Major Leaders Between Wars

Soviet Union
! -Joseph Stalin - (Communist)
! ! -5 Year Plans
! ! -Collective Farms
! ! -Great Purge

China
! -Sun Yixian (AKA Sun Yat Sen) (Nationalist)
! ! -3 Principles of the people
! ! -Kuomintang
! ! -Wanted democracy
! ! -Elected president 1912
! -Jian Jieshi (AKA Chiang Kaichek) (Nationalist)
! ! -Student of Sun
! ! -Took over kuomintang 1925
! ! -Fought communists
! ! -1949 flees to Taiwan (Formosa) when communists take control
! -Mao Zedong (Communist)
! ! -5/14/19 May 4th Movement
! ! -Long March 1934

India
! -Mohandas Ghandi
! ! -Civil Disobedience
! ! -Wanted Indian independence from Britain after WWI
! ! -Salt March Protest
! ! -India Self-Rule 1935

Turkey
! -Mustafa Kemal (“Ataturk” - “Father of the Turks”) (Nationalist)
! ! -Overthrew Sultan
! ! -1923 President of Turkey
! ! -Modernized Turkey
! ! ! -Separation of Law and Religion
! ! ! -Became “Westernized”
Germany
! -Adolf Hitler (Der Füher) (Nazi)
! ! -WWI Veteran
! ! -Anti-Semitism
! ! -Blames Weimar Republic
! ! -Brown Shirts or Storm Troopers
! ! -Failed Coup 1923 (Beer Hall Putsch)
! ! ! -Went to jail and wrote Mein Kampf
! ! -1/30/33 Named Chancellor/Nazis control Reichstag/Starts 3rd Reich
! ! -11/9/38 Kristallnacht
! ! -Violates International Agreements
! ! ! -Versailles
! ! ! -Nazi-Soviet Pact
! ! ! -Munich Agreement
! ! -Creates alliance with Italy and Japan

Italy
! -Benito Mussolini (Il Duce) (Fascist)
! ! -Sought conquest in Africa, Ethiopia
! ! -Encouraged nationalism... Ancient Rome’s greatness
! ! -Black Shirts

Japan
! -Emperor Hirohito - Seen as God
! ! -Used as puppet by military

Spain
! -Franco (Fascist)
! ! -Won Spanish civil war with support from Hitler and Mussolini
 More In-Depth Explanations...

Opening Remark - Okay, one main thing you’ll see reoccurring in this unit is the
introduction of democracy to nations that have no history of it. This happened with the
Weimar Republic in Germany, Sun Yixian in China, and now it’s happening with the
US trying to set up a democracy in the Middle East. When countries have no history of
democracy, as in they’ve have a dictatorship or monarchy, the idea of democracy is
always met with resistance.

Soviet Union
! -1917 Lenin - Bolshevik - Communist
! -1220’s Russia becomes USSR - adds 14 other territories (Called Soviet Union
! for short.)
! -Stalin steals ownership from Lenin - Lenin was glorified in Russia. Like,
! instead of me having posters of the Jonas Brothers hanging in my room, I’d have
! a poster of Lenin. Except it wouldn’t seem as creepy. Anyway, he was looked at
! as a God. So when Stalin took over, he kept this going. So now he was
! “working for God” which was just as highly ranked as actually being God.
! -Five Year Plans - Introduced technology and increased food production to trade
! with the West. Also introduced Collective farms. So, collective farms were just
! when the government took up all the small farms and made one big one. The
! only problem with this was now they were government owned. So since the
! USSR was so lacking in technology, they decided they would just trade massive
! quantities of food. But what happens when you take massive quantities of food
! away from a country? They starve. Way to go Stalin.
! -Second Five Year Plan - Stalin just decided to mass produce everything (car,
! radios, etc.). They ! were producing thousands in quantity everyday. However,
! with this new mass production, quality suffered.
! -Great Purge - Stalin basically thought “hey, let’s eliminate all of our enemies.”
! So he set up a secret police force called the Cheka. (Think back to the French
! Revolution - They killed anyone associated or even accused with being against
! the revolution.) So that’s kind of what you have going on here. Anyone against
! Stalin was killed. This created an atmosphere of fear where even family members
! would turn on each other.
China
! -Sun - Nationalist - Kuomintang - He said, “Hey, instead of being Anti-West,
! why don’t we all come together and make China stronger.”
! -3 Principles -
! ! -Good economy = Happy people
! ! -Voice in leadership - democracy (met resistance)
! ! -Nationalism
! -Jiang - Took over after Sun and actually killed Communists
! -1920’s - 1940’s Spurts of Civil War between Chinese Nationalists and Chinese
! Communists (Lenin supported Communists / Britain, US, and France supported
! Nationalists)
! ! -Japan attacks in ’31 - civil war stops
! ! -Civil war resumes
! ! -Japan attacks again in ’37 (lasts until ’45) - civil war stops again
! ! -Civil war resumes (communists rise, nationalists kicked out)
! -Mao Zedong - After WWI, China got hosed basically. So before the communists
! actually started rising above the Nationalists, Mao was forced to flee to the
! mountains. This was called the Long March where him and thousands of his
! followers traveled a 6000 mile journey (most of the followers died). But this
! actually gave Mao the opportunity to spread communism throughout the villages
! in the mountains and he was viewed as stronger each day he stayed alive. This
! pretty much started the rise of communism.
! -Next time they fight - Communists force Nationalists to Taiwan which was a
! Chinese territory. They declared it it’s own country and the Nationalists were like,
! “nu uh, no you didn’t.” But to this day, Taiwan is still its own country.

