Download Aggressors Invade Nations

Aggressors Invade Nations
Chapter 16
Chapter 15 Sect. 4
WWII
Remembering the Treaty of Versailles
League of Nations
An international peace organization was created:
the League of Nations
Territorial Losses:
Germany-returns Alsace-Lorraine to France
French border extended to west bank
Rhine River
Germany-surrenders all of its overseas colonies
in Africa and the Pacific
Alsace and Lorraine Regions
Military Restrictions:
Limits are set on the size of the German
army
Germany prohibited from importing or
manufacturing weapons or war material
Germany forbidden to build or buy submarines
or have an air force
War Guilt:
Sole responsibility for the war placed on
Germany’s shoulders
Germany forced to pay the Allies $33
billion in reparations over 30 years
World in 1930s
Britain, France, and the United States
are the major democracies
–Distracted by economic problems at
home
–Wanted to remain at peace
Many nations hoped the League of
Nations would maintain peace
Fascism spreads in Europe
The Great Depression
Long-term causes
 World
economies are connected
 Some countries have huge war debts
from WWI
 Europe relies on American loans and
investments.
 Prosperity is built on borrowed money.
 Wealth is unequally distributed.
The Great Depression
Immediate Causes
 U.S.
stock market crashes
 Banks demand repayment of loans.
 Farms fail and factories close.
 Americans reduce foreign trade to
protect economy.
 Americans stop loans to foreign
countries.
 American banking system collapses.
So, how is there a Worldwide Depression?
 Millions
become unemployed worldwide.
 Businesses
go bankrupt.
 Governments take emergency
measures to protect economies.
 Citizens lose faith in capitalism and
democracy.
 Nations turn toward authoritarian leaders.
Worldwide Depression
Long-term Effects
take control of Germany.
Fascists come to power in other
countries.
Democracies try social welfare
programs.
Japan expands in East Asia.
Nazis
World
War II breaks out.
Japan
1920s-government became more democratic
1922-Japan signs a treaty with China to respect
borders
1928- Japan signs the Kellogg-Briand Pact
renouncing war
1929- Depression strikes Japan as well and many
Japanese blamed the government
*Military leaders soon gain control but unlike
European fascists they didn’t try to create a
new government but restore traditional
control. The militarists made the emperor,
Hirohito, the symbol of state power.
Like Hitler and Mussolini, Japan’s militarists
wanted to solve problems through
territorial gains.
They placed a Pacific Empire which
included conquering China.
Japan invades Manchuria
Manchuria – rich in iron and coal
-northeast province of china
1931 – Japanese army seizes Manchuria
*Attack is the first direct challenge to the
League of Nations
The Leagues’ Response to Manchuria Invasion
As of 1930s, the League of Nation
included all major democracies except
the United States.
The League also included three great
threats to peace: Germany, Japan, and
Italy.
When Japan seized Manchuria, many
League members protested. Japan ignored
protests and left the League in 1933.
Japan Invades China
1937-Beijing and the other northern cities
including the capital of China, Nanjing
(formerly known as Nanking) fell to the
Japanese.
China’s forces were led by Jiang Jieshi-no
match for Japanese.
Japanese troops killed tens of thousands of
captured soldiers and civilians in Nanjing.
*Rape of Nanking
The Rape of Nanking
The Nanking Massacre aka The Rape of Nanking
December 1937-January 1938: mass executions
of unarmed Chinese civilians by invading Japanese
soldiers
Estimates place the number of those murdered
around 300,000 with another 80,000 raped or
tortured including women and children
It is believed that Japan’s military had been
trained to carry out the killings and atrocities in
order to make an example out of Nanking to the
rest of China.
Japan never acknowledged its crimes
committed at Nanking.
After WWII only a few of Japan’s
military leaders were ever tried and
found guilty of war crimes related to the
taking of Nanking.
Today, the massacre remains a deeply
divisive event between the two nations
and their people.
 Jieshi
was forced to retreat and he set
up a new capital in Chonqing.
 At the same time, Chinese guerillas
led by China’s Communist leader Mao
Zedong continued to fight the Japanese in
the conquered area.
European Aggressors
Because the League of Nation failed to
respond to Japan’s advances, European
fascists planned aggressions of their own.
Example: Italy’s Mussolini had wanted to
build a colonial empire in Africa like the
French and British.
And so, Italy attacks Ethiopia (one of the
independent nations left in Africa). Ethiopia
had earlier resisted an Italian attack in the
1890s, however, they were no match for Italy’s
advanced weaponry (as compared to their
spears and swords) when an invasion was
launched in 1935.
Hitler defies the Versailles Treaty
The treaty limited the size of Germany’s
army.
*March 1935, Hitler announces that
Germany would not obey these
restrictions—the League mildly scolds
Germany.
2. The treaty forbid German troops to
enter a 30-mile-wide zone on either side
of the Rhine River. (aka Rhineland serves as
buffer between Germany and France—
industrial area)
*March 7, 1936, German troops moved
