542 CHAPTER 11 A World in Flames

Guide to Reading

ConnectionIn the previous section, you learned howthe United States tried to stay neutral as militarism gained strength in theworld. In this section, you will read about the circumstances surrounding the beginning of World War II.

European nations tried to prevent warby giving in to Hitlers demands. (p. 543)

Although Poland and France fell to theNazis, the British were able to evacuatethousands of trapped British andFrench troops from Dunkirk in France.(p. 544)

Disregarding the bombing of Londonand other major cities, BritainsWinston Churchill stood firm againstthe threat of Nazi invasion. (p. 547)

Content Vocabularyappeasement, blitzkrieg

Academic Vocabularyregime, furthermore, anticipate

People and Terms to IdentifyAnschluss, Maginot Line, WinstonChurchill, Battle of Britain

Reading Objectives Explain why Hitler was able to take

over Austria and Czechoslovakia.

Describe the early events of the warand why Britain was able to resist theNazis.

Reading StrategySequencing As you read about theevents leading up to the beginning ofWorld War II, record them by completinga time line similar to the one below.

Preview of Events

World War II Begins

1937Sept.1939

March1938

Oct.1938

Aug.1939

Feb.1938

Sept.1938

March1939

March 1938Hitler announces German-Austrian unification

1939 19411938 1940

August 1939Hitler and Stalin signNazi-Soviet pact

September 1939World War II begins

June 1940France surrenders toGermany

August 1940Battle of Britainbegins

. The Big Idea ,The fate of nations is forever changed by monumental world events.After establishing his rule in Germany, Adolf Hitler began his conquest of Europeby seizing Austria. His claims to the Sudetenland in Czechoslovakia promptedGreat Britain and France to pursue a policy of appeasement to avoid war. Despitean agreement, Hitler sent troops into Czechoslovakia and demanded the return ofDanzig, a Polish seaport with German roots. When Germany invaded Poland andbegan the war, Britain and France fulfilled their promise to come to the aid ofPoland. Hitlers tactics led to a quick victory in Poland and the fall of France.Britain remained defiant despite constant bombing raids by the Germans.

The following are the mainHistorySocial Science Standardscovered in this section.

11.7.1 Examine the origins ofAmerican involvement in the war,with an emphasis on the events thatprecipitated the attack on Pearl Harbor.

11.7.4 Analyze Roosevelts foreign policies during World War II (e.g., FourFreedoms speech).

11.7.6 Describe major developments inaviation, weaponry, communication, andmedicine and the wars impact on thelocation of American industry and use of resources.

Peace in Our Time

European nations tried to prevent war bygiving in to Hitlers demands.

Reading Connection Do you think giving in to Hitlersdemands was a good idea? Read on to learn about the eventsleading to another world war.

Prior to 1940, when the Nazi regime was muchweaker, European leaders did not try to stop Hitler.Instead, they vainly tried to buy peace by giving in tohis demands. By 1940, however, the German armyhad been rebuilt, and Hitler was bent on conquest.

In February 1940, President Franklin Roosevelt sentUndersecretary of State Sumner Welles to Europe toreport on the political situation. A few months earlier,Germany had invaded Poland, and Roosevelt hoped tonegotiate peace before wider hostilities erupted.

In Italy Welles found Mussolini intent on war andjudged that there was not the slightest chance of anysuccessful negotiation. In Paris Welles glumly notedthe sullen apathy in peoples faces and concludedthat France had little will to resist a German onslaught.After speaking to Hitler, Welles concluded that a nego-tiated peace settlement was impossible: It was onlytoo tragically plain that all decisions had already beenmade. In London, Welles did not feel the sense ofdoom he had in Paris. The British, he reported, wouldfight to the very last ditch. Welles later reflected onhis mission:

Only one thing could have deflected Hitler fromhis purpose: the sure knowledge that the power of theUnited States would be directed against him if heattempted to carry out his intention of conquering theworld by force. . . . At that time no representative ofthis government could have been authorized to inti-mate any such thing. . . . My mission, therefore, was aforlorn hope.

quoted in Roosevelt and Churchill

Whether or not the United States could haveforced Hitler to negotiate is uncertain. Europes lead-ers had several reasons for hoping that Hitler could

be satisfied and war avoided. First, the memory ofWorld War I made many leaders fearful of anotherbloody conflict. Second, some thought Hitlersdemand that all German-speaking regions of Europebe united with Germany was reasonable. Third,many people assumed that the Nazis would be moreinterested in peace once they gained more territory.

