The document summarizes the origins of World War II, explaining how dictators rose to power in Europe and Japan in the 1920s-1930s due to resentment over treaties, economic troubles, and failure of the League of Nations. It describes the key dictators like Hitler, Mussolini, and Stalin and their ideologies. It then outlines the major events that led to war in Europe, including German and Italian expansionism and appeasement by Britain and France, culminating in the German invasion of Poland in 1939 and the Soviet invasion of eastern Poland and Baltic states.

1. The Origins of WORLD WAR II

8. The Rise of Dictators

9. GERMANY

12. ITALY

15. SOVIET UNION

16. Joseph Stalin Man of Steel

17. Stalin’s rise to power in the USSR Communist Collective farms, state run industry Paranoid- destroy all opposition

18. JAPAN

22. The Road to War in Europe

23. Germany begins mobilization in 1935

24. Germany takes the Rhineland in 1936

26. Germany and Italy support Fascist revolution in Spain

27. Italy invades Ethiopia , later takes Albania

28. Germany annexes Austria ( the Anschluss )

30. Germany occupies the Sudetenland

32. The Munich Pact is signed France and Britain were hesitant to enter another war, due to problems with WWI and war debt met with Hitler in 1938, allowed Germany to take Sudetenland if no other land was taken Churchill called this Appeasement

33. Germany occupies the rest of Czechoslovakia

34. Germany and Italy form the Axis The Pact of Steel

36. Soviet-German Non-Aggression Pact of 1939 is signed

38. Great Britain and France declare war on Germany

39. The Soviet Union acquires part of Poland and ports in the Baltic states

40. Germany, Italy, and Japan sign the Tripartite Pact

41. Hungary, Bulgaria, Romania join the Axis

42. Denmark Norway

43. The Netherlands Belgium Luxemborg

44. Germany takes Western Europe

45. Germany marches on France , takes over Paris

47. Germany attacks Great Britain

48. The Battle of Britain

49. Germany invades Yugoslavia and Greece

51. Germany invades the Soviet Union

52. Germany invades the Soviet Union

56. The Soviet Union allies with Britain and France