PATH TO WAR IN EUROPE

1. PATH TO WAR IN EUROPE World War II Chapter 11 Part 1

2. World Wars: Causes and Effects Militarism End of old order World War II Political Instability Alliances Imperialism Disillusionment Nationalism Resentment Economic suffering Shift in balance of power Social chaos World War I Nationalism Emergence of superpowers Rise of dictatorships Creation of new nations Aggressive expansion Founding of the United Nations

3. Hitler’s Plans A. Adolf Hitler believed that Germany could build a great civilization. • Needed more land to support more German people. • Wanted lands in the Soviet Union for German settlements and prepared for war. • Slavic people would become slaves.

4. German Path to War B. Hitler proposed to revise the unfair provisions of the Treaty of Versailles. • At first he would use peaceful means. • March 1935, he created a new air force and began a military draft.

5. German Path to War C. France, Great Britain, and Italy condemned Hitler’s moves. • Due to the Great Depression, they were not prepared to take action. • Hitler convinced that they would not stop him from breaking the provisions of the Treaty of Versailles.

6. Appeasement D. March 1936, Hitler sent troops into the Rhineland, which was supposed to be a demilitarized area. • France would not oppose Germany for this treaty violation without British support. • Great Britain saw Hitler’s actions as reasonable and not call for military response. • This was the beginning of the policy of appeasement - belief that if European states satisfied reasonable demands of dissatisfied states, the dissatisfied states would be content and peace would be preserved.

9. Hitler’s New Allies E. Hitler gained new allies. • 1935, Mussolini invaded Ethiopia with the support of German troops. • 1936, Italy and Germany sent troops to Spain to support General Franco. • Germany and Italy formed the Rome-Berlin Axis. • Germany and Japan signed the Anti-Comintern Pact forming an alliance against communism.

10. Annexation of Austria F. Germany annexes Austria. • By 1937, Germany had become a very powerful nation. • 1938 Hitler pursued a long held goal, union with Austria (Anschluss). • Hitler forced the Austrians to put Austrian Nazis in charge of the government, by threatening to invade. • The new government invited German troops to “help” maintain order.

11. Munich Conference G. 1938, Hitler demanded that the Sudetenland in northwestern Czechoslovakia be given to Germany. • The British, French, Italian, and German representatives then met in Munich. • Britain, France, and Italy gave in to all of Hitler’s demands (appeasement). • German troops were allowed into Czechoslovakia.

13. Mussolini, Hitler, Hitler's interpreter Paul Otto Gustav Schmidt, and Chamberlain at the Munich Conference in Germany

14. Munich Conference H. After the Munich Conference, the British prime minister, Neville Chamberlain, announced that the settlement meant “peace for our time.” • He believed Hitler’s promises that Germany would make no more demands.

15. Hitler Invades Czechoslovakia I. After Munich, Hitler was even more convinced that France and Great Britain would not fight. • March 1939, Hitler invaded western Czechoslovakia, and made a Nazi puppet state out of Slovakia in eastern Czechoslovakia.

16. Under what policy did Great Britain and France allow Hitler to take the Sudetenland? • Describe the idea of the policy and tell why it failed. • Appeasement • If European states satisfied reasonable demands of dissatisfied states, the dissatisfied states would be content and peace would be preserved. • The policy failed because Hitler could not be satisfied short of conquering the world.

18. Alliances with the Soviet Union J. France and Great Britain began to react. • Great Britain said it would protect Poland if Hitler invaded. • France and Britain began negotiations with Stalin. • They knew that they would need the Soviet Union to help contain the Nazis.

19. Nazi-Soviet Nonaggression Pact K. Hitler was afraid of an alliance between the West and the Soviet Union. • August 1939, Germany and the Soviet Union signed the Nazi-Soviet Nonaggression Pact. • They promised not to attack each other. • Hitler offered Stalin eastern Poland and the Baltic states. • Hitler knew that eventually he would break the pact and it enabled him to invade Poland without fear.

