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Benito Mussolini's fascist government in Italy
Because of the high unemployment, the Italian citizens voted for Mussolini's totalitarian regime. In 1921, he established the Fascist Party which marched on Rome in 1922 and took over the control above whole country. -
Adolf Hitler's rise to power in Germany
1919, Hitler joined Nazi Party and quickly became the leader. He believed in strong nazism and that the master race "Aryans" should rule the world. He also believed that Germany will have to expand its territories. A huge unemployment and economic depression helped Hitler to power. In January 1933, he became chancellor and set up the Third Reich. -
Storm troopers
Hitler's private army aka Brown Shirts were unemployed Germans that saw Hitler as their last hope. -
Joseph Stalin's totalitarian government in the Soviet Union
Stalin wanted to build a model communist state. In 1937, the Soviet Union became the second largest industrial power in the World. He eliminated anyone who threatened his power, and he is responsible for 8 to 13 million people. In 1939, Stalin created a totalitarian government that ruled over all citizens. -
Japanese invasion of Manchuria
Japanese attack on large Chinese province. The League of Nations didn't like such as behavior, so Japan just quit this organization. -
Third Reich
The Third Reich, or Third German Empire, was established by Hitler. He believed that it would last for 1000 years. -
Mein Kampf
In English "My Struggle" was Hitler's famous book in which he writes his ideas how to rule the world. -
Hitler's military build-up in Germany
After Japan quit League of Nations without any punishment, Hitler decided in 1933 to quit too. In 1935, he began a military bouldup. -
Mussolini's invasion of Ethiopia
Mussolini wanted to build hos Roman Empire, so he sent troops to Ethiopia, independent country in Africa, and within a year, he took over this country. The League did nothing more than ineffective economic boycott. -
Hitler invades the Rhineland
Hitler sent troops to Rhineland, German territory close to France borders, but the League didn't respond. -
Francisco Franco
General that led the rebellion against the Spanish Republic. In this Civil War fought even Americans on Spanish side, but Franco, supported by Russia, Germany, and Italy won this war and established another totalitarian government. -
Rome-Berlin Axis
A close relationship between Germany and Italy that turned into rhe official alliance. -
Hitler's Anschluss
Hitler sent his troops to Austrian and announced that its union was complete. The League didn't respond again. -
Munich Agreement
Hitler wanted to annex a part of Czechoslovakia, but France and Great Britain promised to protect them. To avoid the war, Hitler invited French Premier and British minister to Munich, where they decided to give Hitler Sudetenland. -
Non-aggression pact
Hitler saw that war on two fronts would be again fatal, so he decided to make a pact with Russia, so they won't fight each other. They also secretly decided to divide Poland between them. -
Blitzkrieg
Blitzkrieg, or lighting war, was a very fast and surprising attack. Hitler and Stalin both attacked Poland at the same time. -
Britain and France declare war on Germany
Two days after the attack on Poland, France and Britain declared war on Germany, but it was too late, and within one month, Germany and Soviet Union took control above Poland. -
Phony war
After Poland fall, Germany and Alliance were just waiting for each other to make next move. -
Hitler's invasion of Denmark and Norway
After Stalin occupied Baltic states and then Finland, Hitler started his invasion of Denmark and Norway, because these states were strategically located for striking Britain. -
Hitler's invasion of the Netherlands
Hitler sent his troops to BeNeLux and ended the Phony War. -
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, and a Nazi-controlled puppet government, headed by Marshal Philippe Pétain, would be set up at Vichy, in southern France. -
Marshal Philippe Petain
Nazi-controlled puppet government, headed by Marshal Philippe Pétain, would be set up at Vichy, in southern France -
The Battle of Britain
In the summer of 1940, the Germans began to assemble an invasion fleet along the French coast. Germany also launched an air war at the same time. The Luftwaffe began making bombing runs over Britain. Its goal was to gain total control of the skies by destroying Britain’s Royal Air Force (RAF). The Battle of Britain raged on through the summer and fall. Night after night, German planes pounded British targets. 1st, the Luftwaffe concentrated on airfields and aircraft. Next it targeted cities. -
Lend-Lease Act
By late 1940, however, 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.” -
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 consumer demand on scarce goods by leaving workers with less to spend.
• Fought inflation by freezing wages, prices, and rents
• Rationed foods, such as meat, butter, cheese, vegetables, sugar, and coffee -
Pearl Harbor attack
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. These losses constituted greater damage than the U.S. Navy had suffered in all of World War I. By chance, three aircraft carriers at sea escaped the disaster -
War Productions Board
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. Across America, children scoured attics, cellars, garages, vacant lots, and back alleys, looking for useful junk. During one five-month-long paper drive in Chicago, schoolchildren collected 36 million pounds of old paper—about 65 pounds per child. -
Internment
confinement of 1,444 Japanese Americans, 1 percent
of Hawaii’s Japanese-American population -
Women’s Auxiliary Army Corps
the bill establishing the WAAC became 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, the U.S. Army dropped the “auxiliary” status, and granted WACs full U.S. Army benefits. WACs worked as nurses, ambulance drivers, radio operators, electricians, and pilots—nearly every duty not involving direct combat. -
Battle of Stalingrad
The German army confidently approached Stalingrad in August 1942. The Luftwaffe—the German air force—prepared the way with nightly bombing raids over the city. For weeks the Germans pressed in on Stalingrad, conquering it house by house in brutal hand-to-hand combat. By the end of September, they controlled nine-tenths of the city. the winter is coming. The Soviets saw the cold as an opportunity to roll fresh tanks across the frozen landscape and begin a massive counterattack & cut off supplies. -
Operation Torch
In November 1942, some 107,000 Allied troops, the great majority of them Americans, landed in Casablanca, Oran, and Algiers in North Africa. From there they sped eastward, chasing the Afrika Korps led by General Erwin Rommel, the legendary Desert Fox. -
Unconditional surrender
Roosevelt, Churchill 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. -
Battle of the Atlantic
After the attack on Pearl Harbor, Hitler ordered submarine raids against ships along America’s east coast. The German aim in the Battle of the Atlantic was to prevent food and war materials from reaching Great Britain and the Soviet Union. -
Manhattan Project
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 -
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. They were also accompanied by airplanes that used radar to spot U-boats on the ocean’s surface. -
Bloody Anzio
lasted four months—until the end of May 1944—and left about 25,000 Allied and 30,000 Axis casualties & was fought less than 40 miles from Rome -
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. -
The Battle of the Bulge
On December 16, under cover of dense fog, eight 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. Tanks drove 60 miles into Allied territory, creating a bulge. -
Korematsu v. United States
Japanese Americans fought for justice, both in the courts and in Congress. The initial results were discouraging. In 1944, the Supreme Court decided, in Korematsu v. United States, that the government’s policy of evacuating Japanese Americans to camps was justified on the basis of “military necessity.” -
Harry S. Truman
H 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. -
Death of Hitler
In his underground headquarters in Berlin, Hitler prepared for the end. On April 29, he married Eva Braun, his longtime companion. The same day, he wrote out his last address to the German people (blamed Jews). The next day Hitler shot himself while his new wife swallowed poison. In accordance with Hitler’s orders, the two bodies were carried outside, soaked with gasoline, and burned. -
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.
