Z+SUMMARY+NOTES+ORIGIN+WWII

**INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS: ORIGINS OF WORLD WAR 11, 1919-1941**  Youtube summary - very good

[|The 1930s review]

**[|Revision Flash cards 1920s]**     History =International co-operation and conflict 1930s to 1960s=

> **[|Revise][| Road to World War Two] ** > **[|Activity][| on Road to World War Two] ** > **[|Revise][| German aggression] ** > **[|Activity][| on German aggression] ** > **[|Test][| yourself on German aggression] ** > **[|Revise][| Munich and appeasement] ** > **[|Test][| yourself on Munich and appeasement] ** > **[|Revise][| Outbreak of World War Two] ** > **[|Test][| yourself on Outbreak of World War Two] ** <span style="display: block; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 9pt; margin-right: 30.75pt; text-align: justify;"> <span style="display: block; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 9pt; margin-right: 30.75pt; text-align: justify;"> **The road to war** <span style="display: block; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 9pt; margin-right: 30.75pt; text-align: justify;">**Fascist foreign policy in Europe and the reactions of the democratic powers.**
 * ===Road to World War Two===
 * ===**German aggression**===
 * ===**Munich and appeasement**===
 * ===**Outbreak of World War Two**===

> **[|Revise]<span class="bs_rb_revisehide">[| Appeasement] ** > ** [|Test]<span class="bs_rb_testhide">[| yourself on Appeasement] ** > **[|Revise]<span class="bs_rb_revisehide">[| Rhineland] ** > **[|Revise]<span class="bs_rb_revisehide">[| Anschluss] ** > **[|Revise]<span class="bs_rb_revisehide">[| The Spanish Civil War] ** > **[|Revise]<span class="bs_rb_revisehide">[| Munich] **
 * ===**Appeasement**===
 * ===**Rhineland**===
 * [|Test]<span class="bs_rb_testhide">[| yourself on Rhineland] **
 * ===**Anschluss**===
 * [|Test]<span class="bs_rb_testhide">[| yourself on Anschluss] **
 * ===**The Spanish Civil War**===
 * [|Test]<span class="bs_rb_testhide">[| yourself on The Spanish Civil War] **
 * ===**Munich**===
 * [|Test]<span class="bs_rb_testhide">[| yourself on Munich] **

**SUMMARY NOTES**

**THE END OF WORLD WAR I** <span style="display: block; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 9pt; margin-right: 30.75pt; text-align: justify;">**On 11 November 1918, after Austria-Hungary, Bulgaria and Turkey had surrendered, Germany, with her army still in the field signed an armistice based on a generous 14-point peace programme formulated by President Wilson of the USA.** <span style="display: block; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 9pt; margin-right: 30.75pt; text-align: justify;">**It was to be the job of the peace makers to restore political stability to Europe, but because the Great Powers were unable to agree on how to achieve this object, the world after 20 years of shaky peace was, in 1939, once more plunged into a global war.** THE VERSAILLES PEACE CONFERENCE <span style="display: block; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 9pt; margin-right: 30.75pt; text-align: justify;">**Although all the victorious powers were represented at the conference, the actual decisions were made by the representatives of the three great allied powers - Great Britain, France and the USA. Representatives of the defeated powers were neither admitted to the conference nor were they. consulted. This exclusion was to provide the foundation for the future German claim that the treaty was dictated and therefore lacking in natural justice.** Leading Statesmen <span style="display: block; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 9pt; margin-right: 30.75pt; text-align: justify;">**President Wilson (USA) wanted, as a first step in building a new world order, to negotiate a fair and generous peace based on his Fourteen Points. The most important of these were: open diplomacy, freedom of the seas, disarmament, freedom of trade, acceptance of the principle of national self-determination, and the setting up of a League of Nations to act as the guardian of world peace.**