The Austrian Anschluss In late 1937, Hitlerstepped up his call for the unification of all German-speaking people, including those in Austria andCzechoslovakia. Seizing Austria and Czechoslovakiawould also gain food supplies, defensible frontiers,and soldiers for Germany. Hitler believed thatGermany could only expand its territory byresort[ing] to force with its attendant risks.

In February 1938, Hitler threatened to invadeGerman-speaking Austria, his native land, unlessAustrian Nazis were given important governmentposts. Austrias chancellor quickly gave in to thisdemand. Several weeks later, the chancellor tried toput the matter of unification with Germany to a dem-ocratic vote. Fearing the outcome, Hitler sent troopsinto Austria in March and announced the Anschluss,or unification, of Austria and Germany.

The Munich Crisis and Appeasement Shortlyafter Germany annexed Austria, Hitler announcedGerman claims to the Sudetenland, an area ofCzechoslovakia with a large German-speaking pop-ulation. Since Austrians shared a common cultureand language with Germany, many people hadaccepted the Anschluss. In Czechoslovakia, however,people spoke several different languages. In addi-tion, while Austria had an authoritarian government, Czechoslovakia was a democracy.Furthermore, Austria had no allies to help it defenditself, but Czechoslovakia was allied with Franceand the Soviet Union.

CHAPTER 11 The World in Flames 543

Sumner Welles

The Czechs strongly resisted Germanys demandsfor the Sudetenland. France threatened to fight ifGermany attacked, and the Soviet Union also prom-ised assistance. British Prime Minister NevilleChamberlain publicly promised to support France.

Representatives of Britain, France, Italy, andGermany agreed to meet in Munich to decideCzechoslovakias fate. At the Munich Conference onSeptember 29, 1938, Britain and France agreed toHitlers demands, a policy that came to be known asappeasement. Appeasement is the policy of givingconcessions in exchange for peace. Supporters ofappeasement mistakenly believed that Hitler had afew limited demands. They felt that if they gave Hitlerwhat he wanted, he would be satisfied and war wouldbe avoided. Czechoslovakia was informed that it mustgive up the Sudetenland or fight Germany on its own.

Chamberlain had gambled that sacrificing part ofCzechoslovakia would satisfy Hitler. He also knewthat Britains military was not ready for war. WhenChamberlain returned home he promised a peacewith honor . . . peace in our time, but he also beganto speed up British rearmament.

The following March, in brazen violation of theMunich agreement, Germany sent troops intoCzechoslovakia and broke up the country. Slovakiabecame independent in name, but it was actually asatellite state under German control. The Czech landsbecame a German protectorate.

Danzig and the Polish Corridor After theMunich conference, Hitler turned his sights onPoland. In October 1938, he demanded the return ofDanzig, a Baltic Sea port with strong German roots.Although Danzig was more than 90 percent German,it had been separated from Germany at the end of

World War I to give Poland access to the sea. Hitleralso requested a highway and railroad across thePolish Corridor, which separated western Germanyfrom the German state of East Prussia.

Hitlers demands on Poland convinced the Britishand French that appeasement had failed. On March31, 1939, the British announced that if Poland went towar to defend its territory, Britain and France wouldcome to its aid. This encouraged the Polish govern-ment to refuse Hitlers demands.

In May 1939, Hitler ordered the German army toprepare to invade Poland. He also ordered his for-eign minister to begin negotiations with the USSR. IfGermany was going to fight Britain and France,Hitler wantd to avoid the strain on his army of hav-ing to fight the Soviets too.

The Nazi-Soviet Nonaggression Pact WhenGerman officials proposed a nonaggression treaty tothe Soviets, Stalin agreed. He believed the best wayto protect the USSR was to turn the capitalist nationsagainst each other. If the treaty worked, Germanywould go to war against Britain and France, and theUSSR would be safe.

On August 23, 1939, Germany and the USSRsigned the nonaggression pact. The Nazi-Soviet pactshocked the world. Communism and Nazism weresupposed to be totally opposed to each other.Leaders in Britain and France knew that Hitler madethe deal to free himself for war against their countriesand Poland. They did not know that the treaty alsocontained a secret deal between Germany and theSoviet Union to divide Poland between them.

