War In Europe

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Chapter 6

• War In Europe

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Focuses

• Why did WWII break out in Europe in 1939?
• Hitlers Expansionist Foreign Policy
• Failure of the League of Nations in the 1930s
• Economic Problems of the 1930s
• Policy of Appeasement (Allied Powers)
• What were the immediate causes of WWII in Europe?
• Britain Ended the Policy of Appeasement
• The Nazi-Soviet Non-Aggression Pact
• Hitlers Invasion of Poland

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Hitlers Expansionist Foreign Policy

• Hitlers foreign policy aims
• To get rid of the Treaty of Versailles
• To make Germany strong again
• To get more land for Germany
• To create Greater Germany
• To create lebensraum (living space)
• To fight Communism

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Hitlers Expansionist Foreign Policy

• To get rid of the Treaty of Versailles
• Terms of the TOV were harsh and humiliating to
  Germany
• Kept Germany politically, militarily and
  economically weak
• Wanted to get rid of the TOV to make Germany
  strong again and to restore German pride

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Hitlers Expansionist Foreign Policy

• To get more land for Germany
• Wanted to take back all the land lost in the TOV
• Wanted to take away the surrounding territories
  with German-speaking populations
• Wanted to unite all the German-speaking people
  under Greater Germany

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Hitlers Expansionist Foreign Policy

• To get more land for Germany
• Germany would need more living space (lebensraum)
  for its growing population
• Living space lands east of Germany

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Hitlers Expansionist Foreign Policy

• To fight Communism
• Wanted to conquer Russia
• to get living space for the Germans
• to destroy Communism

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Hitlers Expansionist Foreign Policy

• 2. Hitlers actions
• Rearmament
• Remilitarisation of the Rhineland
• Anschluss

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Hitlers Expansionist Foreign Policy

• Rearmament
• 1932 Disarmament Conference
• Hitler demanded the right to build up Germanys
  army but was rejected
• Others countries also refused to disarm
• Germany withdrew from the Disarmament Conference
  and the League of Nations
• Increased the size of the army and weaponry
• Reintroduced military conscription
• But no action was taken against Germany

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Hitlers Expansionist Foreign Policy

• Remilitarisation of the Rhineland
• Placed German troops in the demilitarised zone of
  Rhineland
• But no action was taken against the German troops
  by France and Britain

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Hitlers Expansionist Foreign Policy

• Anschluss
• Hitler wanted a political union (Anschluss)
  between Germany and Austria
• Threatened to invade Austria if the Austrian
  Chancellor Kurt von Schuschnigg did not agree to
  Anschluss
• Schuschnigg planned a secret referendum to get
  the people to vote for independence
• In response, Hitler sent his troops to the
  Austrian border and ordered him to resign
• Anschluss was achieved but no action was taken
  against Germany

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Hitlers Expansionist Foreign Policy

• Hitlers foreign policy aims and his actions
  broke the terms of TOV ? but no actions taken
  against Germany by LON ? peace in Europe
  threatened

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Not all countries were members
No army of its own
Inherent Weaknesses

• The most prominent
• USA
• Russia

• Had to rely on the armies of
• member countries
• - Threat of economic
• sanctions not effective

Failure of the League of Nations in the 1930s
Events in the 1930s
Failure of Disarmament
Manchuria Crisis, 1931
Abyssinia Crisis, 1935
Germany withdrew from LON in 1933
Japan withdrew from LON in 1933
Italy withdrew from LON in 1937
These factors / events contributed to the failure
of the LON to maintain peace in the 1930s.
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Failure of the League of Nations

• Background
• Who were the members of the LON?
• Britain
• France
• Italy
• Japan
• China
• Germany
• What was the duty of the LON?

