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This was the plane used to drop the bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki

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Amy Tikkanen Amy Tikkanen is Managing Editor at Encyclopaedia Britannica.

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Enola Gay, the B-29 heavy bomber that was used by the United States on August 6, 1945, to drop an atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan. It was the first time the explosive device had been used on an enemy target, and it destroyed most of the city. The aircraft was named after the mother of pilot Paul Warfield Tibbets, Jr.

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Many fell ill from the radiation caused by the atomic bombs

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Atomic bombs were dopped on these Japanese cities, killing over 150,000 people

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Led by Enrico Fermi, a group of physicists created the first controlled nuclear chain reaction

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The code name for the American effort to to design and code an atomic bomb

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America Declares War

The agencies leading up to the Manhattan Project were first formed in 1939 by President Franklin D. Roosevelt after U.S. intelligence operatives reported that scientists working for Adolf Hitler were already working on a nuclear weapon.

At first, Roosevelt set up the Advisory Committee on Uranium, a team of scientists and military officials tasked with researching uranium's potential role as a weapon. Based on the committee's findings, the U.S. government started funding research by Enrico Fermi and Leo Szilard at Columbia University, which was focused on radioactive isotope separation (also known as uranium enrichment) and nuclear chain reactions.

The Advisory Committee on Uranium's name was changed in 1940 to the National Defense Research Committee, before finally being renamed the Office of Scientific Research and Development (OSRD) in 1941 and adding Fermi to its list of members.

That same year, following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, President Roosevelt declared that the U.S. would enter World War II and align with Great Britain, France and Russia to fight against the Germans in Europe and the Japanese in the Pacific theater.

The Army Corps of Engineers joined the OSRD in 1942 with President Roosevelt's approval, and the project officially morphed into a military initiative, with scientists serving in a supporting role.

The Manhattan Project Begins

The OSRD formed the Manhattan Engineer District in 1942 and based it in the New York City borough of the same name. U.S. Army Colonel Leslie R. Groves was appointed to lead the project.

Fermi and Szilard were still engaged in research on nuclear chain reactions, the process by which atoms separate and interact, now at the University of Chicago, and successfully enriching uranium to produce uranium-235.

Meanwhile, scientists like Glenn Seaborg were producing microscopic samples of pure plutonium, and Canadian government and military officials were working on nuclear research at several sites in Canada.

On December 28, 1942, President Roosevelt authorized the formation of the Manhattan Project to combine these various research efforts with the goal of weaponizing nuclear energy. Facilities were set up in remote locations in New Mexico, Tennessee and Washington, as well as sites in Canada, for this research and related atomic tests to be performed.

Robert Oppenheimer and Project Y

Theoretical physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer was already working on the concept of nuclear fission (along with Edward Teller and others) when he was named director of the Los Alamos Laboratory in northern New Mexico in 1943.

Los Alamos Laboratory-the creation of which was known as Project Y-was formally established on January 1, 1943. The complex is where the first Manhattan Project bombs were built and tested.

On July 16, 1945, in a remote desert location near Alamogordo, New Mexico, the first atomic bomb was successfully detonated-the Trinity Test -creating an enormous mushroom cloud some 40,000 feet high and ushering in the Atomic Age.

Scientists working under Oppenheimer had developed two distinct types of bombs: a uranium-based design called "the Little Boy" and a plutonium-based weapon called "the Fat Man." With both designs in the works at Los Alamos, they became an important part of U.S. strategy aimed at bringing an end to World War II.

The Potsdam Conference

With the Germans sustaining heavy losses in Europe and nearing surrender, the consensus among U.S. military leaders in 1945 was that the Japanese would fight to the bitter end and force a full-scale invasion of the island nation, resulting in significant casualties on both sides.

On July 26, 1945, at the Potsdam Conference in the Allied-occupied city of Potsdam, Germany, the U.S. delivered an ultimatum to Japan-surrender under the terms outlined in the Potsdam Declaration (which, among other provisions, called for the Japanese to form a new, democratic and peaceful government) or face "prompt and utter destruction."

As the Potsdam Declaration provided no role for the emperor in Japan's future, the ruler of the island nation was unwilling to accept its terms.

Hiroshima and Nagasaki

Meanwhile, the military leaders of the Manhattan Project had identified Hiroshima, Japan, as an ideal target for an atomic bomb, given its size and the fact that there were no known American prisoners of war in the area. A forceful demonstration of the technology developed in New Mexico was deemed necessary to encourage the Japanese to surrender.

With no surrender agreement in place, on August 6, 1945, the Enola Gay bomber plane dropped the as-yet untested "Little Boy" bomb some 1,900 feet above Hiroshima, causing unprecedented destruction and death over an area of five square miles. Three days later, with still no surrender declared, on August 9th, the "Fat Man" bomb was dropped over Nagasaki, the site of a torpedo-building plant, destroying more than three square miles of the city.

The two bombs combined killed more than 100,000 people and leveled the two Japanese cities to the ground.

