World War II was the worst war in history and killed more people than any other war before. It lasted from 1939 to 1945 and, starting out from Europe, spread to nearly every part of the world .

About 17 million soldiers died during six years of the war. Even more civilians – men, women and children – died from bomb attacks, illnesses or starvation. Millions of Jews died in German concentration camps. The war left many other people without jobs and homes.

Many cities and industries in Europe and Asia were completely destroyed by bombs and large areas of land were devastated.

Causes of World War II

There are many causes of the war and some of them go back to the end of the First World War. The end of World War I and the peace that followed in 1919 changed the face of Europe and the borders of countries completely. New nations emerged and countries that lost the war, especially Germany and Austria had to give up a lot of land. They also had to pay money to other countries for the damages and destruction that happened during the war.

Economic Problems

Feeding the poor in Germany in 1931
Image : Bundesarchiv, Bild 183-T0706-501 / CC-BY-SA 3.0, CC BY-SA 3.0 DE,
via Wikimedia Commons

Political Movements

The problems after the war made the governments in many countries weaker and weaker. Two movements became more and more powerful: Communism, known as “the Left”, called for a revolution of the working class. Fascism, known as “the Right”, wanted a strong national government

The Axis and Allied Powers

Two groups of nations fought against each other during the Second World War.

During the 1930s Germany, Italy and Japan led a group of nations called the Axis. The leaders of these countries were dictators. They wanted their own countries to grow and others to become weaker. In the years before the beginning of World War II all three Axis powers had strengthened and modernized their armies.

In the 1930s the Nazi Party rose to power in Germany. In 1933 the party’s leader Adolf Hitler was appointed chancellor and became known as “der Führer”. He promised to take revenge on the countries that had defeated Germany in the First World War and make Germany the most powerful country in the world. He also claimed that only Germans were the true race and wanted to get rid of Jews, Communists, and other weaker people.

In Italy Benito Mussolini, known as the “Il Duce”, became the leader of the Fascist Party, which gained many supporters. He promised to bring law and order to the country and help solve its economic problems.

The Axis Powers invaded other countries and expanded their territory. At the beginning of the 1930s Japan invaded Manchuria because it had a lot of raw materials. In 1938 it attacked China and later on expanded to Southeast Asia. In 1935 Italy took over Ethiopia. Germany started its conquest of foreign territories by invading Austria. Italy and Germany also sent soldiers to help another dictator, Francisco Franco, in the Spanish Civil War.

The Allies were made up of a total of 50 countries. They were led by Great Britain, the Soviet Union, France, China and the United States and opposed the Axis.

Dictators of Axis powers Italy and Germany : Mussolini and Hitler
Image: Bundesarchiv, Bild 146-1969-065-24 / CC-BY-SA 3.0,
CC BY-SA 3.0 DE, via Wikimedia Commons

The Beginning of the War

On September 30, 1938 Great Britain, France and Germany signed the Munich Agreement. It gave Germany the right to take over the Sudetenland, a part of Czechoslovakia. The two Allies hoped it would satisfy Hitler and keep them out of the war. The agreement, however, was broken and Hitler not only invaded the Sudetenland but took over all of Czechoslovakia.

It was clear that Poland, on Germany’s eastern border, would be the next target. Great Britain and France promised to help Poland if it were attacked. In August 1939 Germany and the Soviet Union signed a “non-aggression pact”, in which they promised not to attack each other. Germany did this so that it would not have to fight on two fronts.

On September 1, 1939 Germany invaded Poland and World War II began.

Adolf Hitler and the Rise of the NSdAP

Image: Bundesarchiv, Bild 183-H1216-0500-002 / CC-BY-SA, CC BY-SA 3.0 DE, via Wikimedia Commons

Adolf Hitler was born in Braunau, Austria on April 20, 1889 and spent most of his childhood in Linz. He was not a very good student and dreamt of becoming a painter. In 1913 he moved to Munich and volunteered for the Germany Army when World War I broke out.

Germany lost the war, and the Treaty of Versailles punished the country very severely. It lost its overseas colonies and had to give up its Saar coal region to France. It was only allowed to have a small army and building ships was forbidden. The treaty also made Germany pay a lot of money to Great Britain and France for the damage caused by the war. Hitler was angry at the Allies because he thought they had treated his homeland in an unfair way.

After the war life became very difficult for the Germans. The Great Depression forced many of them out of work and made money almost worthless. Many Germans believed that only a strong leader could make their nation proud again.

After returning to Munich Hitler became the leader of the National Socialist German Worker’s Party, or Nazis. The party’s emblem was an old hooked cross called swastika . Hitler was a powerful speaker and crowds of followers came to his meetings.

In 1923 Adolf Hitler tried to overthrow the German government. He failed and had to go to prison for nine months. There he wrote his book “Mein Kampf”. In it he looked for solutions to Germany’s problems.

Hitler spoke in a style that many people liked. He blamed Jews, Communists and other groups for all the problems that the country had and said that only if pure Germans, which he called Aryans, controlled the country it would return to greatness .

By January 1933 Adolf Hitler and his National Socialist party took over power. He became a dictator, a leader with complete control and created the Third Reich. The Nazis acted quickly against everyone who was against them. They outlawed all other political parties. People who opposed the new government were often murdered.

Once in control he started persecuting the Jews. He also began strengthening the German army and creating jobs for the population. This made him increasingly popular among many Germans.

The Nazis tried to get teenagers to follow Adolf Hitler and his party. These teenagers were organized in groups called the “Hitler Youth” where they chanted Nazi slogans and sang songs in honour of the Fuehrer.

By 1944 the war was going badly for Hitler and the Third Reich. Some of his officers wanted to end the war and save the country from destruction. They tried to kill him by planting a bomb in his office, but Hitler escaped without injuries. Eventually he realized that Germany had lost the war. He committed suicide on April 30th 1945 in Berlin. Eva Braun, his mistress, died with him.

The Blitzkrieg

On September 1, 1939 Germany invaded Poland and World War II began. At the same time the Soviet Union attacked Poland from the east. It was divided among the two countries before the Allies were able to help.

Germany’s attack was carried out with fast tanks and troops that were supported by warplanes. Because the German army moved very quickly this phase of the war was called “Blitzkrieg”.

In the following spring Germany invaded Norway and Denmark. Both countries were occupied by the German army by June. On May 10, 1940 Hitler’s troops invaded the Low Countries- Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg and days later they surrendered.

In the middle of May German soldiers crossed into France and by June 14 the Germans had entered Paris. On June 22 France signed a peace agreement with Germany. German forces then occupied northern France and the Atlantic coast. A new government that was friendly to the Germans was formed in Vichy. On the other side General Charles de Gaulle escaped to Great Britain and started his free French movement. In a radio broadcasts he urged the French people to fight against the Germans.