<span style="display: block; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 9pt; margin-right: 30.75pt; text-align: justify;">**Clemenceau (France) wanted a settlement which would ensure French security by permanently weakening Germany.** <span style="display: block; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 9pt; margin-right: 30.75pt; text-align: justify;">**Lloyd George (Britain) took an intermediate position between the idealism of Wilson, which lie believed would be in the long term interests of Britain, and the revengeful policy of Clemenceau. His desire was for a just peace, but his wish was frustrated by public opinion which demanded that Germany be squeezed 'until the pips squeak'.** The Treaty of Versailles

<span style="display: block; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 9pt; margin-right: 30.75pt; text-align: justify;">**This treaty was imposed on Germany by the Allies - a dictated treaty or Diktat. The main terms were:**

<span style="display: block; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 9pt; margin-right: 30.75pt; text-align: justify;">**1. Alsace-Lorraine was returned to France.** <span style="display: block; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 9pt; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 28.5pt; margin-right: 30.75pt; margin-top: 0cm; text-align: justify; text-indent: -28.5pt;">**2. The Saar was placed under international control for 15 years, and its rich coal mines handed over** **to France.** <span style="display: block; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 9pt; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 28.5pt; margin-right: 30.75pt; margin-top: 0cm; text-align: justify; text-indent: -28.5pt;">**3. Germany was forbidden to fortify the Rhineland, and was required to accept an army of** **occupation in the area for 15 years.** <span style="display: block; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 9pt; margin-right: 30.75pt; text-align: justify;">**4. The heavily industrialised part of Silesia was handed over to Poland.** <span style="display: block; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 9pt; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 28.5pt; margin-right: 30.75pt; margin-top: 0cm; text-align: justify; text-indent: -28.5pt;">**4. Posen also went to Poland, giving it access to the sea, but East Prussia was divided from the rest** **of Germany.** <span style="display: block; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 9pt; margin-right: 30.75pt; text-align: justify;">**6. Schleswig was returned to Denmark.** <span style="display: block; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 9pt; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 28.5pt; margin-right: 30.75pt; margin-top: 0cm; text-align: justify; text-indent: -28.5pt;">**7. The German frontier with Czechoslovakia was so drawn as to include in Czechoslovakia the Sudetenland with its three million Germans.** <span style="display: block; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 9pt; margin-right: 30.75pt; text-align: justify;">**8. Germany was stripped of all her colonies.** <span style="display: block; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 9pt; margin-right: 30.75pt; text-align: justify;">**9. The union of Austria and Germany was forbidden.** <span style="display: block; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 9pt; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 28.5pt; margin-right: 30.75pt; margin-top: 0cm; text-align: justify; text-indent: -28.5pt;">**10. Germany was forbidden an airforce, her army was limited to 100 000, and her navy to a handful** **of ships.** <span style="display: block; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 9pt; margin-right: 30.75pt; text-align: justify;">**10. The war guilt clause forced Germany to accept responsibility for the war.** <span style="display: block; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 9pt; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 28.5pt; margin-right: 30.75pt; margin-top: 0cm; text-align: justify; text-indent: -28.5pt;">**11. The reparations clause required her to pay the huge sum of £6600 million to repair the damage** **done to the civilian populations of the Allied Powers.** German Resentment of the Treaty

<span style="display: block; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 9pt; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 28.5pt; margin-right: 30.75pt; margin-top: 0cm; text-align: justify; text-indent: -28.5pt;">**1. Germany resented the harsh terms of the Versailles Diktat which forced her to accept a position** **of humiliating inequality in the community of nations. inner was later to exploit this lasting** **bitterness in his successful rise to power.**

<span style="display: block; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 9pt; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 28.5pt; margin-right: 30.75pt; margin-top: 0cm; text-align: justify; text-indent: -28.5pt;">**2. The settlement rejected the generous spirit of the Fourteen Points of which Germany believed** **that the peace would be negotiated.**

<span style="display: block; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 9pt; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 28.5pt; margin-right: 30.75pt; margin-top: 0cm; text-align: justify; text-indent: -28.5pt;">**3. The placing of some seven million Germans (about 10 per cent of her total population) under** **foreign rule ignored the Allied promise to support the principle of national determination, and** **provided a powerful motive for future German aggression.**