The Japanese informed Washington, which following Roosevelt's death was under the new leadership of President Harry Truman, of their intention to surrender on August 10th, and formally surrendered on August 14, 1945.

Legacy of the Manhattan Project

With the development of weapons designed to bring about the end of World War II as its stated mission, it's easy to think that the story of the Manhattan Project ends in August 1945. However, that's far from the case.

Following the end of the war, the United States formed the Atomic Energy Commission to oversee research efforts designed to apply the technologies developed under the Manhattan Project to other fields.

Ultimately, in 1964, then-President Lyndon B. Johnson put an end to the U.S. government's effective monopoly over nuclear energy by allowing for private ownership of nuclear materials.

The nuclear fission technology perfected by the Manhattan Project engineers has since become the basis for the development of nuclear reactors, power generators, as well as other innovations, including medical imaging systems and radiation therapies for various forms of cancer.

Sources

Manhattan: The Army and the Atomic Bomb. U.S. Army Center of Military History.
The Manhattan Project-Its Story. U.S. Department of Energy: Office of Scientific and Technical Information.
Leo Szilárd, a traffic light and a slice of nuclear history. Scientific American.
J. Robert Oppenheimer (1904-1967). Atomic Archive.

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The agencies leading up to the Manhattan Project were first formed in 1939 by President Franklin D. Roosevelt after U.S. intelligence operatives reported that scientists working for Adolf Hitler were already working on a nuclear weapon. At first, Roosevelt set up the Advisory Committee on Uranium, a team of scientists and military officials tasked with researching uranium's potential role as a weapon.

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Fled Nazi persecution

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The Battle at Midway mostly involved aircraft carriers.

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The Bataan Death March was a brutal 85-mile walk forced on American and Filipino POWs.

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After the April 9, 1942 U.S. surrender of the Bataan Peninsula on the main Philippine island of Luzon to the Japanese during World War II (1939-45), the approximately 75,000 Filipino and American troops on Bataan were forced to make an arduous 65-mile march to prison camps. The marchers made the trek in intense heat and were subjected to harsh treatment by Japanese guards. Thousands perished in what became known as the Bataan Death March.

Bataan Death March: Background

The day after Japan bombed the U.S. naval base at Pearl Harbor, on December 7, 1941, the Japanese invasion of the Philippines began. Within a month, the Japanese had captured Manila, the capital of the Philippines, and the American and Filipino defenders of Luzon (the island on which Manila is located) were forced to retreat to the Bataan Peninsula. For the next three months, the combined U.S.-Filipino army held out despite a lack of naval and air support. Finally, on April 9, with his forces crippled by starvation and disease, U.S. General Edward King Jr. (1884-1958), surrendered his approximately 75,000 troops at Bataan.

Did you know? The Philippines is an archipelago consisting of more than 7,100 islands.

Bataan Death March: April 1942

The surrendered Filipinos and Americans soon were rounded up by the Japanese and forced to march some 65 miles from Mariveles, on the southern end of the Bataan Peninsula, to San Fernando. The men were divided into groups of approximately 100, and the march typically took each group around five days to complete. The exact figures are unknown, but it is believed that thousands of troops died because of the brutality of their captors, who starved and beat the marchers, and bayoneted those too weak to walk. Survivors were taken by rail from San Fernando to prisoner-of-war camps, where thousands more died from disease, mistreatment and starvation.

Bataan Death March: Aftermath

America avenged its defeat in the Philippines with the invasion of the island of Leyte in October 1944. General Douglas MacArthur (1880-1964), who in 1942 had famously promised to return to the Philippines, made good on his word. In February 1945, U.S.-Filipino forces recaptured the Bataan Peninsula, and Manila was liberated in early March.

After the war, an American military tribunal tried Lieutenant General Homma Masaharu, commander of the Japanese invasion forces in the Philippines. He was held responsible for the death march, a war crime, and was executed by firing squad on April 3, 1946.

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The Bataan Death March took place in April 1942, during World War II, when approximately 75,000 Filipino and American troops on the Bataan Peninsula in the Philippines were forced to make an arduous 65-mile march to prison camps after surrendering to the Japanese forces there. Thousands died in the process.

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Led troops in an attempt to hold the islands. However, a Japanese strike proved otherwise

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Douglas MacArthur: Five-Star U.S. Army General | Biography

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The Supreme Court justified the executive order as a wartime necessity

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Korematsu vs United States Explained : US History Review

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Korematsu decided to test the government relocation action in the courts. He found little sympathy

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This increased because of the presence of Japanese people on the West Coast

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Many Americans worried that citizens of Japanese ancestry would act as spies or saboteurs for the Japanese government. Fear - not evidence - drove the U.S. to place over 127,000 Japanese-Americans in concentration camps for the duration of WWII.

Over 127,000 United States citizens were imprisoned during World War II. Their crime? Being of Japanese ancestry.

