the road to war 1918

7/30/2019 The Road to War 1918

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The Road to War 1918-39

When the "Great War" ended, it was common interest that there would never again be such a horrible

war. The war had been devastating - an estimated 10 million men died. Just look in any British village

and you'll see memorials. Sadly, even as the war ended, the seeds were planted for the Second World

War...

The End of the War

The armistice was called at the eleventh day of the eleventh month, 1918. (11th November). It was very

sudden for Germans. In March, 1918, there had been a real chance for them to win with Russia's

withdrawal from the War. America hadn't arrived yet, and German decided on a final gamble - push

their combined forced together in one last attack on the Western Front.

At first, the attack seemed to go well. After years of stalemate, they finally made significant progress.

However, the British and French held out. With America's assistance, they were able to push the

Germans back.

In Germany, things were getting desperate. The people were starving thanks to the British blockade,

cold, and a windswept sweep of influenza affected them badly. Morale on the Front Lines was broken by

the American reinforcements, and many soldiers were mutinying.

The Kaiser stood down on 9th November and fled to Holland. Two days later, Germany surrender.

Hitlers Foreign Policy

Hitlers Aims:

Hitler controlled German Foreign Policy from January 1933.

Hitler took Germany out of the League of Nations immediately. (They had been allowed to join in

1926).

He saw the Treaty of Versailles as one of the main causes of the problems that Germany faced. He

promised the Germans that he would reverse the treaty and regain the territory that Germany had lost.

He planned to expand into the East of Europe so that he would gain Lebensraum (German for Living

Space. Hitler wanted to create space for the growing population) for the people, which he believed they

needed.

Hitler took these steps in order to achieve his aims:

When he was taking over the territory that had been lost due to the Treaty of Versailles he managed

to convince many of the European leaders that once Germany had regained the territory lost, no further

demands would be made.


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Hitler had the benefit of seeing the Japanese successfully defy the League of Nations over the situation

in Manchuria.

Hitler also developed close relations with the leader of Italy, Mussolini, who had withdrawn from the

League as a result of the Abyssinian crisis.

The Saar

The Saar, with its rich coalfields was an industrial area that had been taken from Germany by the Treaty

of Versailles and put under the control of the League of Nations. A plebiscite (a vote by the people living

in an area to decide the answer to an important question) was to be held after 15 years to decide if it

was to be returned to the Germans. The plebiscite was held in January, 1935. The results of the

plebiscite showed that over 90% of the population of the Saar wanted to reunite with Germany. Hitler

regarded this as a great triumph because it was the first of the injustices of the Treaty of Versailles to be

reversed.

Rearmament

One of the first things that Hitler chose to do when he came to power was to begin to increase the

German Armed Forces. He did have to do this secretly at first due to the terms of the Treaty of

Versailles.

The Disarmament Conference 1932 1934

The conference first met in the February of 1932. The main problem that they were discussing was what

to do with Germany. Germany had been involved in the League for 6 years and many people now

accepted that Germany should be treated more fairly than it was said in the terms of the Treaty of

Versailles. The question was, should everyone disarm to the level that Germany had been forced to orshould the Germans be allowed to rearm to the level of other countries? The Germans walked out of the

conference in July 1932 when the other counties refused to disarm to the level that Germany had had

to. In May 1933, Hitler returned to the conference and promised that he wouldnt rearm if in five years

all other nations destroyed their arms. They refused and Hitler withdrew from the conference in

October and not much later, the League of Nations.

Non-Aggression Pact with Poland 1934

Germany signed a non-aggression pact with Poland in January 1934. Hitler signed this for various

reasons, including:

He hoped to weaken the alliance that already existed between Poland and France.

He hoped to reduce the Polish fears of German aggression.

He wanted to show that he didnt have a quarrel with Poland, merely the USSR.

Rearmament


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Hitler staged a huge military rally celebrating the armed forces of Germany in 1935. He also

reintroduced conscription and announced an army of 550,000 in the same year. An Air Ministry was set

up to train pilots and build 1,000 aircraft. Hitler was breaking the terms of the Treaty of Versailles but he

believed that he would get away with it due to the collapse of the Disarmament Conference. He was

correct.