**Nevertheless, the economic resources of Germany were not seriously diminished and she remained potentially powerful.**

THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS

<span style="display: block; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 9pt; margin-right: 30.75pt; text-align: justify;">**The League was an attempt to preserve world peace through collective security.** The Covenant of the League

<span style="display: block; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 9pt; margin-right: 30.75pt; text-align: justify;">**This was built into each of the peace treaties. It bound all members to:** <span style="display: block; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 9pt; margin-right: 30.75pt; text-align: justify;">**1. Accept settlement of disputes by arbitration and not resort to war.** <span style="display: block; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 9pt; margin-right: 30.75pt; text-align: justify;">**2. Accept the rules of international law.** <span style="display: block; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 9pt; margin-right: 30.75pt; text-align: justify;">**3. Accept the principle of disarmament.** <span style="display: block; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 9pt; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 28.5pt; margin-right: 30.75pt; margin-top: 0cm; text-align: justify; text-indent: -28.5pt;">**4. Apply economic or military sanctions against member nations which broke their obligations, if** **called upon by the Council or the League to do so.**

Reasons for the Failure of the League

<span style="display: block; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 9pt; margin-right: 30.75pt; text-align: justify;">**1. Of the Great Powers, only Britain and France were members throughout its existence. Germany** **was admitted in 1926, but withdrew in 1933. Russia was expelled in 1939, Japan withdrew in** **1935 and Italy in 1936. The USA was never a member.**

<span style="display: block; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 9pt; margin-right: 30.75pt; text-align: justify;">**2. Success required the full co-operation or all the major powers but this was not forthcoming.** <span style="display: block; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 9pt; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 28.5pt; margin-right: 30.75pt; margin-top: 0cm; text-align: justify; text-indent: -28.5pt;">**3. The League had no independent army to enforce its decisions. As a result, the Great Powers** **merely ignored the League's recommendations if these did not coincide with their national** **interests.**

FRENCH POLICIES TO SECURE THE PEACE

<span style="display: block; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 9pt; margin-right: 30.75pt; text-align: justify;">**These sought to protect France against the possibility of a future German revival.** Enforce the Treaty of Versailles **France remained insistent that Germany be denied the right to rearm and that she be required to pay her reparations bill in full.**

Build a system of defensive alliances <span style="display: block; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 9pt; margin-right: 30.75pt; text-align: justify;">**In 1920 France made an alliance with Belgium, in 1921 with Poland, in 1924 with Czechoslovakia, in 1926 with Rumania, in 1927 with Yugoslavia and in 1935 with Russia. These treaties led to the German complaint that she was being encircled to maintain the Versailles Diktat.** Support the Little Entente <span style="display: block; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 9pt; margin-right: 30.75pt; text-align: justify;">**Czechoslovakia, Rumania and Yugoslavia had agreed to act together to prevent Germany, Hungary and the USSR from regaining territories lost in 1919.** Seek security within the League of Nations <span style="display: block; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 9pt; margin-right: 30.75pt; text-align: justify;">**France sponsored two proposals both of which failed because Britain refused its support.** <span style="display: block; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 9pt; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 28.5pt; margin-right: 30.75pt; margin-top: 0cm; text-align: justify; text-indent: -28.5pt;">**1. //Draft Treay of Mutual Assistance, 1923,// which required all members to support any member** **declared by the League to be a victim of aggression.**

<span style="display: block; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 9pt; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 28.5pt; margin-right: 30.75pt; margin-top: 0cm; text-align: justify; text-indent: -28.5pt;">**2. //Geneva Protocol, 1924,// which defined an aggressor as one which refused to submit disputes to** **the League.**

Seek security through defence

<span style="display: block; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 9pt; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 28.5pt; margin-right: 30.75pt; margin-top: 0cm; text-align: justify; text-indent: -28.5pt;">**1. France accepted the Locarno Agreement, 1925, which guaranteed the frontiers of France and**

<span style="display: block; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 9pt; margin-right: 30.75pt; text-align: justify;">**Belgium.**