Despite the lack of any concrete evidence, Japanese Americans were suspected of remaining loyal to their ancestral land. Anti-Japanese paranoia increased because of a large Japanese presence on the West Coast. In the event of a Japanese invasion of the American mainland, Japanese Americans were feared as a security risk.

Succumbing to bad advice and popular opinion, President Roosevelt signed an executive order in February 1942 ordering the relocation of all Americans of Japanese ancestry to concentration camps in the interior of the United States.

Evacuation orders were posted in Japanese-American communities giving instructions on how to comply with the executive order. Many families sold their homes, their stores, and most of their assets. They could not be certain their homes and livelihoods would still be there upon their return. Because of the mad rush to sell, properties and inventories were often sold at a fraction of their true value.

After being forced from their communities, Japanese families made these military style barracks their homes.

Until the camps were completed, many of the evacuees were held in temporary centers, such as stables at local racetracks. Almost two-thirds of the interns were Nisei, or Japanese Americans born in the United States. It made no difference that many had never even been to Japan. Even Japanese-American veterans of World War I were forced to leave their homes.

Ten camps were finally completed in remote areas of seven western states. Housing was spartan, consisting mainly of tarpaper barracks. Families dined together at communal mess halls, and children were expected to attend school. Adults had the option of working for a salary of $5 per day. The United States government hoped that the interns could make the camps self-sufficient by farming to produce food. But cultivation on arid soil was quite a challenge.

Most of the ten relocation camps were built in arid and semi-arid areas where life would have been harsh under even ideal conditions.

Evacuees elected representatives to meet with government officials to air grievances, often to little avail. Recreational activities were organized to pass the time. Some of the interns actually volunteered to fight in one of two all-Nisei army regiments and went on to distinguish themselves in battle.

Fred Korematsu challenged the legality of Executive Order 9066 but the Supreme Court ruled the action was justified as a wartime necessity. It was not until 1988 that the U.S. government attempted to apologize to those who had been interned.

On the whole, however, life in the relocation centers was not easy. The camps were often too cold in the winter and too hot in the summer. The food was mass produced army-style grub. And the interns knew that if they tried to flee, armed sentries who stood watch around the clock, would shoot them.

Fred Korematsu decided to test the government relocation action in the courts. He found little sympathy there. In Korematsu vs. the United States, the Supreme Court justified the executive order as a wartime necessity. When the order was repealed, many found they could not return to their hometowns. Hostility against Japanese Americans remained high across the West Coast into the postwar years as many villages displayed signs demanding that the evacuees never return. As a result, the interns scattered across the country.

In 1988, Congress attempted to apologize for the action by awarding each surviving intern $20,000. While the American concentration camps never reached the levels of Nazi death camps as far as atrocities are concerned, they remain a dark mark on the nation's record of respecting civil liberties and cultural differences.

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In February 1942, President Franklin Roosevelt signed an executive order authorizing the confinement of ALL Americans of Japanese ancestry for the duration of WWII. Over 127,000 American citizens were imprisoned, though there was no evidence that they had committed or were planning any crimes.

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When Hitler surrendered on May 8, 1945, it became known as Victory over Europe Day, or V-E Day

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The battle where Hitler launched an unsuccessful counteroffensive in December,

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Called "the greatest American battle of the war" by Winston Churchill, the Battle of the Bulge in the Ardennes region of Belgium was Adolf Hitler's last major offensive in World War II against the Western Front. Hitler's aim was to split the Allies in their drive toward Germany. The German troops' failure to divide Britain, France and America with the Ardennes offensive paved the way to victory for the allies.

Lasting six brutal weeks, from December 16, 1944, to January 25, 1945, the assault, also called the Battle of the Ardennes, took place during frigid weather conditions, with some 30 German divisions attacking battle-fatigued American troops across 85 miles of the densely wooded Ardennes Forest.

As the Germans drove into the Ardennes, the Allied line took on the appearance of a large bulge, giving rise to the battle's name. The battle proved to be the costliest ever fought by the U.S. Army, which suffered over 100,000 casualties. The formerly serene, wooded region of Ardennes was hacked into chaos by fighting as the Americans dug in against the German advance at St.-Vith, Elsenborn Ridge, Houffalize and, later, Bastogne, which was defended by the 101st Airborne Division.

"Did you ever see land when a tornado's come through? Did you ever see trees and stuff, twisted and broken off? The whole friggin' forest was like that," said U.S. Army Charlie Sanderson in My Father's War: Memories from Our Honored WWII Soldiers.
READ MORE: 8 Things You May Not Know About the Battle of the Bulge
The surprise German attack broke through the front on day one as stories quickly spread of massacred soldiers and civilians, according to the U.S. Army Center of Military History.

"For those who had lived through 1940, the picture was all too familiar. Belgian townspeople put away their Allied flags and brought out their swastikas," the center writes. "Police in Paris enforced an all-night curfew. British veterans waited nervously to see how the Americans would react to a full-scale German offensive, and British generals quietly acted to safeguard the Meuse River's crossings. Even American civilians, who had thought final victory was near were sobered by the Nazi onslaught."

