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hi, i’m john green. this is crash courseworld history and today we’re going to talk about world war ii. finally, a war with somecolor film! so, here at crash course we try to make history reasonably entertaining, and fortunately,world war ii was hilarious...said no one ever. mr. green, mr. green! is this, like, gonnabe one of the unfunny ones where you build to the big melodramatic conclusion about howi have to imagine the world more complexly?

crash diets that work yahoo answers, me from the past, as long as you have thateighth rate soup-strainer, i’m not even going to acknowledge your existence. [theme music] right, so you’ve probably heard a lot aboutworld war ii from movies and books, the history

channel, before it decided that swamp peoplewere history, the incessant droning of your grandparents, etc. we’re not gonna try togive you a detailed synopsis of the war today. instead, we’re going to try to give a bitof perspective on how the most destructive war in human history happened, and why itstill matters globally. so one of the reasons history classes tendto be really into wars is that they’re easy to put on tests. they start on one day andthey end on another day. and they’re caused by social, political, and economic conditionsthat can be examined in a multiple choice kind of manner. except, not really. like, when did world war ii start? in september1939, when the nazis invaded poland? i’d

say no - it actually started when japan invadedmanchuria in 1931, or at the very latest when the japanese invaded china in 1937, becausethey didn’t stop fighting until 1945. then again, you could also argue 1933, when hitler took power, or1941, when america started fighting. it’s complicated. but anyway, in china the fighting was verybrutal, as exemplified by the infamous rape of nanking, which featured the slaughter ofhundreds of thousands of chinese people and is still so controversial today that:1. it affects relations between japan & china and2. even though i have not described it in detail, you can rest assured that there will be angrycomments about my use of the word “slaughter.” but the world war ii we know the most aboutfrom movies and tv is primarily the war in

the european theater, the one that adolf hitlerstarted. hitler is the rare individual who really did make history - specifically hemade it worse - and if he hadn’t existed, it’s very unlikely that world war ii would’veever happened. but he did exist, and after coming to power in 1933, with the standardrevolutionary promises to return the homeland to its former glory, infused with quite abit of paranoia and anti-semitism, germany saw rapid re-militarization and eventually,inevitably, war. in the beginning, it was characterized bya new style of combat made possible by the mechanized technology of tanks, airplanes,and especially, trucks. this was the blitzkrieg, a devastating tactic combining quick movementof troops, tanks, and massive use of air power

to support infantry movements. and in thevery early years of the war, it was extremely effective. the nazis were able to roll overpoland, norway, denmark, the netherlands, and then all of france, all within about 9 monthsbetween the fall of 1939 and the summer of 1940. so after knocking out most of central europe,the nazis set their sights on great britain, but they didn’t invade the island, choosinginstead to attack it with massive air strikes. i mean, you look at this poster and think,“man, the queen wants me to finish my term paper, so i can do it,” but when this posterwas first produced in 1939, it was to quell terror in the face of bombardment. the battle of britain was a duel between theroyal air force and the luftwaffe, and while

the raf denied the nazis total control ofbritish airspace, the nazis were still able to bomb great britain over and over againin what’s known as the blitz. stan, no. no jokes this time. yes, the blitz. meanwhile, europeans were also fighting eachother in north africa. the desert campaigns started in 1940 and lasted through 1942 - thisis where british general “monty” montgomery outfoxed german general irwin “the desertfox” rommel. it’s also the place where americans first fought nazis in large numbers.but most importantly, it’s where indiana jones discovered the ark of the covenant.okay, let’s go to the thought bubble. 1941 was a big year for world war ii. first,the nazis invaded russia, breaking a non-aggression

