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Events that led up to the war
In 1919, representatives from the US, England, France, and Italy met up to dicuss the punishment Germany was to receive for the damage it had caused in World War 1. They came up with the Treaty of Versailles which was a balance between establishing peace, and preventing Germany from starting another war by taking away many privileges. -
Period: to
Span of WWll
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Reactions from German people
The terms of this Treaty were not favored by the German people. The land taken away, the downgrade of their army, and especially the amount of money that had to be paid from Germany fueled a strong anger. Germany was forced to pay 6,600 million pounds which resulted in a surplus of poor people, lost jobs, and high food prices. Determined to destroy the Treaty of Versailles, they elected Adolf Hitler who they believed could do that. -
Japan's involvement
Japan seized Manchuria from China. -
Adolf Hitler's beginning actions
Adolf Hitler became chancellor of Germany in 1933 and almost immediately began increasing the size of the German army, making alliances and taking back the land that was striped away from them. Even though France and Britain were aware of Hitler's new actions, they were not prepared to start another war. -
Holocaust
Racism towards the Jewish community soon after started once Adolf Hitler began to rule. In 1935 the Nuremberg Race Laws were established and racism/cruelty continued throughtout the war until the end. -
Hitler's territory invading
Beginning with the invasion of Rhineland, Hitler made key actions like creating alliances with Italy and Japan. In 1938 Hitler wanted to gain back the terrioty lost by the Treaty so he sent German troops to Austria to unify them under German control. Hitler's promises for his invasions to end, soon proved to be a lie when 6 months later he invaded Czechoslovakia -
Italy's involvement
Mussolini's Italian forces take out Ethiopia. Mussolini was influenced by Hitler when he began aquiring territories that he felt that were German. -
Failure of Appeasment
In the 1930's both Britain and France had felt as though the conditions of the Treaty had been harsh towards Germany. This was one of the reasons neither Brtain or France took action when hitler began invading territores because they were persuayed by Hitler that "it was their right to proctect themselves from growing countries". Hoping to prevent another war, a prime minister of Britain gave into Hitler's actions and came up with the Munich Agreement of 1938 which later was a failure. -
Japan's contribution to start of War
A battle on 1931 by the Marco Polo Bridge near Bejing, China led to open warefare between Japan and China. This led to Japan's growing territory and start of World War ll in the Pacific. -
Non-Agression PAct with the Soviet Union
Hitler was determined to keep Germany's power from diminishing. He therefore made a pact with the Soviets - the Nazi-Soviet Non-Aggression Pact which would give a strong aliance to Germany. -
Declaring War on Germany
Britain and France kept it's promise by delcaring war on Germany when Germans invaded Poland. -
Soviet Union
The soviet union invaded poland from the east. On september 27th, Warsaw surrenders and the soviet Union and Germany split up Poland. -
German invasions
Germany attacks France and Lower Countries. Many of them surrender such as Belgium and France establishing an agreement with partial control of their territory. Italy would soon join the war and invade France on June 21st. -
Battle of Britain
This was the air campaign waged by the German Air Force against the United Kingdom during the summer and autumn of 1940. The goal of the campaign was to gain air superiority over the Royal Air Force, especially Fighter Command. -
Germany breaking alliances
Operation Barbarossa was the code name for Germany's invasion of the Soviet Union during World War 2. Over 3.9 million troops of the Axis powers invaded the USSR along a 2,900 km front, the largest invasion in the history of warfare. -
Pearl Harbor
The surprise bombing of Pearl Harbor due to conflict with political and economic issues started serious issues between the US and Japan. -
Axis forces
The axis powers of Germany, Japan, and Italy surrendered to the Allies, ending the North African Campaign. -
Japan Bombings
The first atomic bomb by the US was dropped on Hiroshima, Japan on August 6th and then on August 9th Nagasaki, Japan was bombed -
Germany surrenders
Germany surrendered to the Western Allies on May 7th, 1945 and then later surrenders to the soviets on May 9th, 1945. -
Surrender
Japan had no choice but to agree to unconditional surrender. Later on, on September 2nd, they signed the surrender agreement.