The Battle of Britain

Hitler next wanted to invade the island of Great Britain. He attacked the British Air Force in order to control the skies over the island. It was history’s first major air battle.

In June 1940, the German Luftwaffe began bombing airfields and other targets in southern England. German warplanes attacked from airports in France. At the end of the battle the British had shot down about 1700 German planes. Hitler saw that he could not defeat England’s air force , so he gave up his idea of invading Britain. Instead, he sent the Luftwaffe to bomb British cities and towns. In London alone, more than 12,000 civilians were killed.

German Messerschmidt bomber during the Battle of Britain

Image: Bundesarchiv, Bild 101I-662-6659-37 / Hebenstreit / CC-BY-SA 3.0,
CC BY-SA 3.0 DE, via Wikimedia Commons

The Battle of the Atlantic

During the war Great Britain got most of its food, war materials and other supplies from North America. Throughout the war Germany tried to destroy the ships that brought goods to the island. German U-boats or submarines were the biggest threat to the British navy. At first, these U-boats were very successful in tracking down British cargo ships and sinking them. They often attacked in groups called wolf packs.

To survive such attacks British ships travelled in groups called convoys. They were protected by destroyers and also supported by planes. As time went on America gave British ships more and more protection.

In 1943 the Allies began to escort the convoys with small aircraft carriers. The planes that could take off from the carriers and long-range bombers from land began to attack and destroy more and more German submarines. The Allies began winning the sea war also because they started using an underwater radar system called sonar to locate submarines. By the middle of 1943 the Allies were sinking U-boats faster than the Germans could replace them.

Officers on board a British destroyer on the lookout for German U-boats
Post-Work: User:W.wolny, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

The Holocaust

Under Adolf Hitler the National Socialist German Worker’s Party became very powerful in Germany from 1933 to 1945. The Nazis, as they were called, wanted to get rid of people who they thought were not as good as they were. They especially hated Jews and thought they were evil. At the beginning they made life hard for the Jews in Germany and all over Europe. Later on, they decided to kill them. This mass killing was called the Holocaust.

After 1939 about 6 million Jews were killed in the countries that Hitler controlled. But Jewish people were not the only ones murdered by the Nazis. Gypsies, homosexuals, mentally and physically disabled people and others who were against Hitler were killed in the Holocaust.

Hating Jews and treating them badly is called anti-Semitism. Hitler started this as soon as he became chancellor of Germany in 1933. Jews lost their jobs and their shops were closed and often destroyed.

In 1935 the Nazis passed a new law . Jews were no longer citizens of Germany and they were not allowed to marry other Germans. They lost all of their rights. Every Jew had to wear a yellow Star of David. Many Jews were afraid of Hitler and tried to escape before World War II started.

On November 9th and 10th, 1938 the Nazis destroyed all Jewish synagogues and other public places the Jews went to. This event was called the “Kristallnacht” or “Night of Broken Glass”.

Shop destroyed in Magdeburg during the Night of Broken Glass

Image : Bundesarchiv, Bild 146-1970-083-42 / CC-BY-SA 3.0,
CC BY-SA 3.0 DE, via Wikimedia Commons

Soon thousands of Jews were arrested and locked up in special camps. Others had to live in overcrowded parts of cities called ghettos where they got nothing to eat and suffered from many diseases. The most famous ghetto was in Warsaw, Poland. About half a million Jews had to live in an area that usually was home for 10,000 people. By 1943 only 70,000 had survived.

The Nazis decided that they had to solve what they called “the Jewish problem” once and for all. On January 20, 1942 the Nazi leaders met at the Wannsee Conference near Berlin and decided that all Jews should be killed.

All across Central Europe the Nazis built special death or concentration camps to kill Jews and other people who were not worth of living. The biggest camps were built in Poland. Some well-known camps were Auschwitz, Treblinka, Dachau, Sobibor and Belzec.

At first, the outside world thought that these camps were places where Jews and other prisoners had to work. A sign reading “Arbeit macht frei” hung over the gate at Auschwitz.

Those who were lucky became slaves. They had to work hard and didn’t get enough to eat. Some of them died of starvation. Most of the Jews, however, were brought to the gas chambers that often looked like big showers. There they were killed with poison gas, then taken away and burned.

Main entrance at the Auschwitz concentration camp
Image : xiquinhosilva, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Selection ramp at Auschwitz – Birkenau.
Jews were either sent to work or directly to the gas chamber
Image : Yad Vashem , Public Domain

Although the countries that fought against Hitler knew about the death camps there wasn’t anything they could do about them.

Many Europeans who were against Hitler’s ideas tried to help the Jews. They often hid them, gave them false documents and helped them escape. A famous book called “The Diary of Anne Frank” tells the story of a Jewish girl whose family hid in Amsterdam for two years but were then caught.

Hitler killed himself shortly before the war was over because he realized that he had lost. When it ended in 1945, Allied soldiers entered Germany. They liberated the concentration camps but were shocked when they saw what had happened there.

Jews who survived the Holocaust had no place to go. They waited to find a new home. In 1948, the United Nations decided to give homeless Jews a new place to live. The state of Israel was founded and hundreds of thousands of European Jews went there to start a new life.

The Holocaust is one of the most terrible periods of human history. In many countries memorials have been built to remember those who died. Museums in Europe and America try to show what happened and help our generation understand the horrors of the Second World War.

Holocaust memorial in Berlin
Image: K. Weisser, CC BY-SA 2.0 DE, via Wikimedia Commons

Operation Barbarossa – Invasion of the Soviet Union

Although Adolf Hitler conquered many western European countries during the first years of the war, he saw the Soviet Union as his main enemy. He was afraid that the Russians would expand towards central Europe and he also wanted to control the Soviet wheat and oil fields. Hitler signed a treaty with dictator Joseph Stalin in 1939 that would keep the Soviet Union out of the war while he overran western Europe.

On June 22, 1941 Germany started Operation Barbarossa—the invasion of the Soviet Union. The attack surprised the Soviets and German tanks smashed through the Russian battle lines. In the first few weeks hundreds of thousands of enemy soldiers were captured. As the Germans went forward, the Soviet population destroyed factories, dams, railroads, food supplies and other things that might help the Germans. The Germans were heading for a fast victory but then they started making mistakes.

Germany attacks the Soviet Union
Image: Dhammika111, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Hitler’s generals wanted to capture Moscow before the winter started but Hitler himself had a different plan. He ordered the German army to wait until new forces came to help them. This gave the Soviets time to strengthen their army. By December 1941 the Germans had surrounded Leningrad and were in the suburbs of Moscow. But then a harsh winter set in early and temperatures dropped to –40°C. German troops did not have enough clothing and many soldiers suffered from frostbite. Tanks and other weapons broke down in the bitter cold. The Russians started a counterattack and the German army had to retreat.

