CAUSES of WORLD WAR II Failure of post-war (WWI) efforts -Treaty of Versailles fails, League of Nations ineffective, U.S. not a member, nationalism & imperialism.

CAUSES of WORLD WAR II

• Failure of post-war (WWI) efforts-Treaty of Versailles fails, League of

Nations ineffective, U.S. not a member, nationalism & imperialism flow

• Rise of dictators-totalitarian: govt. exercises total

control• Axis Coalition

-Italy & Germany & later Japan• Appeasement

-GB & France give in to Axis powers in effort to keep peace

Joseph Stalin• Soviet Union, 1924• Lenin dies• Stalin transforms Russia

into 3rd largest industrial power

• Reign of Terror-purges 7 million (execution or camp, p.569) eliminates threats to govt.

• Soviet Union a massive “police state”

Joseph Stalin. Notice: Who/what groups of people are gathered around him?

Adolf Hitler• Austrian, painter, WWI Veteran• 1923, wrote Mein Kempf (My

Struggle) while in prison for attempting to take over the govt.

• wanted Germans to defy Verseilles Treaty by rearming & reclaiming lost land

• blamed minority groups, mainly Jews, for Germany’s weaknesses

• believed Aryans were the “master race”

NAZISM• form of fascism shaped

by Hitler’s ideas about German nationalism & racial superiority

• Nationalist Socialist German Workers Party

• 1932 elections-Nazi party became largest party in Reichstag

• 1933 Hitler made chancellor of Germany

• Hitler gave himself title Der Fuhrer (the leader)• becomes president

1934• Begins restricting

freedoms

When Reichstag building burns down, Hitler blames Communists.

GERMAN PROPAGANDA- Hitler promises work for unemployed

Benito Mussolini• WWI Veteran• 1919 forms revolutionary Fascist

Party - dissatisfied WWI vets, opponents of the monarchy, Socialists & anarchists

• “il Duce” (the leader)• Fascism- run by a strong

centralized govt. & dictator, emphasizes nationalism

• fears communism• His “blackshirts” terrorized

opposition• King threatened, appoints him

prime minister• Italy invades, conquers Ethiopia in

1936

1936- Hitler & Mussolini form an alliance- The AXIS POWERS. ( Later becomes Rome-Berlin-Tokyo Axis & its allies)

Bitter about the way things turned out after WWI…...Bitter about the way things turned out after WWI…...

“Svastika”—derived fromSanskrit, means conduciveto well being; an ancient symbol in ancient Mesopotamia, Christianity &Byzantine art, Mayan & other cultures of the Americas

***Today the symbol is used by Hindus & Buddhists(footprints of Buddha).

Spanish Civil War• 1936-- rebels led by General

Francisco Franco attempt to take over Spain’s govt. They become known as Nationalists.

• Nationalists v. ruling Republicans results in Civil War

• Franco backed by Germany & Italy; Republicans backed by Soviet Union

• 1939, Franco takes Madrid & becomes military dictator of Spain. Franco rules until his death in 1975.

Europe on the eve of war, 1939

Germany Rearms & Expands, 1936-1939

• March, 1936– German troops enters Rhineland, a region in western Germany that the Versailles Treaty banned them from occupying. GB & France take no action.

• March, 1938-- Germany took over Austria. • Hitler demands Sudetenland (region of Czechoslovakia).

• Chamberlain (GB) & Daladier (France) sign Munich

Pact, believing this will be Hitler’s final conquest. APPEASEMENT!!

• 1939– Hitler signs secret agreement with Stalin —The Nonaggression Pact (eliminates threat of Soviet invasion from the east in exchange for territory)

German Aggression, 1939-1941

War Begins• Hitler wants Poland. • France & GB agree to help Poland under attack• Germany does not want a two front war (WWI)• Stalin signs Nonaggression Pact– secretly agreeing

to split Poland• Sept. 1, 1939- Hitler attacks Poland, blitzkrieg!• Sept. 3, 1939- GB & France declare war on

Germany• France protects it border with Germany—the

Maginot Line.• 1940- Hitler conquers Denmark, Norway, the

Netherlands, Belgium & Luxembourg

Germany attacks France

• British & French forces retreat to French coastal city of Dunkirk

• Hundreds of thousands of soldiers were ferried to Great Britain in one of the greatest rescues in the history of warfare.

Miracle at Dunkirk, May/June 1940

• Italy joins Germany in attack of France

• June 22, 1940 France surrenders to Germany

• Vichy France (south) collaborates with Germany while Germany occupies remainder of France

• Gen. de Gaulle leads French Resistance movement from the safety of GBLuftwaffe flies over Paris.

Germany fails to take Great Britain

• Luftwaffe targets ports, airfields, radar installations

• Germans bomb London• Brits bomb Berlin• Hitler orders massive air raids

—including firebombs (chemical)

• Blitz continues until May 1941• Royal Air Force (RAF) was

greatly outnumbered• In spitfires & hurricanes RAF

defeated the Luftwaffe• British deciphered Hitler’s

secret code & knew he would not invade without air superiority---thanks to a new invention called RADAR!

• Hitler had been stopped!!

Battle of Britain

--Germany executesOperation SeaLion

--AUGUST to SEPTEMBER

19401,000 planes rained over

Britain--by May 1941 20,000 Londoners dead,70,000 wounded

- Winston Churchill

Winston Churchill became Prime Minister in May 1940.

Japan militarizes

Manchurian Incident• Dissatisfaction with democracy

& weaknesses in govt. leads to rise in Nationalism

• 1932- Japanese military invades Chinese Manchuria

• Japan establishes Manchukuo, a puppet state.

• U.S. & GB propose that Japan had broken the Kellogg-Briand Pact, but did not act.

• League of Nations demanded Japan withdraw from Manchuria. Japan quit League of Nations.

Tojo Hideki

• Military dictator• 1934- Japan terminates Washington

Naval Treaty (builds ships) & begins conquest of Far East

• Jiang Jieshi & Mao Zedong locked in bitter power struggle in China unite to fight Japan. Japanese controlled cities & Chinese guerrillas dominated countryside.

• 1939- stalemate between China & Japan.

• East Asian Co-Prosperity Sphere: from Manchuria in the north to the Dutch East Indies in the south. Japan wants to get rid of Europe in Asia & attain critical resources needed to industrialize, conquer China– Oil & rubber.

• 1940 Japan joins AXIS Powers. • Japan moves into French Indochina.• 1941 Japan signs a neutrality pact with

Soviet Union.

Japanese Empire 1942