WWII Flashcards
(40 cards)
Benito Mussolini moves from Italy to Switzerland avoiding military service in 1902.
He advocated for a violent overthrow of European monarchies
This gets him in a bit of trouble with the Swiss popo
His ideas made him famous among Italian socialists.
He was anti-war
When WWI came along he protested Italy’s involvement .
But then he thought, the war could overthrow European
monarchies
Mussolini is now pro-war
He felt that Italy needed a fresh start
Instead of having class divisions, unite the PPL through nationality.
Conquer the Mediterranean & reunite all Italian peoples,
Just like the days of the roman empire.
He called it “fascismo” (fascism)
And thought it would guide the Italian nation to greatness
Italy had been on the allies’ side in WW1,
They were promised they were going to gain tremendously
But in the end, they only got a little, they felt cheated.
A weak government & economy meant that the Italian people were
unhappy.
Mussolini comes along, & said that he could fix everything,
This is how his fascist movement gained the people’s support
In 1922, Mussolini went to the king and said, ‘make me prime
minister, or I’ll make me prime minister.’
He then established a dictatorship with himself at its center.
Europe now has its first fascist dictator.
Germany had been on the losers’ side, & were absolutely devastated
by the treaty of Versailles.
They lost territory, had to demilitarize the Rhineland, had to reduce their
army to just 100,000 men, couldn’t have an air force
& Had to pay the allies a huge amount of money that it didn’t have
Germany was in a very bad place
A bad economy and weak government meant that when a
small, angry man came along and said that he could fix
everything,
The German people loved it.
Hitler was a soldier during WW1,
He was very patriotic.
Nobody was more upset than him about Germany’s
humiliation.
He helped start a new political party, and in 1923,
Attempted a march on Munich with his supporters.
He got arrested.
His popularity grew and grew,
In 1933, the president made him chancellor
He believed he was Germany’s great destined savior.
He went full megalomaniac
Establishing a dictatorship with himself at its center.
Europe now had fascist dictator no. 2.
Hitler and Mussolini had a lot of the
same ideas.
More importantly, they had the same
enemies.
They started to get along.
Japan had isolated itself from the rest of the world for over 200
years.
Until the united states interfered
Then the western powers imposed many ‘unequal treaties’.
This busted Japan’s economy.
