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The outcome of Mussolini's March on Rome was his appointment as Prime Minister of Italy by King Victor Emmanuel III, effectively transferring power to the Fascist Party and establishing a fascist dictatorship, despite it being a largely bloodless coup backed by threats of violence and political intimidation rather than a direct military conquest. The King refused to declare martial law and led to the end of Italian parliamentary democracy and the start of Mussolini's two-decade rule. -
Adolf Hitler wrote Mein Kampf (German for "My Struggle") in the mid-1920s to outline his political ideology, provide a (highly stylized) autobiography, and offer a clear blueprint for the future of the Nazi movement and Germany itself. The book served as the core text of the Nazi movement, detailing the principles of Nazism, which centered on intense nationalism, a belief in racial purity, and dictatorial rule. -
The Holodomor was a man-made famine that killed millions of Ukrainians, caused by a series of deliberate policies enacted by Joseph Stalin's Soviet regime. The primary reasons were to enforce agricultural collectivization, crush Ukrainian resistance, and suppress Ukrainian national identity. -
Joseph Stalin's First Five-Year Plan (1928-1932) aimed to rapidly transform the agrarian Soviet Union into a modern industrial superpower by prioritizing heavy industry (coal, steel, machinery) and state-controlled, large-scale farm collectivization, forcing resources from agriculture to fund industrial growth and build national strength, all under strict state economic control. -
Joseph Stalin became the dictator of the USSR through a calculated process of political maneuvering and the systematic elimination of his rivals after Vladimir Lenin's death in 1924. His rise hinged on using the seemingly minor bureaucratic role of General Secretary of the Communist Party to consolidate power. -
Japan invaded Manchuria in 1931 primarily for its rich natural resources (coal, iron, soybeans) crucial for Japanese industry, to establish a strategic foothold in China, secure a buffer against the Soviets, and address economic hardship from the Great Depression, all driven by rising militarism and nationalist ambitions to create an empire. The invasion, triggered by the staged "Mukden Incident," allowed Japanese army factions to seize control and establish the puppet state of Manchukuo. -
Nuremburg Laws enacted. -
Adolf Hitler was appointed Chancellor of Germany by President Paul von Hindenburg on January 30, 1933, a pivotal moment where conservative politicians, believing they could control him, allowed the Nazi leader into power amidst economic turmoil and popular discontent after the Great Depression, setting the stage for his dictatorship. -
The purpose of the "Night of the Long Knives" (June-July 1934) was for Adolf Hitler to consolidate his power by purging internal threats, specifically the leadership of the SA (Storm Troopers) and other political rivals like former Chancellor Kurt von Schleicher, securing the crucial support of the German Army (Reichswehr), and eliminating opposition to establish himself as absolute dictator (Führer) of Germany. -
Italy invaded Ethiopia in 1935 under Benito Mussolini to create a new Roman Empire, boost national prestige by avenging a past defeat (Battle of Adwa), gain colonies, distract from domestic economic issues, and assert Italy as a major world power, using the "Walwal Incident" as a pretext for aggression. The invasion marked a significant step towards World War II, showing the failure of the League of Nations to stop fascist expansion. -
The Great Purge (1936-1938) and the Gulag system served Stalin's purpose of consolidating absolute power by eliminating perceived threats, rivals (like Old Bolsheviks), intellectuals, and minorities, creating a climate of terror, and using forced labor for massive state projects, turning dissent into slave labor in a vast penal camp network that became a tool for economic and political control. -
The Spanish Civil War (1936-1939) was caused by deep political, social, and economic divisions, culminating in a military coup by conservative generals against Spain's left-leaning Popular Front government, leading to a bloody conflict between Nationalist (rebels) and Republican (loyalists) forces. Key factors included intense labor unrest, land inequality, regional separatism, the powerful role of the Catholic Church, and a highly unstable political landscape. -
The Rape of Nanking, was a horrific episode of mass murder and mass rape committed by the Imperial Japanese Army against the residents of Nanjing, China, during the Second Sino-Japanese War. The atrocities began on December 13, 1937, after the Japanese captured the city (then the capital of China), and continued for approximately six weeks. -
The purpose of Kristallnacht (Night of Broken Glass) was for the Nazi regime to launch a vast, state-sponsored pogrom to terrorize and persecute Jewish communities, marking a critical turning point towards the systematic violence of the Holocaust. -
Nazi Germany invaded Poland on September 1, 1939, to fulfill Hitler's expansionist goals for "living space" (Lebensraum) in the East, reclaim German territories like Danzig and the Polish Corridor, and establish German dominance, using a staged "Polish attack" (the Gleiwitz incident) as a pretext and securing Soviet non-interference with the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact. This invasion triggered Britain and France's declarations of war, starting World War II. -
Japan bombed Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, to cripple the U.S. Pacific Fleet, preventing America from interfering with Japan's planned conquest of resource-rich Southeast Asian territories, particularly the Dutch East Indies (for oil). Tensions escalated due to U.S. economic sanctions (oil embargo) against Japan's expansion into China, forcing Japan's hand to seize resources quickly and hoping a devastating surprise attack would compel the U.S. to negotiate rather than fight a longer war.