French, Italian and British representatives meet at the town of Stresa where they agreed to co-operate

to preserve the peace in Europe. They condemned the rearmament of Germany. This was known as the

Stresa Front against German aggression. But it didnt last long. It collapsed due to the Abyssinian Crisis

which destroyed the relations between France, Britain and Italy, and the Anglo-German Naval Treaty.

Anglo-German Naval treaty 1935

Hitler was aware that Britain had some sympathy towards Germany regarding rearmament. Britain did

believe that the terms of the treaty had been too harsh on Germany and that a strong Germany would

be a buffer against Communism. In 1935, Britain signed a naval agreement with Germany. This allowed

the Germans to have navy fleet up to 35% of the size of the British fleet and have the same number of

submarines. The British were accepting Hitlers breach of the Treaty.

The Remilitarization of the Rhineland 1936

On the 7th of March, 1936 Hitler moved German troops back into the demilitarized area of the

Rhineland. This was a risk for Hitler as it was clearly a breach of the terms of the Treaty of Versailles.

Also, the German army consisted of only 22,000 men and if the French army had reacted then they

would have been no opposition. The men were also under strict orders to withdraw if they were faced

with any opposition). But, neither the French nor British did anything. The troops remained in the

Rhineland.

Anschluss with Austria 1938

Hitler was Austrian born and he wished to see Germany and Austria united as one country. In 1938 he

felt ready to attempt this.

He bullied Schuschnigg, who was the Austrian Chancellor, into accepting Seyss-Inquart, who was a

Nazi, as Austrian Minister of the Interior.

Schuschnigg ordered for a plebiscite to take place in order to find out if the Austrians really wanted to

unite with Germany.

Hitler worried that the people would vote against the unification. He moved German troops to the

Austrian border and threatened to invade if Schuschnigg didnt resign.

Seyss-Inquart then became Chancellor of Austria. He invited the German troops into the country. On

the 12th of March 1938, the Germany army entered Vienna. They were welcomed with cheers and

salutes. The Anschluss was complete.


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The Nazis also held their own votes regarding the unification with Germany and 99% of those who

voted were in favor of the union. (But it was believed that people opposed the unification were taken

away and locked up or killed.) Austria became a province of the new German Reich.

The Anschluss was another breach of the Treaty of Versailles. The French and British governments did

complain about it but they didnt take any action.

Appeasement

Britain followed a Policy of Appeasement from 1935 to 1938. This meant giving in to the demands that

Hitler made when they believed the demands to be reasonable. The policy is mainly associated with

Neville Chamberlain who was the Prime Minister of Britain from 1937 to 1940.

Arguments for Appeasement

Nobody wished to repeat the horrors of the First World War, they wanted to avoid another war at all

costs.

A lot of people believed that Germany had been unfairly treated by the Treaty of Versailles.

To some people, Communism was seen as the biggest threat. They believed that Germany could act as

a buffer because Hitler was anti-communist.

Britain wasnt ready to go to war. Rearmament had only started slowly in 1936 and the British forces

were no match of the Germans.

Britain was also preoccupied with problems that had been caused by the Depression e.g

Unemployment and they wanted to stay out of foreign involvement.

The Spanish Civil War had shown how powerful Germany was. The events showed how horrific

another war might be.

Arguments against Appeasement

Hitler was given an advantage. He was growing stronger. If war came it would be against a strong

Germany.

It wasnt right that Britain and France were allowing Germany to break the terms of the Treaty of

Versailles.

Chamberlain misjudged Hitler. He had believed that he was simply a normal leader. Appeasement

encouraged Hitler that he could do anything he wanted.

They missed opportunities to stop Hitler e.g the reoccupation of the Rhineland in 1936.

It didnt prevent a war.

The Sudeten Crisis


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German speakers who lived in Czechoslovakia lived in an area called the Sudetenland. Hitler wanted

these people back.

