Prelude to WWII

Mein Kampf

• Aryans• Lebensraum—nations power depends on

amount and kind of land it occupied– Germany must prepare for inevitable war with the

Soviet Union

International Pacts

• Locarno Pacts (1925) made Germany respect her borders

• Kellogg-Briand Pact (1928)– Proposed by US--Kellogg and France--Briand– Outlawed war

• Germany, Italy, and Japan violated these pacts

International Pacts

Fascist aggression (1931-1939)

• Manchuria– (1931-32) Japan

• Ethiopia– (1935) Italy

• German remilitarization– (1935-36)

Fascist aggression (1931-1939)

• Spain– (1936) Franco

• China– (1937) Japan

• Austria– (1938) Germany

NationalismNationalismNationalism

• Czechoslovakia– (1938) Germany

• Albania– (1939) Italy

• Poland– (1939) Germany

Fascist aggression (1931-1939)

WWII

Basic causes

•Militarism• Imperialism•Nationalism• Totalitarianism

Subsidiary causes• Failure of:–Appeasement•March 9, 1935—announced creation of

new air force, 1 week later—the intro of a military draft (100,000 to 550,000)• Anglo-German Naval Pact-June 18, 1935•March 7, 1936—sent troops into

demilitarized Rhineland

• 1936—Rome-Berlin Axis• November 1936—Anti-Comintern Pact

Mussolini and Hitler in 1936

• Anschluss• March 13, 1938• Immediately, Nazis began brutal crackdown

on Austrian Jews

Course of the War

Hitler at Reichstag after announcing Anschluss

• 1938 postcard-- "One People, One Reich, One Führer"

Anschluss

Course of the War

• Sudeten woman dutifully salutes parading Nazis, October 15, 1938

Course of the War

• Chamberlain with the agreement

Munich Agreement September 29, 1938

Chamberlain & Hitler

Course of the War

• Nazi-Soviet Non-Aggression Pact• August 23, 1939

Course of the War

German Foreign Minister Von Ribbentrop, Soviet Foreign Minister Molotov, and Stalin

• Late 1939 postcard proclaiming "Danzig is German"

Poland

Course of the War

GERMANY: 1914-1920

Poland, September 1, 1939

• September 3—France and Great Britain declare war on Germany

• Two weeks later (September 17) the Soviet Union sends troops to eastern Poland