Troops Faced Severe Cold

Hitler's mid-December timing of the attack-one of the bloodiest of the war-was strategic, as freezing rain, thick fog, deep snow drifts and record-breaking low temperatures brutalized the American troops. More than 15,000 "cold injuries"-trench foot, pneumonia, frostbite-were reported that winter.

"I was from Buffalo, I thought I knew cold," baseball Hall of Famer and WWII veteran Warren Spahn said in The Love of Baseball. "But I didn't really know cold until the Battle of the Bulge."

Nazis Sent in Imposters and Changed Road Signs

Another Nazi strategy was to attempt to infiltrate the Allied troops.

Veteran Vernon Brantley, a private first class in the 289th Regiment, told the Fort Jackson Leader in 2009 that his unit had just arrived in Germany from France when they were told to load up and return to Luxembourg.

"We got word that the Germans had dropped a lot of paratroopers behind our lines, and that they were dressed like American Soldiers and spoke English," he said. "... They were there to create confusion."

The Germans also changed road signs and spread misinformation.

"The Nazis were carefully groomed for their dangerous mission," LIFE magazine reported in 1945. "They spoke excellent English and their slang had been tuned up by close association with American prisoners of war in German camps. ... Under the rules of the Hague Convention these Germans were classifiable as spies and subject to an immediate court martial by a military tribunal. After brief deliberation American officers found them guilty, and ordered the usual penalty for spies: death by firing squad."

To stop infiltrators, the U.S. troops would ask suspected Germans to answer American trivia questions.

"Three times I was ordered to prove my identity," Gen. Omar Bradley recalled, according to the Washington Post. "The first time by identifying Springfield as the capital of Illinois; the second by locating the guard between the center and the tackle on a line of scrimmage; the third time by naming the then-current spouse of a blonde named Betty Grable."
Click here to watch the full episode on the Battle of the Bulge and more from WWII in HD on History Vault
Allied Air Forces Arrived on Christmas Day

It wasn't until Christmas Day that the weather conditions finally cleared, allowing Allied air forces to strike.

"It was on that bright, clear and cold Christmas morning in 1944 that the ground froze solid," Brantley told the Leader. "The tanks and air forces could finally maneuver, and get assistance to all of us who were previously blocked off. ... It was a welcome sign to see the sun come up. It meant that we were alive for one more day."

Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower, the supreme Allied commander, and Lt. Gen. George S. Patton Jr. led the American defense to restore the front. According to the National Archives' Bloodiest Battle, Eisenhower gave Patton the Third Army, about 230,000 soldiers, and ordered him to head to the Ardennes.

101st Airborne Division Arrive in Bastogne

In the small, pivotal Belgian town of Bastogne, the Germans surrounded thousands of Allied troops. Eisenhower, in response, sent in more units, including the famed 101st Airborne Division.

"When the Germans sent a message demanding the surrender of the 101st on December 22, they got a one-word response from its commander, Brig. Gen. Anthony McAuliffe: 'Nuts!'" the Bloodiest Battle states. "This was interpreted by German officers as a more colorful-and negative-response to their demand. The day after Christmas, units of Patton's rapidly approaching Third Army finally arrived, broke through the German lines, and rescued the troops."

Claiming victory of the battle on January 25, 1945, and the Allies headed for Berlin. The war ended less than five months later with Germany's May 7 surrender.

In all, according to the U.S. Department of Defense, 1 million-plus Allied troops, including some 500,000 Americans, fought in the Battle of the Bulge, with approximately 19,000 soldiers killed in action, 47,500 wounded and 23,000-plus missing. About 100,000 Germans were killed, wounded or captured.

"The Ardennes campaign of 1944-45 was only one in a series of difficult engagements in the battle for Europe," wrote John S.D. Eisenhower, in his 1969 book, The Bitter Woods. "Nevertheless, it can be said that the Ardennes campaign epitomized them all. For it was here that American and German combat soldiers met in the decisive struggle that broke the back of the Nazi war machine."

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Battle of the Bulge - Definition, Dates & Who Won

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The Battle of the Bulge took place in December 1944, after Adolf Hitler launched a surprise blitzkrieg against Allied Forces in northwest Europe. Caught off-guard, American units fought to stem the German advance. As the Germans pushed through American defenses, the front line took on the appearance of a large bulge, giving rise to the battle's name.

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The day (June 6, 1944) in World War II on which Allied forces invaded northern France by means of beach landings in Normandy

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D-Day - The Great Crusade - Extra History - #1

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Frank Capra shot propaganda movies that inspired millions

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Frank Capra on Late Night, November 22, 1982, Upgrade, Complete

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Rosie the Riveter beckoned housewives to leave their homes and come work in the nation's factories

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The War Powers Act granted wide authority to the President to conduct the war effort

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The War Powers Act is a congressional resolution designed to limit the U.S. president's ability to initiate or escalate military actions abroad. Among other restrictions, the law requires that presidents notify Congress after deploying the armed forces and limits how long units can remain engaged without congressional approval. Enacted in 1973 with the goal of avoiding another lengthy conflict such as the Vietnam War, its effectiveness has been repeatedly questioned throughout its history, and several presidents have been accused of failing to comply with its regulations.

