Week of March 20-24

Monday: discussed WWII movies and took notes

Italy's WWII Story--Benito Mussolini (1919-1945)

Italy after WWI

  1. Italy was very displeased with the Treaty of Versailles 
    1. Wanted to get more land than they got
  2. Italy joined the League of Nations and was a member from 1919 until they withdrew in 1937

Washington Naval Conference (1921)

  1. 5 Power Pact
    1. Signed by Great Britain, the United States, Japan, France and Italy
    2. Designed to prevent an arm's race
    3. Limited the construction of battleships, battle cruisers and aircraft carriers
    4. Did not restrict cruisers, destroyers or submarines 
  2. 9 Power Pact
    1. Guaranteed Chinese independence and upheld the Open Door Policy
    2. Signed by the United States, Japan, China, France, Great Britain, Italy, Belgium, Netherlands, and Portugal 
  3. Kellogg-Briand Pact
    1. Countries pledged not to use war as a way to settle disputes 

March on Rome (October 1922)

  1. A march by Benito Mussolini's National Fascist Party
  2. Mussolini and the Fascists won and took over Italy 

King Victor Emmanuel 

  1. Did not fight Mussolini's take over in Italy 
  2. Wanted to avoid a civil war and also wanted to keep communists out of Italy 
  3. Saw Mussolini as the person that could do these things
  4. Eventually asked Mussolini to step down 

Mussolini and the Catholic Church 

  1. In 1929, the Lateran Accords were signed 
    1. Gave the Vatican specific territories in Rome 
    2. Catholicism became the state religion 
    3. Separation of church and state was stopped 
    4. Recognition of religious marriages for the 1st time since 1870 
    5. Catholic church was given a lot of money
  2. What did Mussolini get?
    1. Official support from the Catholic Church

Tuesday: notes

Established Fascism in Italy

  1. A government led by a strong dictator
  2. Stresses strong nationalism, militarism, and imperialism
  3. Uses intimidation to get what they want

Ethiopia invaded by Mussolini (1936)

  1. Italy lost it's Ethiopia colony in Africa at the 1896 Battle of Adua 
  2. One of the worst colonial disasters of modern history
  3. Feb. 23, 1935, Italy sends large forces into Ethiopia 

Italy/Ethiopia Invasion

  1. Nov. 18, 1935, League of Nations sanctions begin
    1. Arms embargo, financial embargo, non-importation of Italian goods
  2. Feb. 29, 1936, FDR signed the 1936 Neutrality Act
    1. Mandatory arms embargo with warring nations
    2. Mandatory ban on loans to warring nations 
  3. May 5--Italy occupied Addis Ababa
    1. Annexed all Ethiopia on May 9 

Spanish Civil War (1936)

  1. Generalissimo Francisco Franco
  2. Hitler and Mussolini sent troops and weapons to help Franco win the civil war against the communists
  3. This war served as an important training ground for Hitler's and Mussolini's troops

Rome-Berlin Axis (1936)

  1. Hitler wanted world to rotate around these two cities

Tripartite Pact is signed (1940)

  1. Formed the Axis powers
    1. Germany
    2. Italy
    3. Japan 

Italy's Goals in WWII

  1. Make a new Roman Empire 
  2. Make the Mediterranean an "Italian Lake"
  3. Take over northern African colonies of Britain and France
    1. Especially Egypt 
  4. Take over southeastern Europe
    1. Greece and Albania
  5. Take over parts of the Middle East 

  • Italy Invasion of Albania (1940)
  • Italy's Invasion of Greece (1940)
  • Italy's Mediterranean and North African Plan

Wednesday: notes

Operation Avalanche

  1. Allies invade Italy and they surrender
  2. Italy is defeated in 1943
  3. Italy joins Allies  
  4. Italy is free in 1945 

Mussolini and his Mistress

  1. Mussolini and his Mistress, Clareta Petacci, are hanged in Milan, 1945

Italy and the Holocaust

  1. In 1938, Mussolini instituted laws discriminating the Jews
    1. 46,000 Jews in Italy at the time
  2. After the Fascist government fell when the US invaded, the Germans moved in and took control and started shipping Jews to camps outside of Italy 

Why did Italy lose?

