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Benito Mussolini's fascist government in Italy
By 1921, Mussolini established the Fascist Party. Fascism stressed nationalism, placed the interests of the state above those of indv, argued, power must rest with a single strong leader and a small group of devoted party members.Oct 1922, Mussolini marched on Rome with thousands of his followers, whose black uniforms gave them the name “Black Shirts.” the Italian king appointed Mussolini head of the govt. Calling himself Il Duce, or “the leader,” Fascist control to every aspect of Italian life. -
Mein Kampf
Adolf Hitler writes Mien Kampf to discuss the basic beliefs of Nazism that became the plan of action for the Nazi Party. 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
Ignoring the protests of more moderate Japanese officials, 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, a large region about twice the size of Texas, that was rich in natural resources. -
Storm Troopers
The Great Depression helped the Nazis come to power. Because of war debts
and dependence on American loans and investments, Germany’s economy was hit hard.By 1932, some 6 million Germans were unemployed. Many men who were out of work joined Hitler’s private army, the storm troopers (or Brown Shirts). The German people were desperate and turned to Hitler as their last hope. -
Adolf Hitler's rise to power in Germany
In 1919, he joined a struggling group called the National Socialist German Workers’ Party, better known as the Nazi Party. Despite its name, this party had no ties to socialism. Hitler also wanted to enforce racial “purification” at home. In his view, Germans—especially blue-eyed, blond-haired “Aryans”—formed a “master race” that was destined to rule the world. The Great Depression helped the Nazis come to power. -
Third Reich
In January 1933, Hitler was appointed chancellor (prime minister). Once in power, Hitler quickly dismantled Germany’s democratic Weimar Republic. In its place he established the Third Reich, or Third German Empire. According to Hitler, the Third Reich would be a “Thousand-Year Reich”—it would last for a thousand years. -
Mussolini's invasion of Ethiopia
His first target was Ethiopia, one of Africa’s few remaining independent countries. 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. the League’s response was an ineffective economic boycott—little more than a slap on Italy’s wrist. By May 1936, Ethiopia had fallen. In desperation, Haile Selassie, the ousted Ethiopian emperor, appealed to the League for assistance. Nothing was done. -
Hitler's military build-up in Germany
In 1933, 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 year later after military buildup, he sent troops into the Rhineland, a German region bordering France and Belgium that was demili- tarized as a result of the Treaty of Versailles. The League did nothing to stop Hitler. -
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. About 3,000 Americans formed the Abraham Lincoln Battalion and traveled to Spain to fight against Franco. “We knew, we just knew,” recalled Martha Gellhorn, “that Spain was the place to stop fascism.” Among the volunteers were African Americans still bitter about Mussolini’s invasion of Ethiopia the year before. -
Munich Agreement
the führer declared that the annexation of the Sudetenland would be his “last territorial demand.” In their eagerness to avoid war, Daladier and Chamberlain chose to believe him. On September 30, 1938, they signed the Munich Agreement, which turned the Sudetenland over to Germany without a single shot being fired. Chamberlain returned home and proclaimed: “My friends, there has come back from Germany peace with honor. I believe it is peace in our time.” -
Hitler's Anschluss
Austria was Hitler’s first target. The Paris Peace Conference following World War I had createdthe relatively small nation of Austria out of what was left of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The majority of Austria’s 6 million people were Germans who favored unification withGermany. On March 12, 1938, German troops marched into Austria unopposed. A day later, Germany announced that its Anschluss, or “union,” with Austria was complete. The United States and the rest of the world did nothing. -
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. Germany and the Soviet Union also signed a second, secret pact, agreeing to divide Poland between them. -
Blitzkrieg
September 1, 1939, the German Luftwaffe (Air force) threw bombs on bases, airfields, railroads, and cities in poland. German tanks raced across the Polish countryside, spreading terror and confusion. 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. -
Joseph Stalin's totalitarian government in the Soviet Union
