Aggressors Invade Nations

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Aggressors Invade Nations

• Objectives
• Describe Japans attempts to build an empire.
• Trace the moves of European Fascists in seeking
  world power.
• Summarize why British and French appeasement and
  American isolationism failed to stop Fascist
  aggression.

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Japan Seeks an Empire

• Nationalistic military leaders seize control of
  Japans imperial government
• Believed in national expansion
• Japan seizes control of Manchuria from China
• Manchuria was rich in natural resources
• The League of Nations condemned Japanese
  aggression
• In response Japan quits the League

Japanese troops entering Manchuria.
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European Aggressors on the March

• To avenge Italys previous defeat, Mussolini
  ordered an invasion of Ethiopia in 1935
• Hoping to keep Peace, Britain did nothing

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Hitler Defies Versailles Treaty

• In 1935, Germany began to rearm in defiance of
  the Versailles Treaty
• German troops entered the Rhineland
• Buffer zone between France and Germany
• Britain and France did nothing
• Appeasement Giving in to an aggressor to keep
  peace
• Encouraged further aggression by Hitler
• Axis Powers (1936) Germany, Italy, and Japan

The Tripartite Pact formally aligned Germany and
Italy with the Empire of Japan.
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Americans Cling to Isolationism

• Most Americans were alarmed by international
  conflict but felt they should not get involved
• Beginning in 1935, Congress passed a series of
  Neutrality Acts Laws designed to keep the US
  out of future wars
• Acts outlawed arms sales/loans to nations at war
• Despite Neutrality Acts, Roosevelt found it
  impossible to stay neutral
• FDR spoke out against isolationism

Cartoon showing how the Neutrality Acts
restricted aid from the US to nations at war.
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Germany Unites With Austria

• Austria was Hitlers first target for national
  expansion
• Majority of Austrias population were Germans who
  favored unification with Germany
• 1938 Germany invades Austria unopposed
• Britain and France ignored their promise to
  uphold Austrian independence

Austrians celebrate as Germany achieves Anschluss.
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Bargaining for the Sudtenland

• 3 million Germans lived in the western border
  regions of Czechoslovakia called the Sudtenland
• Hitler claimed Czechs were abusing these Sudeten
  Germans
• In reality, Hitler wanted to annex Czechoslovakia
  for its natural resources
• Munich Agreement (1938) France and Britain
  appease Germany by turning over the Sudtenland
  without conflict
• Encouraged German aggression
• German barriers to expansion further deteriorated
  when Hitler and Stalin signed a nonaggression
  pact in 1939

Political cartoon depicting Hitler and Stalins
nonaggression pact in 1939.
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I believe it is peace for our time. -
Neville Chamberlain
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