Introduction: Is it right to call the Second World War ‘Hitler’s War?

In August 1939 Hitler signed a secret deal with the In 1937 Hitler signed an agreement with Italy and
USSR where they agreed that they would invade Japan. They agreed that they all had common
Poland and share it between them. aims (wanted to acquire territory and destroy
Communism.)
By the 1930s many people in Britain thought that When Hitler invaded Poland in September 1939 it
the Treaty of Versailles (which in 1919 had taken was Britain and France that declared war on Hitler
away lots of German territory) was unfair on and not the other way round.
Germany.
In the 1920s, when Hitler was not in charge of In September 1938 Britain organised a meeting
Germany, he wrote a book called Mein Kampf with Germany at Munich. In this meeting Britain
(My Struggle). In this book he claimed that gave a large part of Czechoslovakia to Germany
Germany needed to expand her territory into the without even asking the Czechs! Many believe
East. this encouraged Hitler to ‘push his luck’.
From 1935 – 1938 Britain followed a policy of By 1939 Britain had spent large amounts of
Appeasement towards Germany (this meant money on improving their armed forces. The cost
giving Hitler territory that he wanted in return for had been huge and Britain could not continue to
not going to war.) spend money on weapons therefore many
generals and politicians felt it was better to stop
Hitler sooner rather than later.
Many people in Britain were more scared of As soon as Hitler came to power in 1933 he
Communism in the USSR than Hitler therefore started to reverse the Treaty of Versailles. His first
many people in Britain were willing to turn a step was to increase the size of Germany’s army,
blind-eye to Hitler’s actions in Europe if he would he did this secretly.
stop the USSR.
From 1936 – 9 Hitler invaded or occupied territory In November 1937 Hitler had a meeting with his
after territory; The Rhineland (1936), Austria generals and explained that it was important to
(1938), Czechoslovakia (1939) and Poland (1939) continue to build up their armies and expand into
Eastern Europe.