Events leading to WWII
Mr. Williams
10th Grade U.S. History
Treaty of Versailles
• Germany forced to accept sole
responsibility for starting the war
• Disarm its military forces
• Give up territory gained prior to
and during the war
• Reparations: payments for
damages and expenses caused
by the war
Wilson the Fortune Teller
• “I can predict with absolute
certainty that within another
generation there will be
another world war if the
nations of the world do not
concert [agree upon] the
method by which to prevent
it” –Woodrow Wilson
• Legacy of WWI (Desire to
avoid future war)
• Treaty of Versailles
• Failure of New Governments
and Rise of Fascism
• Failure of League of Nations
• Failure of Appeasement
•“…Government of the
people, by the people, for
the people, shall not perish
from this Earth.”
• “Anti-individualistic, the Fascist
conception of life stresses the
importance of the State and
accepts the individual only in so
far as his interests coincide with
those of the State.”
-Mussolini in The Doctrine of
Fascism, 1932
Fascism
• “Everything in the State, nothing
outside the State, nothing
against the State.”
• Military action is a necessary of
Fascism
• To acquire “living space”
(expand)
• To show their greatness
• What were the main
provisions of the Treaty of
Versailles?
• What did this do to Germany?
• Describe Fascism. What
countries were influenced by
this type of Government
leading up to WWII?
Japan seeks Empire
• Manchuria
• 1931 seized by Japanese army
–Beginning of Japan’s Empire
• League of Nations protested
–Japan leaves League in 1933
European Aggressors on the
March
• Fascists encouraged by League of
Nations failure in Japan
–Mussolini invades Ethiopia
–Civil War Erupts in Spain
–Hitler violates Treaty of
Versailles
The German Reich Expands
• 1937 Hitler announces Third Reich
–Violated Treaty of Versailles
• Starts to re-build Air Force and
instituted military draft
–Wanted to absorb control of Austria
and Czechoslovakia
Appeasement
• Giving into aggressive
demands to maintain peace
• Munich Conference: September 29,
1938 - Germany, France, GB, Italy
–Britain and France agree Hitler can
take Sudetenland
• “Peace for our time”
• “We should seek by all means in our
power to avoid war, by analyzing
possible causes, by trying to remove
them, by discussion in a spirit of
collaboration and good will. I cannot
believe that such a programme would
be rejected by the people of this
country even if it does mean the
establishment of personal contact
with dictators.” -1938
Nazis and Soviets
• USSR approached to help Britain and
France stop Hitler
• Hitler bargains with Stalin
–Pledge never to attack one another
–Offers Eastern Poland and the Baltic
states
• Nazi-Soviet Nonaggression Pact August
23, 1939
Hitler starts the War
• 6 Months after Munich, Hitler
takes over Czechoslovakia
• Sept 1, 1939-Germany Invades
Poland
• Sept 3, 1939-Britain and France
declare war on Germany
• June 1941 Hitler invades Soviet Union
• “The Prime Minister desired to see
cordial relations between this
country and Germany…You must
have diplomatic and correct
relations, but there can never be
friendship between the British
democracy and the Nazi Power.”
-1938
• Legacy of WWI (Desire to
avoid future war)
• Treaty of Versailles
• Failure of New Governments
and Rise of Fascism
• Failure of League of Nations
• Failure of Appeasement
Identify and explain four (4)
different ways that First World
War led to the Second World
War. GIVE EVIDENCE!
1. Restatement of prompt (One)
2. 4 main points with sentences
to back up each (Four)
3. Conclusion Sentence (One)