What Is the War Powers Act?

The War Powers Act-officially called the War Powers Resolution-was enacted in November 1973 over an executive veto by President Richard M. Nixon.

The law's text frames it as a means of guaranteeing that "the collective judgment of both the Congress and the President will apply" whenever the American armed forces are deployed overseas. To that end, it requires the President to consult with the legislature "in every possible instance" before committing troops to war.

The resolution also sets down reporting requirements for the chief executive, including the responsibility to notify Congress within 48 hours whenever military forces are introduced "into hostilities or into situations where imminent involvement in hostilities is clearly indicated by the circumstances."

Additionally, the law stipulates that Presidents are required to end foreign military actions after 60 days unless Congress provides a declaration of war or an authorization for the operation to continue.

Origins of the War Powers Act

In the U.S. Constitution, the power to make war is shared by the executive and legislative branches. As commander-in-chief of the military, the president is charged with directing the armed forces. Congress, meanwhile, is vested with the power "to declare war" and "raise and support armies."

These provisions were traditionally interpreted to mean that Congress had to approve American involvement in overseas wars. By the 1970s, however, many lawmakers had grown wary of presidents deploying the armed forces abroad without first consulting Congress.

President Harry S. Truman had committed U.S. troops to the Korean War as part of a United Nations "police action," and Presidents Kennedy, Johnson and Nixon had overseen the long and controversial undeclared conflict during the Vietnam War.

Legislative efforts to reign in presidential war powers coalesced during the Nixon administration. Disturbed by revelations about the Vietnam conflict-including news that Nixon had been conducting a secret bombing campaign in Cambodia-the House and Senate crafted the War Powers Act as a means of reasserting Congressional authority over foreign wars.

Presidential Challenges

President Nixon was an early critic of the War Powers Act, and he vetoed the law on the grounds that it was an "unconstitutional and dangerous" check on his duties as commander-in-chief of the military.

In a message accompanying his veto, Nixon argued that the resolution "would attempt to take away, by a mere legislative act, authorities which the President has properly exercised under the Constitution for almost 200 years."

Congress overrode Nixon's veto, but he wasn't the last chief executive to bristle at the restrictions of the War Powers Act. Since the 1970s, every sitting president has either sidestepped some of the law's provisions or labeled it unconstitutional.

One of the first major challenges to the War Powers Act came in 1981, when President Ronald Reagan deployed military personnel to El Salvador without consulting or submitting a report to Congress. In 1999, President Bill Clinton continued a bombing campaign in Kosovo beyond the 60-day time limit cited in the law.

A more recent War Powers Act dispute arose in 2011, when President Barack Obama initiated a military action in Libya without congressional authorization.

Members of Congress have occasionally objected to the executive branch's disregard for the War Powers Act, but attempts to take the issue to court have been unsuccessful. In 2000, for example, the Supreme Court refused to hear a case on whether the law had been violated during military operations in Yugoslavia.

Is the War Powers Act Effective?

Ever since its passage in 1973, politicians have been divided on the War Powers Act's effectiveness. Supporters of the resolution maintain that it is a much-needed check on the president's ability to make war without Congressional approval.

Critics, meanwhile, argue the law has failed to create better coordination between the executive and legislative branches. Some believe the law is too restrictive on the president's ability to respond to foreign emergencies, while others contend that it gives the president free reign to commit troops overseas.

Most experts tend to agree that the War Powers Act has rarely worked as intended. According to one study by the Congressional Research Service, presidents have traditionally avoided citing certain provisions of the resolution whenever they submit reports to Congress. As a result, the 60-day time limits of the law have rarely been triggered, and it has never been used to bring an end to a foreign military operation.

Because of the War Powers Act's contentious history, there have occasionally been calls for the resolution to be repealed or amended. One notable attempt came in 1995, when the U.S. House of Representatives voted on an amendment that would have repealed many of the Act's main components. The measure was narrowly defeated by a vote of 217-204.

Sources

War Powers Resolution. The Cornell Law School Legal Information Institute.
War Powers. The Law Library of Congress.
War Powers Resolution Revisited: Historic Accomplishment or Surrender? William and Mary Law Review.
War Powers Resolution: Presidential Compliance. Congressional Research Service.
The War Powers Resolution: Concepts and Practice. Congressional Research Service.

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War Powers Act - 1973, Definition & Purpose

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The War Powers Act is a congressional resolution designed to limit the U.S. president's ability to initiate or escalate military actions abroad. Among other restrictions, the law requires that presidents notify Congress after deploying the armed forces and limits how long units can remain engaged without congressional approval.

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The American army's plan to slowly advance on German soil to attack Germany's weakest points.

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World War II In HD Colour 10of13 Closing The Ring

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The "desert fox." Led the German and Italian troops at El Alamein in Egypt.

