This topic falls under CORE CONTENT: OPTION B. This is topic number 3.
In 1939, international peace collapsed leading to the outbreak of yet another World War which became known simply as World War II. There was much tension, rivalry and aggression following the end of World War I and the Treaty of Versailles. Germany, Italy and Japan created much debacle when they began remilitarisation.
The Causes
The peace treaties of 1919 - 1923 left behind with them extreme consequences. The first of these consequences was that of German anger towards the treaties. They were mainly angry with the Treaty of Versailles. In 1920, they termed it as a "Diktat" which in English mean "Dictated peace". They were annoyed at the lost of so much territory in both Europe and in Africa. They lost their resources as 74% of their iron ore production and 26% of their coal production was taken away. The Rhineland and Saar regions were demilitrised and occupied by foreign nations. They could not have a union with their closest ally, Austria. They had to disarm on a large scale while other countries barely did and they had to pay a reparation fee of £6600 million. However, what made them most annoyed was the fact that they had to accept full responsibility for the war through Article 231 better known as the "War Guilt Clause".
There were a lot of resentments to the Treaty of Versailles and when Hitler came to office, he set out to break all the terms of the treaty. He felt it was unjust and he hated the Germans who signed it terming them the "November Criminals". He aimed to expand the German territory and was in favor of a union with his homeland, Austria. He wanted to attain German minorities in other countries such as Czechoslovakia and to shape out an empire in Eastern Europe to gain more living space for his people. Hitler wanted to abandon Communism all together. Hitler's aims would ultimately result in resentment by the British and French.
The League of Nations, which was created in 1920 as a term of the Treaty of Versailles was supposed to preserve global peace. However, in the 1930's it failed to do so. As a result of its failure, leaders such as Adolf Hitler became bolder as he realised he could take advantage of the League. He began to violate the terms of the Treaty of Versailles. One such thing was that he remilitrised the Rhineland which as a previously demilitrised zone under the Treaty of Versailles.
As the League failed, the members began losing faith and Britain and France began to rearm. One of the Treaty of Versailles' terms was for the complete disarmament however only Germany did so. In the 1930's Britain and France in addition to its rearmament began pursuing their own policies. One such policy was that of appeasement. This policy was aimed to prevent aggressors from starting wars. This was signed by Germany in 1935.
In Britain, there were arguments that sided with the appeasement policy and there were some that were against it. The appeasement policy was seen by some as a good decision since the Japanese were threatening Britain for British colonies in the east. Britain could not afford to fight Japan on the east and in the event of rivalry with Germany, a war in the west. The appeasement policy was therefore seen to be a means of preserving peace with Germany. In addition, Britain's military was not strong enough to part-take in a major war and therefore could not risk going to war in two different places. The appeasement policy would give Britain time to rearm. Britain did not have the support of USA since she did not want to become too inter-twined in European affairs. Probably, the most important of all arguments that sided with the policy was the fact that it would be good for Britain to appease Germany since the Treaty of Versailles was very much harsh on Germany and this would be a means of sympathizing.
The policy also carried with it arguments that it was not a good take. Such of this nature include that fact that aggressors do not have final demands meaning that they will not stop demanding. Britain would therefore have to keep giving if they wanted to be on good terms with Germany. This also meant that with Britain and France giving into Germany, she (Germany) could once again become powerful thereby becoming a threat to the British Empire.
The policy was still signed into agreement despite the negatives. With time, it proved fruitless. The policy failed! The critics who went against the policy and said, "aggressors do not have final demands" were correct. Hitler's aim was to unite majority of the German speaking peoples of the Sudetenland into Germany. The Sudetenland was a part of the democratic republic of Czechoslovakia. Both Britain and France were happy about the creation of Czechoslovakia but yet they gave part of it to Hitler.
Hitler began to break up Czechoslovakia when he demanded the whole of the Sudetenland. This demand led to the Munich Conference on September 29th and 30th of 1938 where only Britain, France, Italy and of course Germany were present. This conference was aimed at giving Hitler his demand of Sudetenland. Although this region (Sudetenland) was a part of Czechoslovakia, she was not invited to the conference or even consulted. The Sudetenland was transferred into Germany's Empire.
Czechoslovakia was abandoned by her allies and was severely weakened as she lost her resources. Stalin of the USSR lost faith in Britain and France. In March of 1939, Hitler invaded in remainder of Czechoslovakia called Bohemia-Moravia.
