European Aggressors on the March

1935 – Mussolini invades Ethiopia Why?

- PROFIT: Mussolini dreams of creating an Italian colonial Empire in Africa - REVENGE: Bitter memories of Ethiopians defeating the Italian army in the Battle of Adowa in 1896.

- WHY NOT? League of Nations had done nothing to stop Japan’s aggressive Empire-building in Pacific.

Ethiopian ruler Halllie Selassie

inspects his men.

Britain and France chose Appeasement – choosing to “give in to an aggressor in order to keep the peace”

1935 – U.S. Congress passes first of Why did isolationists want these laws? three Neutrality Acts. They hoped to keep the U.S. out

of another European War. Americans in the United States preferredIsolationism – choosing to “stay out of the tensions between other countries”

Hitler’s growing military strength convinced Mussolini to seek an alliance with Germany

1936 – The two dictators sign the Rome-Berlin Axis agreement. A month later Germany reaches an agreement with Japan.

Axis Powers – Germany, Japan, Italy RESULT: Strengthened by their alliance, further aggression was inevitable.

T.W. Loessin, Akins H.S.

RESULT: Such an official policy prevented the U.S. from taking an immediate stand against the Aggressors which might have prevented war’s escalation.

RESULT: This policy only encouraged Japan, Italy, and Germany to keep taking more… “give ‘em an inch; they take a mile”

1936 – German troops move into the Rhineland.

What were some of the effects of appeasing Hitler after his invasion of the Rhineland?

1935 - Hitler is cheered after telling the Nazi-controlled Parliament that Germany would no longer obey the Treaty of Versailles’ restrictions.

He had already begun rebuilding Germany’s military.

The League of Nations issued only a mild condemnation.

Banners throughout Germany read, “Today Germany! Tomorrow the World!”

1936 – Hitler & Mussolini lend troops, tanks, planes to help Spain’s Fascist leader Francisco Franco and his Nationalists in Spain’s Civil War.

- Strengthened his power among the Germans; - Tilted the balance of power in Europe in Germany’s favor; - Encouraged Hitler to speed up his military and territorial expansion.

Spain had been a monarchy until 1931, when it then became a republic.

Like all European nations, Spain’s economy suffered during the Depression.

In 1936, army leaders backed a Fascist-styled leader in Spain named Francisco Franco.

Civil War erupted.

1936 – Hitler & Mussolini lend troops, tanks, planes to help Spain’s Fascist leader Francisco Franco and his Nationalists in Spain’s Civil War.

The liberal Republican government received little help from western democratic nations abroad.

In fact, only the Soviet Union sent equipment to aid the legitimate republican government and also advisers to try to mediate the brutal conflict in Spain.

1939 – Franco becomes Spanish dictator.

Although Franco never formally allied Spain with the Axis Powers during World War II, he openly sympathized with their fascist principles.

Guernica by Pablo Picasso

1935 – U.S. Congress passes first of 3. Why did isolationists want these laws? three Neutrality Acts. They hoped to keep the U.S. out

of another European War.

T.W. Loessin, Akins H.S.

“Let it be resolved that upon the outbreak

or during the progress of warbetween, or among,

two or more foreign states, the President shall proclaim such fact,

and it shall thereafter be unlawful to export arms, ammunition,

or implements of war to any port

of such beligerent states…nor shall these United States feel compelled to intercede

in such international tensions as they unaffect us.”

- U.S. Neutrality Act, 1935

1937 – Hitler plans to absorb Austria and Czechoslovakia into the Third Reich – or, the new German Empire.

“The Treaty of Versailles prohibited Anschluss (union of Austria and Germany). However, many German-speaking Austrians supported the idea. In March, 1938 Hitler sent his army into Austria and annexed it. France and Belgium ignored a former pledge to protect Austrian independence.”

Pic below: Hitler's car passes through a triumphant crowd assembled in Vienna to celebrate the Anschluss,March 1938.

lebensraum (living space) for the German people

1937 – Hitler plans to absorb Austria and Czechoslovakia into the Third Reich.

Since WWI, Czechoslovakia had developed into a prosperous democracy with a strong army and a defense treaty with France.But 3 million German-speaking people lived in the Sudetenland - a western border region of Czechoslovakia.

T.W. Loessin, Akins H.S.

1937 – Hitler plans to absorb Austria and Czechoslovakia into the Third Reich.

- In September, 1938 Hitler demanded the Sudetenland be given to him.- The Czechs refused and asked France for help.- France and Britain were preparing for war when Mussolini decided to play mediator and proposed a meeting….in Munich Germany.

6. Why was the Munich Conference unsuccessful?• The Czechs were not even invited;• Britain’s Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain >> thought he could appease Hitler and keep the peace;• After Hitler was given Czechoslovakia it was clear he would not stop there and he now began demanding Poland.

T.W. Loessin, Akins H.S.

A historic example of the failings of appeasement is that of the British prime minister Neville Chamberlain, shown here upon his return from Munich with the scrap of paper that was to "ensure peace in our time!” The Munich Agreement is generally regarded as the shameful culmination of the Allied refusal to confront Nazi aggression.

T.W. Loessin, Akins H.S.

When the German tanks rolled into Czechoslovakia…

the Czech majority mourned as it was forced to offer up the Nazi salute, “Heil Hitler!”

…while the Sudeten Germans cheered.

1938 - Ecstatic Sudeten girls in traditional local costumes join in welcoming the German soldiers.

At the end of WWII, no Jewish life in Bohemia and Moravia was left. Out of the 90,000 Czech Jews more than 72,000 were deported to Auschwitz immediately.

T.W. Loessin, Akins H.S.

One member of British Parliament was furious at what Chamberlain had done to the Czechs at the Munich Conference:

“You had a choice between war and dishonor and you chose dishonor. You shall have war."

That Parliament member was Winston Churchill who will become Britain’s next Prime Minister and carry the country through WWII.

The Secret Protocol was the agreement between the Nazis and Soviets about what would take place the moment Hitler invaded Poland.

For the Soviets, for agreeing to not join the possible future war, Germany was giving the Soviets the Baltic States (Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania). Poland was also to be divided between the two. The new territories gave the Soviet Union the buffer (in land) that it wanted to feel safe from an invasion from the West.

For the Nazis, when attacking Poland on September 1, 1939, the Soviets promised not to interfere.

Two days later, the British declared war on Germany and World War II had begun.

On September 17, the Soviets rolled into eastern Poland to occupy their "sphere of influence" designated in the secret protocol.

Why did Stalin sign an agreement with Fascist Germany, once a bitter enemy?

Stalin felt Russia’s former allies – Britain, France, U.S. – had snubbed him again and he resented having been left

out of the Munich Conference;He also wanted to avoid another war in Germany since the

Soviet Union was in no way prepared for one.

1939 – Germany and Russia sign a Nonaggression Pact.