• ww2 started because hitler believed that the aryan race was superior and therefore needed more land than other races. decided to take that land from the soviet union, settle it with german peasants, and enslave the slavic people to build the aryan racial state that would last for a thousand years

• violation of the treaty of versailles

  • treaty of versailles limited germany’s power- hitler went against it to “take its place among other states”

  • in 1935, announced the creation of a new air force and a draft that would quintuple the size of the german army (in direct violation of the treaty)

  • sent german troops into the demilitarized rhineland, france didn’t act without british support

• great britain started appeasement, still thinking germany was just demonstrating dissatisfaction and wasn’t actually going to do anything

• hitler and mussolini: bffs

  • 1935, mussolini invades ethiopia. britain and france are mad, and mussolini becomes bffs with hitler (rome-berlin axis)

  • 1936, both send troops to spain to help franco take control, germany and japan sign a pact to fight against communism together

• taking over more of europe

  • hitler decides that gb & france don’t really care anymore, and starts pursuing anschluss (union with austria). threatened the chancellor into letting him run the country and letting nazis in to “help” control the people. one day later, march 13, 1938, he annexed austria

  • demanded the sudetenland (german populated area of czechoslovakia). allied powers decide to give in to whatever he wants, he gets sudetenland

  • 1939, invaded bohemia and moravia in western czechoslovakia, the country becomes a nazi puppet state

  • once he demands part of poland the allies are like “hmmm maybe we should do something” and start talking to stalin about going to war with germany

• hitler and stalin: bffs pt 2?

  • was afraid of a two-front war situation from the allies and stalin, so cozys on up like “hey stalin how about a nonaggression pact”

  • august 1939: stalin and hitler sign the nazi-soviet non aggression pact, promise not to attack each other

  • stalin gets eastern poland and the baltic states with full intentions to break that promise

• invades poland on september 1st, britain and france declare war on germany two days later

• japanese path to war

  • 1931- japanese soldiers disguised as chinese blew up the manchurian railway in a japanese territory, to blame it on china and get an excuse to take all of manchuria

  • committed to an expansionist policy

  • september 1932- made manchuria into a separate state called manchukuo with a puppet ruler

  • league of nations investigates, japan just leaves the league, continued expansion, military took over politics

  • president of china tried to avoid war with japan so he could focus on squashing communism, so took up an appeasement policy

  • gave up on that in 1937 and japan took over the capital (rape of nanjing)

  • japan planned to create a new asia, by taking over siberia and using its resources. cooperated w/hitler to try and get help attacking soviet union, but then the nonaggression pact was signed and they looked to south asia

  • summer 1940: demanded the right to take resources from french indochina, usa said they would stop supplying oil and scrap iron, so japan decided to attack the us and european colonies in southeast asia

WW2 (can only submit one link on canvas)

• blitzkrieg (lightning war)

  • super speedy! taken over poland in four weeks, split it between germany and the soviet union by the end of september 1940

  • waited over the winter and then in april took over denmark and norway

  • month later went for the netherlands, belgium, and france

    • france had built a defense system (maginot) in preparation for attack, but the germans just went around it and attacked from belgium

    • trapped french troops and the entire british army at dunkirk, and only by civilians in their own boats were the soldiers able to evacuate

    • france signed an armistice in june 1940, germans occupied 60% and the rest was vichy france, which was a german-controlled authoritarian state

  • britain had extra morale from dunkirk

  • usa was trying not to get involved

• battle of britain

  • hitler realizes that a land/sea invasion can only work if he has control of the air

  • bombs, lots of them, for a long time

  • british had an effective radar system and were doing fine

  • hitler decides to bomb cities to lower morale, giving the british time to rebuild their air force

  • hitler postpones the british invasion indefinitely

• attack on the soviet union

  • hitler thought britain was only staying in the war bc they thought the soviet union would help them, hitler convinced himself that he could smash the ussr quickly

  • was going to attack in spring 1940, had to delay to take over greece and yugoslavia

  • invaded in august, but bc invading russia is always a stupid idea it didn’t work and they all froze to death because INVADING RUSSIA NEVER WORKS

• japan at war

  • december 7, 1941- japanese attack on pearl harbor, bringing the us into the war

  • by spring 1942 almost all of southeast asia and the western pacific were taken by the japanese

  • declared the creation of the greater east asia co-prosperity sphere, under japanese command

  • thought that destroying pearl harbor would keep the us from involving themselves, but all it did was bring the us into the war and make another global conflict

• the allies advance

  • entry of the us created the allied powers (usa, britain, soviet union) and the axis powers (germany, italy, japan)

  • allies decided in 1943 to keep fighting together until axis powers surrendered

  • up until fall 1942 germany was doing great, but then british and american forces forced the german and italian troops to surrender in north africa

  • entire german sixth army was captured by soviets in stalingrad

  • americans defeated japanese navy in the battle of midway island

  • started island-hopping