the road to wwii homburg american studies. hitler’s goals bring entire german people (the volk)...
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Hitler’s Goals
• Bring entire German people (the volk) into a single nation.
• The nation needed more living space, or Lebensraum.
• Hitler’s foreign policy blueprint was set down early in his career
• To reach its goals, Germany would need to rearm
• The League of Nations condemned this. But nothing was done to prevent it.
Remilitarization of the Rhineland
• Breach of Versailles treaty and Locarno agreements
• Britain and France did little
• British opinion would not permit support of France. France would not act alone
• France was paralyzed by internal divisions
• Both countries were weakened by growing pacifism
Response to remilitarization
• G.B. & France lost an opportunity to stop Hitler (French army could have easily defeated Germany)
• Response was policy of Appeasement- They believed that Hitler’s goals were limited and acceptable
Anschluss and Sudetenland
• Anschluss refers to the union of Germany and Austria
• Anschluss was a clear violation of the Treaty of Versailles
• Strategic because Germany now surrounded Czechoslovakia (pro-west, allies with France and Soviet Union)
• Czechoslovakia contained 3.5 million Germans who lived in the Sudetenland
…Continued
• The Czechs appealed to the British• Neville Chamberlain and French Premier
Daladier agreed to give the Sudetenland to Hitler• Called the Munich Agreement• Hitler promised- “ I have no more territorial
demands to make in Europe”• Chamberlain told a cheering crowd he had
brought “ peace and honor. I believe it is peace for our time.”
• 1939 Hitler broke promise and occupied Prague- turning point in British public opinion
• ¾ of British public believed a war was worth it to stop Hitler.
• Hitler turns attention towards Poland
• Chamberlain announces Franco-British guarantee of Polish independence
Italy
• 1935 Mussolini attacks Ethiopia
• Exposed weakness of League of Nations
• Goal was to restore Roman imperial glory, divert attention from domestic problems, and avenge an earlier defeat.
• Britain and France formally condemned the act- sanctions included limited loans to and imports from, Italy
Spain
• General Francisco Franco (fascist) started three year civil war against Spanish republic
• Germany and Italy helped, brought them closer together
• Soviet Union supported the republic w/ military aid
The Nazi-Soviet Pact
• August 23, 1939, Nazi-Soviet nonagression pact• Hitler believed he had to ally w/ Soviet Union in
order to defend a conquest of Poland• The secret agreement split up Poland between
Germany and Soviet Union• Stalin hesitated on negotiations with G.B. &
France because he was left out of Munich Agreements
• On Sept. 1, 1939, Germany invades Poland. Two days later G.B. & France declare war on germany.
• Soviet Union invades Poland from the east, they encircle Estonia, Latvia, & Lithuania
• Until Spring 0f 1940, little activity on the western front, known as “sitzkrieg”
• 1940 Hitler invades Denmark, Norway, Belgium, Luxembourg.
• 300,000 British & French troops evacuated from Belgium to the beaches of Dunkirk
• French Maginot line (defensive fortifications) ran from Switzerland to Belgium
• French army was led by aged generals, didn’t know how to use tanks or planes. France collapsed
• The French Gov’t now located in Vichy collaborated w/ Germans. Vichy was supported by Catholic Church
• Hitler forced to abandon plans to invade Britain
• Turned attention towards Russia
• Operation Barbarossa was launched on June 22, 1941- Russians taken by surprise
• German’s stood on outskirts of Moscow
• Hitler stalled to decide strategy- winter devastated German army
• Soviet’s used the term “great patriotic war”
• Soviet turning point was battle of Stalingrad
U.S. Enters War
• Day after Pearl Harbor, U.S. & G.B. declare war on Japan (Dec. 1941).
• New tech. and tactics helped British and U.S. prevail
• September 1944 France is liberated
Defeat of Nazis
• May 1945 Russians capture Berlin
• Hitler commits suicide in underground bunker
• Third Reich lasted 12 instead of the thousand predicted by Hitler
The Atomic Bomb
• August 6, 1945 U.S. drops atomic bomb on Hiroshima ( 70,000 dead). Three days later Nagasaki is hit by Atomic bomb
• U.S. desired end war quickly and save American lives
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