1. World War II: Aggression, Appeasement & War

2. Dictators Challenge World Peace
Dictators took aggressive action
Japanese military leaders believed that Japan should have an empire equal to western powers Japan seizes Manchuria & much of Eastern China

3. Fascist Italy
Fascism- government system in which dictator has complete power
Benito Mussolini- Head of Gov. & Prime Minister of Italy, promised a strong stable government
Used terror & intimidation to gain power
Severe censorship, rigged elections, critics were imprisoned or killed
In 1935, Italy invaded & conquered Ethiopia

4. Appeasement
Western democracies developed policy of appeasement- giving in to the demands of an aggressor to keep peace & avoid war
Why?
Many saw Hitler & fascism as defense against a worse evil- spread of communism
Great Depression depleted economies
Pacifism- opposition to all war (seeing destruction w/ previous war) pushed governments to seek peace at any price

5. German Aggression
Hitler pursued goal of bringing all German-speaking people into the Third Reich
Anschluss- union of Austria and Germany
Germany annexes Austria; Hitler now rules Austria
Forced Czechoslovakia to surrender Sudetenland- a region in the west w/ 3 million Germans

6. Europe Plunges into War
Nazi-Soviet Pact- Bound Hitler & Stalin to peaceful relations
Agreed not to fight if the other went to war
Divided up Poland & other parts of Eastern Europe
September 1, Germany invades Poland
Britain & France committed to Poland’s neutrality, declared war on Germany
World War II had begun

7. Causes of the War
Axis Powers: Germany, Italy, Japan; agreed to not interfere with one another’s plans for expansion & cleared the way for aggressive power
Revise the 1919 Treaty of Versailles
Germany, Italy, Japan, USSR all felt betrayed by treaty
Policy of appeasement failed