The document provides an overview of the rise of dictators in Europe and Asia in the 1930s and 1940s that led to the start of World War II. It discusses how Mussolini, Hitler, and Stalin rose to power as dictators in Italy, Germany, and the Soviet Union respectively. Hitler violated the Treaty of Versailles by rebuilding the German military and annexing Austria. He then demanded parts of Czechoslovakia. When Britain and France conceded, it set the stage for Hitler's next demand of Poland in 1939, leading Britain and France to declare war on Germany and marking the start of WWII.