into the Rhineland.
1.
How did Britain and France Respond?
French did not want to risk war.
Britain urged appeasement (giving into an
aggressor to keep peace.
This Rhineland reoccupation was a turning
point for two reasons:
1. Strengthened Hitler’s power and prestige
within Germany
2. The balance of power was in Germany’s
favor (France and Belgium open to an
attack)
Hitler’s growing strength encouraged
Mussolini to seek an alliance with
Germany.
October 1936-the two dictators sign the
Rome-Berlin Axis
A month later-Germany makes an
agreement with Japan
*Germany, Italy and Japan become known
as the Axis Powers
Civil War Erupts in Spain
Spain had been a monarchy until 1931 (republic
declared)
From 1936-1939 two sides fought for control
over Spain: the nationalists and the loyalists
The insurgent nationalists were aristocrats,
military leaders, Roman Catholics, clergy, and
members of a political group called the Falange
Party. Nationalists were supported by Hitler and
Mussolini.
The loyalists were liberals, socialists, and
communists. They were supported by Stalin.
A number of non-Spanish idealists, who
believed in saving the republic from fascist
rebels joined the ranks of the loyalists.
(Ernest Hemingway’s, For Whom the Bell Tolls,
wrote about a young American man who took
up arms in behalf of the loyalist effort)
Hitler and Mussolini sent troops, tanks… to help
Franco’s forces called Nationalists
The supporters of Spain’s elected government,
the Republicans received little help from abroad
Early 1939, Republican resistance
collapsed, Franco became Spain’s Fascist
dictator.
Guernica
April 26, 1937 Franco’s German allies bombed
the ancient Basque city of Guernica, Spain.
Spanish artist, Pablo Picasso’s painting, Guernica
captures the human horror of the event.
Francisco Franco
After the Nationalist victory, Franco declares himself
military chief. He referred to himself as
Generalissimo which means “commander in
chief.”
Initially his reign was harsh. This included
executions of 200,000 Spaniards between
1939-1943.
He sympathized with the Axis countries but did not
enter World War II
He ruled Spain until his death in 1975. Two
years before he died he stepped down as head
of state but maintained his title generalissimo.
He named his successor Prince Juan Carlos. When
Franco died, Juan Carlos I became the first
Spanish monarch to control Spain since his
grandfather King Alfonso XIII was deposed of in
1931.
Where was everybody else during these Fascist aggressions in the
1930s?
Britain and France made concessions
hoping to keep peace
Why?
1. Both nations were struggling
economically as a result of the Great
Depression.
2. The horrors of WWI were remembered
and so a deep desire to avoid another war
was felt.
What is the U.S. doing during this time?
Many Americans supported isolationism.
Isolationism: the belief that political ties
to other countries should be avoided
Entry into WWI was felt to have been a
costly error
In 1935- Congress passes three Neutrality
Acts which ban loans and the sale of
arms to nations at war
The German Reich Expands
November 5, 1937- Hitler announces plans
to his advisors to absorb Austria and
Czechoslovakia into the Third Reich (German
Empire)
The Treaty of Versailles prohibited Anschluss
or a union between Austria and Germany.
Why?
March 1938- Hitler sends his army into
Austria and annexes it
France and Britain ignore their pledge to
protect Austrian independence.
Hitler next turns too…
Czechoslovakia, about three million Germanpeople lived in the western border
regions of Czechoslovakia called the
Sudetenland.
This area, heavily fortified, was the Czech’s
main defense against Germany.
In September 1938, Hitler demands that
the Sudetenland be given to Germany.
The Czechs refused and appeal to France for
help.
What do the French and British do?
France and Britain were preparing for war when
Mussolini proposed a meeting of Germany, France,
Britain, and Italy in Munich, Germany.
September 29, 1938- The Munich Conference
(note the Czechs were not invited)
British Prime Minister, Neville Chamberlain believed he
could preserve peace by giving into Hitler’s
demands.
And so, Britain and France agreed that Hitler
could take the Sudetenland.
In exchange, Hitler was to respect Czechoslovakia’s
new border.
Chamberlain returned to London, greeted by
cheering crowds. One skeptic, Winston Churchill,
then a member of the British Parliament, opposed
the appeasement policy.
Sure enough, less than six month after the
Munich meeting, Hitler took Czechoslovakia.
Soon after, Mussolini takes Albania.
Hitler than demanded Poland return the former
German port of Danzig. The Poles appeal to
Britain and France. However, the British and
French’s past record of appeasement encourage
Hitler that neither would risk war.
Nonaggression Pact
August 23, 1939, Stalin and Hitler
sign a Nonaggression Pact which says that
Communist Russia and Fascist
Germany will never attack one
another.
World War II: 1939-194
Hitler’s Lightning War
Chapter 16 Section 1
The War Begins
Hitler played into the fears and hopes of the
Western democracies by each time taking new
territories and then declaring an end to his
demands.
 However, after moving into the Rhineland,
Austria, and Czechoslovakia, Hitler now turned
his sights to Poland.

