Transcript File
WWII Begins What were the Causes of WWII? #1 Treaty of Versailles • destroys German nationalism and economy • US Stock Market Crash - Sends Germany into a huge Depression! • People are panicked and will listen to anyone! - Hitler rises to power $1 worth 3 trillion Marks Selling Money by Weight • Hitler promises a return to German Prosperity and Glory • Becomes dictator in March 1933 #2 Rise of Aggressors Germany Adolf Hitler Italy Benito Mussolini Japan Japanese Aggression • 1931 attacks Manchuria • 1932 attacks Shanghai • 1937 invades China Chinese Prisoners being buried alive Thirty girls were taken from language school last night, and today I have heard scores of heartbreaking stories of girls who were taken from their homes last night--one of the girls was but 12 years old....Tonight a truck passed in which there were eight or ten girls, and as it passed they called out "Ging ming! Ging ming!"--save our lives. (Minnie Vautrins diary, 16 December 1937) It is a horrible story to relate; I know not where to begin nor to end. Never have I heard or read of such brutality. Rape: We estimate at least 1,000 cases a night and many by day. In case of resistance or anything that seems like disapproval there is a bayonet stab or a bullet. (James McCallum, letter to his family, 19 December, 1937) Italian Aggression October 1935 Mussolini attacks Ethiopia German Aggression • 1936 Marches into Rhineland • 1938 Anschluss of Austria • 1939 Takes Czechoslovakia “Well, two years ago when we marched into the Rhineland with a handful of battalions - at that moment I risked a great deal. If France had marched then, we should have been forced to withdraw. But for France it is now too late!” -- Adolf Hitler Austria Welcomes Hitler We Sing For Adolf Hitler #3 Appeasement Giving in to an aggressor to avoid war League of Nations • Does little to stop Japan, Italy, and Germany • No one wants to go to war again Example of Appeasement • Munich Conference 1939 • France and Great Britain meet with Hitler to persuade him to not go after the Sudetenland - end up allowing him to take it - Hitler promises it will be his last invasion - “This is the last territorial claim I have to make in Europe.” “Peace in our Time” After Munich Conferences • Hitler Invades the rest of Czechoslovakia • Announces future invasion of Poland What event signified the beginning of WWII? September 1, 1939 Germany Invades Poland Countdown to War • August 1939 Nazi-Soviet Pact - Russia agrees to help Germany invade Poland • September 1 – Invasion Begins • September 3- Great Britain and France Declare War To the chancellor of the German Reich, Herr A. Hitler. I thank you for your letter. I hope that the German-Soviet Nonaggression Pact will mark a decisive turn for the better in the political relations between our two countries. . . . • J. Stalin Axis Powers Germany Adolf Hitler Italy Benito Mussolini Japan Hideki Tojo Allied Powers Great Britain Winston Churchill Russia Joseph Stalin United States Franklin D. Roosevelt Questions?