Causes of WWII - Block 2 by Lisa Cunkelman

Japanese Invasion of China:

2015-03-26 14:23:26 UTC

In 1937, Japanese forces invaded China. They were met with little resistance and quickly captured most of China's important cities. As the rest of the country held little strategic value, the Japanese didn’t continue to push inwards and gain control of the rest of the country. Within 5 months, over 1 million Chinese people were under Japanese control. This invasion established Japan as a major threat in WWII, but their occupation of China also stretched the Japanese military thin, hurting their efforts against allied forces.

Invasion of Poland

2015-03-26 14:24:51 UTC

This all began when Hitler created a nonagression pact with Poland to get rid of the possibility of a French-Polish alliance against Germany, Britain and France where in no place to fight a war against Germany in the first place but the pact was jus a contingency. Hitler used this opportunity to invade Poland in October 1939, this is important because this was the very beginning of the war.

Munich Agreement

2015-03-26 14:25:28 UTC

The Munich Agreement is a settlement signed on September 30, 1938 where they permitted Nazi Germany to take part of Czechoslovakia as their territory along the borders. The territory was then later named Sudetenland. This lead to WWII because The loss of Sudetenland was opposed by Czechoslovakia government.

Rise of Hideki Tojo

2015-03-26 14:27:35 UTC

Hideki Tojo was the 3rd son from a lieutenant general, in the Imperial Japanese Army. Since his 2 older brothers died before his birth, Tojo's father pushed him to succeed in the military life. He graduated from the Imperial Japanese Army Academy in 1905 and by 1915, he was promoted to Captain after finishing Army Staff College. 6 years later, he moved back to Japan and became friends with politicians who helped him shape his interests into politics. By 1940, he was appointed Japan's Minister of war. He was also a supporter of Hitler and wanted to follow his footsteps. A year later, he became Prime Minister and authorized the attack on Pearl Harbor. He despised the United States and believed that they were weak and lazy.

1936 Olympics

2015-03-26 14:32:13 UTC

These Olympics where held in Germany by Hitler. The entire thing was a cover-up, it was used to hide the ongoing antisemitic actions that the Nazi's where carrying out. This is important because, if it had been known that the games where a cover-up at the time, many nations could have found out and took an earlier stand against the Nazi party.

Embargo of Japanese Iron and Oil

2015-03-26 14:32:42 UTC

The embargo of Japanese Iron and oil was the leading cause to the destruction of Pearl Harbor. While many blamed the Japanese for doing this with no kind of reason, others argue that the United States provoked the Japanese into war. The truth is that the United States did provoke the Japanese to attack them because the U.S. limited the Japanese access to Iron and oil. The United States did this because the Japanese were allied with German, so the United States believed that this was wrong and the Japanese should be punished. At the end, the Japanese disliked this action and decided to attack, which the United States expected this to happen

POLITICAL CARTOON:

Nazi-Soviet Non-Aggression Pact

2015-03-26 14:35:06 UTC

On 23 August 1939 the Soviet Union and Germany signed the German(Nazi)-Soviet Non-Aggression Pact. This Pact stated that the two countries would not use military action against each other in the following 10 years. Joseph Stalin saw the Pact as a way to keep peace with Germany, whereas Adolf Hitler saw the pact as a way to invade Poland unopposed. The German Nazi's invaded the Soviet Union in June 1941, thus ending the pact.

Rome-Berlin Axis

2015-03-26 14:35:57 UTC

The Rome-Berlin Axis was an alliance agreement with Germany and Italy. The agreement was that in case of a war Italy would have to stand by Germany. They had failed to join together before because of the mistrust with both of their leader, but after invading Ethiopia, Italy was ready for an alliance with Germany. This created a lot of tension between countries.

The freezing of japanese assets:

2015-03-26 14:36:00 UTC

On july 26th, Franklin Roosevelt seized all Japanese assets in the United States in retaliation for the Japanese occupation of French Indo-China. Britain and the Dutch East Indies quickly did the same. As a result, Japan lost 3/4 of its overseas trade and 88% of its imported oil, leaving Japan with only a year and a half of oil to fuel the war effort.

German Anschluss (Annexation of Austria)

2015-03-26 14:37:51 UTC

Nazi troops marched into Austria on March 12, 1938. Austrian Chancellor Kurt von Schuschnigg tried to negotiate with Hitler over the annexation, however Hitler pressured him into resigning. Schuschnigg told his people not to resist the Nazis. Hitler joined the Nazis on March 12th and was met by an enthusiastic crowd. Their annexation, or Anschluss, was announced on the 13th and Schuschnigg was imprisoned.

Spanish Civil War

2015-03-26 14:39:39 UTC

lasted from (1936-1939) it was marked as an important event during the tense of 1930s in Europe. it didn't make WWII it only increased the likelihood of a General War. Left Spain in state's economic and social infrastructure in ruins and leaving thousands dead. Germany was one of the foreign countries most involved in the conflict who gave economic loans as well several troops to the Nationalist Cause. Spainsh War was a major contributor to the hardening of the division between the democracies( England and France) and the dictatorships (Germany and Italy)

Nuremburg Laws

2015-03-26 14:41:05 UTC

The Nuremberg Laws were anti-Jewish statutes enacted by Germany on September 15, 1935, marking a major step in clarifying racial policy and removing Jewish influences from Aryan society. The laws issued on September 15, 1935, approved by Hitler personally, deprived Jews of German citizenship, prohibited Jewish households from having German maids under the age of 45, prohibited any non-Jewish German from marrying a Jew and outlawed sexual relations between Jews and Germans.

