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Key Player: Führer Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler was a German politician, demagogue, and Pan-German revolutionary. He was the dictator and leader of the Nazi Party, and rose to power in Germany as Chancellor from 1933 to 1945. Hitler was responsible for the deaths of millions of people, primarily the Jewish population as he wanted to rid them of Germany. He forced them into concentration camps during World War II. -
Austria and Czechoslovakia Fall
Hitler declares to military advisers of plan to rob land of Austria & Czechoslovakia & add it to Third Reich. Third Reich (third regime/empire)- Nazi designation for regime in Germany from Jan. 1933 - May 1945. Invasion would be an outright declaration of war. Hitler answered with "German Question" in that forced is necessary and always comes with risk. "German Question"- debate in 19th century, especially during the Revolutions of 1848, over the best way to achieve the unification of Germany. -
Key Player: French Premier Édouard Daladier
Édouard Daladier was a French Radical-Socialist politician and the Prime Minister of France at the start of the WWII. He signed the Munich Pact, an agreement that enabled Nazi Germany to take Sudetenland (a region of Czechoslovakia) without fear of opposition from either Britain or France. -
Key Player: British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain
Arthur Neville Chamberlain FRS was a British statesman of the Conservative Party. He served as Prime Minister of the Great Britain from May 1937 to May 1940. Chamberlain is best known for his policy of "appeasement" toward Adolf Hitler's Germany. He signed the Munich Pact in 1938, giving the Sudetenland region of Czechoslovakia to the Nazi Germany. -
Key Player: British Prime Minister Winston Churchill
Winston Churchill was Great Britain's prime minister after Neville Chamberlain. They were political rivals for a long while. Churchill thought the signing of the Munich Agreement was a shameful policy of appeasement adopted by Daladier and Chamberlain. The agreement abandoned all principle to placate an aggressor.
Key Term: appeasement- to satisfy, allay, or relieve; assuage -
Anschluss ("union") with Austria
Hitler's first target...Austria. The Paris Peace Conference (meeting of the victorious Allied Powers following the end of World War I to set the peace terms for the defeated Central Powers) made the nation of Austria from what was left of Austro-Hungarian Empire after WWI. At the time, many of Austria's 6 million people wanted to unify with Germany. German troops marched into Austria without opposition. Germany claimed union with Austria complete. The US and other nations did nothing. -
Bargaining for Sudetenland
Hitler wanted Czechoslovakia, primarily the western mountainous border region called Sudetenland which formed Czech's main defense against German attacks. He wanted to annex Czech to make more living space for Germany and to control their natural resources. Hitler met with French premier Édouard Daladier and British prime minister Neville Chamberlain in Munich. Hitler stated the annexation of Sudetenland would be his "last territorial demand." The two men believed him in hopes of avoiding war. -
The Munich Agreement or Munich BETRAYAL
The Munich Agreement was signed by British and French prime ministers Neville Chamberlain and Édouard Daladier along with Nazi leader Adolf Hitler which turned Sudetenland over to German conquest on September 30,1938 without so much as a fight. -
German Offensive Begins
Hitler began further expansion of the Third Reich. German troops invaded Czechoslovakia on March 15, 1939. After the fall of Czech, the dictator wanted to conquer Poland. Like Austria & Czechoslovakia before it, Poland had a good amount of German people. Hitler wanted to charge Poland because he thought the Germans needed shelter from the Poles. Most believed this would cause a declaration for war from France & Britain (both promised aid to Poland) or bring Germany issues w/ the Soviet Union. -
Special Stalin Surprise
Stalin signed the nonaggression pact with Hitler as the situation in Poland became worse. The pact promised that fascist Germany and communist Russia would not attack each other. Then, a second pact was signed secretly stating Germany and the Soviet Union would divide Poland between them. -
Invasion of Poland
German Luftwaffe (German air force) spread over Poland dropping bombs on military bases, airfields, railroads, and cities. This invasion tested Germany's military strategy known as the blitzkrieg (lightning war).
Key Term: blitzkrieg- intense military campaign intended to bring about a swift victory. Made use of advances in military tech such as fast tanks and strong aircraft to take out enemies quickly. -
Declaration of War
Two days following the invasion of Poland, Britain and France declared war on Nazi Germany. -
The Phony War
For an eight month period, French and British troops sat on the Maginot Line staring into Germany, waiting. On the Siegfried Line, German troops sat and stared back waiting. This period was commonly referred to as the sitzkrieg ("sitting war") and also known as the phony war. -
Surprise Invasion
Hitler launches invasion on Denmark and Norway. He claimed it was "to protect [those countries'] freedom and independence." -
Fall of France
France's Maginot Line did not hold. German troops could bypass the line after invading Belgium. German offensive trapped about 400,000 British and French soldiers who fled to Dunkirk. Days later, Italy entered the war for Germany. They invaded France on south side while Germany closed in on north side. France fell. Hitler gave French officers his terms of surrender. They declared that Germany got the northern part of France and that a Nazi-controlled puppet government be put in place. -
Key Player: Charles de Gaulle
French general Charles de Gaulle fled to England after France fell. He set up a government-in-exile. He declared profoundly, "France has lost a battle, but France has not lost the war." -
Battle of Britain
Britain fights Germany with naval forces while the latter launches an air war. The Luftwaffe made bombing runs over Britain. Germany's goal was to control the skies by destroying Britain's Royal Air Force (RAF). German planes released bombs over London every night for two months straight. The Battle of Britain roared from the summer into the fall. -
RAF Fights Back
RAF fights brilliantly with radar technology. The tech was used to definitively identify the flight paths of German planes. The RAF successfully shot down over 185 German planes. Later, Hitler indefinitely called off Britain invasion. The Germans still tried to break civilian morale using bombs, but the British were persistent. British pilots bombed German cities in retaliation. Life carried on.