  1. Italy was not prepared militarily to fight a prolonged war
    1. Germany had to constantly bail Italy out
  2. Italian troops were spread too thin
    1. Africa
    2. Mediterranean
    3. Albania, Greece
    4. Soviet Union
    5. France
    6. Battle of Britain
  3. The people of Italy were not prepared to fight or motivated to fight
    1. They were forced to fight
  4. Overall, Italy was just a weak country 

Impact WWII had on Italy

  1. 41,000 dead
  2. 330,000 Military deaths
  3. Spent $94 billion
  4. Italy had joined the Allies by 1943 
    1. The big concern for the US was making sure Italy became a democracy after the war and not fall to communism
  5. US have millions of dollars to Italy to hep rebuild after the war
    1. Marshall Plan
  6. Became a member of NATO in 1949
  7. Became a member of the United Nations in 1955

Japan's WWII Story

Areas controlled by Japan in WWII

  1. Several regions in China 
  2. French Indochina 
  3. Hong Kong
  4. Thailand
  5. British New Guinea 
  6. Philippines
  7. Guam
  8. Dutch East Indies
  9. Portuguese Timor
  10. Malaya 
  11. Andaman and Nicobar Islands 
  12. Straits Settlements
  13. Kingdom of Sarawak
  14. Brunei
  15. North Borneo
  16. Nauru
  17. Imphal
  18. Wake Island
  19. Gilbert and Ellice Islands
  20. Christmas island
  21. Attu and Kiska Islands

Areas Attacked but not conquered

  1. Air raids on Australia
    1. Broome
    2. Darwin
    3. Newcastle
    4. Sydney
  2. British Columbia
  3. Kohima and Manipur
  4. Colombo and Trincomalee
  5. Dornod
  6. United States
    1. Santa Barbara
    2. Pearl Harbor
    3. Midway Atoll
    4. Fort Stevens

Japan in the 1920's

  1. Joined the League of Nations
  2. Signed the 4,5 and 9 Power Pacts
    1. 4 Power Pact
      1. US, Great Britain, France and Japan would respect each other's possessions in the Pacific
    2. 5 Power Pact
      1. US, Great Britain, France, Italy and Japan would limit naval size 
    3. 9 Power Pact
      1. US, Great Britain, France, Italy, Japan, Belgium, Netherlands, Portugal and China agree to the Open Door Policy and guarantee Chinese independence
    4. Signed the Kellogg-Briand Pact

Japanese Invasion of Manchuria (1931)

  1. Japan needed essential raw materials
    1. Manchuria possessed valuable raw materials
  2. Japan had a growing population
  3. Japan had highly developed in industries--needed new markets
    1. Manchuria offered new markets
  4. Manchuria was a good base for attack on China
  5. The League of Nations condemned the action but could not enforce its authority as it had no military force
  6. The message sent to aggressive countries was that a major power could get away with using force because Great Britain and France did not want war
  7. Japan dropped out of the League of Nations shortly after invasion 

China Incident (July, 1937)

  1. Japan invades China 

Thursday: notes

Rape of Nanking (late 1937-early 1938)

  1. A mass killing of Chinese people 
    1. Up to 300,000
  2. Mass raping of Chinese women and girls
  3. Mass looting and arson
  4. Some in Japan have denied that the military killed civilians for no reason
  5. Still causes tension between the two countries today
  6. There was a war crimes trial after the war to try Japanese soldiers for participation
  7. Overall, throughout WWII, Japan killed almost 6,000,000 people
    1. Chinese
    2. Indonesians
    3. Koreans
    4. Filipinos
    5. Indochinese
    6. Western prisoners of war
    7. Etc...

Quarantine Speech (1937)

  1. Roosevelt wanted to do something to stop the major countries 

Panay Incident (December 1937)

  1. American gunboat attacked on river in China by Japan
  2. 3 US troops killed, 45 wounded
  3. Japan said it was an accident
    1. Apologized and paid US $$
  4. Worsened US-Japanese relations 

Soviet-Japanese Neutrality Pact

  1. The USSR and Japan signed an agreement to not fight one another in April, 1941
  2. Japan considered breaking this once Germany (their ally) invaded the USSR in June, 1941, but did not
  3. The USSR broke this treaty when they declared war on Japan on August 9, 1945

Japanese Leaders

  1. Hideki Tojo
  2. Emperor Hirohito 
  3. Admiral Yamamoto

Basics of Pearl Harbor Attack

  1. Date: Dec. 7, 1941
    1. Sunday-7:40 am and 8:50 am
  2. Location
    1. Pearl Harbor, Hawaii Territory 
  3. War Results
    1. Japanese major victory
    2. US Declaration of War on Japan
    3. Germany and Italy Declare War on the US (Tripartite Pact)
    4. US declares War on Germany and Italy 
  4. Battle Results
    1. All 8 US Navy battleships were damaged with four being sunk
    2. 3 cruisers, 3 destroyers, an anti-aircraft ship and 1 mine layer ship were sank or damaged
    3. 188 US aircraft were destroyed (Pacific Fleet)
  5. Deaths/Casualties
    1. 2,402 killed
    2. 1,282 wounded 

Friday: no school 

E-mail me when people leave their comments –

You need to be a member of History 360 to add comments!

Join History 360

eXTReMe Tracker