History 102

1
History 102

• Chapter 29, Part II

2
Between the Wars

• Nazi expansion
• Aggression and appeasement (1933-1939)
• 1. Hitler's main goal was territorial
  expansion for the "superior" German race.
• He withdrew from the League of Nations in 1933.
• An Anglo-German naval agreement in 1935 broke
  Germany's isolation.
• In violation of the Treaty of Versailles, Hitler
  occupied the demilitarized Rhineland in 1936.
• 2. The British policy of appeasement,
  motivated by both guilt and pacifism, lasted far
  into 1939.

3
Between the Wars

• 3. Mussolini attacked Ethiopia in 1935 and
  joined Germany in supporting the fascists in
  Spain.
• 4. Germany, Italy, and Japan formed an
  alliance.
• 5. Hitler annexed Austria and demanded part
  of Czechoslovakia in 1938.
• 6. Chamberlain flew to Munich to appease
  Hitler and agree to his territorial demands.
• 7. Hitler accelerated his aggression and
  occupied all of Czechoslovakia in 1939.
• 8. In 1939, Hitler and Stalin signed a
  public nonaggression pack and a secret pact that
  divided eastern Europe into German and Russian
  zones.
• 9. Germany attacked Poland, and Britain and
  France declared war on Germany (1939).

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Second World War

• Hitler's empire (1939-1942)
• 1. The key to Hitler's military success was
  speed and force (the blitzkrieg).
• 2. He crushed Poland quickly and then
  France by July 1940 the Nazis ruled nearly all
  of Europe except Britain.
• 3. He bombed British cities in an attempt
  to break British morale, but did not succeed.
• 4. In 1941 Hitler's forces invaded Russia
  and conquered the Ukraine and got as far as
  Leningrad and Moscow until stopped by the severe
  winter weather.

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Second World War

• 5. After Japan attacked Pearl Harbor
  (December 7, 1941) Hitler also declared war on
  the United States.
• 6. Hitler began building a New Order based
  on racial imperialism.
• Nordic peoples were treated with preference the
  French were heavily taxed the Slavs were treated
  as "subhumans."
• The SS evacuated Polish peasants to create a
  German "settlement space."
• Polish workers and Russian prisoners of war did
  most of the heavy labor.
• Jews, Gypsies, Jehovah's witnesses, and
  communists were condemned to death--six million
  Jews were murdered in concentration camps.

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Second World War

• The Grand Alliance
• 1. The allies had three policies that led them
  to victory.
• The United States concentrated on European
  victory first, then Japan.
• The Americans and British put military needs
  before political questions, thus avoiding
  conflict over postwar settlements.
• The Allies adopted the principle of
  "unconditional surrender" of Germany and Japan,
  denying Hitler the possibility of dividing his
  foes.
• 2. American aid to Britain and the Soviets, along
  with the heroic support of the British and Soviet
  peoples and the assistance of resistance groups
  throughout Europe, contributed to the eventual
  victory.

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Second World War

• The tide of battle
• 1. The Germans were defeated at Stalingrad
  at the end of 1942, and from there on the Soviets
  took the offensive.
• 2. At the same time American, British, and
  Australian victories in the Pacific put Japan on
  the defensive.
• The Battle of the Coral Sea (1942) stopped the
  Japanese advance.
• The Battle of Midway Island (1942) established
  American naval superiority in the Pacific.
• 3. The British defeat of Rommel at the
  Battle of El Alamein (1942) helped drive the Axis
  powers from North Africa in 1943.

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Second World War

• 4. Italy surrendered in 1943, but fighting
  continued as the Germans seized Rome and northern
  Italy.
• 5. Bombing of Germany and Hitler's brutal
  elimination of opposition caused the Germans to
  fight on.
• 6. The British and Americans invaded
  German-held France in June 1944, but did not
  cross into Germany until March 1945.
• The Soviets pushed from the east, crossing the
  Elbe and meeting the Americans on the other side
  on April 26, 1945 Hitler committed suicide, and
  Germany surrendered on May 7, 1945.
• The United States dropped two atomic bombs on
  Japan in August 1945, and it too surrendered.