Events of World War II by Trevor Muehring
Beginnings of the War
· Hitler and Lebensraum (living space)
· Anti-Semitism
· Germany withdrew from the Geneva Disarmament Conference
· Hitler annexes RhinelandàAustriaàSudetenlandàPoland
· Britain and France declare war on Germany on September 3, 1939
Course of the War
· Use of Blitzkrieg (“lightning war”)
· German Luftwaffe
· Mediterranean Strategy (capturing Egypt and the Suez Canalàshutting off Britain’s oil supply)
· Japanese bomb Pearl Harbor
· French build the Maginot Line (line of armed defenses)
· Germany invades Soviet Union (Battle of Kursk)
· Battle of El Alamein (Rommel is defeated by Montgomery)
· Battle of Britain (civilian bombing to lower morale)
· Battle of Stalingrad (turning point of the war; Germans surrounded and captured)
· Hitler commits suicide after Allied Forces trap him in Berlin)àGermany surrenders
· Americans drop the atomic bomb on Hiroshima and NagasakiàJapan surrenders
· Holocaust (Auschwitz; millions of Jews killed)
· Einsatzgruppen
After the War
· Teheran Conference (Stalin, Roosevelt, Churchill decided the fate of Germany and the future course of the war)
· Yalta Conference (liberated countries were allowed to hold free elections; creation of the United Nations)
· Potsdam Conference (Truman had tensions with Stalin; successful deployment of the atomic bomb)

Spielvogel, Jackson J. "The Deepening of the European Crisis: World War II."
Western Civilization. 4th ed. Stamford: Clark Baxter, 1999. 815-844.
Print.