Dictators Threaten World Peace

Remember…• The Treaty of Versailles caused anger and

resentment among Germany– Saw nothing fair in being blamed for war– Saw nothing fair in losing oversea colonies

and border territories• The Weimer Republic (democracy set up

in Germany after WWI) could not handle problems– Tradition of democracy was weak– People turned to totalitarian leaders to quickly

solve political and economic problems

Joseph Stalin

• Leader of the Soviet Union• Focused on creating model communist state• Established a totalitarian government that

maintained complete control over its citizens• Abolished all privately owned farms • Eliminated anyone who threatened his power • Made agreement in 1939 to NOT go to war

against Germany

Benito Mussolini• Established a totalitarian gov’t in Italy• Powerful speaker• Established the Fascist Party

– Stressed nationalism and placed interests of the state over individuals

Mussolini’s Actions

• Invades Ethiopia (1935) – and League of Nations is weak– LoN puts on an economic boycott – which

turns out to be ineffective• Ethiopia falls by 1936 – League does

nothing• “It is us today. It will be you tomorrow.”

– Haile Selassie, ousted Ethiopian emperor

Adolf Hitler

• Nazism = German brand of fascism– Based on extreme nationalism, racial

purification, national expansionism• Established the Third Reich, or Third German Empire

Hitler’s Actions• Pulls out of League of Nations in 1933 • 1935 – begins military build-up (in violation

of Treaty of Versailles)• Unified Austria and Germany (easy to do

since many Germans lived in Austria)– The World does nothing

• Took the Sudetenland (German-speaking area of Western Czechoslovakia)– France and Britain agree to his demands to

avoid war – this is APPEASEMENT!!!

Nonaggression Pact

• Hitler and Stalin (Soviet Union) agree to never attack each other on Aug. 23, 1939

• Secretly, Hitler and Stalin also agreed to divide Poland between them

• Hitler now believed he would not face a 2-front war like WWI

Japanese Militarists

• Believed in the need for more living space for a growing population

• Seized control of Manchuria in 1931• League of Nations set in – condemns

Japan – Japan quits the LoN• Manchurian invasion puts militarists in

control of Japan’s govt

Francisco Franco:Army leader who rebelled against Spanish republic

• Spanish civil war begin in 1936• Americans volunteered to fight – this was the

place to stop fascism• Limited aid = not enough strength to stop

fascism• Franco was backed by Mussolini and Hitler – as

well as Soviet Union• This war brought the German and Italian

dictators close together• Franco wins (1939)

Invasion of Poland

• September 1, 1939• Blitzkrieg – lightening war (fast tanks and

powerful aircraft)• This invasion forced Great Britain and

France to declare war on Germany since they had an alliance with Poland

Kellogg-Briand Pact

• 1928 – U.S. signs the Kellogg-Briand Pact– Treaty signed by 62 countries– Declared that war would not be used “as an

instrument of national policy”– No plan to deal with nations who broke pledge

• U.S. public wants to remain isolationist

How does the U.S. stay out of war but still help its “friends”?

Neutrality Acts - 1935

–Idea: to keep U.S. out of war–Outlawed the selling of arms or

loans to nations at war – including civil war

Cash and Carry Provision

• 1939: FDR persuades Congress to pass this – allowed warring nations to buy U.S. weapons as long as they paid cash and transported them with their own ships

– this was to help France and Britain beat Hitler

– Would still keep the U.S. out of fighting

Lend-lease policy

–lend or lease arms and other supplies to “any country whose defense was vital to the United States”

–It’s like lending your garden hose to a neighbor whose house is on fire