World War Looms
The Rise of Totalitarianism in the 20s
and 30s
Joseph Stalin Transforms the
Soviet Union
Russian autocracy falls to
communism
Soviet Union is born
Joseph Stalin takes control
totalitarian state
Five-Year Plans (1928)
 Industrial nation
 Collectivize farms
Killed between 8-13 million Russians
The Rise of Fascism in Italy
High unemployment and inflation
Strikes, some communist led
Middle and Upper class feared
communists
Called for a strong leader
1921 Benito Mussolini est. Fascist
Party- demagogue
1922 He leads a march on Rome
“Black Shirts”
Mussolini appointed head of
government
Creates a totalitarian state: nationalism
Hitler Takes Over Germany
1919 Hitler joins the
National Socialist German
Workers Party (Nazi)
Quickly rose w/in the party
Sent to prison
High treason
Tried to copy Mussolinidemagogue
Wrote Mein Kampf

My struggle
Hitler Takes Over Germany
Goals of Nazis
Unite all German speaking people in a great
German Empire. (nationalism)
Enforce racial “purification”
 Master Race = blonde hair, blue eyed
Germans

Inferior Races = Jews, Gypsies, Slavs, Africans,
Homosexuals
National expansion
 Lebensraum – living space
Japanese Aggression
Militarists take control 1930s
Invade Manchuria (China) in
1931- need natural resources
Quit League of Nations
war w/ China
Rape of Nanjing
300,000 civilians massacred
20,000 women raped
Hideki Tojo takes over 1941
German & Italian Aggression ‘33-36
Quit L of N
Military buildup
Troops in the Rhineland
Italy attacks Ethiopia
1935
Fascists in Spain 1936
USA and neutrality
Neutrality Acts of 1935, 36, & 37
keep country out of conflicts
keep selling oil and products to countries
War in Europe
Austria Falls
Union with Austria
Nation was created at Paris Peace Conference
Majority of population were German

Favored unification
March 12, 1938 German troops marched
unopposed
Who’s next?
Czechoslovakia Falls
Hitler’s next target was Czechoslovakia
3 million Germans lived in Sudetenland


Western border
Lebensraum and resources
Hitler claims Czechs were abusing Germans
Sep. 30, 1938 Munich Agreement
Sudetenland given to Hitler
Appeasement

Neville Chamberlain
• “…Peace in our time”
German Offensive Begins
Do you think Appeasement will work?
March 15, 1939 Hitler marches into the rest of
Czechoslovakia
The Polish Question
1939 Hitler wants Poland
similar claims as in Czechoslovakia
Many thought it was a bluff
An attack on Poland might start a conflict with the Soviet
Union
Attacking Poland would most likely provoke a declaration
of war from Britain and France
Non-aggression Pact was signed August 23, 1939
Germany and the Soviet Union wouldn’t attack each other
Secret pact signed that agreed to divide Poland between
the two nations
Blitzkrieg
“lightning warfare”
A plan to prevent the formation of trench warfare
The tactic:


Fast Tanks
Troop transports
Blitzkrieg in Action
Sep. 1, 1939 Hitler attacks Poland
Blitzkrieg was very effective
War was over in three weeks
The Soviet Union attacks from the East
Britain and France declare war
April 9, 1940 Hitler invades Denmark and
Norway
preparation for an attack on Britain
Fall of France
Maginot Line Failed- heavily armed fortresses
Hitler sent his army through Belgium and the
Ardennes Forest. (NE France)
Hitler marched on Paris
June 22, 1940 Hitler hands surrender orders
to French Officers
Puppet Gov est. called Vichy in So. France
Marshal Philippe Petain
Battle of Britain
Summer 1940-Luftwaffe starts bombing Britain
RAF fights back
Battle of Britain
radar
Hitler calls off land invasion in November
Moving Away from
Neutrality
Congress passes Neutrality Acts of 1939
“Cash-and-Carry” went into effect
 Britain and France would pay for
weapons in cash and transport them in
their own ships.
Helping Britain and France defeat Hitler
would keep U.S. out of the war.
The Lend Lease
March 1941 Congress passes Lend-Lease
Act
Lend or lease arms and supplies
Isolationists weren’t pleased
Support of Stalin
Hitler attacks USSR-June 1941

“The enemy of an enemy is my friend.”
Isolationists not pleased
The Axis Threat, 1940
Tripartite Pact signed b/n Germany, Italy, and
Japan
Mutual defense treaty
Agree to defend each other against U.S.
U.S. would have to fight a two-ocean war
Worse than two-front war
Atlantic Charter
U.S. and Great Britain promised:
collective security, disarmament, selfdetermination, economic cooperation and
freedom of the seas
“A Declaration of the United Nations”
Japan Attacks the United States
December 7, 1941
7:53 a.m., 181 Japanese bombers attack Pearl
Harbor
Sunk or damaged 21 ships, including 8
battleships
300 aircraft were damaged or destroyed
2,403 Americans killed
1, 178 Americans injured