After V. I. Lenin died in 1924, Joseph Stalin, whose last name means “man of steel,” took control of the country. 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. By 1939, 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. -
Phony war
For the next several months after the fall of Poland, French and British troops on the Maginot Line, a system of fortifications built along France’s eastern border, sat staring into Germany, waiting for something to happen. On the Siegfried Line a few miles away German troops stared back. The blitzkrieg had given way to what the Germans called the sitzkrieg (“sitting war”), and what some newspapers referred to as the phony war. -
Hitler's invasion of Denmark and Norway
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. Next, Hitler turned against the Netherlands, Belgium, and Luxembourg, which were overrun by the end of May. The phony war had ended. -
Hitler's invasion of the Netherlands
After Invasion of Norway and Denmark, 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
almost 400,000 British and French soldiers were trapped while fleeing. Italy entered the war to join Germany in invading France and by June 22, 1940 Hitler gave the French his terms of surrender. Germany attacked in the North while Italy attacked in the South, where Hitler gave his terms of surrender to French officers, seizing France and setting up a Nazi-controlled puppet government, led by Marshall Philippe Petain, in the South. -
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
summer of 1940,The Battle of Britain was the first major campaign to be fought entirely by air forces, and was also the largest and most sustained aerial bombing campaign.The Battle of Britain raged on through the summer and fall. The RAF fought back brilliantly. With a new device called radar, British pilots accurately plotted the flight paths of German planes, even in darkness. On September 15, 1940 the RAF shot down over 185 German planes. 6 weeks later, Hitler called off the invasion -
Lend-Lease Act
By late 1940, Britain had no more cash to spend in the arsenal of democracy. Roosevelt tried to help by suggesting a new plan that he called a lend-lease policy. Under this plan, the president would lend or lease arms and other supplies to “any country whose defense was vital to the United States.” FDR compared his plan to lending a garden hose to a neighbor whose house was on fire. He asserted that this was the only sensible thing to do to prevent the fire from spreading to your own property. -
Office of Price Administration
As war production increased, there were fewer consumer products available for purchase. With demand increasing and supplies dropping, prices seemed to shoot upwards. Roosevelt responded to this threat by creating the Office of Price Administration. The OPA fought inflation by freezing prices on most goods. Congress also raised income tax rates and taxed millions of people who had never paid it before. The higher taxes reduced consumer demand on scarce goods by leaving workers with less to spend. -
Pearl Harbor attack
a surprise military strike conducted by the Imperial Japanese Navy against the United States naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on the morning of December 7, 1941. In less than two hours, the Japanese had killed 2,403 Americans and wounded 1,178 more. The surprise raid had sunk or damaged 21 ships, including 8 battleships—nearly the whole U.S. Pacific fleet. More than 300 aircraft were severely damaged or destroyed. -
War Productions Board
the government needed to ensure that the armed forces and war industries received the resources they needed to win the war. The War Production Board (WPB) assumed that responsibility. The WPB decided which companies would convert from peacetime to wartime production and allocated raw materials to key industries. The WPB also organized drives to collect scrap iron, tin cans, paper, rags, and cooking fat for recycling into war goods. -
Internment
sense of fear and uncertainty caused a wave of prejudice against Jap-Americans. in 1942, the War Dept called for the mass evac of all Jap-Americans from Hawaii. Gen. Delos Emmons, the military governor of Hawaii, resisted the order because 37% of the people in Hawaii were Jap-Americans. To remove them would have destroyed the islands’ economy and hindered U.S. military ops there. Eventually he order the internment, or confinement, of 1,444 Jap-Americans, 1% of Hawaii’s Jap-American population -
Women’s Auxiliary Army Corps
Formed by George Marshall. Congress made the bill that establish WAAC became a law on May 15, 1942. The law gave the WAACs an official status and salary but few of the benefits granted to male soldiers. in July 1943, after thousands of women had enlisted into WAAC, the U.S. Army dropped the "auxiliary" status and granted WACs full U.S. Army benefits. Under this bill, women volunteers would serve in noncombat positions. Such as nurses,ambulance drivers, radio operators, electricians, and pilots -
