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Francisco Franco
Spanish general Francisco Franco leads army of rebels in a revolt against the Spanish Republic. This started the Spanish Civil War. Both sides of the war were being funded and supported worldwide. -
Benito Mussolini's Facist Party
Took control of Italy in 1921, making it a fascist state. This government holds the state's needs over the individual needs of its citizens. The "black shirts" silenced all opossition of facism. -
Joseph Stalin's totalitarian government in the Soviet Union
Lenin's successor. Made agricultural and industrial growth prime focus. He abolished all privately owned farms and replaced them with large government-owned farms, each worked by hundreds of families. -
Mein Kampf
Written in prison, Hitler outlined his plans for the Aryan race, blonde-haired, blue-eyed Europeans. He also revealed his plans for "inferior race" (Jews, Slovs, non-whites) extinction. Mein Kampf translates to "My Struggle" -
Japanese Invade Manchuria
The Japanese had a vision of expanding their territory for their growing population. With some opposition from more moderate Japanese officials, the tiny Chinese province about twice the size of Texas, Manchuria, was invaded. Within just a few months, the Japanese gained total control of Manchuria. -
Storm Troopers
By 1932, nearly 6 million Germans were unemployed. Many of the unemployed men joined Hitler's private army, and were known as "Brown Shirts" or Storm Troopers. -
Third Reich
Hitler and the Nazi Party's administration, or reich, succeeding the Weimar Republic. Hitler called it the Thousand Year Reich, believing it would last one thousand years. -
Hitler Invades the Rhineland
A year later, he 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. -
Adolf Hitler's Rise To Power In Germany
Germany was facing a worse economic hardship than the Great Depression in America. Hitler promised he and the Nazi Party would fix the economy from the Weimar Republic's mistakes and make Germany thrive. He was appointed chancellor, then made himself president, or "Der Furher", which means The Leader in German. -
Mussolini Invades Ethiopia
Mussolini sends tens of thousands of soldiers to invade Ethiopia. The league places a economic boycott on the Italians, but it was not effective. -
Hitler's Military Build-Up In Germany
In 1931, Hitler took Germany out of the League of Nations. Later, in 1935, he violated the Treaty of Versailles by beginning to build up the military -
Rome-Berlin Axis
Alliance between Hitler and Mussolini -
Hitler's Anschluss
The "union with Austria", or Germany invading and taking Austria. Nobody stopped Hitler. -
Munich Agreement
The agreement reached between British Prime Minister Neville Chamberland and Adolf Hitler to give Germany the Sudetenland, for Germany to agree to not invade any more land. -
Nonaggression Pact
Between Hitler's Germany and Stalin's Russia, the two agreed to not attack each other. In secret, they agreed to invade Poland together and split the land. -
Blitzkreig
"lightning war". Hitler's new strategy of fast and overwhelming attacks to quickly crush the opponent. -
Britain+France Declare War on Germany
Two days after the invasion of Poland, Britain and France declare war on Germany. -
Battle of the Atlantic
After the attack on Pearl Harbor, Hitler ordered submarine raids on ships off the east coast of America. The goal was to restrict food and war materials from reaching Great Britain and the Soviet Union, which Hitler was winning, with a total of 681 sunken Allied ships. The U.S. decided they had to take action soon or they would lose, so they came up with the convoy system. -
Phony War
After the fall of Poland, for several months on the Maginot Line, German soldiers stared at French and British troops, waiting for someone to move, but no one ever did. -
Hitler's Invasion of Denmark and Norway
Hitler launches surprise invasion on Denmark and Norway claiming it was to "protect [those countries'] freedom and independence", when in reality it was to build forts along the coast to more easily strike Britain. -
Hitler Invades the Netherlands
Along with Belgium and Luxembourg, Hitler invades and takes control of the Netherlands all by May of 1940. -
Germany+Italy Invade France
Hitler sends for German forces to bypass French and British forces on the Maginot Line through the previously thought impassible Ardennes Forest. They reached Paris and trapped 400,000 British and French forces trying to escape through the English channel. -
Marshal Phillipe Petain
Headed the Nazi government. He occupies Northern France in Vichy. -
The Battle of Britain
Summer of 1940, the Germans continually bombed Britain. For 2 months straight, bombs continued to be dropped in cities. On August 15 alone, 2,000 German planes bombed Britain. Despite the destruction, Churchill managed to keep British morale up. -
Lend-Lease Act
lend or lease arms and other supplies to “any country whose defense was vital to the United States.”
