Second world war - segunda guerra mundial

- The Nazi SOviet Pact:

Hitler was convinced that Britain and France would not risk war over his, but he wasn`t sure about what Stalin and the USSR could do.

- Backgroung:

Stalin had been very worried about the german threat to the Soviet Union ever since Hitler came to power in 1933.

Hitler was interested in conquering Russian land.

Stalin couldn`t reach any kind of lastingagreement with Britain and France in the 1930s.

Stalin signed a trety wirh France in 1935 that said that France wouldn`t help the USSR if Germany invaded the Soviet Union.

- War:

The pact was the best way for Germany`s invation of Poland.

on 1 September 1939 the German army invaded Poland from the west, and 17 September the Soviet Forces invaded from the Wast. Poland soon fell.

hitlerthought that Britain and France wouldn`t declare war on Germany, but Britain and France did it.

Hitler had started a war, but not the war that he had in mind, it was too soon and against the wrong opponents.

- Was appeasement the right policy ?

Chamberlain was convinced that the things that he wanted to do were right.

there were two main views ;

1) it was the wrong policy because itencouraged Hitler.

2) it was the right policy because Britain was not ready for war.

- How did the war become a world war ?

In the early years, the war in Europe could not have been more different from the First World War. Germany quickly conquered Poland,
but there was no fighting in wetern Europe at all for the first nine months.

- Pearl Harbor:

On 7 December 1941, a Sunday, aband was reharsing in the deck of a warship in the US naval base at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii.
A few minutes later, the bandsmen were diving for cover or running to their stations as the first wave of Japenese fighter planes dropped their bombs and torpedoes.

- The rivalry begins:

Rivalry between Japan and the USA had begun in the 1920s while the European powers fought out the First World War,Japan was able to take over much of their trading
activity in the Far East.

The USA and watern European countries also placed tariffs on Japanese goods. In response, powerful businessemen and military leaders, such as General Tojo,
increasingly called for Japan to build its own empire on the mainland of Asia.

- The USA`s concerns grow:

The developments were watched with concern in theUSA. The American President, Roosevelt, was especially worried when Germany and Japan signed the Anti-Comintern Pact
in the 1936. Italy signed in 1937, bringing three agressive regimes together into one alliance. In that same year Japan launched a full-scale invasion of China.

The fall of France in 1940 and the devastating affectiveness of the German army as it swept through western Europehad jolted Americans.

- Japan`s Dilemma:

Japan`s invasion of china was a spectacular success, but even bigger prizes beckoned once war in Europe broke out, Britain, France and the Nerthlands all had large
territories in the Far East that they could not possibly defend while they were at war with Germany.

Roosevelt was worried about American interests in China and in the Pacific,particulary in the Philippines.

In June 1941, Hitler solved Japan`s second problems when he invaded the USSR. Immediately afterwards, in July 1941, Japan took control of French Indo-China and
it seemed that Japan had made up its mind to challenge the USA.

On December that same year Pearl Harbor was bombed and the US congress declared war on Japan. Three days later, Hitler did the same on the US.- The war in Europe, 1939-1941
Blitzkrieg
This was the tactic used by Hitler. Its name also could be "lightning war". The aim was to paralyse the enemy, and it was used for two reasons:
. It'd deliver quick victories.
. The economy of Germany's could not afford long-drawn-out campaigns. It allowed the army to plunder the resources Germany needed through quick territory seizing...