HSB-S4/H1890E, Sopt. 16, 2008 COURSE INTRODUCTION: HOW SHOULD WE THINK ABOUT THE SECOND WORLD WAR? Tue WAR AS VIOLENCE: Some stats.: U.S. losses in Iraq: <5m in Jraq, $8,000 in Vietnam, 110,000 in WW I, >300,000 in WW Il. Russia’s losses, perhaps >20,000,000; Germany’s perhaps 4,000,000. WW I: 9-10m dead of which 80% or more were combat deaths. WW Il: perhaps 40-50m dead, of which about 50 percent non-combat deaths. Genocide, famine, aerial bombing take huge roll. If violent death in the 20" century = approximately 180m, 25% of those died in World War Il, See Matthew White’s website: http:/nsers.crols.com/mwhite28/warstats,htm> ‘Tue War as ‘cause’: ‘Not.a war by mistake: democracies vs. fascism/Nazism and militarism — but a totalitarian system fought on the side of the democracies against another totalitarian system, And some democracies also empires... Contradictions lead to Cold War and decolonization struggles. ‘THE WAR AS CONTEST FOR GLOBAL SPACE: WAR AND EMPI WWI had been the culmination of a particular state form: “Empire” (generally authoritarian rule over different “nations” or ethnically aware groups.) Newer overseas empires (Britain, France, US) vs. old landed empires (Russia, Austria-Hungary), Ottoman Empire (Turkey and mid-East). Breakdown of these latter and rivalry of the former interact (Germany both new and old), Alliance system and crisis mismanagement lead to War. We think of WWI and Versailles settlement as destroying the old empires (Ottomans, Russians, Habsburgs or Austrian-Hungarian - along with 1911] end of Qing empire) and establishing principle of nationality. But in fact, WWI also an imperial conflict ~ Britain and Dutch in Pacific vs. Japanese and French, British, vs. Germans; and two new superpowers ready to assume empire-like scale (U.S, and USSR). ‘THE WAR AND HISTORICAL TIME: ONE WAR IN TWO? FOUR WARS IN ONE? One War in Two? Relation of World War II (1937/39-45) to World War I (1914-1918); A Thirty- ‘Year War of the Twentieth Century?? German problem in both wars: Japanese ambition and. challenge throughout both wars; rise of the United States and Soviet Union to world power through both wars — both speaking for anti-imperial ideologies. But: scope and violence of WW I vs. WW II. Extent of fighting and theaters. A war of offensives (WWI) vs. a “defensive” war (WW D; sea power and air power in WW II. A sense of fatality vs. sense of choice (WWI vs. WW II). _ Issues of inevitability. Four Wars in One? WW II best seen in terms of four overlapping wars: (1) WWI resumed: Germany vs. Britain and France for continental hegemony (September. 1939-June 1940); (2) Ideological Total War (Germany vs. Soviet Union, June 22, 1941-May 9, 1945); the US. vs. Germany (Dec. 11, 1941-May 8, 1945). Far huger in manpower and resources; Holocaust takes place within this war. Democracy and Communism vs. Nazism/Fascism; (3) The Pacific War: Japanese-Chinese war, 1931/37-45 and Anglo-American-Japanese War. Who controls China? Who inherits European imperial possessions in Far East? (4) The War for the German or Japanese Succession, 1943-45: Civil war between the Resistance and Collaborators; or between Communist and Non-Communist Resistance and Collaborators. Outcome crucial for control of Europe and Asia,