Although Hitler had lost many soldiers and a lot of Russian territory his army was still strong enough to continue fighting. In the summer of 1942, he turned his attention to the Caucasus, an oil-rich mountainous region in southern Russia. In August Hitler attacked Stalingrad. It was the biggest battle of World War II. German artillery destroyed the city, but the Russians defended it with what they had left. When winter began they counterattacked and drove the Germans back. After having lost more than 200,000 men the German army surrendered at the end of January 1943. The defeat was the worst that Nazi Germany suffered, and Stalingrad became a turning point in the war.

The Germans had to withdraw from the Caucasus and as time went on the Soviets drove them out of their whole country. From this point on the Russian army got stronger and stronger and started their march towards the west.

Pearl Harbour – America Enters the War

When war broke out in Europe in 1939 Japan decided to start expanding its territory to the Asian mainland. The Japanese occupied parts of China and conquered Indochina as well. The United States was against the Japanese invasion of Asia. They thought they could stop them by halting the sales of petroleum and other raw materials which the Japanese desperately needed. Japanese generals realized that only the United States had the power to stop them. The American navy was so strong that it had to be destroyed.

On the morning of December 7, 1941 Japanese warplanes attacked U.S. warships at Pearl Harbour naval base in Hawaii. It came as a complete surprise to the Americans. Within hours bombs and torpedoes sank six American ships and killed more than 2,000 Americans. The Japanese had destroyed the heart of the American fleet.

The next day the United States declared war on Japan and a few days later on the other Axis powers, Italy and Germany.

The attack on Pearl Harbour was the beginning of the war in the Pacific. On the same day the Japanese also invaded the Philippines and attacked Hongkong. In the first few months the Japanese were very successful and captured many important islands but in June 1942 the tide turned . A strong fleet of Japanese warships wanted to capture Midway Island. American warplanes attacked from aircraft carriers and destroyed much of the Japanese fleet.

American battleship USS West Virginia destroyed during the attack on Pearl Harbour
Image :  U.S. Navy, Office of Public Relations,
Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

D-Day – Allied Forces Invade Europe

The Germans had been expecting an Allied invasion of Northern France for long time. However, they were not sure where the invasion would take place . The Germans concentrated their troops near Calais because it was nearest to the British Isles.

Early on June 6,1944 Operation Overlord, the code name of the invasion, began. Commanded by Dwight D. Eisenhower about 3,000 ships and 176,000 soldiers crossed the English Channel and landed, to the surprise of the Germans, on the beaches of Normandy, much farther to the west than Hitler’s generals had expected. Paratroopers dropped behind the German defence lines and captured bridges and railroad tracks.

Although Germany was surprised by the attack, they fought back fiercely . At one landing site, named Omaha Beach, Allied troops came under heavy fire and had difficulty staying on the shore. At the end of the day, Allied forces had managed to secure the coastline and create a harbour where more troops could land. By the end of June, 1944 about a million Allied troops had reached France.

After heavy fighting, American and British armies were able to move inland . They captured Paris on August 25, 1944. After advancing to eastern France and Belgium the Allied offensive moved on but as winter came was halted west of the Rhine River.

Hiroshima and Nagasaki – Japan Surrenders

In 1939 German born scientist Albert Einstein informed US president Roosevelt about the possibility of making a super bomb that would cause an explosion that nobody had ever seen before. Large amounts of energy could be released by splitting an atom. Einstein and other scientists were afraid that the Germans could develop such a bomb first. In 1942 the Americans set up the Manhattan Project, a secret program to make such a bomb. The first atomic bomb was tested in the New Mexican desert in July 1945.

Even though the United States was winning the war against Japan some generals thought that they would have to invade the island nation to defeat the Japanese. Experts thought that hundreds of thousands of American soldiers might die in such an attack.

After the death of Franklin D. Roosevelt, Harry Truman became president. He learned about the successful test of the bomb. In July 1945 Truman warned the Japanese that the United States would destroy the country with a powerful bomb if they did not surrender at once. In spite of the warning Japan continued fighting.

On August 6,1945 an American bomber, the Enola Gay, dropped the first atomic bomb on the Japanese city of Hiroshima. The explosion killed 70,000 to 100,000 people and destroyed about 13 square kilometres of land. Three days later a much larger bomb was dropped on Nagasaki. It killed about 40,000 people. Thousands of people died of injuries and radiation in the years that followed. On August 14, the Japanese government agreed to surrender. Many officers committed suicide. On September 2, 1945 World War II officially ended.

Mushroom clouds over Hiroshima and Nagasaki
Image: George R. Caron,
Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Life During World War II

Resistance Groups

Even though most of the population supported the rulers in the Axis countries many people were against them. Resistance groups emerged in almost all of the countries that the Axis occupied. These groups worked together in an attempt to overthrow the ruling parties and dictators. They published and distributed illegal newspapers to inform the population. They rescued Allied pilots who were shot down and gathered information about the enemy. Bombing bridges and important roads was also a part of their work.

Some of the work of these groups turned out to be very important in the war. The French resistance helped the Allies during the Normandy invasion in 1944. Yugoslavia had the most effective groups of all. Partisans drove the Germans out of Yugoslavia in 1944.

Even in Germany itself there was a small underground group that was against the Nazis. In 1944 , a group of German army officers planted a bomb that was to kill Hitler. The bomb exploded near the Fuehrer but he escaped with minor injuries.

Those who worked against the Nazis risked a lot. If they got caught, they were almost always killed. Sometimes the Germans gathered hundreds of civilians and shot them as an act of revenge.

Meeting of a French resistance group
Image:  Donald I. Grant, Department of National Defence,
Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Propaganda

All the nations that were in the war used propaganda to help support their ideas. Radio broadcasts reached many people. Films and posters were also used . In Nazi Germany Joseph Goebbels controlled the media. He wanted to convince people all over the world that Germany was the most powerful nation and that the Germans had the right to rule the world.

Many Germans listened to radio programmes of the Allies. The BBC broadcast news programmes to the mainland to inform the people of the real situation of the war.

Life in Germany

Germany’s early victories started to make people believe in the war. There was enough food and clothing during the first years and goods came in from the countries that the Nazis occupied. But the situation changed by 1942. The army was defeated on the Russian front and there were fewer reports of victories to cheer people up. The Allies bombed German cities and towns day and night. Yet the people continued to work for the war.

Everyone was afraid of Hitler’s secret police, the Gestapo. They arrested everyone that was against Nazi beliefs in Germany and other countries.

Life in the United States

In the United States and Canada most people supported the war. They hated the Nazis and wanted to defeat the Axis powers, especially the Japanese, who bombed Pearl Harbour. America produced an enormous amount of weapons for the war. Old factories were turned into weapons industries, car factories began producing tanks and aircraft.

