Prelude to War

Adolph Hitler and the Nazi Party

• Writes Mein Kampf (My Struggle) - Blames Jews and Communists for Germany’s troubles

• 1933 Hitler voted in by German people - 3rd Reich begins (reign)

• Civil Rights end for many
• Brown shirts (storm troopers) crush all opposition to the new government

• Builds Germany back up economically

• Launches Public Works which puts people back to work
•  Authorizes the building of the Autobahn
• Plans to build up Germany militarily
• Social Policy – indoctrinate young with racist ideology (anti-semantic policies)

• Preached that Germans belong to a race that was biologically superior to Jews, Gypsies and other people
• Nuremberg Laws (restrictions on Jews)
• Kristallnacht “Night of Broken Glass” Nov. 9-10, 1938
• Censorship of music, arts, books, etc.

Causes of WWII

1. WWI PEACE TREATY problems

• Treaty of Versailles blamed WWI on Germany and made them pay heavy war costs

• Hitler = Germany
• Mussolini = Italy

1. Economic (depression) and political factors lead to the rise of powerful dictators

• Germans owed 33 million dollars in war debt to the allies.
• Redrawn boundaries – The loss of Sudetenland, known as Czechoslovakia after WWI

1. Diplomatic Factors

• Although Britain and France signed an agreement promising to protect Czechoslovakia they were reluctant to go to war again so the adopted a policy of appeasement (giving into aggression to avoid war), PEACE at all costs!
•  The policy fails as Hitler seizes more land than he promised he would take
• American Neutrality Acts = desire to stay out of European conflicts, bans arms sales or loans to countries at war. The policy of isolationism takes hold

1. Rise of Dictators/Militarists

• Challenges the Treaty of Versailles
•  Promoted extreme racism (Aryans)
• Encouraged Anti-Semitic (Anti-Jewish) scapegoating

• Benito Mussolini and his fascist party

• Led march on Rome
• Organized Black Shirts (military police) to keep people in line
• Violence and terror of people
• Social Party = Believe-Fight-Obey
• Foreign Policy = Social Darwinism (Survival of the Fittest through military strength)
• Pledges to make Italy an imperial power
• Invades and controls Ethiopia
• Invades and controls Albania

Hitler Expands

• March 1936 German troops move into Rhineland
• 1938 – Overruns Austria
• 1938 – Demands Czechoslovakia turn over former German territory Sudetenland, home to 3.5 million German citizens
• September 1, 1939 Germany invades Poland

Britain and France declare war on Germany…World War II Begins

Germany fights back

• Uses Blitzkrieg meaning lightning war tactics
• Air strikes followed by fast moving tanks and ground troops
• Poland taken quickly

Axis vs. Allied

Axis Powers

• Italy, Germany, Japan, and 9 smaller nations
• 30 million men/women

Allied Powers

• Britain, China, Russia, (the United States behind the scenes at first) and 46 other nations
• 62 million men/women

The United States…trying to help

• After the invasion of Poland President Roosevelt announced that the U.S. would remain neutral because he knew the American people did not want to go to war
• FDR sought other ways to help; he asked Congress to repeal the neutrality law
• Isolationists in the form of the America First Committee (AFC) fought against this. The AFC was particularly strong in the American Midwest (our area), in fact Charles Lindbergh was a leader in the organization, but after the attack on Pearl Harbor support for this committee eroded

Cash and Carry

• When the AFC blocks the move to repeal the laws FDR sought a compromise called the “Cash and Carry” plan. The U.S. could sell to the ALLIED powers if they paid cash and hauled the goods away with their own ships
• In addition FDR agreed to give Britain 50 old American destroyers if Britain gave the U.S. 99 year leases on military bases in the Caribbean and Newfoundland

Lend-Lease Act

• By 1940 Britain is running out of cash - FDR suggests lending the Allies supplies after all they were defending democracy for all!
•  Again the Isolationists protested but this time Congress passed the Lend-Lease Act
• Allowing the sales or loans of war materials to any country whose defense the president deems vital to the defense of the United States
• The U.S. sends airplanes, tanks, guns, and ammunition to Britain

The Allied Strategy

In Germany

Relieve Russia, this area was considered the largest threat

About those Italians

Invade North Africa to get rid of the Italians

And then there was Japan

Seize key Pacific islands, use them to invade Japan

The Axis Strategy

Germany wants to overrun France

Use Air Raids on England to force British into peace

Defeat Russia to gain oil fields

And the Italians...well they plan on riding on Germany's coat tails to victory and gain land.

Germany and the Axis powers makes TWO big moves…

#1: Attack on Scandinavia to Belgium

• May 10, 1940 into Belgium, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands
•  Strike at Luxembourg and isolate Belgium from France

• Luxembourg falls in 1 day
• Netherlands falls in 5 days
• May 28th Belgium falls
• Allied support retreats to Dunkirk = Miracle at Dunkirk- 338,000 soldiers rescued

#2: Attack on France

• Germans march into Paris and Italy enters WWII on June 10, 1940
• France surrenders June 22, 1940 as the Germans occupy the North and West of France
• Put a puppet government (meaning the Vichy did whatever the Germans told them to do) the Vichy in the South under Premier Henri Philippe Petain

The Battle of Britain

• After the fall of France Britain seemed to stand alone
• For many months night after night German planes dropped bombs on London and other British cities
• British Prime Minister Winston Churchill promised to continue to fight and the British in fact gunned down some 2000 German planes
• Eventually Hitler would give up his plan to invade Britain, but not the war…

Meanwhile in Japan…

• Japanese Militarists = Samurai (warrior class) traditions = war and conquest, they hold both in high regard
• September 18, 1931 Japan invades Manchuria, looking for natural resources, from there they move into Mongolia and North China
• May 15, 1932 Nationalists assassinate Prime Minister Tsuyoshi Inukai
• Great plan of establishing a Greater East Asia

New Leadership in Japan…

• July 7, 1937 fighting between China and Japan breaks out
•  December 1938 Japan controlled most of East China
• September 1940 Japan invades northern French Indochina (Vietnam)
• July 1941 enter southern Indochina
• Fall of 1941 Hideki Tojo becomes Prime Minister

Japan

Invade and overrun Thailand, Malaya, the Philippines and Indies, then onto China

A Day that will live in Infamy…December 7, 1941

• After the Japanese signed an alliance with Germany and Italy the U.S. tried to stop Japanese aggression by refusing to sell oil and scrap metal the Japan
• Americans and Japanese diplomats tried to work out a deal
• Japan wanted the U.S. to lift the embargo
• The U.S. wanted Japan to withdraw from China and Southeast Asia
• Japan attacks Pearl Harbor by air and in less than 2 hours they destroy or damaged 19 U.S. ships and destroyed almost 200 planes and killed nearly 2400 people

After being attacked by Japan the U.S. enters the war…Oops!

• Japan surprised the U.S. alright but made two big mistakes

• They failed to destroy the aircraft carriers which were out to sea during the attack
• They did not bomb the fuel oil tanks

In the end the aircraft carriers and oil reserves would prove to be the keys to an American victory!

Source: Wikipedia