1) Japan, Italy, and Germany aggressively expanded their territories in the late 1930s in violation of treaties, with Japan seizing Manchuria in 1931 and Italy invading Ethiopia in 1935. 2) Germany annexed Austria and seized the Sudetenland region of Czechoslovakia through appeasement by Western powers seeking to avoid war. 3) Germany invaded Poland in September 1939, prompting Britain and France to declare war, beginning World War II in Europe.

1. World War II Begins
I. Dictators Challenge World Peace
A. Japan
1. Wanted an empire equal to western powers
1. They sent Samurai to Western nations to learn about
our way of life
2. Japan had very little resources
3. Japan was forced to trade with the United States
4. 1931 – Japan seized Manchuria

2. World War II Begins
B. Italy
1. Invaded Ethiopia – 1935
2. Haile Selassie (Ethiopia’s King) asked for help – League of
Nations voted sanctions (penalties) against Italy – League had
no power to enforce the sanctions – Italy conquered Ethiopia
in 1936
3. Italians used poison gas against Ethiopia violating the Treaty
of Versailles

3. World War II Begins
C. Germany and Hitler
1. Challenged the Treaty of Versailles
a. Rearmed Germany
b. Returned troops to the Rhineland – 1936

4. World War II Begins
C. Reaction from Western
Democracies
1. Appeasement – giving in to the
demands of an aggressor in order
to keep peace
2. Why appeasement?
A. Democracies didn’t want another war
B. Germany seen as defense against
Soviet Communism
C. Great Depression sapped the energies
of the western democracies
Peace in our time
Monty Python - Neville Chamberlain

5. World War II Begins
3. United States
A. Neutrality Acts passed by U.S. Congress: forbade
the sale of arms to any nation at war, outlawed
loans to warring powers
B. U.S. policy: avoid involvement in a European
war - Isolationism

6. World War II Begins
E. Rome – Berlin – Tokyo
Axis
1. Agreed to fight Soviet
Communism
2. Agreed not to interfere
with each other’s plans
for expansion

7. World War II Begins
II. The Spanish Civil War (1936-1939)
A. From Monarchy to Republic
1. King Alfonso XIII forced to leave after public unrest
2. Republic set up with a new, more liberal constitution
a. Govt. took over some Church lands, ended Church control of
education, redistributed some land to peasants, allowed women’s
suffrage, reduced size of military
b. Conservatives rejected change (backed by the military)

8. World War II Begins
B. Nationalist (conservatives)
vs. Loyalists (liberals) – 1936
1. Nationalists led by Francisco
Franco
a. Supported by Mussolini and
Hitler
2. Loyalists – supporters of the
republic included communists,
socialists, and supporters of
democracy
Francisco Franco

9. World War II Begins
B. A Dress Rehearsal
1. Guernica – 1937 – small Spanish town of no military
value – bombed, machine-gunned by Germans testing
their new aircraft – 1,600 innocent people killed
2. 1939 – Franco won, created a fascist state (he ruled
until 1975)

10. Pablo Picasso’s Guernica

11. World War II Begins
III. German Aggression
Continued
A. Austria Annexed –
1938
1. Anschluss – union of
Germany and Austria
2. Hitler forced Austrian
chancellor to appoint
Nazis to key govt. posts
3. Hitler sent in German
soldiers to Maintain
order when the
chancellor refused to
meet all of Germany’s
demands

13. World War II Begins
B. The Czech Crisis
1. Hitler demanded the 3 million
Germans in Sudetenland (West
Czech) be given autonomy
(freedom)
2. Later he said this region must be
annexed by Germany
3. Munich Conference – Sept.
1938
a. Britain and France chose
appeasement
b. Gave Hitler the Sudetenland
c. Hitler gave his word that Germany
had no further plans of expansion

14. World War II Begins
4. “Peace For Our Time”
a. British Prime Minister
Neville Chamberlain told
his nation he had achieved
“peace for our time”
b. British politician Winston
Churchill – reaction –
“They had to choose
between war and dishonor.
They chose dishonor; they
will have war.”

15. World War II Begins
IV. Europe Plunges Toward
War
A. Czechoslovakia – entire
nation conquered by
Germany in March 1939
1. Democracies realized that
appeasement had failed
2. They now promised to
protect Poland if Germany
attacked

16. World War II Begins
B. Nazi – Soviet Pact – Non Aggression Pact - Aug. 1939
1. Publicly, it bound Hitler to Stalin (Hitler’s enemy) to
peaceful relations
2. Secretly, the two agreed (1) not to fight if the other went to
war and (2) to divide up Poland and other parts of Eastern
Europe
3. Hitler did not want to fight the USSR and Western
Democracies at the same time when attacking Poland

17. World War II Begins
C. Invasion of Poland
1. Hitler wanted Danzig and Polish Corridor to be part of
Germany again
2. If he attacked, war would be declared
3. Sept. 1, 1939 – Germany invaded Poland using Blitzkrieg
4. Sept. 3, 1939 – Britain and France declared war on Germany

19. The Global Conflict: Axis Advances
I. The First Onslaught
A. Blitzkrieg “lightning war” – 3 stages:
1. German bombers
2. Tanks
3. Infantry
a. within one month, Poland fell to
Germany and the USSR

