1. Leading up to WWII

2. Germany Economic Problems Printed $ during WWI (not increase taxes)
Inflation
Print more after war to pay reparations
Wheelbarrows full of $ for bread

3. 1920s US lends $200 million to Germany Helped slow down inflation
1920’s – US economy helped world
1929 – Stock market crashed

4. Great Depression US demands payments of world loans
Demand for European goods dropped
World trade dropped by 65%
Effects felt worldwide

5. Rise of Fascism Loyalty to state and obedience to its leader
Extreme nationalism
Nations must struggle – Peaceful states were doomed to be conquered
Loyalty to an authoritarian leader
Similar to communism (not seeking classless society)

6. Benito Mussolini Founded Fascist Party in 1919
Oct – 30,000 fascists marched on Rome
King gave power to Mussolini

7. Adolf Hitler Joined small right-wing political group
Nationalist Socialist German Workers’ Party – Nazi Party
1923 – Jail for trying to seize power
Mein Kampf

8. Adolf Hitler 1924 – Revived Nazi party 1933 – Hitler became Chancellor
Anti-Semitism -Hatred of Jews (Jewish= 1% of pop)

9. Japan Militarists  Extreme nationalists
Wanted to take over China  Raw materials and markets
Seized Manchuria
Withdrew from League of Nations
1937 – Japan invades China

10. Italy 1935 - Mussolini attacks Ethiopia Used Suez Canal
GB just lets them

11. Hitler – Not obeying Versailles
1935 – Builds up army
1936 – Germans move into Rhineland
Weak response by British and French
Oct – Germany, Italy, Japan make up Axis powers
March 1938 – Hitler annexes Austria
Sep – Hitler demanded Sudentland (regions in Czech)
Czechs refuse and ask France for help

12. Munich Conference Sep 29th, 1938
Preserve peace by giving into Hitler  Allow them to take Sudentland
But respect Czech border
Less than 6 months  Hitler takes Czech
Demanded ports in Poland
Mussolini takes Albania

13. Nonaggression Pact
Aug 23, 1939 – Nazis and Soviets sign nonaggression pact
Sep 1 Germans to attack Poland without Russian interference
Sep 3 Britain and France declared war on Germany

14. War In Europe

15. Nonaggression Pact (cont’d)
Divide Poland
USSR to take Finland, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia
Taking Finland was more difficult
March 1940 Russians win Finland

16. Blitzkrieg
“Lightning War”
Fast moving tanks, planes, infantry

17. Chronology
April 9, ’40 – Hitler surprise invasion of Norway and Denmark
May ’40 – sweep through Netherlands, Belgium, Luxemburg
May ’40 – Germans trapped Allies in northern France
June 14 – Germans had taken Paris
June 22 – France surrendered

18. The Battle of Britain – Summer ’40-May ’41
Winston Churchill – British Prime Minister
Hitler wanted to wipe out Royal Air Force, then land troops in England
Night Bombing
GB radar, Enigma
GB Victory

19. Hitler turns to Mediterranean and Russia
Attacked N. Africa (Mussolini  Egypt)
British fight back in Egypt – Hitler comes to help
Erwin Rommel  German general “Desert Fox”

20. Balkans - 1941 Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary join Axis
Hitler invades Greece and Yugoslovia
This allows invasion of USSR – June 22, 1941
Leningrad hit hard, but didn’t surrender
Turned to Moscow – “No Retreat” in winter

21. US Neutrality Sep 1939 – Allies could buy American arms
Atlantic Charter – Free trade among nations
Sep – U-boat fired on US destroyer