Week of 2/23 - 2/27 - Blogs

2/23- started presentations, my group went first with Italy

2/24- presentations

2/25- quiz over Italy, presentations

2/26- presentations

2/27- presentations

Italy

-Major events that impacted their country between WWI and WWII.

Treaty of Versailles - war to end wars
Joined league of nations
5 Power Pact
- signed by Great Britain, US, Japan, France, and Italy
- designed to prevent an arm's race
9 Power Pact
- signed by US, Japan, China, France, Great Britain, Italy, Belgium, Netherlands, and Portugal
Kellogg-Briand Pact
- countries pledged not to use war as a way to settle disputes
Ethiopia invaded by Mussolini - 1936
- Italy lost its Ethiopia colony in Africa
Generalisimo Francisco Franco and the Spanish Civil War - 1936
- testing weapons
Rome - Berlin Axis
- official Alliance between Germany and Italy

-Discuss basic facts: alliance, total casualties, total cost, war goals, etc

Goals
- make a new roman empire
- make the Mediterranean an "Italian Lake"
- take over northern African colonies of Britain and France- especially Egypt
- Take over southeastern Europe
Casualties
- 410,000 dead - 330,000 military deaths
Cost
- $94 billion

-Tell us about their leader(s) during WWII

Benito Mussolini

-Discuss the impact of their Homefront and propaganda and what it was like in their country during the war

-Discuss major battle strategies

-Discuss major battles that the country was involved in

Generalissimo Francisco Franco and the Spanish Civil War
- Hitler and Mussolini send troops and weapons to help Franco win the civil war communists

-Discuss other people/generals from their country in WWII that had a major impact on the war

King Victor Emmanuel
- saw Mussolini powerful to keep communist down
- king of Italy throughout WWII

-Discuss why they won or lost the war

weren't prepared
were weak

-Discuss the impact WWII had on the country

didn't get as much land as they wanted to
Fascism- government led by a strong dictator
- stressed strong nationalism, militarism, and imperialism
Axis Powers
- Main
  - Germany
  - Italy
  - Japan
- Others - Albania, Bulgaria, Finland, Romania, Thailand, Hungary

Germany

Major events that impacted their country between WWI and WWII.
- Treaty of Versailles
  - Rhineland was occupied again by the French army
  - Germany has to pay for the damages
  - Restrictions about its army (size, weapons)
- Beer Hall Putsch
  - Inspired from Benito Mussolini March on Rome
  - 600 soldiers and a crowd of 3,000 people walked in Munich
  - Big fail- Hitler had to go to jail for 8 months
- Mein Kampf (My Fight)
  - Hitler's first boo was published while he was in jail
  - Explained Hitler's version of events, the political crimes committed by the government at the time
  - Taking about the destruction of the weak to provide proper space and purity for the strong
- Reichstag
  - Hitler sets the Reichstag on fire
  - blamed a communist guy who was sentenced to death
  - used argument to declare that there was a plot against the German government and persecuted the communist party
- Chancellor
  - Paul Van Hindenburg, in charge at the time, hated Hitler
  - Became sick at 84
  - Received pressure by people in his government and named Hitler chancellor
  - died of lung cancer in 1934
- No more opposition
  - Once chancellor, Hitler had control of all the legislative and executive branches of the German government
  - started suppressing his remaining opponents
  - social democratic
- Night of the long knives
  - Hitler was suspicious about a lot of his soldiers in the SA
  - There were some conflicts between the army and the SA
  - during the night, her ordered to kill his opponents and do a purge to his party
- Fuhrer
  - 1934 Hindenburg died. Schiller was killed during the night
  - Hitler proclaimed himself Fuhrer
  - he was at the head of the army and forced his war minister to resign by putting pressure on his wife
- Rhineland
  - land that Germany and France were fighting on for years
  - France occupied the region after WWI
  - Germany had to leave Rhineland and had a restricted army
  - 1935 Hitler started producing weapons, France and Great Britain didn't do anything
  - 1936 Germany invaded the Rhineland
- Kristallnacht
  - called night of broken glass
  - 17 year old buy killed a Nazi member of an embassy staff
  - Hitler used it as an example of increases violence by the Jews on German people
- Plan Z and final solution
  - approved in 1939 by stopped in 1944
  - plan made during WWII to kill Jews
  - consisted of gassing, shootings, disease, and starvation
  - 2/3 European Jews dies
- Invasions
  - 1936 Germany became an allied with Italy and Japan
  - 1938 Invaded Austria
  - 1938 Munich Conference
  - 1939 Invaded Prague
  - 1939 Invaded Poland
Discuss basic facts: alliance, total casualties, total cost, war goals, etc
- Hitlers Two Main goals
  - final reckoning with the Jews
  - Forcible acquisition of Lebensraum (living space)
- Deaths
  - 6,600,000-8,800,000
- Alliance
  - Germany
  - Italy
  - Japan
- Cost
  - $272 billion

