Download The build up to WWII

The build up to WWII
Do you remember the problems
with the Treaty of Versailles?
The other guys had very different ideas about
the future of Europe…
– Set new boundaries - Established nine new nations,
carved ottoman empire into four areas (Iraq, Syria,
Lebanon, and Palestine) given to GB and France as
colonies...
– Demilitarizing Germany – decreased German military
and gave colonies to France
– Reparations: Germany must pay war damages
– War-guilt clause: forced Germany to acknowledge that
it alone was responsible for WWI
Flaws of Treaty lead to WWII…
• Germany is humiliated and mad…
• Russia felt ignored and determined to
regain power
• Ignored claims of colonized people for
self-determination
Stalin seizes control of the Soviet Union
• Joseph Stalin wanted to create
a model Communist state
– To do so he began an agricultural
and industrial restructuring that
trampled the rights of his people.
– Great Purge 1934-1938:
responsible for deaths of 8 to 13
million people, millions more died in
famines caused by restructuring
– Established totalitarian
government – one that maintains
complete control over citizens.
Mussolini rises to
power in Italy
• Benito Mussolini (il duce) established
a fascist government – strong
centralized government headed by a
powerful dictator
– Fascism rooted in nationalism, dreams
of Italy as great world power!
– Created a very efficient state by
crushing all opposition through
totalitarian rule
– New Government formed by 1922
Nazis take over Germany
• Rises to power after WWI as he
becomes führer of National
Socialist German Workers’ Party
(Nazis)
• Nazism based on extreme
Nationalism – Dreams of Great
German Empire which would be
ruled by German speaking
Aryans
• Great Depression helps Hitler rise
to power, becomes chancellor
(prime minister) in 1933
– Quickly dismantles democratic
Weimer Republic and
establishes Third Reich
Holocaust
• In 1935 Nuremberg Laws, 1935, strip Jews of civil
rights and property, Jews forced to wear bright
yellow star
• Kristallnacht, Nov. 9, 1938
• Jews flee Germany
– 40,000 to France, Britain admits 500 refugees a week
– unwilling to admit more….
– 60,000 refugees fled to US, but immigration laws not
relaxed
• St Louis – German luxury liner sent away despite 900 of 943
passengers had landing permits, ¼ of passengers survived
the holocaust.
• “Final Solution” adopted in 1939 - Genocide
Militarists Gain Control in Japan
• Military Leaders beginning gaining
control and share Hitler’s dream of more
“living space” for their growing
population.
• Launched surprise invasion of Manchuria
province in China, 1931
• League of Nations condemns Japan,
Japan quits the League
• Militarists firmly in control after
successful invasion.
America’s Position?
• Isolationists vs Interventionists…