World War II“Never before have we had so little time to do so much.” – President Franklin D.
Roosevelt
Lead Up To WWII
What was the result of WWI?Who suffered during the Depression?
Fascism, Militarism, Communism
FascismIntense nationalism, private corporations with government
controls
MilitarismGovernment based on the idea of a strong military
CommunismCommon ownership (by the government) of the means of
production to settle class disputes
FascismBenito Mussolini & Italy
Adolf Hitler & Nazi Germany
“Il Duce”Fascism in Italy
Mussolini would rise to power in 1922 with the “Black Shirts” (would influence Hitler immensely.)
In 1935, Italy invaded Ethiopia. Mussolini desired an industrial, empirical, Italy that resembled the Empire of Rome
(“Spazio vitale”)
“Fasces” of Ancient RomeHQ of Mussolini
The Leader
“Das Führer”Fascism in Germany
After WWI:Germany owed $33 billion in war reparations. Yearly
installments of five billion marks were to be paid.
Inflation & the Depression made this impossible...
The Guide
“Das Führer”"The mark, which had traded at about 4 to the dollar before the war, now shot up to 600,000 to the dollar. By summer (of 1920), the exchange rate was 630 billion marks to the
dollar and inflation was so rampant that prices were doubling daily, sometimes hourly. People needed
wheelbarrows or baby buggies to carry enough paper money to conduct even the simplest transactions. Sending a letter cost 10 billion marks. A streetcar ride that had cost 1
mark in 1914 now cost 15 billion. Pensions became worthless. People found that savings carefully built up over a lifetime wouldn't buy a cup of coffee. Eventually, at the peak of the madness, prices rose to 1,422,900,000,000 times
their levels of ten years earlier."
The Guide
Hitler SpeechMini Bio - Adolf Hitler
“Das Führer”Fascism in Germany
The National Socialist Party (Nazis) played off German betrayal following WWI. Dismantled the Weimar Republic and seized
power in 1933.
Constructed a one party system & stripped Jews of citizenship. Retracted promises made in the Treaty of Versailles.
(Re-arming of the military & promise of “lebensraum”)
The Guide
Militarism in the Empire of Japan
Emperor Showa Hirohito Prime Minister Hideki Tojo
Tojo BioHirohito Bio
Land of the Rising Sun
Ideas of militarism in Japan grew out of WWI. Young military leaders sought to make Japan a world
power.
China was occupied with civil war between Chiang Kai-shek and Mao Zedong.
Invaded Manchuria in 1931. Rape of Nanking in 1937.
CommunismJosef Stalin & the USSR
The Soviet UnionAfter the Russian Revolution in 1917, Lenin established a
Communist state in the USSR.
After the death of Lenin, Stalin would take control of the USSR. Through his Five Year Plans and Purges, Stalin made the USSR
the third most industrious nation on earth.
Stalin Bio
Alliances During World War IIAllied PowersGreat Britain
USSRUnited States
Axis PowersGermany
ItalyJapan
Consider the political ideologies of the Democratic west and the
Communist East…Why did alliances work out this way?
Winston Churchill (L), FDR (C), Josef Stalin (R)
Question…
Looking Ahead…