20. World War II Begins L. September 1, 1939 Germany invaded Poland. • Two days later, Great Britain and France declared war on Germany.

21. Europe at War A. The 1939 invasion of Poland by Germany took just four weeks. • The speed and efficiency of the German army stunned the world. • Called blitzkrieg (“lightning war”), they used panzer divisions (300 tanks and soldiers) that were supported by airplanes. • September 28, 1939, Germany and the Soviet Union divided Poland.

23. Europe at War B. Spring 1940, Hitler invaded Denmark and Norway. • May, Germany attacked the Netherlands, Belgium, and France.

24. Maginot Line • The French had fortified their border with Germany along the Maginot Line, but the Germans surprised them by going around it.

25. Inside the Maginot Line

26. Dunkirk C. The Germans trapped the entire British army and French forces on the beaches of Dunkirk. • The British navy and private boats were able to evacuate 338,000 Allied troops, barely averting a complete disaster.

28. Vichy France D. June 22, the French signed an armistice with the Germans, who occupied three-fifths of France. • An authoritarian French regime under German control was set up to govern the rest of the country. • Led by Marshal Henri Pétain, it was named Vichy France. • Germany now controlled western and central Europe. • Britain remained alone.

30. Isolationism E. The British asked the United States for help. • The U.S. had a strict policy of isolationism. • A series of neutrality acts passed in the 1930s prevented the U.S. from involvement in European conflicts. F. Roosevelt wanted to repeal the neutrality acts and help Great Britain. • President Franklin D. Roosevelt denounced the Germans, but the U.S. did nothing at first. • Over time, the laws were slowly relaxed and the U.S. sent food, ships, planes, and weapons to Britain.

32. Battle of Britain G. Hitler could not attack Britain by sea unless he controlled the air. • August 1940, the Luftwaffe—German air force—began a major bombing offensive against military targets in Britain. • Aided by a good radar system, the British fought back but suffered critical losses.

34. Battle of Britain H. September 1940, Hitler retaliated to a British attack on Berlin by shifting attacks from military targets to British cities. • To break British morale. • Allowed the British to rebuild their air power and inflict crippling losses on the Germans. • End of September, Hitler postponed the invasion of Britain indefinitely.

35. We Shall Never Surrender we shall fight in France, we shall fight on the seas and oceans, • then our Empire beyond the seas, armed and guarded by the British Fleet, would carry on the struggle, • we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; Churchill addresses Parliament on June 4, 1940 until, in God's good time, the New World, with all its power and might, steps forth to the rescue and the liberation of the old. • we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air, • we shall never surrender, • And if, which I do not for a moment believe, this Island or a large part of it were subjugated and starving, • we shall defend our Island, whatever the cost may be, • we shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds,

36. Europe at War I. Hitler was convinced to defeat Britain, he had to defeat the Soviet Union. • He believed the reason the British resisted because they were expecting Soviet support. • He believed that the Soviets could be easily defeated. • He planned to invade in the spring of 1941, but was delayed by problems in the Balkans. • The Italians had failed to capture Greece in 1940 and the British still held air bases there. • April 1941, Hitler seized Greece and Yugoslavia.

37. Invasion of the Soviet Union J. June 1941, Hitler invaded the Soviet Union. • The attack on the Soviet Union stretched out for 1,800 miles. • German troops moved quickly and captured two million Russian soldiers by November. • The Germans were within 25 miles of Moscow.

38. Invasion of the Soviet Union • Winter came early in 1941 and, combined with fierce Russian resistance, forced the Germans to halt. • This marked the first time in the war that the Germans had been stopped. • The Germans were not equipped for the bitter Russian winter. • December, the Soviet army counterattacked.

40. Why did Hitler decide to attack the Soviet Union after the two countries had signed a nonaggression pact? • Hitler had never planned to remain allied with the Soviet Union. • He had always planned to take the lands of the Soviet Union. • He also thought that the only way to defeat the British was to smash the Soviet Union first.