# data[].attributes.body
Allied forces find out that Hitler has remilitarised the German army after he has

staged a massive rally celebrating the German armed forces. This is clearly in

violation of The Treaty of Versailles.

Allied forces do nothing, however, France were angry at Britain for yet again

allowing Germany to disobey the Treaty of Versailles.

# data[].attributes.headline
Anglo German Naval Agreement Jun 18, 1935

# data[].attributes.subject
Anglo German Naval Agreement Jun 18, 1935

# data[].attributes.body
Britain appeases Germany by allowing them a navy one third of the size of

Britain's. This breaks the Military clause from the Treaty of Versailles: "Germany

was allowed only 6 capital naval ships".

Britain attempts to appease Germany by increasing their security.

# data[].attributes.headline
Re militarisation of Rhineland March 1936

# data[].attributes.subject
Re militarisation of Rhineland March 1936

# data[].attributes.body
Adolf Hitler sent German forces into the Rhineland, the border area between

Germany and France. This had been declared a demilitarized zone under the

Treaty of Versailles; and later confirmed in the Locarno Treaty this was a very risky

move by Hitler as it might have led to a war with France.

However, France would not take action without British support and the British

refused to go to war over the incident, declaring that "Germany was only marching

into its own back yard”. As well as this League of Nations attention was divided

between the Abyssinian crisis and Hitler’s move. In the end the League

condemned Hitler’s actions, but had no power to do anything else

# data[].attributes.body
This was a union between Austria and Germany in March 1938. In February 1938

Hitler had met the Austrian Chancellor, Kurt von Schuschnigg, in order to demand

concessions for the Austrian Nazi Party. Schuschnigg refused and was replaced by

Arthur Seyss-Inquart, leader of the Austrian Nazis. On 13th March, Seyss-Inquart

invited German forces to occupy Austria.

Britain and France did protest Hitler’s expansion but didn’t take action. Despite

this Chamberlain thought that Austria and Germany had the right to be united and

the Treaty of Versailles was wrong to separate them.

# data[].attributes.body
Hitler wanted the Sudetenland in order to create a greater German Reich, it

contained lots of raw resources he could use to gain autarky and because the

Sudetenland had excellent natural defences. Hitler annexed the Sudetenland by

creating propaganda and riots to agitate the workers from the Sudetenland at how

they were being treated and He manipulated Chamberlain and into allowing the

Sudetenland.

The French public reacted badly to the Sudetenland crisis saying it was a

“shameful necessity”. Chamberlain thought that Hitler’s demands were

unreasonable.

# data[].attributes.body
in the early morning hours of September 1, 1939, Hitler sent his armies

into Poland. Two days later, France and Great Britain declared war on Germany, and within a

matter of weeks the Soviet Union, which had recently signed a nonaggression treaty with Hitler,

attacked Poland from the east. World War II had begun.

# data[].attributes.body
Early

in the morning of May 10, 1940, Hitler launched a

blitzkrieg, or lightning war, against France, whose army had previously been considered the finest

in the world

# data[].attributes.body
By the end of June 1940,

essentially all of western Europe was under the control of Nazi Germany.

# data[].attributes.body
the three Axis powers

made astonishing gains in the years before Japan's

attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941.

# data[].attributes.body
By the time it was over in 1945, Tokyo, Berlin,

Leningrad, Stalingrad, Warsaw, Hiroshima, Dresden,

By Kenneth T. Jackson, The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History, adapted by Newsela staff on

01.03.17

Word Count 1,046

Level 1230L

This article is available at 5 reading levels at https://newsela.com.

Nagasaki, Cologne and dozens of other great cities had been obliterated. And population centers

that had mostly avoided the worst of the death and destruction continued to see poverty and

hunger linger for years after the surrender documents had been signed.