Italy's WWII Story- Benito Mussolini
Italy after WWI
- Italy was displeased with the Treaty of Versailles
- Wanted to get more land than they got
- Italy joined the League of Nations and was a member from 1919 until they withdrew in 1937
5 Power Pact
- Signed by Great Britain, the US, Japan, France, and Italy
- Designed to prevent an arm's race
- It limited the construction of battleships, battle cruisers, and aircraft carries
- Didn't restrict cruisers, destroyers, or submarines- loopholes
9 Power Pact
- Guaranteed Chinese independence and upheld the Open Door Policy
- Signed by the 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
- Used diplomatic means instead
- Great idea in theory, but it just doesn't work- unenforcable
- Blew up when Hitler invaded Poland
March on Rome- October 1922
- A march by Benito Mussolini's National Fascist Party
- Mussolini and the Fascists won and took over Italy
- Inspired Hitler in trying to take over
King Victor Emmanuel
- Didn't fight Mussolini's takeover in Italy
- Wanted to avoid a civil war and also wanted to keep communists out of Italy
- Saw Mussolini as the person that could do these things
Mussolini and the Catholic Church
- Was raised Catholic, but was somewhat atheist
- In 1929, the Lateran Accords were signed
- Gave the Vatican specific territories in Rome that they had lost in the 1800's
- Catholicism became the state religion
- Separation of church and state was stopped
- Recognition of religious marriages for the first time since 1870
- What did Mussolini get?
- Official support from the Catholic Church
Mussolini Established Fascism in Italy
- A government led by a strong dictator
- Stresses strong nationalism, militarism and imperialism
- Uses intimidation to get what they want
- "All within the state, nothing outside the state, nothing against the state." -Mussolini
- Nazism is an example of fascism
Ethiopia invaded by Mussolini- 1935
- Italy lost its Ethiopia colony in Africa at the 1896 Battle of Adua
- One of the worst colonial disasters of modern history
- In 1935, Italy sends large forces into Ethiopia
- Takes over Ethiopia in 1936
Italy/Ethiopia Invasion
- Nov. 18, 1935, League of Nations sanctions begin
- Arms embargo, financial embargo, non-importation of Italian goods
- Feb. 29, 1936, FDR signed the 1936 Neutrality Act
- Mandatory arms embargo with warring nations
- Mandatory ban on loans to warring nations
- May 5- Italy occupied Addis Ababa- annexed all Ethiopia on May 9
Generalissimo Francisco Franco and the Spanish Civil War- 1936
- Hitler and Mussolini send troops and weapons to help Franco win the civil war against the communists
- This war served as an important training ground for Hitler's and Mussolini's troops
Tripartite Pact is signed, forming the Axis Powers in 1940- Germany, Italy and Japan
Italy always played 2nd fiddle to Germany
Italy's Goals in WWII
- Make a new Roman Empire
- Make the Mediterranean an "Italian Lake"
- Take over northern African colonies of Britain and France- especially Egypt (Britain-controlled)
- Take over southeastern Europe- Greece and Albania
- Take over parts of the Middle East- oil
Italy surrendered and became an ally
Mussolini and his mistress, Claretta Petacci, and hanged in Milan in 1945
Italy and the Holocaust
- In 1938, Mussolini instituted laws discriminating the Jews
- 46,000 Jews in Italy at the time
- After the Fascist government fell when the US invaded (1943), the Germans moved in and took control and started shipping Jews to camps outside of Italy
Why did Italy Lose?
- They were weak militarily, unprepared
- They had to be bailed out by Germany over and over again, Mussolini himself had to be bailed out personally a few times
- Italian troops were spread too thin- Africa, Mediterranean, Albania, Greece, Soviet Union, France, Battle of Britain
- The people of Italy were not prepared to fight or motivated to fight. They were forced to fight
- They chose the wrong side- alled with Germany, Germany was fighting US
- Overall, Italy was just a weak country
Impact of WWII on Italy
- 410,000 dead- 330,000 were military, the rest were civilian
- Spend $94 billion
- Italy had joined the Allies by 1943 so the big concern for the US was making sure Italy became a democracy after the war and not fall to communism
- US gave millions of dollars to Italy (Marshall Plan) to help rebuild after the war
- Became a member of NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) in 1949- US, Canada, Western Europe
- Became a member of the United Nations in 1955
Japan in WWII
Took over A LOT of territories in WWII- very aggressive
Wanted materials and land- didn't have many materials- Great Depression (actually worldwide, not just US) hit them hard
Japan in the 20's
- Joined the League of Nations
- Signed the 4, 5, and 9 Power Pacts
- 4 Power Pact- US, GB, France and Japan would respect each other's possessions in the Pacific
- 5 Power Pact- Signed by Great Britain, the US, Japan, France, and Italy
- Designed to prevent an arm's race
- It limited the construction of battleships, battle cruisers, and aircraft carries
- Didn't restrict cruisers, destroyers, or submarines- loopholes
- 9 Power Pact
- Guaranteed Chinese independence and upheld the Open Door Policy
- Signed by the US, Japan, China, France, Great Britain, Italy, Belgium, Netherlands, and Portugal
- Also signed Kellogg-Briand Pact-
- Countries pledged not to use war as a way to settle disputes
- Used diplomatic means instead
- Great idea in theory, but it just doesn't work- unenforcable
Great Depression sort of spurred on WWII
Japanese Invasion of Manchuria- 1931
- League of Nations condemned the action but could not enforce its authority as it did not have military force
- 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
- Japan dropped out of the League of Nations shortly after invasion
Rape of Nanking- Late 1937-Early 1938
- Mass killing of Chinese people (up to 300,000)
- Mass raping of Chinese women and girls
- Mass looting and arson
- Some in Japan have denied that the military killed civilians for no reason- major point of tension- China believes Japan hasn't owned up
- Sill causes tension between the two countries today
- There was a war crimes trial after the war to try Japanese soldiers for participation
- Overall, throughout WWII, Japan killed almost 6,000,000 people- Chinese, Indonesians, Koreans, Filipinos, Indochinese, Western prisioners of war, etc.
Quarantine Speech- FDR 1937
- The peaceful countries of the world need to quarentine what is happening in the more agressive countries in the world (ie. Germany, Italy, Japan, Soviet Union, to some degree)
Panay Incident- December 1937
- American gunboat attacked on river in China by Japan
- 3 US troops killed, 45 wounded
- Japan said wit was an accident, apologized and paid US $$
- Worsened US-Japanese relations
Triparte Pact signed- Axis powers formed
Soviet-Japanese Neutrality Pact
- The USSR and Japan signed an agreement to not fight one another in April, 1941
- Japan considered breaking this once Germany (their ally) invaded the USSR in June, 1941, but did not
- The USSR broke this treaty when they declared war on Japan in August 9, 1945
The Road to Pearl Harbor
- Japanese Leaders
- Hideki Tojo- general
- Emperor Hirohito
- Admiral Yamamoto
- Mastermind behind Pearl Harbor attack
- Actually thought they shouldn't attack US- saw the potential for US to be a major superpower
- Only thought Japan had a chance if US was caught off-guard and destroyed our navy in the Pacific
- US had a bigger navy overall, but it was more spread out- Japan had the bigger navy the the Pacific
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