded Germany because he gave reason that he wanted to defend the germans being prosecuted in Poland. He also wanted to overturn the Treaty of Versailles as that was the central aim of his policy. By doing so he believed he would win more power -
Germany invades Denmark and Norway
Cause and Effect: germany wanted to secure the Baltic Sea and the Norwegian neautrality because they wanted a staging area for operations in Norway and also feared Britian would intrude to mine the north sea, therefore Germany invavded Denmark and Poland.
Historical Significance: The Denmark invasion was the briefest operation of WW2 as it lasted 6 hours and was fought on land, sea and air -
Battle of France
Cause and Effect: Hitler wanted to expand the German Empire and make it the dominant power of the world so he invaded France to get more resoources
Historical Significance: It marked the beggining of the allied land assault and because of this Germany was now fighting on two fronts with divided supplies and troops -
Battle of Britain (TURNING POINT)
Continuity and Change: The German air force faced heavy causalities during the battle.1,700 German air force planes were destroyed, 2,662 casualties included many experienced crewmen, the air force was never able to obtain a full recovery
Ethical Dimension: Hitler ordered the destruction of London and other cities because he knew he was going to be defeated,Attacking innocent people who have done no wrong to you during a battle is unfair and morally wrong. -
Battle of Stallingrad
Historical Significance: Germany made large advancements into Russia. Four million troops entered Russia killing two and a half million russians.
Cause and Effect: The Germans lost the battle because they didn't have enough manpower to cope with the harsh winters, low food supply and low ammunition supply. Areas that the Germany army captured during the day was taken back during the night. -
Japanese attack US Navy in Pearl Harbor ( TURNING POINT)
Cause and Effect: The US stopped supplying raw materials to Japan for war effort against China, so they attacked the US Navy at Pearl Harbor to disable the American fleet, to conquer the Dutch East Indies for raw materials
Historical Significance: The Japanese attack on the US Navy in Pearl Harbor is what brought US into WW2, which brought alot of opposition -
US delares war
Cause and Efffect: After Japan attacked the US Navy at Pearl Harbor, Us declared war to avenge the death of the American soldiers and to get revenge from Japan for destroing thier base,
Historical Perspective: After having so many soldiers dead and thier base destroyed at Pearl Haror, The US joined the war because they wanted to take revenge from Japan and to prevent Hitler from succeeding to his plans of ruiling the world -
Mass murder of Jews at Auschwitz
Historical Significance: 1.1 million people were gassed to death at Auschwitz, 90% of them being Jews
Ethical Dimension: It is morally wrong to kill masses of people just because they belong to a certain race or ethnic background. It is not justifiable to kill thousands of innocents just for belonging to a specific race. -
Battle of Midway ( TURNING POINT)
Continuity and Change: The Battle of Midway changed the waqy battles are fought at sea. Now instead of using big ships as a key factor in fighting war, airplanes are used.
Historical Signifiance: After this battle japan lost thier largest carriers and their pilots and they had no great victories after that -
Battle of El Alamein
Cause and Effect: Germwany wanted control over the Suez Canal in El Alamein because they wanted oil supplies to aid the war effort but were defeated by the British army.
Historical Significance: This battle marked the first defeat of the German army on land after which Germany started losing all the WW2 battles. -
Mussolini gets arrested
Historical Significance: Mussolinis arrest marked the end of a fascist government and it also lead to Germany losing an ally, to which Italy declared war on Germany.
Cause and Effect: Mussolini was arrested after the Grand Council of Fasicm voted against him -
D-DAY
Historical Significance: It's the day where the allied forces landed on the coats of France to liberate it and defeat Germany, it paved the way for the Allies victory.
Cause and Effect: The Allies wanted to end Nazi dictatorship and WW2 so the Allies invaded France to defeat Germany. -
Operation Market Garden
Historical Significance: This battle was called "a bridge too far" because it was a two part operataion in an attempt to capture bridges over Rhine. It was the largest airbourne of that time
Continuity and Change: Airbourne operations or assaults can still happen today, even in your own front porche. Although starting an assault like that now would get you in ddeep trouble with the military or government. -
Mussolini Dies
Historical Significance: Mussolini was hanged and shot by a communist party along with his wife and other members of the 15 metre train they were travelling in.
Cause and Effect: Mussolini was killed Italian partisans because he was caught trying to flee Italy dressed as a Germa officer -
Adolf Hitler commits suicide
Cause and Effect: Adolf Hitler commited suicide because he knew that Germany was at the brink of loosing as they had almost already lost war.
Historical Perspective: Hitler did not want to be humiliated after he heard the soviet troops had entered Germany. He knew Germany had already lost war and to prevent humiliation by being paraded through the streets in a cage he decided to kill himself -
Germany surrenders to the Allies
Historical Significance: On this day the war on the West was over as Germany had to surrender to the Allies and all german forces were to stop fighting.
Ethical Dimension: Germany should not have started the war in the first place because putting peoples lives in danger for the second time after WW1 on purpose just for more power is not right wrong especially after the large amounts ogf lives lost in WW1. -
Atomic bombs are dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki
Ethical Dimension: Even in the courses of war it is morally wrong to drop such a deadly weapon on a country which not only poisons the land but takes billions of lives.
Continuity and Change: People are still affected by the atomic bomb that was dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki as it's protracted effects still exist in many areas such people who survived still suffer radiation poisoning. -
Japan surrenders
Cause and Effect: Japan surrendered to the US General and the allies because after the atomic bomb, it exhausted thier resources and took thousands of civilian lives.
Ethical Dimension: Japan should have surrendered right after the first atomic bomb was thrown on them.another atomic bomb was thrown at them which devasted the country. It was ethically wrong for the Japanese army to have put the lives of thousand on risk when they knew they had it coming bad