The policy of appeasement came to an end with this invasion which proved that Hitler could not be trusted. Britain and France began to quickly rearm and Poland was assured that she would be backed by both Britain and France as they believed that Poland would be Hitler's next target.
Cooperation failed on a drastic note in the 1930's. This was as a result of the Great Depression which led to the collapse of international trade, the closure of banks, factories and businesses, mass unemployment, economic rivalry and poverty. USA demanded the return of her money that she loaned to Germany, Britain and France as part of the Dawes Plan which ultimately resulted in aggression of nations towards USA. Additionally, Germany, Italy and Japan became aggressive towards other nations tried to take land and resources and increase national pride.
Dictators began to rise globally and people started to blame their governments for poverty and lack of jobs and they began to give their support to people, many of which were dictators that were offering them what they wanted. By 1929, over 20 countries globally became dictatorships.
In the early 1930's, Hitler began to pursue many foreign policies. These policies played a huge role in international peace breaking up. In 1933, Hitler increased the army by approximately 300,000. The Versailles Treaty said that the Germany army could only have 100, 000 soldiers. Hitler also rearmed with was against the treaty and he developed an air academy to train pilots and built over 1000 aircrafts. All this was against the treaty of Versailles however the League of Nations did absolutely nothing, Hitler’s actions here angered the League though and Britain and France.
The Saar Land was a part of Germany prior to the termination of World War I. With the signing of the Treaty of Versailles, it was handed over to and ran by the League of Nations. In 1935, as the League promised Hitler, a plebiscite occurred. The people declared as the votes showed that they favored to be under German rule. This was an awe-inspiring success for Hitler as roughly 90% of the Saar land region's people voted to be ran by Germany. This increased Hitler's confidence.
In 1936 as well, Hitler reintroduced conscription which was banned by the Versailles Treaty. Due to the reintroduction, they army was boosted from 300,000 in 1933 to 550,000 in 1936. This resulted in Britain, France and Italy forming the Stresa Front. The Stresa Front mainly condemned Germany and their recent actions of rearmament and the reintroduction of conscription. In 1936, majority of the European powers were united against Germany but this nature changed a few months after the Anglo-German Naval Treaty was introduced. This treaty was actually an agreement that prescribed that Germany could have a fleet that can be smaller than Britain's but if Germany desired; they could have as many submarines as Britain. This agreement totally overthrew the Stresa Front and Germany now violates yet another term of the Treaty of Versailles. Britain went against her Stresa Front allies and it was this that angered them.
The Rhineland was remilitrised by Hitler in 1936. In 1919, the Treaty of Versailles said that this region was to be demilitrised but as Hitler aimed to abolish this treaty he ordered his troops to reoccupy the region. France was rather upset about this move because she was afraid that Germany could invade her through the Rhineland which was right next to France. Both Britain and France were upset with this however Britain refused to support France in taking action against Hitler for this and France was reluctant to do so without Britain.
The Spanish Civil War erupted in 1936 and lasted till 1939. Here, Hitler won over the support of Mussolini when he joined him (Mussolini) in sending troops to aid the Nationalists in Spain in a revolution against the Communists who supported a Republican Government. Hitler hated Communism and as a result used this as an avenue to fight off Communism but more importantly to test out the strength of his new and improved army. Britain and France were unenthusiastic about getting involved. In 1937, Germany’s air force devastated Spanish Cities through bombing raids. The world looked on horrified at the mass destruction at the hands of Germany.
Between 1936 and 1937, an Anti – Communist Pact was formed called the Anti – Comintern Pact. It aimed at limiting the spread of Communism around the world but was mostly centered against the USSR. In this pact, Hitler and Japan agreed to work together against Communism and Comintern which was the Soviet agency that was spreading Communism globally. Mussolini, the Italian leader saw that Spain and Germany had a lot in common militarily and so he joined as well. Hitler now had two powerful allies against the USSR. This stirred up problems since aggression had now reached a new height between the Pact members and the USSR.
In March 1938, Anschluss (union) occurred with Austria. Hitler was motivated by his successes in 1936 and 1937. In Hitler’s publication while he was in jail, ‘Mein Kampf’ (in English it means ‘My Struggle’) he expressed his love for Austria, his homeland and stated that he wanted to united Austria and Germany. Hitler felt the time was just right to unite the two. He had tried previously in 1934, but he was unsuccessful (because Mussolini prevented it, but now, the two wee allies). An election was held in Austria where people voted either to be united with Germany or to remain independent. 99% of the Austrian population voted to unite with Germany. However, historians have questioned the legitimacy of this since it has been popularly felt that the Austrian people were forced to vote in such a manner. Hitler’s troops had been present all over Austria on election day and armed. Some feel they Austrian were afraid to vote against Hitler. However, despite this, Hitler was able to again defy the Treaty of Versailles since union between the two had been forbidden. Hitler’s achievement here concluded in his mind that the allies were weak and were afraid of him.
