Transcript Beginning of World War II

Beginning of WWII
Mark Manbeck
Eugenics
• Eugenics, the social movement claiming
to improve the genetic features of human
populations through selective breeding
and sterilization.
Essential Question
What people, countries, and events began
WWII?
“Nature is cruel, so we may be cruel, too… I have the
right to remove millions of an inferior race that breeds
like vermin”
-Hitler
Immediate Causes of WW II
• Second Sino-Japanese War
• Tripartite Pact (1940)
– Defensive Military
Alliance
• Italy, Japan, Germany
– Aimed at US to make
them think twice
about joining Allies
Immediate Causes of WW II
• In Germany Adolf Hitler
came to power in 1933 as a
fascist dictator.
• Hitler Hated the Treaty
of Versailles and
violated it.
– First he built up the German
military.
– Then he sent troops into the
Rhineland.
– Direct violation of the
Treaty of Versailles, which
said in 1919 that Rhineland
was a demilitarized zone.
Immediate Causes of WW II
• Hitler wanted to conquer
whoever he felt was inferior
Germans or Aryans.
• Wanted “living space” for
Germans in Eastern Europe.
• Munich Pact
– Hitler Promised not to
invade any other country
Immediate Causes of WW II
Appeasement:
• Gives Germany
Sudetenland (1938)
– (Much of
Czechoslovakia)
• September 1, 1939
• Germany invaded
Poland without
declaration of war.
• This starts World
War II.
Kristallnacht 1938
• “Night of Broken
Glass”
• Pogrom
– Organized massacre
of particular ethnic
group
• Nazis nonviolent
before
– After increasingly
worse
Immediate Causes of WW II
• Britain and
France declared
war on Germany
on September 3,
1939.
• Italy declared
war on France
and Britain on
June 10, 1940.
“Blitzkrieg”
• In German blitzkrieg
– “lightning war”.
• Blitzkrieg used
during invasion of
Poland.
• Blitzkrieg
– Surprise attacks
– Massive air attacks
– Rapid advances into
enemy territory by
infantry
• Most Axis victories
from Blitzkrieg
Blitzkrieg
“Phony War”
• Britain sent troops
to wait with French
down behind the
Maginot Line.
• Reporters called
this quiet time of
not much action the
“phony war”
Maginot Line
• The Maginot Line was a
defensive for France
against an invasion of
Germany.
• The Maginot Line was
established after
World War I.
• The line showed to be
little use in 1940 when
Germany invaded France
for the third time.
Maginot Line
“Blitzkrieg: German soldiers being parachuted into
Holland - May 10, 1940”
Early Axis Triumphs
• In April 1940 the quiet time of the war
exploded into action.
• Hitler launched a series of blitzkrieg.
• Norway and and Denmark both fell.
• Germany had overrun the Netherlands and
Belgium.
• Germany along with Italy forced France to
surrender.
Fall of France
Hitler’s Major Blunder
• The Germans invaded France in
May 1940.
• Retreating Allied forces made it
to Dunkirk and found themselves
trapped between the advancing
Nazis and the English Channel.
The British sent every boat they
could get across the English
Channel to pick up troops off the
beaches of Dunkirk.
Miracle at Dunkirk
• The event at Dunkirk is called a miracle
because the retreating allies had lost hope
and then the British pulled through for them
and rescued 338,000 men.
June 22, 1940
• On June 22, 1940 France signs an armistice
with Germany in occupied France.
• An armistice is a cease fire or a truce.
• The Franco-German Armistice divided France
into two zones. One zone was under German
military occupation and the other was under
French control.
• In 1942 Germans occupied all of France
June 22, 1940
Questions
• What were the immediate causes of WWII?
• Describe the German concept of the “blitzkrieg”.
• Where were the early Axis triumphs, and what was
the “phony war”?
• What was the miracle at Dunkirk?
• What was the significance of June 22, 1940?