After WWI, the Progressives took over. They were middle class urban reformers who wanted to increase the role of the government while maintaining a capitalistic society. WWII was the largest war in human history. It involved countries, colonies, and territories around the entire world. By the end, over 70 million were dead. It lasted from 1939 to 1945. The axis powers were United States, Britain, France, U.S.S.R., and Poland. The allied powers were Japan, Italy, Germany, Hungary, and Bulgaria.
EVENTS
War in Europe - German Invasion of Poland
At 4:45 a.m., around 1.5 million German troops invade Poland all along its 1,750-mile border with German-controlled territory. Adolf Hitler claimed the massive invasion was a defensive action, but Britain and France were not convinced. On September 3, Hitler declared war on Germany, starting WWII. According to Hitler, invading Poland would bring living space for the German people. The lightening war, blitzkrieg, the first test of Germany's newest military strategy. It was a form of attack that used tank divisions supported by air attacks.
The Holocaust was the Nazi plan to kill all Jews. Why? Hitler provided it to Germany's problems. 6 million Jews were murdered in camps in Europe. 11 million of them were exterminated. Genocide is when they're purposely trying to exterminate an entire group of people. Aryans were a superior people and that the strength and purity of this master race must be preserved. Jews were dragged from their homes and sent to Concentration Camps, also known as labor camps. These camps were a set up to imprison opponents and protesters. The Nazis would kill and hurt the Jews until they'd die but it wouldn't completely satisfy them.
Anne Frank was born June 12, 1929 in Germany. Her family moved to Amsterdam in 1933 to escape from the Nazis in Germany. In 1940, the Germans invaded the Netherlands, and Anne's father began to plan for their hiding in the "secret annex". While in hiding, Anne wrote of her experiences and dreams for the future in her diary.
On December 7, 1941, the Japanese attacked the U.S. Naval base at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii, the Philippines and the British colony of Malaya simultaneously. Japan invaded the Dutch East Indies and other islands in the Pacific Ocean. By the spring of 1942, the Japanese controlled almost all of Southeast Asia and much of the western Pacific. Japan thought that their attacks on the U.S. fleet would destroy the U.S. Navy and lead the Americans to accept Japanese domination in the Pacific. The attack on Pearl Harbor had the opposite effect. It united the American people and convinced the nation that it should enter the war against Japan. Four days after Pearl Harbor, Hitler declared war in the United States. World War II became a global war.
Communist Soviet Union
Joseph Stalin created the sound communist state and waited for revolution around the world. The revolution was by workers and he had eventual rule by working class. Stalin had a state ownership of property.
Nazi Germany
Adolf Hitler had been jobless after World War I. In 1919, he joined a struggling group called he National Socialist German Workers' Party, also known as the Nazi Party. "Nazi Germany" had extreme nationalism and racism. Adolf Hitler was a forceful leader and had a private property with strong government controls. He was also an anticommunist. Hitler proved he was a powerful public speaker which helped him become the party leader so quickly.
Benito Mussolini had an extreme nationalism. He got the militaristic expansion and was a charismatic leader. He had a private property with strong government controls and was an anticommunist.