The economic distress of the Great Depression created various reactions in the political arena. In
the West, new social welfare programs broadened the role of government. In Italy and Germany,
fascist governments developed. Japan’s search for new markets was accompanied by increased
imperial expansion.
World War II
Prelude to War
The fragmented political order that was the legacy of World War I combined with the economic
distress of the Great Depression created the second global conflict of the twentieth century. Fascist
governments (Nationalist, one-party authoritarian regimes) arose in Germany and Italy. The
Nationalist Socialist (Nazi) Party of Adolf Hitler sought to redress the humiliation Germany had
suffered in the Treaty of Versailles and to expand German territory. Fascism in Italy under Benito
Mussolini hoped to restore the lost glories of the state. In Japan, competition among extreme
Nationalists led to the rise of military rule in the 1930s.
Military expansionist policies during the depression created the stage for war:
• In 1931, the Japanese invaded Manchuria. The goal was to create a buffer zone between the Soviet
Union and the Japanese and to make Manchuria’s coal and iron deposits available to resource-poor
Japan.
• In 1935, Hitler began to rearm Germany.
• In 1935, Mussolini invaded Ethiopia.
• In 1936 to 1939, the Spanish Civil War brought into power the fascist regime of Francisco Franco.
It served as a dress rehearsal for World War II, as Germany and Italy aided Franco, while the Soviet
Union sent supplies and advisers to his republican opponents. Pablo Picasso expressed his view of
the horrors of the Spanish Civil War in his painting Guernica .
• In 1937, the Japanese invaded China, whose opposition was a threat to their presence in Manchuria.
The event signaled the beginning of World War II in Asia.
• In 1938, Hitler proclaimed Anschluss , or the unification of Austria with Germany.
• In 1938, Hitler annexed the Sudetenland, the German-speaking western portion of Czechoslovakia.
• In 1938, the Munich Conference followed a policy of appeasement , in which Great Britain and
France accepted Hitler’s pledge not to take any further territory.
• In 1939, Hitler annexed all of Czechoslovakia.
• In 1939, Hitler signed a nonaggression pact with the Soviet Union.
• On September 1, 1939, Hitler attacked Poland, marking the beginning of World War II in Europe.
Opposing Sides
Two opposing sides arose, with the major powers including:
• The Axis Powers ––Germany, Italy, and Japan
• The Allied Powers ––Great Britain, France, and the Soviet Union
Course of the War
World War II was fought in two theaters: the Pacific and the European, which included the Middle East