Causes of World War II
Chautauqua Lecture Series
Lakeside
Issues
• Reparations
– $33 B
– John Maynard Keynes
Issues
• Other Economic Problems
– Economic Nationalism
– Ruhr Crisis 1923
– Dawes Plan 1924
– Depression
Hitler Seeks Lebensraum
• Reparations end 1932
• Hitler comes to power, 1933.
• Nazi-Polish Pact 1934
Hitler Seeks Lebensraum
• Rearmament 1935
– Conscription, air force,
military build-up
– Stresa Front 1935
– Franco-Soviet Pact
1935
– Mussolini and Ethiopia
– Spanish Civil War
Hitler Seeks Lebensraum
• Rhineland Crisis 1936
– Violation of Versailles
– Reaction
– Results
• Austrian Anschluss 1938
Hitler Seeks Lebensraum
• Czechoslovakia 1938
– Sudetenland
– Munich Conference Sept. 1938
– Chamberlain and Daladier
Hitler Seeks Lebensraum
• End of Appeasement
– March on Prague, March 1939
– Pact of Steel, May 1939
– Nazi-Soviet Pact, August 1939
– Invasion of Poland, Sept. 1, 1939
World War II Begins
• Britain and France Declare War
• Phony War, Sept. 1939-May 1940
Germany Attacks France
• Denmark and Norway.
• May 1940, Germany moves West.
• Manstein Plan
Germany Attacks France
• Belgium fights.
• Operation Dynamo
Germany Attacks France
• France surrenders, June 22, 1940.
• Gen. Petain leads Vichy government.
– France humiliated.
• Free French remain.
– Charles DeGualle
Petain
Battle of Britain
German Planes
Junker 87
Me 109
Battle of Britain
• British Planes
Spitfire
Hurricane
1941
• Mussolini Enters War against France
• Operation Barbarossa, June 1941
US Involvement
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Cash and Carry
Destroyers for Bases Deal
Lend/Lease
Atlantic Charter
Pearl Harbor