This document provides background information on the events leading up to World War II. It describes how the Treaty of Versailles blamed Germany for WWI and imposed severe economic sanctions. This created unrest that totalitarian dictators like Hitler were able to rise to power on, promising to restore Germany's power. Hitler invaded countries like Austria and Czechoslovakia with little resistance. At the Munich Conference, the UK and France appeased Hitler by allowing Germany to annex the Sudetenland region of Czechoslovakia, hoping it would satisfy German ambitions. However, Hitler soon demanded more territory from Poland, leading Britain and France to declare war on Germany and mark the beginning of World War II.

1. World War II

2. Treaty of Versailles
 Germany blamed for WWI
 German war reparations

3. The Versailles Treaty
Germany
•Blamed for
war
•Lost colonies
•New countries
formed out
theirs
•Paid (war
debts)
reparations
(~33 Billion$)

4. The Great Depression
 World-wide economic
devastation

5. Problems in Europe After
Great Depression
WWI
•Economic = people were jobless
•Political = weak governments could
not solve problems in their
countries………..Fear of Jews and
Communists
•Social = times of unrest people look
for a leader.

6. Rise of Foreign Dictatorships
 social desperation and unrest
 promise of dictators to change
problems

7. •Power of government rests in one man.
•TOTAL POWER
•No freedoms in this society…..
•Usually racist and discriminatory towards
certain groups……
•Often have large militaries and must
expand and conquer to gain approval from
their people.

8. Totalitarian Adolph Hitler
dictators came to
Benito Mussolini
power during the
1920s and 1930s in Joseph Stalin
Europe.
Totalitarian dictators have total power….There are no freedoms in this
type of society…..Usually racist and discriminatory towards certain
groups……Often have large militaries and must expand and conquer to
gain approval from their people. COMMUNISM, FASCISM AND
NAZISM ARE TOTALITARIAN DICTATORSHIPS!

9. • Communist gov’t established
• Union of Soviet Socialist Republics
(U.S.S.R)
• gov’t control of all territories
• Josef Stalin, dictator
• massive effort to industrialize
• no opposition tolerated

10. •Joseph Stalin
•1921/Soviet Union
Communism
Spread Communism
throughout the world
•Stalin maneuvered himself into becoming the leader
of the Soviet Union.
•The Russian Revolution was led by the people to
overthrow a monarch but when the new ruling class
took over, there were no protections of people’s
rights…… ―NO BILL OF RIGHTS‖
•Communism and fascism are similar in their
ideologies

11. • Benito Mussolini created Fascist Party
• condemned Democracy, Socialism, &
Communism
• defended capitalism regulated by gov’t
• slow economic recovery
• blamed world economic conditions

12. Benito Mussolini
1922/Italy---Facism
Believe, Obey and Fight
Revive the Roman Empire
FACISM: BASED ON A SYMBOL OF AUTHORITY IN THE OLD ROMAN
EMPIRE…………‖a philosophy or system of
government that advocates or exercises a
dictatorship, state control of industry, racial
superiority, supremacy of the leader, limits
civil rights, together with an ideology of
belligerent nationalism, militarism and
expansion…..‖

13. • wrote Mein Kampf (“My Struggle”) while
in prison
• book detailing political ideas for
Germany
• rebuilt Nazi Party
• took control of Germany
• established Fascist state

14. The Rise of Adolph Hiler
Born in Austria
Fought in WWI and was bitter
towards the Treaty of Versailles

15. The Rise of Adolph Hiler
After the war his job in the army was
to keep tabs on different political
parties.
Hitler already shows anti-Semitic
views.
Discovers a small political party known as The
National Socialist German Workers Party (NAZI)
Begins to work himself into the leadership positions
of the Nazi party
November 1923- The "Beer Hall Putsch“, Hitler and the
Nazis try to overthrow the local government of
Munich, Germany.

16. The Rise of Adolph Hitler
It fails and Hitler is arrested.
He is convicted 1924 and serves 9 months out of a 5-
year sentence.
Hitler writes his book Mein Kampf or “My Struggle”
After his release from prison he continued to work
with the Nazi party to take over Germany.

17. ANTI-SEMITISM
•ANTI-JEWISH….THE HATRED OF
JEWS, THEIR CULTURE AND
RELIGION.
•IT IS THE PRACTICE OF RACISM
THAT LEADS TO ALL FORMS OF
HOSTILITY DIRECTED TOWARDS
THE JEWS.

