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

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

7. 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
5) 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
Polis fought but not match for German military and technology
Great Britain and France declared war on 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
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 the 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
German 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 Winston Churchill had become British Prime Minister
Hitler’s plan was to destroy British Royal Air Force
Hitler failed due to 2 secret weapons
1) Radar
Enigma – gathered secret German messages

17. German Air Force then began bombing civilians in the city of London
Nation kept spirits up and Hitler called off attacks
Hitler did not sense easy victory so turned sights to Eastern Europe and Mediterranean

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

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

20. 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

21. 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)

22. Germans advanced to outskirts of Moscow where they met counterattack and 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

23. US Aides Allies
Congress passed Neutrality Acts which made it illegal to sell or lend money to nations at war – trying to remain isolated
Roosevelt was not an isolationism and did not want to remain neutral but he needed isolationists’ political support

24. After Japan invaded China in 1937 Roosevelt decided he had to speak out
He urged the US to work with ‘Peace loving countries to quarantine aggressive nations and stop the spread of war’
Roosevelt got Congress to establish and new policy called Cash and Carry
This allowed countries to purchase goods if they paid in cash and picked them up at American ports

25. Congress passed Lend Lease Act, which allowed the US to send weapons to Great Britain regardless of their ability to pay
Roosevelt and Churchill then met and issued a joint declaration called the Atlantic Charter which upheld free trade and the right of people to chose their own government

26. US Entry to War American leaders convinced a war with Japan was likely
American officials wanted American forces to be prepared for an attack
Hideki Tojo, Japan’s Prime Minister, was planning a surprise attack on Pearl Harbor
Pearl Harbor caught off guard and unprepared to defend partially due to no single commander in charge

27. Pearl Harbor
December 7, 1941 (Sunday Morning) Japan’s strike went into action
Many US planes never got off ground
A complete defeat for the US
December 8 FDR asked Congress to declare war
3 days later Germany and Italy declared war on the US

28. American Mobilization
Military spending increased in 1940
This spending largely responsible for ended the Great Depression
Many found work in factories making military supplies

29. Millions volunteered to serve after Pearl Harbor
Women joined and performed clerical work, tested, and delivered aircraft, repaired equipment, and worked as electricians
African Americans served in war but were in segregated units
Not one received a Medal Honor until 50 years later

30. Women began working outside the home in factories
Working women of the war were represented by symbolic figure Rosie Riveter

31. New agencies created to regulate what product factories produced, what prices they would charge, and how raw materials were used
Manhattan Project – top secret program to build atomic bomb in Los Alamos