Causes of WWII

LaNeetra JamesDuncanville High SchoolJanuary 23, 2010http://www.duncanvilleisd.org/ljames/

TEKS 1C, 3B-C, 7A, 11B, 12A, 16A-B, 19B, 25C, 26A, 26C-DTAKS Gr10/11: Obj 5: WG21C, WH25C, WH26C, US24

America Turns to Neutrality Dictatorships, unpaid war debts, and Nye Committee findings that arms factories made huge profits during WWI caused isolationism. The Neutrality Act of 1935 made it illegal to sell arms to any country at war. The Neutrality Act of 1937 required warring countries to buy supplies on a “cash and carry” basis. FDR supported internationalism, trade between nations creates prosperity and helps to prevent war.

Austria and CzechoslovakiaIn March 1938, Hitler announced the Anschluss, or unification, of Austria and Germany. Hitler claimed the Sudetenland, an area of Czechoslovakia with a large German-speaking population. At the Munich Conference, Britain and France, hoping to prevent another war agreed to Hitler’s demands using appeasement. Germany sent troops into Czechoslovakia, bringing it under German control.

The War Begins Hitler demanded the return of Danzig, Poland’s Baltic Sea port. On September 1, 1939, Germany invaded Poland using a blitzkrieg, or lightening war. Britain and France declared war. Germany and the USSR signed the Nazi-Soviet nonaggression pact, with a secret agreement to divide Poland . On April 9, 1940, the German army attacked and conquered Norway and Denmark.

After World War I, France built forts called the Maginot Line along the Germany. Hitler went around it by invading the Netherlands, Belgium, and Luxembourg. The French and British went and were trapped in Belgium by German forces. 338,000 British and French troops escaped across the English Channel. France surrendered and Germany installed a puppet government in France.

Britain Remains Defiant To invade Britain, Germany had to defeat the British air force. In the Battle of Britain, the German air force, the Luftwaffe, tried to destroy the British Royal Air Force. After Germany bombed London, the British bombed Berlin.The Royal Air Force was greatly outnumbered, but they had radar stations that could detect German aircraft and direct British fighters to intercept them.

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Kennedy, David M., Cohen, Lizabeth, Bailey, Thomas A.. The American Pageant: A History of the Republic. New York, NY: Houghton Mifflin Company, 2002.

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