From Appeasement to War Chapter 14.1

Aggression Goes Unchecked When the aggressive actions of dictators in Japan, Germany, and Italy went virtually unchallenged, these regimes grew bolder. The Western policy of appeasement and widespread pacifism fed the ambitions of the three countries, which formed a pact not to interfere in each other’s expansion.

Spain Collapses Into Civil War When conservatives led by Francisco Franco revolted against the new reformist government in Spain, a civil war broke out that drew help from Germany, Italy, and the Soviet Union. Franco’s rebels won, and he set up a fascist dictatorship.

German Aggression Continues Hitler annexed Austria and Czechoslovakia’s Sudetenland in his quest to bring all German-speaking people into the Third Reich. Britain and France were not willing to go to war over either move.

Europe Plunges Towards War When Germany seized the rest of Czechoslovakia, Britain and France decided they would move to stop Hitler if he attacked Poland. Soviet leader Joseph Stalin made a pact with Hitler that they would not interfere with each other in annexing parts of Eastern Europe. Two days after German forces invaded Poland, on September 3, 1939, World War II began