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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. Hitler proved to be such a powerful public speaker and organizer that he
quickly became the party’s leader. -
Benito Mussolini's fascist government in Italy
Mussolini had established the Fascist Party. Fascism stressed nationalism and placed the interests of the state above those of individuals. -
Mein Kampf
book Hitler set forth the basic beliefs of
Nazism that became the plan of action for the Nazi Party -
Japanese invasion of Manchuria
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 -
Storm Troopers
specialist soldiers in german army trained to fight infiltration tactics -
Third Reich
Hitler quickly dismantled Germany’s democratic Weimar Republic. In its place he established the Third Reich, or Third German Empire. -
Hitler's military build-up in Germany
Hitler pulled Germany out of the League and in 1935, he began a military buildup in violation of the Treaty of Versailles -
Hitler invades the Rhineland
Hitler sent troops into 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
One of Africa's few independent countries, by the fall of 1935, tens
of thousands of Italian soldiers stood ready to advance on
Ethiopia, by May 1936, Ethiopia had fallen -
Francisco Franco
In 1936, a group of 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 -
Hitler's Anschluss
German troops marched into Austria unopposed. A day later, Germany announced that its Anschluss, or “union,” with Austria was complete. -
Munich Agreement
September 30, 1938, they signed the Munich Agreement, which turned the Sudetenland over to Germany without a single shot being fired. -
Joseph Stalin's totalitarian government in the Soviet Union
Stalin had firmly established a totalitarian government that tried
to exert complete control over its citizens. In a totalitarian state, individuals have no rights, and the government suppresses all opposition. -
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 -
Nonaggression pact
August 23, 1939 fascist Germany and communist Russia now committed never to attack each other. -
Blitzkrieg
Blitzkrieg made use of advances in military technology (lightning war) -
Britain and France declare war on Germany
Soviet Union attacked Poland from the east, grabbing
some of its territory. The portion Germany annexed in western Poland contained almost two thirds of Poland’s population. By the end of the month, Poland had ceased to exist and World War II had begun -
Phony war
After occupying eastern Poland, Stalin began annexing the
Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania. Late in 1939, Stalin
sent his Soviet army into Finland. After three months of fighting,
the outnumbered Finns surrendered. -
Hitler's invasion of Denmark and Norway
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. -
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. On June 22,
1940, at Compiègne, as William Shirer and the rest of the world watched, Hitler handed French officers his terms of surrender. Germans would occupy the northern part of France. -
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
Its goal was to gain total control of the skies by destroying Britain’s Royal Air Force. -
Lend-Lease Act
Under this plan, the president would lend or lease arms and other supplies to “any country whose defense was vital to the United States.” -
War Productions Board
The WPB decided which companies would convert from peacetime to wartime production and allocated raw materials to key industries. -
Pearl Harbor attack
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 -
Manhattan Project
Roosevelt responded by creating an Advisory Committee on Uranium to study the new discovery. In 1941, the committee reported that it would take from three to five years to build an atomic bomb. -
Internment
Confinement, of 1,444 Japanese Americans, 1 percent
of Hawaii’s Japanese-American population. -
Battle of the Atlantic
After the attack on Pearl Harbor, Hitler ordered submarine raids against ships along America’s east coast, The Allies responded by organizing their cargo ships into convoys. -
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
Under this bill, women volunteers would serve in noncombat positions. -
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 -
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 LeningradIn defending Stalingrad, the Soviets lost a total of 1,100,000 soldiers By the end of September, they controlled nine-tenths of the city. -
Operation Torch
British-American invasion of French North Africa during the North African Campaign of the Second World War, An attack on French North Africa was proposed instead, which would clear the Axis powers from North Africa, improve naval control of the Mediterranean Sea, and prepare for an invasion of Southern Europe in 1943 -
Unconditional surrender
Roosevelt, Churchill, and their commanders met in Casablanca, 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. -
Korematsu v. United States
The government’s policy of evacuating Japanese Americans to camps was justified on the basis of “military necessity.” -
Bloody Anzio
lasted 4 months fought 40 miles from Rome, fought untill may 1944 left about 25,000 Allied and 30,000 Axis casualties. -
The Battle of the Bulge
German tank divisions broke through weak American defenses along an 80-mile front. Hitler hoped that a victory would split American and British forces and break up Allied supply lines. -
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. -
Death of Hitler
On April 29, he married Eva Braun, his longtime companion. The same day, he wrote out his last address to the German people. The
next day Hitler shot himself while his new wife swallowed poison. -
V-E Day
General Eisenhower accepted the unconditional surrender of
the Third Reich. -
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.
