Mass Atrocities

● Most destructive war in history
● 60 million deaths (10x the number in WWI)

● ½ the casualties were civilians

● thousands of towns, villages, and businesses

destroyed

● Many people were homeless and/or jobless

Outcomes of WWII

London

Tokyo

Berlin

●

Women filled industrial jobs manufacturing supplies for war

●

Loss of European power led to decolonization movements in
Asia and Africa

●

Soviet victory increased the pride and nationalism in
Communist countries

●

The U.S. emerged as a global superpower. The U.S. entry
into the war helped to get the nation's economy back on its
feet following the depression, with the creation of 17 million
new jobs during the war.

Outcomes of WWII

●

Renewed interest in international efforts to
maintain peace

●

Creation of the United Nations in 1945 as
successor to the League of Nations

●

World Bank and International Monetary
Fund (IMF) were also created in 1945
●

meant to regulate the global economy
to prevent another depression and
stimulate economic growth in poorer
countries

Outcomes of WWII

Key Concept 6.1 Science and the Environment

New military technology and tactics of “total war” had a
terrifying impact on culture and society for generations.

● The U.S. dropped an atomic bomb on

Hiroshima killing 80,000 people.

● 120,000 more would die later from radiation

sickness or burns

● Three days later, the U.S. dropped a second

bomb on Nagasaki which led to over 60,000
more deaths.

● While this terrifying technology brought an

end to the war, it has had long-lasting
impacts on our world.

The Atomic Bomb

Genocide

Geno - Race
Cide - Killing
Genocide - Acts committed
with the intent to destroy in
whole, or in part, a national,
ethnic, racial or religous
groups. (United Nations
1948)

Armenian Genocide

During World War 1, from
1915-1916, the Armenian
Genocide took place in the
Ottoman Empire. At least
664,000 and as many as 1.2
million Armenian
Christians were killed.

The Holocaust

●The Holocaust was the systematic,
state-sponsored persecution and
murder of six million Jewish people by
the Nazi regime and its collaborators
before and during World War 2

●The Nazis believed that Germans were
"racially superior" and they wanted to
create a “racially pure” state.

●During the era of the Holocaust, Nazis also targeted and killed other groups because
of their perceived racial and biological inferiority: Roma (Gypsies), people with
disabilities, and Slavic peoples (especially Poles and Russians).

●Other groups were persecuted for political or ideological reasons, such as
Communists, Socialists, Jehovah's Witnesses, and gay men.