20. The Global Conflict: Axis Advances
B. Baltic States
1. Stalin’s armies took over Estonia, Latvia,
Lithuania and part of Finland

21. The Global Conflict: Axis Advances
C. Early Axis Triumphs
1. “Phony War” –
Britain, France
waited behind the
Maginot Line -
no attack occurred
2. Norway + Denmark
Fall – April 1940
3.Netherlands +
Belgium Fall –
April/May 1940

22. The Global Conflict: Axis Advances
D. Miracle at Dunkirk –
May 1940
1. Allied forces
trapped in France
between Germans and
the English
Channel
2. Hundreds of
British ships/boats
came to rescue
300,000 troops across
the Channel

23. The Global Conflict: Axis Advances
E. France Falls
1. Germany attacked
from North, Italy from
the South
2. June 22nd, 1940 –
Hitler forced France
to surrender – Germany
occupied the north, S.
France became Vichy
France (a puppet state
that collaborated with the
Nazis)

24. The Global Conflict: Axis Advances
II. The Battle of Britain
A. The Battle Begins
1. Aug. 12, 1940 – German bombers
attacked England’s southern coast
2. Royal Air Force (RAF) battled the
German Air Force (Luftwaffe)

25. The Global Conflict: Axis Advances
B. The London Blitz
1. Sept. 7, 1940 – German began bombing of London
a. continued for 57 nights – much of the city
destroyed, 15,000 killed
b. London + other cities bombed off and on until
June 1941

26. The Global Conflict: Axis Advances
c. Hitler hoped to break the will of the British,
but morale remained high
d. Operation Sea Lion (invasion of Britain)
was postponed, Hitler shifted his focus to
Russia

27. Operation Sea Lion

28. The Global Conflict: Axis Advances
III. North Africa
A. Italy attempted to invade
Egypt (British Colony), failed
1. Germans sent in
General Erwin
Rommel
2. Rommel “Desert Fox”
pushed the British back to
Cairo, Egypt
3. British worried
Germans would capture the
Suez Canal

30. The Global Conflict: Axis
Advances
IV. The Balkans
A. Italian forces invaded Greece
1. Germans came to the rescue
again, Greece + Yugoslavia added
to Axis control
2. Bulgaria + Hungary joined Axis
alliance

31. The Global Conflict: Axis Advances
V. Operation Barbarossa –
conquest of Soviet Union (June
1941)
A. Reasons for attack
1. Living space for
Germany
(lebensraum)
2. Gain raw
materials
3. Desire to crush
communism + Stalin

32. Timeline
• Place Events in Order
• Pages 770 – 780
• Event at the top, date at the
bottom, colored illustration
in the middle

33. Timeline – Place Events in Order
Pages 770 – 780
• Denmark and Norway
Fall - April
• Battle of Britain – Aug.
• Troops into the
Rhineland - March
• Nazi-Soviet Pact
• Atlantic Charter
• Italy invades Ethiopia –
October 1935
• France Falls
• Attack on Pearl Harbor
• Spanish Civil War
• Operation Barbarossa
• Austria Annexed
• Guernica
• Miracle at Dunkirk
• Munich Conference
• Netherlands and Belgium
Falls – April/May
• Invasion of Poland

34. The Global Conflict: Axis Advances
B. German Advance (June 1941)
1. Stalin unprepared because
of the Great Purge
2. 2.5 million Russian
soldiers killed trying to fend
off the invaders
3. Russians burned
everything as they retreated
(scorched earth)
4. Most Germans believed
victory would come soon but
the winter weather stalled
German advance

35. The Global Conflict: Axis Advances
C. Siege of Leningrad
(Sept. 1941)
1. 2 ½ years of
fighting, food
was scarce, 1
million residents
of the city died
2. Stalin wanted
Britain to open
second front in
W. Europe to
relieve pressure

36. The Global Conflict: Axis Advances
VI. Growing American Involvement
A. “The Arsenal of Democracy”
1. Lend-Lease Act – allowed FDR to
send or lend equipment to any nation
whose defense was vital to U.S. national
security

37. The Global Conflict: Axis Advances
B. Atlantic Charter (Aug. 1941)
1. Roosevelt + Churchill met
secretly in the Atlantic
2. Charter set goals for the
war:
a. destroy the Nazi
regime
b. people of all nations
should choose their
own govt. (self-
determination)
c. permanent system of
general security
(United Nations)

38. The Global Conflict: Axis Advances
VII. Japan Attacks (Dec 7th, 1941)
A. Growing Tensions
1. Japan seized territory in
the Pacific
2. To stop Japan, U.S.
banned the sale of war
materials to Japan
3. Japan + U.S. held talks
to ease tension
4. General Hideki Tojo
(military leader and Prime
Minister of Japan) did not
want peace

39. The Global Conflict: Axis Advances
B. Attack on Pearl Harbor
(Dec 7th, 1941)
1. General Tojo ordered
surprise attack on the
American fleet at Pearl
Harbor, Hawaii
2. 19 ships destroyed or
damaged, 2,400 killed
3. FDR asked Congress
to declare war

40. The Global Conflict: Axis Advances
C. Japanese Victories
1. Seized American
colonies (Philippines)
2. Overran British
Colonies
3. Japanese empire
stretched from
Southeast Asia to the
Western Pacific
4. High point of Axis
success (summer 1942)