Kristallnacht

2015-03-26 14:41:40 UTC

Kristallnacht means “Night of crystal”, but most people call it “Night of broken glass”, since it was a wave of violent anti-jewish pogroms. The events took its name, since glass from the windows of Jewish homes and business were broken during the violence.

It took place in November 9 and 10 on 19 in 1938. It happened throughout Germany, it later extended to Austria, and some areas in Sudetenland in Czechoslovakia (recently occupied by German troops). German officials announced that Kristallnacht happened as a outburst of the public responding to the assassination of Ernst vom Rath, a German embassy official stationed in Paris. Herschel Grynszpan, a 17-year-old Polish Jew, had shot the diplomat on November 7, 1938. Hitler and the Nazis implemented their so-called “Final Solution” to the what they referred to as the “Jewish problem,” and carried out the systematic murder of some 6 million European Jews in what came to be known as the Holocaust.

The League of Nations Response

2015-03-26 14:43:48 UTC

The League of Nation came right after the end of World War One. This was to make sure that another war would'nt break out again. It was suppose to create peace. It was based by Geneva, Switzerland. The League of Nation was a part of the outbreak of World War Two. It lead to failures in the 1930's. The first crisis it went through was facing Italy in 1919. Italian nationalist was mad because of the broken promise in "Big Three". The Treaty of Versailles got small port of Fiume and gave it to Yugoslavia. The one to solve this problem was the Italian government. The other crisis it faced was at Teschen, which had valuable coalmines that both Poles and the Czechs wanted. They wanted it because they wanted to make their economy as strong as possible, and the coal could help. In January 1919, Polish and Czech troops fought in the streets of Teschen. Many died, and the League of Nations was called for help and decided that the bulk should go to Poland. However; both countries continued to argue. There were many more problems, and all this problems showed that the League could not force settlement if it did not have ability, and the dictators had to come in.

Lebensraum

2015-03-26 14:47:23 UTC

Territory thought to be necessary for national survival or for the expansion of trade, especically by Nazi Germany. This terittorial need was justified by the need for agricultural land in order to maintian the town-and-country balance. The Nazi policy was to kill, deprot, or enslave the Polish, Ukrainian, Russian and other Slavic population considered to be inferior to the germans. This contributated to the war because in order for the Germans to expand their land, they had to force others out which started a war between them.

Nazi Party in the 1920S

2015-03-26 14:48:50 UTC

The German workers party, led by Anton Drexler, was formed in 1919. Hitler joined and soon became leader. His speeches gave people someone to blame for Germanys problems. (ex. Allies, the people who signed the Versailles treaty, communists and the Jews) in 1920 The party renamed its self National Socialist German Workers Party or NAZIS for short and announced its Twenty-Five Point Programme. In 1923 Hitler tried to overthrow local authorities in Munich, which is known as the Beer Hall Putsch, but failed miserably and was initially charged with treason but talked his way out of it and only got 5 years. At first there were many people running the party, but soon Hitler became the sole leader, but from 1924-1929 the Nazi party message became less appealing and declined with the prosperity of the Stresemann era. Hitler was very hungry for power. He believed in a nationalistic Germany and wanted others to be this way also. He wanted only “pure” Germans in Germany.

http://www.johndclare.net/Weimar_25_point_programme.htm

(Link to the twenty-five point programme)

German invasion of Rhineland

2015-03-26 14:49:16 UTC

The German invasion of the Rhineland was when Hitler violated the Treaty of Versailles by sending German military forces into Rhineland on March 7, 1936. This helped cause WWII because it showed that Hitler wouldn't stop at anything to get what he wanted and that he wanted to keep expanding the land that he could remove the Jews from.

Hitler's Rise to Dictatorship (election-enabling Act)

2015-03-26 14:52:30 UTC

Germany mood was grim after WW1 and poor. The worldwide economic depression hit Germany especially hard and million of people were unemployed. Germans lacked in confidence in their weak government, so Adolf Hitler had a perfect opportunity to take advantage of these conditions and he promised a better and new life for Glorious Germany. Minds were still humiliated from WW1, so he’s party rose to power rapidly. Before, the economic depression he’s party was unknown; they had won only 3 percent of the vote to the German parliament in elections in 1924. In the 1932 elections, the Nazis won 33 percent of the votes, more than any other party. In January 1933 Hitler was appointed chancellor, the head of the German government, and many Germans believed that they had found a savior for their nation.

Rise of Mussolini and Italian Nationalism

2015-03-26 14:54:54 UTC

After serving his time he became a newspaper journalist. Although, with the war going on and Italy going into poverty, he slowly but surely began to take over Italy.After Mussolini's return in 1918, he decided he wanted to be a dictator to confront the economic and political crisis. Mussolini took over Italy which was the first Fascist. He had his men riot against the Communist, but was claiming that his men were “protecting the peace.” Mussolini wanted to start a “Roman Empire.” It relates to WWII because he’s a dictator like Hitler. He wanted to spread his power, and by doing so he also took over Ethiopia.

Seizure of the Sudetenland

2015-03-26 14:57:46 UTC

The Seizure of the Sudetenland was basically Hitler's invasion of Czechoslovakia. Britain and France wanted to sell a part of Czechoslovakia to the Germans. When Hitler heard about the selling of a part of Czechoslovakia, he wasn't satisfied because he felt that Czechoslovakia was part of German and he wanted to claim all of the land. So Hitler went against the Munich agreement and took all of Czechoslovakia.