Origins of WWII Flashcards
What was the third Saturday surprise in March 1936: Rhineland Crisis
Hitler ordered military troops into the Rhine which was demilitarized.
What was the third Saturday surprise in violation of?
the treaty of Versailles and the Locarno pact
What was the Locarno Pact?
- diplomatic treaty including several other countries
- Germany volunteered its world war I frontiers with France and Belgium
- included the demilitarized Rhineland
- signed by Belgium, France, and Germany
- Guaranteed by Italy and Great Britain
- gave the right for military action when violated
What was the dramatic and decisive fallout from the Rhineland Crisis
- French military was hesitant to use force towards Germany
- Britain didn’t think it was worth fighting, France soon followed
- France took it to the league of nations
- Condemned the German’s move but nothing happened
- French military lost its superiority in relations to Germany
- could no longer occupy Ruhr
- Belgium lost confidence with France
- it withdrew from its military alliance with France and returned to neutrality
Who was Neville Chamberlain?
- prime minister of great Britain that believed he knew better than the government experts
What did Chamberlain advocate for?
Appeasement;
- make timely concession to nation that have legitimate grievances based on past wrongs
- believed that the Germans had been wronged within the Treaty of Versailles
- could be limited in German-speaking areas of East Central Europe
- Austria, Czechoslovakia, Poland, Danzig
How did Hitler cause crisis in Austria?
- Anschluss: The Political Union of German-speaking Austria with Germany
- Hitler wanted freedom for Nazis in Austria, but the chancellor said no
- Ordered the German occupation of Austria
- Became an official province of Germany
How did Hitler cause crisis in Czechoslovakia?
Hitler claimed that the Germans were being harmed within Sudetenland. he demanded pro-nazi pushes for his demands or war would be threatened
What was the Munich Conference?
- British and French seceded Sudetenland with all of his demands to Hitler
- represented Chamberlain’s high point of appeasement but was also the bankruptcy of appeasement
Who was present at the Munich Conference?
Hitler, Chamberlain, Italy’s facsist dictator Benito Mussolini, and French Premier Edouard Daladier
What was the German occupation of Prague?
hitler sending troops into what was left of Czechoslovakia
Where in Poland was Hitler focused on?
autonomous city of Danzing
Why did Britain and France guarantee support of Poland’s independence?
it was next on hitler’s list due to the heavy presence of Germans in the polish corridor
Who was the Russian leader at this time
Joseph Stalin
What was the Nazi Soviet Nonaggression Pact?
- Most Cynical deal in history democracy
- did this for short term gains
- assured both of neutrality
- Secret Protocol
- divided Poland
- would be absorb German in the east, russians in the west
- divided Poland
- last diplomatic step of Hitler before getting ready for war with Poland
