Key Events and People of World War 2

  • Benito Mussolini

    in power from 1922-1945 He was called
  • Josef Stalin

    dictator in Russia from 1924-1953 Stalin set up the Soviet Union into a totalitarin state with absoulte rule. He has complete control of the country by terror and intimidation. Stalin signs the Nazi Soviet pact with Hitler agreeing not to fight each other and to divid Poland equally. But then in 1941 Hitler invades the Soviet union anyways which then leads to Stalin siding with the Allies. At the end of the war Stalin meets with Rosevelt and Churchill at the Yalta Conference.
  • Adolf Hitler

    Hitler was dictator from 1934-1945
  • Italian invasion of Ethiopia

    Italy invaded Ethiopia in North East Africa with tanks, machine guns, poison gas, and airplanes. The league of nations tried to help Ethiopia by voting SANCTIONS against Italy for violationg international law.
  • Occupation of the Rhineland

  • The Spanish Civil War

    (July 17, 1936-1939) It started with a revolt by Genearl Francisco Franco that lead to a Civil War. Hitler and Musolini sent forces to support Franco. The Soviet Union sent soldiers to support the other side. Britain, France, and the US remained NEUTRALITY due to PACIFISM (oppostion to war and its destruction). By 1939 Franco won and created a dictator fascist similar to Musolini and Hitler.
  • Air raid on Guernica

  • The German Anschluss

    The Union of Austria and Germany by Hitler. Hitler sent the German army to take control of Austria, Then he made a speeach from the Austria Paelce. The significants is the Versalles Treaty that Hitler broke. This is an example of APPEASEMENT by the western democrases by allowing Hitler to anex Austria.
  • Munich Conference

    The Munich Agreement was an agreement permitting Germany to annex Czechoslovakia's Sudetenland, which was long Czech borders, and mainly inhabited by Germans. The Munich Conference, which was held in Munich was a meeting where the Treaty of Munich was negotiated by leaders of the major European powers: Germany, England, France, and Italy.
  • Annexation of Czechoslovakia

    On march 15, 1939 Nazi Germany invaded The Northern, and Western borders of Czechoslovakia. Those regions were known as the Sudentenland, and were inhabited by mostly by Germans.
  • Francisco Franco

    Spanish general and became dictator threw 1939-1975
  • Nazi-Soviet act

    Hitler and Stalin signed a non-aggression pact which included secret deals for the division of Poland. The significants is that Germany then invaded Poland. Nazi soldiers stormed into Poland showing the enormous power of Hitlers BLITZKRIEG(Tank and air power domination) to quickly over power the enemy. Britain and France has declared war on Germany and World War ii had begon.
  • Invasion of Poland

    Adolf Hitler invaded Poland on September 1, 1939 and the invasion ended on October 6, 1939. The invasion ended up with Germany and Russia dividing the annexed Poland.
  • Winston Churchill

    British Prime Minister on (May 10th 1940-JANUARY 24 1965
  • Formation of Vichy France

    summer 1940
  • Formation of the "Free French"

    summer of 1940
  • Neville Chamberlain

    British Prime Minister before Churchill May 1937-May 1940
  • Fall of France

  • Charles DeGaullem

    General and leader of " free France" june 22 1940-1945 and then became president in france later on
  • Battle of britain

    September 1940-May 1941
  • Formation of the Rome-Berlin-Tokyo Axis

  • The Holocaust

    From 1941-1945
  • General Erwin Rommel

    1941-1942 He is the desert fox and Hitler sent him to North Africa. He was very smart and a well respected General. He is considered to have been one of the most skilled commanders of desert warfare. The allies were commited to TOTAL WAR which means defoting all of their resourses to defeating the Axes War machine. Rommel agress to commite suiside.
  • Operation Barbarossa

    Hitler evades the Soviet Union canceling the Nazi Soviet Pact. He wants to have the natural resources that the soviet Union has plus defeat his rivel Stalin. As the soviets were retreating they were burning their factories and theur crops. When the soviet winter set in thousands of German soldiers frozze to death.
  • Attack on Pearl Harbor

    Japense air forces bomb the american fleet on the Pearl Harbor in Hawaii. Americans were surprised by the attack because their RADAR and SONAR did not detect them.
  • Battle of Midway

  • El Alamein

    (1-27 july 1942)
  • Battle of Stalingrad

    July 17, 1942 and February 2, 1943,
  • D-Day

  • Battle of the Bulge

  • Iwo Jima

  • V-E Day

  • Decision to use atomic weapons

  • V-J Day

    The surrender of the Japanese. The US marines had started an ISLAND-HOPPING campain to recaptur Japanese held islands in the Pacific Island. Winning these battles lead them closer to Japan. The Japanese struck back by becoming KAMIKAZE pilots by crashing their airplanes into american war ships.