Tell us about their leader(s) during WWII
- Adolf Hitler
  - dropped out of high school
  - wandering streets of Linz, Austria
  - Homeless in Vienna
  - Fighting for the Germany in WWI
  - Enlisting in a Bavarian Regiment
  - Blinded by gas attack
    - set home
    - laid in hospital bed consumed with rumors
  - Stab in the Back Theory
  - blamed Bolsheviks, Wiemar, politicians, Jews, handicap, gays, and gypsies for the loss of the war (WWI)
  - policies caused WWII and the holocaust
  - wanted Germany to be pure in order to take over the war
  - main Nazi concept was the nation of racial hygiene
  - Fall of Hitler
    - Berlin was about to fall to the Russians and defeat for Nazi Germany
    - No intention of letting Russians capture and putting him on trial
    - Committed suicide on April 30, 1945 - days before Germany's surrender
- Heinrich Himmler
  - police administrator
  - military commander
  - German National Socialist (Nazi) politician
  - Head of the SS and the Nazi secret police
  - organized the camps
  - Fall of Heinrich Himmler
    - Replaced
    - Dismissed from all posts, signed arrest
    - Found and arresting by British forces
    - committed suicide
- Joseph Goebbels
  - Named Hitler's trusted friend and colleague
  - Fall of Joseph Goebbels
    - became Chancellor of Germany after Hitler's death
    - Following day, poisoned their 6 children
    - Him and his wife took their lives

Discuss the impact of their Home front and propaganda and what it was like in their country during the war
- Construction of roads and railroads
- forced labor and prisoners of war
- mass production of food and weapons
- very well organized nursing system (Catholics, protestants, red cross, Nazi)
- got rid of weak old people, disabled people, and homosexual couples and Jews
- Rationing started in 1939
- Propaganda
  - Hitler was a good speaker
  - used the great depression
  - people were desperate
  - German women were raped by Russian soldiers
  - Was made easy because of the economy
  - Joseph Goebbels was minister of the propaganda
    - Ensure that nobody in Germany could read, see, or hear something that could be damaging to the nazi party
    - Make sure that the Nazis views were seen everywhere
  - Jews - 1935 Nuremberg Laws
  - Hitler's Youth Camps
    - 1936 - 8.8 millions of boys from 10-18
    - Became mandatory
    - Teachers and leaders approved by Hitler
    - BDM
      - sewing uniforms
      - helped take care of wounded soldiers
      - children, church, kitchen
      - had to give birth to pure children
      - worked in factories
Discuss major battle strategies
Discuss major battles that the country was involved in
- Battle of France
- Battle of Moscow
- Battle of Britain
Discuss other people/generals from their country in WWII that had a major impact on the war
Discuss why they won or lost the war
- Not prepared for the cold
- Hitler was overconfident
  - Taking the three biggest cities of Russia
- Surrounded by enemies
- forces from east and west were pushing
- Lost the war in 1941, just kept fighting
- bad at making war strategies
- long supply lines
- Germany declared war on US
Discuss the impact WWII had on the country
- Germany was divided by the winner countries
- Strategies were made to control Germany
- Disgrace because of the holocaust
- Financially destroyed
- Poverty
- Cities were destroyed
- Today
  - Rarely national pride
  - Taught in school a lot about WWII
  - Visit a memorial from a concentration camp
  - National Anthem is shortened
  - Forbidden to draw a Hakenkreuz
Treaty of Versailles
- Lost Land to Countries
  - France
  - Belgium
  - Denmark
  - Czechoslovakia
  - Poland
- Military
  - Germany's army was reduced
  - not allowed to have an air force
  - no submarines, a few ships
- Financial
  - Lost $33 billion to Great Britain and France

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