The course of World War 2 was shaped by supplies of copper, oil, iron, manganese, nickel, cobalt, and other critical minerals - and another one, uranium, helped put an end to the war. Between 1939 and 1945, both sides chased oil supplies, mined strategic metals, and developed uranium-based superweapons at breakneck speed. Explore the worldwide competition for mineral resources at its most intense in this second part of the Critical Minerals in World War 2 trilogy! (@How Minerals Made Civilization)

Video Chapters
00:00 Start sequence
00:19 World War 2 begins
02:00 Initial maneuvers: Nazis run short of resources, invade western Europe; Japan invades French Indochina
04:05 Neutral countries and the worldwide quest for strategic resources
06:38 Upheaval in 1941: Nazi-Soviet competition for eastern Europe's mines
10:08 Pacific theater in 1941: American critical mineral and oil embargo of Japan
13:08 Sabotage and transport difficulties in making use of strategic minerals
14:02 America's entry into World War 2 and effect on resource supplies
17:25 USSR expands mining into Siberia and Kazakhstan
18:02 Beginning of 1942, Japanese expansion, Axis critical minerals shortages
18:40 German and Japanese war efforts hampered by shortages of oil and other critical minerals
19:57 Japanese resource shortages and attempts to make up for them
24:06 Allied destruction of production and transport facilities worsens Axis shortages
26:31 Importance of uranium as a critical mineral
29:15 Further vicissitudes of the Japanese synthetic oil program
30:17 War in Europe ends; final stages of war in Pacific
31:35: End sequence

(c) Isabel Barton, 2022