Chapter 16: World War Looms Section 2: War in Europe

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Chapter 16World War LoomsSection 2War in
Europe
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Standards

• 11.7 Students analyze America's participation in
  World War II.
• .6 Describe major developments in aviation,
  weaponry, communication, and medicine and the
  war's impact on the location of American industry
  and use of resources.

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Objectives

• Following lecture and reading of this section,
  students will be able to
• Explain Germanys motives for expansion and the
  timid response of France and Britain
• Describe Germanys blitzkrieg tactics against
  Poland
• Summarize the first battles of World War II

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Austria Czechoslovakia Fall

• Hitler planned to take the land of neighboring
  countries in order to expand the Third Reich
• Austria
• Czechoslovakia
• Hitler realized the possible risks
• War
• Revolution
• Rebellion
• Collapse

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Union with Austria

• Post WW I division of the Austro-Hungarian Empire
  created a fairly small Austria
• The majority of Austrians were German
• They favored unification with Germany
• March 12, 1938, German troops march into Austria
  unopposed, union complete
• U.S. the rest of world do nothing to stop
  Germany

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Bargaining for the Sudetenland

• 3 million German-speakers in Sudetenland
• Sudetenland is in the western border regions
• Hitler wanted the region to provide more living
  space and control natural resources of the area
• To justify actions, Hitler claimed Czechs abused
  Sudeten Germans
• Hitler began amassing German troops on border

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Bargaining for the Sudetenland

• 1938, Prime Ministers Daladier (F), Neville
  Chamberlain (GB) met with Hitler
• Hitler promised Czechoslovakia would be his last
  territorial demand
• Munich Agreement signed
• Sudetenland over to Germany, no shots fired!
• Believed it was peace
• Winston Churchill disagreed with appeasement
  policy warned war would follow
• Appeasement- giving up principles to pacify an
  aggressor
• Churchill was right, Hitler invaded the rest of
  Czechoslovakia later in 1938
• Hitler then looked toward Poland

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The Soviet Union Declares Neutrality

• Hitler claimed the Poles mistreated Germans in
  Poland and needed his protection
• Poland buffered USSR from Germany
• Many thought Hitler was bluffing
• Invading Poland would bring two-front war
• A two front-war was the cause for the German
  collpse in WWI
• Too difficult to fight on both sides
• Stalin Hitler signed a nonaggression pactwill
  not attack each other
• They signed a second, secret pact, agreeing to
  divide Poland between them was it was defeated.

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Blitzkrieg in Poland

• Sept. 1939, Hitler easily defeated Polish forces
  with the blitzkrieg, or blitz
• Lightning war (w/ tanks planes and bombs)
• Poland divided
• Germany annexed western 2/3 of Poland
• U.S.S.R. attacked annexed eastern 1/3 of Poland
• Holding to their alliance, France Britain
  declared war on Germany
• France Britain agreed to aid Poland if they
  faced attack
• Poland fell as French British could not attack
  fast enough
• World War II began

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The Phony War

• Then all of the sudden Hitler stopped his
  advances.
• French British troops sat at the Maginot Line
  looking into Germany on Frances eastern border
  with Germany.
• German troops sat at the Siegfried Line looking
  into France.

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Stalin Ends the Peace, Followed by Hitler

• Peace was broken when Stalin annexed Estonia,
  Latvia, Lithuania defeated Finland
• Hitler invaded Denmark Norway
• Claiming to protect them from Stalins advances
• Hitler really wanted to build military bases
  there to launch attacks on Britain
• Hitler then invaded the Netherlands, Belgium,
  Luxembourg

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The Fall of France

• German army went north through Ardennes (heavily
  wooded forest) around the French British troops
• British French fled north but were trapped at
  Dunkirk
• Ferried to safety in UK (400K in one week w/800
  boats)
• 1940,  Italy invaded France from south The
  Germans approached Paris
• France fell Germans occupied northern France
• Nazi puppet government set up in southern France
  (Vichy)
• General Charles de Gaulle set up
  government-in-exile in England
• France lost the battle, not the war!

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The Battle of Britain

• Summer 1940, Germany prepared planes to combat
  the strong British navy
• By controlling the skies Hitler wanted to invade
  and defeat Britain
• Battle of BritainGerman planes bomb British
  targets (British naval and air force)
• Britain used radar to track shoot German planes
• Hitler called off invasion of Britain (1st
  stop of Hitler)
• The Luftwaffe, German Air Force was losing too
  many planes.
• Germans British continued to bomb each others
  cities to destroy
• Civilian moral
• War production