After WWI, the Allies and cut out the Polish
Corridor (formerly German territory) and gave
it to Poland allowing them access to the sea.
 In 1939, Hitler demanded the Polish Corridor back.

Recalling the Nonaggression Pact
not invited to the Munich
Conference, was not so quick to ally with
the Western powers.
 Stalin and Hitler sign the nonaggression
pact between Russia and Germany.
 In this agreement, they agree to divide up
Poland.
 They also agree that the USSR can take
over Finland and the Baltic countries of
Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia.
 Stalin,
September 3, 1939
September 1, 1939-Hitler launches a surprise
attack on Poland.
 France and Britain declare war on Germany on
September 3, 1939.
 Germany’s attack on Poland marked the
beginning of WWII and the first test of Germany’s
newest military strategy known as the
blitzkrieg or lightening war.
 Blitzkrieg involved: fast-moving airplanes and
tanks, followed by massive infantry forces, to
take enemy defenders by surprise and
overwhelm them.
 This strategy worked on Poland

The Soviets Make Their Move
September 17, 1939, Stalin sends troops to
occupy the eastern half of Poland (Germany
occupies the western half)
 Stalin then moves to annex countries to the
north of Poland: Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia
all of whom fall without a struggle.
 However, Finland does resist. In November, Stalin
sends about 1 million troops into Finland
making a crucial mistake to send troops in the
winter.
 The Soviets suffered heavy losses, however,
finally win because of the numbers game (the
Soviets had more soldiers).
 By March 1940, Stalin forced the Finns to
accept terms of surrender.

The Phony War
 After
declaring war on Germany, the
French and British stationed troops along
the Maginot Line (a system of fortifications
along France’s border with Germany).
 They
waited for an attack.
 The Germans, along their Siegfried Line,
a few miles away, waited as well.
 Germans refer to this as the sitzkrieg or
sitting war. Some newspapers refer to it
simply as the phony war.
Suddenly, Hitler launched an surprise attack on
Denmark and Norway.
 In just a few hours after the attack, Denmark
fell. Two months later, Norway fell as well.