India
! Aight, the only thing you really need to know about India is that they got totally
gypped in WWI. They were promised independence form Britain after the war and that
totally didn’t happen. So Ghandi started the whole “peaceful protest” bit. Yep.

Turkey
! Turkey’s really easy too. Pretty much, they were the strongest country to come
out of the Ottoman Empire after WWI. Huzzah, Turkey.
Germany
! -The Weimar Republic signed the Treaty of Versailles for Germany after WWI.
Hitler became a leader when he was like, “Heck no, we’re not paying this bill anymore.
Stupid Weimar republic who freakin’ screwed us over.” Of course, it probably sounded a
whole lot meaner in German. Anyway, he staged a Coup d’Etat (Remember from the
French Revolution - an overthrowing of the government) and was sent to jail where he
wrote Mein Kampf, or “My Struggle,” where it basically explained his plans to kill the
jews, take over, etc. But he only served 9 months out of his whole charged jail time
because the courts were like, “hey, maybe this guy is right...” BOO COURTS.
! -”Kristallnacht” means “Night of Broken Glass” and was when there was
violence towards the Jews. They broke into their homes, businesses, and beat them, etc.
! -Well, Hitler’s already screwed over the Treaty of Versailles, so let me explain
these other two treaties mentioned (Nazi-Soviet Pact and Munich Agreement).
! ! -The Nazi-Soviet Pact kind of has a few steps that happened before it,
but stay with me. Stalin was afraid that Germany would try to declare war on the
Soviet Union, so Stalin wanted to create an alliance with the Western part of Europe,
thinking that Hitler would never try to fight against a united Europe. However, Britain
was still pissed off at Russia for pulling out of WWI, so Britain was all, “Nope, I’m
not signing an alliance with you.” But Stalin interpreted the alliance rejection as Britain
saying, “No, we already have an alliance with Germany.” But they didn’t actually. So
Stalin’s all like, “Well, then I’ll have to just draft an alliance with Germany then.” So
they did, and that became the Nazi-Soviet Pact. Both countries agreed to stay neutral if
the other was involved in war. Let’s see how long that lasts with Mr. Treaty-Breakin’
Hitler in power.
! ! -ANYWAY, Hitler decided he was gonna be a little Mr. Greedy Pants and
take over Sudetenland (which is in Czech). He went to Britain and said, “Let me have
control of Sudetenland, or I’ll invade all of Czech. (Keep in mind, Sudetenland was
mainly German people at this point, so it almost seemed fair for Hitler to ask for it
back.) But the British said no because it was part of the land that was taken from
Germany as part of the Treaty of Versailles. So Mussolini (Italy) told Hitler to hold a
four-country meeting (excluding Czech) and propose his plans. So they did and Hitler
said, “If you let me have Sudetenland, I won’t take anymore of Czech.” And this time
they agreed because they just wanted to avoid war. This was called the Munich
Agreement. HOWEVER, this being Hitler and all, he screwed that over too and
eventually invaded all of Czech. This is considered the official beginning to WWII.
!
 Acts of Aggression (Basic Overview)
Germany
! -March 1936 Nazis occupy Rhineland
! -March 1938 Annexed Austria
! -Sept 1938 Munich Agreement
! -March 1939 Takes all of Czech
! -Sept 1, 1939 Invades Poland - WWII

Italy
! -Oct 1935 Attacks Ethiopia
! -April 1939 Attacks Albania
! (Remember, Mussolini attacked weak countries just to be able to say he had
! victories under his belt.)

Japan
! -Sept 1931 Invades Manchuria, China
! -July 1937 Invades Nanjing, China
! -Dec 7, 1941 Pearl Harbor - WWII