Explaining What were three rea-sons European leaders agreed to a policy of appeasement?

The War Begins

Although Poland and France fell to the Nazis,the British were able to evacuate thousands of trappedBritish and French troops from Dunkirk in France.

Reading Connection Can you think of a historical orcontemporary situation in which people acted heroically tosave those in danger? Read on to learn of the heroism of civilians and armed forces in World War II.

On September 1, 1939, Germany invaded Polandfrom the west, and soon after the Soviets invaded fromthe east. On September 3, Britain and France declaredwar on Germany, marking the start of World War II.

Reading Check

544 CHAPTER 11 A World in Flames

Appeasement in Action At Munich in September 1938, Mussolini (third from left), Britains Neville Chamberlain (second from left), and Hitler(second from right) were among those deciding Czechoslovakias fate.

Blitzkrieg in Poland Poland bravely resistedGermanys onslaught but was unable to stop theattack. The Germans used a new type of warfarecalled blitzkrieg, or lightning war. Blitzkrieg usedlarge numbers of massed tanks to break through andrapidly encircle enemy positions. Supporting thetanks were waves of aircraft that bombed enemy posi-tions and dropped paratroopers to cut their supplylines. Blitzkrieg depended on radios to coordinate thetanks and aircraft. The attack left the German enemycompletely surrounded, cut off from supplies, andwith heavy losses. The Polish army was unable tocope with the German attack. On September 27, thePolish capital of Warsaw fell to the Germans. ByOctober 5, 1939, the Polish army had been defeated.

The Fall of France In contrast to the war in Poland,western Europe remained eerily quiet. The Germansreferred to this situation as the sitzkrieg, or sitting war.The British called it the Bore War, while Americannewspapers nicknamed it the Phony War. The

British sent troops to assist France, but because bothcountries remained on the defensive, waiting for theGermans to attack, there were no battles or warfare.

After World War I, the French had built a line ofconcrete bunkers and fortifications called theMaginot Line along the German border. Rather thanrisk their troops by attacking, the French preferred towait behind the Maginot Line for the Germans toapproach. Unfortunately, this decision allowedGermany to concentrate on Poland first, without theneed to simultaneously fight the French, before turn-ing west to face the British and French.

After conquering Poland, Hitler and his generalsdecided to attack Norway and Denmark beforeinvading France. France continued to wait for attack.Germanys industry depended on iron ore fromSweden that had to be shipped down Norways coastpart of the year. If the British sent troops to Norway,they could block the iron shipments. On April 9,1940, the attack began, and within a month, Germanycontrolled both countries.

1941

1941

1941

1941

1935

1941

1941

1941

1941

1941

19411941

1941

1939

1940

1940

1940

1940

1940

1940

Germany occupiesRhineland,March 1936

Annexation ofSudetenland,Sept. 1938

Invasion of USSR,June 1941

3 Austrian Anschluss, 1938

Fall of France, June 1940

Battle of Britain,Aug. 1940Oct. 1940

Italy invadesEthiopia,Oct. 1935

Invasion of Poland,Sept. 1, 1939

6

5

4

1

2

78

500 kilometers0Lambert Azimuthal Equal-Area projection

500 miles0

N

SE

W

0 20E10W20W

50N

40N

UNITEDKINGDOM

FRANCE

NORWAYSWEDEN

FINLAND

GERMANYPOLAND

HUNGARY

YUGOSLAVIAITALY

ROMANIA

TURKEY

UNION OF SOVIETSOCIALIST REPUBLICS

BULGARIA

GREECEALBANIA

LITHUANIA

LATVIA

ESTONIA

SWITZ. AUSTRIA

SPAIN

PORTU

GAL

VICHY-FRANCE

ALGERIA

MOROCCO

LIBYA

TUNISIA

EASTPRUSSIA

SP. MOROCCO

SUDE

TENLANDCZECHOSLOVAKIA BESSARABIA

IRELAND

AtlanticOcean

Mediterranean Sea

Adriatic Sea

NorthSea

Black Sea

BalticSea

Paris

Vichy

DunkirkBerlin

Warsaw

Rome

Moscow

Leningrad

Rostov

London

Axis Expansion, 19351941

Axis nationsAxis satellite statesAxis conquestsAllied controlNeutral countriesAxis advanceInternationalboundary, Jan. 1938Maginot Line

1. Interpreting Maps Satellite states were independent inname, but they were under German control. What wasthe French satellite state called?

