WWII

The Rise of Dictators

The population yearned for strong leadership after WWI

Stalin’s Rise to Power

Once in power, Stalin launched the “5-year plans” to “modernize” Soviet agriculture and industry.

Millions are sent to gulags (Soviet labor camps) in Siberia

The Great Purge: Stalin rids the USSR of “enemies”. Millions are arrested and murdered.

Benito Mussolini

After WWI, Mussolini called for Italy to have a dictator. He also criticizes the TOV (Calling for Italy to receive more land).

Mussolini organized fascist groups throughout Italy. His supporters, blackshirts, intimidate opponents.

1922: The king names him Prime Minister. Mussolini suspended elections/outlawed political parties.

He is now “Il Duce”, to create a new Roman Empire.

The Rise to Power of Adolf Hitler

1919: Hitler joined a political group called the National Socialist German Workers’ Party. (Nazis)

Nazism: Philosophy based on German nationalism and racial superiority

1923: Hitler is sentenced to 5 years in prison after a failed government overthrow. He serves 9 months. He wrote Mein Kampf while incarcerated.

1932: The Nazi Party becomes the largest group in the German Reichstag (Giving them voting power)

1/30/1933: Paul Von Hindenburg names HItler Chancellor

3/23/1933: Freedom of speech and the press are suspended

8/1934: Von Hindenburg Dies and Hitler is now named Chancellor and President. He is now Fuhrer.

Emperor Hirohito

Inherited the throne in 1926

Under his leadership, Japan underwent a shift to militarism and ultra-nationalism, in an effort to build an empire

1937: The (second) Sino-Japanese War: China vs. Japan

→ Japan invades mainland China. Hundreds of thousands are murdered during the Nanking Massacre, AKA The Rape of Nanking.

1940: The war reaches a stalemate

After China

1940: Japan’s prime minister announces a “Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere”, which declares that Japan would “Liberate Asia from European colonizers.”

9/1940: Japan allies itself with Germany and Italy

Nazi Expansion

Hitler immediately started spending money on rearming, expanding the military, and creating public works jobs.

A Major goal of the Nazis:

Expand east and conquer the USSR for “lebensraum” (living space)

10/25/1936: The Rome-Berlin Axis was formed

The former Allied Powers watch. They don’t want war.

Expansion Continues

Hitler started pressing Austria for a political union. When Austria’s government declines, Hitler takes another risk: The Nazis cross the border.

Rheinland Military forces of German entered Rheinland

The Anschluss (March 1938): With little to no resistance, Hitler annexes Austria

September 1938: The Nazis invade the Sudetenland, an industrial region in Czechoslovakia

March 1939: Six months after the Munich Conference, Hitler takes the rest of Czechoslovakia

The allied powers still do not do anything but pledge their support to Poland

April 1939: The Italians invade and occupy Albania

8/1939 Hitler and Stalin make a 10-year non-aggression pact

(9/1/39): One week after the Pact was signed, Hitler invaded Poland

(9/3/39): Britain and France declare war on Germany

Lightning War (Blitzkrieg)

A fast, concentrated air and land attack that took the enemy by surprise

Poland was taken down in less than 1 month

→ The Soviets received Eastern Poland

Expansion Intesnifies

Hitler attacks

4/9/40 Denmark and Norway

5/10/40 The Netherlands, Belgium, and Luxembourg

Miracle of the Dunkirk

With the Allies backed up against the English Channel, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill ordered citizens to pick up soldiers in boats. 900 boats rescue 340,000 British and French troops.

• Basically, Churchill ordered boats to save the British and French troops

The Invasion of France

6/1940: Hitler’s army begins sweeping through France

6/10/1940: The French government abandons Paris. Italy declares war on France and Britain

6/14/1940: German troops enter Paris

6/22/1940: France surrenders to the Nazis

Battle of Britain (8/1940 - 5/1941)

The Nazis bring the largest air assult of all time to Britain. They bombed London every night to terrorize the populous for 9 months.

The British never surrendered.

The Nazis called off the bombings because they realized they were bombing rubble.

Churchill ordered bombings on Berlin.

The Munich Conference (September 1938)

Neville Chamberlain (British Prime Minister)

Edouard Daladier (French Premier)

Appeasement: Giving into a competitor’s demands to keep peace.

The Attack on Pearl Harbor

7/1940 FDR Limits what Japan can buy from the USA (Scrap iron/steel)

9/1940 Japan joins the allied powers and continues to invade neighboring countries

In response, FDR cut off all trade with Japan which mainly included oil

10/1941 New Japanese Prime Minister Hideki Tojo