He ordered Konrad Henlein (who was the leader of the Sudetenland Germans) to cause trouble in the

Sudetenland.

German newspapers printed allegations of crimes which had apparently been committed by the

Czechs towards the Sudeten Germans.

Hitler threatened to go to war if a solution wasnt reached.

Chamberlain, the British Prime-Minister, believed that a peaceful solution could be reached. He

attempted to convince the Czech President to accept self-government for the Sudetenland. Bene did

agree but Hitler then produced new demands and claimed that the Sudetenland should become part of

the German Reich.

At a meeting at Godesburg on the 22nd of September Bene refused to accept the demands. War

seemed like it was going to be a real possibility but Chamberlain appealed to Hitler to give him more

time to try and find a solution.

The Munich Agreement

Neville Chamberlain made one last attempt to maintain peace on the 29th of September at the Munich

Conference.

Chamberlain met with Daladier (the French leader), Hitler and Mussolini at Munich in a bid to resolve

the Sudeten Crisis.

The Czech representatives werent actually invited to this meeting.

The Czechs were made to hand over the Sudetenland to Germany. A commission was set up to decide

precisely which territory would be lost.

Chamberlain and Hitler also had a further meeting in Munich in which they both agreed that Britain and

Germany would not go to war with each other. Hitler promised that he didnt want the rest of

Czechoslovakia. Chamberlain was treated as a hero when he returned back to Britain as he had,

supposedly, saved Europe from going to war.

The results of the Munich Agreement also had quite a serious effect on the Czechoslovakians as well as

Europe.

The Czech Government had been completely humiliated.

The vital area of the Sudetenland was lost and, later on, in October and November, both Poland and

Hungary occupied further areas of Czech territory.

Once again, Britain and France had given in to the demands of Hitler.


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Even though the Munich Agreement had been seen as a success, both Britain and France increased the

speed of their rearmament.

The collapse of Czechoslovakia, March 1939

Hitler invaded and occupied the remains of Czechoslovakia in the March of 1939. Bohemia and Moravia

were now controlled by Germany. Slovakia was independent in theory; however it was largely

dominated by Germany. Ruthenia was given to Hungary.

The end of appeasement

When Hitler occupied the remainder of Czechoslovakia it suggested that war was eventually going to

come. The occupation of Czechoslovakia proved that the promises that Hitler had made at the Munich

Agreement were not going to be upheld. Britain and France were also now rapidly rearming and they

accepted that the Policy of Appeasement had obviously failed.

The Pact of Steel, May 1939

Events in the Spring of 1939 seemed to be favoring the countries with dictatorships. Hitler had forced to

hand over the Baltic town of Memel as well as an area of land that was along their south-west border in

March. In May, Mussolini also followed the example that Hitler had set in Czechoslovakia by invading

Albania.

The Pact of Steel was signed between Hitler and Mussolini in May 1939. They promised to act together

regarding future events that may take place. It was clear that Europe was now divided into two sections.

Britain and Germany both began looking to the USSR as a possible source of support.

Poland

Hitlers next target then became Poland. The Treaty of Versailles had taken away German territory and

given it to the Polish, giving them access to a sea port (this was the Polish Corridor) and Danzig (which

had been a German city) had also been put under League of Nations control. After Hitlers success in

Czechoslovakia, he demanded the return of the Polish Corridor and Danzig.

The French and British Governments had both been greatly humiliated by Munich and the events that

had followed the conference. They decided to act decisively. They gave guarantees of support to the

Poles, Greeks and Rumanians that they would support them in the case of German Aggression. They also

increased their production of arms and equipment.

The role of the USSR

Britain and France had made promises that they would help to protect Poland however there was no

way that they would be able to actually help Poland because of its distance from the West of Europe.

The only country that would be able to prevent a German attack on Poland was the USSR. The British

and French did begin talks with the USSR to try and reach an agreement.


