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Adolf Hitler's rise to power in Germany
At the end of World War I, Hitler had been a jobless soldier drifting around Germany. In 1919, he joined a struggling group called the National Socialist German Workers’ Party, better known as the Nazi Party. -
storm troopers
Hitler’s private army -
Joseph Stalin's totalitarian government in the Soviet Union
Stalin focused on creating a model communist state. In so doing, he made both agricultural and industrial growth the prime economic goals of the Soviet Union -
Mein Kampf
One of the Nazis’ aims, as Hitler wrote in Mein Kampf, was “to secure for the German people the land and soil to which they are entitled on this earth,” even if this could be accomplished only by “the might of a victorious sword.” -
Japanese invasion of Manchuria
The militarists launched a surprise attack and seized control of the Chinese province of Manchuria in 1931. Within several months, Japanese troops controlled the entire province -
Third Reich
Third German Empire. According to Hitler, the Third Reich would be a “Thousand-Year Reich”—it would last for a thousand years. -
Hitler's Anschluss
Union with Germany had been a dream of Austrian Social Democrats since 1919. The rise of Adolf Hitler and his authoritarian rule made such a proposition less attractive, though, which was an ironic twist, since a union between the two nations was also a dream of Hitler’s, a native Austrian. -
hitlers military buildup in germany
Hitler pulled Germany out of the League. In 1935, he began a military buildup in violation of the Treaty of Versailles. -
Hitler invades the Rhineland
A German region bordering France and Belgium that was demilitarized as a result of the Treaty of Versailles. The League did nothing to stop Hitler. -
Mussolini's invasion of Ethiopia
By the fall of 1935, tens of thousands of Italian soldiers stood ready to advance on Ethiopia. The League of Nations reacted with brave talk of “collective resistance to all acts of unprovoked aggression.” When the invasion began, however, the League’s response was an ineffective economic boycott -
Benito Mussolini's fascist government in Italy
Where unemployment and inflation produced bitter strikes, some communist-led. He played on the fears of economic collapse and communism. In this way, he won the support of many discontented Italians. -
Francisco Franco
Spanish army officers led by General Francisco Franco, rebelled against the Spanish republic. Revolts broke out all over Spain, and the Spanish Civil War began. -
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. -
Munich Agreem
Daladier and Chamberlain had adopted a shameful policy of appeasement—or giving up principles to pacify an aggressor. As Churchill bluntly put it, “Britain and France had to choose between war and dishonor. They chose dishonor. They will have war.” -
Nonaggression pact
As tensions rose over Poland, Stalin surprised everyone by signing a nonaggression pact with Hitler. Once bitter enemies, on August 23, 1939 fascist Germany and communist Russia now committed never to attack each other. -
Blitzkrieg
This invasion was the first test of Germany’s newest military strategy, the blitzkrieg, or lightning war. Blitzkrieg made use of advances in military technology—such as fast tanks and more powerful aircraft—to take the enemy by surprise and then quickly crush all opposition with overwhelming force -
Britain and France declare war on Germany
On September 3, two days following the terror in Poland, Britain and France declared war on Germany -
Hitler's invasion of Denmark of Norway
Suddenly, on April 9, 1940, Hitler launched a surprise invasion
of Denmark and Norway in order “to protect [those countries’] freedom and independence.” -
Phony War
Suddenly, 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. -
Hitler's invasion of the Netherlands
Next, Hitler turned against the Netherlands, Belgium, and Luxembourg, which were overrun by the end of May. The phony war had ended. -
Germany and Italy's Invasion of France
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. -
Marshal Philippe Petain
Germans would occupy the northern part of France, and a Nazi-controlled puppet government, headed by Marshal Philippe Pétain, would be set up at Vichy, in southern France. -
The Battle of Britain
Germans began to assemble an invasion fleet along the
French coast. Because its naval power could not compete
with that of Britain, Germany also launched an air war at
the same time. -
Lend-Lease Act
Isolationists argued bitterly against the plan, but most Americans favored it, and Congress passed the Lend Lease Act -
Manhattan Project
The code name for research work that extended
across the country -
Pearl Harbor Attack
a Japanese dive-bomber swooped low over Pearl Harbor— the largest U.S. naval base in the Pacific. The bomber was followed by more than 180 Japanese warplanes launched from six aircraft carriers. As the first Japanese bombs found their targets, a radio operator flashed this message: “Air raid on Pearl Harbor. This is not a drill.” -
Internment
Confinement of 1,444 Japanese Americans, 1 percent of Hawaii’s Japanese-American population. -
Office of Price Administration
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. -
Unconditional surrender
Enemy nations would have to accept whatever terms of peace the Allies dictated -
U.S. convoy system
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. -
Women's Auxiliary Army Corps
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,” -
Battle of Stalingrad
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. -
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. Britain depended on supplies from the sea. -
Operation Torch
An invasion of Axis-controlled North Africa, commanded by
American General Dwight D. Eisenhower. -
War Productions Board
The WPB decided which companies would convert from peacetime to wartime production and allocated raw materials to key industries. -
Korematsu v. United States
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.” -
Bloody Anzio
Lasted four months—until the end of May 1944—and left about 25,000 Allied and 30,000 Axis casualties. During the year after Anzio, German armies continued to put up strong resistance. The effort to free Italy did not succeed until 1945, when Germany itself was close to collapse. -
D-Day
Eisenhower gave the go-ahead for D-Day—June 6, 1944, the first day of the invasion. Shortly after midnight, three divisions parachuted down behind German lines. They were followed in the early morning hours by thousands upon thousands of seaborne soldiers—the largest land-sea-air operation in army history -
Harry S. Truman
Franklin Roosevelt's running mate -
The Battle of the Bulge
Three German tanks were spraying his platoon with machine-gun fire. -
Death of Hitler
He killed himself by gunshot on 30 April 1945 in his Führerbunker in Berlin. His wife Eva Braun committed suicide with him by taking cyanide. That afternoon, in accordance with Hitler's prior instructions, their remains were carried up the stairs through the bunker's emergency exit, doused in petrol, and set alight in the Reich Chancellery garden -
V-E Day
Victory in Europe Day. The war in Europe was finally over