WWII Leaders

Italy After WWI

• Was an Allied Power• Part of the Big Four• Leaves early because

mad they did not get more land in treaty

• Italy falls into depression

Benito Mussolini•Teacher & WWI Veteran•Began to gain power in Italy by promising land to farmers, Jobs, etc•Became Prime Minister 1923•King Victor Emmanuel III refuses to use military to stop him•Mussolini becomes a dictator •Calls himself “Il Duce”

Italy under Mussolini

• Fascism: It is all about the nation, not about the individual

• Socialist: factors of production are still privately owned but have public programs to help the poor

Adolf Hitler

•WWI veteran•Tried to organize a revolt in Munich (Putsch) in 1923•Failed-he was jailed 5 years for treason•Spent one year wrote Mein Kampf (My Struggle)

How Hitler came to Power

• Reichstag-Germany Parliament• There is a president (elected) and a Chancellor

appointed by the President• Many political parties so no party has a

majority• Hitler ran for president several times and lost

How Hitler came to Power

• President Von Hindenburg• Several weak chancellors, finally in 1933 Von

Hindenburg appoints Hitler• 1933-Reichstag Fire 6 days before election• Nazis blamed the communists and many are

arrested• Hitler has the Reichstag pass the Reichstag

Fire Decree (suspends civil liberties)

How Hitler came to Power

• The Enabling Act 1934: gave chancellor ability to run the country as he saw fit for security. gave Hitler absolute power.

• 1934-Hindenburg dies• Hitler makes himself a dictator, does not hold

an election, and becomes Der Fuhrer.

Did he come to Power Legally???

How do you know its Fascism?

• Salute or greeting

• Parades for unity

• Symbol

• Leader often wears military uniform

Spain & Francisco Franco

• Neutral WWI

• 1936 Civil War

• Franco is a fascist leader funded by Hitler and Mussolini

• Neutral in WWII because of civil war

Guernica by Pablo Picasso

Japan

• Had been an Allied Power during WWI

• Part of Big Five left early• Wanted to gain an

empire and had become strongest Asian power in the early 1900s

• Emperor Hirohito

Rape of Nanking

• Dec. 1937-Japan invades Nanking (former capital of China) six week period

• 20,000-80,000 women and children raped

• Hundreds of thousands massacred

Soviet Union• Had been an Allied Power

during WWI but left early

• After Bolshevik Revolution and a civil war Vladimir Lenin takes power

• Communist: factors of production are controlled by government

• Lenin dies 1924

Soviet Union

• Two men try to take power-Trotsky and Stalin

• Stalin falsely accuses Trotsky of a crime and exiles him to Mexico where he has him ice picked to death

• Stalin dictator of Soviet Union until 1953

Mussolini & Hitler

• 1935: Mussolini wants to expand into Austria

• Hitler has interest in same land

• Hitler allies with Italy

Japan & Germany

• 1936: Japan & Germany both share a fear of the Soviet Union

• Anti-Comintern Pact: Hitler forms an alliance with Japan

• Agree to help each other fight the Soviets if need arose

Germany & Soviet Union

• 1939: Hitler forms an alliance with the Soviet Union secretly behind Japan’s back

• Both had lost land to Poland

Rome-Berlin-Tokyo Axis Pact

• 1939: Italy, Germany, and Japan are an alliance

• This is why they become known as the Axis Powers

Hitler Starts to Invade

In what order would you take over the countries if you were Germany?

1. Rhineland2. Austria3. Sudetenland4. Czechoslovakia

What the Heck is the rest of Europe doing???

• Appeasement: France and Great Britain allow Hitler to take back what was Germany before the Treaty of Versailles because they don’t want another war.

• Thought he would stop…

Does He?

5. Poland: Sept. 1, 1939Officially starts WWII!!!!

Blitzkrieg: lightning warfare, fast and rapid surprise attacks

Who has to step in?Britain & France Sept 3,

1939

Where is #6?

• France: declares war Sept 3, 1939 but enters the Phoney War: an 8 month period of little to no military engagement

• Germans held at the Siegfried line

• France and British at the Maginot line

France

• May 1940: Battle of France/Fall of France

• France signs armistice June 1940

• France is split into German Occupied Zone and Vichy France or Free France

France

• Petain: leader France after fall, semi-fascist and collaborates with Germans

• Charles DeGaulle: Leader of France resistance movement or Free French

Battle of Britain

• After fall of France, Hitler thought WWII was over & that UK would fall quickly

• Winston Churchill: Prime Minster UK

Battle of Britain

• Battle of Britain: air campaign RAF vs. Luftwaffe July 1940-Oct./Dec. 1940

• British refuse to surrender

• Bombing of London• Barrage Balloons