The Road to War

The long-term and immediate causes of WWII

Japanese Aggression• Needed more space

and land for resources

• 1931 - Invade China• League of Nations

does nothing

• 1937 – Assaulted a quarter million citizens

Treaty of Versailles• After WWI, forced Germany to:• Accept blame for the war• Pay reparations• Reduce military• Give up land

Germany’s Desire for Living Space• Hitler and the Nazis needed more land for:• Living space for all European Germans• Resources

Italian Aggression - 1935• Italy invades Northern Africa – Ethiopia, Libya and Albania

• Later, Italy becomes controlled by Hitler and the Nazis

Munich Conference - 1938• British Prime Minister

Neville Chamberlain agrees to give Hitler the Sudetenland (a “German” part of Czechoslovakia)

• Hitler promised to stop taking any more territory

• Appeasement - Great Britain gave in to Germany’s demands to avoid war.

Broken Munich Pact - 1939• Hitler took over

Czechoslovakia immediately after the Munich Pact was signed

• Chamberlain did NOT last as Prime Minister

• Winston Churchill – a MUCH stronger leader – took over as British leader

Soviet Non-Aggression Pact - 1939• Much to the surprise of the

rest of the world bitter enemies Germany and the Soviet Union signed a peace treaty – the Molotov-Ribbentrop Non-Aggression Pact.

• They promised to split the land they conquered

• Germany was now in alliance with Italy, Japan, and the Soviet Union

• Democracies were justifiably frightened.

German Invasion of Poland - 1939By the year 1939, Germany had rebuilt its military, occupied the Rhineland, funded a war in Spain, taken over all of Austria by extortion, seized the Sudetenland, captured all of Czechoslovakia, and, in September of 1939, invaded Poland, starting World War II.

•Hitler invades Poland in September 1, 1939•This OFFICIALLY begins WWII

Soviet Invasion of Poland - 1939• Soviet Union invades Poland and the Baltic nations• Sixteen days after Hitler does

Britain & France Declare War - 1939• Horrified by the brutal

repression of the Polish

people, England and France both declared war on Germany.

• Both nations refused to declare war on the equally aggressive Soviet Union. They have a feeling that the Soviet Union would be betrayed by Hitler – and knew they would likely need another ally, no matter their political differences.

Europe at WarWhat goes down in Europe prior to the U.S. joining the war?

German Blitzkrieg • When the war finally came, both Great Britain and

France were overwhelmed by the massive German onslaught.

• The German blitzkrieg, or “Lightening War,” devastated the advanced forces of the British and French armies so completely that they were forced to retreat.

Evacuation at Dunkirk - 1940• The English and

French were cornered at Dunkirk, a beach along the English Channel

• The people of England organized every fishing vessel to evacuate as many soldiers as possible

• Over 300,000 soldiers were evacuated and saved.

Fall of France - 1940• The attempts are not enough and France surrenders

to Nazi Germany• The German army captures Paris, France

Battle of Britain - 1940• Daily air assault on the British islands by German planes• Tens of thousands of people died• British air force fought against the Nazis• Finally, Hitler gave up

Germany Invades the Soviet Union - 1941• Since German Nazism and Soviet

Communism were two rival philosophies and each nation had a brutal dictator for its leader, most European observers correctly predicted that the relationship would end in betrayal.

• Germany would eventually violate their Pact and they invade the Soviet Union– (Operation Barbarossa)

Stalin & Churchill - 1941• An unlikely team, Stalin and Churchill must team up

to beat a bigger enemy – Adolf Hitler