2. Applying Geography Skills Why was Czechoslovakiaphysically in danger once the Anschluss took place?

With his northern flank secure, Hitler turned hisattention to France. Hitler planned to go around theMaginot Line, which protected Frances border withGermany but not Frances border with Belgium andLuxembourg. To get around the Maginot Line, theGermans would have to invade the Netherlands,Belgium, and Luxembourg firstwhich is exactlywhat they did. On May 10, Hitler launched a newblitzkrieg in the west. While German troops para-chuted into the Netherlands, an army of tanks rolledinto Belgium and Luxembourg.

The British and French had expected the Germanattack. As soon as it began, British and French forcesraced north into Belgium. This was a mistake. Insteadof sending their tanks through the open countrysideof central Belgium, the Germans sent their main forcethrough the Ardennes Mountains of Luxembourgand eastern Belgium. The French did not think thatlarge numbers of tanks could move through themountains, and they had left only a few troops todefend that part of the border. The Germans easilysmashed through the French lines, then raced west

across northern France to the English Channel. TheBritish and French armies were still in Belgium andcould not move back into France quickly enough.They were now trapped in Belgium.

The Miracle at Dunkirk After trapping the Alliedforces in Belgium, the Germans began to drive themtoward the English Channel. The only hope forBritain and France was to evacuate their survivingtroops by sea, but the Germans had captured all butone port, Dunkirk, a small town in northern Francenear the Belgian border.

As German forces closed in on Dunkirk, Hitlersuddenly ordered them to stop. No one is sure whyhe gave this order. Historians know that Hitler wasnervous about risking his tank forces, and he wantedto wait until more infantry arrived. HermannGoering, the head of the German air force, was alsoassuring Hitler that aircraft alone could destroy thetrapped soldiers. There is also some evidence thatHitler thought that the British would be more willingto accept peace if the Germans did not humiliatethem by destroying their forces at Dunkirk.

Whatever Hitlers reasons, his order provided athree-day delay. This gave the British time tostrengthen their lines and begin the evacuation. Some850 ships of all sizes, from navy warships to smallsailboats operated by civilian volunteers, headed toDunkirk from England. The British had hoped to res-cue about 45,000 troops. Instead, when the evacua-tion ended on June 4, an estimated 338,000 Britishand French troops had been saved. This stunningsuccess led British newspapers to refer to the evacua-tion as the Miracle at Dunkirk.

The evacuation had its price, however. Almost allof the British armys equipment remained atDunkirk90,000 rifles, 7,000 tons of ammunition,and 120,000 vehicles. If Hitler invaded Britain, itwould be almost impossible to stop him from con-quering the country.

Three weeks later, on June 22, 1940, Hitleraccepted the French surrender in the same railwaycar in which the Germans had surrendered at the endof World War I. Germany now occupied much ofnorthern France and its Atlantic coastline. To governthe rest of the country, Germany installed a puppetgovernment at the town of Vichy and made MarshalPhilippe Ptain the new governments figureheadleader. Ptain predicted that Britain will have herneck wrung like a chicken.

Summarizing Why was Germanyable to overtake Poland?

Reading Check

546 CHAPTER 11 A World in Flames

Dunkirk Allied troops wade out to ships waiting to evacuate them from Dunkirk

Britain Remains Defiant

Disregarding the bombing of London andother major cities, Britains Winston Churchill stoodfirm against the threat of Nazi invasion.

Reading Connection Describe a time when you felt theodds were against you. How did you react? Read on to find outabout the resolve of the British when faced with Nazi air attack.

