Zusammenfassung der Ressource
The Causes of World War 2
- The Great Depression
- 1929 Wall Street Crash led to worldwide depression
- Production of manufactured goods
fell by 80%
- European countries dependent on US
loans and trade
- Helped Hitler rise to power
- End of goodwill between nations
- Manchuria 1931-33
- Causes
- Japan a rising Pacific power
- Protectionist policies led to loss of trade
- Needed to expand beyond Korea, Formosa,
Sakhalin Island
- Events
- Attack by Chinese troops on Japanese railway
- Manchuria invaded - natural resources + market
- Puppet government instated in Manchukuo
- China appealed to L of N
- Lytton Commission sent - very slow, over
a year to investigate
- Results
- L of N condemned action
- Japan withdrew from L of N
- B + F unwilling to support League
- Encouraged further aggression
- Abyssinia 1935-36
- Causes
- Mussolini wanted world prestige
- No European influence
- Revenge for 1896
Battle of Adowa
- Events
- Brutal invasion involving poison gas
- Haile Selassie directly appealed to L of N
- L of N imposed economic sanctions -
no oil, Suez Canal open
- Hoare-Laval Pact compromise to
placate Mussolini - withdrawn
- Results
- Unwilling to use force
- B + F undermining League
- "the League is all very well when sparrows shout, but no
good at all when eagles fall out" - Mussolini
- Hitler's aims
- Reverse Diktat/Treaty of Versailles
- Exit League of Nations
- Create Grossdeutschland
- Give German people Lebensraum
- Plebiscite returning Saar "first injustice
to be reversed"
- Rearmament and alliances
- Disarmament Conference 1932-4
- other powers refused to disarm
so Hitler began rearmament
- Non-Aggression Pact with Poland 1934 - weaken alliance with
France + show no threat to Poland (only USSR)
- Conscription - army 550,000 by 1935, Stresa Front formed to preserve
peace but collapsed due to Abyssinia and Naval Treaty
- Anglo-German Naval Treaty 1935 - Britain sympathy, wanted buffer
against Communism, German navy 35% of British
- Remilitarisation of Rhineland 1936 - risk due to fears of
French retaliation but B + F unwilling to act, key success for
Hitler
- Rome-Berlin Axis 1936 - informal agreement, led to
working together in Spanish Civil War
- Anti-Comintern Pact 1937 - Fascist Germany, Italy,
Japan work to oppose Communism
- Pact of Steel 1939 - formal Italo-German military alliance
- Breaches in 1938
- Anschluss 1938
- Dollfuss 1934 had failed, but Italian support
allowed German aggression
- Schuschnigg ordered plebiscite for
German union
- Hitler threatened to make Vienna "Guernica of
Austria" if Schuschnigg didn't resign
- Seyss-Inquart invited troops into Austria Mar 1938
- New plebiscite - 99% wanted union
with Germany
- Sudetenland 1938
- Sudetenland rich in coal + defences
- German propaganda showed
Czech atrocities
- Berchtesgaden and Godesberg meetings no result -
Hitler's demands more audacious
- Munich Agreement 29 Sep 1938 - Chamberlain, Daladier,
Hitler, Mussolini, NO Stalin or Benes
- Mussolini's "compromise" gave Germany all demands
- Chamberlain "peace in our time"
- Czechoslovakia stripped of all defence +
humiliated
- Steps to war
- Czechoslovakia Mar 1939
- Slovak/Ruthenian separatists demand
independence
- Tiso and Hacha bullied into allowing invasion
- Bohemia + Moravia German protectorates
- Slovakia German puppet state
- Ruthenia to Hungary
- Poland Apr 1939
- Hitler demanded Danzig + Polish Corridor return
- B + F acted decisively - gave guarantees of support to
Poland, Greece, Romania
- Hitler not yet ready for war on 2 fronts
- Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact
- Britain sent Reginald Plunkett Ranfurly Ernle-Erle
Drax to Russia by boat - slow, no urgency
- Stalin offended + suspicious of British
- Agreed not to fight in war
- Carved up Eastern Europe into spheres of influence
- Alliance between opposing political systems
- Poland Sep 1939
- Pact gave Hitler confidence
- Guarantees of support too late
- Appeasement backfired
- Too far for B + F to help
- Appeasement
- Reasons for
- First World War horrific
- Germany treated unfairly at Versailles
- Strong buffer against Stalinism + Communism
- Britain unready for war
- Preoccupied by Depression
- Spanish Civil War shocked world
- Reasons against
- Hitler grew stronger + stronger
- Morally wrong + cowardly
- Chamberlain misjudged Hitler as rational
- Key moments (e.g. Rhineland) missed
- War was inevitable