1.
Why We Fight (2005 film)
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Why We Fight, directed by Eugene Jarecki, is a 2005 documentary film about the military–industrial complex. The title refers to the World War II-era eponymous propaganda movies commissioned by the U. S. Government to justify their decision to enter the war against the Axis Powers. Why We Fight was first screened at the 2005 Sundance Film Festival on January 17,2005, exactly forty-four years after President Dwight D. Eisenhowers farewell address. The producers list included more than a dozen organizations, from the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation to the United Kingdoms BBC, Estonias ETV and numerous European broadcasters, the Sundance Institute did, however, provide completion funding. S. Senator John McCain, elected to the United States Senate in 1986, he is a former U. S. Navy pilot and Vietnam prisoner of war. Richard Perle, Chairman, Pentagon Defense Policy Board, worked the U. S. Government for three decades, and is an architect of the G. W. Bush Administrations foreign policy, as a writer, he regularly is published in conservative news publications. William Kristol, editor, The Weekly Standard, a political theorist identified with the neoconservative movement, joseph Cirincione, senior associate and Director of the Non-Proliferation Project, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Washington, DC. Gwynne Dyer, military historian, writer, and journalist who has worked for the Canadian, British and he published books, articles, information papers, and a radio series, about international affairs. Susan Eisenhower, granddaughter of President Eisenhower, senior fellow at the Eisenhower Institutes director of programs and she is serving a third appointment to the Committee on International Security and Arms Control of the National Academy of Sciences. John Eisenhower, son of President Eisenhower, Military Historian, A military historian member of White House staff during his fathers administration and he is a retired Brigadier General and served as U. S. ambassador to Belgium,1969 and 1971. Chalmers Johnson, Central Intelligence Agency 1967–73, Political Scientist, With a fifty-year career in foreign policy, an academic at the University of California, he has written many articles and books. S. After the attacks, he says the Bush Administration made him believe Saddam Hussein was responsible and he e-mailed every military branch, asking if his sons name might be written on a bomb to be dropped on Iraq. Deployed to Iraq on January 10,2005, for 18 months and it appears Solomon made it to Sergeant in the 1st Battalion 52nd Aviation Regiment, Fort Wainwright, Alaska, according to a website that reports on different activities of soldiers. There is a photo of Solomon and a specialist talking to coaches in Kuwait at Camp Virginia. The coaches are on their way to Iraq to participate in Operation Hardwood 5 which is a program that brings US basketball coaches to the American troops in the Middle East. Gore Vidal, author of Imperial America, writer, playwright, screen writer, novelist, Fuji and Tooms, USAF stealth fighter pilots Fuji and Tooms dropped the first bombs on Baghdad city, starting the Iraq War in 2003. Karen Kwiatkowski, a retired U. S. Air Force Lieutenant Colonel of the Pentagon working with the National Security Agency, james G. Wilkerson was Executive Assistant to Admiral Stewart A. Ring, USN, Director for Strategy and Policy USCINCPAC. In the 1990s Col. Wilkerson was Director of the USMC War College, Quantico and he has written much about military and national security affairs in mainstream and professional journals
Why We Fight (2005 film)
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Theatrical poster
2.
Prelude to War
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For the similarly titled novel by Leslie Charteris, see Prelude for War. Prelude to War is the first film of Frank Capra’s Why We Fight propaganda film series, commissioned by the Office of War Information and it was made to convince American troops of the necessity of combating the Axis Powers during World War II. The film was based on the idea that those in the service would be willing and able fighters if they knew the background. It was later released to the general American public as a cry for support of the war. In an edit added to the film before release, a comment by Henry L. ”The purpose of the OWI was to use mass communication to sell the war and to define Americans perception of the reality of war, therefore. The film commences with an explanation of how Americans were brought into the war through heroic motives to protect countries unable to protect themselves, America had this duty to righteousness and Christian values throughout history, according to the values and beliefs set forth by the founding fathers. The documentary makes use of compare and contrast methods throughout the film in order to transmit its heroic message. It examines the differences between the U. S. and the fascist states of Benito Mussolini, Adolf Hitler and Yamamoto, in order to do this, Capra made use of footage from Triumph of the Will, but with different narration designed to support the Allied cause. It is brought to the attention that after the Nazis smashed the opposing political parties. In one scene a stained window is shattered by several bricks to reveal a “Heil Hitler. ”For Hitler we live. Our Hitler is our Lord Who rules a brave new world and this presented a major obstacle in garnering support for the war, as the people of the United States did not feel a sense of unity with other nations of the world, most notably, Europe. In an effort to dispel this isolationist way of thinking, Prelude to War was produced in order to raise the enthusiasm, the film addressed the need for change in current American citizens’ standpoint on the war through interviews with civilians. In response to whether or not America should get involved in the war, Americans were depicted saying “I think we should stay out of it entirely, ” and “They mean nothing to us. ”Protesters against the war rallied under slogans like “No Foreign Entanglements. ”The film pointed to the Japanese invasion of Manchuria as when World War II begun-remember that date, Sept 18,1931 a date you should remember as well as Dec 7,1941. For on that date in 1931 the war we are now fighting begun, saying that we knew that the aggressors should be stopped but it was impossible to convince the average person that they should go to war over a mud hut in Manchuria. The film then describes just how outclassed Ethiopia was against Italy and how we hadnt realized that peace for us involves peace for all, the U. S. Army used Prelude to War as a training film for indoctrinating soldiers before its release in theaters. Prior to deployment, it was compulsory for all U. S. soldiers to view the film, the goal when showing it to the general public was to unify the country and to encourage that everyone should do their part in the war effort. The films produced by Capra inspired the society of the time to mobilize as a nation and rally around their country, their troops, the film series was a useful tool in motivating the public and boosted support for the war. Propaganda in the United States Prelude to War is available for download at the Internet Archive Prelude to War at the Internet Movie Database
Prelude to War
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Protestors rallied under slogans like “No Foreign Entanglements”
Prelude to War
3.
Propaganda film
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A propaganda film is a film that involves some form of propaganda. Propaganda can be defined as the ability to produce and spread fertile messages that, once sown, first developed by the Lumiere brothers in 1896, film provided a unique means of accessing large audiences at once. As Nancy Snow stated in her book, Information War, American Propaganda, Free Speech and Opinion Control Since 9-11, propaganda begins where critical thinking ends. Film is a medium in that it reproduces images, movement. Unlike many other art forms, film produces a sense of immediacy, some film academics have noted film’s great illusory abilities. Dziga Vertov claimed in his 1924 manifesto, “The Birth of Kino-Eye” that “the cinema-eye is cinema-truth. ”To paraphrase Hilmar Hoffmann, this means that in film, only what the camera ‘sees’ exists, and the viewer, lacking alternative perspectives, conventionally takes the image for reality. Political and historical films represent, influence, and create historical consciousness and are able to distort events making it a persuasive and possibly untrustworthy medium
Propaganda film
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The
Why We Fight Series depicts the Nazi propaganda machine.
4.
United States
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Forty-eight of the fifty states and the federal district are contiguous and located in North America between Canada and Mexico. The state of Alaska is in the northwest corner of North America, bordered by Canada to the east, the state of Hawaii is an archipelago in the mid-Pacific Ocean. The U. S. territories are scattered about the Pacific Ocean, the geography, climate and wildlife of the country are extremely diverse. At 3.8 million square miles and with over 324 million people, the United States is the worlds third- or fourth-largest country by area, third-largest by land area. It is one of the worlds most ethnically diverse and multicultural nations, paleo-Indians migrated from Asia to the North American mainland at least 15,000 years ago. European colonization began in the 16th century, the United States emerged from 13 British colonies along the East Coast. Numerous disputes between Great Britain and the following the Seven Years War led to the American Revolution. On July 4,1776, during the course of the American Revolutionary War, the war ended in 1783 with recognition of the independence of the United States by Great Britain, representing the first successful war of independence against a European power. The current constitution was adopted in 1788, after the Articles of Confederation, the first ten amendments, collectively named the Bill of Rights, were ratified in 1791 and designed to guarantee many fundamental civil liberties. During the second half of the 19th century, the American Civil War led to the end of slavery in the country. By the end of century, the United States extended into the Pacific Ocean. The Spanish–American War and World War I confirmed the status as a global military power. The end of the Cold War and the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 left the United States as the sole superpower. The U. S. is a member of the United Nations, World Bank, International Monetary Fund, Organization of American States. The United States is a developed country, with the worlds largest economy by nominal GDP. It ranks highly in several measures of performance, including average wage, human development, per capita GDP. While the U. S. economy is considered post-industrial, characterized by the dominance of services and knowledge economy, the United States is a prominent political and cultural force internationally, and a leader in scientific research and technological innovations. In 1507, the German cartographer Martin Waldseemüller produced a map on which he named the lands of the Western Hemisphere America after the Italian explorer and cartographer Amerigo Vespucci
United States
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Native Americans meeting with Europeans, 1764
United States
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Flag
United States
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The signing of the
Mayflower Compact, 1620.
United States
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The
Declaration of Independence: the
Committee of Five presenting their draft to the
Second Continental Congress in 1776
5.