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Erwin Rommel | Biography, Death, & Facts

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Erwin Rommel: Erwin Rommel, German field marshal who became the most popular general at home and gained the open respect of his enemies with his spectacular victories as commander of the Afrika Korps in World War II. He committed suicide in 1944 after his role in a failed plot to assassinate Hitler became known to the Fuhrer.

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British General Bernard Montgomery (51a)

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British General Bernard Montgomery (51a)

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General Montgomery led British troops in a strike against German and Italian troops.

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A description of the grand alliance and what came after

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WWII Lecture (Grand Alliance & Aftermath)

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Twelve million victims suffered from the Nazi atrocity known as the Holocaust

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The Great Migration of African Americans (51)

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The Great Migration of African Americans (51)

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The accelerated movement from the rural South to the industrial North

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The Great Migration was the relocation of more than 6 million Black Americans from the rural South to the cities of the North, Midwest and West from about 1916 to 1970. Driven from their homes by unsatisfactory economic opportunities and harsh segregationist laws, many Black Americans headed north, where they took advantage of the need for industrial workers that arose during the First World War. During the Great Migration, Black people began to build a new place for themselves in public life, actively confronting racial prejudice as well as economic, political and social challenges to create a Black urban culture that would exert enormous influence in the decades to come.
WATCH: Black History Shorts on HISTORY Vault
What Caused the Great Migration?

After the Civil War and the Reconstruction era, racial inequality persisted across the South during the 1870s, and the segregationist policies known as " Jim Crow" soon became the law of the land.

Black Southerners were still forced to make their living working the land due to Black codes and the sharecropping system, which offered little in the way of economic opportunity, especially after crop damage resulting from a regional boll weevil infestation in the 1890s and early 1900s.

And while the Ku Klux Klan had been officially dissolved in 1869, the KKK continued underground after that, and intimidation, violence and lynching of Black southerners were not uncommon practices in the Jim Crow South.

Did you know? Around 1916, when the Great Migration began, a factory wage in the urban North was typically three times more than what Black people could expect to make working the land in the rural South.

READ MORE: How the Black Codes Limited African American Progress After the Civil War
The Great Migration Begins

When World War I broke out in Europe in 1914, industrialized urban areas in the North, Midwest and West faced a shortage of industrial laborers, as the war put an end to the steady tide of European immigration to the United States.

With war production kicking into high gear, recruiters enticed Black Americans to come north, to the dismay of white Southerners. Black newspapers-particularly the widely read Chicago Defender -published advertisements touting the opportunities available in the cities of the North and West, along with first-person accounts of success.
WATCH: Yohuru Williams on the Great Migration
Life for Migrants in the City

By the end of 1919, some scholars estimate that 1 million Black people had left the South, usually traveling by train, boat or bus; a smaller number had automobiles or even horse-drawn carts.

In the decade between 1910 and 1920, the Black population of major Northern cities grew by large percentages, including New York City (66 percent), Chicago (148 percent), Philadelphia (500 percent) and Detroit (611 percent).

Many new arrivals found jobs in factories, slaughterhouses and foundries, where working conditions were arduous and sometimes dangerous. Female migrants had a harder time finding work, spurring heated competition for domestic labor positions.

Aside from competition for employment, there was also competition for living space in increasingly crowded cities. While segregation was not legalized in the North (as it was in the South), racism and prejudice were nonetheless widespread.

After the U.S. Supreme Court declared racially based housing ordinances unconstitutional in 1917, some residential neighborhoods enacted covenants requiring white property owners to agree not to sell to Black people; these would remain legal until the Court struck them down in 1948.

Rising rents in segregated areas, plus a resurgence of KKK activity after 1915, worsened Black and white relations across the country. The summer of 1919 began the greatest period of interracial strife in U.S. history at that time, including a disturbing wave of race riots.

The most serious was the Chicago Race Riot of 1919 -it lasted 13 days and left 38 people dead, 537 injured and 1,000 Black families without homes.
READ MORE: How a New Deal Housing Program Enforced Segregation
Impact of the Great Migration

As a result of housing tensions, many Black residents ended up creating their own cities within big cities, fostering the growth of a new, urban, Black culture. The most prominent example was Harlem in New York City, a formerly all-white neighborhood that by the 1920s housed some 200,000 Black people.

The Black experience during the Great Migration became an important theme in the artistic movement known first as the New Negro Movement and later as the Harlem Renaissance, which would have an enormous impact on the culture of the era.

The Great Migration also began a new era of increasing political activism among Black Americans, who after being disenfranchised in the South found a new place for themselves in public life in the cities of the North and West. The civil rights movement directly benefited from this activism.

Black migration slowed considerably in the 1930s, when the country sank into the Great Depression, but picked up again with the coming of World War II and the need for wartime production. But returning Black soldiers found that the GI Bill didn't always promise the same postwar benefits for all.

