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Benito Mussolini's fascist gov italy
Benito Mussolini was establishing a totalitarian regime in Italy. A powerful speaker, Mussolini knew how to appeal to Italy’s wounded national pride. He played on the fears of economic collapse and communism; he won the support of many discontented Italians. By 1921, Mussolini had established the Fascist Party. Fascism stressed nationalism and placed the interests of the state above those of individuals. -
Mein Kampf
A book written by Hitler, Mein Kampf [My Struggle] set forth the basic beliefs of Nazism that became the plan of action for the Nazi Party. Nazism was based on extreme nationalism. Hitler, who had been born in Austria, dreamed of uniting all German-speaking people in a great German empire. -
Japanese invasion of Manchuria
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. -
Adolf Hitler's rise to power in Germany
Hitler proved to be such a powerful public speaker and organizer that he quickly became the party’s leader. The Great Depression helped the Nazis come to power. -
Storm troopers
Many men who were out of work joined Hitler’s private army, the storm troopers; Brown shirts. -
Third Reich
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 last for a thousand years. -
Mussolini's invasion of Ethiopia
By the fall of 1935, tens of thousands of Italian soldiers stood ready to advance on Ethiopia. By May 1936, Ethiopia had fallen sand the League of Nations did nothing. -
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. -
Rome Berlin Axis
Although the Soviet Union sent equipment and advisers, Hitler and Mussolini backed Franco’s forces with troops, weapons, tanks, and fighter planes. The war forged a close relationship between the German and Italian dictators, who signed a formal alliance known as the Rome-Berlin Axis. -
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. -
Francisco Franco
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
When war seemed inevitable, Hitler invited French premier Édouard Daladier and British prime minister Neville Chamberlain to meet with him in Munich. When they arrived, 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 -
Joseph Stalin's totalitarian gov in the soviet union
Stalin had firmly established a totalitarian government that tried to exert complete control over its citizens; citizens have no rights. -
Nonaggression pact
As tensions rose over Poland, Stalin surprised everyone by signing a nonaggression pact with Hitler. Once bitter enemies, fascist Germany and communist Russia now committed never to attack each other. -
Blitzkrieg
The German air force, roared over Poland, raining bombs on military bases, airfields, railroads, and cities. At the same time, 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 to take the enemy by surprise and then quickly crush all opposition with overwhelming force. -
Britain and France declare war on Germany
Britain and France declared war on Germany in Poland. The blitzkrieg tactics worked perfectly. Major fighting was over in three weeks, long before France, Britain, and their allies could mount a defense. -
Phony War
For the next several months after the fall of Poland, French and British troops on the Maginot Line 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
Hitler launched a surprise invasion of Denmark and Norway in order “to protect freedom and independence” in those countries. But in truth, Hitler planned to build bases along the coasts to strike at Great Britain. -
Hitler's invasion of the Netherlands
Hitler turned against the Netherlands, Belgium, and Luxembourg, which were overrun by the end of May. The phony war had ended. -
The Battle of Britain
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. Every night for two solid months, bombers pounded London. The Battle of Britain raged on through the summer and fall. Night after night, German planes pounded British targets. -
Germany and Italy's invasion of France
The German offensive trapped almost 400,000 British and French soldiers as they fled to the beaches of Dunkirk on the French side of the English Channel. 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, Hitler handed French officers his terms of surrender. Germans would occupy the northern part of France. -
Marshal Philippe Petain
A Nazi-controlled puppet government, headed by Marshal Philippe Pétain, would be set up at Vichy, in southern France. -
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.” -
Office of Price Administration
As war production increased, there were fewer consumer products available for purchase. With demand increasing and supplies dropping, prices seemed likely to shoot upwards. Roosevelt responded to this threat by creating the Office of Price Administration (OPA). The OPA fought inflation by freezing prices on most goods. -
Pearl Harbor Attack
A 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. In less than two hours, the Japanese had killed 2,403 Americans. The surprise raid had sunk or damaged 21 ships, including 8 battleships. More than 300 aircraft were destroyed. These losses constituted greater damage than the U.S. Navy had suffered in all of World War I. -
Internment
This sense of fear and uncertainty caused a wave of prejudice against Japanese Americans. The War Department called for the mass evacuation of all Japanese Americans from Hawaii. General Delos Emmons, the military governor of Hawaii, resisted the order because 37 percent of the people in Hawaii were Japanese Americans. To remove them would have destroyed the island's’ economy. However, he was eventually forced to order the internment, or confinement, of 1,444 Japanese Americans. -
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) decided which companies would convert from peacetime to wartime production and allocated raw materials to key industries. -
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. The Germans sank 87 ships off the Atlantic shore. The Allies responded by organizing their cargo ships into convoys and used improved tracking to defeat the Germans. -
Women's Auxiliary Army Corps
The military’s work force needs were so great that Army Chief of Staff General George Marshall pushed for the formation of a Women’s Auxiliary Army Corps (WAAC). Under this bill, women volunteers would serve in noncombat positions. The law gave the WAACs an official status and salary but few of the benefits granted to male soldiers. -
Battle of Stalingrad
Hitler hoped to capture Soviet oil fields and wanted to wipe out Stalingrad, a major industrial center on the Volga River. The Luftwaffe prepared the way with nightly bombing raids over the city. Nearly every wooden building in Stalingrad was set ablaze. -
Unconditional Surrender
Roosevelt, Churchill, and their commanders met in Casablanca. At this meeting, the 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. -
Operation Torch
Operation Torch, an invasion of Axis-controlled North Africa, commanded by American General Dwight D. Eisenhower. 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. After months of heavy fighting, the last of the Afrika Korps surrendered in May 1943. -
U.S. convoy system
The Allies organized their cargo ships into convoys. Convoys were groups of ships traveling together for mutual protection. 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. With this improved tracking, the Allies were able to find and destroy German U Boats faster than the Germans could build them. -
Manhattan Project
The Office of Scientific Research and Development 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 codename for research work that extended across the country. -
Bloody Anzio
Hitler was determined to stop the Allies in Italy rather than fight on German soil. One of the hardest battles the Allies encountered in Europe was fought less than 40 miles from Rome. Bloody Anzio lasted four months and left about 25,000 Allied and 30,000 Axis casualties. -
Korematsu V. United States
Japanese Americans fought for justice, both in the courts and in Congress. 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.” -
D-day
The Allies gathered a force of nearly 3 million troops, with mountains of military equipment and supplies. To keep their plans secret, the Allies set up an army with own headquarters & equipment. In radio messages they knew Germans could read, Allied commanders sent orders to attack the French port of Calais. As a result, Hitler ordered his generals to keep an army at Calais. 1st day of invasion, 3 divisions parachuted down behind German lines, largest land-sea-air operation in army history. -
The Battle of the Bulge
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 in the lines that gave this desperate last ditch offensive its name, the Battle of the Bulge. As the Germans swept westward, they captured 120 Americans. -
Harry S. Truman
President Roosevelt had a stroke and died while posing for a portrait in Warm Springs. That night, Vice President Harry S. Truman became the nation’s 33rd president. -
Death of Hitler
Hitler prepared for the end; he wrote out his last address to the German people. In it he blamed the Jews for starting the war and his generals for losing it. The next day Hitler shot himself while his new wife swallowed poison. -
V-E Day
The Allies celebrated V-E Day (Victory in
Europe Day) because the war in Europe was finally over.