Japan was a formidable opponent. Japan was very highly trained compared to the countries around them, or anyone really. Japan was able to gain some land from China, but was unable to take it completely over. Japan invaded because China was a huge country with many natural resources that Japan needed due to tough economic times.
In 1937, Japan invaded the rest of China. In the following years, Japan was able to obtain a large amount of land from the Chinese. The United States passed acts in just about every year from 1933 to 1941 that kept the US out of the brewing conflicts in Europe and Asia. FDR gave a very famous Quarantine Speech in the late 1930’s.
FDR wanted to try and get all of the peaceful nations in the world to get together and “quarantine” the war mongering countries like Germany and Italy. His hope was that the quarantine would cut off these countries’ attempts at expansion and prevent them from spreading war.
The Soviet Union signed a treaty with Germany which gave a lot of land to Germany. The Soviet Union had dropped out of WW1 to fight the Bolshevik Revolution. This was fighting between the communists and the non communist government within the Soviet Union. Vladimir Lenin was a big believer in Karl Marx’s theory of Communism.
The Theory of Communism is that the government would be overthrown and that the poor would rise up and there would be a classless society where everyone is equal and can do anything that they want. This was supposed to be a beautiful utopian society. It didn’t quite work out that way.
The Weimar Republic was Germany’s first attempt at a Democracy for a government. The Weimar Republic was not a popular and strong government and it was formed during World War 1 and they accepted the Treaty of Versailles. Hitler used people’s dislike for the Republic to gain power and to overthrow the government.
Hitler was born in 1889. Hitler was beat by his father as a young child and did not do well in school. Hitler’s passion was art. He was a pretty good artist and tried to get into an art school. Hitler found his true calling in World War 1 when he fought for Germany.
Hitler was a big supporter of the Nazi party. Because of his great speaking skills and demanding presence, he soon rose through the ranks and became the leader of the Nazi party. Hitler unsuccessfully tried to overthrow the Weimar Republic. He was thrown in jail for about 9 months.
In prison, Hitler wrote a book called Mein Kampf. This book was Hitler’s list and book of goals and priorities for taking power. Not very many people read his book, and if more had, people could very well have prevented him from assuming power. In the book, Hitler blamed the Jews for trying to take over the world and ruing everything, including “good blood” in nations around the world.
Scholars and scientists and other intellectuals, especially the Jewish ones, read this book and knew that they could never allow Hitler to gain the power of scientific minds. They feared him because many were Jewish and because they thought that Hitler was insane. The Scientists were developing the Atomic Bomb and knew that they could not allow Hitler to gain control of this super weapon.
Nearly all of the scientists fled the country, many going to America. Those scientists then ironically helped the US develop their Atomic Bombs. Some scientists stayed and deliberately tried to impede the processes.
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