Transcript The Path to Another War WWII

The Path to Another War
WWII Breaks out in Europe!
Factors leading to war?
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Rise of militarism and fascism in Italy,
Germany, and Japan
Facism: glorification of the state, singleparty system with a strong ruler, and
aggressive nationalism
Anger over end of WWI, Great Depression
WWII begins LONG before 1939!
Weak League of Nations
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Could not protect
“collective security”
Isolationism by USA
Aggressive actions of
Germany, Italy, and
Japan “test” the
League
Japan invades Manchuria, 1931
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China complains to
League
League investigates and
finds Japan GUILTY
Japan QUITS League!
1937 Japan invades
REST of China!
“Rape of Nanking,” 1937
Italy invades Ethiopia
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1934: 2 forces clash on
boarder of Ethiopia and
Italian Somaliland
League says no one is to
blame
Mussolini invades in
October 1935
Haile Selassie asks
League for HELP!
League reacts…
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Imposes
SANCTIONS
(economic
punishments) on Italy,
but not on warmaking materials!
May 1936: Italy
annexes Ethiopia!
Fascism in Spain!
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Spanish Civil War
1936-1939
Soviets support
LOYALISTS
(communist group)
Italy and Germany
support
NATIONALISTS
(fascist group)
A Preview of what’s to come…
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Fascists led by Francisco
Franco
Strengthened ties
between Italy and
Germany
Luftwaffe uses Spanish
towns as TESTING
GROUNDS!!!
More than half a
MILLION Spaniards DIE
Hitler goes on the OFFENSIVE
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March 1936: invades
Rhineland between
France and Germany
October 1936: Hitler
and Mussolini sign
Rome-Berlin Axis
Nov. 1936: sign AntiComintern Pact,
Stalin urges West to
step in!!
No one steps in!!!
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1938: Hitler bullies
Austrian leader into
appointing German
officials
Appeal to League
does NOTHING
March 1938: Austrian
Anschluss—
proclaimed it part of
Germany!
Sudetenland Crisis, Sep. 1938
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Northwest
Czechoslovakia
Hitler DEMANDS it,
GB’s Neville
Chamberlain accepts!
APPEASEMENT:
“Make ‘em happy,
shut ‘em up!”
Munich Conference
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Mussolini’s compromise:
give Germany
Sudetenland, and they
will promise not to take
any more!
Britain and France
wanted to avoid war
March 15, 1939: Hitler
takes REST of
Czechoslovakia
ANYWAY!
Nazi-Soviet Pact…a curveball!
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Hitler takes Lithuania,
threatens Poland
Allies NEED USSR to
defend POLAND
Suspicions between
USSR and France/GB
Stalin begins secret
talks with Germans!
Nazi-Soviet Nonaggression Pact
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Signed August 23, 1939
Would NEVER attack
each other
Would remain neutral if
other involved in war
Create spheres of
influence in Europe
Split up Poland!
Long-term enemies,
needed a short-term
alliance
NOW, Hitler gets reassurance…
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He can invade Poland
without fear of USSR
getting involved!
September 1, 1939:
Hitler INVADES
POLAND
September 3, 1939:
GB and France say
enough is enough!
Harassment of Jews
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So that Germany did not officially
seem the aggressor (which it was),
Hitler needed an excuse for
entering/attacking Poland. It was
Heinrich Himmler who came up with
the idea; thus the plan was code
named Operation Himmler.
On the night of August 31, 1939, Nazis
took an unknown prisoner from one of
their concentration camps, dressed
him in a Polish uniform, took him to
the town of Gleiwitz (on the border of
Poland and Germany), and then shot
him. The staged scene with the dead
prisoner dressed in a Polish uniform
was supposed to appear as a Polish
attack against a German radio station.
Hitler used the staged attack as the
excuse to invade Poland.
Now GB and France will try to
stop Hitler…
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BUT IT IS ALMOST
TOO LATE!!!
Hitler’s army is
extremely strong
Hitler can now
implement his “Final
Solution” to the
“Jewish Problem”