The document summarizes the key events leading up to World War 2, including the Treaty of Versailles which humiliated Germany after WWI and exacerbated economic issues during the Great Depression, allowing the rise of fascism under Hitler who began rapidly militarizing Germany in violation of the Treaty, annexing Austria and parts of Czechoslovakia through intimidation and the failed policy of appeasement by Britain and France. Germany then invaded Poland in 1939 leading Britain and France to declare war, drawing many other countries into the global conflict.

1. WWII
The events leading up to the Second
World War

2. 1. Treaty of Versailles
The part of the Paris peace that affected Germany was the
Treaty of Versailles.
• Treaty is insulting and sews seeds of
discontent:
– Section 231 (war guilt clause)
– Limited military and occupation
– Crippling reparation payments
– Territory reductions
Compliments of Mr. Marshall

3. 2. The Great Depression
• Pre-Depression stresses on the German
economy
• The different responses to depression in
CDA, USA, GER, USSR and how ability to
war was affected.
Compliments of Mr. Marshall

4. 4. The Rise of Fascism
1. Italy Black Shirts
2. Japan
3. Germany Brown Shirts
4. Spain
Compliments of Mr. Marshall

5. 4. Ineffective League
1. JAPAN
a) Manchuria 1931
2. ITALY: Mussolini
a) Abyssinia, 1935
3. SPAIN: Franco
4. GERMANY: Hitler
a) Rearming 1933
b) Rhineland 1936
c) Austria 1938 See pg. 96
d) Czechoslovakia 1938, 1939
e) Kristallnacht 1938
f) Poland 1939 Compliments of Mr. Marshall

6. Global Tensions
• Germany and Italy felt cheated by Treaty of
Versailles
• Japan largely run by the military- imperialistic
designs (want to enlarge their empire)
• Rise of totalitarianism
– Germany (Adolf Hitler, “Fuhrer”)
– Italy (Benito Mussolini “Il Duce”)
– Soviet Union (Josef Stalin “the man of steel”)

7. Totalitarianism
• One leader with absolute power
• One ideology allowed
• Secret police
• Zero opposition
• Censorship and propoganda
=total control

8. Fascism
• Opposed to democracy
• Extreme nationalism
• Rely on military and police to maintain
complete control
• Focus on the people as whole, not the
idividual

9. Nazi Germany
• Totalitarian state
• 1933-1939: Nuremburg Laws
i. Jews had to wear the Star of David at all times.
ii. Jews lost their professional careers and their property.
iii. Jews could in no way mingle with the German
population.
iv. Jews lost their citizenship
• human rights abolished
• Gestapo became all powerful
• Germany began rapid re-militarization (re-building military)

10. 1938
• 1938 - Hitler “annexes” Austria
– Hitler threatens to invade Czechoslovakia
– “re-claims” the Sudentenland (German speaking)
- GB PM Neville Chamberlain agrees not to
interfere
- believes “appeasement” will guarantee
“peace in our time”
• US President Franklin Delano Roosevelt
promises the US willprotect Canada if we are ever
threatened

11. 1939
• Germano-Soviet Pact signed between Hitler and
Stalin
** they agreed not to invade each other
** Hitler breaks this pact in 1940
• appeasement fails - Hitler invades
Czechoslovakia
• September 1 - Hitler invades Poland
** Poland is allied with Great Britain
• September 3 - GB declares war on Germany

12. Canada enters- 1939
• September 10 - Canada declares war on Germany
** Canada’s PM, William Lyon Mackenzie King is a
cautious man who does not want to go to war
**entering the war is debated in the House of
Commons
** War Measures Actput into place
** Wartime Prices and Trade Boardput into place
- to control prices
- avoid debt and profiteering

13. October 1939
• October 1939 - April 1940 - “the phony war” -
war moves very slowly
• in April the full force of the German attack is
felt - “blitzkrieg” (lightening war)

14. Axis
• Germany
• Italy
• Japan
*Not exhaustive

15. Allies
• Great Britain
• France
• Canada
• United States
*not exhaustive

16. Terms
• Totalitarianism
• Gestapo
• appeasement