France and Britain in World War II - SAT Subject Test in World History

Neville Chamberlain was Prime Minister of Britain from 1937 to 1940. He supported and encouraged other countries to sign the Munich Agreement, which allowed Germany to annex the Sudetenland (a region of Czechoslovakia with many ethnic-German inhabitants). This policy of "appeasement"—letting Hitler have some territory in the hope that this would quell his ambitious aggression—is generally considered a massive failure considering what was to follow, but at the time, Chamberlain was celebrated as a visionary hero.

The Maginot Line was a series of defensive fortifications established by the French on their borders with Germany and Switzerland. The French experience of World War One taught them that solid and well-established defensive fortifications would be vital to protecting France in any future European conflict. The French established the Maginot Line to discourage or prevent German attacks on France.

Germany was able to overcome the French line of defense, known as the Maginot Line, by simply invading Belgium first and marching its troops into France through Belgium. The French overreliance on the Maginot Line contributed to its rapid surrender in the first few weeks of the Second World War.

In the early years of World War Two, Roosevelt and the American government maintained an official policy of neutrality. However, unoficially Roosevelt was firmly on the side of Churchill and the British. The Lend-Lease Act of 1941 was a way to provide war supplies to the British despite Britain's lack of credit. It was a precursor to direct American involvement in the conflict.

The Battle of Britain was fought in the summer and autumn of 1940, shortly after Nazi Germany occupied France. The Battle was fought in the skies above Britain and the English Channel between the German Luftwaffe (air force) and the Royal Air Force of Britain. The Germans hoped to achieve aerial supremacy over the British in preparation for a later land invasion of the island. However, they eventually resorted to trying to terror bomb the British public into submission. The Battle ended in victory, at enormous cost, for the British. But, it also filled the British public with a resolve that would prove enormously important throughout the rest of the war, as for a time Britain stood alone against Nazi Germany in Europe.