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Lebensraum
This was a policy for Nazi Germany for expanding land for the people to get natural resources and to distinguish Jewish and Slavic people. -
The Maginot Line
This was an area of defense along the French border with Germany to prevent invasions on France. This was expensive in today's money this consisted of underground bunkers with lots of concrete to fortify it, not to mention the tons of guns that were held in the bunkers and on the line. -
Italy Invades Ethiopia
When Ethiopia gained independence in the Treaty of Addis and Ababra (1896) they also at the time were attempting modernization, in doing so they introduced a constitutional government. Due to Ethiopia having tons of natural resources Italians wanted it so they tried to take over Ethiopia, now that did not go so well but since Ethiopia was now thrown off due to how angry they were Italy decided to invade and take over Ethiopia. -
Second Sino-Japanese War
Chiang Kai-Shek was the leader of the Chinese Nationalist Government, he unified China by setting goals to erase communism from China and from battling the Japanese. The Japanese were getting closer to Chiang`s territory, Japanese had already taken Manchuria in 1931. But Chiang's main goal at the time was to remove communism from China, then he was held captive by his general to give in to the communist forces. After the war, Chiang fled to Taiwan and was modernizing it. -
Munich Crisis
Hitler took racial theories to a new level as had 3 million German-speaking people from Czechoslovakia. Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain flew out to Munich to resolve the issue but many people in Britain were split and the people started to think the Treaty of Versailles was too “harsh”, the Great Depression also led to the re-armament. On the 30th of September Hitler took a sizeable population off of the Sudeten territory. -
Invasion of Poland
The British and French guaranteed Poland's rearmament while the Germans dispatched submarines out to the Atlantic and then signed a Non-Agression Pact with the Soviet Union. This allowed for the partition of Poland and Soviet expansion into the Baltic states. After a feigned Polish attack on a German radio station, the Germans then invaded Poland, the Poles were then thrown to retreat Great Britain and France declared war on September 3, 1939, and other common nations were soon to follow. -
Operation Barbarossa
Adolf Hitler launched Operation Barbarossa, this was an operation to invade the Soviet Union because they were their biggest enemy. Hitler's goal was to capture the Soveit's Economic resources and enslave their whole population provided the Lebensruam also known as the living space that Hitler needed east. The German forces then attacked Leningrad in the north, Hiler expected a quick victory due to the amount of soldiers that he had but they were poorly trained and led. There is more to this.... -
Pearl Harbor
The United States and other allies cut their oil supply off from Japan due to recent events, and as a result, Japan responded by attacking one of the U.S. military sites. On the attack, 6 aircraft carriers were deployed to carry out hundreds of planes to attack Pearl Harbor, for success they had to sink and destroy the American fleet. When carrying out the attack the U.S. declared war on Japan on December 8th, then Italy and Germany declared war on the U.S. due to the Tripartite Pact. -
The Battle of Midway
This was a little after Pearl Harbor and it was again by the Japanese and was a huge turning point for WWII, the Japanese then were on the lookout for American fleets to secure their hold so they landed on Aleutians to gain Americans attention and then took assault on Midway. Meanwhile, America understood Japanese codes and gained lots of invaluable intelligence, due to the strategy of America they managed to fight back against the Japanese. -
Battle of Stalingrad
After Soviet counter-attacks drove the Soviets back to Moscow during the Winter Warfare, Hitler then withdrew and got his army back together before attacking on June 28, 1942 this invasion was successful Hitler took Sevastopol, Voronezh, and Rostov. Then the Soviet's resistance fortified their defense of Gronzny, they then wanted to push forward of Stalingrad but the defense was better than their attack. They fought through the winter temperature pushed Stalingrad and came out on top. -
Tunisia Campaign
America and other commonwealth nations pushed into Tunisia that had French units, Germany was quick to intervene due to them and Italian forces occupying Tunisia. Germany quickly brought allied forces to a stalemate, Germany had the upper hand in the mountains which made it so were air assault could not easily get them. The Americans took defeat and it was not the likely outcome., but they were more proficient the next time. -
The Casablanca Conference
This was a meeting between the U.S. President and British Prime Minister, this was a meeting about the future of the military strategy for both the U.S. and Britain but the Soviet leader did not show up to the meeting. This was also regarding the invasion of Sicily many plans were talked about including nukes, the goal was to use little force and to threaten them to surrender or else. -
D-Day
Allied victory in Europe required the destruction of Nazi Germany, and the United States and Great Britain invaded France, operation OVERLORD was meant to cooperate with the Soviet Union in doing so a massive allied force was on the British islands. Bombings and the French Resistance planned out the future battlefield, one the night of June 6, 1944, America landed on Normandy to isolate Germany's counterattacks.