Objective: To examine the origins of WWII.

Adolf Hitler Benito Mussolini

Benito Mussolini Adolf Hitler

Fascism in Europe

• German

• Formed a totalitarian

government

• Invaded

Ethiopia in

1935.

• Italian

• Anger over the

Versailles treaty

• Blamed the Jews

for Germany’s

problems.

• Believed

Germans were

a superior

“Aryan” race.

• Used economic unrest and fears

of communism to gain support.

• Used nationalism to

gain support.

- FDR announced the

Good Neighbor Policy in

an attempt to improve U.S.

relations with Latin

America.

Depression Diplomacy

- Isolationists passed a

series of Neutrality Acts in

the 1930’s.

• warned U.S. citizens not

to travel on ships of

countries at war.

- These laws….

• banned arms sales or

loans to countries at war.

• Fascist dictator Benito

Mussolini seized power in

Italy in 1922.

Fascists in Italy

Benito Mussolini, 1936

- He controlled the press and

banned criticism of the

government.

- All political parties, except

the Fascist party, were

outlawed.

Mussolini’s policies:

Mussolini and Fascism (4:14)

* Promising Italians

greatness, Mussolini

invaded and

conquered Ethiopia

in 1935.

Hailie Selassie,

Emperor of Ethiopia

* The League of

Nations failed to help

Ethiopia.

ITALIAN INVASION OF

ETHIOPIA 1935 (3:59)

· In 1933, Hitler became

chancellor, or head of the

German government.

Nazi Germany

· Adolf Hitler and his Nazi party

preached racial and religious

hatred.

· Hitler claimed that Germans

were a part of a superior

“Aryan” race, and that Jews

were to blame for Germany’s

troubles.

Rise of the Nazis (4:15)

"If I can send the flower of the German

nation into the hell of war without the

smallest pity for the spilling of precious

German blood, then surely I have the

right to remove millions of an inferior

race that breeds like vermin."

- Adolf Hitler

swastika, Nazi party symbol

- He created a totalitarian state, in which the Nazi’s

controlled every aspect of German society.

- Hitler built up his armed forces, in violation of the Versailles

Treaty.

- Jews had their German citizenship taken away, they were

forbidden from using public facilities, and they were removed

from most types of work.

- Citizens must always obey the government, and the

government could not be criticized.

Hitler’s policies:

- Today his plan is referred to as the Holocaust.

- Thousands of Jews were sent to concentration camps.

- Eventually, Hitler planned on killing all of Europe’s Jews in

a plan he called the Final Solution.

Inside the Vaults - The Nuremberg Laws (3:47)

Soviet Union

• Millions of farmers that resisted were either killed or sent to labor camps.

• Farmers were forced to

give up their land and join

collective farms.

• Soviet leader Joseph Stalin

ordered his people to produce

more goods in order to

strengthen the country in

preparation for war.

Joseph Stalin (3:14)

Prisoners work at Belbaltlag, a Gulag camp for building the

White Sea-Baltic Sea Canal .

In the Stalin era, a person could be sent to the Gulag for up to

ten years for such petty theft.

In the Stalin era, a person who arrived late to work three times

could be sent to the Gulag for three years.

In the Stalin era, many were sent to the Gulag for up to 25

years for telling an innocent joke about a Communist Party

official.

Have you ever been late to work?

Have you ever told a joke about a government

official?

If your family was starving, would you take a few

potatoes left in a field after harvest?

Japan

• In 1931, Japan seized Manchuria, China, for its valuable coal and iron.

• Japan felt that they had the right to start an overseas empire, just as European countries such as Britain and France had.

Japanese troops marching in Manchuria, China (1931)

• The League of Nations failed to help China.

• In 1937, Japan began an all out attack on China, eventually

conquering Korea and French Indo-China as well.

· 1938 –

Germany

annexed Austria.

War in Europe

· 1936 – German

troops move into

the Rhineland,

bordering France

and Belgium.

* Both of these

actions violated

the Versailles

Treaty.

· 1938 – Germany claimed the Sudetenland, a part of

Czechoslovakia.

* Britain and France had signed treaties promising to protect

Czechoslovakia.

A Sudetenland woman weeps tears of joy when German

troops enter the territory.

Before signing the Munich agreement. From left to right:

Chamberlain, Daladier, Hitler, Mussolini, Ciano

· Sept. 1938 – At the Munich Conference, Hitler invited the

leaders of Britain and France to Germany and assured them

that he wanted no more territory.

* Britain and France gave into Germany hoping that it would

avoid warfare. This was known as appeasement.

Soviet poster of the 1930's by Kukryniksy on the Munich agreement.

* However, in 1939,

Germany invaded the rest

of Czechoslovakia anyway!

Appeasement and

Czechoslovakia (8:04)

Image courtesy of the Daily Californian

Stalin and Hitler

•1939 – In the Nazi-Soviet Pact, Hitler and Stalin agreed not to attack one another.

• Stalin and Hitler also agreed to divide Poland and Eastern

Europe amongst themselves.

* Two days

later, Britain

and France

declared war

on Germany.

• September 1, 1939 – Germany invaded Poland without

having to fear a Soviet attack.

• Meanwhile, the U.S. prepared for war by setting up the first

ever peacetime draft in U.S. history.

American Neutrality

• FDR changed the Neutrality Acts through a “cash and carry” plan, in which the U.S. sold arms to the Allies, but they had to carry them away on their own ships.

Arsenal of Democracy

• Lend-Lease Act (1941) – allowed sales or loans to “any

country whose defense the President deems vital to the

defense of the U.S.”

Warsaw 1945: Willys jeep

used by Polish Army as

part of US Lend-Lease

program.

• FDR called on all Americans to defend the “Four Freedoms” (freedom of speech, freedom of worship, freedom from want, and freedom from fear)

The Four Freedoms speech and transcript, January 6, 1941

* 1941 – Germany

launched a surprise attack

on the Soviet Union. The

U.S. decided to extend

Lend-Lease aid to the

Soviets as well.

Atlantic Charter – set up by FDR and British Prime Minister

Winston Churchill in 1941, establishing the goals for the end

of the war:

• to seek no territorial gain

from the war

• to support all peoples to

choose their own form of

government

• called for a “permanent

system of general security”,

such as the League of Nations