World War II
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World War II, also known as the Second World War, was a global war that lasted from 1939 to 1945, although related conflicts began earlier. It involved the vast majority of the worlds countries—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing alliances, the Allies and the Axis. It was the most widespread war in history, and directly involved more than 100 million people from over 30 countries. Marked by mass deaths of civilians, including the Holocaust and the bombing of industrial and population centres. These made World War II the deadliest conflict in human history, from late 1939 to early 1941, in a series of campaigns and treaties, Germany conquered or controlled much of continental Europe, and formed the Axis alliance with Italy and Japan. Under the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact of August 1939, Germany and the Soviet Union partitioned and annexed territories of their European neighbours, Poland, Finland, Romania and the Baltic states. In December 1941, Japan attacked the United States and European colonies in the Pacific Ocean, and quickly conquered much of the Western Pacific. The Axis advance halted in 1942 when Japan lost the critical Battle of Midway, near Hawaii, in 1944, the Western Allies invaded German-occupied France, while the Soviet Union regained all of its territorial losses and invaded Germany and its allies. During 1944 and 1945 the Japanese suffered major reverses in mainland Asia in South Central China and Burma, while the Allies crippled the Japanese Navy, thus ended the war in Asia, cementing the total victory of the Allies. World War II altered the political alignment and social structure of the world, the United Nations was established to foster international co-operation and prevent future conflicts. The victorious great powers—the United States, the Soviet Union, China, the United Kingdom, the Soviet Union and the United States emerged as rival superpowers, setting the stage for the Cold War, which lasted for the next 46 years. Meanwhile, the influence of European great powers waned, while the decolonisation of Asia, most countries whose industries had been damaged moved towards economic recovery. Political integration, especially in Europe, emerged as an effort to end pre-war enmities, the start of the war in Europe is generally held to be 1 September 1939, beginning with the German invasion of Poland, Britain and France declared war on Germany two days later. The dates for the beginning of war in the Pacific include the start of the Second Sino-Japanese War on 7 July 1937, or even the Japanese invasion of Manchuria on 19 September 1931. Others follow the British historian A. J. P. Taylor, who held that the Sino-Japanese War and war in Europe and its colonies occurred simultaneously and this article uses the conventional dating. Other starting dates sometimes used for World War II include the Italian invasion of Abyssinia on 3 October 1935. The British historian Antony Beevor views the beginning of World War II as the Battles of Khalkhin Gol fought between Japan and the forces of Mongolia and the Soviet Union from May to September 1939, the exact date of the wars end is also not universally agreed upon. It was generally accepted at the time that the war ended with the armistice of 14 August 1945, rather than the formal surrender of Japan
World War II
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Clockwise from top left: Chinese forces in the
Battle of Wanjialing, Australian
25-pounder guns during the
First Battle of El Alamein, German
Stuka dive bombers on the
Eastern Front in December 1943, a U.S. naval force in the
Lingayen Gulf,
Wilhelm Keitel signing the
German Instrument of Surrender, Soviet troops in the
Battle of Stalingrad
World War II
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The
League of Nations assembly, held in
Geneva,
Switzerland, 1930
World War II
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Adolf Hitler at a German
National Socialist political rally in
Weimar, October 1930
World War II
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Italian soldiers recruited in 1935, on their way to fight the
Second Italo-Abyssinian War
6.
Frank Capra
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Frank Russell Capra was an Italian-American film director, producer and writer who became the creative force behind some of the major award-winning films of the 1930s and 1940s. Born in Italy and raised in Los Angeles from the age of five, during World War II, Capra served in the U. S. Army Signal Corps and produced propaganda films, such as the Why We Fight series. After World War II, Capras career declined as his films such as Its a Wonderful Life. In succeeding decades, however, these films have been favorably reassessed, outside of directing, Capra was active in the film industry, engaging in various political and social issues. He served as President of the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences, worked alongside the Screenwriters Guild, Capra was born Francesco Rosario Capra in Bisacquino, Sicily, a village near Palermo. He was the youngest of seven children of Salvatore Capra, a grower. The name Capra, notes Capras biographer Joseph McBride, represents his familys closeness to the land, and means goat. For Capra, the journey, which took 13 days, remained in his mind for the rest of his life as one of his worst experiences, very few people have trunks or anything that takes up space. They have just what they can carry in their hands or in a bag, theres no ventilation, and it stinks like hell. Its the most degrading place you could ever be, Capra remembers the ships arrival in New York Harbor, where he saw a statue of a great lady, taller than a church steeple, holding a torch above the land we were about to enter. He recalls his fathers exclamation at the sight, Ciccio, look, thats the greatest light since the star of Bethlehem. The family settled in Los Angeless East Side which Capra described in his autobiography as an Italian ghetto, Capras father worked as a fruit picker and young Capra sold newspapers after school for 10 years, until he graduated from high school. Instead of working after graduating, as his parents wanted, he enrolled in college and he studied chemical engineering and graduated in the spring of 1918. Capra later wrote that his education had changed his whole viewpoint on life from the viewpoint of an alley rat to the viewpoint of a cultured person. Soon after graduating college, Capra was commissioned in the US Army as a second lieutenant, in the Army, he taught mathematics to artillerymen at Fort Point, San Francisco. His father died during the war in an accident, in the Army, Capra contracted Spanish flu and was medically discharged to return home to live with his mother. He became a naturalized U. S. citizen in 1920, living at home with his siblings and mother, Capra was the only family member with a college education, yet he was the only one who remained chronically unemployed. After recovering at home, Capra moved out and spent the few years living in flophouses in San Francisco and hopping freight trains
Frank Capra
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Frank Capra circa 1930s
Frank Capra
Frank Capra
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Walter Brennan,
Gary Cooper,
Irving Bacon,
Barbara Stanwyck, and
James Gleason in Meet John Doe
Frank Capra
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Receiving medal from General
George C. Marshall, 1945
7.
Leni Riefenstahl
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Helene Bertha Amalie Leni Riefenstahl was a German film director, producer, screenwriter, editor, photographer, actress, dancer and propagandist for the Nazis. Born in 1902 Leni Riefenstahl grew up in Germany with her brother Heinz, a talented swimmer and artist, she also became interested in dancing during her childhood, taking dancing lessons and performing across Europe. After seeing a poster for the 1924 film Der Berg des Schicksals. Between 1925 and 1929, she starred in five motion pictures. In 1932, Riefenstahl decided to try directing with her own film called Das Blaue Licht, in the 1930s, she directed Triumph des Willens and Olympia, resulting in worldwide attention and acclaim. Both movies are considered two of the most effective, and technically innovative, propaganda films ever made. Her involvement in Triumph des Willens, however, significantly damaged her career, the exact nature of her relationship with Nazi Party leader Adolf Hitler remains a matter of debate. However, Hitler was in collaboration with Riefenstahl during the production of at least three important Nazi films, and a closer friendship is claimed to have existed. When in 2000 Jodie Foster was planning a biopic on Riefenstahl and they stated that publicly Riefenstahl seemed quite infatuated with Hitler and was in fact the last surviving member of his inner circle. Others go further, arguing that Riefenstahls visions were essential to the success of the Holocaust, after the war, Riefenstahl was arrested, but classified as being a fellow traveler or Nazi sympathiser only and was not associated with war crimes. Throughout her life, she denied having known about the Holocaust, besides directing, Riefenstahl released an autobiography and wrote several books on the Nuba people. Riefenstahl died of cancer on 8 September 2003 at the age of 101 and was buried at Munich Waldfriedhof, helene Bertha Amalie Riefenstahl was born in Germany on 22 August 1902. Her father, Alfred Theodor Paul Riefenstahl, owned a heating and ventilation company. Since Riefenstahl was the child for several years, Alfred wanted her to carry on the family name. However, her mother, Bertha Ida, who had been a part-time seamstress before her marriage, had faith in Riefenstahl, Riefenstahl had a younger brother, Heinz, who was killed at the age of 39 on the Eastern Front in Nazi Germanys war against the Soviet Union. Riefenstahl fell in love with the arts in her childhood and she began to paint and write poetry at the age of four. She was also athletic, and at the age of twelve joined a gymnastics, in 1918, when she was 16, Riefenstahl attended a presentation of Snow White which interested her deeply, it led her to want to be a dancer. Her father instead wanted to provide his daughter with an education that could lead to a more dignified occupation and his wife, however, continued to support her daughters passion
Leni Riefenstahl
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Leni Riefenstahl by Alexander Binder
Leni Riefenstahl
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Riefenstahl stands near
Heinrich Himmler while instructing her camera crew at
Nuremberg, 1934
Leni Riefenstahl
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Hitler congratulating Riefenstahl with flowers, 1934
Leni Riefenstahl
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Riefenstahl in conversation with Propaganda Minister
Joseph Goebbels, 1937
8.
