Download Warm Up 113 - Loudoun County Public Schools

The Road to War
Setting the Stage
 By the mid 1930’s in Europe
 Germany and Italy seemed bent on
military conquests
 Britain, France and the US, were
distracted by economic problems and
feelings of isolation
 The Soviet Union was in the middle
( neutral)
 All hopes for peace rested on the
League Of Nations
Japan falls under military rule
 In
the 1920’s Japan was becoming
more democratic
 Kellogg- Briand Pact- renounced war
 Signed a treaty with China respecting
China’s borders
 Weak prime minister and cabinet
 Military leaders only answered to the
emperor
Militarists take Control of Japan
 1930-
the depression was blamed on
the government, people looked for new
leaders
 Military took control of Japan
 Unlike fascism, no new system of
government
 Wanted to restore traditional control of the
country to the military
 Emperor was the symbol of power
Militarists take Control of Japan
 Emperor
Hirohito remained
emperor and controlled the
military
 Hideki Tojo was his general
 Wanted to solve the economic problems
by foreign expansion
 They planned a Pacific Empire, that
included China
 The empire would provide raw materials
and space for the growing population
Japan begins to create an empire
 Japan
takes over Manchuria in 1931
 A region in northeastern China
 Rich in iron and coal
 Set up a puppet government
 So
what did The League of Nations do?
 The League protested Japan’s
aggression and condemned Japan
 Japan ignored protests and withdrew
from the League
Japan begins to create an empire
 Japan
invades China
 4 years later
 Despite China’s large army they were not
able to beat the better equipped Japanese
 In 1937, Beijing, the capital and other
northern cities fell to Japan
 The Japanese killed tens of thousands of
captured soldiers and civilians
 Chinese Communist guerrillas lead by
Mao Zedong continued to fight
Imperialism Spreads to Europe
The league was unable to stop Japan, so
Italy and Germany decided to get in on the
action
 Mussolini Attacks Ethiopia

 Ethiopia was one of the last remaining free
colonies in Africa
 The Ethiopians had resisted Italy in the 1890’s
 Italy wanted revenge
 Ethiopia
appealed for help from the
League, but the League did nothing
Emperor Haile Selassie’s Appeal to
the League

“I ask the fifty-two nations, who have
given the Ethiopian people a promise to
help them in their resistance to the
aggressor, what are they willing to do for
Ethiopia? And the great Powers who have
promised the guarantee of collective
security to small States on whom weighs
the threat that they may one day suffer
the fate of Ethiopia, I ask what measures
do you intend to take?”
Great-great
grandfather
An Ethiopian
resistance fighter
who lost his life
during Italy's second
campaign against
Ethiopia between
1935 and 1941
General Hailu Kebede
Italian soldiers
holding up my
great-great
grandfather’s head
after he was
captured and
beheaded
After the beheading
Head exposed for all
to see on a pike in
Seqota
Imperialism Spreads to Europe

Hitler defied Treaty of Versailles
 Hitler decided they would no longer have
a restricted military
 The league condemned this
 Hitler entered the Rhineland, a buffer
space in-between France and Germany
and an industrial center
 The French and British urged Germany
to stop, giving them an appeasement
 Hitler is not stopped and plans to take
more land
Alliances Begin
Hitler
and Mussolini join an
alliance- Rome-Berlin Axis
A month later Japan,
Germany and Italy become
the Axis powers
What the US was doing
 Democratic
countries were
overwhelmed with the depression
and fear of another war
 So, the US adopts a policy of
isolation
 1935, Congress passed 3 Neutrality
Acts, saying loans and arms cannot
be given to nations at war
What Germany did
 The Third Reich Expands
 On November 1937, Hitler announced
he was going to add Austria and
Czechoslovakia to the Third Reich or
German Empire
 Austrians support this
 Czechoslovakians asked France to
help protect a region of their land
known as the Sudetenland
Munich Conference
To try to avoid war a conference is held. Germany,
Italy, France and Britain all attend
 They agreed to give into Hitler and give him
Sudetenland , but Hitler had to promise to
honor the new borders
 6 months later…
◦ Hitler takes over Czechoslovakia
◦ demanded the Poles give back the former
German port, Dazing.
◦ The Poles turn to Britain and France for help,
both say they will guarantee Poland’s
freedom.

Nazis and Soviets Sign Nonaggression
Pact
 Britain
and France asked the Soviet
Union to join them in stopping Hitler
 Stalin also talked to Hitler
 On August 23, 1939, a nonaggression
pact was signed between Germany and
the USSR
The War Begins

After the Soviet Union agrees not to
attack Germany, Hitler takes his army and
marches into Poland on September 3,
1939.

World War II has begun.
Causes of World War II
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Aggression by totalitarian powers
Nationalism
The Treaty of Versailles
Weakness of the League of Nations
Tendencies towards isolationism and
pacifism in Europe and the US
On your paper, please rank these causes in
the blanks provided. Using your
knowledge, which do you think was the
most influential? Why?