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Hitler was the leader of the National Socialist, or Nazi party. Although he later went on to become the dictator of Germany, Hitler was not actually born there (he was born in Austria). Before he was a politician, he wanted to be an artist. He applied to an art school twice and was turned down both times.
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Benito Mussolini threatened to overthrow the Italian government. They responded by making him prime minister. Mussolini was given honorary knighthood in 1923 but it was rescinded in 1940. He brought fascism to Italy.
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Stalin was a published poet as a young man. He organised bank robberies in Georgia before the revolution. His first wife died of Smallpox, and his second wife shot herself. His son Yakob was captured by Germans, and Stalin refused to trade him for a German General.
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Although they did not have permission from the government, the Japanese forcibly took over Manchuria, a region of Northeastern China.
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This was a high honor in German government. He was named by the President at that time, Paul van Hindenburg
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Italian armies invade Ethiopia. The Ethiopian emperor, Haile Selassie, appealed to the League of Nations, however they didn't do anything out of fear of war. Ethiopia soon fell to Italy's Power
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United States leaders knew that America was not prepared to enter another war.
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Militarism is the glorification of the military or belief that it is incredibly important and completely essential to a country.
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The Rhineland is a region of Western Germany. By attacking it and trying to capture it, Hitler was defying his agreement with other countries.
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Japan steps up its aggression against China. Japanese armies treat the Chinese brutally.
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The Jewish were rounded up and taken to slave labor camps, where they were forced to work on little food and water and live in terrible conditions.
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European leaders met to try and ease the crisis and stop the upcoming war.
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Stalin and HItler, though bitter enemies, vowed not to attack each other's countries and to overtake Poland together.
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Hitler had already occupied part of Czechoslavakia, and this was the final part. This was another step in his plan to take over Europe.
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In response, France and Britain declare war on Germany.
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Nazis invade Denmark, Norway, the Netherlands, Luxembourg and Belgium, taking control of all of these countries.
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German forces invade France and force it to surrender. France is now controlled by the Nazis and Axis powers.
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Royal Air Force defeats German Air Force to prevent invasion of their island.
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For the first time in history, the United States created a law enforcing a Peacetime Draft, to build up our army.
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Unsurprisingly, Hitler breaks his pact with Stalin, invading the Soviet Union. The Soviet Union then joined the British in fighting the Germans.
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The Atlantic Charter was a list of goals and objectives for our post-war world.
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Japanese invade French land in Indochina, which included Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, etc.
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Japanese air and naval forces attacked US Pearl Harbor in Hawaii, US declared war on Japan, and Germany and Italy declared war on the US
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The Phillipines fall to the Japanese. Also, the Bataan Death march occurs, in which many Philipino and American soldiers are forced to walk many, many miles. Lots of them died from brutality or exhaustion.
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Japanese Americans were forced to live in internment camps, in which the conditions were awful.
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the Battle of Midway was the turning point of the war in the Pacific.
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Russians stopped the Nazis from advancing in battle at Stalingrad and save their city, Moscow
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The Zoot Suit Riots in Los Angeles, California, were when people attacked Mexican immigrants who dressed in flashy Zoot Suits.
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British and US forces defeated German and Italian armies in North Africa.
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Mussolini was dismissed from the post of Italian Prime Minister.
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The Battle of the Bulge allowed the Allied forces to break through German forces. This was the last battle in which Germany acted on the offensive.
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Paris was recaptured by the ally forces.
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The allies invaded Normandy, France in what would be called the D-Day invasion
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In 1945, the United States forces returned to retake the Phillipines.
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Franklin D. Roosevelt died of a stroke, and Harry S. Truman took his place as President.
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Also known as Victory in Europe day, this was the day the war ended in Europe.
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The United States dropped two atomic bombs on Japanese cities with only a three day waiting period. The cities that were bombed (Hiroshima and Nagasaki) were destroyed, and many, many Japanese citizens were killed.
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Otherwise known as Victory in Japan day, this was the day Japan surrendered.
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War crimes are crimes that are especially cruel or brutal involving humans seen to be outside the accepted activities of war. The Nazi war crimes trials were held in Nuremburg, Germany and there were also trials in Manila, Phillipines and Tokyo, Japan.
