US History: Spiconardi

EVENTS LEADING TO WORLD WAR II: MILITARY AGGRESSION & APPEASEMENT

ITALIAN AGGRESSION

Italy invades Ethiopia (1935)

Using mustard gas, Italians advance on Ethiopia and eventually

Ethiopia’s emperor, Haile Selassie, goes to League of Nations League of Nations refuses to recognize Italy’s control of

Ethiopia, but does nothing else.

League of Nations was ineffective, as countries were more concerned about their own economic crisis

It will be you

tomorrow.

Italy would invade

Albania in 1939

NAZI AGGRESSION

The Third Reich

Hitler vowed to create a German-speaking empire in violation of the Treaty of Versailles

Nazi Violations of the Treaty of Versailles

Hitler begins to rebuild army

Hitler sends troops into the Rhineland in 1936 Rhineland land in western declared de-militarized

under the Treaty of Versailles Acted as a buffer between France and Germany

Nazi soldiers march into the Rhineland to the cheers of Germans

NAZI AGGRESSION

Annexation of Austria

In March of 1938, Germany annexes Austria as part of his building of a German-speaking Empire

Crowds in Vienna, Austria

cheering the arrival

of Nazi troops

APPEASEMENT The Munich Agreement

France & Great Britain began to fear Hitler’s tactics

Hitler threatened to invade Czechoslovakia

In September 1938, France, Great Britain, and Germany make a pact Hitler would be allowed to annex the

Sudetenland region of Czechoslovakia, if he promised not to take anymore land

Chamberlin (GB), Daladier (FR), Hitler (GER), Mussolini (ITA), Ciano (ITA)

APPEASEMENT

Lands acquired by

the Third Reich as of September

30, 1938

APPEASEMENT

Just six months after the Munich Agreement, Hitler invades the rest of Czechoslovakia

Great Britain and France do nothing in response to Hitler’s violation of the Munich Agreement

Czech woman weeping as she salutes the invading German

forces

APPEASEMENT

There was no fighting between

German and Czech forces. Two German soldiers

drive past an unsettled group of

Czech citizens

APPEASEMENT

Appeasement a policy of giving into the demands of an aggressor/potential enemy in order to avoid war.

‘Why should we

take a stand about

someone pushing

someone else when

it’s all so far away?’

APPEASEMENT

Why would European nations like Great Britain and France follow a policy of appeasement?

SOVIET-NAZI TREATY OF NON-AGGRESSION

The Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact

In August of 1939, the U.S.S.R. and Nazi Germany signed a non-aggression pact The two countries

promised not to attack one another

Secretly promised to divided Poland among themselves

Molotov signs the pact, as Ribbentrop and Stalin look on

SOVIET-NAZI TREATY OF NON-AGGRESSION

What did the West think of

the Soviet-Nazi Treaty of

Non-Aggression

according to cartoonist

David Low?

SOVIET-NAZI TREATY OF NON-AGGRESSION

What is the cartoon artist implying about the Molotov-

Ribbentrop Pact?

And the “honeymoon” doesn’t last. In June

1941, Germany invades the U.S.S.R.

START OF WORLD WAR II

Invasion of Poland

On September 1, 1939, Germany invades Poland

In response, France and Great Britain demand Germany withdraw from Poland Germany refuses

On September 3, 1939, France and Great Britain declare war on Germany two days later