On May 10, 1940, Germany attacked Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg (a very small territory surrounded by France to the south, Belgium to the west, and Germany to the north and east). The stunning victory was called blitzkrieg (pronounced "BLITS-kreeg," meaning "lightning war" in German). It was already too late to save Poland-Germany conquered it by September 24.
(Under the terms of the nonaggression pact, the Soviet Union would not interfere with Germany's actions in Poland.) Obligated by earlier guarantees to assist various Eastern and Central European nations in case of a German invasion, Britain and France declared war on Germany two days later. On September 1, 1939, only a week after the pact went into effect, Hitler launched a German attack on Poland. In August 1939 Germany and the Soviet Union signed the Nazi-Soviet Nonaggression Pact, an agreement that the twoĬountries would not fight each other. World War II can be viewed as another struggle for power, an attempt by the Germans to shake off past defeats and achieve European-and eventually world-domination. He promised the German people that their nation would rise up from disgrace and become all-powerful. Hitler took advantage of this chaos and suffering. The Great Depression-a period of extreme economic slowdown that began in the United States in 1929 and spread to Europe in the early 1930s-only compounded problems.
These penalties caused a serious economic decline, unemployment, and political turmoil in Germany. The agreement stripped Germany of much of its territory, severely limited the size of its army and navy, demanded that Germany admit responsibility for starting the war, and required the defeated nation to make payments, or "reparations," to the opposing forces-especially to France- for the damage it had caused. World War I came to an official end with the signing of the Treaty of Versailles (named for the French palace where peace negotiations were conducted pronounced "ver-SIGH") in 1919. The long and bloody conflict concluded in 1918 with a full German retreat. Germany tried to stake its claim as a leading European power through warfare. The First World War, sometimes referred to as the Great War, was a fight for power and influence. The Nazis' rise to power was tied directly to the staggering defeat suffered by Germany in World War I (1914-18). Germany, Italy, and Japan became known as the Axis Powers, and the forces that fought against Germany-France, Britain, and later the Soviet Union and the United States-were called the Allied Powers. Eventually, the leading powers of the world would align (take sides) with Germany or with England. Great Britain and France responded to this aggression by declaring war on Germany. In September 1939 Germany had invaded Poland. Members of all political parties-the tradition-minded Conservatives, the reform-seeking Liberals, and the workers' Labour Party-would play a role in the new government under Churchill. Chamberlain resigned his post and Winston Churchill, unyielding and bold, was appointed prime minister of Britain on May 10, 1940.Ĭhurchill's first job was to form a new British government, called a coalition government. It became clear that Hitler could not be trusted. By March 1939 Germany claimed the rest of Czechoslovakia. As it turned out, this alone did not satisfy the cunning German leader's appetite for power and land. To appease Hitler, he gave in to his demands to add the German-speaking sections of Czechoslovakia to his territory. The Nazis encouraged the growing nationalist movement in Germany-a movement that glorified all things German and demanded blind devotion to the party's beliefs.īritish prime minister Neville Chamberlain (the chief officer of the British government) sought to avoid war between Germany and Britain. An extremely dangerous leader who seemed to have a spellbinding grasp on his followers, Hitler had spent the previous decade building up the National Socialist German Workers' Party (or Nazi Party for short). Excerpts from selected speeches delivered in the spring of 1940 Printed in NEVER GIVE IN! The Best of Winston Churchill's Speeches Published in 2003Īfter Adolf Hitler was named chancellor (chief officer) of Germany in 1933, the German government stepped up efforts to expand its territory in Europe.
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