pact that the two powers had signed in 1939.this hugely escalated the war, and also made allies of the most powerful capitalist countriesand the most powerful communist one, an alliance that would stand the test of time and never end... untillike three seconds after the defeat of the nazis. the nazi invasion of russia opened the warup on the so-called eastern front, although if you were russian, it was the western front,and it led to millions of deaths, mostly russian. also, 1941 saw a day that would "live in infamy"when the japanese bombed pearl harbor, hoping that such an audacious attack would frightenthe united states into staying neutral, which was a pretty stupid gamble because:1. the u.s. was already giving massive aid to the allies and was hardly neutral and2. the united states is not exactly famed

for its pacifism or political neutrality. 1941 also saw japan invading much of southeastasia, which made australia and new zealand understandably nervous. as part of the britishcommonwealth, they were already involved in the war, but now they could fight the japanesecloser to home. and shut up about how i never talk about you australians. i just gave you1.5 sentences. but by the time the americans and australiansstarted fighting the japanese, it was already a world war. sometimes this meant fightingor starving or being bombed; other times, it meant production for the war - you don’tthink of argentina as being a world war ii powerhouse, for instance, but they were vitalto the allies, supplying 40% of british meat

during world war ii. thanks, thought bubble. so, not to sound jingoistic, but the entryof the u.s. into the war really did change everything, although i doubt the nazis could’vetaken russia regardless. no one conquers russia in the wintertime, unless you are - wait forit - the mongols. okay, we’re going to skip most of the bigbattles of 1942 - like the battle of midway, which effectively ended japan’s chance ofwinning the war - and focus on the battle of stalingrad. the german attack on stalingrad,now known as volgograd because stalin sucks, was one of the bloodiest battles in the historyof war, with more than two million dead. the germans began by dropping more than 1,000tons of bombs on stalingrad, and then the

russians responded by “hugging” the germans,staying as close to their front lines as possible so that german air support would kill germansand russians alike. this kind of worked, although the germansstill took most of the city. but then, a soviet counterattack left the sixth army of the naziscompletely cut off. and after that, due partly to hitler’s overreaching megalomania andpartly to lots of people being scared of him, the sixth army slowly froze and starved todeath before finally surrendering. and of the 91,000 axis pows from stalingrad, onlyabout 6,000 ever returned home. stalingrad turned the war in europe and by1944, the american strategy of “island hopping” in the pacific was taking gis closer and closerto japan. rome was liberated in june by americans

and canadians; and the successful british,canadian, and american d-day invasion of normandy was the beginning of the end for the nazis.oh, it’s time for the open letter? an open letter to canada. but first, let’ssee what’s in the secret compartment today. oh, it’s canadian mittens. i wanna thankthe canadian crash course fans, who sent us these mittens. canadians are just so nice,stan. like, all we ever do on this show is make fun of them, and they’re just like, “it’s sokind of you to mention us. here’s some mittens!” dear canada, we’re not always nice to you here oncrash course, but you are awesome. i’m pointing, but you can’t tell because i’m wearingmittens. 45,000 canadians died fighting for the allies in world war ii, which means that, per capita,canada lost more people than the united states.

you fought with the royal air force to defendgreat britain from the beginning of the war and you were there on d-day, successfullyinvading juno beach. and, as many of you have pointed out in comments, you defeated theunited states in the war of 1812, meaning that, arguably, canada, you are the greatermilitary power. plus, you have lumberjacks, and excellentbeer, and hockey, and universal healthcare, and justin bieber. i’m jealous! that's whatit is - i'm jealous! best wishes, john green. so, by the end of 1944, the allies were advancingfrom the west and the russian red army was advancing from the east and then, the last-ditchgerman offensive at the battle of the bulge

in the winter of 1944-1945 failed. mussoliniwas executed in april of 1945. hitler committed suicide at the end of that month. and, onmay 8, 1945 the allies declared victory in europe after germany surrendered unconditionally. three months later, the united states droppedthe only two nuclear weapons ever deployed in war, japan surrendered, and world war iiwas over. the war had a definite cause: unbridled militaryexpansion by germany, japan, and, to a small extent, italy. now, it’s easy to claim thathitler was crazy or evil, and, in fact, he was certainly both, but that doesn’t explainthe nazis decision to invade russia, and it sure doesn’t explain japan’s decisionto bomb pearl harbor.