18. • removed German Jews from jobs
• Nuremberg Laws
• deprived German Jews of German
citizenship
• banned marriages between Jews and
non-Jews
• Kristallnacht – “night of broken glass”
• massive destruction of Jewish property

19. A Common Enemy
• Hitler blames Jews and Communists
for problems of Germany
• Loss of WWI
• German Economic Depression
• Jews identified as a ―race‖ –not a
religion
• Anti-Semitism
• A New Education Begins
• Save purity of German race.
• Aryan Virtues----Nuremberg Laws
nuremberg

20. Two Phases of Hatred
• Phase 1 1933-1939
– A Common Enemy : Re-Education
– Citizenship Rights?
– German Jews face deportation
– Violence Escalates----Kristalnacht
• Phase 2 (1939-1945)
– World War II begins vs. France/England
– Holocaust Begins--- The Final Solution
– Ghettos and Forced Labor Camps
– mass executions of Jews and Eastern
Europeans.
– Gas Chamber

21. • Hitler blamed Jews for Germany losing WWI
• Believed Germans superior race
• “Final Solution” – plan to rid world of all Jews
and undesirables
• round up Jews and place in concentrations
camps
•Healthy ones work as slave labor
• elderly, sick, & young children exterminated

22. • economy hurt by Depression
• loss of world markets
• military leaders rose to power
• built up military
• invaded Manchuria in northeastern
China for resources
• formed military agreement with
Germany & Italy

23. Took the form of a god
Japan’s Manifest
Destiny was to expand
into China and the rest
of Asia.
Empire of the Sun
Emperor Horhito

24. 1931/Japan, expan
sionist and military
leader
•Would threaten our
island possessions
and U.S. trade
policy into
China, Open Door
Policy.
Hideki Tojo

25. • Neutrality Act of 1935
• illegal for Americans to sell arms to any
nation at war
• Neutrality Act of 1937
• cont’d ban on arms sale to nations at
war
• warring nations only buy nonmilitary
supplies on cash & carry basis

26. • Japan, Germany & Italy formed the
Axis Powers
• Feb. 1938 Hitler announced
Anschluss – unification of Austria
& Germany, first area unified

27. GERMAN
EXPANSION
•1935 to
1939, unopposed by
the League of
Nations.
•Rhineland
1936
•Austria
1938

28. Sudetenland
•Part of Germany
before WWI.
•Treaty of
Versailles created
Czechoslovakia
•7,450,000 Czechs
•3,200,000
Germans
•2,300,000
Slovaks
•720,000 Magyars
•560,000 Ruthenes
•100,000 Poles

29. •Leaders met in Munich to decide the
fate of Czechoslovakia..
•Hitler believed Sudetenland should be
part of Germany.
•Adolf Hitler--Germany
Neville Chamberlain—England
Premier Edouard Deladier---France
Benito Mussolini--Italy
•Hitler promised the world if he
received the Sudetenland, there would
be no war.

30. •German demands for the Sudetenland are met = “All I want, is a Germany
for Germans”
•All Chamberlain wanted was peace at any cost.
•Chamberlain believed that by sacrificing Czechoslovakia he had satisfied
Hitler and he would stop being aggressive; he promised “a peace with
honor… peace in our time.”
•Chamberlain gave into Hitler (appeasement)
•Hitler got the Sudetenland.

31. •FDR sent a letter to Hitler
asking him to honor the Munich
Conference
•Later in 1939, Hitler would
invade and take the rest of
Czechoslovakia…….
•The United States learned
from the Munich Conference
that you cannot trust the words
of a dictator………

32. •What is the
cartoonist
trying to say
here?
•What is meant
by, “we might
as well try to
appease him”?
•How does the
cartoonist
justify his
decision to
appease Hitler?
•Notice the American
countries……. What is
this symbolic of?
Umbrella Road

33. • Hitler demanded Sudetenland
• Hitler then demanded return of Danzig
• He also wanted right to build highway and
railroad across Polish corridor
• With these demands for territory in Poland,
GB & France realize appeasement had
failed
• Sept 1, 1939, with Soviet support, Germany
invades Poland
• Sept 3, 1939 GB & France declare war on
Germany – WORLD WAR II BEGINS