Italian, German, &
Japanese Drives for
Aggresion
Mr. Tran
WARM UP
What do you think will cause
World War II to occur? List some
reasons
WARM UP
Do you believe Hitler and Stalin
will be on the same side during
the Second World War? Why or
why not?
WARM UP
Do you believe the United States
will get involved in the Second
World War? Why or why not?
CA Standard 10.8.1
Compare the German, Italian,
and Japanese drives for empire in
the 1930s, including the 1937
Rape of Nanking, other atrocities
in China, and the Stalin-Hitler
Pact of 1939.
Objective
Students will be able to
understand the Italian drive for
empire through the construction
of a Foldable
Student Engagement
Create a brochure foldable using
construction paper.
Label the top of each page Japanese,
German, & Italian (as the aggressor
nations).
Increasing Power
 After World War I, Italy, Japan, and Germany all sought to
increase their might.
 Italy and Germany still suffered the effects of the war, and
Japan wanted to further the power it had gained during
wartime.
 By the 1930s, all three were led by military dictatorships in
which the state held tremendous power and sought to
expand that power by invading neighbor nations.
Italy
 Leader: Benito Mussolini
 Drive: Mussolini wanted to
expand his empire and
create a “New Roman
Empire” of colonial land.
Italy also needed natural
resources.
 Conquests: Ethiopia in 1935;
Albania in 1939
Italy
 Actions of Mussolini
 October 3, 1935: Italy invaded Ethiopia
without declaring war and claims it as a
colony by occupation
 Italy failed to claim Ethiopia as a colony
before and wanted to redeem it's former
glory (and reputation). [revenge]
Italy
 Ethiopia’s spears and swords were no match for
Italian tanks, planes and poison gas.
 Ethiopia’s Emperor pleaded for the British to stop
Italian ships using the Suez Canal for purposes of
attacking his country.
 The League of Nations ignored his request…
Germany
 Leader: Adolf Hitler (Chancellor)
 Drive: Hitler wanted to gain back former
land lost in WWI.
 Germany also needed natural resources and
had extreme hatred fueled by Hitler and the
Nazi Party.
 Hitler wanted to bring Germany back to
being an empire after being punished by
World War I
Adolf Hitler
 Actions
 March 1936: Hitler reoccupies the Rhineland and
conquers it
 March 1938: Hitler annexes Austria
 September 1939: Germany acquires the territory of
Czechoslovakia through the Munich Agreement
(with Britain & France)
 Hitler pledges to respect Czechoslovakia’s new
borders-six months later he conquers the entire
country
Germany
 • To the west, France and
Britain, desiring peace at any
cost, did not at first try to stop
German aggression.
 • To the east, Russia posed no
threat after the Hitler-Stalin
Pact of 1939, in which
Germany and Russia agreed
never to attack one another.
Stalin-Hitler Pact of 1939
 August 23, 1939
 The Soviet Union and Germany sign a non-
aggression pact
 Both sides agree not to fight or go to war
with each other
 Several territories were divided among the
two countries.
Hitler
Hitler demands the former German
Port of Danzig from Poland-Poland
refuses
Hitler invades Poland-September 1,
1939 (TRIGGERING WORLD WAR II)
On Facebook
Germany’s early expansion before 1939
In One Year’s Time
Japan
 Leader: Emperor Hirohito
& Various military leaders
 Drive: Japan needed
natural resources and
more land because of their
growing population (and
new markets for their
goods).
Japan
 Actions
 September 19, 1931: Japanese troops invaded
Manchuria and continued a full scale invasion of
China in 1937.
 From December 1937 to March 1938,
Japanese troops massacred an estimated
350,000 Chinese civilians in what became
known as the Rape of Nanking.
 • During the Japanese occupation, millions of
Chinese were killed and tens of millions
became homeless.
Japanese Expansion
 The Military blamed the Japanese government for the
1929 economic depression.
 Extreme Nationalists, who reported only to the
emperor, the Military planned a Pacific Empire to solve
their economic problems.
 In 1931, Japan invades mineral rich Manchuria and sets
up a puppet government.
 Mainland China was invaded in 1937 and easily defeated
Jiang Jieshi’s million man army.
Japan 1939
Japan vs. the United States
 Japan’s main weakness was it’s lack of minerals and raw
materials.
 Prime Minister Tojo wanted Japan to be self sufficient in raw
materials.
 FDR would lift the United States’ embargo of scrap metal and
oil if Japan left China.
 Admiral Yamamota begin’s secret plans to attack American
navy base (Pearl Harbor).
Japan invades China
Rape of Nanking
 From December 1937 to March 1938, Japanese troops
massacred an estimated 300,000 Chinese civilians
The Rape of Nanking
1937-1938
 Genocidal War
 Atrocities include:
 Rape
 Looting
 Arson
 Execution of POW and
civilians
Nanking Massacre
 Rape
 80,000 women, including infants, children, the elderly and the pregnant
 Killed brutally
 Murder
 1,000’s of presumed soldiers and civilians are taken
 Machine gun fire, landmines, fire, beheading, drowning, disemboweled
 Mass execution “Ten-Thousand Corpse Ditch”
 Sport
 Arson
 Death toll
 300,000 – 800,000
 Unclear because of the secrecy of the event