Roosevelt 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 pre- vent the fire from spreading to your own property. Isolationists argued bitterly against the plan, but most Americans favored it, and Congress passed the Lend- Lease Act in March 1941. -
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. The higher taxes reduced con- sumer demand on scarce goods by leaving workers with less to spend. -
U.S Convoy System
Ships began traveling together in packs like in WWI, except now they were accompanied by destroyers, sonar, and airplanes. With the sonar, the Allies could detect and destroy German U-Boats at a faster rate than they were being built, thus causing the Germans to become overwhelmed and essentially lose the battle. -
Pearl Harbor Attack
Nearly 200 Japanese planes fly over the largest Naval Base, Pearl Harbor and bomb the base nearly undisturbed for 2 hours. The casualty rate was over 2,500- more than all of the Navy in WWI. 21 ships were sunk or damaged, including 8 battleships, which was almost the whole fleet. -
War Productions Board
ensure that the armed forces and war industries received the resources they needed to win the war.The WPB decided which companies would convert from peacetime to wartime production and allocated raw materi- als to key industries. The WPB also organized drives to col- lect scrap iron, tin cans, paper, rags, and cooking fat for recycling into war goods. Across America, children scoured attics, cellars, garages, vacant lots, and back alleys, looking for useful junk. -
Internment
President Roosevelt signs Executive Order 9066, which allowed for the internment of some 10,000 Japanese-Americans, even Japanese who were born in America. Japanese from California, Arizona, Oregon, and parts of Washington were evacuated and relocated. Hawaii resisted,and only 1% were interned. In 1944, the Supreme Court declared this constitutional, however, the JACL pushed the issue until President Reagan signed legislature granting $20,000 to every Japanese-American sent to a relocation camp. -
Manhattan Project
The top- secret project for the development of the atomic bomb by the OSRD. Most of the research done at Columbia University in Manhattan, hence the name Manhattan Project. -
Women's Auxiliary Army Corps
A bill allowing women in noncombat positions of the military. With opposition, the legislation passed through Congress May 15, 1942. -
Battle of Stalingrad
In the summer of 1942, German forces invade and take over 9/10ths of Stalingrad. Even though chances were grim, Stalin insisted to keep fighting for his namesake city. Then winter set in, and the Soviets launched their counterattack, completely cutting off all hope of food, supply, or man reinforcements. Also stubborn, Hitler abhorred the idea of a surrender until he had no choice but to surrender on January 31, 1943. -
Unconditional Surrender
Roosevelt and Churchill meet in Casablanca before Operation Torch and agree to accept only unconditional surrender, meaning the Axis Power nations would have to accept whatever terms of peace the Allies dictated. -
Operation Torch
The British-American invasion of Axis controlled North Africa. 107,000 troops landed in Casablanca, Oran and Algiers, North Africa. Africka Korps are chased by General Rommel, the famous Desert Fox. -
Bloody Anzio
One of the hardest battles the Allies encoun- tered in Europe was fought less than 40 miles from Rome. This battle, “Bloody Anzio,” lasted four months—until the end of May 1944—and left about 25,000 Allied and 30,000 Axis casualties. During the year after Anzio, German armies continued to put up strong resistance. The effort to free Italy did not succeed until 1945, when Germany itself was close to collapse -
D-Day
Eisenhower plans for nearly 3 million American, British, and Canadian troops to take back France at Normandy beach. To keep the attack secret, he leaked false information and stationed a phantom army at the port of Calais, 150 miles away from Normandy. It is still the largest air-sea-land attack in history. Casualties were heavy, but the Allies gained ground and eventually reclaimed France, Belgium, and Luxembourg by August 25, 1944. -
Battle of the Bulge
Allied forces capture first German city, Aachen. In a desperate offense, German forces penetrate American lines, and capture 120 POWs, shoot them mercilessly. Germany begins to weaken with a loss of an irreplaceable 120,000 troops, 600 tanks and assault guns, and 1,600 aircrafts. The Nazis had no choice but to retreat -
Korematsu vs. United States
Supreme Court case challenging the constitutionality of Executive Order 9066. Korematsu lost in a 6-3 decision, with a "military necessity" as an excuse. Later, the case was challenged yet again and compensation of $20,000 was awarded to all internment camp attendees. -
Harry S. Truman
Replaced Roosevelt as the president after he died from a stroke. 33rd president. -
Death of Hitler
Hitler married Eva Braun, then shot himself while Eva swallowed poison. Their bodies were burned in accordance with Hitler's wishes. -
V-E Day
A week later, General Eisenhower accepted the unconditional surrender of the Third Reich. On May 8, 1945, the Allies celebrated V-E Day—Victory in Europe Day. The war in Europe was finally over.
