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Objectives
• Learn why totalitarian dictators gained power
after World War I.
• Find out how Germany, Italy, and Japan
embarked on a path of military conquest.
• Discover how the United States tried to remain
neutral in a new world conflict.
• Understand how World War II began in Europe.
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Terms and People
• Josef Stalin – a brutal dictator of the Soviet
Union who ended up siding with the Allies during
World War II
• totalitarian state – a nation in which a single
party controls the government and every aspect
of people’s lives
• Benito Mussolini – Italian prime minister who
made Italy a fascist state and sided with the
Axis Powers during World War II
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Terms and People (continued)
• fascism – a political system based on
militarism, extreme nationalism, and blind
loyalty to the state and its leader
• Adolf Hitler – brutal leader of Germany and the
Nazi party who started World War II
• aggression – a warlike act by one country
against another without cause
• appeasement – a policy of giving in to
aggression in order to avoid war
• Winston Churchill – British prime minister
during World War II
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What events led to the outbreak of
World War II?
Events that set the stage for World War II
included:
The Great
Depression of the
1930s caused
worldwide
economic hardship.
Aggression Leads to War
World War I and
the Russian
Revolution resulted
in the deaths of
millions and altered
the political map of
Europe.
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By 1929, Joseph Stalin
was dictator of the Soviet
Union, which he turned
into a totalitarian state.
Stalin took brutal measures
to control and modernize
industry and agriculture.
Stalin had four million people killed or imprisoned
on false charges of disloyalty to the state.
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In 1922, the Italian king
appointed Benito Mussolini
prime minister.
Mussolini turned Italy into
the world’s first fascist
state.
Mussolini ended freedom of
the press and crushed political
opposition.
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Many Germans were angry about their defeat in
World War I and the heavy reparation payments
forced on them by the Allies.
By 1921, Adolf Hitler had become leader of the
National Socialist, or Nazi, Party.
Racism formed the core of Nazi beliefs:
Nazis believed Germans
were a “master race.”
Aggression Leads to War
Feelings of AntiSemitism ran high.
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The Great
Depression
increased
Hitler’s
popularity.
In 1933, Hitler was
named chancellor
of the German
parliament.
Hitler quickly created a totalitarian state.
• He outlawed other political parties.
• Secret police enforced strict loyalty.
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In Japan, military leaders
wanted to take control of
nearby countries to exploit
their natural resources and
have room to expand.
The militarists said the
Japanese were the superior
race.
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Soon, Italy, Japan, and Germany were
following policies of ruthless aggression.
In 1931, the Japanese
army seized Manchuria.
At the end of 1937,
Japanese troops
pillaged Nanjing, China,
massacring civilians
and prisoners of war.
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In 1935, Mussolini’s
armies invaded the
African country of
Ethiopia.
Ethiopia’s emperor, Haile
Selassie, asked the
League of Nations for help,
but it responded weakly.
Britain and France would not help, either, so Ethiopia fell
to Italy.
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Hitler defied the terms of the Treaty of Versailles, as
Germany became increasingly aggressive.
1936
Hitler rebuilt Germany’s
armed forces and sent troops
into the Rhineland region of
western Germany.
1938
German armies occupied
Austria. European
democracies did not stop
Hitler.
Aggression Leads to War
Treaty of
Versailles
Chapter
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1938
Hitler threatened to
invade Czechoslovakia.
1938
In a gesture of
appeasement, Britain
and France let Hitler
occupy part of
Czechoslovakia if he
promised to seek no
further territory.
1939
Hitler occupied the rest of
Czechoslovakia and then
set his sights on Poland.
Aggression Leads to War
Munich
Pact
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After World War I, the United States returned
to a policy of isolationism.
In 1935, Congress
passed the
Neutrality Act,
which was designed
to keep the U.S. at
peace.
Aggression Leads to War
The Act forbade the
president from selling
arms or making loans
to any nation
involved in war.
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At the same time, the U.S. sought to
strengthen ties with Latin America.
President Herbert
Hoover rejected
the Roosevelt
Corollary to the
Monroe Doctrine.
Hoover said the
U.S. no longer
claimed the right to
intervene in Latin
American affairs.
Under the Good Neighbor policy, President
Franklin Roosevelt withdrew troops from Latin
America and gave more independence to Cuba.
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The Nazis then marched into France, and Britain
sent troops to help defend France.
But, by May 1940, the Nazis had
trapped the British and French in
the port city of Dunkirk.
In a bold action, the British
rescued the trapped soldiers and
evacuated them to Britain.
Hitler accepted France’s surrender on June 22, 1940.
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Now Britain stood alone against the Nazi war machine,
but British Prime Minister Winston Churchill vowed that
he would never surrender.
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For months, German planes bombed London and
other British cities, killing tens of thousands.
Londoners slept in subway
stations at night to avoid the
bombs and tried to carry on
with their lives during the day.
By fall, Hitler abandoned plans to invade Britain.
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On June 22,
1941, Hitler
broke his pact
with Stalin by
sending a huge
German force
into the Soviet
Union.
The Soviet
Union now
joined Britain
in fighting the
Germans.
Although Churchill and Stalin deeply distrusted
each other, they were forced to work together
to defeat their common enemy.
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Chapter
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