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Adolf Hitler's rise to power
Following the path similar to Mussolini, he joined the National Socialist German Worker's Party (no ties to socialism) known as the Nazi Party. He quickly became their leader promising to bring germany out of chaos. Set forth Nazism: german brand of fascism. He also wanted to enforce racial "purification" or a white supremacy. A third element of Nazism was national expansion. With the aid of the Great Depression, the Nazi party quickly took over power in germany -
Mein Kampf
Hitler's book describing and setting forth the basic beliefs for Nazism -
Benito Mussolini's fascist government in Italy
Benito Mussolini was establishing a totalitarian regime in Italy. AS Italy struggled in the Great Depression, the Social classes called for a change in leadership, and Mussolini took advantage of this. By 1921 he had established the fascist party, stressing nationalism and placing the interests of the state above the individual. Slowly extended every aspect of italian life under fascist control. Strong Armed the king of italy to make him the leader, crushing all opposition -
Joseph Stalin's totalitarian Government
Moved to transform the Soviet Union into a great industrial power focusing on Both agricultural and industrial growth. All economic activity was placed under state management, and by 1937 the Union had become the second largest industrial power only surpassed by the United States. The human cost however was great, all who threatened stalin were removed, establishing a totalitarian goverment, exerting complete control over the citizens -
Japanese invasion of Manchuria
Ignoring the more moderate Japanese officials, a surprise attack was launched on Manchuria in 1931, a province of China, within several months Japanese troops controlled the entire province. The League of Nations sent representatives to Manchuria, and their report lead to the condemning of Japan in the League of Nation, and their quitting of the League. The success of the invasion put militarist firmly in control of Japan -
Storm Troopers
Many men who were unemployed joined Hitler's private army, Storm Troopers or Brown Shirts. Germany was desperate and turned to Hitler for support -
Third Reich
Third German Empire , replacing the Weimar Republic which was democratically ruling Germany previously. According to Hitler the Third Reich would last 1000 years -
Hitler's military build up in Germany
In 1933 Hitler pulled Germany out of the League. In 1935 he began a build up of German military in violation of the Treaty of Versailles. The next proceeding year, he sent troops into the Rhineland, a German region bordering France and Belgium. The league didn't stop Hitler. -
Hitler Invades The Rhineland
Proceeding the building of the German Army, Hitler sent troops to invade the Rhineland, the previously German region bordering France and Belgium that was demilitarized as a result of the Treaty of Versailles -
Mussolini's invasion of Ethiopia
By the fall of 1935, tens of thousands of Italian soldiers stood ready to advance on Ethiopia while, the League of Nations decided to react with brave talk of “collective resistance to all acts of unprovoked aggression.” -
Francisco franco
In 1936, a group of Spanish army officers led by General Francisco Franco led a rebellion against the Spanish republic. Revolts broke out all over Spain, and hence the Spanish Civil War began -
Hitler's Anschluss
Hitler aimed to unite all of the German Speaking countries, Austria was his first target. On March 12, 1938, German troops marched into Austria unopposed. A day later, Germany announced that its Anschluss, or “union,” with Austria was complete. At this time the United States and the rest of the world did nothing. -
Munich Agreement
Then, just when war seemed inevitable, Hitler invited French
premier Édouard Daladier and British prime minister Neville Chamberlain to meet with him in Munich. When they arrived, the führer declared that the annexation of the Sudetenland would be his “last territorial demand.” In their eagerness to avoid war, Daladier and Chamberlain chose to believe him. On September 30, 1938, they signed the Munich Agreement, which turned the
Sudetenland over to Germany without a single shot being fired -
Rome-Berlin Axis
The war forged a close relationship between the German and Italian dictators, who signed a formal alliance known as the Rome-Berlin Axis.
