WOH 2001 Lecture Notes - Lecture 10: Lebensraum, Economic Planning, Trench Warfare
• How did Japan emerge out of the Great Depression?
o Rise of the military
o State-financed credit
o Large-scale spending on armaments
o Public works projects
o Japan emerged out of the Depression more rapidly and more fully
than major Western countries
o Government assumed a supervisory role
o Gave subsidies to strategic industries
o Profit ceilings on major corporations
o Caps on wages, prices, and rents
o Central planning
o Private property was retained
o Still less repressive and more pluralistic than fascist Italy or Nazi
Germany
• Where did World War II begin?
o It began in Asia
o Japanese imperial ambitions
o Strong Japanese nationalism
o Japanese military units seized Manchuria in 1931 and established a
puppet state called Manchukuo
o Japan left the League of Nations, broke politically with its’ Western
allies, and in 1936 aligned itself more closely with Germany and Italy
o Japan attacked China in 1937
• Why did the Japanese believe that their national survival was at stake?
o Felt isolated, surrounded, and threatened
o Felt like an unequal power with Britain and the United States
o Felt European racism
o Dependent on foreign and especially American sources of strategic
goods
o US was hostile to Japanese ambitions in Asia
o Western powers controlled resource-rich colonies in Southeast Asia
• Why did Japan start the war?
o Either they could accept American terms which would reduce Japan to
a 2nd or 3rd rank power or war with an uncertain outcome
• What were the causes of World War II in Europe?
o Germans resented their country’s position in the international arena
since the Treaty of Versailles
o German aggression
o Britain, France, and the Soviet Union did not confront that aggression
forcefully and collectively
o A more deliberate and planned war than World War I
o Hitler wanted more land (lebensraum= living space) in the east,
Poland and Russia
o This required war
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Document Summary
How did japan emerge out of the great depression, rise of the military, state-financed credit, large-scale spending on armaments, public works projects. Germany: where did world war ii begin, it began in asia. Japanese military units seized manchuria in 1931 and established a puppet state called manchukuo. Japan left the league of nations, broke politically with its" western allies, and in 1936 aligned itself more closely with germany and italy. Poland and russia: this required war, how did hitler start the war, 1935- major rearmament program, 1936- entered the rhineland (was demilitarized by the treaty of. Versailles: 1938- germany annexed austria and the german-speaking parts of. Why: the holocaust, how could such a thing have occurred in a europe bearing the legacy of christianity and the enlightenment, 6 million jews perished, millions more were killed as well (russians, poles, and other slavs,
