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Rise of Fascist dictators in Europe
Benito Mussolini came to power in Italy from 1922 to 1943. Adolf Hitler started to come to power in 1919 when he joined the political party called Deutsche Arbeiterpartei or German Workers' Party. Then Hitler finally became chancelor in 1933 and soon later was known as a fascist dictator. He became very popular after speaking out about the government of Germany when he was in court. -
Japanese aggression in Asia
Japansese soldiers attacked Manchuria in 1931. League of Nations tried to stop Japan from continuing to attack Asia. Japan decided to leave the League of Nations. In 1937, Japan took over most of eastern China. -
Annexation of Austria
Hitler wanted to reunite the Germans in Austria with Germany. When Austrian leader didn't like some demands, Hitler sent his army to make sure he became leader of Austria. Hitler silenced any Austrians who opposed him. He did all of this using the Anschluss. -
Munich Conference
Hitler wanted to annex part of Czechslovakia. Hitler met with the representatives for France, United Kingdom, and Italy. They all agreed that Hitler could annex it as long as he agreed to not try and take anything else. They all signed the agreement. -
Nazi-Soviet Pact
An agreement that Germany and the Soviet Union would not attack each other. Hitler pretended to be Stalin's friend and promised he would not attack him as long as Stalin did the same back. But when Hitler went to seize Poland, instead of stopping when he was suppose to, he continued on and started attacking Stalin's army. This broke the pact and Hitler took over Poland. -
Phony War
The lack of major military operations by the United Kingdom and France against Germany. Neither side had any advancements for over 7 months. Both sides just sat there waiting for other side to -
Fall of France
Also known as the Battle of France. Germans successfully invaded France. France tried to stop them at what was called the Maginot Line, but it didnt work. The Germans smashed through France destroying everything in their path. On June 14th the Germans finally reached Paris. -
Miracle at Dunkirk
French and British were badly defeated by Germans. They were being pushed back and ended up trapped in the port of Dunkirk. from May 26 to June 4th, British ships evacuated nearly 340,000 people. They only expected to save 30,000. -
Battle of Britain
The point of the Battle of Britain was to for Hitler's air force called the Luftwaffe to gain superiority over Britain's Royal Air Force. Hitler ordered the Luftwaffe to attack strategic places like airplain factories and places of political significance. He did this by using a strategy called the Terror Bombing Strategy. Germany failed at defeating Britain's airforce and Germany lost the battle. -
Operation Barbarossa
Hitler wanted to attack the Soviet Union to gain an enourmous advancement on the war or even possibly win the war. Hitler attacked the Soviet Union destroying much in his path. Once near Moscow the fate of the war began to turn and Hitler's army was pushed back before being able to get to moscow. Hitler then tried many other tactics to seize more or Russia but he failed. -
Attack on Pearl Harbor
Japanese bombers destroyed and damaged 21 ships in all. The attack killed more than 2,403 Americans as well as 1,178 Americans were injured. Due to the attack, President Rosevelt asked congress to declare war on Japan. This was the official start for the war against Japan in WWII. -
Battle of Midway
The most important battle of the Pacific Campain. U.S. Navy defeats Imperial Japanese Navy. Japan tried to set up a trap by lureing U.S. aircraft carriers where they wanted.This failed to happen as well as future planned attacks due to the decoding skills of U.S. military so that they could secretly figure out what plans the Japanese had against the United States. -
Battle of the Atlantic
German submarines sunk about 360 American ships. Many of these ships were oil filled ships. Because of this, it caused problems with the need for oil and it had to be rationed. The Navy decided to create a convoy system which would make it much more difficult for German submarines to attack ships. -
Battle of Stalingrad
The Battle of Stalingrad was known as one of the bloodiest battles in History. It took place in the city of Stalingrad and the German's intentions were to crumble the city by constant bombing. Once they did this they could capture places that had alot of oil in them that the Germans could take. The Russians attacked the Germans and eventually weakened them enough which led to their loss in the battle. -
Battle of El Alamein
The battle took place near city of El Alamein. It happened after the first battle which helped stop Germany and Italy from advanceing farther into Egypt. This was a big part of the war. It stopped the Axis powers from getting into the oil fields in North Africa. -
Invasion of Italy
The allied landing on mainland Italy. The allied sent thousands of troops to attack Italy. They wanted to weaken Italy as well as kill any German troops there. They did this so that the Germans had less chances to make attacks from below. -
Nazi Genocide
Hitler had an idea to make a pure race of Germans. In his mind, the only way to do that was to elimate the undesireables. he did this by creating concentration camps where families of Jewish decent, homosexuals, etc. would be put until they were killed. He killed over 6,000,000 Jews and others that were not up to his standards. -
D-Day
160,000 troops as well as 5,000 ships and 13,000 aircraft were send the the beaches of Normandy on the coast of France. More than 9,000 allied soldiers were killed or wounded on D-Day but it was still a huge victory for the allies. Once the battle was one, more than 100,000 allied troops marched across Europe toward Germany. They were on their way to defeating Hitler. -
Battle of Berlin
The attack from the Red Army at Germany. the Soviets made huge advancements as much as 25 miles a day toward Berlin. They attacked the Germans killing thousands and they win the battle. Because this the soviets put flags up around Berlin and it was one of the last battles in the war. Germany and Hitler were almost defeated. -
Nazis defeated
Due to bad descisions by Hitler over many years and many battles, Hitler became stuck and eventually didnt have enough power to attack any more. The lesser technology advancements that Hitler had were a big part in his defeat as well because the allies had greater technology. The allies also had a greater number of soldiers which caused problems and many losses for Hitler. -
Battle of Okinawa
The allies used the strategic method called island hopping to get to Japan. In order to have a successful invasion on Japan, the allies needed to create a base of operations close enough to Japan. They decided to attack Okinawa and take it over so that they could set their base there. the battle lasted 82 days and the allies successfully took it over. -
Use of atomic weapons
The United states told Japan to surrender and threatened that they would be destroyed if they did not. Japan thought the U.S. was bluffing and said that they would not surrender. The U.S. sent two atomic bombs to the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki killing 150,000-246,000 total. This was a huge shock for Japan. -
Surrender of Japan
Japan was in complete shock over the bombing attacks by the United States on the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. No longer did they think that the U.S. had bluffed about the threat of complete destruction. Japan would not dare risk attacking the U.S. because they would have no chance against nuclear weapons. On August 15 1945, six days after the bombing on Nagasaki, Japan surrendered to the United States. -
United Nations
In order to help prevent future war like the past two wars, a group was created called the United Nations. The United Nations included 51 members when it was founded. Now it has many more members and still could grow in the future. It now has 193 memober as of 2011.
