8.00 Module Index 
Viewing Video Guide

The economic collapse, and the political instability caused by World War I led the rise of fascism in  Europe to World War II. The Nazi version of fascism was dedicated to the reversal of the Versailles Treaty and the establishment of a German Empire by means of war and conquest.

The Great Depression decimated the economies of Europe and the United States. This was fertile ground for the emergence of the Nazis to power in Germany , and a military clique to take power in Japan. In the United States and in western Europe, the pre-occupation with the domestic economic crisis contributed to the political failure to meet the rising threat of fascism.

Fascism was an ideology which glorified the military, denounced international organizations and cooperation, and considered war an acceptable means for achieving national goals. Hitler's Germany and Mussolini's Italy adopted aggressive foreign policies involving war as an intended, even desirable method.

England pursued a determined effort to avoid war, which played into Hitler's plans because he used every concession to prepare the stage for his next demand. France consistently followed England's lead. The English and the French did not trust Stalinist Russia, and Stalin distrusted the capitalist West. When the Russians tried to form a common front against fascism in the 1930's, many English and French leaders considered Nazi Germany to be useful as a check against Russian expansion.