2. Causes of the war
• The main reason for the war was the aim of Nazi
Germany to expand territorially, to gain their
‘living space’, and to dominate Europe.
• Nazi Germany had become strong economically.
Therefore, they had built a strong army (which
went against the Treaty of Versailles).
• Germany had been affected by the Great
Depression in a large scale, and that had
contributed to the rise of the nazis to power.
3. The nazi territorial expansion
First, Germany
annexed Austria in
1938 claiming
that German was
spoken in that
country. There
was not real
opposition to the
annexation.
4. Then, Germany annexed the Czech region of
Sudetenland the same year. Again, he claimed
that German was spoken in some areas of
nowadays Czech Republic, but later he also
invaded the East of the country.
5. The League of Nations did not react, and Britain
let the nazis invade Czechoslovakia thinking that
invasion would ease the nazis.
Neville Chamberlain with
a paper Hitler had signed
saying that Germany
would not invade any
other territories.
6. Other territorial expansions
• Japan invaded
Manchuria, a
region located in
the North of
China
• Italy annexed
Ethiopia and
Albania.
7. The Pact of Steel
In 1939, Italy and
Germany signed
the Pact of Steel
establishing the
Rome-Berlin axis.
Later, Japan
joined the pact.
8. In 1939, Germany was ready to
launch a war the nazis were eager to
begin.
• Hitler’s intention now was to invade Poland
alleging that Germany had the right to annex East
Prussia with Germany. So the Danzig corridor had
to be invaded.
• But Hitler feared the reaction of the USSR.
Therefore, on August 23rd 1939, Hitler signed a
pact with Stalin:
- The USSR would not attack Germany if
the Third Reich invaded Poland.
- In exchange, the USSR would occupy
the East of Poland.
9. On September 1st 1939, the German troops started
the invasion of Poland.
Three days later, France and the Uk declared war on
Germany. German troops crossing the Polish border
10. • Germany conquered Poland in one month.
• Germany’s strategy was the blitzkrieg (lightning
war) which consisted in attacks with tanks and air
force first, and then advances of the infantry
12. In May 1940, Hitler conquered Paris, and the
whole of France.
13. The North of France was controlled by Germany
directly, whereas in the South the Germans
created a puppet State: the Vichy government
led by a French (Petáin) who followed the
German orders.
14. • For a few months, only the
UK faced the advance of
Hitler in Europe.
• Winston Churchill (the
British Prime Minister)
continued the war despite
the French defeat. He
promised that the UK
would never surrender,
and could only promise
blood, tears and sweat to
the British people.
15. • Hitler planned to
invade England, but
the British
managed to avoid
the invasion.
• Several British cities
were bombed by
the luftwaffe, but
the Royal Air Force
repelled the
attacks.
16. The British and the Germans also fought for the
control of North Africa.
Rommel (Germany)
Montgomery (UK)
17. • In the Spring of 1941, Germany was at the
peak of its expansion in Europe.
• Hitler decided to invade the USSR because
Germany needed petrol, resources and food
to keep its army (operation barbarrosa). This
was a big mistake for the Third Reich.
18. • The Jews who lived in the territories that were
being conquered by the Third Reich were sent to
concentration camps, or extermination camps.
• Many other civilians (Polish, Russian, Ukranian,
Yugoslavian etc) were assasinated by the
German SS or the German army.
19. • In december 1941, the Japanese air force attacked
the US Pacific fleet at Pearl Harbor (Hawaii)
because Japan wanted to extend its influence in
the Pacific.
• This attacked meant that the US declared war on
Japan, and later Germany and Italy.
20. • Between 1942 and 1943, the Germans started
to lose the first battles in North Africa and the
Soviet Union (Stalingrad).
• In 1943, the South of Italy was invaded by the
allies from Africa.
German soldiers at Stalingrad
21. • On June 6th 1944
(D-day), the
Normandy landings
began.
• The American,
British and
Canadian troops
joined to start the
attacks to the Reich
from the East.
23. • The French resistance led by De Gaulle also
attacked the Germans with acts of sabotage.
Sabotage: some partisans (members of the
French resistance) have made a train derail
General De Gaulle
24. • Little by little, the allies advanced towards
Paris. The capital of France was liberated in
August 1944
25. • The soviets
occupied several
Eastern countries.
• So the Americans
and the British
from the West,
and the soviets
from the East were
slowly advancing
towards Berlin.
26. • In April 1945, Mussolini was captured and
executed by Italian partisans.
27. • The battle for Berlin
was extremely harsh.
Hitler said he would
never surreder.
• The soviets managed
to conquer the capital
of the Third Reich.
• On April 20th 1945,
Hitler and his wife
(Eva Braun) commited
suicide in the Berlin
bunker.
Two soviet soldiers stand over a Nazi eagle
28. On May 7th 1945, the
German generals
surrendered to the allies
(US, UK, USSR).
29. • However, the war in
the Pacific between
the US and Japan
continued.
• Japan had conquered
many territories in
Asia: Myanmar, the
Phillippines,
Indonesia, China and
many islands in the
Pacific.
30. • US president Truman decided to drop two
nuclear boms on the cities of Hiroshima and
Nagasaki in Japan in August 1945.
• The effects of these two bombs were terrible:
approximately 200,000 thousand people died
or suffered the effects of the nuclear bombs.
31. • In September 1945, Japan surrendered to the
United States. This put an end to WW 2.