Millions of women started working in the war production after the men had left for Europe. They worked in shipyards and aircraft factories and replaced men on farms.

American woman working in a factory during World War II
Image:  Alfred T. Palmer, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Life in the Soviet Union

Life was especially difficult in the Soviet Union, where intense fighting went on for four years. Stalin ordered his retreating soldiers to burn down everything in their way, so that they didn’t leave anything behind for German soldiers to use. But this also caused great problems for the Soviet population. Millions of civilians died of starvation and diseases.

The End of the War

The Soviet victory at Stalingrad ended Germany’s advance in eastern Europe. In the following years, the Soviet army received supplies from Great Britain and the United States and started moving westward.

Soon after the Normandy invasion Stalin’s armies attacked along a 700 km front. In July 1944 Soviet troops reached Warsaw and in the following months drove the Germans out of most of eastern Europe.

The final attack on Germany began in early 1945. Soviet soldiers reached the Oder River, about 65 km east of Berlin and Allied forces set themselves up along the Rhine River by March.

By this time, it was clear that Germany could not fight much longer, even though Hitler ordered his men to fight to their deaths. A large number of German soldiers surrendered to the Allies every day.

The Allied leaders– U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and Soviet Premier Joseph Stalin—met in Russia for the Yalta conference. There they planned Germany’s defeat and the occupation of the country.

Meanwhile the Soviet army pushed on through Germany and by April 25, 1945 they had surrounded Berlin. Adolf Hitler realized that the war was over and committed suicide in his bunker on April 30. Germany surrendered on May 8, 1945.

As they marched on through Germany Allied soldiers discovered terrifying evidence of Nazi brutality. Even though they freed death camps thousands died of starvation after Germany’s surrender.

Churchill, Roosevelt and Stalin at the Yalta Conference

Image:  Photograph from the Army Signal Corps Collection in the U.S. National Archives.,
Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

German commander surrenders
Image: Lt. Moore (US Army); restored by Adam Cuerden,
Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Results and Aftermath of World War II

After the end of the war, a conference was held in Potsdam, Germany, to set up peace treaties. The countries that fought with Hitler lost territory and had to pay reparations to the Allies. Germany and its capital Berlin were divided into four parts. The zones were to be controlled by Great Britain, the United States, France and the Soviet Union. The three western Allies and the Soviet Union disagreed on many things and as time went on Germany was divided into two separate countries: East Germany , which had a Communist government and West Germany, which was a democratic state . Berlin was divided into East and West Berlin. Austria was also occupied by the four Allies from 1945 to 1955.

German occupation zones after World War II

Image:  svg version created by glglgl, CC BY-SA 3.0,
via Wikimedia Commons

One by one, the Russians started to take over countries in eastern Europe and install Communist governments there. The division of Europe was the beginning of the Cold War between the democratic nations of the west and the Communist countries of eastern Europe. The Iron Curtain marked the border between these two regions.

After the war many Nazi leaders were arrested and punished for what they had done in the war. The most famous war trials were held at Nuremberg, Germany. Those who were responsible for brutal crimes were sentenced to death.

Many problems arose after the war was over. One of them focused on the city of Berlin which was deep inside the Russian zone. In June 1948, the Soviet Union tried to drive the western powers out of Berlin by blocking all routes to the city. For a whole year the Allies flew in food, fuel and other things that the population needed to survive. Finally, the Russians gave up and the blockade ended. In 1961 the East Germans built a wall around Berlin to stop their citizens from escaping to the west.

The biggest task was to rebuild Europe, which lay in ruins. In 1948 the United States set up the Marshall Plan to help Europe’s economy. 18 nations received 13 billion dollars worth of food machines and other goods.

During World War II, four of the Allied powers—the United States, Great Britain, the Soviet Union and China— agreed to create an organization that should work for peace . In April 1945 fifty countries signed a charter and gave birth to the United Nations.

Key Figures of World War II

Benito Mussolini

Franklin D. Roosevelt

Winston Churchill

Joseph Stalin

Harry Truman

Dwight D. Eisenhower

Heinrich Himmler

Joseph Goebbels

Charles de Gaulle

Benito Mussolini founded Fascism and ruled Italy as a dictator for more than 21 years. He dreamed of making Italy into a great empire. He banned all other parties and took control of industry, schools, the police and the media. Il Duce joined an alliance with German dictator Adolf Hitler. Both countries sent soldiers to Spain to support General Franco in the Spanish Civil War. In 1943 Mussolini was arrested but soon later rescued by German commandos. In 1945 Italians who were against fascism captured Mussolini as he wanted to escape to Switzerland. The next day he was shot to death.

Benito Mussolini
Image: www.historynet.comwww.gettyimages.it,
Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

FDR, as he was also called, was the only president elected four times. He served for more than 12 years, longer than any other person. Roosevelt became president during the Great Depression, which was a hard time for the American economy . One out of four workers had lost their jobs and many families had no money to buy food or clothes. President Roosevelt created a programme called the New Deal in which the government helped poor people, gave them work and paid for food and shelter. President Roosevelt tried to keep America out of World War II, but when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbour the United States entered the war. Roosevelt was a strong leader throughout the war. He died shortly before the war ended in 1945.

Franklin D. Roosevelt

Image : FDR Presidential Library & Museum

Winston Churchill was the Prime Minister of Great Britain during the Second World War. He was a strong leader and a talented speaker, writer and painter. Churchill held speeches that gave the British people hope and courage during the horrible years of the war. After Germany’s surrender in 1945 Churchill lost his job as Prime Minister but returned in 1951. In 1953 he won the Nobel Prize for Literature.

Winston Churchill

Image : BiblioArchives / LibraryArchives, CC BY 2.0,
via Wikimedia Commons

Joseph Stalin was the dictator of the USSR from 1929 until 1953. During his rule, the Soviet Union became one of the world’s greatest powers. In the late 1800s Stalin joined a group of Marxist revolutionaries. Although Stalin had not played a big role during the Russian Revolution, he started gaining power. When Lenin died Stalin took control. He was a ruthless dictator, in many ways like Hitler, and had millions of people killed or exiled because they threatened his power or opposed his plans. After World War II the Soviet army stayed in the eastern part of Europe and Stalin set up communist governments there.

Joseph Stalin

Image Unknown authorUnknown author; image flipped by Gaeser,
Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Harry Truman became American president in the spring of 1945, shortly before the war in Europe ended . In August of the same year Truman decided to use the atomic bomb to end the war against Japan

Harry Truman

Image: National Archives and Records Administration. Office of Presidential Libraries. Harry S. Truman Library.,
Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Eisenhower became the leader of the Allied forces in Europe. He planned the invasion that led to the end of the war . After the war “Ike” became a very popular figure in the US and was elected president in 1952.

