Pgs. 700-727
 Failures
of the World War I Peace
Settlement
• Germany upset: blamed for the start of WWI, had
to pay everyone back, stripped them of
“German” countries
• Soviet Union: upset because their country was
broken up to form Poland, Finland, Estonia,
Lithuania, and Latvia.
• New democratic governments were soon taken
over by dictators.
 Soviet Union
• Joseph Stalin took over as leader when Lenin died.
• Wanted to create a model Communist state
 Agriculture and industry controlled by government
 Forced peasants to give up their farms and work on them for
wages.
• By 1939 became the 3rd largest industry based
country in the World.
• Created a “police state”
 If you disagreed with the government you were exiled or
killed.
• Totalitarianism – government that maintains
complete control over its citizens
 Italy
• Benito Mussolini leader
• Facisim: political movement that consisted of a
strong, centralized government headed by a
powerful dictator
• Totalitarianism
 Germany
• Adolf Hitler
• Nazi’s : National Socialist German Workers’ Party
 Aryan Race
 Needed lebensraum “growing room”
• Created Third Reich
 3rd German Empire
 Japan
• Wanted more “living space” for their people
• Invaded Manchuria, China and took it over.
 League of Nations did nothing to intervene and
dictators took notice of it.
 Aggression
in Europe
• Germany:
 1933 – Hitler pulled out of the League
 1935 – began a military build up
 1936 – sent troops to Rhineland
 1936 - Rome - Berlin Axis Pact which was an alliance
between Germany, Italy, and Russia.
• Italy
 Mussolini invaded and took over Ethiopia (League
did nothing)
 United
States held fast to isolationism
• People felt that the United States had been
dragged/tricked into entering WWI by bankers and
arms dealers.
• Congress passed the Neutrality Acts:
 Outlawed arms sales or loans to any nation at war.
 Ban on arms sales to any country engaged in a Civil War.
 Neutrality
breaks down
• Private group of Americans got involved in a Civil war
being fought in Spain. (Facists vs. old government)
• Japan invaded China
 Because no war was declared United States sent supplies to
China.
 http://www.worldology.com/Europe/wor
ld_war_2_imap.htm
 Austria and Czechoslovakia Fall
• Hitler met with Austrian chancellor Kurt von
Schuschnigg to meet with him.
• Schuschnigg bullied into signing an agreement to
bring Austrian Nazi’s into his government.
• On March 12, 1938, German troops marched into
Austria unopposed forcing Schuschnigg to resign.
• Hitler then turned to Sudetenland, a mountainous
region inhabited by 3 million German-speaking
people. (part of Czechoslovakia)
 France and Great Britain became alarmed
 Appeasement (gave up the land without a fight because
Hitler said that he wouldn’t take over any more land.)
 The
German Offensive
• Poland was the next target for Hitler
 Had a heavy German-speaking population
• France and Britain said that they would help
Poland if it was invaded.
• Stalin decided that he didn’t want to argue with
Hitler over this issue so he agreed to a joint
occupancy.
 Soviet Union and Germany signed a nonaggression
pact – agreed not to attack each other.
 Blitzkrieg
in Poland
• Germany launched an attack on September 1,
1939.
 Blitzkrieg – lightning war
• Fighting was going on for 3 weeks before France
and Britain helped.
• WWII had begun
 After
Poland was taken over, Stalin began
to annex territories that were taken away
from Soviet Union after WWII.
 The Fall of France
• France was taken over by Germany and led by a
Nazi
• Charles de Gaulle was a French general who
fled to Britain where he set up a government in
exile.
 The
Battle of Britain
• Hitler wanted to take over Britain.
 Launched an air raid to destroy Britain Royal Air Force
(BAF)
 BAF won because they had radar and were able to
see when the planes were coming
 Germany gave up after losing many aircrafts.
• Prime Minister Winston Churchill saw this as a
good victory.
 When
Hitler came to power he placed
the blame of the depression and WWI
loss on the Jewish population.
 Aryan Race was only acceptable race.
 Propaganda
• Posters, movies, etc.
 Brainwashed
many people into believing
misfits were evil and needed to be
exterminated.
 First measures
• Discrimination against Jews
 Boycotts, segregation, isolation
 Ghettos
• Soon Jews were forced to live in Ghettos so that they
were completely segregated/isolated from society.
• Shipped to concentration camps
 Goal
• Extermination
• http://www.historyplace.com/worldwar2/holocaust/
timeline.html
 Ghettos
• Forced to pack up belongings and move into
•
•
•
•
new living quarters
Starvation
Disease
Unsanitary
Cut off from outside
 Scientific
experiments
 Branded
 Mass
murders
 Death chambers
 Final solution
 American Response
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qk9GzQc2s6
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