World War and the Growth of Global Power 239So, despite Hitler’s pledge that he would seek no more conquest, the
Germans invaded and took all of Czechoslovakia in March 1939. The West,
again, did nothing to stop him. There could no longer be any doubt as to the
ultimate aims of the Nazis, and their promises to stop taking over new lands
could not be taken seriously, so events in Europe become even more compli-
cated in 1939. Since 1933, Stalin, almost alone among world leaders, was
alarmed by Hitler’s rise, but without any other support. So in August 1939,
he switched rather than fight. The Soviet Union and Germany made an
agreement, known as the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact for the foreign ministers who
signed it, but also known as the Stalin-Hitler Pact, that they would not fight
against each other and, among other things, divided up parts of the Baltics
and Poland. Barely a week later, on September 1st, 1939, with the Soviet
Union no longer a threat, Hitler invaded Poland, a date generally regarded as
the official start of World War II. By this time, the western policy of appease-
ment was dead, and the British and French declared war on Germany, but
there was really nothing they could do to help Poland, which fell quickly. The
Germans employed a new form of warfare, blitzkrieg, or “lightning war,” in
which they sent troops, armored and motorized infantry, and close air support
into battle all at once, a stark contrast to the trench warfare of 1914-1918.
Poland, with horseback infantry, was overrun in just weeks. Europe’s night-
mare had gotten worse. Germany, since 1933, had rebuilt its military, retaken
the Rhineland, and taken Austria, Czechoslovakia and now Poland. Central
Europe was now, for the most part, under Hitler’s control, the Open Door was
in peril, and the West was deeply alarmed.
For the next 8 months, Germany made no moves, leading some political
figures to believe that Hitler had met his goals and would no longer seek new
lands. Journalists referred to the period as “the phony war,” or sitzkrieg, sitting
war. Any hope that Hitler was done, however, was wishful thinking, as the
Germans began their most ambitious campaign in early May 1940—the inva-
sion of France! France was considered a military power at the time, and had
built a series of fortifications along its border with Germany, The Maginot Line,
which included gun turrets, artillery and armored forts and, the French boast-
ed, was “impenetrable.” Germany, however, simply invaded to the north,
through Belgium and Luxembourg, going through the Ardennes Forest—none
of which was covered by the Maginot Line. French forces quickly collapsed
and the Germans moved southward toward Paris. Italy, seeing an opportu-