<span style="display: block; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 9pt; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 28.5pt; margin-right: 30.75pt; margin-top: 0cm; text-align: justify; text-indent: -28.5pt;">**2. France refused to disarm and in 1930, after her evacuation of the Rhineland began building the**

<span style="display: block; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 9pt; margin-right: 30.75pt; text-align: justify;">**defensive Maginot Line along the Franco-German border.**

BRITISH POLICIES TO SECURE THE PEACE

<span style="display: block; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 9pt; margin-right: 30.75pt; text-align: justify;">**These were based on conciliation - the belief that no permanent peace could be won without German goodwill.**

Rejection of French demands against Germany

<span style="display: block; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 9pt; margin-right: 30.75pt; text-align: justify;">**Britain resisted the French demand for permanent possession of the Rhineland. Britain also rejected the Draft Treaty and the Geneva Protocol which sought long-term support for France against Germany.**

Support for German rehabilitation

<span style="display: block; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 9pt; margin-right: 30.75pt; text-align: justify;">**Britain welcomed the Dawes Plan, 1924, which aimed to case the pressure of German reparation payments. She also supported the admission of Germany to the League of Nations in 1920.**

Locarno Treaty, 1925

<span style="display: block; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 9pt; margin-right: 30.75pt; text-align: justify;">**This treaty, the result of British initiative, bound Britain, Germany, France, Belgium and Italy to guarantee the frontiers of France and Belgium. The signatories agreed to seek peaceful solutions to their future differences.**

US POLICIES TO SECURE THE PEACE

<span style="display: block; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 9pt; margin-right: 30.75pt; text-align: justify;">**The US refused to get involved in European affairs. She declined membership of the League and retreated into isolationism. Her e main concern was to reduce tensions in the Far East, so that she could pursue her economic goals in that area. The US feared that Japanese expansion into China and Siberia would threaten her open door trading policy with regard to China. Japan, in turn, resented the discriminatory US immigration policy.**

The Washington Conference, 1921-22

<span style="display: block; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 9pt; margin-right: 30.75pt; text-align: justify;">**Japan withdrew from Siberia and accepted the open door policy for China. Japan also agreed to accept third rank as a Pacific naval power after the US and Britain. These concessions were unpopular in Japan, and led to increasing support for military solutions to Japanese foreign policy problems.**

THE GERMAN FINANCIAL CRISIS OF 1923

<span style="display: block; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 9pt; margin-right: 30.75pt; text-align: justify;">**Germany, unable to meet the heavy burden of reparations payments to France, defaulted. Poincare, the French premier and a bitter opponent of Germany, used this excuse to occupy the Ruhr which produced the bulk of German coal and iron. Backed by the German government, the workers in the Ruhr struck. France responded by using French and Belgian workers to take control of industrial production, using the proceeds to offset the defaulted reparations payments. These events triggered a collapse of' the German currency (during 1923 the rate of inflation was over 4 000 000 million per cent) and widespread economic hardship which Hitler was to exploit later in his successful attempt to destroy the German Democratic Republic.**

THE FRANCO-GERMAN 'RECONCILIATION', 1924-29

<span style="display: block; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 9pt; margin-right: 30.75pt; text-align: justify;">**In 1924 new governments were elected in both Germany and France. The new French foreign minister, Briand, was prepared to take a somewhat softer line than Poincare in the hope of reconciling Germany to the Treaty. Stresemann, the new German chancellor, adopted a policy of fulfilment which sought to secure the goodwill of the allied powers by meeting in full the Treaty demands put upon her. He introduced a new, stable currency based on gold, and promised to negotiate the resumption of reparations payments. In return, France and Belgium withdrew their troops from the Ruhr.**

The Dawes Plan for reparations, 1924

<span style="display: block; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 9pt; margin-right: 30.75pt; text-align: justify;">**Although the plan allowed for no reduction in the total amount owed, yearly payments were reduced and American loans were raised to get German industries operating again. Much of this American money was moved to the Allies as reparations and was, in turn, passed back to the USA in payment for war debts - the money-go-round. In the friendlier atmosphere that prevailed, Germany was admitted to the League of Nations and France, at Locarno, was given a German guarantee of her eastern frontier. In 1929, the Young Plan reduced tile total amount to be paid in reparations and, as an indication that the reparation issue was considered settled, the Allies withdrew their troops from the Rhineland.**

