1. Origins of World War II
Could World War II have been prevented?

3. Dictators and Militarists Rise to Power
Joseph Stalin rose to power and established a Soviet totalitarian government in the Russian empire.
In 1928, he established his Five-Year Plan. He attempted to raise agricultural and industrial production.
His brutal purges claimed millions of lives in the name of communist modernization.

4. Mussolini establishes a Fascist Dictatorship in Italy
Mussolini’s( Il Duce) emotional outbursts rallied the people of Italy to the fascist cause.
Fascism is based on extreme nationalism in which the state comes before individual liberty.
His violent rants agitated his supporters to take control of Italy’s government.
He wanted to create a new Roman Empire.

6. Hitler Leads the Rise of Nazism in Germany
Hitler believed in racial superiority of the Aryan Race.
His Mein Kampf set the goal of conquering territory to expand the empire.
Hitler’s extreme nationalism appealed to enough of the voters to get named chancellor. As prime minister he dissolved the republic and set up a fascist dictatorship.

8. The Military Takes Control of Japan
By the 1930’s during the depression, military leaders became more dominant in Japan’s government.
Japan’s aggressive tactics were focused on control of raw materials for their growing industrial needs
Due to political violence the Japanese took up a more aggressive foreign policy in the 1930’s

10. Japan’s Aggression meets a Weak American Response
At this time Americans favored a policy of isolationism.
The U.S. favored the ‘Good Neighbor’ approach but was willing to enforce its message that nations should respect each other’s rights.
In 1931 Japan seized Manchuria with no response from either the League of Nations or America.

12. More Japanese Aggression
By 1937 Japan and China were in a full- fledged war.
After Japan captured Nanjing they murdered over 300,000 civilians.
Roosevelt called for a boycott against Japan but it did not stop their aggression.
By 1941, the Japanese military had added French Indochina. Taiwan, and Korea to its list of conquered nations.

13. Europe’s Dictators Test the League of Nations
Japan tested the League and it did not respond.
Hitler began testing the sanctions imposed by the Treaty of Versailles
Germany built up their military
1936, Hitler moved troops into the Rhineland
Mussolini invades and took over Ethiopia
Events in Spain also aided the growth of fascism. Francisco Franco ‘s Nationalists established a fascist government in a three- year civil war.

15. Britain and France Appease Hitler
Hitler continued his quest for domination of Europe
In 1938 his Anschluss, political union, led to a German take over of Austria
Next he wanted control of Czechoslovakia. By signing the Munich Pact, France and England gave Hitler the Sudetenland (Western Czechoslovakia). This becomes the policy of appeasement that Hitler tricked Chamberlain into believing he had ‘peace in our time’.

17. The United States Remains Neutral
During the 1930’s the U.S. remained neutral
The Neutrality Acts of limited our role in the European involvement- taking place in Ethiopia or Spain.
We remained isolationist because we did not want another World War.

19. Hitler Plunges Europe Into War
In March 1939 Hitler broke the Munich Pact and seized all of Czech.
Then Hitler and Stalin sealed an alliance (Non-Aggression Pact) and agreed to divide up Poland when it was invaded.
Hitler never intended to keep this agreement either but it cleared the way for a German invasion of Poland

20. German Armies Roll across
Sept. 1,1939 Germany invades and conquers Poland (blitzkrieg)
Then the Low Countries fall (Belgium, Netherlands, Luxembourg)
Skirting the Maginot Line, pushing the French and English troops to the sea (Dunkirk), the Germans forced the French to surrender, June, 22
A puppet French government was set up- Vichy France

22. Britain Fights Alone Winston Churchill led Britain against Hitler
In 1941 the RAF defended England against the German air assault called the Blitz.
This showed the Germans were not invincible.

24. The United States Enters WWII
In 1940 Italy Germany and Japan signed on as allies in the Tripartite Pact
If war came, the U.S. would be fighting on two fronts now
The dilemma for FDR was to get America ready for war without violating neutrality laws.
So we passed ‘cash and carry’, the Selective Service Act, and Lend–Lease. All designed to get us ready for war.

25. June-Dec. 1941
In June 1941 Hitler breaks the agreement with Stalin and FDR sides with the Soviets
In August Churchill and FDR meet and sign the Atlantic Charter pledging support and common goals for each other
By November we were arming our merchant ships.

27. Japan Attacks the U.S. Between 1940-41 relations broke down with Japan
We froze their assets and put an embargo on oil with them
We decoded a Japanese message that an attack in the Pacific was imminent.
The attack took place on December 7, 1941 at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii. In two hours 18 naval vessels were sunk or damaged, 300 planes destroyed, 2400 Americans killed,1200 injured.

29. Dec.7, 1941 FDR asks Congress for a Declaration of War.
“A day that will live in infamy.”
Three days later Germany,Italy, and Japan declare war on the U.S. in a conflict that would test the nation’s strength and courage and reshape the world.