The Germans then began building bases along
the Norwegian and Danish coasts which they
could launch strikes on Great Britain.
In May 1940, Hitler sweeps through
Netherlands, Belgium, and Luxembourg. Taken
these countries were part of a strategy to take
France.
Hitler then sent a large force of tanks and
troops through the Ardennes (northern France),
squeezing between the Maginot Line.
Rescue at Dunkirk
 The
German forces reached the French
coast and then went north again to join
with German troops in Belgium.
 By the end of May 1940, the German had
trapped the Allied forces around the
northern French city of Lille.
 The
Allies, outnumbered, retreated to the
French port city Dunkirk. They were
trapped with their backs against the sea.
 Great
Britain set out to rescue the army.
–It sent about 850 ships across the English
Channel to Dunkirk.
–Along with naval ships, civilians
contributed by sending yachts, lifeboats,
motorboats, paddle steamers, and
fishing boats all joined the rescue
effort.
–From May 26 to June 4, under heavy
fire from German bombers, sailed back
and forth from Britain to Dunkirk.
–The boats carried some 338,000 battleweary soldiers to safety.
France Falls
 By
June 14, the Germans had taken Paris.
 French
leaders surrender on June 22,
1940.
 The Germans took control of the northern
part of the country, however, the left the
southern part to a puppet government
headed by Marshal Philippe Petain.
 Petain
was a French hero from WWI
 The headquarters for this government
was in the city of Vichy.
 After
France fell, Charles de Gaulle, a
French general, set up a
government-in-exile in London.
 De
Gaulle focused his energy to
reconquering France.
 De
Gaulle goes on to organize the
Free French military forces that
battled the Nazis until France was
liberated in 1944.
The Battle of Britain
When France fell, Great Britain stood alone.
Winston Churchill, the new British prime minister,
declared that his nation would never give in.
Hitler turns his mind to an invasion of Great
Britain.
His plan:
Take out the RAF (Royal Air Force)
Then, land more than 250,000 soldiers on
England’s shores.
Summer 1940-the Luftwaffe, Germany’s air force,
began bombing Great Britain
-focus began on British air fields and aircraft
factories and then the attacks turned to the
cities such as London to break British morale
British remained determined, despite destruction
and loss of life.
The RAF, although outnumbered began to fight
back. Two technological devices helped:
1. Electronic tracking system known as radar (could
tell the number, speed, and direction of
incoming warplanes)
2. German code-making machine named Enigma
Enigma
Late 1930s-a complete Enigma machine
smuggled into Great Britain
The Enigma enabled the British to decode
German secret messages.
With the information gathered by these
devices, the RAF fliers could quickly
launch attacks on the enemy.
In October 1940, German gave up daylight
bombings in favor of night bombing to
avoid RAF attacks.
The Battle of Britain (the nights filled with
air raids, sirens, Londoners flocking to
subways which served as air raid
shelters, some stayed in their home
basement shelters…) continued until May
10, 1941.
Hitler calls off his attacks and turns to the
Mediterranean and Eastern Europe.
The Battle of Britain taught the Allies a
crucial lesson: Hitler’s attack could be
The Mediterranean and the Eastern Front
The British resistance caused Hitler to shift his
strategy in Europe.
He decided to deal with Britain later and so
turned to the Mediterranean area and the
Balkans and ultimately to the Soviet Union.
First objective in Mediterranean region was North
Africa, mainly because of Hitler’s ally Mussolini.
Italy had remained neutral at the beginning of
the war even though they were in an alliance
with Germany.
In September 1940, while the Battle of Britain
was raging, Mussolini ordered his army to
attack British-controlled Egypt.
Italian troops pushed 60 miles into Egypt forcing
the British units back.
In December, the British struck back which was
devastating to the Italians. By 1941, the
British had swept 500 miles across North Africa
and had taken 130,000 Italian prisoners.
Hitler had to save his Axis power ally by sending
a German tank force, the Afrika Korps, under the
command of General Erwin Rommel.
In late March 1941, Rommel’s Afrika Korps
attacked catching British forces by surprise.
The British forces retreated east to Tobruk, Libya.
After fierce fighting for Tobruk, the British
began to drive Rommel back.
By mid-January 1942, Rommel retreated to
where he started.
Then, by June 1942, Rommel regrouped
and pushed the British back across the
desert, and seized Tobruk.
Rommel’s successes in North Africa earned
him the nickname “Desert Fox.”
While Rommel was busy in North Africa,
other German generals were active in the
Balkans.
The War in the Balkans
As early as the summer 1940, Hitler had begun
his plans to attack the USSR.
The Balkan countries of south eastern Europe were
key to Hitler’s invasion plan.
He had hoped to build bases in southeastern
Europe to use against the USSR.
By early 1941, through the threat of force, Hitler
had convinced Bulgaria, Romania, and Hungary
to join the Axis powers.
Yugoslavia and Greece, having Pro-British governments
resisted.
In early April 1941, Hitler invaded both
countries.
 Yugoslavia fell in 11 days and Greece
surrendered in 17 days.
 Hitler invades the Soviet Union

