Hitler as a cause of WWII

His plans
1. Abolish the Treaty Of Versailles
  1. Hitler believed the treaty was unfair
  2. He promised that if he became leader he would reverse it
2. Expand German territory
  1. Hitler wanted to recover the territories taken away by the Treaty
  2. He also wanted to build an empire in estern Europe to give germans extra living space
3. Defeat communism
  1. Hitler was anti communist
  2. He believed Bolsheviks had caused Germany's defeat in WWI
Rearmamnet
1. It was the 1st step of Hitler in power and the 1st term of the Treaty of Versailles to be broken.
  1. At the beggining he kept it secret, but then announced that he was only rearming because other countries refused to disarm. After that he withdrew from the League of Nations
2. Many unemployed were drafted to the army, therefore it boosted Nazi support. Moreover, many countries started rearmament to fight unemployement, while other nations refused to disarm even more
  1. Germany was allowed to increase the size of its armed forces
    1. Reasons
      1. Hitler´s reasons were logical
      2. That army was not enough to protect such a big country
    2. In1935 Britain and Germany signed a naval agreement that allowed hitler to increase his navy (30% the size of Britain´s)
3. This is a picture of a rearmament rally Hitler organized in 1935
The Saar Plebiscite
1. The Saar region of Germany was ruled by a Lueague´s mandate since 1919
  1. In 1935 a plebiscite was held for people to decide who they wanted to rulled by
    1. Unification with Germany 90.73% Unification with France 0.40% Stay the same 8.87%
      1. This results boosted Hitler´s confidence
Remilitarisation of the Rhineland
1. March 1936
  1. Hitler moved his troops into the Rhineland
    1. Breaking a term of the Treaty of Versailles
2. The French didn't act as they didn't want to take responsibility from dragging France into a war
3. The League condemned Hitler's actions but did not do anything else
Spanish Civil War
1. Hitler saw an opportunity to fight communism in the Spanish Civil War
  1. Supported General Franco that lead the Right Wing Rebbels who opposed to the Republican Goverment
  2. Hitler tested his new aircraft by making bombing raids
    1. Here is a photo of the ruins the bombing left in the spanish city of Guernica
Anschluss
1. Hitler felt that Austria and Germany belonged together
2. The Austrian Chancellor called a plebiscite to see if Austrian people wanted Anschluss
  1. Hitler sent his troops to guarantee a "trouble free plebiscite" (he would not risk Austrain people voting against Anschluss)
    1. 99.75% voted for Anschluss
The Sudetenland
1. After the anschluss the Czech leader knew that the next state to fall under german control was Czechoslovakia
  1. Hitler announced he wanted control of the Suddeteland area
    1. Czechoslovakia would fight for it
      1. They had British, French and Russian support
      2. They had a modern army
      3. They knew that without the Suddeteland resources their country would be very weakened economically
    2. Chamberlain talked to Hitler and he said that he only wanted a small part of the Suddeteland and only if the people living there didn´t oppose
      1. Two days after he said he wanted all the area despite if czechs were for or against.
        Mussolini organized a meeting in Munich, whith France, Britain, Germany, the USSR and Italy representatives were the Munich agreement was signed that allowed Hitler to take all the area of the Suddeteland, whitout consulting Czechoslovakia
        German forces invaded the Suddeteland and Hungary and Poland took advantage of the situation to take some territory too
        The Czechs Chancellor felt betrayed and abdicated
Czechoslovakia
1. 1939
  1. Hitler invaded the rest of Czechoslovakia
    1. France and Britain did not do anything
      1. France and Britain declared that if Hitler invaded Poland they would declare war
Nazi Soviet Pact
1. Stalin was worried about the threat Germany was to the USSR
  1. He signed a pact with Hitler in which they agreed to not attack each other, and to divide Poland in half between them
    1. This allowed Hitler to invade Poland as he would not face a two front war

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Hitler as a cause of WWII

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	Created by Agus Tettamanti about 5 years ago