Jarnell's WW2 Notes

• Factors that lead to WWI

  1. Militarism

  2. Alliances

  3. Nationalism

  4. Imperialism

  5. Assassination
• End of WWI


  1. German government called an armistice

  2. Germany and the Allied countries signed the Treaty of Versailles
• Japanese Militarism

  1. Arising during the Great Depression

  2. Growing support for military and nationalists wanting Japan to gain colonies for raw materials and export market

  3. Japanese military becoming stronger than civilians

  4. Targeting Manchuria for resources
• Rise of fascism

  1. Great Depression led to rise of fascism due to unemployment, poverty, and misery

  2. Fascism aimed at all classes but got most support from the middle class

  3. Italy was the first country where fascists gained power with Benito Mussolini leading the movement
• Many Germans despised the Treaty of Versailles for its harsh terms blaming Germany for the war
• Key terms from Chapter 20.3


  • Reparation
  • Plebiscites
  • Mandate
• Events leading up to WWI

  • France-Prussian war
  • Napoleonic wars
  • Assassination of Arch-duke Franz Ferdinand
• Key terms from Chapter 20.7


  • Fascist
• German right-wingers reacted with the Dolchstosslegende, the 'stab in the back' myth, blaming democratic socialists for betraying Germany
• Germany managed to improve its finances and international relations during 1924-1929
• The Dolchstosslegende undermined the Weimar Republic from the beginning
• Nazi Ideology and tactics

  • Only the strongest survive
  • Communism was a Jewish ideology (for the weak)
  • The Germanic master race must defeat all races
  • Eliminate all opposition
  • Obedience to their leader
• The Nazi party had only won 43.9% of the votes but formed a coalition with a small Nationalist Party and barred the communists from taking the seats they had won
• Germans despised the treaty of Versailles for the terms were too harsh on Germany and blamed them for the war
• The motive of appeasement from Britain and France had causes related to the first world war, with little support for risking another war after the major human cost
• Hyperinflation is an extreme rise in prices that causes a currency to lose any real value
• Hitler's main foreign policy objectives were to overturn the Treaty of Versailles, reclaim lost land, abolish communism, unite all Germans in the Third Reich, and control sources of raw materials for Germany's economy and rearmament
• Britain and France betrayed Czechoslovakia in October 1938, as Neville Chamberlain agreed to Germany's immediate control over Sudetenland as Germany was preparing for war
• Key words from this chapter

  • Right-wingers
  • Weimar Republic
  • Hyperinflation
• France feared to take a stand without Britain's support, so the Western democracies followed a policy of appeasement
• The Weimar Republic was the democratic system of government in Germany from 1919 to early 1933, named after the city of Weimar
• The Nazi party adopted anti-Jew measures, such as forcing Jews out of jobs in civil service
• Nazi party gaining power

  1. Indoctrination of young youth through The Hitler Youth program

  2. Propaganda through newspapers
• Germany, Italy, and Japan threatened world peace, and the danger increased as they became allies


  1936-37
• Germany was given loans to repair its economy, but the Great Depression hit industrialized countries, severely affecting Germany with rising unemployment
• The US adopted a foreign policy isolationist to avoid being dragged into European conflicts
• German right-wingers reacted with the Dolchstosslegende, the ‘stab in the back’ myth, which held that Germany had not been defeated but was betrayed by the democratic socialists (November Criminals) who created the republic, signed the armistice, and accepted the despised treaty
• Germany suffered from hyperinflation which wiped out the value of its currency


  1920s
• Germany invaded Austria and later annexed it, seen as an act of aggression as the Treaty of Versailles banned any Anschluss (union) of Germany and Austria


  March 12
• Italy became Germany's ally, opposing Germany due to seeing it as a danger to Austria's Independence and the stability of Italy's northern frontier