Operation Barbarossa: plan to invade Soviet Union
June 22, 1941, the beginning of the invasion
 After weeks of fighting the Germans pushed
nearly 500 miles inside the Soviet Union
 As the Russians retreated, they used the same
scorched-earth strategy as they had done with
Napoleon.
On September 8, German forces put Leningrad
under siege.
By early November the city was cut off from the
rest of the Soviet Union.
To force surrender, Hitler was ready to starve the
2.5 million people that lived in the city.
German bombs destroyed food warehouses.
Many people began eating cattle and horse
feed and then resorted to cats, dogs, crows,
and rats.
Nearly 1 million people died in Leningrad during
the winter of 1941-1942.
Yet, the city refused to fall.
Impatient with progress in Leningrad, Hitler
turned to Moscow in October 2, 1941.
 By December, the Germans were on the
outskirts of Moscow.
 The Soviet general, Zhukov counterattacked.
 As temperatures fell, the Germans, in summer
uniforms, retreated. Ignoring Napoleon’s
defeat about 130 years before, Hitler ordered
“No retreat!”

German troops dug in about 125 miles west of
Moscow.
 The held the line until March 1943.
 Hitler’s advance on the Soviet Union had gained
nothing but cost the Germans 500,000 lives.

The United States Aids Its Allies
Most people felt the U.S. should not get
involved in the war.
 Between 1935 and 1937 Congress had passed
the Neutrality Acts.
 However, President Roosevelt knew that if the
Allies fell, the United States would be drawn
into the war.
 In September 1939, Roosevelt asked Congress
to allow the Allies to buy American arms.
 The Allies would pay cash and then carry the
goods on their own ships.

The Lend-Lease Act
 Passed in March 1941, the president
could lend or lease arms and other supplies
to any country vital to the United States.
 By summer 1941, U.S. Navy was escorting
British ships carrying U.S. arms.
 Hitler ordered submarines to sink any
cargo ships they met.

Even though the U.S. had not entered the war,
Roosevelt and Churchill had secretly met and
issued a joint declaration called the Atlantic Charter.
The Atlantic Charter
This charter upheld free trade among
nations and the right of people to choose
their own government.
The charter would later serve as the Allies
peace plan at the end of WWII.
On September 4, a German U-boat fired on
a U.S. destroyer in the Atlantic.
In response, Roosevelt ordered navy
commanders to shoot German submarines
on sight.
The U.S. was now involved in an
undeclared naval war with Hitler.
However, to most everyone’s surprise,
it was not an attack from Germany
that drew the U.S. into the war,
rather it was an attack from Japan.