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Failure of the League of Nations

• Reasons for LONs failure in the 1930s
• Inherent weaknesses
• Failed to deal with aggressors
• The Manchuria Crisis, 1931 (Chapter 7)
• The Abyssinia Crisis, 1935
• Failed to get countries to disarm

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Failure of the League of Nations

• Inherent Weaknesses
• Absence of the USA as a member
• Members put their own interests first over
  collective security
• No army of its own
• Inability to stop acts of aggression by major
  powers
• Failure to treat all its members with equal
  respect

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Failure of the League of Nations

• The Abyssinia Crisis, 1935

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Failure of the League of Nations

• The Abyssinia Crisis, 1935
• Benito Mussolini, dictator of Italy, invaded
  Abyssinia (Ethiopia)
• Revenge for a previous defeat
• Natural resources
• Emperor of Abyssinia, Haile Selassie, appealed to
  the LON for help

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Failure of the League of Nations

• The Abyssinia Crisis, 1935
• LONs response imposed economic sanctions on
  Italy
• But did not include coal, oil, iron and steel
• Some LON members continued trading with Italy
• Alternatively, Britain could prevent Italy from
  using the Suez Canal to ship supplies to
  Abyssinia
• But did not do so to avoid a war with Italy

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Failure of the League of Nations
The Abyssinia Crisis, 1935

• Solution the Hoare-Laval Plan
• Britain and France secretly agreed to give
  Mussolini two-thirds of Abyssinia if he withdrew
  his troops

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Failure of the League of Nations

• The Abyssinia Crisis, 1935
• But the Hoare-Laval Plan was abandoned due to
  public protest in Britain and France
• Italy occupied Abyssinia in 1936 and left the LON
  in 1937
• Significance the crisis showed that the LON had
  failed to use collective security to protect
  countries from aggression by major powers

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• The source is a German cartoon from a magazine,
  1936. The warrior is delivering a message to the
  League of Nations I am sorry to disturb your
  sleep but I just wanted to tell you that you
  should no longer bother yourselves about this
  Abyssinian business. The matter has been settled
  elsewhere.
• Italy is portrayed as a tall and strong warrior.
• How is the LON being portrayed? Why is it so?

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Failure of the League of Nations

• Failure of Disarmament
• Disarmament Conference in Geneva, 1932
• Germany was unhappy that only it had been
  disarmed and wanted other countries to disarm as
  well
• Otherwise, Germany demanded the right to build up
  its military
• Other countries refused to be equal with
  Germany
• Germany withdrew from the Conference and the LON
  in 1933
• Rearmament programme was put in place

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Failure of the League of Nations

• Failure of Disarmament
• The Anglo-German Naval Treaty, 1935
• Germany allowed to increase its navy size up to
  35 of the British Navy size
• Germany allowed to have submarines
• Significance the TOV could be violated to serve
  the interests of LON members

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• Look at the source.
• Do you think that disarmament was successful?
  Why or why not? What can you gather from the
  picture?

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Economic Problems of the 1930s

• The Great Depression
• Massive unemployment
• Democratic governments failed to reduce
  unemployment ? rise of authoritarian governments
• Protectionism ? trade war ? increased
  unemployment (Textbook pg.156)
• Rearmament was used to create jobs ? threatened
  peace in the 1930s

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Policy of Appeasement

• What is Appeasement?
• Refers to giving in to the demands of an
  aggressor so as to avoid war
• A foreign policy adopted by Britain and France
  towards Germany

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Policy of Appeasement

• Reasons for Adopting Policy of Appeasement
• Memories of WWI
• Strong anti-war sentiment due to great loss of
  lives in WWI
• Economic impact of WWI and the Great Depression
• Necessary to cut down government spending on
  military to rebuild the economy
• Sympathy for Germany
• The Treaty of Versailles was too harsh on Germany
• Making changes to some of the terms was
  acceptable to make Germany a peaceful nation
  again

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Policy of Appeasement

• Reasons for Adopting Policy of Appeasement
• Fear of Communism
• Communism posed a greater threat than Nazism
• A strong Germany would prevent the spread of
  Communism
• 5. Overseas empire
• Not enough troops to keep order in the colonies
  and fight a war in Europe at the same time
• 6. Buying time to modernise armies