How did WW2 start?
- 1. How Did the Second World War Start? A presentation by Miss Hayton
- 3. It’s all about being friends with each other! • Some countries were friends with certain countries and not others! • France and Britain were friendly with each other. • Germany and Italy were friendly with each other.
- 4. How did the war start? • To find out how the Second World War started we have to look back at the First World War. • This map of Europe shows some of the countries
- 5. How, and why did World War I start? • World War I began in 1914 and lasted until 1918. It was supposed to be ‘The war to end all wars’. • Countries had formed friendships or alliances with each other. • Different countries began to build up their armies and build bigger, more powerful ships.
- 6. What was the main cause? • Germany, Austria and Italy were allies. • France, Britain and Russia were allies. • A Serbian man called Gavrilo Princip assassinated the Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife in Sarajevo.
- 7. What happened next? • Gavrilo Princip was from Serbia, so Austria wanted them to apologise and pay compensation. Serbia refused, so Austria declared war. • Russia was Serbia’s ally, so they declared war on Austria. • Germany declared war on Russia and Serbia. • France declared war on Austria and Germany. Italy declared war on France and Russia. • Germany invaded Belgium, so Britain declared war.
- 8. How long did the war last? • The war that was supposed to end by Christmas 1914 only ended on November 11th 1918. • During the war millions of people were killed or injured.
- 9. How did World War I end? • By September 1918 the German High Command realised that the war was lost. • The Armistice was signed at 11 a.m. on November 11th 1918. • In 1919 the Treaty of Versailles was signed.
- 10. What did the treaty do? • Many people were determined to stop war happening again. • A League of Nations was established to enable countries to keep peace.
- 11. What happened after the war? • Germany was made to pay out huge sums of money in compensation. • They were also made to give up some land. • Germany was also forced to reduce the size of her armies and to sink her ships. • As a result the country became bankrupt.
- 12. What happened next? • The country had no money, people had no jobs and were starving. • Some people resented the status and money that others, such as Jews had. Jews were persecuted and made to give up their jobs and money • Adolf Hitler rose to power with promises to help the German people. • He set up youth groups and spoke at rallies.
- 13. The situation got worse! • All over Europe, people began to suffer as jobs disappeared. • Germany began to re-build her ships and build up her armies.
- 14. What did we do? • The British Prime Minister, Neville Chamberlain believed that he could negotiate with Adolf Hitler. • He met Herr Hitler at Munich in 1938 and declared the meeting was successful, ‘Peace in our time’ he said.
- 15. Was it ‘Peace in our time’? • Unfortunately not! • Germany, with the support of her allies, continued to invade other countries. • In September 1939 Britain issued an ultimatum, after Germany invaded Poland. It was
- 16. What happened first? • War was declared on September 3rd 1939.