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Benito Mussolini's total rule of Italy.
After high unemplyment rates and inflation caused disrest among the lower classes Mussolini used powerful speeches to gain public support. He then took control and established a totalitarian (Fascism) government. This government destroyed all political opponents and used the resulting unity to greatly organize the countries public systems. -
Joseph Stalins and his communist rule.
Stalin came to power after Lenin died in 1924. He used his power to tranform the country into a communist state. In doing so, he took the private property of the people and combined them to create huge government owned businesses. This system worked to increase the production and industry of the Soviet Union, but it did so at the cost of the rights and lives of the people. -
The Publication of Hitler's Mein Kampf
Hitler used his book to not only spread his ideas, but also to raise money for his cause. His book illustrated the 3 core values he and his followers strived toward. The first was an extreme nationalist government led by the Nazis. The second and third had to do with the German people being superior to other races, and deserving more land. -
Japanese invasion of Manchuria
The Japan military was looking to gain power and expand the Japanese rule. They launched a surprise attack on China and took over a very large area for themselves. The success of this mission led to the Japanese military leaders gaining control of Japan. The League of Nations did nothing to stop this act of aggression. -
Stoormtroppers
After the depression left many men out of work, they turned to Hitler to help them. Mnay of these men became Hitlers personal private army. -
Adolf Hitler's rise to power.
Hiter rose to power in much the same way that the other dictators (such as Mussolini) did. He used powerful speaking and promises of change to win over the countries heart. He started by joining the struggling Nazi party and quickly became the leader. Then, under his leadership, the Nazi party gained power. -
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Third Reich
Once Hitler had taken down the original German government, he established the Third Reich, also known as the Third German Empire. It was abolished when the Nazis lost the war. -
Hitler's military build-up in Germany
Hitler did not stop at ruling Germany, he wanted to rule the world. So in 1935 he began to build up the German military, contrary to the rules set out in the Treaty of Versailles. -
Hitler invades the Rhineland
With his new army, Hitler began to expand his "German Empire." He started with Rhineland and quickly realized that the League of Nations would do nothing to stop him. Before long he would begin to take over as much land as he could. -
Mussolini's invasion of Ethiopia
Mussolini also wished to expand his "Roman Empire." In 1935 he gathered troops in Ethiopia to take over the country. Again the League of Nations did almost nothing, even after the Ethiopian officials begged for help. In 1936 Ethiopia fell into Mussolini's hands. -
Hitler's Anschluss to Austria
The majority of the small country of Austria was of German descent, and they wanted a 'Anschluss' or union with Germany. Hitler invaded Austria in 1938 and the United Nations again failed to stop him. -
Munich Agreement
Hitler wanted to take over the nearby area of Sudetenland in Czechoslovakia. France and Great Britain were just about to declare war on Germany when Hitler called them to a meeting. He told them that this land was the last he was going to try to take over. Eager to avoid war, they signed the Sudetenland over to Hitler without a fight. -
Francisco Franco comes to power in Spain.
Francisco Franco led a group of army officers to rebel against the Spanish Republic causeing a civil war in Spain. 3,000 Americans came to help fight against the fashist takeover. However, this was not enough to stop Francisco and he took control in 1939. -
Rome-Berlin Axis alliance formed.