Hitler’s achievement of Anschluss with Austria led him to push harder to unite all German people across Europe. His next move triggered the Sudetenland Crisis. Shortly after Germany and Austria were united, Hitler annexed the Sudetenland from Czechoslovakia. The crisis emerged when he then began to invade the entire of Czechoslovakia. The allied powers did nothing. As this democratic country who had been assured of her safety by the allied powers was being invaded, it portrayed the extreme failure of the policy of appeasement and the realisation that Hitler could not be trusted.
Another aspect of Hitler’s foreign policy was the Nazi – Soviet Pact of 1939. This was basically an agreement between USSR (Russia) and Germany to not invade each other. The reason for this pact was the fact that Hitler was trying to reclaim all land that the Treaty of Versailles took away. He wanted to take back the Polish Corridor. He knew that Britain and France would not do anything if he invaded, but he was not sure about USSR. As such, he took precautions. He presented the idea of this pact to Stalin of the USSR. The agreement entailed that the two (Germany and USSR) would attack Poland together. When they conquered Poland, they would ration out the land between each other. Stalin agreed and in the later part of 1939 they invaded Poland and conquered her quite easily. This Pact ended all possible cooperation (for the time being) between Britain and France with USSR.
All these things that Hitler did paved the way for the collapse of International Peace and thus the start of yet another World War. Each of these things discussed here lead to hostility between nations.
The Second World War broke out shortly after USSR and Germany invaded Poland. This invasion did not go down well with Britain and France and can be said to be the ‘breaking point’ for them. The two declared war of Germany in September 1939. Hitler had not expected this. He felt that both Britain and France were afraid of him and thus would not retaliate. But the two were very much astonished and ashamed that they allowed Hitler to undermine all the terms of the Treaty of Versailles. They declared war to prove they were not weak and to try to make up for their failure in dealing with Hitler.
It is important to note though, that Hitler did intend to cause another World War but he expected that to happen two years later.
In 1939, international peace collapsed leading to the outbreak of yet another World War which became known simply as World War II. There was much tension, rivalry and aggression following the end of World War I and the Treaty of Versailles. Germany, Italy and Japan created much debacle when they began remilitarisation.
The Causes
The peace treaties of 1919 - 1923 left behind with them extreme consequences. The first of these consequences was that of German anger towards the treaties. They were mainly angry with the Treaty of Versailles. In 1920, they termed it as a "Diktat" which in English mean "Dictated peace". They were annoyed at the lost of so much territory in both Europe and in Africa. They lost their resources as 74% of their iron ore production and 26% of their coal production was taken away. The Rhineland and Saar regions were demilitrised and occupied by foreign nations. They could not have a union with their closest ally, Austria. They had to disarm on a large scale while other countries barely did and they had to pay a reparation fee of £6600 million. However, what made them most annoyed was the fact that they had to accept full responsibility for the war through Article 231 better known as the "War Guilt Clause".
There were a lot of resentments to the Treaty of Versailles and when Hitler came to office, he set out to break all the terms of the treaty. He felt it was unjust and he hated the Germans who signed it terming them the "November Criminals". He aimed to expand the German territory and was in favor of a union with his homeland, Austria. He wanted to attain German minorities in other countries such as Czechoslovakia and to shape out an empire in Eastern Europe to gain more living space for his people. Hitler wanted to abandon Communism all together. Hitler's aims would ultimately result in resentment by the British and French.
The League of Nations, which was created in 1920 as a term of the Treaty of Versailles was supposed to preserve global peace. However, in the 1930's it failed to do so. As a result of its failure, leaders such as Adolf Hitler became bolder as he realised he could take advantage of the League. He began to violate the terms of the Treaty of Versailles. One such thing was that he remilitrised the Rhineland which as a previously demilitrised zone under the Treaty of Versailles.
As the League failed, the members began losing faith and Britain and France began to rearm. One of the Treaty of Versailles' terms was for the complete disarmament however only Germany did so. In the 1930's Britain and France in addition to its rearmament began pursuing their own policies. One such policy was that of appeasement. This policy was aimed to prevent aggressors from starting wars. This was signed by Germany in 1935.