The Kellogg-Briand Pact (Pact of Paris), 1928

<span style="display: block; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 9pt; margin-right: 30.75pt; text-align: justify;">**This agreement represented the peak of optimism for peace during the inter-war years. Sixty-five nations, including all the Great Powers and Russia, agreed to renounce war except in self-defence. However, the pact contained no guarantees of action if any country broke it, and the failure to closely define 'self-defence' was an obvious loophole.**

THE WORLD ECONOMIC CRISIS, 1929-33

<span style="display: block; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 9pt; margin-right: 30.75pt; text-align: justify;">**The 1929 economic collapse in the USA, which rapidly spread to all countries, destroyed the political stability which had been achieved during the 1920s. Governments tried to protect their economies by adopting policies of economic rationalism such as:**

<span style="display: block; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 9pt; margin-right: 30.75pt; text-align: justify;">**1. Restricting foreign imports by introducing quotas and levying high import duties.**

<span style="display: block; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 9pt; margin-right: 30.75pt; text-align: justify;">**2. Dumping (selling below cost) exports on world markets to undercut competitors.**

<span style="display: block; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 9pt; margin-right: 30.75pt; text-align: justify;">**3. Devaluing currency to secure a trade advantage.**

<span style="display: block; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 9pt; margin-right: 30.75pt; text-align: justify;">**The World Economic Conference which met in June 1933 failed to reach an agreement on the twin problems of reducing tariff barriers and stabilising currencies, and the chance to restore order was gone. Six months earlier Hitler had already become Chancellor of Germany.**

THE EMERGENCE OF DICTATORIAL GOVERNMENTS

<span style="display: block; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 9pt; margin-right: 30.75pt; text-align: justify;">**In order to cope with the economic breakdown, many countries granted strong powers to their elected governments or gave support to dictatorships created by force.**

<span style="display: block; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 9pt; margin-right: 30.75pt; text-align: justify;">**In Germany, the Nazi party rode to power on a wave of popular discontent engendered by the nation's severe social and economic problems and the political instability of the Weimar Republic which they brought in their train. Hitler's promise to restore prosperity won for him the support of those hit by the great depression but who rejected the Communist alternative solution. His promise to reject the Versailles Diktat and to recover Germany's 'lost' territories appealed to all German patriots. Middle-class business interests anticipated bigger profits from his plans for re-building and re-arming Germany, while his virulent anti-Semitism served as a rallying point for a large section of the population happy to accept a convenient scapegoat for the woes of the Fatherland.**

<span style="display: block; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 9pt; margin-right: 30.75pt; text-align: justify;">**In Italy, Mussolini headed a Fascist dictatorship; in the USSR, Stalin consolidated his Communistic dictatorship; and in Japan, government came under the control of the militarists. These dictatorships, in order to retain popular support, came under intense pressure to demonstrate their effectiveness. The means commonly adopted was by territorial expansion. This pressure led them to reject diplomacy in favour of force.**

NAZI GERMANY ADOPTS POLICIES OF AGGRESSION

<span style="display: block; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 9pt; margin-right: 30.75pt; text-align: justify;">**1. Total rejection of the Versailles Diktat.**

<span style="display: block; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 9pt; margin-right: 30.75pt; text-align: justify;">**2. Demand for German rearmament.**

<span style="display: block; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 9pt; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 28.5pt; margin-right: 30.75pt; margin-top: 0cm; text-align: justify; text-indent: -28.5pt;">**3. Demand for the union of all Germans into one state. This foreshadowed the future takeover by**

<span style="display: block; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 9pt; margin-right: 30.75pt; text-align: justify;">**Germany of Austria, the Sudetenland and the invasion of Poland.**

