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Japanese attack Manchuria
The Japanese were expanding and needed materials to modernize. Against the objections from Parliament, the military seized control of Manchuria which is located in Northern China and is rich with coal and iron. -
Nuremberg Laws
Laws were passed that presented the Nazi ideas and beliefs. They consisted of the discrimination of Jews and that Jews were not German at all -
Japan forms an alliance with Italy and Germany
The newly formed Axis Powers were the three most threatening countries to the Allies. Their recent success in military fields posed a great threat to another World War. -
Kristallnacht
Known as "The Night of Broken Glass", this event was the Nazi's way of discriminating against the Jewish people. Nazi soldiers broke Jewish shop windows and spread signs telling the German people to protect themselves and not shop at Jewish stores. -
Invasion of Poland
Hitler started World War Two with this invasion. He used the Blitzkrieg military strategy to surprise and overwhelm the Polish. Great Britain and France declared war against Germany but they could not send military reinforcements in time. Poland fell in three weeks. -
Soviet Union Invades East Poland
Since the Soviet Union and Germany secretly agreed to not attack each other, The Soviets occupied Eastern Poland And started their invasion on Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, and Finland. The first three fell without a problem but Finland used their harsh winter to put up a strong resistance against the Soviets. By March 1940, Finland surrendered. -
Battle of Britain
Hitler attacked Great Britain and aimed to take out the royal airforce first and then to distribute 250,000 troops on British shores. He also began to bomb the cities. London was heavily bomb to decrease the moral of the civilians. However, the Royal Air Force and Britain's military resisted and frustrated Hitler to the point of giving up on conquering Britain. -
France surrenders
The Battle of Dunkirk seemed to be a setback for the French. Then Italy joined Germany's side and declared war on the French. Italy attacked France from the south so now they were trapped. After the fall of Paris the newly appointed prime minister, Petain, surrendered. -
Lend-Lease Act
In order for the Americans to aid the Allies, they had tp find a way around their state of neutrality. The Lend-Lease act states that the U.S. can sell weapons to the Allies and the Allies can carry the goods on their own ships. -
German Invasion of Soviet Union
Hitler's blitzkrieg strategy was raoring through the Soviet Union but the Soviets tactic of the scorched earth policy began to wear down the German troops. The cities of Leningrad and Moscow refused to fall and the Germans faced many issues which led them to lose 500,000 lives and fail at taking the Soviet Union. -
Atlantic Charter
The US' Roosevelt and the Great Britains Churchill secretly met on a battleship. They made a joint declaration called the Atlantic Charter which states to uphold free trade among nations and the right for people to pick their own government. -
Pearl Harbor
The U.S. sent supples to areas that were resisting Japanese invasion. When Japan conquered these areas, the U.S. cut off oil shipments to Japan. This angered the Japanese and the needed to eliminate the U.S. pacific fleet because it was a threat to their conquest. A massive Japanes fleet of airplanes took out 18 ships and killed 2,400 Americans. The U.S. entered WW2. -
Japanese internment int the US
President Roosevelt set up a program of internment and loss of property because Japanese-Americans were considered a threat. Two thirds of the people interned were American born citizens. -
Battle Of Midway
Japan's fleet of over 150 ships was advancing on the island of Midway but more importantly, on the U.S.' whole pacific fleet. The U.S. commander, Nimitz let Yamamoto attack first and immediately countered the Japanese attack by sending airplanes to destroy the aircrafts abroad the Japanese aircraft carriers. The U.S. victory shifted the war against the Japanese. -
Allies invade Italy
The Soviets urged Britain and the US to attack Europe. They began with Italy and captured it from German and Italian troops. This destroyed Mussolini's power in Italy. -
D-Day
British, American, French, and Canadian troops stormed the beaches of Normandy. After reinforcements arrived the Allies were able to punch a hole in the impenetrable defensive German wall. The Allies liberated France on August 25, 1944. -
Germany Surrenders
General Eisenhower accepted the surrender of the Third Reich from the German military. Hitler killed himself and his wife in order to avoid "the disgrace of capitulation". -
Bombing of Hiroshima
The U.S. government spent a lot of money to build the atomic bomb. The first bomb was dropped in Hiroshima. It killed 73,000 people. -
Bombing of Nagasaki
The second atomic bomb was only dropped three days after the first. The U.S. dropped a bomb that killed about 37,500 people. This led to Japan surrendering. -
Japanese Surrender
The two atomic bombs rattled the country of Japan. This led the Japanese to surrender to General Douglas MacArthur.