11-1 Paths to War

11-1 Paths to War

HITLER BEGINS HIS CONQUEST OF EUROPE
Remember, Hitler’s goal was to create an Aryan empire, and he needed land to do this.

• He planned to go to war with the USSR, take over, and use the Slavic people as slave labor

STEP ONE

• Rebuilding the military:

– Creates new air force

– drafts people into the army

• 1936 – invasion of Rhineland

– Demilitarized zone between France and Germany

• No one stops Hitler’s advance. Why?

– They believe in appeasement

• Churchill is the leader of the move towards appeasement

HITLER'S FRIENDS

• Mussolini was working in his own empire. He invaded Ethopia

• H&M helped Franco win a war in Spain

• Rome-Berlin Axis= pact between Italy and Germany

• Anti-Comintern Pact = Japan and Germany agree to fight against communism

STEP TWO

• 1937- Anschluss

– Germany threatens to take over

– Austrian government allows Nazis to be put in charge of the gov’t.

– The new gov’t lets the Germans in

– Germany takes control of Austria

STEP THREE

• Hitler wanted to take over the Sudetenland, an area of Czech that was mostly inhabited by Germans

• He demands that it be given to him

• Munich Conference – meeting to decide what to do about Hitler and his demands

• They decide to give him the land

STEP FOUR

• The appeasement policy lads Hitler to believe that France and England are weak and won’t fight him

• He takes over the rest of Czechoslovakia (Bohemia and Morovia)

STEP FIVE

• Hitler demands part of Poland

• England and France finally realize he is a threat, and move to make a deal with Stalin to help them take on Hitler

STEP SIX

• Hitler realizes that E&F are in talks with Stalin, and decides to get to him first to prevent another 2 front war

• Nazi-Soviet Nonagression pact (1939)

– In return for not attacking Germany, Russia would get the Baltic states and part of Poland

– He could make this promise because he planned to taking over USSR anyway so he wouldn’t have to pay up

STEP SEVEN: The Final Step

• Now confident that no one can defeat him, Hitler takes the step that leads to war

• September 1, 1939 – Hitler’s troops invade Poland.

• 2 days later, England and France declare war on Germany, and WWII begins.

JAPAN BEGINS ITS CONQUEST OF ASIA

• Remember, Japan had taken Manchuria, been forced to give it back, then retaken by the new militant Japanese gov’t

– It was renamed Manchuko

– This made the US unhappy, but they didn’t want to fight…they still believed that isolationism was the best way to go

WAR WITH CHINA

• Chiang Kai-Shek, the leader of China, had avoided worring about the threat of Japan because he was worried about the Communists

• By 1937, he had to be concerned as the Japanese army kept taking territory

• Eventually there was fighting, and Japan got a good chunk of eastern China

NEW ASIAN ORDER

• Japan’s plan was to create a united Asian empire that it would control, and add parts of Russia to it.

– It was counting on Hitler’s support

• After Hitler and Stalin signed their agreement, Japan had to rethink their plans

– Moved the focus to Southeast Asia, which had lots of natural resources

PROBLEMS ARISE

• When Japan takes control of French Indochina, the US gets upset and threatens to impose economic sanctions

– Restrictions on trade

• This poses a problem, because Japan needs the resources that the US provides, but it also needs the materials from Asia

• The solution? Surprise attack on US and European colonies in SE Asia