<span style="display: block; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 9pt; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 28.5pt; margin-right: 30.75pt; margin-top: 0cm; text-align: justify; text-indent: -28.5pt;">**4. Demand for Lebensraum (living space), which translated into a desire to rebuild the German**

<span style="display: block; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 9pt; margin-right: 30.75pt; text-align: justify;">**colonial empire and to expand into the Russian Ukraine.**

<span style="display: block; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 9pt; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 28.5pt; margin-right: 30.75pt; margin-top: 0cm; text-align: justify; text-indent: -28.5pt;">**5. Insistence on the superiority of the Aryan master-race (Herrenvolk) and its corollary, the**

<span style="display: block; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 9pt; margin-right: 30.75pt; text-align: justify;">**persecution of the Jews.**

<span style="display: block; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 9pt; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 28.5pt; margin-right: 30.75pt; margin-top: 0cm; text-align: justify; text-indent: -28.5pt;">**6. Opposition to communism. This policy won support from many people who disliked other aspects**

<span style="display: block; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 9pt; margin-right: 30.75pt; text-align: justify;">**of Nazi policies.**

AGGRESSION SUCCEEDS

The Manchurian Crisis, 1931-33

<span style="display: block; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 9pt; margin-right: 30.75pt; text-align: justify;">**Japan was hard hit by the onset of economic depression in the late 1920s. Deprived of her export markets, plagued with high levels of unemployment, and lacking in a wide range of industrial raw materials, Japan saw territorial expansion into a China weakened by civil war as an answer to her problems.**

<span style="display: block; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 9pt; margin-right: 30.75pt; text-align: justify;">**In defiance of the League of Nations, Japan invaded the coal and iron-rich Manchuria and set up the puppet state of Manchukuo. This event provided the first clear evidence of the inability of the League to preserve peace.**

Failure of the Geneva Disarmament Conference 1932-34

<span style="display: block; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 9pt; margin-right: 30.75pt; text-align: justify;">**When France refused to agree to the German demand for equality in armaments Hitler walked out of the Conference, withdrew from the League, and embarked on a policy or rapid rearmament in defiance of the Treaty of Versailles.**

<span style="display: block; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 9pt; margin-right: 30.75pt; text-align: justify;">**In January 1934, Hitler followed this up by signing a non-aggression pact with Poland to secure his eastern flank. France correctly interpreted this move as a further threat to her security.**

Failure of the Anti-German Stresa Front

<span style="display: block; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 9pt; margin-right: 30.75pt; text-align: justify;">**In 1934 Dolfuss, the Austrian Chancellor who was opposed to Anschluss (union) with Germany, -as assassinated by the Nazis as a prelude to a future German takeover of Austria. The attempt was thwarted by Mussolini who moved Italian troops to the Austrian frontier fearing that a German takeover would threaten Italian interests in the region.**

<span style="display: block; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 9pt; margin-right: 30.75pt; text-align: justify;">**In 1935, when Hitler announced his intention to re-arm, Britain, France and Italy met at Stresa and issued a joint statement protesting at the German flouting of the Versailles Treaty. The last demonstration of anti-German unity by former allies soon collapsed as a result of the Italian invasion of Abyssinia.**

The Abyssinia Crisis, 1935-36

<span style="display: block; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 9pt; margin-right: 30.75pt; text-align: justify;">**Mussolini, claiming that Abyssinia was threatening the security of Italian Somaliland, successfully invaded Abyssinia. When France and Britain vigorously opposed Italian aggression, Italy responded by deserting the Stresa Front. Hitler was able to exploit Italian resentment against France and Britain by persuading Mussolini that he had more to gain from co-operation with Germany in pursuing their common expansionist and anticommunist goals. The failure of the League to prevent Italian aggression or even to impose effective economic sanctions further weakened its credibility as a force for peace.**

Re-occupation of the Rhineland, March 1936

<span style="display: block; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 9pt; margin-right: 30.75pt; text-align: justify;">**Mussolini's success in Abyssinia encouraged Hitler to re-occupy the Rhineland in defiance of the Versailles and Locarno Treaties. This he did without any opposition from France, Britain or the League of Nations. His success convinced him that he had little to fear from the western democracies, and gave him the confidence to proceed with his plans to achieve European dominance by force.**