Triumph of the Will
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Triumph of the Will is a 1935 German propaganda film directed, produced, edited, and co-written by Leni Riefenstahl. It chronicles the 1934 Nazi Party Congress in Nuremberg, which was attended by more than 700,000 Nazi supporters, Hitler commissioned the film and served as an unofficial executive producer, his name appears in the opening titles. The films overriding theme is the return of Germany as a great power, Triumph of the Will was released in 1935 and became a prominent example of propaganda in film history. Riefenstahl helped to stage the scenes, directing and rehearsing some of them at least fifty times, Riefenstahl won several awards, not only in Germany but also in the United States, France, Sweden and other countries. The film was popular in the Third Reich, and has continued to influence films, documentaries, in Germany, the film is not censored but the courts commonly classify it as Nazi propaganda which requires an educational context to public screenings. An earlier film by Riefenstahl—The Victory of Faith —showed Hitler and SA leader Ernst Röhm together at the 1933 Nazi party congress, after Röhms murder, the party attempted the destruction of all copies, leaving only one known to have survived in Britain. The direction and sequencing of images is almost the same as that Riefenstahl used in Triumph of the Will a year later, Frank Capras seven-film series Why We Fight is said to have been directly inspired by, and the United States response to, Triumph of the Will. The film begins with a prologue, the commentary in the film. The cruciform shadow of Hitlers plane is visible as it passes over the tiny figures marching below, upon arriving at the Nuremberg airport, Hitler and other Nazi leaders emerge from his plane to thunderous applause and a cheering crowd. He is then driven into Nuremberg, through equally enthusiastic people, day 2, The second day begins with images of Nuremberg at dawn, accompanied by an extract from the Act III Prelude of Richard Wagners Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg. Following this is a montage of the attendees preparing for the opening of the Reich Party Congress, the film then cuts to the opening ceremony, where Rudolf Hess announces the start of the Congress. The camera then introduces much of the Nazi hierarchy and covers their opening speeches, including Joseph Goebbels, Alfred Rosenberg, Hans Frank, Fritz Todt, Robert Ley and Julius Streicher. Then the film cuts to a rally for the Reichsarbeitsdienst. This is also where Hitler gives his first speech on the merits of the Labour Service, the day then ends with a torchlight SA parade in which Viktor Lutze speaks to the crowds. Day 3, The third day starts with a Hitler Youth rally on the parade ground, again the camera covers the Nazi dignitaries arriving and the introduction of Hitler by Baldur von Schirach. Hitler then addresses the Youth, describing in militaristic terms how they must harden themselves, everyone present, including General Werner von Blomberg, then assemble for a military pass and review, featuring Wehrmacht cavalry and various armored vehicles. That night Hitler delivers another speech to low-ranking party officials by torchlight, commemorating the first year since the Nazis took power and declaring that the party, day 4, The fourth day is the climax of the film, where the most memorable of the imagery is presented. Hitler, flanked by Heinrich Himmler and Viktor Lutze, walks through a wide expanse with over 150,000 SA and SS troops standing at attention
Triumph of the Will
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German theatrical poster
Triumph of the Will
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Poster for
Der Sieg des Glaubens by Leni Riefenstahl in 1933
Triumph of the Will
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Hitler congratulates Riefenstahl in 1934
Triumph of the Will
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Soldiers march past a saluting Hitler in Riefenstahl’s film of the 1934 Nazi party rally in Nuremberg
9.
Non-interventionist
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This is based on the grounds that a state should not interfere in the internal politics of another state as well as the principles of state sovereignty and self-determination. A similar phrase is strategic independence, historical examples of supporters of non-interventionism are US Presidents George Washington and Thomas Jefferson, who both favored non-intervention in European wars. Other proponents include United States Senator Robert A. Taft and former United States Representative Ron Paul, non-interventionism is distinct from and often confused with isolationism. Proponents of isolationism differ from proponents of non-interventionism through their advocacy of economic nationalism, non-interventionism is a policy in government only and thus does not exclude non-governmental intervention by organizations. The adoption of such pretexts and the idea that such interventions were to prevent a threat to international peace, additionally, the UNs power to regulate such interventions was hampered during the Cold War due to both the US and USSR holding veto power in the United Nations Security Council. In recent years, New Zealand has become largely non-interventionist, no military support, apart from medical, was given for the first Gulf War, although SAS troops were provided for the war in Afghanistan. Engineers were provided in Iraq after conventional hostilities in the war had ceased, in the Pacific Islands, New Zealand has been involved in humanitarian interventions in the Solomon Islands and East Timor. However, those interventions were non-coercive interventions at the request of the nation being intervened upon and these activities are known as peace keeping. Switzerland has long known for its policy of defensively armed neutrality. This was the most people to answer that question this way in the history of the question, only about a third of respondents felt this way a decade ago. Since the end of the Cold War, new emergent norms of humanitarian intervention are challenging the norm of non-intervention. This is based upon the argument that, while sovereignty gives rights to states, there is also a responsibility to protect its citizens, under this ideal, states can be justified in intervening within other states if that state is failing to protect its citizens. However, after the US Black Hawk Down event in 1993 in Mogadishu and this new norm of humanitarian intervention is not universally accepted and is often seen as still developing. In all of the UN-sanctioned cases, the arguments were further couched in Chapter VII threats to international peace and security. It has been suggested that this newly emerging norm is used to justify the action of only if they want to act. The Humanitarian Responsibilities of Sovereignty, Explaining the Development of a New Norm of Military Intervention for Humanitarian Purposes in International Society in Welsh, Humanitarian Intervention and International Relations Oxford, Oxford Scholarship Online, pp. 29–50. Just and Unjust Wars New York, Basic Books, pp. 86–108
Non-interventionist
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Opposition to wars or aspects of war
10.
Soviet Union
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The Soviet Union, officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was a socialist state in Eurasia that existed from 1922 to 1991. It was nominally a union of national republics, but its government. The Soviet Union had its roots in the October Revolution of 1917 and this established the Russian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic and started the Russian Civil War between the revolutionary Reds and the counter-revolutionary Whites. In 1922, the communists were victorious, forming the Soviet Union with the unification of the Russian, Transcaucasian, Ukrainian, following Lenins death in 1924, a collective leadership and a brief power struggle, Joseph Stalin came to power in the mid-1920s. Stalin suppressed all opposition to his rule, committed the state ideology to Marxism–Leninism. As a result, the country underwent a period of rapid industrialization and collectivization which laid the foundation for its victory in World War II and postwar dominance of Eastern Europe. Shortly before World War II, Stalin signed the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact agreeing to non-aggression with Nazi Germany, in June 1941, the Germans invaded the Soviet Union, opening the largest and bloodiest theater of war in history. Soviet war casualties accounted for the highest proportion of the conflict in the effort of acquiring the upper hand over Axis forces at battles such as Stalingrad. Soviet forces eventually captured Berlin in 1945, the territory overtaken by the Red Army became satellite states of the Eastern Bloc. The Cold War emerged by 1947 as the Soviet bloc confronted the Western states that united in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization in 1949. Following Stalins death in 1953, a period of political and economic liberalization, known as de-Stalinization and Khrushchevs Thaw, the country developed rapidly, as millions of peasants were moved into industrialized cities. The USSR took a lead in the Space Race with Sputnik 1, the first ever satellite, and Vostok 1. In the 1970s, there was a brief détente of relations with the United States, the war drained economic resources and was matched by an escalation of American military aid to Mujahideen fighters. In the mid-1980s, the last Soviet leader, Mikhail Gorbachev, sought to reform and liberalize the economy through his policies of glasnost. The goal was to preserve the Communist Party while reversing the economic stagnation, the Cold War ended during his tenure, and in 1989 Soviet satellite countries in Eastern Europe overthrew their respective communist regimes. This led to the rise of strong nationalist and separatist movements inside the USSR as well, in August 1991, a coup détat was attempted by Communist Party hardliners. It failed, with Russian President Boris Yeltsin playing a role in facing down the coup. On 25 December 1991, Gorbachev resigned and the twelve constituent republics emerged from the dissolution of the Soviet Union as independent post-Soviet states
Soviet Union
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Vladimir Lenin addressing a crowd with Trotsky, 1920
Soviet Union
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Flag
Soviet Union
–
Stalin and
Nikolai Yezhov, head of the
NKVD. After Yezhov was executed, he was
edited out of the image.
Soviet Union
11.
Axis powers
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The Axis powers, also known as the Rome–Berlin–Tokyo Axis, were the nations that fought in World War II against the Allied Powers. The Axis agreed on their opposition to the Allies, but did not completely coordinate their activity, the Axis grew out of the diplomatic efforts of Germany, Italy, and Japan to secure their own specific expansionist interests in the mid-1930s. The first step was the treaty signed by Germany and Italy in October 1936, Mussolini declared on 1 November that all other European countries would from then on rotate on the Rome–Berlin axis, thus creating the term Axis. The almost simultaneous second step was the signing in November 1936 of the Anti-Comintern Pact, Italy joined the Pact in 1937. At its zenith during World War II, the Axis presided over territories that occupied parts of Europe, North Africa. There were no three-way summit meetings and cooperation and coordination was minimal, the war ended in 1945 with the defeat of the Axis powers and the dissolution of their alliance. As in the case of the Allies, membership of the Axis was fluid, at the time he was seeking an alliance with the Weimar Republic against Yugoslavia and France in the dispute over the Free State of Fiume. The term was used by Hungarys prime minister Gyula Gömbös when advocating an alliance of Hungary with Germany, when Mussolini publicly announced the signing on 1 November, he proclaimed the creation of a Rome–Berlin axis. Italy under Duce Benito Mussolini had pursued an alliance of Italy with Germany against France since the early 1920s. He believed that Italy could expand its influence in Europe by allying with Germany against France, in early 1923, as a goodwill gesture to Germany, Italy secretly delivered weapons for the German Army, which had faced major disarmament under the provisions of the Treaty of Versailles. General Hans von Seeckt supported an alliance between Germany and the Soviet Union to invade and partition Poland between them and restore the German-Russian border of 1914. The discussions concluded that Germans still wanted a war of revenge against France but were short on weapons, however at this time Mussolini stressed one important condition that Italy must pursue in an alliance with Germany, that Italy must. Tow them, not be towed by them, the French government warned Italy that it had to choose whether to be on the side of the pro-Versailles powers or that of the anti-Versailles revanchists. Grandi responded that Italy would be willing to offer France support against Germany if France gave Italy its mandate over Cameroon, France refused Italys proposed exchange for support, as it believed Italys demands were unacceptable and the threat from Germany was not yet immediate. In 1932, Gyula Gömbös and the Party of National Unity rose to power in Hungary, Gömbös sought to alter Hungarys post–Treaty of Trianon borders by forming an alliance with Austria and Italy, knowing that Hungary alone was not capable of challenging the Little Entente powers. At the meeting between Gömbös and Mussolini in Rome on 10 November 1932, the question came up of the sovereignty of Austria in relation to the rise to power in Germany of the Nazi Party. Mussolini was worried about Nazi ambitions towards Austria, and indicated that at least in the term he was committed to maintaining Austria as a sovereign state. Italy had concerns over a Germany which included Austria laying land claims to German-populated territories of the South Tyrol within Italy, Mussolini said he hoped the Anschluss could be postponed as long as possible until the breakout of a European war that he estimated would begin in 1938
Axis powers
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Flags of Germany, Japan, and Italy draping the facade of the Embassy of Japan on the Tiergartenstraße (Zoo Street) in Berlin (September 1940)
Axis powers
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Germany's
Führer Adolf Hitler (right) beside Italy's
Duce Benito Mussolini (left)
Axis powers
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Japan's
Prime Minister Hideki Tojo (center) with fellow government representatives of the
Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere. To the left of Tojo, from left to right:
Ba Maw from Burma,
Zhang Jinghui,
Wang Jingwei from China. To the right of Tojo, from left to right,
Wan Waithayakon from Thailand,
José P. Laurel from the Philippines
Subhas Chandra Bose from India
Axis powers
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The signing of the Tripartite Pact by Germany, Japan, and Italy on 27 September 1940 in
Berlin. Seated from left to right are the Japanese ambassador to Germany
Saburō Kurusu, Italian Minister of Foreign Affairs
Galeazzo Ciano, and
Adolf Hitler.
