Download The Road to World War II During the negotiation of the Treaty of

The Road to World War II
During the negotiation of the Treaty of Versailles, one prominent politician of the time remarked that the treaty
would only bring twenty years of peace. Little did the world know that a series of events would make this prophesy
come true. Historians generally acknowledge the aggressiveness of several nations, as well as the attempts at
appeasement by others, as the major causes of World War II. Specifically, territorial aggrandizement by Japan in
China, by Fascist Italy in Ethiopia, and by Nazi Germany in central and eastern Europe brought the world to war.
The League of Nations failed to take decisive action to curb armaments or stem aggression by these states. The
Western powers continued to pursue policies of neutrality and appeasement until it became clear that the
expansionist nations would not rest content with their gains.
At the 1921-22 Washington Conference, Japan had concurred in guaranteeing China’s territorial integrity and
recognizing the Open Door principle, which required Chinese trade to be open to all nations. Despite this pledge,
Japan’s extreme nationalists looked longingly to the Chinese province of Manchuria, a huge area of potential wealth.
On September 18, 1931, Japanese soldiers stationed in southern Manchuria were involved in a minor clash with
Chinese troops. Japan used the incident to justify the spreading of its forces throughout Manchuria. By January
1932, Japan had subdued the region establishing a puppet state of Manchukuo. The League of Nations condemned
Japan in 1933 but imposed no sanctions. Japan responded by pulling out of the League.
Around the same time, two rulers within Europe attempted to change their nation’s strategic position. Both Adolf
Hitler and Benito Mussolini pushed for territorial expansion, yet for different reasons. Hitler was not only driven by
his desire for a large German empire, but for the completion of an ethnically unified Germany. During the period in
which Hitler’s Nazi Party controlled Germany, Hitler preached nationalism and promised Germans victory and
supremacy.
However, Mussolini’s desires for territorial expansion were not hinged on the unification of a nationality. Mussolini
hoped to return Italy to the heights experienced during the days of the Ancient Roman Empire, with borders
stretching throughout the world. His Fascist state emphasized the principles that the state was superior, that war was
necessary in the world, that a true democracy could not exist in a fascist state, and that the people should consider
what was in the best interests of the state.
German chancellor Adolf Hitler abandoned the efforts of the Weimar Republic, who encouraged Germany to ease
into the provisions of the Versailles Treaty through a policy of reconciliation with the World War I victors. Instead,
Hitler unilaterally tore up the treaty. Hitler took Germany out of the League in 1933 and began a massive program
to build up the Germany army, navy, and air force. In March 1935, he restored universal military service. The
western democracies did not react to either violation of the Versailles Treaty. Britain even concluded a naval
agreement with Germany in 1935 that permitted greater German strength than allowed by the Versailles Treaty. In
1936, Hitler continued his attack on the Versailles Treaty by sending troops into the demilitarized Rhineland.
In 1935, Italy continued its attempt to expand into Africa. Benito Mussolini, seeking an easy foreign victory to
galvanize his country, sent troops into Ethiopia from Italian Eritrea on October 3, 1935 in an attempt to avenge an
1896 failed conquering of Ethiopia. Another thrust came from Italian Somaliland. Throwing mechanized troops
against untrained and poorly armed Ethiopians, the Italians completed the conquest in 1936. With Eritrea and Italian
Somaliland, Ethiopia was organized as Italian East Africa. In response to Italy’s aggression, the League of Nations
imposed an embargo against Italy. The failure to include oil in the embargo only further discredited the League of
Nation’s authority.
In July 1936, a Civil War in Spain started. This conflict between Spain’s liberal-leftist republican coalition
government and rightists led by General Francisco Franco soon brought international repercussions. Hitler and
Mussolini sent planes, troops, and supplies to Franco, using the war as a continual training for the inevitable war
both men sought. Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin gave military equipment to the republicans. Organized with Soviet
Comintern aid, thousands of British and American anti-Fascist volunteers known as the Lincoln Brigade went to
Spain to help the republican coalition. However, the United States government adhered to a policy of strict
neutrality. Anxious to prevent a general war, Britain and France forbade the shipment of war material to the
republic.
