Powerpoint presentation of the start on the fighting in Europe during WWII.

1. Europe Erupts in War

2. Axis Aggression
– 1935—Hitler violates Versailles Treaty with build-up of
German military
• Sends troops to the Rhineland (demilitarized zone), a
German region bordering France and Belgium
• 1936--Rome-Berlin Axis Pact—est. a formal alliance
between Germany and Italy

4. Neutrality Acts-passed by Congress in
1935
– Law was meant to
prevent the U.S.
from being drawn
into war.
• Outlawed arms sales
and loans to nations
at war
• It was extended to
include nations in
civil war (passed in
response to the civil
war in Spain)< Cartoon by Dr. Seuss. What do you think his
view was on the Neutrality Act?

5. – 1935—Italy invades Ethiopia
• FDR viewed Italy as a dangerous aggressor. Under the
Neutrality Acts he suspended arms sales to both
countries.
• U.S. remained neutral

7. – 1936—Spanish Civil war
• Hitler and Mussolini came to the aid of Francisco Franco
with troops, weapons, planes, tanks. Saw conflict as testing
ground for their military power.
• Western democracies sent only food and clothing to anti-
fascist forces. Resistance to Franco collapsed.

8. – 1937—Sino-Japanese War
• Japan launches a new attack on China.
• FDR refuses to enforce Neutrality Acts by continuing to send
arms to China.

9. Quarantine Speech-1937
– FDR spoke out against isolationism.
– Called peace loving nations to “quarantine” aggressor
nations to stop spread of war.
• “The peace, the freedom, and the security of 90 percent of
the population of the world is being jeopardized by the
remaining 10 percent who are threatening a breakdown of
all international law and order. Surely the 90 percent, who
want to live in peace under law and in accordance with
standards that have received almost universal acceptance
through the centuries, can and must find some way…to
preserve peace.”
FDR, “Quarantine Speech,” Oct 5, 1937
– Newspaper accused Roosevelt of leading nation into
war.

10. Austria and Czechoslovakia Fall
• Anschluss-“union” with Austria. March 12, 1938,
Nazis marched into Austria unopposed, forcing out
Austrian leader. The rest of the world did nothing.

11. Sudetenland
• Hitler accused Czechs of abusing Sudeten
Germans. Mobilized troops to the Czech border.
• Munich Conference—Hitler invites French Prime
Minister and British Prime Minister, Neville
Chamberlain to meet in Munich. At the meeting
Hitler declared this would be his “last territorial
demand.”
• 1938—Munich Pact signed turning Sudetenland
over to Germany
• Chamberlin criticized by Winston Churchill.
Churchill claimed Britain and France had adopted
a policy of appeasement.

13. Winston Churchill…
was correct. Hitler was not appeased by gaining
the Sudetenland.

14. • March 1939—Hitler takes Czechoslovakia which fell
without putting up a fight.

15. Nonaggression pact—a shock to Europe
• August 23, 1939—the Soviet Union and
Germany singed an agreement not to fight
each other
• They signed a secret pact to divide Poland
between the two of them.
• This eliminated the threat of a two front war
for Germany.

16. Invasion of Poland
• On September 1, 1939, Hitler invaded Poland.
• The German military used the blitzkrieg, or “lightening
war.”
• Poland fought back to no avail.
• By the end of the month, Poland was in German hands

17. German Forces Turn to the West
• On September 3, 1939, Great Britain and France declared war
on Germany. They became known as the Allies.
• The Allies did not attack Germany. Instead, they decided to
wait for Germany to make its next move. They believed that
Germany’s army would grow weak trying to invade France.
• No fighting took place for several months. This became known
as the “phony war”. The Germans called it “sitzkrieg”.
• Germany made plans to invade France through the Ardennes
Forest. This was rugged terrain and the French army
concentrated their defenses elsewhere. For example, the
famed Maginot Line was to the south of the Ardennes.

19. Diagram of the Maginot Line

20. Maginot Line

21. German Forces Turn to the West
April 1940 Hitler invaded Denmark and Norway.
» This improved Germany’s access to the Atlantic.
» Both countries fell with little resistance.
May 1940 Germans invaded France.
» Germans conquered the Netherlands and stormed into
Belgium.
» Belgian, British, and French troops tried to stop the
Germans in Belgium.
» By early June the Germans had trapped hundreds of
thousands of Allied soldiers at the French port of Dunkirk.
» Meanwhile, German forces attacked France through the
Ardennes. The Maginot Line had been bypassed.
June 1940 France surrendered to Germany and Italy.
» The unoccupied part of France was known as Vichy
France a Nazi controlled government.
» Many French leaders, including Charles de Gaulle, fled to
Great Britain to organize resistance to German and Vichy
control of France.

22. Battle of Britain
• During the summer and fall of 1940 the
Luftwaffe, German air force began to bomb
London.
• The RAF (British Royal Air force) began to use
RADAR which plotted the flight path of
German planes.
• Hitler called of the invasion on September 15,
1940.

23. Increasing Tensions in East
Asia
1934 Japan began expanding its naval forces despite promises
made at the Washington Navel Conference.
1936 Japan signed an anticommunism pact with Germany.
1937 Japan began a war against China.
1940 Japan formed a military alliance with Germany and
Italy. These nations were known as the Axis Powers.
1941 Japan moved to take control of French Indochina, which
threatened American interests. President Roosevelt
tried to reason with General Hideki Tojo, the minister
of war who took control of the country in October of
1941. But the time for compromise was over.