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The Road to WWII
Homburg
American Studies
Hitler’s Goals
• Bring entire German people (the volk) into a
single nation.
• The nation needed more living space, or
Lebensraum.
• Hitler’s foreign policy blueprint was set down
early in his career
• To reach its goals, Germany would need to
rearm
• The League of Nations condemned this. But
nothing was done to prevent it.
Remilitarization of the Rhineland
• Breach of Versailles treaty and Locarno
agreements
• Britain and France did little
• British opinion would not permit support of
France. France would not act alone
• France was paralyzed by internal divisions
• Both countries were weakened by growing
pacifism
Response to remilitarization
• G.B. & France lost an opportunity to stop
Hitler (French army could have easily
defeated Germany)
• Response was policy of AppeasementThey believed that Hitler’s goals were
limited and acceptable
Anschluss and Sudetenland
• Anschluss refers to the union of Germany
and Austria
• Anschluss was a clear violation of the
Treaty of Versailles
• Strategic because Germany now
surrounded Czechoslovakia (pro-west,
allies with France and Soviet Union)
• Czechoslovakia contained 3.5 million
Germans who lived in the Sudetenland
…Continued
• The Czechs appealed to the British
• Neville Chamberlain and French Premier
Daladier agreed to give the Sudetenland to
Hitler
• Called the Munich Agreement
• Hitler promised- “ I have no more territorial
demands to make in Europe”
• Chamberlain told a cheering crowd he had
brought “ peace and honor. I believe it is peace
for our time.”
• 1939 Hitler broke promise and occupied
Prague- turning point in British public
opinion
• ¾ of British public believed a war was
worth it to stop Hitler.
• Hitler turns attention towards Poland
• Chamberlain announces Franco-British
guarantee of Polish independence
• Hitler didn’t take Britain & France seriously
and knew they were unprepared for war
Italy
• 1935 Mussolini attacks Ethiopia
• Exposed weakness of League of Nations
• Goal was to restore Roman imperial glory,
divert attention from domestic problems,
and avenge an earlier defeat.
• Britain and France formally condemned
the act- sanctions included limited loans to
and imports from, Italy
Spain
• General Francisco Franco (fascist) started
three year civil war against Spanish
republic
• Germany and Italy helped, brought them
closer together
• Soviet Union supported the republic w/
military aid
The Nazi-Soviet Pact
• August 23, 1939, Nazi-Soviet nonagression pact
• Hitler believed he had to ally w/ Soviet Union in
order to defend a conquest of Poland
• The secret agreement split up Poland between
Germany and Soviet Union
• Stalin hesitated on negotiations with G.B. &
France because he was left out of Munich
Agreements
• On Sept. 1, 1939, Germany invades
Poland. Two days later G.B. & France
declare war on germany.
• Soviet Union invades Poland from the
east, they encircle Estonia, Latvia, &
Lithuania
• Until Spring 0f 1940, little activity on the
western front, known as “sitzkrieg”
• 1940 Hitler invades Denmark, Norway,
Belgium, Luxembourg.
• 300,000 British & French troops evacuated
from Belgium to the beaches of Dunkirk
• French Maginot line (defensive
fortifications) ran from Switzerland to
Belgium
• French army was led by aged generals,
didn’t know how to use tanks or planes.
France collapsed
• The French Gov’t now located in Vichy
collaborated w/ Germans. Vichy was
supported by Catholic Church
• Hitler forced to abandon plans to invade
Britain
• Turned attention towards Russia
• Operation Barbarossa was launched on
June 22, 1941- Russians taken by surprise
• German’s stood on outskirts of Moscow
• Hitler stalled to decide strategy- winter
devastated German army
• Soviet’s used the term “great patriotic war”
• Soviet turning point was battle of
Stalingrad
U.S. Enters War
• Day after Pearl Harbor, U.S. & G.B.
declare war on Japan (Dec. 1941).
• New tech. and tactics helped British and
U.S. prevail
• September 1944 France is liberated
Defeat of Nazis
• May 1945 Russians capture Berlin
• Hitler commits suicide in underground
bunker
• Third Reich lasted 12 instead of the
thousand predicted by Hitler
The Atomic Bomb
• August 6, 1945 U.S. drops atomic bomb
on Hiroshima ( 70,000 dead). Three days
later Nagasaki is hit by Atomic bomb
• U.S. desired end war quickly and save
American lives
Little Boy
Fat Man
Before
After
Preparations for Peace
• 1941- America and Britain agree to Atlantic
Charter- unconditional surrender of the
enemy
• 1943 Tehran Conference- Divide Germany
into four zones and self-determination for
post-war European nations
• 1945 Potsdam- Truman, Atlee and Stalin