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After Vladimir Lenin died in 1924, Joseph Stalin used his bureaucratic position as General Secretary of the Communist Party to form alliances, his consolidation of power resulted in a totalitarian regime that executed the rapid, brutal transformation of the USSR (industrialization, collectivization), making it a formidable world power and a key ideological player on the world stage leading up to WWII. -
A planned mass demonstration where Benito Mussolini's Fascist paramilitary, the Blackshirts, converged on Rome. The Italian King, Victor Emmanuel III, refused to declare martial law and instead invited Mussolini to form a new government as Prime Minister. A seizure of power under the threat of force, marked the beginning of the Fascist regime. It established Mussolini as the world's first Fascist dictator, providing an early blueprint for authoritarian leaders like Hitler. -
an autobiographical and political manifest written by Adolf Hitler while imprisoned following the failed Beer Hall Putsch. It contains his ideological beliefs and future plans for Germany. It served as the blueprint for the Nazi Party's entire ideology and policy, clearly outlining his racist worldview, virulent antisemitism, and the aggressive foreign policy goal of achieving Lebensraum in Eastern Europe, which directly led to WWII. -
A centralized command-economy policy launched by Stalin to rapidly industrialize the Soviet Union and forcibly collectivize agriculture, setting impossible production quotas for heavy industry. The purpose was to transform the USSR from a mostly agrarian society into an industrial and military superpower in just a few years, making it self-sufficient. This immense push achieved massive growth but at the cost of millions of lives and immense human suffering -
The Imperial Japanese Army staged the Mukden Incident to justify a full-scale invasion of Manchuria, the northeastern province of China. Japan subsequently established the puppet state of Manchukuo.The invasion was motivated by Japan's desperate need for natural resources to fuel its industry and military expansion, particularly during the Great Depression. It was the first major challenge to the post-WWI order and demonstrated the failure of the League of Nations to stop aggression. -
A human-made famine in Soviet Ukraine that killed millions of peasants. It was caused directly by Stalin's policies of forced collectivization and the forcible requisitioning of all grain from Ukrainian farmers.Its primary purpose was to crush Ukrainian nationalism and resistance to communist rule, secure absolute state control over agriculture, and eliminate a perceived threat to Stalin’s authority, cementing his absolute power. -
After the Nazi Party became the largest in the German parliament President Paul von Hindenburg was persuaded to appoint Adolf Hitler as the Chancellor of Germany. This was the crucial legal and political step in the Nazi seizure of power. It allowed Hitler to quickly pass emergency decrees hat dismantled the German democracy, suspended civil rights, and established his dictatorship, transforming Germany into a militarized Nazi state. -
A political purge where Hitler and the SS murdered the leadership of the SA he Nazi Party's original paramilitary force including its chief Ernst Röhm, and other conservative critics.The primary purpose was to consolidate Hitler's absolute control by eliminating the SA, which had become a rival political and military threat. It secured the loyalty of the German Army to Hitler and cemented the power of the SS. -
Two race laws approved by the Nazi Party The Reich Citizenship Law, which stripped Jews of German citizenship The Law for the Protection of German Blood and German Honour, which outlawed marriage or sexual relations between Jews and "Germans." These laws provided the first systematic, legal framework for racial discrimination and segregation in Germany. They were a crucial isolation and dehumanization of the Jewish population, setting the bureaucratic and racial stage for the Holocaust. -
Fascist Italy under Mussolini invaded the independent African nation of Ethiopia using modern weapons, aircraft, and chemical gas against a poorly equipped defense force.It was motivated by Mussolini's to expand the Italian empire gain resources.It demonstrated the utter ineffectiveness of the League of Nations, which imposed weak sanctions. This failure encouraged Hitler and Japan that they could pursue expansionist policies without serious consequence. -
A brutal conflict in Spain between the democratically elected Republicans and the rebellious Nationalists led by General Francisco Franco. The Nationalists ultimately won, establishing a dictatorship. It served as a dress rehearsal for World War II. Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy actively intervened on the side of the Nationalists, testing new weapons bombing of and military tactics. The war deepened the ideological divide in Europe and brought Germany and Italy closer together. -
A campaign of political repression and mass execution orchestrated by Stalin against enemies, including Communist Party members, military officers, and intellectuals. Gulags were the system of Soviet forced-labor camps where millions of victims were imprisoned and often died.The purpose was to eliminate all real and potential opposition to Stalin's absolute rule and ensure total personal loyalty. The purge severely depleted the Soviet military leadership just before WWII began. -
The systematic mass murder, torture, and rape of hundreds of thousands of Chinese civilians and disarmed soldiers by the Imperial Japanese Army after the capture of the city of Nanjing during the Second Sino Japanese War. It showcased the extreme brutality and war crimes committed by the Japanese military, demonstrating a complete disregard for international law and fueling the already massive conflict between China and Japan. -
it was a coordinated pogrom throughout Nazi Germany. Nazi paramilitaries and civilians burned over 1,400 synagogues, vandalized thousands of Jewish businesses and homes, and arrested approximately 30,000 Jewish men, sending them to concentration camps. It marked a escalation from discrimination to state sponsored violence and mass incarceration. It demonstrated to the world that the Nazi would pursue the complete, violent removal of Jews from society, making it a key prelude to the Holocaust. -
German forces invaded Poland using the new tactic of Blitzkrieg. The invasion was launched one week after Germany and the Soviet Union secretly signed the Pact agreeing to partition Poland.This event is universally recognized as the start of World War II in Europe. The invasion led Britain and France to honor their treaty obligations and declare war on Germany, transforming the regional conflict into a major global war. -
A surprise air attack by the Imperial Japanese Navy on the US naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, severely damaging the US Pacific Fleet and killing over 2,400 Americans.This action immediately led to the United States declaring war on Japan and formally entering World War II. It unified the previously isolationist American public behind the war effort, transforming the conflicts in Europe and Asia war and guaranteeing the eventual involvement of America's massive industrial capacity.