After a loss of almost 500,000 lives, Franco’s victory in 1939
established him as Spain’s fascist dictator. Once again a
totalitarian government ruled in Europe -
Nonaggression Pact
As tensions with Poland Rose, Stalin signed a nonaggression pact with Hitler. Once bitter enemies, on August 23, 1939 fascist
Germany and communist Russia now committed never to attack each other. Germany and the Soviet Union also signed a second, secret pact, agreeing to divide Poland between them -
Blitzkrieg
As day broke on September 1, 1939, the German Luftwaffe, or German air force, roared over Poland, raining bombs on military bases, airfields, railroads, and cities. At the same time, German tanks raced across the Polish countryside, spreading terror and confusion. This invasion was the first test of Germany’s newest military strategy, the blitzkrieg aka Lightning War, based around surprise tactics. -
Britain and France declare war on Germany
On September 3, two days following the terror
in Poland, Britain and France declared war on Germany -
Phony war
For the next several months after the fall of Poland, French and British troops on the Maginot Line, a system of fortifications built along France’s eastern border, sat staring into Germany, waiting for something to happen. On the Siegfried Line a few miles away German troops stared back. The blitzkrieg had given way to what the Germans called the itzkrieg
(“sitting war”), and what some newspapers referred to as the
phony war. Each side waited for the other side to take action -
Hitler's invasion of Denmark and Norway
On April 9, 1940, Hitler launched a surprise invasion of Denmark and Norway in order “to protect [those countries’] freedom and independence.” But in truth, Hitler planned to build bases along the coasts to strike at Great Britain. Next, Hitler turned against the Netherlands, Belgium, and Luxembourg, which were overrun by the end of May -
Hitler's invasion of the Netherlands
Hitler turned against the Netherlands, Belgium, and Luxembourg, which were overrun by the end of May -
Germany and Italy's invasion of France
Germany captured french troops, and slowly invaded past French lines. A few days later, Italy entered the war on the side of Germany and invaded France from the south as the Germans closed in on Paris from the north. On June 22, 1940, at Compiègne, as William Shirer and the rest of the world watched, Hitler handed French officers his terms of surrender -
Marshal Philippe Petain
Marshal Philippe Petain became the leader of the puppet-government setting up Vichy France. -
The Battle of Britain
The summer of 1940, Germany launched an attack, both air and naval against Britain. They led bombing raids on cities to counter the British advantage on the naval front. On September 15, 1940 Hitler called of the Invasion of Britain indefinitely, but the bombings continued -
Lend-Lease Policy
By late 1940, however, Britain had no more cash to spend in the arsenal of democracy. Roosevelt tried to help by suggesting a new plan that he called a lend-lease policy. Under this plan, the president would lend or lease arms and other supplies to “any country whose defense was vital to the United States.” -
Pearl Harbor attack
December 7, 1941 Japanese dive-bomber swooped low over Pearl Harbor— the largest U.S. naval base in the Pacific. The devastation was massive. -
Battle of Stalingrad
The first great turning point came in the Battle of Stalingrad.D The Germans had been fighting in the Soviet
Union since June 1941. In November 1941, the bitter cold had stopped them in
their tracks outside the Soviet cities of Moscow and Leningrad. When spring
came, the German tanks were ready to roll. They organized an assault on Stalingard, but didn't expect the cold, and faced their downfall in battle. -
Manhattan project
In 1941, the committee reported that it would take from three
to five years to build an atomic bomb. Hoping to shorten that time, the OSRD set up an intensive program in 1942 to develop a bomb as quickly as possible. Because much of the early research was performed at Columbia University in Manhattan, the Manhattan Project became the code name for research work that extended across the country. -
Internment
1942, the War Department called for the mass evacuation of
all Japanese Americans from Hawaii. General Delos Emmons, the military governor of Hawaii, resisted the order because 37 percent of the people in Hawaii were
Japanese Americans. To remove them would have destroyed the islands’ economy and hindered U.S. military operations there. However, he was eventually forced
to order the internment, or confinement, of 1,444 Japanese Americans, 1 percent of Hawaii’s Japanese-American population. -
U.S. convoy system
The Allies responded by organizing their cargo ships into convoys. Convoys were groups of ships traveling together for mutual protection, as they had done in the First World War. The convoys were escorted across the Atlantic by destroyers equipped with sonar for detecting submarines underwater. They were also accompanied by airplanes that used radar to spot U-boats on the ocean’s surface -
Operation Torch
Operation Torch, an invasion of Axis-controlled North Africa, led by American General Dwight D. Eisenhower.
