Why had international peace collapsed by 1939?

Major Events


1933 - 1939

Hitler began increasing Germany's military by huge percents

+Warships+- 1932: 30 ships
1939: 95 ships

+Aircraft+- 1932: 36 planes
1939: 8,250 planes

+Soldiers+- 1932: 100,000 people
1939: 950,000 people

The Saar plebiscite


The League of Nations held the promised plebiscite for people to vote on whether their region should return to German rule.

90% of the population voted to return to German rule

Big morale booster for Hitler

Stresa Front

14 April 1935

The Stresa Pact was signed by France, Britain, and Italy.
Protesting the rearmament in Germany
And commitment to stand united against Germany

The Anti-Comintern Pact

1936 - 1937

Germany and Japan signed it in 1936
Italy signed in 1937

The aim of the pact was to limit Communist influence around the world: Aimed at the USSR

now called the Axis alliance

Spanish Civil War

1936 - 1939

Between Nationalists (Fascists) and Republicans (Communists and Socialists)

The League of Nations looked on helplessly

Re-Occupation of the Rhineland

March 1936

Germany re-militarized the Rhineland region.

France refused to act without British support and so Hitler's gamble paid off.



-German speaking section of Czechoslovakia
Hitler wanted to take over the Sudetenland
However the USSR, Britain, and France promised Czechoslovakia support if it came to war.

The Munich Agreement: the League of Nations decided to give Hitler what he wanted.
They didn't consult the Czechs nor did they consult the USSR.


March 1938

The annexation of Austria into Germany

Schuschnigg held a plebiscite asking the Austrian people if they supported the union
99.75% voted for Anschluss while under the watch of Nazis

The Czech Crisis

15 March 1939

They did not trust Hitler after the Munich Agreement
In 1939, Germany troops took over the rest of the country

The Pact of Steel

May 1939

Between Italy and Germany

The Nazi-Soviet Non-Aggression Pact

August 1939

Between Russia (Ribbentrop) and Germany (Molotov)

- agreed not to attack one another
- agreed to divide Poland between them
- Germany was to invade from the West
- USSR was to invade from the East

End of Appeasement

1 September 1939

German soldiers invaded Poland from the west and the Soviets invaded from the east.

On September 3rd Britain and France declared war on Germany

Pros- Britain and other Allied countries were not ready for war

Cons- It encouraged Hitler to continue invading Germany's land lost by the Treaty of Versailles

World War II

3 September 1939 - 2 September 1945


US: Franklin D. Roosevelt

1933 - April 1945

Germany: Adolf Hitler

1934 - 1945

- Wanted to abolish the Treaty of Versailles
- Expand German territory
- Defeat Communism

UK: Neville Chamberlain

1937 - 1940