Transcript Nazi Germany and Hitler`s Aggressions

WWII
 (1933)Adolf
Hitler announced that he
would rearm the country.
 He also took Germany out of the League
of Nations.
 (1936)German troops marched into the
Rhineland.
 Rome-Berlin Axis- In October 1936, Hitler
and Mussolini created an alliance known
as the Rome-Berlin Axis.
 Shortly
after the Axis Powers were
formed, Japan and Germany promised to
work together.
 They signed an agreement called the
Anti-Comintern Pact, pledging to stop the
spread of communism (on paper).
 (March
1938)Hitler declared Austria to
be part of the Third Reich, which was a
direct violation of the Treaty of Versailles.
 No union between Austria and Germany
was to be permitted.
 Great Britain and France sent protests to
Hitler, but he ignored them.
 The League of Nations took no action.
 More
than 3 million Germans lived in the
Sudetenland, a region around the
western rim of Czechoslovakia.
 Many
Germans living in this area wanted
a union with Germany.
 As a result, the Nazi Party grew in
strength there.
 September 1938-Riots broke out and
Czechoslovakia placed the region under
martial law.
 Hitler then announced he would invade
and annex the Sudetenland to protect
fellow Germans.
 (September
1938) Hitler invited British
prime minister Neville Chamberlain and
French premier Edouard Daladier to
meet with him in Munich (Mussolini was
also present).
 The meeting was designed to ease
tensions in Europe.
 Chamberlain
and Daladier accepted
Hitler’s demand that the Sudetenland be
joined with Germany.
 Britain and France feared Germany’s
military strength and were presently
suffering through an economic
depression.
 Appeasement- The policy of trying to
keep the peace by accepting some of the
demands of the aggressor.
 Germany
began to occupy the Sudetenland.
 Abandoned by its allies, Czechoslovakia
was left defenseless.
 The U.S. also tried to avoid the conflict.
 (March 1939)German troops invaded
Czechoslovakia, six months later it was
wiped off the map.
 (April 1939)Mussolini invaded Albania.
 The League of Nations failed to be
effective.
 After
Hitler took over Czechoslovakia,
British and French leaders could no longer
ignore the fascist dictators.
 Britain and France began preparing for war.
Nazi-Soviet Pact (German-Soviet
Nonaggression Pact)-This agreement
publicly stated that Germany and the
Soviet Union would not attack each other.
Each would remain neutral if the other
went to war.
 Secretly, Hitler
and Stalin had agreed to
divide eastern Europe into spheres of
influence.
 Germany was to take western Poland, while
the Soviet Union was to have a free hand in
the Baltic countries of Estonia, Latvia, and
Lithuania, as well as eastern Poland.
 The Western nations had lost a possible ally
in the East, while Germany had arranged for
the Soviet Union to be neutral.
 Danzig
was a free city protected by the
League of Nations.
 Poland and Germany both had rights to
use the port of Danzig.
 A strip of land about 90 miles long and 55
miles wide, (Polish Corridor) this
territory allowed Poland access to the
port of Danzig (formally part of Germany
prior to WWI).
 Hitler
announced the annexation of
Danzig to the German Reich.
 At the same time, his air force began a
massive attack on Poland.
 Nazi tanks sped across the border and
swiftly drove toward Warsaw and the
Polish heartland.
 Two days later Great Britain and France
kept their promises to Poland and
declared war on Germany.
Blitzkrieg- “lighting war”
(Hitler’s invasion of Poland)
Europe’s Reaction
 British forces landed on the northern coast of France
and blockaded Germany’s ports.
 French forces fortified the Maginot line.
 The Allies increased troop movement and arms
production, but were relatively weak against Nazi
Germany.

 The
French army expected stationary
battles (like in World War I).
 However, German planes bombed and
machine-gunned civilians who tried to
escape the attack on France.
 June
14, 1940-Germans entered Paris and
the French armed resistance fell, causing
the cabinet to resign
 German troops were to occupy northern
France and a strip of territory along the
coast, extending into Spain.
 The French navy was to be disabled as
well.



The French who
continued to fight the
Germans formed the
Free French
Government.
The organization set up
headquarters in London
and the United States.
Headed by General
Charles de Gaulle



The Luftwaffe (German
Air Force) tried to soften
up Britain for an invasion.
During September 1940
and May 1941 fighting
continued between the
Luftwaffe and the RAF
(Royal Air Force).
43,000 British civilians
died in nighttime air
raids.
 Germany
was unable to win the Battle of
Britain.
 However, Germany still continued to
blockade British trade.
 There was still a chance that Britain could
be starved into surrendering (war of
attrition).
 Neutrality
Acts- passed between 1935 and
1937, the United States had stated its wish to
remain neutral in future wars
1) Americans could not sell war equipment to
warring nations or sail on their ships.
2) American ships were restricted from entering
war zones.
 Many
people worried that Nazi Germany
would destroy not only Europe, but also
civilization itself.
 On the other hand, most Americans
believed that Europe’s wars should not
concern the United States.
 Their opinion began to change as fears
grew that the Nazis could potentially take
over the world.
 1939-A
revised Neutrality Act allowed
American firms to sell munitions to
warring nations on a cash-and-carry
basis.
 Great Britain still controlled sea routes
between the U.S. and Britain, therefore
the effect of this law was to allow the sale
of arms only to Great Britain.
September 1940
 FDR moved 50 old American warships to Great
Britain.
 Congress passed the first national draft law in
the United States during peacetime
March 1941
 Congress passed the Lend-Lease Act, allowing
the president to supply war materials to Great
Britain on credit.
 In
August 1941, Roosevelt and Churchill
met aboard a British battle ship off the
coast of Newfoundland (Canada).
 They created a statement of British and
U.S. democratic goals.