On November 1942, 107,000 troops, landed in Casablanca, Oran, and Algiers in North Africa. From there they sped eastward, chasing the Afrika Korps led by General Erwin Rommel, the legendary Desert Fox. After months of heavy fighting, the last of the Afrika Korps surrendered in May 1943 -
Women’s Auxiliary Army Corps
The military’s work force needs were so great that Army Chief of Staff General George Marshall pushed for the formation of a Women’s Auxiliary Army Corps (WAAC). “There are innumerable duties now being performed by soldiers that can be done better by women,” Marshall said in support of a bill to
establish the Women’s Auxiliary Army Corps. Under this bill, women volunteers would serve in noncombat positions. May 15, 1942 -
War Productions Board
The War Production Board (WPB) assumed that responsibility.
The WPB decided which companies would convert from peacetime to wartime production and allocated raw materials
to key industries -
Korematsu v. United States
In 1944, the Supreme Court decided, in Korematsu v. United States, that the government’s policy of evacuating Japanese Americans to camps was justified on the basis of “military necessity.” Fred Korematsu was convicted of defying the military order to leave his home. This case was due to executive order 9066 which gave military officials the power to limit the civil rights of Japanese Americans. -
Unconditional surrender
Roosevelt, Churchill, and their commanders met in Casablanca. At this meeting, the two leaders agreed to accept only the unconditional surrender of the Axis powers. That is, enemy nations would have to accept whatever terms of peace the Allies dictated. The two leaders also discussed where to strike next -
Bloody Anzio
Hitler was determined to stop the Allies in Italy rather than fight on German soil. One of the hardest battles the Allies encountered in Europe was fought less than 40 miles from Rome. This battle, “Bloody Anzio,” lasted four months—until the end of May 1944—and left about 25,000 Allied and 30,000 Axis casualties -
D-day
planned attack on Normandy, Eisenhower gave the go-ahead for D-Day—June 6, 1944, the first day of the invasion. Troops mounted their invasion. -
The Battle of the Bulge
Hitler hoped that a victory would split American and British forces and break up Allied supply lines. Tanks drove 60 miles into Allied territory, creating a bulge in the lines that gave this desperate last ditch offensive its name, the Battle of the Bulge. -
Death of Hitler
In his underground headquarters
in Berlin, Hitler prepared
for the end. On April
29, he married Eva Braun, his
longtime companion. The
same day, he wrote out his last
address to the German people.
In it he blamed the Jews for
starting the war and his generals
for losing it. HE and his wife then committed suicide -
V-E Day
A week later, General Eisenhower accepted the unconditional surrender of the Third Reich. On May 8, 1945, the Allies celebrated V-E Day—Victory in Europe Day. The war in Europe was finally over. -
Harry S. Truman
President Roosevelt did not live to see V-E Day. On April 12, 1945, while posing for a portrait in Warm Springs, Georgia, the president had a stroke and died. That night, Vice President Harry S. Truman became the nation’s 33rd president. -
Battle of the Atlantic
Hitler ordered submarine raids against ships along America’s east coast. The German aim in the Battle of the Atlantic was to prevent food and war materials from reaching Great Britain and the Soviet Union.In the first four months of 1942, the Germans sank 87 ships off the Atlantic shore. Seven months into the year, German wolf packs had destroyed a total of 681 Allied ships in the Atlantic. -
Office of Price Administration
Office of Price Administration (OPA). The OPA fought inflation by freezing prices on most goods. Congress also raised income tax rates and extended the tax to millions of people who had never paid it before