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The USSR was suspicious of the Western motives. Stalin felt that throughout the 1930s that Britain had

been trying to send Hitler over to the East. Many British people did actually fear communism more than

fascism. The USSRs exclusion from the Munich Conference was evidence to prove this when the future

of Czechoslovakia was also important to them. Britain and France didnt really show any urgency in

relation to making an agreement with the USSR in 1939. That made Stalin even more suspicious and

contributed to him signing the Nazi-Soviet Pact. He didnt believe that the British and French could be

trusted.

The Nazi-Soviet Pact

The German Foreign Minister, Ribbentrop, and the Soviet Foreign Minister, Molotov, signed the Nazi-

Soviet Non-Aggression Pact on the 23rd of August 1939.

In this pact the Soviets and Germans agreed not to fight each other if a war in Europe took place.

The powers secretly agreed to divide up Polish territory between them.

Hitler also let Stalin occupy part of Romania as well as the Baltic states; Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia,

The world was shocked when the two enemies agreed not to attack each other. Hitler and Stalin

represented two political systems which totally opposed each other. Although, despite their differences

of beliefs on policy, Hitler and Stalin had a lot to offer each other.

The Pact removed the possibility of war on two fronts for Hitler. He was given the opportunity to deal

with Poland as well, regardless of the threats given by France and Britain.

Stalin had already been suspicious about the motives of the British and French who had not shown

much friendship to the USSR before Hitler rose to power. Hitler had more to offer to Stalin e.g territory

in the East of Europe.

Poland and the outbreak of the war

Hitler decided to invade Poland soon after Germany had signed the Nazi-Soviet Pact. He did this

because:

Because of the pacthe didnt have to worry about the possibility of a Soviet reaction.

The guarantees that Britain and France had made with Poland in the April of 1939 were made too late

for Hitler to believe that they would really go to war.

Because of the Policy of Appeasement, Hitler believed that he could get away with almost anything.

He thought that the British and French would do almost anything to avoid a war.

He knew that Poland was too far away for the British and French to provide support and decided that

even if war came then it would be over very quickly.


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On the 1st of September 1939, Hitler sent German troops into Poland. War was declared soon after this

but both Britain and France. The USSR also invaded Poland on the 15th of September and took the

territory which had been agreed in the Nazi-Soviet Pact. Poland was defeated in 6 weeks.

Who was responsible for the war?

Hitler does have to take most of the blame for the war but it wasnt just his fault. The other countries

that were involved also held some responsibility.

The USSR had made the deal with Germany which led to the invasion of Poland as the German forces

wouldnt have to face the risk of a Soviet attack.

Poland had signed the alliance with France and Britain which then led to it trying to resist the German

demands.

Britain and Frances Policy of Appeasement had led Hitler to believe that he could get away with

anything (including the invasion of Poland). The alliance that they had signed with Poland had also

encouraged the Poles to refuse German demands.

The Treaty of Versailles

In June, 1919, the Treaty of Versailles was signed. It was over 200 pages long, yet dealt only with

Germany. Only victorious countries (32 of them) were allowed a say in the terms and the treaty, and

Germany had no choice but to accept it.

The main three characters in the ruling of the Treaty were:

French Prime Minister, George Clemenceau

British Prime Minister, David Lloyd George

American President, Woodrow Wilson.

(David Lloyd George, Clamenceau, and Wilson)

Wilson's aims were to:

Punish Germany, but not too harshly. This is easy to understand, as America didn't have a huge

involvement in the war.

Achieve world peace. Wilson thought he could do this by creating a 'League of Nations' where nations

would co-operate. The ruling of this League would be based on 14 points.

Clemenceau's aims were to:

Take back Alsac and Lorraine. (Which had been taken when Germany invaded France in 1870).

Make sure Germany could never invade France again.


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Make Germany pay for all the suffering they had caused. This wasn't surprising, as most of the fighting

had took place inside France, leaving land destroyed, dangerous undetonated mines, etc... Germany

should lose land to the French on the France/Germany border to make France feel more secure.

Lloyd George's aims were to:

Punish Germany, but contrary to popular British belief, he didn't agree with punishing them too harshly,

as that would make the Germans resentful.

