Totalitarian Aggression

Causes of World War II

Versailles Peace Treaty 1919

• War Reparations

• Territorial Issues

• Disarmament

• All lead to German discontent and economic distress – inflation, unemployment, high debt

1914 Political Map of Europe

Map of Europe after WWI

Nazi Aggression 1936-1938

Reoccupation of Rhineland March 1936

Anschluss – Occupation of Austria March 1938

Munich Conference September 1938 – Appeasement

“Peace in our time”Neville Chamberlain

Invasion of Czechoslovakia- March 1939

Non-Aggression Pact or Marriage from Hell

Blitzkrieg in Poland September 1, 1939 – WWII begins

Fall of France - June 1940

Battle of Britain August-September 1940

(Operation Sea Lion)

Hitler invades Soviet Union – July 1941 (Operation Barbarossa)

Winston Churchill Quote to Parliament in early 1940 as the German war machine was preparing to invade France

We shall go on to the end, we shall fight in France, we shall fight on the seas and oceans, we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air, we shall defend our Island, whatever the cost may be, we shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills;

we shall never surrender,