Outbreak of World War 2

1
Outbreak of World War 2
2
Hitlers Expansionist Goals

• Unite the German volk into one nation
• Nationalism One racial group, unified under one
  government
• Removal of the Jews and other non-German peoples
• Expand borders
• Lebensraum living space for German people
• Seize Poland and Ukraine for living space and
  food production
• Unite a Greater Germany Austria,
  Sudentenland, East Prussia
• Destroy the legacy of the Treaty of Versailles

3
Failure of League of Nations

• League created in 1919, as discussion forum to
  end war, but lacked military
• Lacked USA, Russia, Germany (until Locarno) USA
  refused to ratify Versailles treaty Germany
  later joined and then left (Hitler pulled out of
  League when Germany was criticized for human
  rights abuses against Jews)
• Lacked Security Council, so required majority of
  all members for security issues
• Treaty of Versailles included promises to reduce
  arms for all countries
• 1931 Japans invasion of Manchuria brought only
  a weak condemnation of Japan
• 1935 League only condemned Hitlers announcement
  to begin militarization

4
Italian Invasion of Ethiopia

• 1935 Italian invasion of Ethiopia
  (Italo-Abyssinian Wars)
• official condemnation from League (Mussolini
  replied to criticism over human rights that
  Ethiopians werent fully human, and so didnt
  have human rights)
• weak economic sanctions against Italy, but not
  for oil sanctions
• But Britain allowed Italy to use Suez Canal, so
  invasion succeeded
• Alienated Mussolini turned to ally with Hitler
• Nazi Remilitarization of the Rhineland
• Britain and France registered complaint with
  League, but no other action

The man who took the lid off 1935
5
Anschluss

• 1934 attempt to annex Austria had failed due to
  Italian threats
• 1938, after alliance with Mussolini, Hitler
  bullied Austrian chancellor Schuschnigg to let
  Austria be annexed by Germany
• Schuschnigg began to organize a plebiscite, so
  Hitler invaded preemptively
• Anschluss left Czechoslovakia encircled by Germany

6
1938 Czechoslovakia Crisis

• 3.5M Germans lived in Sudetenland,
  Czechoslovakia, born of A-H empire in 1919
• Hitler hoped to destroy Czechoslovakia,
  pro-western, allied with France and USSR
• Hitler organized Nazi sympathizers in both Czech
  and Slovak areas to divide country against itself
• 1938 Hitler Nuremberg speech caused pro-German
  rioting in Sudetenland

7
Appeasement Munich Conference

• Chamberlain negotiated with Hitler three times in
  September
• Forced Czechoslovakia to surrender Sudetenland,
  lest England and France abandon the country
  altogether
• At 1938 Munich Conference, Germany, France,
  England, Italy agreed that Sudetenland would
  become German, leaving Czech. surrounded by
  Germany
• Hitler renounced further territorial aims, but
  then occupied Prague in 1939

8
Poland

• 1939 Hitler demanded that Poland give Danzig to
  Germany and allow access to East Prussia
• England and France publicly allied with Poland,
  but Hitler did not take alliance seriously
• 1939 Public Nazi-Soviet non-aggression pact
• Also called Molotov-Ribbentrop pact
• Soviets feared that west intended USSR to bear
  burden of defending Poland
• secretly promised USSR eastern Poland and
  Bessarabia
• September 1, 1939 Hitler invaded Poland Britain
  and France declared war

Molotov signs the German-Soviet non-aggression
pact. Behind him are Ribbentrop and Stalin.
9
Conclusions

• Chamberlain, perhaps misguided by apparent
  success of earlier negotiations to avert war,
  underestimated Hitlers desire for land
• Hitler, perhaps misguided by earlier successes of
  brinkmanship, underestimated Britain and Frances
  seriousness in defending Poland
• Hitlers demand for a Greater Germany was a
  plausible rationale for the Anschluss and Czech
  crisis, but was less convincing for invasion of
  Poland