Protect Britain's dominion over the sea. Therefore, he disliked Woodrow's idea of freedom of seas.

Already, we see differences. Add in the small contributions other nations added, and it's easy to imagine

how difficult reaching an agreement was. However, after much discussion, the Treaty was formed.

Some of the main points of the Treaty of Versailles were:

Germany had to pay 6,600 million in reparations.

Germany lost all its colonies to the victorious countries as mandates.

She lost a large amount of land, much of which was used to reform countries, such as Poland.

All the land gained from the USSR was taken back.

The Saar was to be controlled by this new League of Nations for 15 years.

The Rhineland was demilitarized (no military was allowed in it).

The army was reduced to 100,000 men; conscription was banned; the navy was reduced to 6 war ships;

tanks, submarines and aircrafts were not allowed.

Alsac and Lorraine were returned to France.

Germany was forbidden from Anschluss (forming an alliance with Austria).

Germany was blamed for the War (War guilt clause).

Consequences: Germans were horrified when they discovered the terms of Versailles. They had hoped,

with Woodrow's 14 points, to have a fair deal. This didn't happen. The points were exploited to the

Allies' advantages, and many of them were clearly broken when dealing with Germany.

They thought the politicians who had called the armistice and then signed the treaty had stabbed

Germany in the back. In reality, these November Criminals had had no choice. Many Germans still didn't

understand why they had lost the war - as the gamble had been well publicized, but not the defeat - and

were willing to blame old hates such as the Jews. The Weimar Republic did not get off to a good start.


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The War Guilt Clause was an extra bitter pill for Germany to swallow. They didn't believe that they had

started the war, and many Germans were furious that they had had no say in the events. Hitler, of

course, played off all these hatreds of Versailles, when he later took power...

The League of Nations

The League of Nations was set up in 1920. Originally, there were 42 members of the League but this

number increased to nearly 60 in the 1930s. Although, at any one time, at least one of the more

powerful superpowers were absent from the League.

The USA had refused to join. Many Americans had hated the idea of the League and Woodrow Wilson

was unable to convince them otherwise. This was a major blow to the power and influence of the

League. Plus, the whole thing had been Woodrow Wilsons idea.

The defeated nations from the First World War, such as Germany, who were not allowed to join.

Russia, who wasnt allowed to join up because of its Communist style of governing.

The Covenant of the League

The Covenant was a set of 26 articles that all member states had to agree to. They encouraged the

countries to co-operate with trade, improve social, living and working conditions and work towards

international disarmament. The most important article out of all of these was Article 10, this stated that

the member of the League of Nations would act together to ensure any member who was threatened

with war was protected by the other members. This was known as Collective Security which was what

the whole League was built upon the idea of.

The Organization of the League

The League was spilt up into different sections which dealt with different things.

The Council They met up to 3 times a year and also in times when an emergency arose. There were

five permanent members as well as four temporary members. The five permanent members were the

main powers; Britain, France, Italy, Japan and from 1926, Germany. The four temporary members were

elected every three years.

The main duty of the Council was to keep the peace and solve any disputes that might arise between

states. The members hoped that this could be done by negotiating. If a country was deemed to have

started war through an act of aggression, then this would become the concern of all the members of theLeague who would act against the aggressor. Action would be taken in three stages:

Moral Condemnation All member countries would put pressure on the aggressor to make them feel

guilty and shame them into stopping the war and accepting the decisions of the League.

Economic Sanctions This meant that all member countries involved in the League would stop trading

with the aggressor.


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Military Force The member countries of the League would all contribute to an armed force which

would then act against the aggressor.

The Assembly This was the debating chamber. It was located at the headquarters of the League in

Geneva, Switzerland. The Assembly met once a year and each country that was involved each had a vote

(this was the veto which meant that one country would be able to completely stop a decision if theydisagreed with it). The Assembly had the powers to; admit new members, elect permanent member on

to the Council and also to suggest changes to peace treaties that already existed.

