1. Hitler’s Acts of Aggression  Defying the Treaty of Versailles
1. Hitler demanded lebensraum for the Third Reich
(3rd German Empire)
2. enlarged military (1935)
3. sent troops to reoccupy/remilitarize the Rhineland (1936)

2. Hitler’s Acts of Aggression  Defying the Treaty of Versailles
4. annexed Austria  Anschluss
(March 1938)

3. Hitler’s Acts of Aggression  Defying the Treaty of Versailles
5. Hitler demanded the Sudetenland region (western, defensive border of Czechoslovakia) where 3.5 million Germans lived

4. 5. The Munich Conference
A. France, Great Britain, Italy & Germany met in Munich, Germany, on September 29, 1938 to discuss Hitler’s demand
B. Czechs not invited
C. Munich Agreement: chose to APPEASE Hitler & gave him Sudetenland if he promised not to take anything more
D. appeasement: giving in to the demands of an aggressor to avoid conflict

5. More Aggression 6. Hitler took rest of Czechoslovakia (March 1939)
7. Mussolini invaded Albania (April 1939)

6. More Aggression
8. Hitler demanded the return of Free City of Danzig (“international” city at northern tip of Polish Corridor) that they lost in WWI

7. And Meanwhile …
9. Hitler & Stalin signed Nazi-Soviet Nonaggression Pact (August 23, 1939): promised not to attack one another  top secret part of pact: Germany & USSR would split Poland after it was attacked

8. WAR! 10. Germany invaded Poland on Sept. 1, 1939
11. Britain & France finally stopped appeasing Hitler & declared war