Cooperation between Germany and Italy in Spain helped cement the vague Rome-Berlin Axis, an understanding that
they had concluded in 1936. Franco’s victory in 1939 strengthened Hitler and Mussolini’s positions in the
Mediterranean. In 1936, the Japanese concluded the Anti-Comintern Pact with Germany. One year later, Italy
joined what would be known as the Rome-Berlin-Tokyo Axis; this group prefigured the later alliance structure of
the general war.
On July 7, 1937, a Chinese-Japanese military clash occurred at the Marco Polo Bridge near Peking. This altercation
provided the pretext for an all-out Japanese campaign of conquest in China. By 1939, Japan controlled populous
eastern China. Reacting to these events in China, U.S. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt spoke in October 1937
of the need to “quarantine the aggressor,” which encouraged a continuation of neutrality, but urged Americans to be
morally anti-Axis. A strong negative response to this call indicated the wide extent of isolationist sentiment in the
United States. Not until 1940 did Japanese expansionism begin to draw the attention of the American public.
Proclaiming the unity of the German people, Hitler had sought Anschluss (“union”) between Germany and his
native Austria since 1934. In February 1938, he used the threat of invasion to force Austrian chancellor Kurt von
Schuschnigg to admit Nazis into his cabinet. On March 112, 1938, Hitler invaded Austria and incorporated it into
his Third Reich.
Almost immediately afterward, the Nazi regime began agitating on behalf of the Sudeten Germans who lived in
pockets of western Czechoslovakia known as the Sudetenland. Hitler claimed they were a persecuted minority in
Czechoslovakia. Although the Czech government made numerous concessions to the Sudeten Germans, Hitler
demanded the immediate cession of the Sudetenland to Germany in September 1938. On September 29-30,
Czechoslovakia’s allies, Britain and France, agreed at the Munich Conference to yield to Hitler. Hitler claimed to
make no further territorial demands in Europe. Czechoslovakia was excluded from participation at Munich. Unlike
Austria, Czechoslovakia was democratic, and its president, Eduard Benes, was prepared to resist Hitler, but the two
western European democracies insisted on submission.
Britain’s Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain hailed the Munich agreement as bringing “peace in our time.” In
March 1939, Hitler destroyed what remained of Czechoslovakia by occupying Bohemia-Moravia and making
Slovakia a German protectorate. He also took Memel from Lithuania and began threatening the Polish Corridor, a
narrow strip of land that separated East Prussia from the rest of Germany. In the meantime, Italy occupied and
annexed Albania in April 1939.
The Western powers could no longer avoid acknowledging that Hitler’s promises were worthless and that his
territorial ambitions were not restricted to German-speaking areas but might be limitless. Desperately, Britain and
France began to prepare military resistance to Nazi expansionism. In the spring of 1939, they both guaranteed
Poland support against German aggression. They also sought to begin negotiations with the USSR, whose earlier
efforts to form an anti-Axis coalition they had rebuffed.
Stalin, however, had become convinced that Britain and France were conspiring to help throw the full weight of
German strength against the USSR. Therefore, despite their bitterly antagonistic ideologies, Stalin sought an
accommodation with Hitler. On August 23, 1939, Germany and the USSR signed the 10-year Nazi-Soviet Pact of
non-aggression. The secret protocol provided for the division of Poland between the two nations, and also
guaranteed the Russian takeover of the Baltic states of Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia without German interference.
For a delighted Hitler, the treaty meant that he would not have to fight a war on two fronts. The arrangement also
signaled Soviet acceptance of German actions against Poland. For Britain and France, the Nazi-Soviet pact meant
they would be without major allies as they belatedly prepared to defend Poland.
Germany’s invasion of Poland would start on September 1, 1939. Hitler referred to the strategy as blitzkrieg, or
“lightning war” that utilized heavy air strikes that preceded a rapidly advancing ground invasion. The object of the
blitzkrieg strategy was to shock the opponent so severely that there would be little resistance, allowing the country
to be overrun quickly, with minimal German losses. Britain and France would declare war on Germany on
September 3, 1939, starting World War II. Stalin would send Russian troops into Poland two weeks later. Although
America would attempt to remain neutral, America’s entry to the war would not take place until December 1941.