World War II

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World War II

• Rise of Dictatorships the Decline of European
  Democracies

Power point created by Robert Martinez Primary
content source The Americans by McDougal
Littrel Image sources as cited.
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• For many nations, WWI peace had brought not
  prosperity but revolution fueled by economic
  depression and struggle.
• The postwar years brought the rise of powerful
  dictators driven by the belief in nationalism.

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• Nationalism is the loyalty to ones country above
  all else and dreams of territorial expansion.

http//www.mikekemble.com/ww2/hitler.html
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• Germans saw nothing fair in the Versailles Treaty
  that blamed them for starting the war.
• Nor did they find security in a settlement that
  stripped them of their overseas colonies and
  border territories.

Leaders of France, England, and the United
States deciding the fate of Germany during
the Treaty of Versailles.
http//judicial-inc.biz/Versaille_Treaty.htm
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• Germany was expected to pay off huge war debts
  (reparations) while dealing with widespread
  poverty.
• By 1923, an inflating economy made a five-million
  German mark worth less than a penny. Here
  children build blocks with stacks of useless
  German marks.

German currency being sold as fuel for stoves and
furnaces.
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• The new democratic governments that emerged in
  Europe after WWI floundered. Without a democratic
  tradition, people turned to authoritarian leaders
  to solve their economic and social problems.
• The new democracies collapsed, and dictators were
  able to seize power.

V. Lenin of Russia
http//www.alevieten.com/news/index.php?Archive78

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• In Russia, hopes for democracy gave way to civil
  war, resulting in the establishment of a
  communist state, officially called the Soviet
  Union.

http//ntap.k12.ca.us/whs/projects/history/stalin.
html
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• After Russian revolutionary leader V.I. Lenin
  died in 1924, Joseph Stalin took control of the
  country. Stalin focused on creating a communist
  state.

http//www.marxists.org/portugues/dicionario/verbe
tes/s/stalin.htm
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• Stalin made agricultural and industrial growth
  the prime economic goals of the Soviet Union.
• Stalin abolished all privately owned farms and
  replaced them with collectives (large
  government-owned farms, each worked by hundreds
  of families.

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• Stalin moved to transform the Soviet Union from a
  backward rural nation into a great industrial
  power.
• All economic activity was placed under government
  management.
• By 1937, the Soviet Union had become the worlds
  second-largest industrial power.

http//digital.library.mcgill.ca/russian/industr.h
tm
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• Stalin eliminated anyone who threatened his
  power.
• Historians estimate that Stalin was responsible
  for the deaths of 8-13 million people. Millions
  more died in famines caused by the restructuring
  of Soviet society.

http//www.alevieten.com/news/index.php?Archive78

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• By 1939, Stalin had firmly established a
  totalitarian government.
• In a totalitarian state, individuals have no
  rights, and the government suppresses all
  opposition, no private ownership.

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ewpostampt108844
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Fascism in Italy

• While Stalin was consolidating his power in the
  Soviet Union, Benito Mussolini was establishing a
  totalitarian regime in Italy, where unemployment
  and inflation produced bitter strikes, some
  communist-led.

http//www.utrechtschaak.nl/forum_item.aspx?id147
amplstampall1
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Benito Mussolini

• Alarmed by these threats, the middle and upper
  classes demanded stronger leadership.
• A powerful speaker, Mussolini knew how to appeal
  to Italys wounded national pride.
• He played on the fears of economic collapse and
  communism. In this way, he won the support of
  many discontented Italians.

http//www.windoweb.it/guida/cultura/biografia_ben
ito_mussolini.htm
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• By 1921, Mussolini established the Fascist Party.
• Fascism stressed nationalism and placed the
  interests of the state above those of
  individuals.
• To strengthen the nation, Fascists argued, power
  must rest with a single strong leader and a small
  group of devoted party members.

http//www.windoweb.it/guida/cultura/biografia_ben
ito_mussolini.htm
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• In October 1922, Mussolini marched on Rome with
  thousands of his followers, whose black uniforms
  gave them the name Black Shirts.
• When government officials, the army, and the
  police sided with the Fascists, the Italian king
  appointed Mussolini head of the government.

http//forum.maidenfans.com/index.php?topic13002.
msg151341
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• Calling himself IL Duce, or the leader,
  Mussolini extended Fascist control to every
  aspect of Italian life. Mussolini crushed all
  opposition by making Italy a totalitarian state.

http//ch.novopress.info/?p705
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• Italy wants peace, work, and calm. I will give
  these things with love if possible, with force if
  necessary.
• - Benito Mussolini

http//putschisten.de/
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• In Germany, Adolf Hitler had followed a path to
  power similar to Mussolinis.
• At the end of WWI, Hitler had been a jobless
  soldier drifting around Germany.
• In 1919, he joined a struggling group called the
  National Socialist German Workers Party, better
  known as the NAZI Party.

Hitler in World War I
http//www.greatwar.nl/remarque/remarque-eng.html
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• Hitler proved to be a powerful speaker and
  organizer and quickly became the partys leader.
  Calling himself Der Fuehrer - the leader he
  promised to bring Germany out of chaos.

hitler-darshan.jpg
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• In Hitlers book Mein Kampf My Struggle, Hitler
  set forth the basic beliefs of Nazism that became
  the plan of action for the Nazi Party.

http//diberville.blogspot.com/2004_05_01_dibervil
le_archive.html
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• Nazism is the German brand of fascism, based on
  extreme nationalism.
• Hitler, who had been born in Austria, dreamed of
  uniting all German-speaking people in a great
  German empire.

http//mix.fresqui.com/hitler
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• Hitler wanted to enforce racial purification at
  home. In his view, Germans, especially
  blue-eyed, blond-haired Aryans formed a
  master race that was destined to rule the
  world.
• Inferior races, such as Jews, Slavs, and all
  nonwhites, were deemed fit only to serve the
  Aryans.

http//www.history.ucsb.edu/faculty/marcuse/classe
s/133c/133cPrevYears/133c04/133c04l02NaziPast.htm
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• A third element of Nazism was national expansion.
• Hitler believed that for Germany to thrive, it
  needed more lebensraum, or living space.
• One of Hitlers aims in Mein Kampf, was to
  secure for the German people the land and soil to
  which they are entitled on this earth, even if
  this could be accomplished only by the might of
  a victorious sword.