12.
Allies of World War II
–
The Allies of World War II, called the United Nations from the 1 January 1942 declaration, were the countries that together opposed the Axis powers during the Second World War. The Allies promoted the alliance as seeking to stop German, Japanese, at the start of the war on 1 September 1939, the Allies consisted of France, Poland and the United Kingdom, and dependent states, such as the British India. Within days they were joined by the independent Dominions of the British Commonwealth, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Poland was a minor factor after its defeat in 1939, France was a minor factor after its defeat in 1940. China had already been into a war with Japan since the Marco Polo Bridge Incident of 1937. The alliance was formalised by the Declaration by United Nations, from 1 January 1942, however, the name United Nations was rarely used to describe the Allies during the war. The leaders of the Big Three – the UK, the Soviet Union, in 1945, the Allied nations became the basis of the United Nations. The origins of the Allied powers stem from the Allies of World War I, Germany resented signing Treaty of Versailles. The new Weimar republics legitimacy became shaken, by the early 1930s, the Nazi Party led by Adolf Hitler became the dominant revanchist movement in Germany and Hitler and the Nazis gained power in 1933. The Nazi regime demanded the cancellation of the Treaty of Versailles and made claims to German-populated Austria. The likelihood of war was high, and the question was whether it could be avoided through strategies such as appeasement, in Asia, when Japan seized Manchuria in 1931, the League of Nations condemned it for aggression against China. Japan responded by leaving the League of Nations in March 1933, after four quiet years, the Sino-Japanese War erupted in 1937 with Japanese forces invading China. The League of Nations condemned Japans actions and initiated sanctions on Japan, the United States, in particular, was angered at Japan and sought to support China. In March 1939, Germany took over Czechoslovakia, violating the Munich Agreement signed six months before, Britain and France decided that Hitler had no intention to uphold diplomatic agreements and responded by preparing for war. On 31 March 1939, Britain formed the Anglo-Polish military alliance in an effort to avert a German attack on the country, also, the French had a long-standing alliance with Poland since 1921. The Soviet Union sought an alliance with the powers. The agreement secretly divided the independent nations of eastern Europe between the two powers and assured adequate oil supplies for the German war machine, on 1 September 1939, Germany invaded Poland, two days later Britain and France declared war on Germany. Then, on 17 September 1939, the Soviet Union invaded Poland from the east, a Polish government-in-exile was set up and it continued to be one of the Allies, a model followed by other occupied countries. After a quiet winter, Germany in April 1940 invaded and quickly defeated Denmark, Norway, Belgium, Britain and its Empire stood alone against Hitler and Mussolini
Allies of World War II
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Poland first to fight — British wartime poster supporting
Poland after the German invasion, 1939
Allies of World War II
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Allied Powers (and their colonies)
Allies of World War II
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British
Supermarine Spitfire fighter aircraft (left) flying past a German
Heinkel He-111 bomber aircraft (right) during the
Battle of Britain
Allies of World War II
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British tanks during the
North African Campaign
13.
United States Department of War
–
The Secretary of War, a civilian with such responsibilities as finance and purchases and a minor role in directing military affairs, headed the War Department throughout its existence. Retired senior General Henry Knox, then in civilian life, served as the first United States Secretary of War, forming and organizing the department and the army fell to Secretary Knox. On November 8,1800 the War Department building with its records, foundation of the new military academy at West Point along the Hudson River upstream from New York City in 1802 was important to the future growth of the American army. The multiple failures and fiascos of the War of 1812 convinced Washington that thorough reform of the War Department was necessary, winfield Scott became the senior general until the start of the American Civil War in 1861. The bureau chiefs acted as advisers to the Secretary of War while commanding their own troops, the bureaus frequently conflicted among themselves, but in disputes with the commanding general, the Secretary of War generally supported the bureaus. Congress regulated the affairs of the bureaus in detail, and their chiefs looked to that body for support, during the American Civil War, the War Department responsibilities expanded. It handled the recruiting, training, supply, medical care, transportation, a separate command structure took charge of military operations. In the late stages of the war, the Department took charge of refugees and freedmen in the American South through the Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, during Reconstruction, this bureau played a major role in supporting the new Republican governments in the southern states. When military Reconstruction ended in 1877, the U. S. Army removed the last troops from military occupation of the American South, and the last Republican state governments in the region ended. The Army comprised hundreds of small detachments in forts around the West, dealing with Indians, the United States Army, with 39,000 men in 1890 was the smallest and least powerful army of any major power in the late 19th century. By contrast, France had an army of 542,000, temporary volunteers and state militia units mostly fought the Spanish–American War of 1898. This conflict demonstrated the need for effective control over the department. Elihu Root enlarged the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York and established the United States Army War College and he changed the procedures for promotions and organized schools for the special branches of the service. He also devised the principle of rotating officers from staff to line, indeed, Secretary Taft exercised little power, President Theodore Roosevelt made the major decisions. In 1911, Secretary Henry L. Stimson and Major General Leonard Wood, his chief of staff, the general staff assisted them in their efforts to rationalize the organization of the army along modern lines and in supervising the bureaus. Assisted by industrial advisers, they reorganized the system of the army. General March reorganized the general staff along similar lines and gave it authority over departmental operations. After the war, the Congress again granted the bureaus their former independence, in the 1920s, General John J. Pershing realigned the general staff on the pattern of his American Expeditionary Force field headquarters, which he commanded
United States Department of War
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State, War, and Navy Building in 1917
United States Department of War
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The seal of the U.S. Department of War.
14.
Walt Disney Animation Studios
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Founded on October 16,1923, it is a division of The Walt Disney Studios. The studio has produced 56 feature films, from Snow White and it was founded as the Disney Brothers Cartoon Studio in 1923 and incorporated as Walt Disney Productions in 1929. The studio was dedicated to producing short films until it expanded into feature production in 1934. In 1983, Walt Disney Productions named its film studio Walt Disney Pictures. In 2006, Walt Disney Feature Animation took on its current name, the studio also pioneered the art of storyboarding, which is now a standard technique used in both animated and live-action filmmaking. Walt Disney Animation Studios continues to produce films using both traditional animation and computer-generated imagery, at the present, Andrew Millstein is the general manager of the studio for day-to-day business affairs, under the direction of Edwin Catmull and John Lasseter who also oversee Pixar. Kansas City, Missouri, natives Walt Disney and Roy O, in February 1924, the studio moved next door to office space of its own at 4649 Kingswell Avenue. Disney refused, and as Universal owned the rights to Oswald rather than Disney, most of Disneys staff was hired away by Mintz to move over, once Disneys Oswald contract was done in mid-1928. The first two Mickey Mouse cartoons, Plane Crazy and The Galloping Gaucho, were previewed in limited engagements during the summer of 1928, the Mickey Mouse series of sound cartoons, distributed by Powers through Celebrity Productions, quickly became the most popular cartoon series in the United States. A second Disney series of cartoons, the Silly Symphonies. Powers in return signed away Ub Iwerks, who began producing cartoons at his own studio, columbia distributed Disneys shorts for two years before the Disney studio entered a new distribution deal with United Artists in 1932. The result was the Silly Symphony Flowers and Trees, the first film released in full Technicolor. Flowers and Trees was a success, and all Silly Symphonies were subsequently produced in Technicolor. In 1934, Walt Disney gathered several key members and announced his plans to make his first feature animated film. In the course of teaching the classes, Graham and the created or formalized many of the techniques and processes that became the key tenets. During the production of Snow White, work had continued on the Mickey Mouse, Mickey Mouse switched to Technicolor in 1935, by which time the series had added several major supporting characters, among them Mickeys dog Pluto and their friends Donald Duck and Goofy. Donald, Goofy, and Pluto would all be appearing in series of their own by 1940, the Silly Symphonies, which garnered seven Academy Awards, ended in 1939. The success of Snow White allowed Disney to build a new, larger studio on Buena Vista Street in Burbank, Walt Disney Productions had its initial public offering on April 2,1940, with Walt Disney as president and chairman and Roy Disney as CEO
Walt Disney Animation Studios
–
The studio's headquarters at the
Roy E. Disney Animation Building in Burbank
Walt Disney Animation Studios
–
Walt Disney Animation Studios
Walt Disney Animation Studios
–
The building on Kingswell Avenue in Los Feliz which was home to the studio from 1923 to 1926
Walt Disney Animation Studios
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Walt Disney introduces each of the Seven Dwarfs in a scene from the original 1937
Snow White theatrical trailer.
