   the events preceding world war ii in europe are closely tied to the rise of fascism, especially in nazi germany. ==aftermath of world war i== world war ii is generally viewed as having its roots in the aftermath of the first world war. in that war, the german empire under kaiser wilhelm ii, with its allies, were defeated, chiefly by the united kingdom, canada, united states, france, and japan. the victors directly blamed germany for the war; it was germany that effectively started the war with an attack on france through belgium. france had in 1871 suffered a defeat in the franco-prussian war, and demanded compensation for its financial devastation during the first world war, which ensured that the various peace treaties, specifically the treaty of versailles imposed tough financial war reparations and restrictions on germany in the aftermath of world war i. the british naval blockade of germany was not lifted until the treaty was signed at the end of june 1919. ==weimar republic becomes the third reich== the nazi party, led by adolf hitler, blamed germany's ruined economy on the harshness of the versailles treaty, on faults of democracy, and on the stab-in-the-back legend. in germany, as in post-austro-hungarian austria, citizens recalled the pre-war years under autocratic rule as prosperous but the post-war years under weak democratic rule as chaotic and economically disastrous. the situation was further aggravated by the worldwide economic depression that followed the wall street crash in 1929. left-wing and right-wing anti-democratic parties in the reichstag (the german parliament) obstructed parliamentary work, while different cabinets resorted to government by the special emergency powers of the weimar constitution. this enabled the president and cabinet to bypass the parliament. ==mussolini comes into power== after several liberal governments failed to rein in these threats, and the fascists had increased their public profile by highly visible punishment expeditions to supposedly crush the socialist "threat", king victor emmanuel iii of italy invited benito mussolini to form a government on october 29, 1922. the fascists maintained an armed paramilitary wing, which they employed to fight anarchists, communists, and socialists. within a few years, mussolini had consolidated dictatorial power and italy became a police state. on january 7, 1935, he and french foreign minister [[pierre l
Chronology_of_World_War_II Interwar_period