WORLD WAR II

Why did dictatorships increase?

1. After WWI, the treaty of Versailles, left many countries poor and stripped of lands.

2. People began to look for hope in the words of these men because they were in a economic depression.

Isolationism

At the Nye Conference (1934), it was determined that the main push for the US entering WWI came from arms manufactures.

Europe refused to pay America back loans.

This increased America’s reasons for staying out of the events in Europe.

Invasion Begins

1931----------Japan invaded Manchuria1935----------Italy invaded Ethiopia1936----------Hitler’s military occupied the Rhineland (demilitarized by Treaty of Versailles—WWI)

7. Hitler on the move

PEACE??

• 1938----------Neville Chamberlain (GB Prime Minister) met with Hitler and Mussolini and offered a compromise—take no more ofCzechoslovakia.

• This became known as the Policy of Appeasement.

• Hitler violated this policy and invaded the rest of Czechoslovakia.

• This was the Munich Conference.

PEACE????

• 1939----The Nazi-Soviet Pact was signed between Germany and the Soviet Union promising that they would never attack each other.

• This created a problem when Germany invaded Poland, the USSR’s neighbor.

Germany invades Poland—World War II begins!

1. September 1, 1939---Germany & USSR invade Poland.

2. September 3, 1939—Great Britain and France declare war On Germany (WWII starts).

IV. World War II Breaks Out

“Blitzkrieg: German soldiers being parachuted into Holland - May 10, 1940”

Early Axis Triumphs

In April 1940 the quiet time of the war exploded into action.

Hitler launched a series of blitzkrieg.

Norway and and Denmark both fell.

Germany had overrun the Netherlands and Belgium.

Germany along with Italy forced France to surrender.

Maginot Line

The Maginot Line was a defensive for France against an invasion of Germany.

The Maginot Line was established after World War I.

The line showed to be little use in 1940 when Germany invaded France for the third time.

Fall of France

The Battle of Britain—after the fall of France in 1940, Britain stood alone against Germany.

Three factors that helped the British win the Battle of Britain were: (1) breaking the German code—use of the Ultra, (2) the invention and use of the radar, and (3) royal Air Force

Neutrality??

1. Neutrality Act of 1935 & 1936—prevented Americans from sending arms to nations at war.

Neutrality Act of 1937—permitted trade with belligerent nations only on a “cash and carry” basis. Munitions were embargoed. This policy became known as the Cash & Carry Policy.

Lend-Lease Act—the United States decided to give weapons & materials to Great Britain and later USSR and let them pay later. “If your neighbors house is on fire, you help them put it out”—FDR quote (March 1941).

Why Does the US enter WWII?

• Japanese resumed war on China in 1937. The United States and Japan had strong differences over China. Japan demanded that the USA cut off all aid to the forces of General Chiang Kai-Shek in China.

• The United States refused to do this and further demanded that the Japanese withdraw all troops in China

Japan has two opinions: (1) withdraw from China or (2) go to war with the United States. The militaristic government of Japan headed by General Tojo chose to go to war with the United States. The United States knew that the Japanese were planning an attack somewhere.

The U. S. froze all Japanese assets in the United States and refused to sell them oil, gasoline, steel, iron and machine tools.

Japan signed an alliance with Germany and Italy in 1940.

Japan bombs Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on December 7, 1941.

December 8, 1941, the USA declared war on Japan and entered WWII. On December 11, 1941, Italy and Germany declared war on United States.

The Holocaust

Jews, disabled people, homosexuals, and Slavic people were the inferior.

Needed exterminated 1935-Nuremburg Laws-took citizenship from

Jewish Germans and banned marriage between Jews and other Germans.

Kristallnacht-Nov 9.-anti-Jewish violence Began placing Jews in ghettos and taken to

camps. The SS St. Louis- 930 Jewish passengers die

while trying to escape the “final solution”

Final Solution

Jan 20, 1942, Wannsee Conference- Nazis make plans to round up all Jews and place them in concentration camps. The healthy would work.

The old, sick, young would be taken to extermination camps.

Auschwitz- housed over 100,000. 12,000 people killed daily in gas chambers.