3-12-13

Munich Conference

conference was between Germany, Britain, France, and Italy
the Czech Prime Minister wasn’t invited
signed at 1 am on September 30, 1938 but was dated the 29th
The western leaders agreed to divide Czech with the promise that Hitler wouldn’t take any more land
the goal was Adolf Hitler would annex the Sudetenland (western regions of Czech where ethnic Germans lived)
It promised the Czech army would get away from the “German areas” of Czech
France and England were in hopes to conserve the peace in Europe
Hitler ended up with more land
The agreement failed
a couple years later, World War 2 started
the met for the meeting in Munich, Germany

Invasion of China

The decisions that led to the Japanese invasion of CHina were made by the Japanese Army and politicians either friendly to the army or intimidated by it
Japan launched a full scale invasion of China in 1937 called the Second Sino-Japanese War
Japan claimed the Chinese fired at the at MArco Polo Bridge which began the way
Within 5 months, i million Chinese were under control of the Japanese
All major cities of China were captured by the end of 1937
Chinese forces were unable to effectively resist the Japanese. Japan had a modern well equipped army. China did not
China had not industrialized like Japan
The country did not have the capability of designing and manufacturing modern weapons
The Nationalist Army relied on importing weapons. they had almost no air force, few armored units, and inadequate artillery
US and Soviet Union put an end to the war
they attacked the Japanese by dropping the first atomic bomb on Hiroshima
The dropping of this bomb also put an end to World War 2
after the Allied victory in the Pacific, General Douglas MacArthur ordered all Japanese forces in China to surrender
Japanese troops in China formally surrendered on September 9, 1945
Chinese- 20 million
wounded were around 15 million
Japanese- 1,055,000 deaths, 1,172,000 wounded
1937 to 1945- Eight years, one month, and three days

German Soviet Nonaggression Pact

a pact between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union
Soviet Union leader, Joseph Stalin did this to keep his country at peace with Germany while they built up a military
agreed not to take any military action for the next 10 years
it kept a secret agreement in which Germany and Soviet Union agree that later they would divide up Eastern Europe
Fought a two front war in WW1
the two front war split
Hitler didn’t want to repeat the same mistake that happened in World War 1
Russia didn’t want them against Germany
This agreement between the Nazis and Soviets greatly affected Eastern Europe
In exchange for the Soviets not to join the future war, Germany gave them Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania
Poland was suppose to be divided between the two countries along with the Narew, Vistula, and San rivers
When WWII started the Soviets did not join the fight against Germany
The nazis and the Soviets kept the terms of the pact and the protocol until Germany’s surprise attack and invasion of the Soviet Unions on June 22, 1941
Hitler used the pact to make sure Germany was able to invade Poland unopposed
On September 17, the Soviets went into Eastern Poland to occupy their “sphere of influence” designated in the secret protocol

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