Western Civilization - History Of European Society

Europe in an Age of Total War: World War II,1939–45 579

opinion worldwide—Joachim von Ribbentrop, after all,
was also the author of the largest anti-Communist al-
liance in the world, the Anti-Commintern Pact linking
Germany, Italy, and Japan. The stunned silence did not
last. A few days after concluding this treaty, Hitler used
a dispute over Danzig as his excuse to send an army of
1.25 million men into Poland. Two days after the inva-
sion began in September 1939, Britain and France de-
clared war on Germany.

The Years of Axis Conquest, 1939–42

The war in Poland showed that technology had again

changed warfare. The use of tanks and airplanes to sup-

port an invading army created a powerful offensive

force, in contrast to the defensive war of barbed wire

and machine guns fought in 1914–18. Even the infantry

had changed, with mechanized units able to move

rapidly. The German army (the Wehrmacht) possessed

DANZIG

MEMEL

ITALY

FRANCE

LUX.

BELGIUM

NETH.

NORWAY

SWEDEN

DENMARK

GERMANY

ESTONIA

LATVIA

LITHUANIA

GREECE

(ALBANIA)

TURKEY

BULGARIA

ROMANIA

YUGOSLAVIA

HUNGARY

(AUSTRIA)

(CZECH.)

SLOVAKIA

SOVIET

UNION

POLAND

SWITZ.

GERMANY

Stockholm

Berlin

Amsterdam

Brussels

Bern

Locarno

Fiume

Rome

Belgrade

Sofia

Bucharest

Vienna

Budapest

Istanbul

Moscow

Warsaw

Copenhagen

Prague

Corsica

Sardinia

Sicily

Corfu

Athens

Nuremberg

North

Sea

Black Sea

Ba

lt

ic

Se

a

Danu

be

R.

Po R

.

Dnies

ter

R.

Dni

eper

R.

Mediterranean Sea

Ad

ria

tic

Sea

Rh

ine

R.

ElbeR

.

Ode

rR.

0 200 400 Miles

0 200 400 600 Kilometers

Germany

German advances:

Reoccupied Rhineland, March 1936

Annexed Austria, March 1938

Annexed Sudetenland, October 1938

Occupied Bohemia and Moravia,

March 1939

Annexed Memel, March 1939

( )

Italy

Annexed Albania, April 1939

Poland and Hungary

Annexed Czech territory, 1938 and 1939

Former independent nations: Albania,

Austria, and Czechoslovakia

MAP 29.1

The Road to War, 1936–39