and there are many possible explanations beyondmere evil; but the most interesting one, to me, involves food. hitler had a number ofreasons for wanting to expand germany’s territory, but he often talked about lebensraumor living space for the german people. german agriculture was really inefficiently organizedinto lots of small farms, and that meant that germany needed a lot of land in order to beself-sufficient in food production. the plan was to take poland, the ukraine,and eastern russia, and then resettle that land with lots of germans, so that it couldfeed german people. this was called the hunger plan because the plan called for 20 millionpeople to starve to death. many would be the poles, ukrainians, and russians who’d previouslylived on the land. the rest would be europe’s

jews, who would be worked to death. six million jews were killed by the nazis,many by starvation, but many through a chillingly planned effort of extermination in death camps.these death camps can be distinguished from concentration camps or labor camps in thattheir primary purpose was extermination of jews, roma people, communists, homosexuals,disabled people, and others that the nazis deemed unfit. some historians believe thatthe nazis opened the death camps because the jews weren’t dying as fast as the hungerplan had intended. this was a sickening plan, but it made a kindof demented sense. rather than becoming more involved in global trade, as the british had,the germans would feed themselves by taking

land and killing the people who’d previouslylived there. similarly, japan, at the beginning of thewar, was suffering from an acute fear of food shortage because its agricultural sector washaving trouble keeping up with population growth. and the japanese too, sought to expandtheir agricultural holdings by, for instance, resettling farmers in korea. so while it’s tempting to say that worldwar ii was about the allies fighting for democratic ideals against the totalitarian militaristicimperialism of the fascist axis powers, it just doesn’t hold up to scrutiny. for instance,a hugely important allied power, stalin’s soviet union, was, like, the least democraticplace, ever. stan just said that was hyperbole,

but it’s not. stalin’s soviet union istied with all of the other completely undemocratic countries for last place on the democracyscale. it’s a big community there, at last place, but they’re definitely in there somewhere. and, by far, the biggest imperialists of thewar were the british. they couldn’t have fed or clothed themselves - or resisted thenazis - without their colonies and commonwealth. so, why is world war ii so important? wellfirst, it proved the old roman adage homo homini lupus: man is a wolf to man. this is seen most clearlyin the holocaust, but all the statistics are staggering. more than a million indian british subjectsdied, mainly due to famine that could have been avoided if the british had redistributedfood. and their failure to do so helped convince

indians that the so-called superior civilizationof the british was a sham. more than a million vietnamese died, mainly due to famine. 418,000americans. more than a million noncombatants in both germany and japan. and 20 millionpeople in the soviet union, most of them civilians. these civilians were targeted because theyhelped sustain the war, mostly through industrial and agricultural production. in a total war,when a nation is at war, not just its army, there is no such thing as a non-military target.from the firebombing of dresden to tokyo to hiroshima, the line between soldier and civilianblurred. and then, of course, there is the holocaust,which horrifies us because the elements of western progress - record-keeping, industrialproduction, technology - were used to slaughter

millions. world war ii saw modern industrialnations, which represented the best of the enlightenment and the scientific revolution,descend into once unimaginable cruelty. and what makes world war ii such a historicalwatershed is that in its wake, all of us - in the west or otherwise - were forced to questionwhether western dominance of this planet could, or should, be considered progress. thanks for watching. i’ll see you next week. crash course is produced and directed by stanmuller. our script supervisor is meredith danko. our associate producer is danica johnson.the show is written by my high school history teacher, raoul meyer, and myself. and ourgraphics team is thought bubble.

last week’s phrase of the week was “anend to history.” if you want to guess at this week’s phrase of the week or suggestfuture ones, you can do so in comments, where you can also ask questions about today’svideo that will be answered by our team of historians. if you enjoy crash course, make sure you’resubscribed. thanks for watching, and as we say in my hometown, don’t forget to be awesome.