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• Hitler violated the Treaty of Versailles and no one did anything– First: Austria– Second: Sudentenland

• Hitler and Neville Chamberlain met in Munich, Germany

• Introduced appeasement – give into Hitler’s demands, war would be avoided

• It didn’t work

• Third: Czechoslovakia (by force)• Fourth: Poland

• Signed a nonaggression pact with Joseph Stalin (Soviet Union)– They agreed not to attack each other as they

expanded their empires

• On September 1, 1939, Hitler attacked Poland• A new type of warfare – Blitzkrieg (lightning

war)

• Britain and France declared war on Germany on September 3, 1939

• Fifth: Denmark and Norway• Sixth: Belgium, Netherlands and Luxembourg• Seventh: France

• Germans bypassed the Maginot line and entered France

• Trapped the French near the port of Dunkirk

• German airforce was to finish them off• Bad weather delayed them• The British ferried them to safety across the

channel

• Mussolini (Italy) joins Germany in the war

• Now Britain stands alone against Germany• British Royal Air Force (RAF) shot down many

German planes • Battle of Berlin – bombing of Britain for one

year

• Eighth: Bulgaria, Yugoslavia and Greece

• Hitler decided to attack the Soviet Union• He was afraid Russia would change sides and

help Britain• Now had to fight on two fronts

• Russians practiced a “scorched earth” policy• Germans were 40 miles from Moscow in

October• Hitler continued on during the winter• Russia attacked on December 6 and Germans

had to retreat

America

• America sold war materials to the Allies, but they had to use cash and use their own ships

• Selective Service Act – draft to be ready in case of war

• Land Lease Act – allowed the president FDR to send equipment to any nation in return for property, services or equipment

• Japan joined the Axis powers.