Neither Ptain nor Adolf Hitler anticipated thebravery of the British people or the spirit of theirleader, Winston Churchill, who had replaced NevilleChamberlain as prime minister. Hitler fully expectedthe British to negotiate peace after France surren-dered. For Winston Churchill, however, peace wasnot an option. The war was a fight to defend civiliza-tion. On June 4, 1940, Churchill delivered a defiantspeech in Parliament, intended not only to rally theBritish people but to alert the isolationist UnitedStates to Britains plight:

Even though large tracts of Europe have fallen . . .we shall not flag or fail. . . . We shall defend ourisland, whatever the cost may be, we shall fight onthe beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds,we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shallfight in the hills; we shall never surrender.

quoted in Freedom from Fear

When Hitler realized that Britain would not sur-render, he ordered his commanders to prepare toinvade. Only the choppy waters of the narrowEnglish Channel separated Britain from Germanyspowerful army, but getting across the Channel poseda major challenge. Germany had few transport ships,and the British air force would sink them if they triedto land troops in England. To invade, therefore,Germany first had to defeat the British air force.

In June 1940, the German air force, called theLuftwaffe, began to attack British shipping in theEnglish Channel. Then, in mid-August, the Luftwaffelaunched an all-out air battle to destroy the British

CHAPTER 11 A World in Flames 547

NEVER GIVE IN Few photographs capture theBritish resolve to keep a stiffupper lip better than this one.Night after night betweenSeptember 1940 and May 1941, German warplanesrained bombs on London,Coventry, and other Britishcities.The attacks wereintended to destroy Britishmorale and war production,but Royal Air Force pilots shotdown bombers faster thanGermany could replace them.Plucky British civilians, like thismilkman making his roundsthrough a debris-strewnLondon street, remained determined to carry on asusual each morning.

MOMENTinHISTORY

Royal Air Force. This air battle, which lasted into thefall of 1940, became known as the Battle of Britain.

On August 23, German bombers accidentallybombed London, the British capital. This attack oncivilians enraged the British, who responded bybombing Berlin the following night. For the first timein the war, bombs fell on the German capital.Infuriated, Hitler ordered the Luftwaffe to stop itsattacks on British military targets and to concentrateon bombing London.

Hitler s goal now was to terrorize the Britishpeople into surrendering. The British people

endured, however, hiding out in the citys subwaytunnels whenever German bombers appeared.Hitlers attempt to destroy the morale of the Britishpeople failed.

Although the Royal Air Force was greatly out-numbered, the British had one major advantage.They had developed a new technology called radar.Using radar stations placed along their coast, theBritish were able to detect incoming German aircraftand direct British fighters to intercept them.

Day after day, with the ability to detect Germanaircraft, the British fighters inflicted more losses onthe Germans than they suffered. The skill of a fewhundred pilots saved Britain from invasion. Praisingthe pilots, Churchill told Parliament, Never in thefield of human conflict was so much owed by somany to so few. On October 12, 1940, Hitler can-celled the invasion of Britain.

Evaluating Why was Britain able toresist Hitler and the Nazis?

Reading Check

548 CHAPTER 11 A World in Flames

Checking for Understanding1. Vocabulary Define: regime, further-

more, appeasement, blitzkrieg,anticipate.

2. People and Terms Identify: Anschluss,Maginot Line, Winston Churchill, Battleof Britain.

3. Explain why Hitler was able to takeover Austria and Czechoslovakia.

Reviewing Big Ideas4. Describing How did the policy of

appeasement affect France and GreatBritain?

Critical Thinking5. Evaluating Why

do you think the British were able toprevent the Germans from invadingtheir country? Do you think Hitler waswise in canceling the attemptedinvasion?

6. Organizing Use a graphic organizersimilar to the one below to list the earlyevents of the war in Poland and west-ern Europe.

Analyzing Visuals7. Analyzing Photographs Study the

photographs on pages 547 and 548.How do they reflect the British resolveto never surrender?

CA HI4 Writing About History8. Expository Writing Using library or

Internet resources, find more informa-tion on the German annexation ofCzechoslovakia. Use the information towrite a report detailing the events lead-ing up to and including the annexation.Share your report with the class.

CA 11WS1.6; 11WA2.4b; 11WA2.4d

Events

Never Surrender Hitler ordered Nazi aircraft to bomb Britishcities, intending to weaken the peoples will. Though shaken, theBritish, like the dome of St. Pauls Cathedral (right), stood firm.What technology allowed the outnumbered Royal Air Force toresist the German Luftwaffe?

History

For help with the concepts in this section of AmericanVision: Modern Times go to andclick on Study Central.

tav.mt.glencoe.com

Study CentralHISTORY

http://tav.mt.glencoe.com

Button1: