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Hitler Meets with Military Advisers
Hitler secretly met with his top military advisers to talk about taking land from neighboring countries. -
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Hitler's Rise to Power
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Germany Unifies with Austria
German forces march into Austria unopposed because the majority of the people who wanted to unify with Germany. The rest of the world did nothing. This Anschluss, or union, with Austria was Hitler testing his boundaries with how much he could get away with. -
Munich Agreement
French premier Edouard Daladier and British prime minister Neville Chamberlain sign the Munich Agreement which turned the Sudetenland over to Germany peacefully. This is known as appeasement, giving up principles to pacify an aggressor. -
Germany Invades Czechoslovakia
Germany invaded what remained of Czechoslovakia. -
Stalin and Hitler Sign a Nonaggression Pact
Stalin and Hitler agreed to never attack each other and also secretly divided Poland between them. -
Germany Tests the Blitzkrieg Strategy on Poland
The Blitzkrieg or lightning war was Germany's newest military strategy. It involved fast tanks and powerful aircraft taking the enemy by surprise and then crushing all opposition. This was used to take over Poland in just three weeks. -
Britain and France Declare War
After Germany invaded Poland Britain and France declared war on Germany. -
Germany Invades Denmark and Norway
Hitler launched a surprise invasion of Denmark and Norway claiming that he was trying to protect their freedom and independence. He really just wanted to build bases along the coast to strike at Great Britain. -
Hitler Forces France to Surrender
Italy had entered the war on the side of Hitler and helped him capture France. Hitler then handed France officers his terms of surrender which included Germans occupying the northern part of France and a Nazi-controlled puppet government would be set up in southern France. -
Battle of Britain Begins
Germany launches a naval and aerial assault on Great Britain. The air force bombed the city of London for months to try and force a surrender. -
The RAF Push Germany Back
The Royal Air Force, RAF, used new technology called radar which allowed the pilots to track German aircraft and plot their flight paths even in darkness. After losing 185 German planes Hitler called off the invasion. -
Germany Invades the Netherlands, Belgium, and Luxembourg
Hitler took more land from neighboring countries to expand Germany's power.
