Introduction for Chapter 30

30 The Great Depression And World War Ii 1929–1945

> How did the economic suffering created by the Great Depression contribute to the outbreak of World War II? Chapter 30 examines the Great Depression and World War II. In 1929 the interconnected global economy collapsed. In the wake of the Great Depression, people everywhere looked to new leaders for relief, some democratically elected, many not. A global trend toward dictatorship produced a particularly ruthless brand of totalitarianism that reached its fullest realization in the Soviet Union, Nazi Germany, and Japan in the 1930s. Germany’s and Japan’s aggressive expansion sparked World War II. By war’s end, millions had died on the battlefields and in the bombed-out cities. Millions more died in the Holocaust, in Stalin’s Soviet Union from purges and forced imposition of communism, and during Japan’s quest to create an “Asia for Asians.”

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Jewish Boy in Nazi-Controlled France Israel Lichtenstein, wearing a Jewish star, was born in Paris in 1932. His father was one of an estimated 1 million Jews who died in the Auschwitz concentration camp. Israel and his mother were also sent to a concentration camp, but they escaped and survived the Holocaust by going into hiding until the end of the war. Israel later immigrated to the nation of Israel. (United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, courtesy of Israel Lichtenstein)

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1921 1935
New Economic Policy in Soviet Union Mussolini invades Ethiopia; creation of U.S. Works Progress Administration as part of New Deal
1922 1936
Mussolini seizes power in Italy Start of great purges under Stalin; Spanish Civil War begins
1924–1929 1936–1937
Buildup of Nazi Party in Germany Popular Front government in France
1925 1939
Hitler, Mein Kampf Germany occupies Czech lands and invades Poland; Britain and France declare war on Germany, starting World War II
1927 1940
Stalin comes to power in Soviet Union Japan signs formal alliance with Germany and Italy; Germany defeats France; Battle of Britain
1928 1941
Stalin’s first five-year plan Germany invades Soviet Union; Japan attacks Pearl Harbor; United States enters war
1929 1941–1945
Start of collectivization in Soviet Union; Lateran Agreement The Holocaust
1929–1939 1944
Great Depression Allied invasion at Normandy
1931 1945
Japan invades Manchuria Atomic bombs dropped on Japan; World War II ends
1932–1933
Famine in Ukraine
1933
Hitler appointed chancellor in Germany; Nazis begin control of state and society