15.
Attack on Pearl Harbor
–
The attack, also known as the Battle of Pearl Harbor, led to the United States entry into World War II. The Japanese military leadership referred to the attack as the Hawaii Operation and Operation AI, Japan intended the attack as a preventive action to keep the U. S. Pacific Fleet from interfering with military actions they planned in Southeast Asia against overseas territories of the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, and the United States. Over the next seven hours there were coordinated Japanese attacks on the U. S. -held Philippines, Guam and Wake Island and on the British Empire in Malaya, Singapore, the attack commenced at 7,48 a. m. The base was attacked by 353 Imperial Japanese fighter planes, bombers, all eight U. S. Navy battleships were damaged, with four sunk. All but the USS Arizona were later raised, and six were returned to service, the Japanese also sank or damaged three cruisers, three destroyers, an anti-aircraft training ship, and one minelayer. 188 U. S. aircraft were destroyed,2,403 Americans were killed and 1,178 others were wounded. Important base installations such as the station, shipyard, maintenance. Japanese losses were light,29 aircraft and five midget submarines lost, one Japanese sailor, Kazuo Sakamaki, was captured. The surprise attack came as a shock to the American people. The following day, December 8, the United States declared war on Japan, the U. S. responded with a declaration of war against Germany and Italy. Domestic support for non-interventionism, which had been fading since the Fall of France in 1940, Roosevelt to proclaim December 7,1941, a date which will live in infamy. Because the attack happened without a declaration of war and without explicit warning, over the next decade, Japan continued to expand into China, leading to all-out war between those countries in 1937. Japan spent considerable effort trying to isolate China and achieve sufficient resource independence to attain victory on the mainland, from December 1937, events such as the Japanese attack on USS Panay, the Allison incident, and the Nanking Massacre swung public opinion in the West sharply against Japan. Fearing Japanese expansion, the United States, the United Kingdom, in 1940, Japan invaded French Indochina in an effort to control supplies reaching China. The United States halted shipments of airplanes, parts, machine tools, and aviation gasoline to Japan, an invasion of the Philippines was also considered necessary by Japanese war planners. War Plan Orange had envisioned defending the Philippines with a 40 and this was opposed by Douglas MacArthur, who felt that he would need a force ten times that size, and was never implemented. By 1941, U. S. planners anticipated abandonment of the Philippines at the outbreak of war and orders to that effect were given in late 1941 to Admiral Thomas Hart, commander of the Asiatic Fleet
Attack on Pearl Harbor
–
Photograph of
Battleship Row taken from a Japanese plane at the beginning of the attack. The explosion in the center is a torpedo strike on the
USS West Virginia. Two attacking Japanese planes can be seen: one over the
USS Neosho and one over the Naval Yard.
Attack on Pearl Harbor
–
Pearl Harbor on October 30, 1941, looking southwest
Attack on Pearl Harbor
–
Route followed by the Japanese fleet to Pearl Harbor and back.
Attack on Pearl Harbor
–
An Imperial Japanese Navy
Mitsubishi A6M Zero fighter on the aircraft carrier
Akagi.
16.
George C. Marshall
–
George Catlett Marshall, Jr. was an American statesman and soldier. He was Chief of Staff of the United States Army under presidents Franklin D. Roosevelt and Harry S. Truman and he was hailed as the organizer of victory by Winston Churchill for his leadership of the Allied victory in World War II. Born in Uniontown, Pennsylvania, Marshall was a 1901 graduate of the Virginia Military Institute, after serving briefly as commandant of students at the Danville Military Academy in Danville, Virginia, Marshall received his commission as a second lieutenant of Infantry in February,1902. He was the Honor Graduate of his Infantry-Cavalry School Course in 1907, in 1916 Marshall was assigned as aide-de-camp to J. Franklin Bell, the commander of the Western Department. After the United States entered World War I, Marshall served with Bell while Bell commanded the Department of the East. He was assigned to the staff of the 1st Division, and assisted with the mobilization and training in the United States. Subsequently assigned to the staff of the American Expeditionary Forces headquarters, after the war, Marshall was assigned as an aide-de-camp to John J. Pershing, who was then serving as the Armys Chief of Staff. He later served on the Army staff, commanded the 15th Infantry Regiment in China, in 1927, he became assistant commandant of the Armys Infantry School, where he modernized command and staff processes, which proved to be of major benefit during World War II. In 1932 and 1933 he commanded the 8th Infantry Regiment and Fort Screven, Marshall commanded 5th Brigade, 3rd Infantry Division and Vancouver Barracks from 1936 to 1938, and received promotion to brigadier general. During this command, Marshall was also responsible for 35 Civilian Conservation Corps camps in Oregon, in July 1938, Marshall was assigned to the War Plans Division on the War Department staff, and he was subsequently appointed as the Armys Deputy Chief of Staff. When Chief of Staff Malin Craig retired in 1939, Marshall became acting Chief of Staff and he served as Chief of Staff until the end of the war in 1945. As Chief of Staff, Marshall organized the largest military expansion in U. S. history, Marshall retired from active service in 1945, but remained on active duty, a requirement for holders of five-star rank. As Secretary of State from 1947 to 1949, Marshall received credit for the Marshall Plan for Europes post-war rebuilding, after resigning as Secretary of State, Marshall served as chairman of American Battle Monuments Commission and president of the American National Red Cross. After resigning as Defense Secretary, Marshall retired to his home in Virginia and he died in 1959 and was buried at Arlington National Cemetery. George Catlett Marshall, Jr. was born into a family in Uniontown, Pennsylvania. Marshall was a scion of an old Virginia family, as well as a distant relative of former Chief Justice John Marshall, Marshall graduated from the Virginia Military Institute, where he was initiated into the Kappa Alpha Order in 1901. He was an All-Southern tackle for the VMI Keydets varsity football team in 1900, following graduation from VMI in 1901, Marshall sat for a competitive examination for a commission in the U. S. Army. While awaiting the results he took the position of Commandant of Students at the Danville Military Institute in Danville, Marshall passed the exam and was commissioned a second lieutenant in February,1902
George C. Marshall
–
General of the Army George Marshall
GCB
George C. Marshall
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1900 VMI Keydets football team. Marshall is in the middle row, second from right.
George C. Marshall
–
Marshall with
Secretary of War Henry Stimson
George C. Marshall
–
Medallion issued in 1982 to honor George Marshall's post-war work for Europe
17.
Marshall Plan
–
The plan was in operation for four years beginning April 8,1948. The goals of the United States were to rebuild war-devastated regions, remove trade barriers, modernize industry, make Europe prosperous once more, the Marshall Plan aid was divided amongst the participant states roughly on a per capita basis. A larger amount was given to the industrial powers, as the prevailing opinion was that their resuscitation was essential for general European revival. Somewhat more aid per capita was also directed towards the Allied nations, the largest recipient of Marshall Plan money was the United Kingdom, followed by France and West Germany. Some 18 European countries received Plan benefits, although offered participation, the Soviet Union refused Plan benefits, and also blocked benefits to Eastern Bloc countries, such as East Germany and Poland. The United States provided similar aid programs in Asia, but they were not called Marshall Plan, the initiative is named after Secretary of State George Marshall, who also served as the United States Army Chief of staff during WWII. The plan had bipartisan support in Washington, where the Republicans controlled Congress, Marshall spoke of an urgent need to help the European recovery in his address at Harvard University in June 1947. The purpose of the Marshall Plan was to aid in the recovery of nations after WWII as well as to antagonize the Soviet Union. In order to combat the effects of the Marshall Plan, the USSR developed its own economic plan and it was not as effective as the Marshall Plan, and in some ways contradictory to eastern block countries that served alongside the axis powers in WWII. The phrase equivalent of the Marshall Plan is often used to describe a proposed large-scale economic rescue program, the reconstruction plan, developed at a meeting of the participating European states, was drafted on June 5,1947. It offered the aid to the Soviet Union and its allies. In fact, the Soviet Union prevented its satellite states from accepting, Secretary Marshall became convinced Stalin had no interest in helping restore economic health in Western Europe. President Harry Truman signed the Marshall Plan on April 3,1948, the Marshall Plan was replaced by the Mutual Security Plan at the end of 1951, that new plan gave away about $7 billion annually until 1961 when it was replaced by another program. The ERP addressed each of the obstacles to postwar recovery, the plan looked to the future, and did not focus on the destruction caused by the war. By 1952, as the funding ended, the economy of every participant state had surpassed pre-war levels, for all Marshall Plan recipients, by the end of World War II, much of Europe was devastated. Sustained aerial bombardment during the war had badly damaged most major cities, the regions trade flows had been thoroughly disrupted, millions were in refugee camps living on aid from United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration and other agencies. Food shortages were severe, especially in the winter of 1946–47. From July 1945 through June 1946, the United States shipped 16.5 million tons of food, primarily wheat, to Europe and Japan
Marshall Plan
–
The hunger-winter of 1947, thousands protest in West Germany against the disastrous food situation (March 31, 1947). The sign says: We want coal, we want bread
Marshall Plan
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The labeling used on Marshall Plan aid packages
Marshall Plan
–
First page of the Marshall Plan
Marshall Plan
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1960 West German stamp honoring George Marshall
18.