In Britain, there were arguments that sided with the appeasement policy and there were some that were against it. The appeasement policy was seen by some as a good decision since the Japanese were threatening Britain for British colonies in the east. Britain could not afford to fight Japan on the east and in the event of rivalry with Germany, a war in the west. The appeasement policy was therefore seen to be a means of preserving peace with Germany. In addition, Britain's military was not strong enough to part-take in a major war and therefore could not risk going to war in two different places. The appeasement policy would give Britain time to rearm. Britain did not have the support of USA since she did not want to become too inter-twined in European affairs. Probably, the most important of all arguments that sided with the policy was the fact that it would be good for Britain to appease Germany since the Treaty of Versailles was very much harsh on Germany and this would be a means of sympathizing.
The policy also carried with it arguments that it was not a good take. Such of this nature include that fact that aggressors do not have final demands meaning that they will not stop demanding. Britain would therefore have to keep giving if they wanted to be on good terms with Germany. This also meant that with Britain and France giving into Germany, she (Germany) could once again become powerful thereby becoming a threat to the British Empire.
The policy was still signed into agreement despite the negatives. With time, it proved fruitless. The policy failed! The critics who went against the policy and said, "aggressors do not have final demands" were correct. Hitler's aim was to unite majority of the German speaking peoples of the Sudetenland into Germany. The Sudetenland was a part of the democratic republic of Czechoslovakia. Both Britain and France were happy about the creation of Czechoslovakia but yet they gave part of it to Hitler.
Hitler began to break up Czechoslovakia when he demanded the whole of the Sudetenland. This demand led to the Munich Conference on September 29th and 30th of 1938 where only Britain, France, Italy and of course Germany were present. This conference was aimed at giving Hitler his demand of Sudetenland. Although this region (Sudetenland) was a part of Czechoslovakia, she was not invited to the conference or even consulted. The Sudetenland was transferred into Germany's Empire.
Czechoslovakia was abandoned by her allies and was severely weakened as she lost her resources. Stalin of the USSR lost faith in Britain and France. In March of 1939, Hitler invaded in remainder of Czechoslovakia called Bohemia-Moravia.
The policy of appeasement came to an end with this invasion which proved that Hitler could not be trusted. Britain and France began to quickly rearm and Poland was assured that she would be backed by both Britain and France as they believed that Poland would be Hitler's next target.
Cooperation failed on a drastic note in the 1930's. This was as a result of the Great Depression which led to the collapse of international trade, the closure of banks, factories and businesses, mass unemployment, economic rivalry and poverty. USA demanded the return of her money that she loaned to Germany, Britain and France as part of the Dawes Plan which ultimately resulted in aggression of nations towards USA. Additionally, Germany, Italy and Japan became aggressive towards other nations tried to take land and resources and increase national pride.
Dictators began to rise globally and people started to blame their governments for poverty and lack of jobs and they began to give their support to people, many of which were dictators that were offering them what they wanted. By 1929, over 20 countries globally became dictatorships.
In the early 1930's, Hitler began to pursue many foreign policies. These policies played a huge role in international peace breaking up. In 1933, Hitler increased the army by approximately 300,000. The Versailles Treaty said that the Germany army could only have 100, 000 soldiers. Hitler also rearmed with was against the treaty and he developed an air academy to train pilots and built over 1000 aircrafts. All this was against the treaty of Versailles however the League of Nations did absolutely nothing, Hitler’s actions here angered the League though and Britain and France.
The Saar Land was a part of Germany prior to the termination of World War I. With the signing of the Treaty of Versailles, it was handed over to and ran by the League of Nations. In 1935, as the League promised Hitler, a plebiscite occurred. The people declared as the votes showed that they favored to be under German rule. This was an awe-inspiring success for Hitler as roughly 90% of the Saar land region's people voted to be ran by Germany. This increased Hitler's confidence.
In 1936 as well, Hitler reintroduced conscription which was banned by the Versailles Treaty. Due to the reintroduction, they army was boosted from 300,000 in 1933 to 550,000 in 1936. This resulted in Britain, France and Italy forming the Stresa Front. The Stresa Front mainly condemned Germany and their recent actions of rearmament and the reintroduction of conscription. In 1936, majority of the European powers were united against Germany but this nature changed a few months after the Anglo-German Naval Treaty was introduced. This treaty was actually an agreement that prescribed that Germany could have a fleet that can be smaller than Britain's but if Germany desired; they could have as many submarines as Britain. This agreement totally overthrew the Stresa Front and Germany now violates yet another term of the Treaty of Versailles. Britain went against her Stresa Front allies and it was this that angered them.