Dwight D. Eisenhower

Image: Eisenhower Presidential Library

Himmler was one of the most loyal followers of Adolf Hitler. As the head of the German police, he ordered the deaths of millions of people. He committed suicide in May 1945 after the Allied troops had captured him.

Heinrich Himmler

Image: Bundesarchiv, Bild 183-S72707 / CC-BY-SA 3.0, CC BY-SA 3.0 DE,
via Wikimedia Commons

Goebbels was Nazi Germany’s propaganda minister. He tried to persuade the Germans and the outside world to believe in Hitler’s regime . Goebbels controlled newspapers, radio programmes, motion pictures and the arts in Germany. At the end of the war Goebbels and his wife poisoned their six children and then he asked a Nazi soldier to kill them both.

Joseph Goebbels

Image: Bundesarchiv, Bild 146-1968-101-20A / Heinrich Hoffmann / CC-BY-SA 3.0, CC BY-SA 3.0 DE,
via Wikimedia Commons

General Charles de Gaulle was the most outstanding French patriot, soldier and statesman of the 20th century. He led the French resistance against Nazi Germany and restored order in France after World War II. He was the architect of a new constitution and became president in 1958.

Charles de Gaulle

Image: Bundesarchiv, B 145 Bild-F015892-0010 / Ludwig Wegmann   DescriptionGerman photographerAuthority control: Q109374788VIAF: 18152501139410682865GND: 1156657059creator QS:P170,Q109374788 / CC-BY-SA, CC BY-SA 3.0 DE,
via Wikimedia Commons

Timeline of Events

• 1923

  Hitler tries to overthrow government and goes to prison

• 1931

  Japan invades Manchuria

• 1933

  Hitler is appointed German leader

• 1938

  Germany, Great Britain and France sign Munich Agreement
  Night of Broken Glass – Jewish synagogues and shops are destroyed

• 1939

  Germany invades Poland. World War II begins

• 1940

  Germany invades the Low Countries and France
  Battle of Britain begins

• 1941

  Operation Barbarossa – invasion of the Soviet Union – starts
  Japanese attack on Pearl Habour Naval Base

• 1942

  Battle of Stalingrad
  Wansee Conference – Nazi leaders agree on the Final Solution

• 1944

  D-Day – Normandy Invasion
  Attempt to assassinate Hitler fails

• 1945

  Yalta Conference – Churchill, Stalin and Roosevelt meet
  Hitler commits suicide in Berlin
  Germany surrenders
  Atomic bombs dropped over Hiroshima and Nagasaki
  Nuremberg war trials begin

Videos

Overview of World War II
The Blitz
The Rise of the Nazis
The Holocaust
Japanese Attack on Pearl Harbour
Hitler’s Atlantic Wall
Atomic Bomb Dropped Over Japan
American Women in World War II

Exercises

Multiple Choice Test 1
Multiple Choice Test 2
Multiple Choice Test 3
Words and Definitions 1
Words and Definitions 2
Words and Definitions 3
The Holocaust – Missing Word Cloze
World War II – Missing Word Cloze
Anne Frank – Missing Sentence Parts
Match the Sentence Parts 1
Match the Sentence Parts 2
Dates and Events
Crossword 1
Crossword 2

Printable Downloads (PDF)

Word List
End of Unit Test
Key

Quadrant on display in Madrid
Image: Dorieo [CC BY-SA 4.0], via Wikimedia Commons

By the end of the 15th century many things were changing in Europe. The population started to grow more quickly and a new class of merchants emerged. They wanted to buy and sell expensive and valuable products from Asia – like gold, jewels and silk.

In those days, people had no refrigerators to preserve their food. They dried meat and often used salt to make it last longer. To make food taste better they used spices , like pepper or cinnamon.

For centuries Europeans brought these goods on a land route from Asia over thousands of dangerous kilometres . In the 15th century the overland routes were being controlled by the Turkish Empire, which made it even more difficult for European merchants to pass through.

As a result, some European countries, like Spain and Portugal, decided to find out if there was a sea route to India. With the help of new kinds of ships that could sail faster and instruments , like the quadrant, they started the Age of Exploration.

Portuguese Explorers

At the end of the 15th century the Portuguese started to explore the west coast of Africa. They set up trading posts and collected gold and silver. They were convinced that by sailing around the coast of Africa they would find a route to India.

In 1487 , the Portuguese explorer Bartholomeu Dias sailed around the southern part of the continent and got as far as the east coast of Africa, but a storm made him turn back. On his return voyage, he saw a piece of land that stretched out into the sea. The Portuguese named it the Cape of Good Hope because they were hopeful of finding a passageway to India.

In 1497 Vasco Da Gama set out from Lisbon, sailed around the Cape of Good Hope and into the Indian Ocean. He reached the west coast of India in May 1498. He took some spices and gold back with him to prove that he had reached India.

Vasco da Gama’s route to India

Christopher Columbus

Christopher Columbus was probably the most famous explorer of the era. He achieved fame by sailing west in search of a sea route to India. Instead of reaching India he discovered that there was an unknown mass of land in between, land that the Europeans knew nothing of.

Columbus was born in Genoa, Italy in 1451 and during his early years his father took him on various sailing trips and wanted to make a merchant out of him.

Like many navigators of that time, Columbus also wanted to sail to India and the Far East. He thought that if he sailed west he would also reach the Spice Islands of Asia and India. He went to the king of Portugal to present his plan, but it was rejected. Queen Isabella of Spain admired young and brave men like Columbus and so she gave him three ships – the Nina, the Pinta and the Santa Maria – and a crew of 90 men.

Christopher Columbus
Image: Sebastiano del Piombo, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Models of the ships of Christopher Columbus
E. Benjamin Andrews [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

Columbus left Spain on August 3, 1492. After two months of sailing westward, he landed on an island of the Bahamas, San Salvador, on October 12, 1492. Because he thought he had reached the islands near India he called the natives Indians.

All together, Columbus made four voyages to the New World between 1492 and 1504. He explored the coasts of Cuba, Jamaica , Hispaniola, and Puerto Rico. On his last two voyages, Columbus reached the mainland of Central and South America and travelled as far south as the mouth of the Orinoco River.

After he came home from his fourth voyage, Christopher Columbus fell ill and died in 1506.

After sailing westward for two months
Columbus reached the West Indies on 12th October 1492

Other Spanish Explorers

During the early 1500s Spanish explorers travelled across most of Central and South America. They founded colonies and brought settlers to the New World. They also made the native Indians work for them. The Spaniards brought new products to the Americas ,like wheat, horses, cattle and sheep. In exchange , they grew plants that were not known in Europe, like corn and potatoes and brought them back to the Old Continent.

In 1513 the Spanish explorer Vasco de Balboa landed in Panama, the part of Central America that is very narrow. With his men, he fought his way through 50 miles of jungle and was surprised to see a new sea , the Pacific Ocean.