The Secretariat This was the civil service and it carried out the administration and work of the League.

It kept records of meetings and prepared reports for the different organizations in the League.

Commissions The Commissions were set up to carry out specialist work. Some of the commissions only

existed for a short time e.g the Refugees Commission, which helped First World War refugees to return

home. Others were more permanent e.g those that were set up to deal with slavery and health.

The Permanent Court of International Justice This was based at The Hague in the Netherlands. Judgesof different legal systems made it up who represented the member countries. It gave decisions on

disputes if asked but had no way of enforcing the decisions that were made.

The International Labor Organization (ILO) This was set up to bring around the idea of improving

working conditions around the world. Representatives of governments, workers and employers would

meet once a year to set minimum standards and persuade other members to use these standards.

Manchuria

The Manchurian Crisis 1931 1933

This was the first major crisis that the League of Nations had to face.

Japan had been a rising power and had been developing very quickly into a trading nation. However, the

Wall Street Crash proved to have a major impact on Japan and its economy. Countries such as the USA

as well as other countries had adopted protectionist policies (the economic theory of using the tax

system to protect home industries in the face of foreign competition). This led to a loss of trade in Japan

because their products were too expensive to buy. They began to look for other ways to expand.

In September 1931 there was an explosion at the Japanese owned South Manchurian Railway. The

Japanese used this as an excuse to invade Manchuria. The area was rich in natural resources and this

provided a market for the Japanese goods. The invasion was successful. A puppet government was setup under Pu Yi and the area was renamed Manchukuo.

At the time, China had been in the middle of a civil war, meaning they had been unable to defend

Manchuria. The Chinese appealed to the League of Nations for help. The League sent Lord Lytton to

conduct a Commission to investigate. The Commission took a long time to investigate over a year by

the time it was finished the invasion and occupation had already been completed. The League asked the


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Japanese to withdraw from the area. The Japanese simple ignored the commands; they left the League

and remained in Manchuria.

This crisis highlighted weaknesses in the League. It had showed that Britain and France were unwilling to

support the League in taking action. The League had also failed to prevent the aggression. This later

encouraged aggression from Germany and Italy.

Abyssinia

The Abyssinian Crisis

Mussolini was the leader of Italy and had been since 1922. He wanted to increase Italys prominence as

a world power by increasing its territories located in Africa. Abyssinia was one of the countries that was

not under European control and Mussolini wished to invade. He also wanted revenge for a defeat by the

Abyssinians in 1896 at the Battle of Adowa.

In 1935 the Italian troops invaded Abyssinia. Haile Selassie, who was the Emperor of Abyssinia, appealed

to the League of Nations for help. The League condemned the aggression but Italy and imposed

economic sanctions on them. However, the Italians were still able to trade with non-members of the

League, such as the USA. France and Britain were worried that if they took action against Mussolini then

they would drive him closer to Hitler (who they were also worried about). The British Foreign Secretary

made a secret deal with the French, in which they would offer most of Abyssinia to Mussolini. This was

known as the Hoare-Laval Pact but the plan had to be withdrawn when it was leaked to the public.

The results of the Abyssinian Crisis effectively meant the end of the League of Nations as a peacekeeping

organization; it was seen as a joke. The crisis had shown that the members of the League werent willing

to use force to stop aggression. The Hoare-Laval Pact also showed that Britain and France had been

undermining the League.

Collapse of the League

Why did the League collapse?

Then lack of major powers was a real problem from the beginning of the League. Because powerful

countries such as the USA werent members it meant that the League lacked influence and power.

Both France and Britain refused to really take a lead role and the League was dependant on their co-

operation. Although. they did not always see eye to eye.

The way that the League was organized also made it difficult to act quickly. The right of member

countries to Veto meant that decisions could easily be stopped.

When sanctions were applied they were only really applied half-heartedly and the League also had no

standing army. The League lacked bite.


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The World Depression caused problems for all countries. Money and attention wasnt really available for

the crises in Manchuria and Abyssinia.

the road to war 1918

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