Both Hitler and Mussolini helped Francisco in the Spainish Civil war. The reasult was a close partnership between Nazi gremany and The Roman Empire. In 1939 they formed the Rome-Berlin Axis. -
Marshal Philippe Petain
Once Germany had taken over France, they began to set up a puppet government in the southern half. Marshal Philippe Petain was placed in charge of it. -
Nonaggression pact
Once again Hitler's quest for power took him to want to take Poland over by force. This time, however, war seemed unavoidable. It seemed that the Soviet Union would surely attack along with France and Great Britan. Germany would have no choice but to leave poland alone. Yet to everyones surprise, Hitler and Stalin agreed to a Nonaggression Pact. They agreed to leave each other alone, leaving Hitler free to take over Poland. Secretly Hitler and Stalin had agreed to split Poland between each other -
Blitzkrieg
On his attack on Poland, Hitler planned to try a new attack method. This new strategy used surprise and power to completly disarm and stun the invaded country. As a result of Polands fall, Britain and France declared war on Germany. -
Britain and France declare war on Germany
After Hitlers invasion of Poland, the Allies decided that they had had enough. Only two days after the German takeover, Great Britain and France declared war on Germany. However, Poland had fallen to Germany long before the Allies had a chance to react. -
Phony war
For a few months after Poland was taken over the Allied and Axis troops were at a standstill. Both waited for the other side to make the first move. It became known as the Phony War. Before long, Hitler broke the silence by attacking and annexing the nearby countries. -
Hitler's invasion of Denmark and Norway
Hitler's ultimate goal was the takeover of the entire European Continent, so it wasn't a surprise when he turned to Denmark and Norway as his next targets. He planned to use these countries as bases for his attack against Britain. -
Hitler's invasion of the Netherlands
Another country to fall into the Nazis hands. Taken after Hitlers attack on Denmark and Norway. -
Germany and Italy's invasion of France
The Nazi troops began to advance on France from the north, completely bypassing French defence. The British and French troops were caught unprepared and fled across the Channel. Italy took some of its first major steps in the war by invading France from the south thereby helping Germany take over. -
The Battle of Britain
Hitler gathered his troops along the French coast in order to attack Great Britain. At the same time he sent out a large fleet of aircraft to continually bomb London. For two months this went on until the RAF began to use new technology called radar. With it they could easily shoot down German aircraft. Hitler called off the invasion on Britain shortly after. -
Pearl Harbor attack
Japan and America had already had a strained relationship. So when Japan attacked Hawaii, bombing its largest naval base in the Pacific, America declared war very shortly afterward. The attack took thousands of lives, and spurred the U.S. into action against Japan. It wasn't long until we were at war with Germany as well. -
Battle of the Atlantic
Britain could only hold out against Germany with the help of her Allies across the Atlantic ocean. Hitler, seeing a way to cripple Britain into submission, began to attack Allied ships on the Atlantic with submarines. To combat this, the Allies developed the U.S. convoy system. -
Battle of Stalingrad
In the meantime Hitler was also busy invading the Soviet Union. As his troops drew near to Stalingrad, winter slowly set in. By the time they had taken over most of the city it had grown bitterly cold. The Soviet army took advantage of their delemma and closed them inside. Slowly the German troops began to starve and freeze to death. On January 31, 1943 the German commander surrendered, quickly followed by his troops. -
Operation Torch
Stalin was loseing many troops in the Battle of Stalingrad and wanted the other Allied powers to begin attacking Germany on the western side. In this way Stalin hoped to take the pressure off of the Soviet Union. The Allies did not feel that they could afford to fight Hitler on his own terf, so in 1942 they launched Operation Torch. This operation went after Axis controlled areas in North Africa. Once these areas had been taken, the American morale soared. -
Unconditional surrender
Roosevelt and Churchill met to talk about their strategies in the coming battles. One topic they discussed was their terms of surrender if they won. They agreed that the Axis powers would have to undergo Unconditional surrender, or complete submission to the rules laid out by the Winning Allied side. -
U.S. convoy system
In response to the German wolf packs, the U.S. developed a convoy system to transport war goods to Britain. Each cargo ship was protected by other cargo ships and destroyers equiped with sonar. Airplanes also helped to escort the ships to Britain. Soon the Atlantic War was in the hands of the Allies. -
Bloody Anzio
As Mussolini began his fall from power in 1944, Hitler attempted to stop the Allied powers from taking over Italy. The resulting battle, also known as 'Bloody Anzio' lasted four months and caused many casualties on both sides. Even after the battle, Axis powers still fought hard. this finally stoped when Nazi Germany was over thrown. -
D-Day
For a long time the Allies had a plan in the works. A large scale attack on German occupied France intending to free it from Nazi rule. When the day finally came, an army of 3 million troops began their invasion of France. By September, the Allies had succeeded in completely freeing France from Germany. -
The Battle of the Bulge
The Allies began to advance onto German soil. Hitler grew desperate and sent his troops onto a bold mission to cut off supply lines. The resulting battle lasted only a month, but that was enough time to weaken the remaining Nazi troops into retreating. The battle left the Nazi army irreparable. Too many troops had been lost and it was a certain win for the Allies. -
Harry S. Truman
President Roosevlt never got to see his actions come to fruition. He died of a stroke while posing for a portrait in Warm Springs, Georgia on April 12. Later that day Harry S. Truman became the President of the United States in his place. -
Death of Hitler
One day before his death he choose to marry his longtime partner Eva Braun. Right afterward he wrote a letter to the German people as a final goodbye. The next day, April 30, 1945 he shot himself in the head while his wife swallowed poison. The bodies were burned outside per request. -
V-E Day
Shortly after Hitler's death, Nazi Germany surrendered. On May 8th, the people celebrated the news and called it 'Victory in Europe Day.' Hitler was finally defeated.
