1. World War II
Early Years

2. Aggressiveness and Allied Appeasement
Mussolini attacks Ethiopia
Late 1800s Italy tried to establish Ethiopia as a colony
Ended in humiliating defeat for Italy
Many Italians bitter about defeat and wanted revenge
Italy conquered Ethiopia
League of Nations response:
NOTHING!!!
Why not?

3. Hitler Defies the Treaty of Versailles
Rebuilds Army
Rebuilds Navy with British approval thanks to the Anglo German Naval Pact (June 18, 1935)
Remilitarizes the Rhineland (March 7, 1936)

4. US Reaction
Isolationism – avoid political ties with other nations

5. Great Britain and France’s Reaction
Appeasement – giving into an aggressor
“If you give a mouse a cookie…he’s going to want a glass of milk.”

6. Hitler Continues Expansion and Defiance of Treaty
Anschluss – union between Germany and Austria
(March 12, 1938)

7. 5) Sudetenland Part of Czechoslovakia with many German speaking people
Czechoslovakia turned to Britain and France for help
At the Munich Conference Great Britain and France agreed to give Hitler the Sudetenland to avoid war
(example of appeasement)
September 30, 1938
Peace in our Time
6) 6 Months later Hitler took all of Czechoslovakia and Italy took Albania

8. Alliances Rome Berlin Axis – Mussolini (Italy) and Hitler (Germany)
October 1936
Nazi Soviet Non-aggression pact
Germany agreed not to attack Russia and give Russia soon to be conquered parts of Eastern Europe
Russia agreed to stay out of Germany’s way
August 1939

9. Hitler Demands Poland
Hitler used Blitzkrieg (lightening war) – massive air and land strike
Polish fought but no match for German military and technology
Great Britain and France declared war on Germany September 3, 1939 once Hitler pushed into Poland
Not enough time to mobilize to save Poland

10. “Phoney” War Allied Strategy – wait for Hitler’s next move
Refers to a period of inactivity
Germany was planning how to attack France and decided to go through the Ardennes

11. Phoney War ended when Hitler took Denmark and Norway to control seas
Allies had massive troop levels to the north of the Ardennes along the Belgium and French border
French/German border protected by bunkers and fortresses called the Maginot Line
Allied forces did not have forces along the Ardennes because they thought it would be too treacherous for Germany to attack here – they were WRONG
Phoney War ended when Hitler took Denmark and Norway to control seas

13. Hitler takes France
May 1940 German troops swept through Netherlands and Belgium
While France’s attention on the North, Hitler sent troops through Ardennes
German troops able to trap Allied forces in Northern France
Allies rescued at port city of Dunkirk

14. By June France had surrendered
Germany occupied much of France
The unoccupied part of France was known as Vichey France
Vichey France was ruled by officials who obeyed Hitler

15. Charles DeGaulle
French General Charles DeGaulle fled to Great Britain to organize resistance to Hitler
He created the Free French military and battled Hitler until France’s liberation

16. Battle for Britain Hitler then focused his attention on Great Britain
He used the Luftwaffe to try and take out the British Royal Air Force
Hitler did not sense easy victory so turned sights to Eastern Europe and Mediterranean

17. Axis Powers
1940 Japan formed a military alliance with Germany and Italy

18. Balkans (Eastern Europe)
Bulgaria, Romania, and Hungary joined Axis Powers in 1941
Yugoslavia and Greece resisted so Hitler invaded

19. Hitler Invades the Soviet Union
Soviets unprepared for attack due to Nazi-Soviet Non-aggression Pact
Not equipped or trained despite warnings from Allies that Hitler was going East

20. Germany reached 500 miles inside the Soviet Union
In September they surrounded the city of Leningrad
1 million died that winter alone
800,000 civilians died in the battle for Leningrad
Leningrad would not surrender so Hitler turned attention to Moscow (capital)

21. Germans advanced to outskirts of Moscow where they faced a Russian counterattack and the most brutal of all…the Russian winter
Germans retreated due to being unprepared for Russian winter
Hitler ordered them to not retreat so Germans held the line 125 miles outside the city