One of the most important Spanish conquistadors was Hernando Cortes. He conquered the Aztec empire in 1521. In 1532 and 1533 Francisco Pizarro conquered the Incas. These natives ruled an empire that expanded from Columbia to the northern parts of Argentina. The Incas had great riches, vast amounts of gold and silver. When the Spanish got there they took all of it away from the Incas.

Francisco Pizarro and Hernan Cortes
Image : Urituguasi [CC BY-SA 3.0], via Wikimedia Commons

The Voyages of Balboa in Central America
Image : No machine-readable author provided.
Taichi assumed (based on copyright claims). [CC BY-SA 3.0], via Wikimedia Commons

English and French Explorers

The French and the English concentrated their journeys on the northern part of the continent, because they thought that there also had to be a north-western route to India.

In 1497, John Cabot, an Italian who sailed for England, landed on the east coast of Canada. In 1534 Jacques Cartier sailed down the St. Lawrence River and reached the Great Lakes. He claimed this territory for the king of France.

During the 1600s the French and English began to set up colonies. The French concentrated on the St .Lawrence valley and the Great Lakes and founded towns like Montreal, or Detroit.

At the end of the century Louis Joliet and Jacques Marquette sailed down the Mississippi River. The land near the Gulf of Mexico was called Louisiana, in honour of the French king. Settlements like St. Louis or New Orleans show French origin.

The first permanent settlement in North America was founded at Jamestown , Virginia in 1607. In 1610 Henry Hudson sailed around north-eastern Canada and discovered a huge body of water which he thought was the Pacific Ocean. Today it is known as Hudson Bay.

Jacques Cartier’s first voyage to the New World
Image : Jon Platek, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Henry Hudson’s voyages to the New World
Image: Jon Platek, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Amerigo Vespucci

Amerigo Vespucci was an Italian-born explorer who explored the mainland of America at the end of the 15th century. A German mapmaker believed that Vespucci was the first to reach the New World ,so he suggested naming the new land America.

Although Vespucci was probably not one of the greatest explorers of the time, he was the first navigator who explored South America.

Magellan Sails Around the World

In 1519 the Portuguese sailor Ferdinand Magellan set out to find India by sailing around South America. He sailed for Spain because the Portuguese didn’t give him any money for this expedition.

Magellan had 5 ships and a crew of 240. When he reached the southern tip of South America, he got into bad, stormy weather. Two of his ships were badly damaged and couldn’t continue the journey. With three ships he sailed through a strait, that later was named after him , the Strait of Magellan.

When he reached the Pacific Ocean, he sailed for three months without any sight of land. Finally , in April of 1521 he landed on the Philippine Islands. Magellan got into a fight with native islanders and was killed there.

Only one ship could continue the voyage. It crossed the Indian Ocean and sailed around the Cape of Good Hope. With only twenty people on board it reached Spain three years after it had set out.

Magellan’s journey around the world
Knutux [CC BY-SA 3.0], via Wikimedia Commons

Timeline of Events

Videos

Ferdinand Magellan – First Voyage Around the World
Christopher Columbus
Amerigo Vespucci
Henry Hudson

Exercises

Multiple Choice Test
Match the Sentence Parts
Famous Explorers – Matching Exercise
Words and Definitions
Missing Word Cloze
Names, People, Places – Crossword
Vocabulary Crossword
The Silk Road – Ancient Trading Route – Missing Word Cloze

Printable Downloads (PDF)

Word List
End of Unit Test
Key

Native Americans, or American Indians, were the first people to live in the New World. They had been living there long before the first Europeans arrived.

In 1492, Columbus sailed across the Atlantic Ocean to find a shorter and faster route to India.When he landed on an island near the American coast he thought he had reached India, so he called the people he met there Indians.

Many historians think that the first Indians came to the American continent from Asia over 20,000 years ago. At that time it was very cold and ice covered most of the northern part of our world. Indian tribes wandered across the Bering Strait and spread down to the southern part of South America.

Indians lived in different ways and had different cultures that depended on the climate and their surroundings.

Tribes from Asia came across the Bering Strait and spread to all parts of the Americas

Arrival of Europeans

The arrival of the Europeans in the New World was the beginning of the end of Indian life. Many settlers thought they were superior to the Indians and tried to force them to take on their way of life.

Land became the main problem between the Europeans and Native Americans. Settlers wanted land for farming and mining. As time went on, more and more Indians were forced off their land as new settlers arrived and travelled west.

At first, settlers and Indians were friendly towards each other but when they started to protect their land fighting broke out.

In 1830, a law was passed that allowed the government to move Indian tribes to the land west of the Mississippi.

When gold was found in California in the 1850s settlers rushed west as quickly as possible and destroyed the land that the Indians depended on for hunting and fishing.

At the beginning of the 20th century the American government started putting Indian tribes on reservations in the western part of the United States. Later on, American Indians were allowed to vote and the government tried to integrate them into society.

Family Life

Native Americans concentrated on the important things in life: getting food, making clothes and building houses.

Indians ate many different kinds of food. Those who lived on the plains of the Central United States ate the meat of buffalo. The Pueblos of the south-western part lived on corn, beans and squash. Natives in Alaska and Canada were fishers and hunted deer and other wild animals in the forests. Most of them ate berries and collected nuts.

Indians cooked their food in ovens that they made with hot stones. They preserved meat by smoking or drying it in the sun.

Squash is a kind of pumpkin
Image:Chiswick Chap, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Marriage and Children

Many Native Americans married at an early age – girls between 13 and 15, boys between 15 and 20. In some Indian tribes, parents chose husbands and wives for their children. Some Indian tribes allowed men to have more than one wife. After a man died his wife often lived with his brother’s family.

Most Indian families were small because many children died at birth or at an early age. When boys got older they were tested for their strength and bravery. Many had to live alone in the wilderness for a long time.

In many areas, Indians lived in big families called clans. These clans were a group of relatives who had one common ancestor.

Native American family in the 19th century
Image : National Gallery of Art, CC0,
via Wikimedia Commons

Clothing

Many Indians made clothes from animal skins and furs. Buffalo skin and rabbit fur were especially popular. They also used bird feathers to decorate their heads.

Indians of the tropical regions only wore simple skirts. Some tribes wore no clothes at all.

Feather headdress

Image:“2121.15.01 Native American style feather headdress «Santee Sioux Warrior» (front view)” by ‘4 Colors’ Gallery of Plains Indian Warrior Art
is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 .

Houses and Homes

Indians built many different types of homes because they lived in different climates and didn’t have the same building materials. Some groups built large houses with many rooms where many families could stay together, others had small dwellings in which only very few people lived.

The Inuit of Canada built snow houses during the winter and in summer they lived in tents made of animal hides.

In some parts of America, Indians built wigwams that were covered with leaves. Some tribes built houses into the earth that they covered with leaves and grass.

