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Dictatorhsips and World War II

In the interwar period, fascism, extreme nationalism, racist ideologies, and the failure of appeasement resulted in the catastrophe of World War II, presenting a grave challenge to European civilization

Life after World War I wasn't what was expected. There were many different events occurring. People such as Hitler and Stalin striving for fascism and nationalism, the Holocaust being undertaken by Hitler to purify his country so to speak of any group of subhumans, Stalin using his Five Year Plans for the economic development of the Soviet Union, both of them creating great tension throughout the European continent.

French and British fears of another war, American isolationism, and deep distrust between Western democratic, capitalist nations, and the communist Soviet Union allowed fascist states to rearm and expand their territory

In March of 1936, Hitler sent troops to march into the demilitarized Rhineland in hope of expanding Germany. His act that went against the Treaty of Versailles ended up a success due to the fact that Britain didn't want to act towards Hitler. This depicts the French and British fears of any conflict involving them because France alone could only do so little action without Britain.

In October 1935, Ethiopia was invaded by Italian armies. Mussolini was behind this invasion as he hoped to spread fascism and it following ideas. Italians took the big win in 1936, and this marked the point where Mussolini declared that Italy had regained its empire.

Germany's Blitzkrieg warfare in Europe, combined with Japans attacks in Asia and the Pacific, brough the Axis powers early victories

The Axis powers consisted of Italy and Germany, but then later on Japan joined the alliance. With a wide variety of planes, tanks, and trucks they performed with great power developing their strong character. On september 1, 1939, German armies went into Poland from three sides and crushed it within four weeks. In 1940, the lightning war broke out. Germans broke into France through the southern part of Belgium, split the Franco-British forces, and then captured the British army on the beach, creating the British to withdraw their troops. Japan on the other hand had created two major contributions to the Axis powers. The first one was the attack on Pearl Harbor in the Pacific. On December 7, 1941 Japan had attacked the US Navy in Hawaii, in hopes of the US not stopping them in taking over parts of Asia. By 1942 the Japanese had quickly taken over much of Southeast Asia.

American and British industrial, scientific, and technological power and the all-out military commitment of the USSR contributed to the Allied victories

The United States, Britain, and the Soviet Union were a great part of the Allied Powers victories. American and British forces went to the beaches of Normandy, France in what is still known as history's greatest naval invasion on June 6, 1944. In a matter of 100 days 2 million men and almost half a million vehicles broke through the German lines and were pushed back inland. The Soviets, who were showing great progress since July 1943, ended up in the outskirts of Warsaw by August 1944. Over the next few months the Soviets had had moved southward into Romania, Hungary, and Yugoslavia. The war in the Pacific came to a close as the Japanese had surrendered after the US dropped atomic bombs in Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Fueled by racism and anti-Semitism, German Nazism sought to establish a "new racial order" in Europe, which culminated with the Holocaust

The "new order" created by Adolf Hitler was proposed on the fact of racial imperialism. People were treated based on their spot on the Nazi racial Hierarchy. Groups of people such as the Nordic were treated preferentially while others such as the Slavs and the Jews were treated harshly due to the fact that Hitler viewed these people as "subhumans".

The Nuremberg Laws classified as Jewish anyone having three or more Jewish grandparents, outlawed marriage and sexual relations between Jews and those defined as German, and took away all rights of citizenship of Jews.

Auschwitz was one of the most known death camps that was created to exterminate the Jews. These death camps were built with barracks for the people that were more than able to do things and gas chambers for the jews that were either too young for use or very ill. Upon arrival to these death camps they would choose the most fittest and work them to death and kill the rest immediatley. The conditions of these camps were unsanitary and full of diseases. Even after the Jews were released some had to stay there due to the fact of their state of being.

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