The Road to WWII

Homburg

American Studies

Hitler’s Goals

• Bring entire German people (the volk) into a single nation.

• The nation needed more living space, or Lebensraum.

• Hitler’s foreign policy blueprint was set down early in his career

• To reach its goals, Germany would need to rearm

• The League of Nations condemned this. But nothing was done to prevent it.

Remilitarization of the Rhineland

• Breach of Versailles treaty and Locarno agreements

• Britain and France did little

• British opinion would not permit support of France. France would not act alone

• France was paralyzed by internal divisions

• Both countries were weakened by growing pacifism

Response to remilitarization

• G.B. & France lost an opportunity to stop Hitler (French army could have easily defeated Germany)

• Response was policy of Appeasement- They believed that Hitler’s goals were limited and acceptable

Anschluss and Sudetenland

• Anschluss refers to the union of Germany and Austria

• Anschluss was a clear violation of the Treaty of Versailles

• Strategic because Germany now surrounded Czechoslovakia (pro-west, allies with France and Soviet Union)

• Czechoslovakia contained 3.5 million Germans who lived in the Sudetenland

…Continued

• The Czechs appealed to the British• Neville Chamberlain and French Premier

Daladier agreed to give the Sudetenland to Hitler• Called the Munich Agreement• Hitler promised- “ I have no more territorial

demands to make in Europe”• Chamberlain told a cheering crowd he had

brought “ peace and honor. I believe it is peace for our time.”

• 1939 Hitler broke promise and occupied Prague- turning point in British public opinion

• ¾ of British public believed a war was worth it to stop Hitler.

• Hitler turns attention towards Poland

• Chamberlain announces Franco-British guarantee of Polish independence

• Hitler didn’t take Britain & France seriously and knew they were unprepared for war

Italy

• 1935 Mussolini attacks Ethiopia

• Exposed weakness of League of Nations

• Goal was to restore Roman imperial glory, divert attention from domestic problems, and avenge an earlier defeat.

• Britain and France formally condemned the act- sanctions included limited loans to and imports from, Italy

Spain

• General Francisco Franco (fascist) started three year civil war against Spanish republic

• Germany and Italy helped, brought them closer together

• Soviet Union supported the republic w/ military aid

The Nazi-Soviet Pact

• August 23, 1939, Nazi-Soviet nonagression pact• Hitler believed he had to ally w/ Soviet Union in

order to defend a conquest of Poland• The secret agreement split up Poland between

Germany and Soviet Union• Stalin hesitated on negotiations with G.B. &

France because he was left out of Munich Agreements

• On Sept. 1, 1939, Germany invades Poland. Two days later G.B. & France declare war on germany.

• Soviet Union invades Poland from the east, they encircle Estonia, Latvia, & Lithuania

• Until Spring 0f 1940, little activity on the western front, known as “sitzkrieg”

• 1940 Hitler invades Denmark, Norway, Belgium, Luxembourg.

• 300,000 British & French troops evacuated from Belgium to the beaches of Dunkirk

• French Maginot line (defensive fortifications) ran from Switzerland to Belgium

• French army was led by aged generals, didn’t know how to use tanks or planes. France collapsed

• The French Gov’t now located in Vichy collaborated w/ Germans. Vichy was supported by Catholic Church

• Hitler forced to abandon plans to invade Britain

• Turned attention towards Russia

• Operation Barbarossa was launched on June 22, 1941- Russians taken by surprise

• German’s stood on outskirts of Moscow

• Hitler stalled to decide strategy- winter devastated German army

• Soviet’s used the term “great patriotic war”

• Soviet turning point was battle of Stalingrad

U.S. Enters War

• Day after Pearl Harbor, U.S. & G.B. declare war on Japan (Dec. 1941).

• New tech. and tactics helped British and U.S. prevail

• September 1944 France is liberated

Defeat of Nazis

• May 1945 Russians capture Berlin

• Hitler commits suicide in underground bunker

• Third Reich lasted 12 instead of the thousand predicted by Hitler

The Atomic Bomb

• August 6, 1945 U.S. drops atomic bomb on Hiroshima ( 70,000 dead). Three days later Nagasaki is hit by Atomic bomb

• U.S. desired end war quickly and save American lives

Little Boy Fat Man

Before After

Preparations for Peace

• 1941- America and Britain agree to Atlantic Charter- unconditional surrender of the enemy

• 1943 Tehran Conference- Divide Germany into four zones and self-determination for post-war European nations

• 1945 Potsdam- Truman, Atlee and Stalin