Indians of in the Great Plains built tepees made of buffalo skin. The Pueblo Indians of the south-western part of America used sun-dried bricks to make houses.

Brick houses of the Pueblo tribe in the southwestern US
Image:I, Luca Galuzzi, CC BY-SA 2.5,
via Wikimedia Commons

Teepee made of animal skin
Image: John C. H. Grabill, Public domain,
via Wikimedia Commons

Arts and Crafts

Native Americans worked in many arts and crafts. They created beautiful pottery, made baskets to carry food and wove cloth into blankets and rugs.

Indians also painted their pottery with colourful patterns. Some made wall paintings of important ceremonies or everyday life.

Government and Warfare

Government

Families and whole clans joined together to form tribes. Hundreds of tribes lived in America when Columbus arrived in 1492. Each tribe lived in its own area, shared the same language and had its own religion. The leader of the tribe was called a chief. Decisions were made at meetings of the tribal council. Members were important people of many different families.

Warfare

Indians often fought against other tribes because it was sometimes the only way to settle disputes.

The bow and arrow was the most common weapon of the Indians. Some tribes put poison on the arrowheads. Many Indians fought with spears and tomahawks.

When an Indian defeated his enemy he often took his scalp as a prize to show to others. Killing an enemy tribesman often made a warrior famous and respected.

When white people came to North America, Indians bought guns and other new weapons from them.

Weapons of North American Indians

Religion

Indians did not have one single religion, but they did have many beliefs. They believed in a mysterious force in nature and in spirits that were higher than human beings and influenced their lives.

People depended on them when they searched for food or when people were ill. Some tribes believed in one or many gods – special spirits that were more powerful than others.

Shamans were religious people who had close contacts with spirits. They were often medicine men and treated sick people in a family. They set broken bones and used plants to cure certain diseases. When helping the ill they often moved around their bodies and sang songs.

Many ceremonies were held to help Indians get enough food. The Plains Indians thought that the buffalo dance would help them hunt buffalo. Some tribes held harvest festivals and organised rain dances where they prayed to gods for enough rain.

Music accompanied Native Americans through everyday life. Many tribes sang to the rhythm of rattles and drums. Some tribes used flutes and whistles.

Cultural Regions

Cultural regions of Native Americans

The Arctic and Subarctic

Arctic and Subarctic inhabitants probably came to Alaska and Canada from northern Siberia about 10,000 years ago. They are also called Inuit.

They got food by hunting deer and sea mammals like seals and whales. Houses were made of animal skin or wood that came from nearby forests.

Indians travelled mostly across the lakes and rivers of the Arctic. They used toboggans and snowshoes to travel when the lakes and rivers were frozen.

Inuit family in their traditional clothing
Image:Ansgar Walk, CC BY-SA 3.0,
via Wikimedia Commons

The Northeast

These Indians lived between the Great Lakes and the Atlantic Coast and as far west as the Mississippi.

They were the first to make contact with European settlers. At first the two groups were very friendly. Indians taught white people how to plant corn. In 1621, the Indians and the first pilgrims even had their first Thanksgiving ceremony together. But later on, fighting broke out between settlers and Indians when the white people started to move west and take away their land.

Native Americans and settlers take part in Thanksgiving feast
Image: Jean Leon Gerome Ferris, Public domain,
via Wikimedia Commons

The Southeast

This region extends from the Ohio River to the Gulf of Mexico and from the Atlantic to the Mississippi. Indians lived in an area with mild winters and warm summers. Because there was enough rainfall, many tribes grew corn.

Women had much power in these tribes. Some of them even were allowed to take part in war councils.

Religion played an important role in the lives of the south-eastern Indians. They honoured their ancestors and when a person died many objects were put into his grave. Many Indian groups worshipped the sun.

The Plains

The Plains stretch from the Mississippi to the Rocky Mountains and from Canada to Mexico. Few Indians lived there before the arrival of the Europeans.

When the first Spaniards brought the horse to North America, the life of the Plains Indians changed. On horseback they could follow buffalo herds more quickly and buffalo meat became their main food. It was roasted over a fire and the skin was used to make clothes and tepees. Bones were used to make horns and other tools.

When white settlers came and also started hunting buffalo, the great animals of the Plains almost disappeared. Many Indians were driven away and the white settlers turned the land into cattle farms and ranches .

Plains Indians chasing buffalo over a cliff
Image:Alfred Jacob Miller, Public domain,
via Wikimedia Commons

The Mountain Region

This region covers the highest parts of North America. Settlers came to the Rocky Mountain region when gold and other minerals were discovered in the second half of the 19th century. Miners poured in and drove the Indians off their land.

The first white people who made contact with the mountain tribes were the explorers Lewis and Clark. Fur traders followed . Today many Indians live on reservations.

The Southwest

This dry part of North America stretches from southern California to central Mexico.

Many famous tribes lived here. The Pueblos were among the most highly developed. They lived in villages and were mostly farmers. They planted corn and beans and raised turkeys. The Pueblo Indians built large houses called cliff dwellings. They had many stories and were made of stone. People usually entered the houses through the roof. They climbed up a ladder that could be removed when an enemy attacked. The Pueblo were a peaceful tribe who only fought when they were attacked.

The Apache and Navajo Indians were fierce fighters. They often raided the Pueblo and searched for their food and other goods.

The first Europeans to come here were the Spanish. They tried to convert Indians to Christianity but mostly failed.

Native Americans Today

About 5 million Native Americans live in the USA today, or 1.6% of the total population. The biggest tribes are the Cherokee, Chippewa, Navajo and Sioux. About a fifth of of all Native Americans in the US live on reservations. The rest live in cities or towns.

Indian culture is still preserved on reservations. Here, they practice old traditions. However, they are worried that their traditions will disappear because more and more of them are being integrated into society.

Today, Native Americans are better off than they were at the beginning of the 20th century. They get better education; many go to high school and college. Many Native Americans work as lawyers, doctors or have other important jobs, like working for government companies.

Some tribes get money from tourism or selling handicrafts. In 1988 the government allowed casinos and other gambling operations on reservations. Other tribes earn money from taxes on oil or gas that is produced on their land.

Even though life has improved , Native Americans still face many problems in today’s America. Unemployment on reservations is about 50%. The income of an Indian family is much lower than that of a white family. Most Native Americans are badly paid and are unskilled workers. Suicide rates are also higher than in other places. Some of them try to reduce their problems by drinking alcohol and taking drugs.

Population of Native Americans in % of the overall population
Source : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Indigenous_Americans_by_county.png

Video

Native American History

Exercises

Multiple Choice Test
Words and Definitions 1
Words and Definitions 2
Match the Sentence Parts
TRUE or FALSE ?
Life of Native Americans – Missing Word Cloze
Native Americans – Regions and People – Matching Exercise
Pocahontas – Multiple Choice Cloze
Crossword

Printable Downloads (PDF)

Word List
End of Unit Test
Key

African Americans are citizens of the United States with ancestors who came from Africa. Their forefathers were brought to American colonies as slaves in the 17th and 18th centuries. About 40 million African Americans, 13% of the total population, live in the USA today.

