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Rise of Dictatorships
Totalitarianism and WWII
1939-1945
U.S. Following WWI
Prosperity (on the surface) Consumer spending, new products Buying on credit (buy now, pay later) Strong stock market The Roaring Twenties
Reality Buying stocks with credit (on margin) Overproduction of goods – prices fell Farmers struggling – couldn’t get high prices Stock Market Crash! October 29, 1929 THE GREAT DEPRESSION
Post War Uncertainty
Unstable democracies, lots of political parties and coalitions; war debts
Socialist/Communist groups strengthen – view capitalism as a failure (Depression)
Germany – Weimar Republic (unpopular) No democratic history in Germany Inflation – value of mark declines dramatically U.S. loans money to Germany
Rise of Dictatorships
Worldwide depression Millions lose faith in democratic systems Turn to totalitarian leaders: Mussolini – Italy Hitler – Germany Franco – Spain Stalin – USSR Hirohito/Tojo - Japan
Italy
Benito Mussolini – Fascist Party - 1923 Il Duce – The Leader Blackshirts – private army; terrorized people Extreme nationalism – vowed to revive the
glory of the Roman Empire Popularity increases as economy worsens 1922 King Victor Emmanuel “steps down”
Germany
Adolf Hitler – Nazi Party Der Fuhrer – The Leader Beer Hall Putsch 1923 – attempts to take over govt.
In jail, writes Mein Kampf (My Struggle) Brown Shirts (SA – Storm Troopers), Gestapo (SS)
(Heinrich Himmler) Chancellor in 1933 – Hindenburg “steps down” Terror and intimidation; propaganda (Joseph
Goebbels), Hitler youth, education, media The Third Reich
Germany cont.
Aryans were the “master race” Germany needed lebensraum (living
space) Totalitarian state Anti-Semitism – against Jews
USSR & Japan
Joseph Stalin (Man of Steel) Control over industry, farms Millions die under forced labor, collective
farms, prisons Japan – Emperor Hirohito Heideki Tojo – military leader takes control
Spain
Fascist leader Francisco Franco (Nationalists) revolts against government
Hitler and Mussolini send troops Hitler tests new weapons on Spain Franco becomes dictator – remains
neutral in the war
Axis Aggression - Japan
Japan desperately needed raw materials Seizes Manchuria 1931 Invades China 1937 Wants to expand in the Pacific
Axis Aggression - Italy
Mussolini wants a colonial empire Invades Ethiopia 1935 Later Albania, Libya League of Nations does nothing
Axis Aggression - Germany
1. 1936 - German troops occupy the Rhineland
2. 1938 – Germany annexes Austria – Anschluss
3. Sudetenland (Czechoslovakia) Germany needs lebensraum Munich 1938 – appeasement Neville Chamberlain (British
Prime Minister) gives in 4. Germany takes rest of
Czech. 6 months later
Europe Goes to War
5. Germany signs non-aggression pact (Nazi-Soviet Pact) with USSR 1939
Stalin + Hitler Agree to divide
Poland 6. Sept. 1, 1939 –
Germany invades Poland
WWII begins
Europe Goes to War Blitzkrieg (“lightening
war”) Hitler crushes Poland Stalin takes half of Poland
for USSR (communist) French build up Maginot
Line - defenses April 9, 1940 – Denmark,
Norway, Netherlands, Belgium fall Takes Paris on June 14,
1940 Evacuation (“Miracle”) at
Dunkirk to England
War cont.
Battle of Britain Luftwaffe vs. Royal Air
Force (RAF) Great acts of individual
bravery June 1940 – June
1941 – 30,000 Londoners killed
Winston Churchill rallies England
Hitler’s first defeat
Americans Debate
Was WWI a mistake? Was it about big industries making money off war? Isolationists debate the interventionists Neutrality Act 1939
Cash & carry – nations could buy from U.S. if they paid cash & used own ships (pro ally)
Lend Lease Act - loans to allies Atlantic Charter – deepening alliance w/Britain; self
determination of nations Hitler orders attacks on U.S. ships
Japan
Japan Builds an Empire Invades Manchuria; other
Pacific Islands 30’s & 40’s American Response
FDR moves Pacific fleet to Pearl Harbor, Hawaii
Threatens Japan’s expansion
America remains neutral Embargo (oil); Japanese
assets frozen Japan Attacks Pearl
Harbor December 7, 1941 – “a date
which will live in infamy” U.S. enters World War II
Pearl Harbor
Fighting in Italy and North Africa
German General Erwin Rommel – “Desert Fox”
Leads Afrika Corps Panzer units (tanks) Defeated by GB at
Battle of El Alamein (Bernard Montgomery – GB)
George Patton takes Sicily; North Africa
Italy surrenders Mussolini killed by
anti-fascists
War in the Soviet Union
3.6 million Germans attack in 1941
Operation Barbarossa Scorched earth policy Bitter winter Battle of Stalingrad Red Army launches
massive assault; victory for USSR
Turning point in war
What is this?
Invasion of Western Europe
Build up of troops in GB D-Day (June 6, 1944)
Operation Overlord Largest landing force in
history invades Normandy, France
Dwight D. Eisenhower – Supreme Allied Commander
Battle of the Bulge 1944 – Hitler’s last chance
to defend Germany Costly for U.S. Patton stops Germans
War Ends in Europe
The Soviets Advance Move on Berlin
U.S. moves from west Soviets move from east
Soviets take Berlin in April 1945
Germany Surrenders Hitler commits suicide
on May 1, 1945 Germany surrenders on
May 8, 1945 V-E Day (Victory in
Europe Day)
War Ends in Europe cont.
The Yalta Conference Stalin, Churchill, and FDR
(the big three) make postwar plans
Divide Germany into 4 zones
Stalin promised to join war against Japan
Also to hold free elections Potsdam Conference
Truman told Stalin about a nuclear weapon
War in the Pacific The Japanese
advance The Philippines fall General Macarthur
forced to leave (“I shall return”)
Bataan Death March The Battle of Coral
Sea First aircraft carrier
battle Prevented attack of
Australia
War in the Pacific
Allied victories turn the tide
The Battle of Midway Destroy 4 Jap. ships
Iwo Jima and Okinawa Key victories
Kamikaze fighters Island hopping to Japan
War Ends in Pacific
The Manhattan Project – secret project to develop an atomic bomb (J. Robert Oppenheimer)
Los Alamos – test site FDR dies – Truman makes
decision to drop the bomb August 6, 1945 - “Little Boy”
dropped on Hiroshima August 9, 1945 - “Fat Man”
dropped on Nagasaki Sept. 2, 1945 – Japan
signs surrender
Hiroshima
Japanese Internment Camps
Japanese Americans put intocampsFear of spying
Liberation
Soviet and American troops come upon Nazi concentration camps
World begins to learn about the Holocaust
Genocide “Final Solution”
Europe and Japan in Ruins
Over 50 million Europeans dead, 2/3 of them civilians
Physical destruction of land and cities Refugees, displaced persons, search for
Holocaust survivors Nuremberg Trials – 22 charged with war crimes,
only one expressed remorse Occupation of Japan (MacArthur)
Demilitarization Democratization
Losses – Includes civilians
USSR – 25,000,000 (17,000,000 civilians!) Germany – 7,000,000 (10,000 civilians) Poland – 6,800,000 China – 11,300,000 Japan – 1,800,000 France – 810,000 Great Britain – 388,000 Italy – 410,000 U.S. – 295,000