Nobel Peace Prize
–
Per Alfred Nobels will, the recipient is selected by the Norwegian Nobel Committee, a five-member committee appointed by the Parliament of Norway. Since 1990, the prize is awarded on 10 December in Oslo City Hall each year, the prize was formerly awarded in the Atrium of the University of Oslo Faculty of Law, the Norwegian Nobel Institute, and the Parliament. Due to its nature, the Nobel Peace Prize has, for most of its history. Alfred Nobels will further specified that the prize be awarded by a committee of five chosen by the Norwegian Parliament. Nobel died in 1896 and he did not leave an explanation for choosing peace as a prize category, as he was a trained chemical engineer, the categories for chemistry and physics were obvious choices. The reasoning behind the peace prize is less clear, some Nobel scholars suggest it was Nobels way to compensate for developing destructive forces. His inventions included dynamite and ballistite, both of which were used violently during his lifetime, ballistite was used in war and the Irish Republican Brotherhood, an Irish nationalist organization, carried out dynamite attacks in the 1880s. Nobel was also instrumental in turning Bofors from an iron and steel producer into an armaments company and it is unclear why Nobel wished the Peace Prize to be administered in Norway, which was ruled in union with Sweden at the time of Nobels death. The Norwegian Nobel Committee speculates that Nobel may have considered Norway better suited to awarding the prize, the Norwegian Parliament appoints the Norwegian Nobel Committee, which selects the Nobel Peace Prize laureate. Each year, the Norwegian Nobel Committee specifically invites qualified people to submit nominations for the Nobel Peace Prize, the statutes of the Nobel Foundation specify categories of individuals who are eligible to make nominations for the Nobel Peace Prize. Nominations by committee members can be submitted up to the date of the first Committee meeting after this deadline. In 2009, a record 205 nominations were received, but the record was again in 2010 with 237 nominations, in 2011. Nominations from 1901 to 1956, however, have released in a database. Nominations are considered by the Nobel Committee at a meeting where a short list of candidates for review is created. Advisers usually have some months to complete reports, which are considered by the Committee to select the laureate. The Committee seeks to achieve a decision, but this is not always possible. The Chairman of the Norwegian Nobel Committee presents the Nobel Peace Prize in the presence of the King of Norway on 10 December each year, the Peace Prize is the only Nobel Prize not presented in Stockholm. The Nobel laureate receives a diploma, a medal, and a document confirming the prize amount, as of 2013, the prize was worth 10 million SEK
Nobel Peace Prize
–
Alfred Nobel
Nobel Peace Prize
–
Nobel Peace Prize
Nobel Peace Prize
–
The
Norwegian Nobel Institute in
Oslo, Norway
Nobel Peace Prize
–
The
14th Dalai Lama and
Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Nobel Peace Prize laureates
19.
Signal Corps (United States Army)
–
The United States Army Signal Corps develops, tests, provides, and manages communications and information systems support for the command and control of combined arms forces. It was established in 1860, the brainchild of United States Army Major Albert J. Myer, support for the command and control of combined arms forces. Signal support includes Network Operations and management of the electromagnetic spectrum, while serving as a medical officer in Texas in 1856, Albert James Myer proposed that the Army use his visual communications system, called aerial telegraphy. When the Army adopted his system on 21 June 1860, the Signal Corps was born with Myer as the first, Major Myer first used his visual signaling system on active service in New Mexico during the early 1860s Navajo expedition. For nearly three years, Myer was forced to rely on detailed personnel, although he envisioned a separate, myers vision came true on 3 March 1863, when Congress authorized a regular Signal Corps for the duration of the war. Some 2,900 officers and enlisted men served, although not at any single time, even in the Civil War, the wigwag system, restricted to line-of-sight communications, was waning in the face of the electric telegraph. Initially, Myer used his office downtown in Washington, D. C. to house the Signal Corps School, when it was found to need additional space, he sought out other locations. First came Fort Greble, one of the Defenses of Washington during the Civil War, the size and location were outstanding. The school remained there for over 20 years and ultimately was renamed Fort Myer, Signal Corps detachments participated in campaigns fighting Native Americans in the west, such as the Powder River Expedition of 1865. The electric telegraph, in addition to signaling, became a Signal Corps responsibility in 1867. Within 12 years, the Corps had constructed, and was maintaining and operating, in 1870, the Signal Corps established a congressionally mandated national weather service. Within a decade, with the assistance of Lieutenant Adolphus Greely, Myer died in 1880, having attained the rank of brigadier general and the title of Chief Signal Officer. The weather bureau became part of the U. S. Department of Agriculture in 1891, the Signal Corps role in the Spanish–American War of 1898 and the subsequent Philippine Insurrection was on a grander scale than it had been in the Civil War. In 1908, on Fort Myer, Virginia, the Wright brothers made test flights of the Armys first airplane built to Signal Corps specifications, reflecting the need for an official pilot rating, War Department Bulletin No. 2, released on 24 February 1911, established a Military Aviator rating, Army aviation remained within the Signal Corps until 1918, when it became the Army Air Service. The Signal Corps lost no time in meeting the challenges of World War I, Chief Signal Officer George Owen Squier worked closely with private industry to perfect radio tubes while creating a major signal laboratory at Camp Alfred Vail. Early radiotelephones developed by the Signal Corps were introduced into the European theater in 1918, while the new American voice radios were superior to the radiotelegraph sets, telephone and telegraph remained the major technology of World War I. A pioneer in radar, Colonel William Blair, director of the Signal Corps laboratories at Fort Monmouth, even before the United States entered World War II, mass production of two radar sets, the SCR-268 and the SCR-270, had begun
Signal Corps (United States Army)
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US Army Signal Corps automobile at the Manassas maneuvers in 1904
Signal Corps (United States Army)
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Coat of Arms
Signal Corps (United States Army)
–
New Guinea. Radio Operator, Cpl. John Robbins of
Louisville, Nebraska, 41st Signal, 41st Infantry Division, operating his SCR 188 in a sandbagged hut at Station NYU. Dobodura, New Guinea on 9 May 1943.
Signal Corps (United States Army)
–
Argosy Lemal c. 1940, one of two Australian vessels acquired by the SWPA chief signal officer for the SWPA CP fleet.
20.
Japanese invasion of Manchuria
–
The Japanese invasion of Manchuria began on September 18,1931, when the Kwantung Army of the Empire of Japan invaded Manchuria immediately following the Mukden Incident. The Japanese established a state called Manchukuo, and their occupation lasted until the end of World War II. The Chinese-Japanese dispute in July 1931 was followed by the Mukden Incident, the same day as the Mukden Incident, the Japanese Imperial General Headquarters, which had decided upon a policy of localizing the incident, communicated its decision to the Kwantung Army command. However, Kwantung Army commander-in-chief General Shigeru Honjō instead ordered his forces to proceed to expand all along the South Manchurian Railway. Between September 20 and September 25, Japanese forces took Hsiungyueh, Changtu, Liaoyang, Tungliao, Tiaonan, Kirin, Chiaoho, Huangkutun and this effectively secured control of Liaoning and Kirin provinces and the main line of rail communications to Korea. Tokyo was shocked by the news of the Army acting without orders from the central government, during this era, the elected government could be held hostage by the Army and Navy, since Army and Navy members were constitutionally necessary for the formation of cabinets. Without their support, the government would collapse, after the Liaoning Provincial government fled Mukden, it was replaced by a Peoples Preservation Committee which declared the secession of Liaoning province from the Republic of China. Other secessionist movements were organized in Japanese-occupied Kirin by General Xi Qia head of the New Kirin Army, on October 13, General Chang Hai-peng ordered three regiments of the Hsingan Reclamation Army under General Xu Jinglong north to take the capital of Heilongjiang province at Tsitsihar. Some elements in the city offered to surrender the old walled town. However his advance guard was attacked by General Dou Lianfangs troops, during this fight the Nenjiang railroad bridge was dynamited by troops loyal to General Ma Zhanshan to prevent its use. Using the repair of the Nen River Bridge as the pretext, despite his failure to hold the bridge, General Ma Zhanshan became a national hero in China for his resistance at Nenjiang Bridge, which was widely reported in the Chinese and international press. The publicity inspired more volunteers to enlist in the Anti-Japanese Volunteer Armies, the repaired bridge made possible the further advance of Japanese forces and their armored trains. Additional troops from Japan, notably the 4th Mixed Brigade from the 8th Division, were sent in November, on November 15,1931, despite having lost more than 400 men and 300 left wounded since November 5, General Ma declined a Japanese ultimatum to surrender Tsitsihar. On November 17, in weather,3,500 Japanese troops, under the command of General Jirō Tamon, mounted an attack. In late November 1931, General Honjō dispatched 10,000 soldiers in 13 armored trains, escorted by a squadron of bombers and this force had advanced to within 30 kilometres of Chinchow, when it received an order to withdraw. However, the two failed to reach a lasting agreement. The Wakatsuki government soon fell and was replaced by a new cabinet led by Prime Minister Inukai Tsuyoshi, further negotiations with the Kuomintang government failed, the Japanese government authorized the reinforcement of troops in Manchuria. The total strength of the Kwantung Army was thus increased to around 60,450 men, on December 28, a new government was formed in China after all members of the old Nanjing government resigned
Japanese invasion of Manchuria
–
Japanese troops marching into Mukden on September 18, 1931
21.