Formation of the Berlin-Rome Axis, October 1936

<span style="display: block; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 9pt; margin-right: 30.75pt; text-align: justify;">**At this stage, Mussolini moved openly into the German camp by withdrawing his opposition to Hitler's plan to swallow Austria and announcing that an axis joining Rome to Berlin had come into being around which the affairs of Europe would in future revolve. In 1937, this agreement was extended to include Japan in an Anti-Comintern Pact for mutual protection against Russia. The existence of a Berlin-Rome-Tokyo Axis gave Japan the confidence to launch her attack on China later in 1937.**

The Spanish Civil War, 1936-39

<span style="display: block; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 9pt; margin-right: 30.75pt; text-align: justify;">**In 1936, the Communist Popular Front party won control of the Spanish parliament. Conservative opponents in the army and church and from the large land-owning and capitalist classes supported an anti-Communist rebellion under the leadership of Franco. With the help of Germany and Italy, Franco defeated the Republican army, and set up his own Fascist dictatorship in 1939. The German war-machine made good use of the civil war to perfect the blitzkrieg tactics which it was to use so successfully on the outbreak of the full-scale European war in 1939.**

The China 'Incident', July 1937

<span style="display: block; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 9pt; margin-right: 30.75pt; text-align: justify;">**An exchange of gunfire between Japanese and Chinese troops at the Marco Polo Bridge near Beijing (Peking) was the prelude to the Japanese invasion of China. By the end of 1938, Japan controlled most of the Chinese coastline and her richest provinces.**

The union of Germany and Austria-Anschluss, 1939

<span style="display: block; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 9pt; margin-right: 30.75pt; text-align: justify;">**Following direct threats from Hitler, Chancellor Schushnigg of Austria who opposed union with Germany, was forced to resign. Now assured o Italian support, Hitler invaded Austria and, in defiance of Versailles, united the two countries under his rule.**

The Munich Agreement, 1938, and the Occupation of Czechoslovakia

<span style="display: block; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 9pt; margin-right: 30.75pt; text-align: justify;">**When Hitler threatened to invade the Czechoslovakian Sudetenland which had a large German minority, France and Britain, to appease Germany, bluntly told Czechoslovakia to give up the province. If she refused she would get no help from the West.**

<span style="display: block; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 9pt; margin-right: 30.75pt; text-align: justify;">**In September 1938 Hitler, Chamberlain, Daladier and Mussolini met in Munich and, without consulting Czechoslovakia, -agreed that the Sudetenland should be united with Germany. In return, Hitler gave a guarantee that he had no further territorial ambitions, and Chamberlain proceeded to claim 'peace in our time'. This claim was, however, proved false when in March 1939 Hitler dishonoured his guarantee and completed the occupation of Czechoslovakia.**

The Invasion of Poland, September 1939

<span style="display: block; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 9pt; margin-right: 30.75pt; text-align: justify;">**Britain and France, recognised at last that the policy of appeasement had failed to curb German aggression, decided -to take firm action. In March 1939, they issued a joint declaration that, in the event of an attack on Poland, both countries would come to her aid.**

<span style="display: block; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 9pt; margin-right: 30.75pt; text-align: justify;">**To further contain Germany, Britain and France sought to negotiate an anti-German pact with Russia, but because of distrust on both sides the negotiations failed. Hitler then took the opportunity to counter the Russian threat by signing in August a Non-Aggression Pact with Stalin. Stalin was persuaded to accept the pact by the inclusion of a secret clause which promised that a successful invasion of Poland would be followed by its division between Germany and the USSR. Now free from the danger of a combined attack from the East and West, Hitler invaded Poland on 1 September. Two weeks later Russia invaded Poland from the east.**

THE OUTBREAK OF WAR - AGGRESSION CHALLENGED

<span style="display: block; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 9pt; margin-right: 30.75pt; text-align: justify;">**On 3 September 1939, Britain and France declared war on Germany.**

