1. Beginning of the Second World War
What were the important
events that led to WW II?

2. Important terms to remember
Militarism – what is it?
Nationalism – what is it?
Imperialism – what is it?
Alliances and old rivalries

3. Two categories of causes
Fundamental – created an atmosphere in which war was likely
Immediate – direct contribution to event

4. Fundamental Treaty of Versailles Great Depression
League of Nations failures
Japan invades China
Italy invades Abyssinia
Rise of Hitler and Nazi Party
No intervention by democratic nations in Germany

5. Road to War ~ Communism and Fascism

6. Benito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini (July 29, 1883 – April 28, 1945)
Fascist
Led Italy from 1922 to 1943.
Used propaganda and a state of constant terror to control people.
Disassembled the existing democratic government system.
Invaded Abyssinia, League of Nations ineffective
Entered World War II on the side of Nazi Germany

7. Japan
Japan grew more militaristic in the 1930s, and in 1931 it invaded northern China (Manchuria), an area rich in natural resources
The League of Nations protested, so Japan left the League and continued it’s aggression

8. Immediate
Appeasement of Hitler
Nazi-Soviet Pact

9. Road to War: Hitler

10. Adolf Hitler Staunch German Nationalist
Hitler was born on April 20th, 1889 in Braunau, Austria.
Adolf was always considered “odd” by his peers.
Won five medals, including the Iron Cross during WWI
Staunch German Nationalist

11. Impressed his superiors during the war.
Began lecturing after the war
Gained power with the German Worker’s Party (GWP) due to his skills as an orator.
Became the “National Socialist German Workers’ Party” (NSDAP)
Making it clear that they only favoured those who had ‘German blood’, Jews and other ‘aliens’ would lose their rights of citizenship, and immigration of non-Germans should be brought to an end

12. Refuse to accept the terms of the Versailles Treaty
February 1920, NSDAP (nicknamed the Nazi Party) published the “25 Points”:
Refuse to accept the terms of the Versailles Treaty
Reinforce the ideas of nationalism, equal rights were only to be given to German citizens, “Foreigners” and “aliens” would be denied these rights
Redistribution of income and war profits, profit-sharing in large industries, nationalization of trusts, increases in old-age pensions and free education
He built up the German Army

13. A Ruthless Leader Hitler created his own secret police, the Gestapo
It was used to intimidate any of Hitler’s opponents, enforce his ideas
and attack Hitler’s enemies
Hitler used racism to ban
any “undesirables” from
Germany

14. Beginnings Timeline
30th January, 1933 ~ Adolf Hitler becomes Chancellor of Germany by promising the German people he would lead them out of the Depression
23rd March, 1933 ~ Reichstag passed the Enabling Bill making Hitler the acting government of Germany
He begins to reunify the German territories lost in the Treaty of Versailles

15. Open Racism
Almost immediately upon assuming the Chancellorship of Germany, Hitler began legal actions against Germany's Jews.
1933: a one-day boycott against Jewish shops; a law was passed against kosher butchering; Jewish children began experiencing restrictions in public schools.

16. Open Racism 1935: Nuremberg Laws
The Law for the Protection of German Blood and German Honour:
prohibited marriages and extra-marital intercourse between “Jews ” (the name was now officially used in place of “non-Aryans ”) and “Germans ” and also the employment of “German ” females under forty-five in Jewish households.
The Reich Citizenship Law
stripped Jews of their German citizenship and introduced a new distinction between “Reich citizens ” and “nationals.”

17. Open Racism
1936: Jews were prohibited from participation in parliamentary elections; signs reading "Jews Not Welcome" appeared in many German cities. (Incidentally, these signs were taken down in the late summer in preparation for the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin).

18. Kristallnacht (aka Crystal Night)
9th November, 1938 ~ Joseph Goebbels organizes Crystal Night

20. German pogrom (German mob vengeance against Jews) against Jews in Germany and parts of Austria
Over 7,500 Jewish shops were destroyed
400 synagogues were burnt down.
Ninety-one Jews were killed and an estimated 20,000 were sent to concentration camps.
The only people who were punished for the crimes committed on Crystal Night were members of the Gestapo who had raped Jewish women (they had broken the Nuremberg Laws on sexual intercourse between Aryans and Jews).

21. The German War Machine begins…
12th March, 1938 ~ Adolf Hitler orders the German Army into Austria
29th September, 1938 ~ Neville Chamberlain and Adolf Hitler sign the Munich Agreement
This policy of appeasement was to secure “peace for our time”

22. The military machine begins…
15th March, 1939 ~ The German Army invades Czechoslovakia

23. Alliances and old rivalries
23rd August, 1939 ~ Joseph Stalin and Adolf Hitler sign the Nazi-Soviet Pact
Shock to the world as Hitler promised to end Communism
Both countries agreed not to fight each other if one went to war
Divided Poland between them
Both sides knew war was coming, this just bought time….

24. And onto War… 1st September, 1939 ~ The German Army invades Poland.
Britain and France give Germany until Sept 3 to withdraw, Germany ignores
Britain and France declare war