World War IIWorld War II

An overview of the Major Events and Key

Players.

Key Players in the War

Axis Powers Adolf Hitler Benito Mussolini Hideki Tojo

Allied Powers Neville Chamberlain Winston Churchill Charles De Gaulle Franklin Roosevelt Harry Truman Joseph Stalin

Background: The Aftermath of WWI

Treaty of Versailles (1919) - punishments set the foundation for WWII

League of Nations (1920) - lacked power or will to stop aggression

New Democracies - lacked stability

Background: Attempts at Peace

Washington Conference (1922) –agreement to limit navy buildup

Kellogg-Briand Pact (1928) – sixty-two nations agree to solve problems diplomatically

Background: Economic Depression Sets the Stage

Global Economic Depression 1930s Struggling democracies in Japan and Germany could not

maintain power– Weimar Republic crumbles under the pressure and the Nazis

assume control under Adolph Hitler– Militarists in Japan seize power and establish Emperor Hirohito

as the symbol of state power Extreme Nationalists now control Italy, Germany and

Japan

Short Term Causes: Aggression and Appeasement

Appeasement – Britain and France wanted to avoid war and therefore gave in to Axis Power demands

Western democracies would not act aggressively– Britain – Sympathetic towards Germany – knew Versailles

Treaty too harsh, wanted to avoid war– France – Would not do anything without Britain– United States of America – Isolation from Europe

Short Term Causes: Aggression and Appeasement

Italian, Japanese, and German aggression not stopped by League of Nations

Short Term Causes: Aggression and Appeasement Timeline

1931: Japan invades Manchuria

1935: Italy invades Ethiopia to avenge 1890 defeat

1935: Hitler announces Germany will no longer follow the conditions of the Versailles treaty

1936: German troops reoccupy the Rhineland

1936: Germany, Italy and Japan form the Axis Powers

1937: Japan Invades China

Major Events of the War- The Onset of War

1938 – Hitler unites Austria with Germany 1938 – Signed Munich Pact to Gain control of

Sudetenland (In Czechoslovakia) 1939 – Hitler and USSR sign nonaggression pact

(Agreed to divide Poland) 1939- Blitzkrieg in Poland September 1, 1939 – World War II official start