Advantages of the Aggressors

<span style="display: block; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 9pt; margin-right: 30.75pt; text-align: justify;">**1. Superior German weapon technology, strength in the air and on the ground.**

<span style="display: block; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 9pt; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 28.5pt; margin-right: 30.75pt; margin-top: 0cm; text-align: justify; text-indent: -28.5pt;">**3. Mastery of blitzkrieg tactics - the use of mobile mechanised units to cut the enemies' lines of**

<span style="display: block; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 9pt; margin-right: 30.75pt; text-align: justify;">**supply and retreat.**

<span style="display: block; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 9pt; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 28.5pt; margin-right: 30.75pt; margin-top: 0cm; text-align: justify; text-indent: -28.5pt;">**4. Allied lack of preparedness. In 1939, Britain had only 4 divisions in the field against Germany's**

<span style="display: block; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 9pt; margin-right: 30.75pt; text-align: justify;">**125 divisions.**

<span style="display: block; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 9pt; margin-right: 30.75pt; text-align: justify;">**4. Extreme weakness of the Polish war-machine.**

<span style="display: block; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 9pt; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 28.5pt; margin-right: 30.75pt; margin-top: 0cm; text-align: justify; text-indent: -28.5pt;">**5. In the east, Japan had anticipated war by building a strong navy designed to win control in the**

<span style="display: block; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 9pt; margin-right: 30.75pt; text-align: justify;">**Pacific.**

The German conquest of Western Europe, 1939-40

<span style="display: block; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 9pt; margin-right: 30.75pt; text-align: justify;">**Following her blitzkrieg victory over Poland in the autumn of 1939, Germany turned her attention to the west, and in the spring of 1940 quickly defeated Denmark, Norway, Belgium, Holland and France using similar blitzkrieg tactics. The British Expeditionary Force was fortunate to make its escape to Britain from the beaches of Dunkirk.**

<span style="display: block; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 9pt; margin-right: 30.75pt; text-align: justify;">**At this point, Mussolini, sensing a quick German victory, brought Italy into the war against the Allies.**

The Battle of Britain, July-October 1940

<span style="display: block; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 9pt; margin-right: 30.75pt; text-align: justify;">**Hitler now prepared to invade Britain, now under the leadership of Churchill, but had to abandon his plan (Operation Sealion) when the Luftwaffe failed to win air supremacy over Britain.**

The German invasion of the USSR, June 1941

<span style="display: block; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 9pt; margin-right: 30.75pt; text-align: justify;">**Supreme in Western Europe, Hitler was now ready to take up his crusade against Communism. Operation Barbarossa aimed to secure for Greater Germany, lebensraum (living space), the granary of the Ukraine and the oilfields of the Caucasus. It committed Germany to a war which eventually broke her military power.**

The USA and Japan Enter the War, December 1941

<span style="display: block; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 9pt; margin-right: 30.75pt; text-align: justify;">**In March 1941 President Roosevelt indicated where his country's sympathies lay by the passage of the Lend-Lease Act by which the US supplied Britain and her allies with a flood of arms. In August he went further and, while still at peace, signed with Britain the Atlantic Charter which had as one of its objectives the destruction of Nazi tyranny.**

<span style="display: block; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 9pt; margin-right: 30.75pt; text-align: justify;">**In the meantime, Japan had taken advantage of the Allied preoccupation with the European war to occupy French Indo-China as a first step in her plan to become the paramount power in SE Asia. This plan, called the Greater East Asia Co-prosperity Sphere, aimed at bringing China and the whole of SE Asia under Japanese political and economic control.**

<span style="display: block; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 9pt; margin-right: 30.75pt; text-align: justify;">**The USA could not accept such a threat to its own power, and brought heavy economic pressure to bear on Japan to withdraw from China and Indo-China. This pressure included a boycott on the supply of oil and steel essential to the Japanese war-machine. Japan responded by attacking the American Pacific fleet at Pearl Harbour on 7 December 1941, thus bringing the USA into the war, which at this point became truly global in its scope.**

[|Song about League of Nations]**