Second Italo-Abyssinian War
–
The Second Italo-Ethiopian War, also referred to as the Second Italo-Abyssinian War, was a colonial war that started in October 1935, after a battle on 5 December 1934, and ended in May 1936. The war was fought between the forces of the Kingdom of Italy and the armed forces of the Ethiopian Empire. The war resulted in the occupation of Ethiopia. Politically, like the Mukden Incident in 1931, the Abyssinia Crisis in 1935 is often seen as a demonstration of the ineffectiveness of the League of Nations. Italy and Ethiopia were member nations and yet the League was unable to control Italy or to protect Ethiopia when Italy clearly violated Article X of the Covenant of the League of Nations, the victory also brought Mussolini unprecedented popularity within Italy. Shortly after the war, Ethiopia was consolidated with Eritrea and Italian Somaliland into Italian East Africa, the Italo-Ethiopian Treaty of 1928 stated that the border between Italian Somaliland and Ethiopia was twenty-one leagues parallel to the Benadir coast. In 1930, Italy built a fort at the Welwel oasis in the Ogaden, the fort at Welwel was well beyond the twenty-one league limit and the Italians were encroaching on Ethiopian territory. In November 1934, Ethiopian territorial troops, escorting the Anglo-Ethiopian boundary commission, the British members of the commission soon withdrew to avoid embarrassing Italy. Italian and Ethiopian troops remained encamped in close proximity, in early December 1934, the tensions on both sides erupted into what was known as the Wal Wal incident. The resultant clash left approximately 110 Ethiopians and between 30 and 50 Italians and Somalis dead and led to the Abyssinia Crisis at the League of Nations, on 4 September 1935, the League of Nations exonerated both parties for the Wal Wal incident. The United Kingdom and France, keen to keep Italy as an ally against Germany, Italy soon began to build its forces on the borders of Ethiopia in Eritrea and Italian Somaliland. To this end, on 7 January 1935, France signed an agreement with Italy giving them essentially a hand in Africa to secure Italian co-operation. Next, in April, Italy was further emboldened by being a member of the Stresa Front, in June, non-interference was further assured by a political rift that had developed between the United Kingdom and France following the Anglo-German Naval Agreement. His comments stirred up a furor inside Japan, where there had been popular affinity for the African Empire, with an attack appearing inevitable, Emperor Haile Selassie ordered a general mobilization of the Army of the Ethiopian Empire. His new recruits consisted of around 500,000 men, some of whom were armed with nothing more than spears, many soldiers carried more modern weapons, including rifles, but many of these were from before 1900 and were outdated. Haile Selassies Mobilization Order stated, All men and boys able to carry a spear go to Addis Ababa, every married man will bring his wife to cook and wash for him. Every unmarried man will bring any unmarried woman he can find to cook, women with babies, the blind, and those too aged and infirm to carry a spear are excused. Anyone found at home after receiving this order will be hanged, according to Italian estimates, on the eve of hostilities the Ethiopians had an army of 350, 000–760,000 men
Second Italo-Abyssinian War
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Italian artillery in Tembien, Ethiopia, in 1936.
Second Italo-Abyssinian War
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Medical supplies for the front in Addis Ababa.
Second Italo-Abyssinian War
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Italian soldiers recruited in 1935 in
Montevarchi to fight the Second Italo-Abyssinian War.
Second Italo-Abyssinian War
–
Emperor of
Ethiopia Haile Selassie I
22.
The Nazis Strike
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The Nazis Strike was the second film of Frank Capras Why We Fight propaganda film series. It introduces Germany as a nation whose aggressive ambitions began in 1863 with Otto von Bismarck, from the wilds of Mongolia rode a mighty army of fierce horsemen, led by Genghis Khan. The barbarian horde swept across Asia and Eastern Europe, Genghis Khan conquered most of the world of the thirteenth century. Adolf Hitler was determined to outdo him, and conquer all the world of the twentieth century, set up at Munich was an institute devoted to the little-known science of geopolitics, vaguely defined as the military control of space. Germanys leading geopolitician, a general, Karl Haushofer, was head man. Here has gathered more information about your home town than you yourself know. To the German geopolitician, the world is not made up of men and women and children and it is made up of only two elements – labor and raw materials. The geopoliticians job was to transform Hitlers ambition to control these elements into cold, on their map our planet is neatly divided into land and water. Water forms three quarters of the surface, land only one quarter. And in that one quarter of the surface lies the worlds wealth, all its natural resources -. Control the land and you control the world - that was Hitlers theory, the other area, which consists of Europe, Asia and Africa, makes up the other two thirds. This supercontinent, which call the World Island, is not only twice as large as the rest of the land area. The heart of this World Island comprises Eastern Europe and most of Asia and this they call the Heartland, which just about coincides with the old empire of Genghis Khan. Hitlers step-by-step plan for world conquest can be summarized this way, Conquer Eastern Europe, Conquer the Heartland and you dominate the World Island. That was the dream in Hitlers mind as he stood at Nuremberg, meanwhile, within Germany the Nazis are beginning an enormous process of rearmament. Germany then begins its expansion with the first target being Austria. He then uses his Sudeten stooges under Konrad Henlein to soften up Czechoslovakia and annex the Sudetenland with the help of a Britain, kaiser, Wendell Willkie and Senator Robert Wagner. The film concludes with the Invasion of Poland, which is depicted with many inaccuracies, animation is also used to graphically show how Polish army units were encircled and destroyed
The Nazis Strike
23.
Geopolitik
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Geopolitik is the branch of uniquely German geostrategy. It developed as a strain of thought after Otto von Bismarcks unification of the German states. Central concepts concerning the German race regarding economic space demonstrate continuity from the German Empire to Adolf Hitlers Third Reich and it developed from widely varied sources, including the writings of Oswald Spengler, Alexander Humboldt, Karl Ritter, Friedrich Ratzel, Rudolf Kjellén, and Karl Haushofer. It was eventually adapted to accommodate the ideology of Hitler and its defining characteristic is the inclusion of organic state theory, informed by social Darwinism. It was characterized by clash of civilizations-style theorizing and it is perhaps the closest of any school of geostrategy to a purely nationalistic conception of geostrategy, which ended up masking other more universal elements. Germany acted as a revisionist state within the system during both World Wars by attempting to overthrow British domination, and counter what it saw as rising US. German foreign policy was largely consistent in both wars, German geopolitik contributed to Nazi foreign policy chiefly in the strategy and justifications for Lebensraum. It contributed five ideas to German foreign policy in the period, the organic state, lebensraum, autarky, pan-regions. Geostrategy as a science is both descriptive and analytical like political geography but adds a normative element in its strategic prescriptions for national policy. While it stems from earlier US and British geostrategy, German geopolitik adopts an essentialist outlook toward the national interest, oversimplifying issues, as a new and essentialist ideology, geopolitik found itself in a position to prey upon the post–World War I insecurity of the populace. In 1919, General Karl Haushofer would become professor of geography at the University of Munich and that would serve as a platform for the spread of his geopolitical ideas, magazine articles and books. By 1924, as the leader of the German geopolitik school of thought, Haushofer would establish the Zeitschrift für Geopolitik monthly and his ideas would reach a wider audience with the publication of Volk ohne Raum by Hans Grimm in 1926, popularizing his concept of lebensraum. While Hitlers speeches would attract the masses, Haushofers works served to bring the remaining intellectuals into the fold, the key reorientation in each dyad is that the focus is on land-based empire rather than naval imperialism. Ostensibly based upon the theory of US naval officer Alfred Thayer Mahan. He justified Lebensraum, even at the cost of other nations existence, Ratzels writings coincided with the growth of German industrialism after the Franco-Prussian war and the subsequent search for markets that brought it into competition with England. His writings served as justification for imperial expansion. Influenced by Mahan, Ratzel wrote of aspirations for German naval reach, agreeing that sea power was self-sustaining, as the profit from trade would pay for the merchant marine, here, Hitler diverged with Haushofers writings in consigning Germany to sole pursuit of land power. Ratzels key contribution was the expansion on the conception of geography
Geopolitik
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Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany
Geopolitik
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German Empire, 1871–1918
Geopolitik
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Walter Rathenau,
Foreign Minister of Germany
Geopolitik
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Theobald von Bethmann Hollweg,
Chancellor of the German Empire from 1909 to 1917. Controversial historian
Fritz Fischer labeled him the "Hitler of 1914."
24.
