The Second World War

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The Second World War
Part 1
FLIGHT DECK USS ENTERPRISE
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ENTER THE DICTATORS
Several newly formed democratic countries were
failing, or in great financial difficulty.
Germany, Italy, Austria, Czechoslovakia,
Bulgaria, Romania and Greece, did not really
follow democratic traditions. This made some of
these countries ripe for the picking by would-be
dictators, looking to form a totalitarian rule.
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JOSEPH STALIN
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• Stalin took control the Soviet Union after V.I
  Lenin died in 1924.
• Where Lenin saw the U.S.S.R. as the beginning of
  a world-wide
• Communist/workers uprising, Stalin wanted to
  create a model
• Communist nation.
• Nationalized farms and factories
• Trampled on personal freedom
• Created powerful industrial nation
• Killed or imprisoned anyone who disagreed or got
  in his way
• Formed a totalitarian government.

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BENITO MUSSOLINI
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• Mussolini caused an uprising of war veterans
  against the
• government.
• He formed a new party known as the Fascists.
  They based their
• party on nationalism.
• 1921, Mussolini established the party and wins
  seats in
• parliament
• Unlike Soviets, does not try to control farms and
  factories.
• Capitalizes on Italian fear of Communism.
• Stages march on Rome, by Black Shirts.
• Is given power by the King.
• Calls himself Il Duce, The Chief.
• He takes total control of Italy, and is best
  known for making the
• trains run on time.

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ADOLF HITLER
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• Was born to an Austrian civil servant and a farm
  girl.
• Wanted to be an artist.
• Served in WW-I as a messenger. (Wounded twice,
  decorated)
• Left service, when Germany surrendered, as a
  corporal.
• Joined National Socialist German Workers Party.
  (NAZI)
• Was actually anti-socialist, anti-Communist,
  anti-Jew.
• Became leader of party, failed first attempt to
  take over
• government.
• Wrote book Mein Kamph, (My Struggle) in prison.
• Believed in racial purity, only Aryans should
  live in Germany.
• Considered he and followers to be the Master
  Race
• Believed Germans needed more living space.
• Capitalized on poverty and poor conditions to
  come to power.
• Forms a government known as the Third Reich.

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THE PATH TO WAR

• Peace settlement of World War I President
  Wilson believed that
• The world was headed for a lasting peace when the
  First World
• War ended.
• He was very wrong
• The Treaty of Versailles was signed by all
  involved in WW I
• Limited German army to 100,000 troops
• Limited amount of ships, tonnage, and size of
  cannon for German
• Navy. (No submarines at all).
• Did not allow any German Air Force or Naval
  aviation program.
• Required debt to be paid to winners of WW-I in
  gold, livestock,
• ships trains, and natural resources.

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JAPAN
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• Nationalistic Military Leaders gain control of
  the government in
• Japan. They, like Hitler, believed that their
  people needed more
• living space
• They invaded the Chinese province of Manchuria in
  1931
• When condemned by the League of Nations, they
  simply quit
• The success of the invasion put them firmly in
  control of Japan

• After seeing how little the League of Nations did
  about Japan in
• Manchuria, Hitler pulled Germany out of the
  League.
• Started military build-up after 1935
• Sent troops into the Rhineland to reclaim land
• Signed Rome-Berlin Axis pact, between Italy and
  Germany
• Italy invades and conquers Ethiopia, against the
  treaty
• Again, the rest of the world does nothing.

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Planning For War

• Lend-Lease The British were desperate for
  military equipment after
• loosing everything at Dunkirk. They had no
  money.
• The plan would lend or lease military equipment
  to any country
• fighting Hitler.
• The U.S. would receive the right to build bases
  on land belonging to
• receiving countries.
• England and Russia took part in Lend-Lease.

13
Undeclared War

• The Wolf Packs
• Germany unleashes its submarines (U-Boats)
  against shipping crossing
• the Atlantic to England and Russia.
• Groups of 15-20 subs, called Wolf-Packs
  attacked convoys.
• During April and May, 1941, they sank 1.2 million
  tons of British
• shipping.
• Roosevelt orders the U.S. Navy to protect
  outbound convoys to Iceland.
• The U.S. destroyers Greer, Kearny, and Reuben
  James are sunk by
• German submarines.
• Roosevelt orders that destroyers should sink any
  German ships they
• encounter.