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Hitler becomes Chancellor of Germany
Hitler joined the Nazi political party to make it the most powerful political party in Germany. He succeeded and the Nazis gained a majority of seats in Germany's parliament and voted Hitler to be Chancellor. -
The Axis alliance is formed
Japan, Germany, and Italy formed the Axis powers and agreed to allow each other to pursue their empires and combat communism together. Germany and Italy also sent troops to Spain to aid Fascist General Francisco Franco in gaining power. -
Hitler takes Austria
Hitler was originally from Austria and was very popular there so he wanted to make Austria a part of his empire. He demanded the Austrian Chancellor put Nazis in power and when he refused Hitler sent his army there and imprisoned the critics. -
The Munich Conferance
With Austria taken Hitler demanded the Sudetenland. The Sudetenland was the western part of Czechoslovakia that was mostly inhabited by Germans. The Western nations decided to try and appease Hitler and convinced Czechoslovakia to give Hitler what he wanted but Hitler had to promise that he wouldn't take anymore. Shortly after the conference Hitler broke the agreement and sent his troops further into Czechoslovakia. -
Invasion of Poland
Now that Germany had control of Austria and Czechoslovakia he turned to Poland demanding the Polish Corridor which was land taken from Germany after WWI. The Western nations realized appeasing Hitler didn't work and so they vowed to protect Poland. Both Germany and Britain worked on allying with the Soviet Union. Germany and the USSR ended up forming a non-aggression pact and invaded Poland together agreeing to split it. -
Peral Harbor Bombing
To try and stop Japan from invading too much of Asia the U.S. placed economic sanctions on Japan. With the U.S. now in the way, Japan launched a surprise attack on Pearl Harbor hoping to keep America out of the war. Italy and Germany declared war on America and America joined the allies. -
Nazi Death Camps created
The genocide of Jewish people started with Hitler using Einsatzgruppen to go around killing them. realizing how inefficient this is, he created death camps and disguised them as train stations. Jewish people were brought to these death camps and were all packed into a shower-type room where Zyklon B was dropped from the ceiling killing all that were in the room from suffocation. Auschwitz was the largest death camp killing 9,000 Jewish people in a single day. -
Battle of Midway
Japan tried removing America as a dominant power in the Pacific Ocean so they could control more of Asia. japan hoped to defeat the US Pacific fleet and take Midway, which was an island in the middle of Hawaii and Japan, so Japan could launch more attacks on Pearl Harbor. -
Battle of Stalingrad
After Nazi Germany's surprise attack on Russia, they charged toward Stalingrad because they knew if they took the city named after the current leader the people would be crushed. This was a huge mistake because Stalin reinforced Stalingrad like crazy and the Nazis had to fight in the winter which they were severely underequipped for. The Nazis lost the battle and while retreating a lot of them froze to death or died of starvation. -
D-Day Invasion
The D-Day invasion is the biggest amphibious invasion in history. It consisted of American troops landing on one beach and British and Canadian troops landing on another beach. The American troops faced more death and problems than the British or Canadian troops did. 2,501 Americans died on D-Day. -
Battle of the Bulge
The Battle of the Bulge was Germany's last offensive attack on the Allies on the Western Front. Germany lost this battle and 4 months later Germany surrendered to the allies. -
Battle of Iwo Jima
Iwo Jima was an island in the Pacific and was controlled by the Japanese. American marines invaded Iwo Jima during their island-hopping campaign and took it in just over a month. -
Germany surrenders
Once Hitler realized he was going to lose he and his wife committed suicide in their bunker. The Soviet Union took Berlin and Germany surrendered to the allies. -
Atomic Bombing of Nagasaki and Hiroshima
President Harry Truman was faced with a tough decision when America's Island Hopping campaign brought them close enough to bomb Japan. Invade Japan and lose millions of American and Japanese lives, or drop an atomic bomb and save American lives and warn the Japanese of what's coming. He went with the second option and had to drop 2 because Japan just wouldn't surrender. With the dropping of these bombs, other nations rushed to create atomic bombs so now if there is a war our planet might end. -
Japan surrenders
After 2 atomic bombs were dropped, Japan surrendered to the allies and WWII was finally over.