Anschluss
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Anschluss is the term used to describe the annexation of Austria into Nazi Germany in March 1938. German spelling, until the German orthography reform of 1996, was Anschluß, the idea of an Anschluss began after the Unification of Germany excluded Austria and the Austrian Germans from the Prussian-dominated German nation-state in 1871. Austria was annexed by Nazi Germany on 12 March 1938, there had been several years of pressure from supporters in Austria and Germany for the Heim ins Reich movement. Earlier, Nazi Germany had provided support for the Austrian National Socialist Party in its bid to seize power from Austrias Fatherland Front government. Infuriated, on 11 March, Adolf Hitler threatened invasion of Austria, and demanded Chancellor von Schuschniggs resignation, Hitlers plan was for Seyss-Inquart to call immediately for German troops to rush to Austrias aid, restoring order and giving the invasion an air of legitimacy. In the face of threat, Schuschnigg informed Seyss-Inquart that the plebiscite would be cancelled. Nevertheless, the German Führer underestimated his opposition, Schuschnigg did resign on the evening of 11 March, but President Wilhelm Miklas refused to appoint Seyss-Inquart as Chancellor. At 8,45 pm, Hitler, tired of waiting, around 10 pm, a forged telegram was sent in Seyss-Inquarts name asking for German troops, since he was not yet Chancellor and was unable to do so himself. Seyss-Inquart was not installed as Chancellor until after midnight, when Miklas resigned himself to the inevitable, clearly it was Hitler, and not Schuschnigg, who was terrified by the potential results of the scheduled plebiscite, and that was the best indication of where Austrians loyalty lay. The newly installed Nazis, within two days, transferred power to Germany, and Wehrmacht troops entered Austria to enforce the Anschluss, Austrian citizens of Jewish origin were not allowed to vote. No military confrontation took place, and even the strongest voices against the annexation, particularly Fascist Italy, France, the loudest verbal protest was voiced by the government of Mexico. Although Austria had never been a part of the German Empire, Austria was predominantly ethnically German, prior to annexing Austria in 1938, Nazi Germany had remilitarized the Rhineland, and the Saar region was returned to Germany after 15 years of occupation through a plebiscite. In March 1939, Hitler then dismantled Czechoslovakia by recognising the independence of Slovakia and that same year, Memelland was returned from Lithuania. With the Anschluss, the Republic of Austria ceased to exist as an independent state, at the end of World War II, a Provisional Austrian Government under Karl Renner was set up by conservatives, social democrats and communists on 27 April 1945. It cancelled the Anschluss the same day and was recognized by the Allies in the following months. In 1955 the Austrian State Treaty re-established Austria as a sovereign state, the idea of grouping all Germans into a nation-state country had been the subject of debate in the 19th century from the ending of the Holy Roman Empire until the ending of the German Confederation. Austria had wanted a Großdeutsche Lösung, whereby the German states would be united under the leadership of the Austrian Germans and this solution would include all the German states, but Prussia would have to take second place. This controversy, called dualism, dominated Prusso-Austrian diplomacy and the politics of the German states, by 1871, the decision was to form a kleindeutsch German Empire based on Prussia and excluding Austria
Anschluss
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German and Austrian border police dismantle a border post in 1938.
Anschluss
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Cheering crowds greet the Nazis in Vienna.
Anschluss
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Hitler announces the Anschluss on the
Heldenplatz, Vienna, 15 March 1938.
Anschluss
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Immediately after the Anschluss, Vienna’s Jews were forced by the local population to clean the city’s pavements.
25.
German occupation of Czechoslovakia
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German leader Adolf Hitlers pretext for this action was the alleged privations suffered by the ethnic German population living in those regions. New and extensive Czechoslovak border fortifications were located in the same area. Following the Anschluss of Austria to Nazi Germany, in March 1938, the incorporation of the Sudetenland into Germany that begun on 1 October 1938 left the rest of Czechoslovakia weak, and it became powerless to resist subsequent occupation. On 15 March 1939, the German Wehrmacht moved into the remainder of Czechoslovakia and, from Prague Castle, the occupation ended with the surrender of Germany following World War II. Sudeten German pro-Nazi leader Konrad Henlein offered the Sudeten German Party as the agent for Hitlers campaign, Henlein met with Hitler in Berlin on 28 March 1938, where he was instructed to raise demands unacceptable to the Czechoslovak government led by president Edvard Beneš. On 24 April, the SdP issued the Karlsbader Programm, demanding autonomy for the Sudetenland, if Henleins demands were granted, the Sudetenland would then be able to align itself with Nazi Germany. I am asking neither that Germany be allowed to oppress three and a half million Frenchmen, nor am I asking that three and a half million Englishmen be placed at our mercy. Rather I am simply demanding that the oppression of three and a half million Germans in Czechoslovakia cease and that the right to self-determination take its place. As the tepid reaction to the German Anschluss with Austria had shown, the governments of France, the French government did not wish to face Germany alone and took its lead from the British government and its prime minister, Neville Chamberlain. Chamberlain contended that Sudeten German grievances were justified and believed that Hitlers intentions were limited, Britain and France, therefore, advised Czechoslovakia to concede to the German demands. Beneš resisted, and on 20 May 1938 a partial mobilization was under way in response to possible German invasion, ten days later, Hitler signed a secret directive for war against Czechoslovakia to begin no later than 1 October. In the meantime, the British government demanded that Beneš request a mediator, not wishing to sever his governments ties with Western Europe, Beneš reluctantly accepted. The British appointed Lord Runciman and instructed him to persuade Beneš to agree to a plan acceptable to the Sudeten Germans, on 2 September, Beneš submitted the Fourth Plan, granting nearly all the demands of the Karlsbader Programm. Intent on obstructing conciliation, however, the SdP held demonstrations that provoked police action in Ostrava on 7 September, the Sudeten Germans broke off negotiations on 13 September, after which violence and disruption ensued. As Czechoslovak troops attempted to order, Henlein flew to Germany. On the same day, Hitler met with Chamberlain and demanded the swift takeover of the Sudetenland by the Third Reich under threat of war, the Czechs, Hitler claimed, were slaughtering the Sudeten Germans. Chamberlain referred the demand to the British and French governments, both accepted, the Czechoslovak government resisted, arguing that Hitlers proposal would ruin the nations economy and lead ultimately to German control of all of Czechoslovakia. The United Kingdom and France issued an ultimatum, making a French commitment to Czechoslovakia contingent upon acceptance, the next day, however, Hitler added new demands, insisting that the claims of Poland and Hungary also be satisfied
German occupation of Czechoslovakia
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From left to right:
Chamberlain,
Daladier,
Hitler,
Mussolini, and
Ciano pictured before signing the Munich Agreement, which gave the
Sudetenland to Germany
German occupation of Czechoslovakia
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Edvard Beneš, the second
President of Czechoslovakia and leader of the
Czechoslovak government-in-exile.
German occupation of Czechoslovakia
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Hácha, Hitler and Göring meeting in Berlin, 14/15 March 1939
German occupation of Czechoslovakia
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First German poster in Prague, 15 March 1939. English Translation: "Notice to the Population. By order of the Fuhrer and Supreme Commander of the German Wehrmacht. I have taken over, as of today, the executive power in the
Land of Bohemia. Headquarters, Prague, 15 March 1939. Commander, 3rd Army, Blaskowitz, General of Infantry." The Czech translation includes numerous grammatical errors.
26.
Invasion of Poland (1939)
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The campaign ended on 6 October with Germany and the Soviet Union dividing and annexing the whole of Poland under the terms of the German-Soviet Frontier Treaty. German forces invaded Poland from the north, south, and west the morning after the Gleiwitz incident, as the Wehrmacht advanced, Polish forces withdrew from their forward bases of operation close to the Polish–German border to more established lines of defence to the east. After the mid-September Polish defeat in the Battle of the Bzura, Polish forces then withdrew to the southeast where they prepared for a long defence of the Romanian Bridgehead and awaited expected support and relief from France and the United Kingdom. While those two countries had pacts with Poland and had declared war on Germany on 3 September, in the end their aid to Poland was very limited. The Soviet Red Armys invasion of Eastern Poland on 17 September, in accordance with a protocol of the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact. Facing a second front, the Polish government concluded the defence of the Romanian Bridgehead was no longer feasible, on 6 October, following the Polish defeat at the Battle of Kock, German and Soviet forces gained full control over Poland. The success of the invasion marked the end of the Second Polish Republic, the Soviet Union incorporated its newly acquired areas into its constituent Belarusian and Ukrainian republics, and immediately started a campaign of sovietization. In the aftermath of the invasion, a collective of underground resistance formed the Polish Underground State within the territory of the former Polish state. Many of the exiles that managed to escape Poland subsequently joined the Polish Armed Forces in the West. On 30 January 1933, the Nazi Party, under its leader Adolf Hitler, as part of this long-term policy, Hitler at first pursued a policy of rapprochement with Poland, trying to improve opinion in Germany, culminating in the German–Polish Non-Aggression Pact of 1934. Earlier, Hitlers foreign policy worked to weaken ties between Poland and France, and attempted to manoeuvre Poland into the Anti-Comintern Pact, forming a front against the Soviet Union. The Poles feared that their independence would eventually be threatened altogether, the so-called Polish Corridor constituted land long disputed by Poland and Germany, and inhabited by a Polish majority. The Corridor had become a part of Poland after the Treaty of Versailles, many Germans also wanted the city of Danzig and its environs to be reincorporated into Germany. Danzig was a city with a German majority. It had been separated from Germany after Versailles and made into the nominally independent Free City of Danzig, the series of border violations, which are unbearable to a great power, prove that the Poles no longer are willing to respect the German frontier. Poland participated with Germany in the partition of Czechoslovakia that followed the Munich Agreement and it coerced Czechoslovakia to surrender the region of Český Těšín by issuing an ultimatum to that effect on 30 September 1938, which was accepted by Czechoslovakia on 1 October. This region had a Polish majority and had been disputed between Czechoslovakia and Poland in the aftermath of World War I, the Polish annexation of Slovak territory later served as the justification for the Slovak state to join the German invasion. Poland rejected this proposal, fearing that after accepting these demands, it would become subject to the will of Germany
Invasion of Poland (1939)
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Vyacheslav Molotov signs the
Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, a German–Soviet non-aggression pact.
Invasion of Poland (1939)
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From left to right:
Luftwaffe preparing to bomb
Wieluń,
SMS Schleswig-Holstein attacking the port of
Danzig,
Wehrmacht soldiers destroying the Polish-German border post, German tank and armored car formation, German and Soviet troops shaking hands following the invasion,
Bombing of Warsaw.
Invasion of Poland (1939)
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Polish Infantry
Invasion of Poland (1939)
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Polish
PZL.37 Łoś medium bomber
