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In 1919, Hitler joined the National Socialist German Workers’ Party, also known as the Nazi Party. He became a great public speaker and organizer, leading him to become the Party's leader. Adolf Hitler called himself Der Führer—“the Leader” and promised to bring Germany out of chaos.
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Taking advantage of occurring strikes and need fora a powerful leader, in 1921Mussolini had 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. (The Latin fasces—a bundle of rods tied around an ax handle—had been a symbol of unity and authority in ancient Rome.)
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Hitler's book, which was written while he was in prison, set forth the basic beliefs of Nazism that became the plan of action for the Nazi Party. Nazism is the German brand of fascism, and was based on extreme nationalism. Hitler dreamed of uniting all German-speaking people in a great German empire.
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Having a belief in more living space and a growing population 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 rich in natural resources.
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In 1932 some 6 million of the unemployed workers joined Hitler's private army and became known as storm troopers or brown shirts.
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In place of the Weimar Republic Hitler established the Third Reich, or Third German Empire which would be a “Thousand-Year Reich”—it would last for a thousand years.
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After HItler, in 1933, pulled out of the League of Nations; in 1935, he began a military buildup in violation of the Treaty of Versailles.
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By the fall of 1935, tens of thousands of Italian soldiers stood ready to advance on Ethiopia. The League spoke out against this aggressively but no action was done, and still when Ethiopia pleaded for help by the League, the League did nothing. May 1936 Ethiopia had fallen.
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A year later the military build up, Hitler sent troops into the Rhineland, a German region bordering France and Belgium that was demilitarized as a result of the Treaty of Versailles. The League did nothing to stop him.
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In 1936 he led a group of Spanish officers that rebelled against the Spanish Republic. revolts broke out in Spain and the Spanish Civil war began.
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Austria was infavor of uniting with Germany. March 12, 1938, German troops marched into Austria unopposed. A day later, Germany announced its Anschluss or union with Austria.
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Hitler invited France premier Edouard Daladier and British prime minister Naville Chamberland to meet with him in Munich. There he declared that the annexation of Sudetenland would be his "last territorial demand". Believing his word and trying to avoid war, they signed the Munich treaty granting Sudetenland to Germany.
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Stalin's goal was to create a communist model state. He replaced all privately owned farms with government owned farms, introduced a five-year plan to direct all industrialization and economy under state control, and he eliminated anyone who threatened his power. By 1939, Stalin established a totalitarian government trying to exert complete control over its citizens. In a totalitarian state, individuals have no rights, and the government suppresses all opposition.
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Hitler and Mussolini backed Franco’s forces with troops, weapons, tanks, and fighter planes. The war forged a close relationship between the German and Italian dictators, who signed a formal alliance known as the Rome-Berlin Axis. After a loss of almost 500,000 lives, Franco’s victory in 1939 established him as Spain’s fascist dictator.
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French and British troops on the Maginot Line, a system of fortications built along France’s eastern border, sat staring into Germany, waiting for something to happen. On the Siegfried Line a few miles away German troops stared back. The blitzkrieg had given way to what the Germans called the sitzkrieg (“sitting war”), and what some newspapers referred to as the phony war.
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As tensions rose over Poland which could've caused a two-front war, Stalin signed a nonaggression pact with Hitler. On August 23, 1939 fascist Germany and communist Russia now committed never to attack each other. Germany and the Soviet Union also signed a second, secret pact, agreeing to divide Poland between them.
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At the same time, German tanks raced across the Polish countryside, spreading terror and confusion. This invasion was the first test of Germany’s newest military strategy, the blitzkrieg, or lightning war. Blitzkrieg made use of advances in military technology—such as fast tanks and more powerful aircraft—to take the enemy by surprise and then quickly crush all opposition with overwhelming force.
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Because of Germany's overwhelming Blitzkrieg tactics in Poland, on September 3 France and Britain declare war with Germany. Before Britain and France mounted a defense, Soviet Union attcked Poland from the East taking some territory. Poland ventuslly ceased to exist.
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April 9, 1940, Hitler launched a surprise invasion of Denmark and Norway in order “to protect [those countries’] freedom and independence.” But in truth, Hitler planned to build bases along the coasts to strike at Great Britain.
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Hitler turned against the Netherlands, Belgium, and Luxembourg, which were overrun by the end of May. The phony war had ended.
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In the summer of 1940, the Germans began to assemble an invasion fleet along the French coast. Because its naval power could not compete with that of Britain, Germany also launched an air war at the same time. ritish accurately predicted route of Germans aircrafts and shot down hundreds of planes.
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A few days after Germany captured thousands of British and French men and vessels, Italy entered the war on the side of Germany and invaded France from the south as the Germans closed in on Paris from the north. French officers surrendered and Germans owned northern part of France.
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Germans would occupy the northern part of France, and a Nazi-controlled puppet government, headed by Marshal Philippe Pétain, would be set up at Vichy, in southern France.
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After Pearl Harbor attack, Hitler ordered submarine raids agains ships along Along America's east coast. In hopes to prevent food and war materials from reaching Great Britain and the Soviet Union; because they both depended on supplies from the sea.
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Morning after U.S. decoded Japanese message of preparing for airstrike, Japanese dive-bomber flew close towards the largest naval base in the Pacific; Pearl Harbor. More than 180 Japanese warplanes were launched by six aircraft carriers.
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Allies organized cargo ships into convoys,groups of ships traveling toogether for mutual protection. Convoys were escorted by destroyers equipped with sonar for detecting underwater submarines and and accompanied by airplanes that used radar to spot U-boats on ocean surface.
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Grman airforce did nightly bombing raids over the city.Soviet Union considered blowing up their own factories and abondon the city. Germans controlled 9/10 o fStalingrad. Soviets used the winter to their advantage, trapping Germans with surrounding tanks keaving them helpless.Later, the Germans surrendered.
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Operation Torch was the name given to the Allied invasion of French North Africa in November 1942. Operation Torch was the first time the British and Americans had jointly worked on an invasion plan together.
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One of the hardest battles the Allies encountered in Europe was fought less than 40 miles from Rome. This battle, “Bloody Anzio,” lasted four months—until the end of May 1944—and left about 25,000 Allied and 30,000 Axis casualties. During the year after Anzio, German armies continued to put up strong resistance. The effort to free Italy did not succeed until 1945, when Germany itself was close to collapse.
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Eisenhower signaled for D-Day onJune 6, 1944, the first day of the invasion. Shortly after midnight, three divisions parachuted down behind German lines. They were followed in the early morning hours by thousands upon thousands of seaborne soldiers—the largest land-sea-air battle
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December 16, German tanks drove 60 miles into Allied territory, creating a bulge in the lines that gave this desperate lastditch offensive its name, the Battle of the Bulge. The Germans had lost 120,000 troops, 600 tanks and assault guns, and 1,600 planes and had no option but to retreat.
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After Roosevelts death, due to a stroke, Harry S. Truman was elected 33rd president.
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April 25, 1945, the Soviet army had stormed Berlin panicing all the people as Soviet shells burst throught the city. Germans had no hope.
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He married Eva Braun and wrote a letter to the Germans blaming the Jews for starting the war and his generals for losing it. Next day Hitler shot himself and ordered his wife to drink poison; they were carried outside, smoked with gasoline and then burned.
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A week after Hitler's death, General Eisenhower accepted the unconditional surrender of the Third Reich. On May 8, 1945, the Allies celebrated V-E Day—Victory in Europe Day. The war in Europe was finally over.
