Rise of ultra-nationalism and WW II

1920s in Germany

• The new democracy is saddled with admitting responsibility, giving up reparations and territory, and suffering inflation.

• When Germany is unable to make payments, French occupy the Ruhr

• German state prints more money to pay its bills

German Marks needed to buyone US dollar:

• 1919 April--12• December--47• 1921 November--263• 1922 July--493 • December--7,000• 1923 January--17,000• July--53,000• August--4,621,000 • October--25,260,000,000 • November--2,193,600,000,000 • December--4,200,000,000,000

1930’s--Depression and increase of nationalism

• rise of militant nationalism--”fascism”--in Germany, Italy, and Japan

In Germany

• Depression hits especially hard• 1932 Hitler and Nazis claiming Germany

had been “stabbed in the back” in WWI and after, gains about 1/3 of electorate

• January 1933 Hitler becomes Chancellor• February—responding to mysterious

Reichstag fire, receives emergency powers, ending the democracy

Burning of the Reichstag 1933 and Kristallnacht 1938

German Expansion

• Under Hitler, Germany rebuilds military• 1938 Germany annexes Austria, justified

with bogus plebiscite• Then invades Czechoslovakia• France and England do nothing--for “peace

in our time”

World War II begins

• Hitler-Stalin Pact allows partition of Poland between Soviet Union and Germany

• 1939 they invade, and Britain and France declare war

• 1940 Germany occupies France• 1941 Germany attacks Soviet Union• months later, Japan attacks at Pearl Harbor

In the East• since 1910 Japan had colonized Korea• 1931 Japan occupied Manchuria• 1937 Japan invades China proper

“Asian holocaust”• the rape of Nanking• unit 731--American cover-up• “comfort women”• Induced famine in Vietnam and Indonesia

Continuing anti-Japanese sentiment in China

Axis powers--Germany, Italy, JapanAllies--Britain, France, then Soviet Union,

and United States

1945 Allies victorious in Europe, then Japan

• Atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki