Causes of World War 2

  • Period: to

    Fascist Party rises to power in Italy

  • Period: to

    Nazi Party rises to power in Germany

  • Japan, lacking land and natural resources, becomes land-hungry and looks to establish an empire

  • Mussolini is apointed Prime Minister of Italy

  • Hitler tries to overthrow German government, but fails and is imprisoned

  • Japan's economy worsens as a result of the Great Depression

  • America passes a series of Neutrality Acts saying that the US would withhold weapons & loans from all nations at war

  • Japan's army seizes Machuria (northern China)

  • Period: to

    Japan's military takes over government

  • Nazi Party is the largest political party in Germany's Reichstag & Hitler becomes head of the German state

  • Mussolini & Italy invade Ethiopia

  • Hitler signs an alliance with Mussolini, forming the Axis Powers

  • German troops invade the Rhineland

  • FDR moves American Pacific fleet from San Diego to Pearl Harbor

  • Hitler annexes Austria

  • Hitler demands the Sudetenland; Britain and France agree in the Munich Conference

  • Hitler annexes Czechoslovakia

  • Britain & France pledge support to Poland in the event that it is invaded by Germany

  • Hitler invades Poland - Blitzkrieg

  • France & Great Britain declare war on Germany

  • Japan controls most of eastern China

  • America First Committee forms to fight for American isolationism

  • Sitzkrieg ends - Germany attacks Denmark & Norway

  • Germany launches blitzkrieg on Belgium

  • Period: to

    German troops enter paris & France surrnders

  • Period: to

    German troops enter Paris & France surrenders

  • Japan allies with Germany & Italy - Tipartite Pact

  • Congress authorizes the first peacetime draft in the nation's history - Selective Service Act

  • Roosevelt is reelected to a third term

  • German begins bombing England / Battle of Britain

  • Japanese forces occupy Indochina; U.S. freezes Japan's American assets & cuts off trade

  • Lend-Lease Act

  • Japan signs neutrality pact with Soviet Union

  • Japanese fleet begins moving toward Southeast Asia; US demands that Japan withdraw from Tripartite Pact

  • German raids on England end

  • American miltary base, Pearl Harbor, is attacked by Japanese warplanes

  • United States declares war on Japan

  • Germany & Italy declare war on the United States