Note Page 40 “World War II Begins”

By Morgan J. Burris Lexington Middle School

US History

Pre-War Foreign Policy

- US focused on domestic issues

-extreme anti-war feelings

“Merchants of Death”

-Good Neighbor policy in Latin America

-Neutrality Acts

forbids arms sales to warring nations

-1937 Roosevelt gives Quarantine speech

-Weak League of NationsUS failed to joinInability to use force to

stop aggressive nations

France - War damaged - Need for security from

Germany - Strict enforcement of

the Versailles Treaty - Construction of the

Maginot Line

Lacarno Treaty - Pledge to keep the

peace in Europe - Kellogg-Briand Pact

signed later

Prelude to War:

Rise of Fascism• Combination of

Dictatorship & Totalitarianism

• Political, social, economic, cultural

control

• Mass appeal and propaganda

• Nationalistic

• Militaristic

• Opposed to communist ideals

• Wanted control through force

• Appealed to upper classes and existing

class order

Rise of Mussolini

Black Shirts - Private army- Intimidation

Mussolini gains in popularityCivil unrestBlack Shirts

Mussolini appointed - head of gov’t- Dictatorship begins- Civil liberties repressed

Rise of Nazi Party• Adolph Hitler

- German Workers Party

- Opposition to Socialists • Storm Troopers or Brown

Shirts

• Critic of Weimar Republic

• Beer hall Putsch fails –

Hitler jailed

• Writes “Mein Kampf”

- Nationalism

- Racism

- Lebensraum = living space

• Hitler and Nazi Party seek to take power legally after

Hitler’s prison term.

Rise of J. Stalin• Joseph Stalin

- Communist Russia

- Replaced V. Lenin

• Killed 20 million of his own in “Great Purge” for power.

• Totalitarian State.

• Five-Year Plans to industrial nation

• Hated Fascism!

• Will sign a secret treaty with Hitler / Poland.

• When Hitler turns on USSR, they will join Allied Side…

Totalitarianism

11

Japan’s Aggression

1937

-Japan invades Manchuria

-League of Nations ineffective

-Japan withdraws from the League

-Japan begins the conquest of China

- Wanted Natural Resources – Oil, timber, steel, etc….

- Feel they are racially superior over all of Asia

13

Hitler’s Pre-War Actions

-Starts the Rearmament of Germany, 1933

-violated Versailles Treaty

-Withdrawal from the League of nations

-Occupation of the Rhineland

-Alliance with Italy

-Annexation of Austria, 1938

-goal of uniting all German people

-Union was forbidden in the Versailles Treaty

Austria & Czechoslovakia

-Annexation of Austria, 1938

-goal of uniting all German people

-Union was forbidden in the Versailles Treaty

16

Hitler's Move:

-Czechoslovakian crisis 1938

-Sudetenland—contained Germans

-Munich Conference with other leaders of Europe

-Appeasement policy

-“Peace in our time”

-Six Months later takes it all / Czechoslovakia

PEACE

IN OUR

TIME!

18

19

20

Europe begins to

prepare for war-Nazi-Soviet Pact, August

1939

-Germany hopes to avoid a two front war

-Each pledges neutrality in a war

-Each gets a sphere of influence in eastern Europe

- Invasion of Poland,

Sept. 1st. 1939

Captured country in six wks.

France & GB declare war!

-Polish question

-Britain and France pledge protection

-Polish Corridor

-War begins on Sept. 1, 1939

Blitzkrieg Lightning warfare

-heavy use of machinery and aircraft

-quick victory over Poland

-Phony War begins

Maginot Line

Siegfried Line

-Stalin attacks Finland, Hitler attacks Denmark, Norway, then Belgium

-Invasion of France

-Massive Allied evacuation at Dunkirk

-France signs surrender, June 1940

Battle of Britain- Germany controls most of

Europe

-Luftwaffe begin bombing of Britain over 100 days.

-RAF defends British homeland

New Technology – Radar

25

-”Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so

many to so few”

Winston Churchill speaking of the pilots of the RAF

◊ Prime Minster of Great Britain

Germany never launches invasion of Britain

26

Note Page 40“World War II Begins”

By Morgan J. Burris Lexington Middle School

The End