By the 1970s, when the Great Migration ended, its demographic impact was unmistakable: Whereas in 1900, nine out of every 10 Black Americans lived in the South, and three out of every four lived on farms, by 1970 the South was home to only half of the country's Black population, with only 20 percent living in the region's rural areas. The Great Migration was famously captured in Isabel Wilkerson's The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America's Great Migration.

Sources

The Great Migration (1910-1970). National Archives.
The Long-Lasting Legacy of the Great Migration. Smithsonian Magazine.
Great Migration: The African-American Exodus North. NPR: Fresh Air.
READ MORE: Black History Milestones: A Timeline

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Great Migration: Definition, Causes & Impact | HISTORY

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The Great Migration was the movement of more than 6 million Black Americans from the South to the cities of the North, Midwest and West from about 1916 to 1970.

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The nominal leader of the Chinese forces resisting Japanese takeover

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The U.S. used a coding device to decipher Japan's radio transmissions

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Almost 3,000 Americans were killed during the infamous attack on Pearl Harbor

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The Attack on Pearl Harbor - Surprise Military Strike by the Imperial Japanese Navy Service

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Americans came to Britain's rescue

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Churchill pleaded with Roosevelt for assistance

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Operation Sea Lion was an all-out assault on the British mainland

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Operation Sea Lion was the German plan for the invasion of Britain in World War II (1939-1945) and was planned for sometime in late 1940, after the Fall of France.

With the German victory over Poland in the opening campaigns of World War II, leaders in Berlin commenced planning for fighting in the west against France and Britain. These plans called for the capture of ports along the English Channel followed by efforts to force Britain's surrender. How this was to be accomplished quickly became a matter of debate among the German military's senior leadership. This saw Grand Admiral Erich Raeder, commander of the Kriegsmarine, and Reichsmarschall Hermann Göring of the Luftwaffe both argue against a seaborne invasion and lobby for various types of blockades aimed at crippling the British economy. Conversely, the army leadership advocated for landings in East Anglia, which would see 100,000 men put ashore.

Raeder countered this by arguing that it would take a year to assemble the shipping required and that the British Home Fleet would need to be neutralized. Göring continued to argue that such a cross-channel effort could only be made as "final act of an already victorious war against Britain." Despite these misgivings, in the summer of 1940, shortly after Germany's stunning conquest of France, Adolf Hitler turned his attention to the possibility of an invasion of Britain. Somewhat surprised that London had rebuffed peace overtures, he issued Directive No. 16 on July 16 which stated, "As England, in spite of the hopelessness of her military position, has so far shown herself unwilling to come to any compromise, I have decided to begin to prepare for, and if necessary to carry out, an invasion of England...and if necessary the island will be occupied."

For this to succeed, Hitler laid out four conditions that had to be met to ensure success. Similar to those identified by German military planners in late 1939, they included elimination of the Royal Air Force to ensure air superiority, clearing of the English Channel of mines and the laying of German mines, the emplacing of artillery along the English Channel, and preventing the Royal Navy from interfering with the landings. Though pushed by Hitler, neither Raeder or Göring actively supported the invasion plan. Having taken serious losses to the surface fleet during the invasion of Norway, Raeder came to actively oppose the effort as the Kriegsmarine lacked the warships to either defeat the Home Fleet or support a crossing of the Channel.

Dubbed Operation Sea Lion, planning moved forward under the guidance of Chief of the General Staff General Fritz Halder. Though Hitler had originally desired to invade on August 16, it was soon realized that this date was unrealistic. Meeting with planners on July 31, Hitler was informed that most desired to postpone the operation until May 1941. As this would remove the political threat of the operation, Hitler refused this request but agreed to push Sea Lion back until September 16. In the early stages, the invasion plan for Sea Lion called for landings on a 200-mile front from Lyme Regis east to Ramsgate.

This would have seen Field Marshal Wilhelm Ritter von Leeb's Army Group C cross from Cherbourg and land at Lyme Regis while Field Marshal Gerd von Rundstedt's Army Group A sailed from Le Havre and the Calais area to land the southeast. Possessing a small and depleted surface fleet, Raeder opposed this broad front approach as he felt it could not be defended from the Royal Navy. As Göring began intense attacks against the RAF in August, which developed into the Battle of Britain, Halder vehemently attacked his naval counterpart, feeling that a narrow invasion front would lead to heavy casualties.

Bowing to Raeder's arguments, Hitler agreed to narrow the scope of the invasion on August 13 with the westernmost landings to be made at Worthing. As such, only Army Group A would take part in the initial landings. Composed of the 9th and 16th Armies, von Rundstedt's command would cross the Channel and establish a front from the Thames Estuary to Portsmouth. Pausing, they would build up their forces before conducting a pincer attack against London. This taken, German forces would advance north to around the 52nd parallel. Hitler assumed that Britain would surrender by the time his troops reached this line.