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. Hoping to shorten that time, the OSRD set up an intensive program in 1942 to develop a bomb as quickly as possible. Because much of the early research was performed at Columbia University in Manhattan, the Manhattan Project became the code name for research work that extended across the country -
Operation Torch
Churchill and Roosevelt didnt think the Allies had enough troops to attempt an invasion on European soil. Instead, they launched Operation Torch, and invasion of Axis- controlled North Africa, commanded by American General Dwight D. Eisenhower. -
Battle of Stalingrad
Hitler hoped to capture Soviet oil fields in the Caucasus Mountains. He also wanted to wipe out Stalingrad, a major industrial center on the Volga River. The German army confidently approach Stalingrad in August 1942. Stalin order his troops to defend Stalingrad no matter what the cost because that was his namesake city. Germany lost the battle due to winter setting in and they surrender on Jan 31, 1943. This became a turning point in the war in Europe. The Soviet Union lost almost 1m soldiers. -
U.S. convoy system
Allies organized their cargo ships into convoys. 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. They were also accompanied by airplanes that used radar to spot U-boats on the ocean’s surface. -
Unconditional surrender
Before the battle in North Africa was won, Roosevelt, Churchill, met in Casablanca. the two leaders agreed to accept only the unconditional surrender of the Axis powers (enemy nations would have to accept whatever terms of peace the Allies dictated). Americans argued the best approach to victory was to assemble a massive invasion fleet in Britain and launch it across the English Channel, through France, and into the heart of Germany. Churchill, thought it would be safer to first attack Italy -
Battle of the Atlantic
After Pearl Harbor, the U.S. joined in the Battle of the Atlantic. The German aim in this battle was to cut all supplies being delivered to the Soviet Union and the British by having their German Wolf Pack attacking American ships. To counter this, the Allies had organized their cargo ships into convoys that were equipped with sonars that are able to detect German U-boats. By the mid 1943, the Battle of the Atlantic had turned, resulting in the Allies winning. -
Korematsu v. United States
In 1944, the Supreme Court decided, in Korematsu v. United States, that governments policy of evacuating Japanese Americans to camp was justified on the basic of "military necessity." -
Bloody Anzio
This was an Allied amphibious landing in the Italian Campaign against German forces in the area of Anzio and Nettuno, Italy. This battle was one of the hardest battles the Allies encountered in Europe was fought less than 40 miles from Rome. This battle left about 25,000 Allied and 30,000 Axis casualties. During the year after Anzio, German armies continued to put up strong resistance. -
D-Day
The Normandy landings, code named Operation Neptune, were the landing operations of the Allied invasion of Normandy, in Operation Overlord, during World War II. The first day of the invasion. Shortly after midnight, three divisions parachuted down behind German lines. Despite the massive air and sea bombardment by the Allies, German retaliation was brutal, particularly at Omaha Beach. People where yelling, screaming, dying, running on the beach, and men where bleeding to death. -
The Battle of the Bulge
Tanks drove 60 miles into Allied territory, creating a bulge in the lines that gave this offensive its name, the Battle of the Bulge. As the Germans swept westward, they captured 120 American GIs near Malmédy. Elite German troops the SS troopers herded the prisoners into a large field and mowed them down with machine guns and pistols. The battle raged for a month when it was over, the Germans had been pushed back, and little seemed to have changed. But, in fact, events had taken a decisive turn. -
Harry S. Truman
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, the U.S. successfully concluded World War II; in the aftermath of the conflict, tensions with the Soviet Union increased, marking the start of the Cold War. -
Death of Hitler
Adolf Hitler committed suicide by gunshot on 30 April 1945 in his Führerbunker in Berlin. His wife Eva (née Braun) committed suicide with him by ingesting 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 outside the bunker. -
V-E Day
Was the public holiday celebrated to mark the formal acceptance by the Allies of World War II of Nazi Germany's unconditional surrender of its armed forces. It marked the end of World War II in Europe.