In the past African Americans have been known by many names. They were called Negroes, Blacks and Coloureds. In the last 30 years the term African Americans has officially been used.

About half of them live in the southern states of the USA, the rest in large cities of the East, Midwest and West.

Percent of African American Population by State
Image: Ghislain Montvernay [CC BY-SA 3.0], via Wikimedia Commons

The Age of Slavery

European traders brought the first slaves from Africa to the new colonies in the 1600s. After arriving in the New World they were bought by white masters and had to work on large cotton and tobacco farms in the South. They didn’t get any money for their work and living conditions were very bad. The economy of the South depended on slaves.

Slave work was very difficult. Most women cooked, cleaned the house and raised the children of their white masters. Men were trained to be carpenters or masons. Most of them, however, were farm labourers. They planted and harvested crops.

Not all Blacks in America were slaves. “Free Blacks” lived and worked in big American cities but they had very few rights. Expressing political views, carrying guns and meeting with white people was forbidden.

Americans in the northern states thought that slavery shouldn’t be allowed in a free country. As time went on more and more people joined in the fight to end slavery. These abolitionists helped slaves escape to the North through secret routes. This system was called the Underground Railway.

In 1860 Abraham Lincoln was elected president of the United States. He was strongly against slavery. Many southern states withdrew from the union and formed their own country – the Confederate States of America. It was the beginning of the Civil War, which lasted until 1865.

In 1863 Abraham Lincoln abolished slavery in the Emancipation Proclamation. The northern states won the Civil War and American slaves were free.

The Reconstruction Period

The time after the Civil War became known as the Reconstruction. The American government sent soldiers to the southern states to protect the Blacks and their newly won freedom.

Although they were officially free, most of them still lived in poverty and in very bad conditions. In the South they worked as sharecroppers, farmers who cultivated land and could keep a share of what they grew for themselves.

Whites continued to discriminate against African Americans. Blacks were not allowed to attend the same schools or go to the same churches as whites. Segregation meant a complete separation of life between the two groups. Blacks were also kept from voting.

During the second half of the 19th century violent groups started to terrorize the Blacks. The most famous was the Ku Klux Klan. Bands of white-hooded Klansmen rode through the countryside at night. They beat up and murdered many Blacks and white people who felt sympathy for them.

Three Ku Klux Klan members at a parade in 1922
Image: National Photo Company Collection,
Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

The World Wars and the Great Depression

During World War I and in the years that followed more and more Blacks started to move to the cities of the North where they expected to find a job and lead a better life. Most of them, however, were disappointed because they were not educated and didn’t have the skills that they needed. Slums and black ghettos developed in the inner cities throughout the northern United States.

The Great Depression, which began after the stock market crash of 1929, hit the black population harder than the whites. President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal Programme did a lot to help Blacks.

World War II opened up new opportunities for Black people. About a million men joined the army and served for their country – mostly in all-Black units. As time went on more and more Blacks succeeded in getting a higher position in the army. Some of them even became pilots and officers.

In the past hundred years African Americans have moved from the red states to the blue ones

The Civil Rights Movement

After World War II a new movement for civil rights began. African Americans started to have more confidence and believe more in themselves. They had served for their country with honour during the war and in the North many Blacks started living in better conditions. A new group came to life – the NAACP (the National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People). It attracted many members and received support from both Blacks and Whites.

The Civil Rights movement gained momentum in the 1950s. In 1954 the Supreme Court decided that segregation in schools was against the constitution. In 1955 a black woman, Rosa Parks, was arrested in Montgomery, Alabama because she refused to let a white passenger take her seat. Blacks in the city started boycotting buses. This boycott was led by Martin Luther King, who became the leader of the Civil Rights Movement.

The movement reached its climax in 1963. Over a million people, Blacks as well as Whites took part in a protest demonstration in Washington D.C.

In the following year Congress passed the Civil Rights Act. This law banned discrimination in school, public places, jobs and many other fields. African Americans received the right to vote and in 1967 Thurgood Marshall became the first Black judge to serve with the Supreme Court.

Rosa Parks
Image: See page for author,
Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Black Power Movement

While Martin Luther King and wanted to improve the situation of Blacks in a non-violent way, others were more violent and militant. In the 1960s Malcolm X preached that Blacks should use force and violence to achieve equal rights. Stokley Carmichael coined the term “Black Power”.

During this decade the country was hit by a series of riots, mostly in big cities. Blacks protested against bad schools, poor housing, high prices and unequal treatment by the police.

In the 1968 Olympic Games two American medal winners held their closed fist in the air and in protest, turned away from the American flag during the ceremony. In the same year the most respected leader of the American Blacks, Martin Luther King, was assassinated by a white man in Memphis, Tennessee.

John Carlos and Tommie Smith raise their fists
during the 1968 Olympic Games in Mexico City
Image : Angelo Cozzi (Mondadori Publishers)
[Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

African Americans Today

Since the violent times of the 60s African Americans have made progress and improved their situation in every part of American life.

The largest cities, including New York, Chicago and Los Angeles have had black mayors. Colin Powell and Condoleezza Rice were two African Americans who became Secretary of State, and in 2009 Barack Obama became the first African American President of the United States.

In the film industry Halle Berry and Denzel Washington are among the most famous stars. Bill Cosby was the first African American with his own comedy show and Oprah Winfrey is the most famous and best-earning talk master on American TV.

Blacks have dominated many sports as well. Boxer Muhammad Ali was heavyweight champion of the 60s and 70s. Basketball’s Michael Jordan was probably the most successful player in NBA history.

Despite these advances, about 25% of African Americans live in poverty. Discrimination still exists in many areas and the standard of living lags behind that of the white population. Compared to other groups, average income is much lower and the rate of unemployment higher. Nevertheless, African Americans have made big gains since slavery ended 150 years ago.

Oprah Winfrey
Source : https://www.flickr.com/photos/aphrodite-in-nyc [CC BY 2.0], via Wikimedia Commons

Videos

Slavery
Life of a Plantation Slave
The Underground Railroad
Abraham Lincoln – Emancipation Proclamation
After the Civil War – The Jim Crow Laws

Exercises

Multiple Choice Test
Match the Sentence Parts
Words and Definitions
History of African Americans – Order the Events
African American Music – Word Formation
The Life and Times of Olaudah Equiano – Missing Sentence Parts
Rosa Parks – Multiple Choice Cloze
Famous African Americans
Crossword

Printable Downloads (PDF)

Word List
End of Unit Test
Key