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• The Great Depression helped the Nazis come to
  power. Because of war debts (reparations) and
  dependence on American loans and investments,
  Germanys economy was hit hard.

http//library.thinkquest.org/C005121/data/germany
.htm
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• By 1932, some 6 million Germans were unemployed.
  Many men who were out of work joined Hitlers
  private army, the storm troopers (or Brown
  Shirts).
• The German people were desperate and turned to
  Hitler as their last hope.

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• By mid 1932, the Nazis had become the strongest
  political party in Germany.
• In January 1933, Hitler was appointed chancellor
  (prime minister). Once in power, Hitler
  dismantled Germanys democratic Weimar Republic.

http//www.flashback.org/showthread.php?t914
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• In its place, Hitler established the Third Reich,
  or Third German Empire.
• According to Hitler, the Third Reich would be a
  Thousand-Year Reich it would last for a
  thousand years.

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Time Magazines Man of the Year
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Imperial Japan

• Halfway around the world, nationalistic military
  leaders were trying to take control of the
  imperial government of Japan.
• These leaders shared in common with Hitler a
  belief in the need for more living space for a
  growing population.

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Invasion of China

• Japanese 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, a large region about twice
  the size of Texas, that was rich in natural
  resources.

http//www.sinodefenceforum.com/showthread.php?t1
095
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Hideki Tojo Invasion of China 1937

• In July 1937, Hideki Tojo, Chief of Staff of
  Japans Army, launched the invasion into China.
• As French, Dutch, and British colonies lay
  unprotected in Asia, Japanese leaders leaped at
  the opportunity to unite East Asia under Japanese
  control by seizing the colonial lands.

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• The watchful League of Nations had been
  established after WWI to prevent just such
  aggressive acts. The League condemned Japan, who
  in turn simply quit the League.

http//www.germanwarmachine.com/daybyday/1943/oct.
htm
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Militarist Japan

• Meanwhile, the success of the Manchurian invasion
  put the militarists firmly in control of Japans
  government.

http//www.germaniainternational.com/japan.html
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Hitler ignores the Treaty of Versailles

• The failure of the League of Nations to take
  action against Japan did not escape the notice of
  Europes dictators.
• In 1933, Hitler pulled Germany out of the League.
• In 1935, he began a military buildup in violation
  of the Treaty of Versailles.

http//www.history2u.com/book6_global_warfare.htm
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Italy invades Africa

• Meanwhile, Mussolini began building his new Roman
  Empire.
• His first target was Ethiopia, one of Africas
  few remaining independent countries. By the fall
  of 1935, tens of thousands of Italian soldiers
  stood ready to advance on Ethiopia.

http//www.edunetconnect.com/cat/timemachine/50ea.
html
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• As in Germany, the League of Nations response
  was ineffective. In regards to Italy, the League
  initiated an ineffective economic boycott in
  response to Italys invasion of Ethiopia.
• The League did nothing to stop Hitler.

http//www.workers.org.uk/features/feat_0107/corpo
rate.html
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• By 1936, Ethiopia had fallen. In desperation,
  Haile Selassie, the ousted Ethiopian emperor,
  appealed to the League for assistance. Nothing
  was done.
• It is us today, - It will be you tomorrow.
• - Haile Selassie

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Spanish Civil War

• In 1936, 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.

http//www.telefonica.net/web2/fmurilla/fet.htm
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• While, the Western democracies remained neutral.
• Hitler and Mussolini backed Francos forces with
  troops, weapons, tanks, and fighter planes.

Franco Hitler
http//www.flickr.com/photos/kresve/124314706/
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Francisco Franco

• The Spanish Civil War forged a close relationship
  between German and Italian dictators, who signed
  a formal alliance known as the Rome-Berlin Axis.
• After a loss of almost 500,000 lives. Francos
  victory in 1939 established him as Spains
  fascist dictator.

http//www.dw-world.de/popups/popup_lupe/0,,146896
6,00.html
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• In an effort to keep the U.S. out of future wars,
  beginning in 1935, Congress passed a series of
  Neutrality Acts.
• The first two acts outlawed arm sales or loans to
  nations at war.

http//www.mtholyoke.edu/le20j/NeutralityAfterWar
.html
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• Despite congressional efforts to legislate
  neutrality, U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt
  found it impossible to remain neutral.
• When Japan launched a new attack on China in July
  1937, Roosevelt found a way around the Neutrality
  Acts.

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• Because Japan had not formally declared war
  against China, the president claimed there was no
  need to enforce the Neutrality Acts.
• The United States continued sending arms and
  supplies to China.

http//www.scuttlebuttsmallchow.com/northchina.htm
l
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• A few months later, Roosevelt spoke out strongly
  against isolationism in a speech delivered in
  Chicago. He called on peace-loving nations to
  Quarantine, or isolate, aggressor nations in
  order to stop the spread of war.

http//teachpol.tcnj.edu/Amer_pol_hist/fi/0000015b
.htm
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• At last, Roosevelt seemed ready to take a stand
  against aggression that is, until isolationist
  newspapers exploded in protest, accusing the
  president of leading the nation into war.
  Roosevelt backed off in the face of criticism.
• For the moment the conflicts remained over
  there.

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