The Rhineland was remilitrised by Hitler in 1936. In 1919, the Treaty of Versailles said that this region was to be demilitrised but as Hitler aimed to abolish this treaty he ordered his troops to reoccupy the region. France was rather upset about this move because she was afraid that Germany could invade her through the Rhineland which was right next to France. Both Britain and France were upset with this however Britain refused to support France in taking action against Hitler for this and France was reluctant to do so without Britain.
The Spanish Civil War erupted in 1936 and lasted till 1939. Here, Hitler won over the support of Mussolini when he joined him (Mussolini) in sending troops to aid the Nationalists in Spain in a revolution against the Communists who supported a Republican Government. Hitler hated Communism and as a result used this as an avenue to fight off Communism but more importantly to test out the strength of his new and improved army. Britain and France were unenthusiastic about getting involved. In 1937, Germany’s air force devastated Spanish Cities through bombing raids. The world looked on horrified at the mass destruction at the hands of Germany.
Between 1936 and 1937, an Anti – Communist Pact was formed called the Anti – Comintern Pact. It aimed at limiting the spread of Communism around the world but was mostly centered against the USSR. In this pact, Hitler and Japan agreed to work together against Communism and Comintern which was the Soviet agency that was spreading Communism globally. Mussolini, the Italian leader saw that Spain and Germany had a lot in common militarily and so he joined as well. Hitler now had two powerful allies against the USSR. This stirred up problems since aggression had now reached a new height between the Pact members and the USSR.
In March 1938, Anschluss (union) occurred with Austria. Hitler was motivated by his successes in 1936 and 1937. In Hitler’s publication while he was in jail, ‘Mein Kampf’ (in English it means ‘My Struggle’) he expressed his love for Austria, his homeland and stated that he wanted to united Austria and Germany. Hitler felt the time was just right to unite the two. He had tried previously in 1934, but he was unsuccessful (because Mussolini prevented it, but now, the two wee allies). An election was held in Austria where people voted either to be united with Germany or to remain independent. 99% of the Austrian population voted to unite with Germany. However, historians have questioned the legitimacy of this since it has been popularly felt that the Austrian people were forced to vote in such a manner. Hitler’s troops had been present all over Austria on election day and armed. Some feel they Austrian were afraid to vote against Hitler. However, despite this, Hitler was able to again defy the Treaty of Versailles since union between the two had been forbidden. Hitler’s achievement here concluded in his mind that the allies were weak and were afraid of him.
Hitler’s achievement of Anschluss with Austria led him to push harder to unite all German people across Europe. His next move triggered the Sudetenland Crisis. Shortly after Germany and Austria were united, Hitler annexed the Sudetenland from Czechoslovakia. The crisis emerged when he then began to invade the entire of Czechoslovakia. The allied powers did nothing. As this democratic country who had been assured of her safety by the allied powers was being invaded, it portrayed the extreme failure of the policy of appeasement and the realisation that Hitler could not be trusted.
Another aspect of Hitler’s foreign policy was the Nazi – Soviet Pact of 1939. This was basically an agreement between USSR (Russia) and Germany to not invade each other. The reason for this pact was the fact that Hitler was trying to reclaim all land that the Treaty of Versailles took away. He wanted to take back the Polish Corridor. He knew that Britain and France would not do anything if he invaded, but he was not sure about USSR. As such, he took precautions. He presented the idea of this pact to Stalin of the USSR. The agreement entailed that the two (Germany and USSR) would attack Poland together. When they conquered Poland, they would ration out the land between each other. Stalin agreed and in the later part of 1939 they invaded Poland and conquered her quite easily. This Pact ended all possible cooperation (for the time being) between Britain and France with USSR.
All these things that Hitler did paved the way for the collapse of International Peace and thus the start of yet another World War. Each of these things discussed here lead to hostility between nations.
The Second World War broke out shortly after USSR and Germany invaded Poland. This invasion did not go down well with Britain and France and can be said to be the ‘breaking point’ for them. The two declared war of Germany in September 1939. Hitler had not expected this. He felt that both Britain and France were afraid of him and thus would not retaliate. But the two were very much astonished and ashamed that they allowed Hitler to undermine all the terms of the Treaty of Versailles. They declared war to prove they were not weak and to try to make up for their failure in dealing with Hitler.
It is important to note though, that Hitler did intend to cause another World War but he expected that to happen two years later.