As the invasion plan continued to be in flux, Raeder was plagued by a lack of purpose-built landing craft. To remedy this situation, the Kriegsmarine gathered around 2,400 barges from around Europe. Though a large number, they were still insufficient for the invasion and could only be used in relatively calm seas. As these were gathered in the Channel ports, Raeder continued to be concerned that his naval forces would be insufficient to combat the Royal Navy's Home Fleet. To further support the invasion, a myriad of heavy guns were emplaced along the Straits of Dover.

Aware of German invasion preparations, the British began defensive planning. Though a large number of men were available, much of the British Army's heavy equipment had been lost during the Dunkirk Evacuation. Appointed Commander-in-Chief, Home Forces in late May, General Sir Edmund Ironside was tasked with overseeing the island's defense. Lacking sufficient mobile forces, he elected to construct a system of static defensive lines around southern Britain, which were backed by the heavier General Headquarters Anti-tank Line. These lines were to be supported by a small mobile reserve.

On September 3, with British Spitfires and Hurricanes still controlling the skies over southern Britain, Sea Lion was again postponed, first to September 21 and then, eleven days later, to September 27. On September 15, Göring launched massive raids against Britain in an attempt to crush Air Chief Marshal Hugh Dowding's Fighter Command. Defeated, the Luftwaffe took heavy losses. Summoning Göring and von Rundstedt on September 17, Hitler indefinitely postponed Operation Sea Lion citing the Luftwaffe's failure to obtain air superiority and a general lack of coordination between the branches of the German military.

Turning his attention eastward to the Soviet Union and planning for Operation Barbarossa, Hitler never returned to the invasion of Britain and the invasion barges were ultimately dispersed. In the years after the war, many officers and historians have debated whether Operation Sea Lion could have succeeded. Most have concluded that it likely would have failed due to the strength of the Royal Navy and the Kriegsmarine's inability to prevent it from interfering with the landings and subsequent re-supply of those troops already ashore.

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Operation Sea Lion: Germany's Plan to Invade Britain in WWII

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Operation Sea Lion was the German plan for the invasion of Britain in World War II (1939-1945) and was planned for sometime in late 1940, after the Fall of France. With the German victory over Poland in the opening campaigns of World War II, leaders in Berlin commenced planning for fighting in the west against France and Britain.

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A description of what the Nonaggression Pact is

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What is NON-AGGRESSION PACT? What does NON-AGGRESSION PACT mean? NON-AGGRESSION PACT meaning

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The Quarantine Speech reflected Roosevelt’s desire to shift from America’s traditional policy of non-interference in wars. But why is this speech called the Quarantine Speech? Historyplex answers this question, along with telling you the purpose and significance of the Quarantine Speech.

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These acts were passed in quick succession

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A description of how the Treaty of Versailles came to be

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Treaty of Versailles | Definition, Summary, Terms, & Facts | Britannica

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Treaty of Versailles, peace document signed at the end of World War I by the Allied powers and Germany in the Hall of Mirrors in the Palace of Versailles, France, on June 28, 1919; it took force on January 10, 1920. Learn more about the Treaty of Versailles here.

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A description of how Hitler came to power

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HOW ADOLF HITLER CAME TO POWER - Eva Schloss | London Real

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American planes on the way to defend America from the Japanese.

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The Road to Pearl Harbor: The United States and East Asia, 1915-1941

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The 1930s saw a steadily increasing campaign of Japanese aggression in China, beginning with the invasion of Manchuria in 1931 and culminating in the outbreak of full-scale war between the two powers in 1937.

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Japan attacked first, plunging into the Chinese Manchuria

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Japanese Invasion of Manchuria | 3 Minute History

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The United States were the only ones against the Japanese domination of the Pacific Rim.

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The Good Neighbor Policy was a Latin American policy that made Latin American states rally with the allies.

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Good Neighbor Policy, popular name for the Latin American policy pursued by the administration of the U.S. president Franklin D. Roosevelt. Suggested by the president's commitment "to the policy of the good neighbor" (first inaugural address, March 4, 1933), the approach marked a departure from traditional American interventionism. Through the diplomacy of Secretary of State Cordell Hull, the United States repudiated privileges abhorrent to Latin Americans. The United States renounced its right to unilaterally intervene in the internal affairs of other nations at the Montevideo Conference (December 1933); the Platt Amendment, which sanctioned U.S. intervention in Cuba, was abrogated (1934); and the U.S. Marines were withdrawn from Haiti (August 1934).

The policy's success was measured in part by the rapidity with which most Latin American states rallied to the Allies during World War II. After the war, however, U.S. anticommunist policies in Europe and Asia led to renewed distrust in the Americas and the gradual lapse of the Good Neighbor Policy.

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Good Neighbor Policy | United States history

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Good Neighbor Policy: Good Neighbor Policy, popular name for the Latin American policy pursued by the administration of the U.S. president Franklin D. Roosevelt. Suggested by the president's commitment "to the policy of the good neighbor" (first inaugural address, March 4, 1933), the approach marked a departure from

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A description of the events of WW2 by John Green.

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World War II Part 1: Crash Course US History #35

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American Isolationism ideals removed Marines like these from other countries in the 1930s.