Download Toward World War II

Toward World War II
Some questions:
• A separate conflict or part of a 31 year
conflict?
• Was World War II avoidable?
Collective Security in the Interwar
Period
• The League of Nations:
– Possibility of sanctions and collective action against aggressors
• Locarno Pacts (1925)
– Signatories: France, Belgium, Britain, Germany, Italy; also
Poland, Czechoslovakia )
– Acceptance of Versailles frontiers
– Guarantees of non-aggression
– Provision for arbitration, mutual assistance
• French alliances with countries surrounding Germany
• Conferences among great powers
• Map of Europe between the World Wars
Emasculation of the League
• Manchurian Crisis, 1931
– Japan invades Manchuria
• Withdraws from League
• League takes no action
• Abyssinian Crisis (1935)
– Italy invades Abyssinia (Ethiopia)
– Abyssinia appeals to League
– League fails to act (France, courting Italy, is
reluctant)
Remilitarization of the
Rhineland,1936
• Britain condemns, but without threat of action
• France protests
• Matter taken to League Council, Hague tribunal
– no response
• France unwilling to take action
– Internally divided, pre-occupied with domestic
concerns
– Under caretaker cabinet, pending new elections
• Germany offers non-aggression pacts
Spanish Civil War (1936-39)
• Spanish Republic (est. 1931) increasingly
polarized between left and right
• Right rebels as left gains ascendancy
– receives assistance from Italy and Germany
• Republicans receive assistance from USSR
• France and Britain urge non-intervention
– committee established: decisions not enforced
• Effect: Italy ends up more closely aligned with
Germany
Rome-Berlin Axis - 1936
• Italy recognizes German position in
Central Europe
• Germany recognizes Italy’s position in the
Mediterranean
• Both join in anti-Bolshevik crusade
• Supplemented by German-Japanese AntiComintern pact
Emerging situation: 1936-1938
• Versailles Treaty effectively dead
• Germany rearming, growing stronger
• France increasingly alarmed
– system of alliances more and more uncertain
– Aligned with Britain, forced to follow its lead
• USSR
– Has previously signed treaties with Germany, 1922
– More recently with France (1934) but neither
considers the other reliable
Britain’s position
• Re-arming but reluctant to fight
• Neville Chamberlain as prime minister,
1936
• Anxious to assert European leadership
• Willing to recognize new power
configuration
– Thus accommodate `reasonable’ demands
– Allow ‘adjustments’ to borders
Anchsluss with Austria, 1938
• Italy pre-occupied, abandons objections
• Austrian Nazis undermine government
• German demands bring Austrian Nazi
leader Seyss-Inquart to power
• Seyss-Inquart request for assistance
brings German troops
• Austria annexed, result endorsed in
plebiscite
• Other powers fail to object
Sudetenland and the
dismemberment of Czechoslovakia
map
• multinational state -- created by Versailles
– German minority in Sudetenland (3 million out
of 13 million)
• Disaffected – demand autonomy, changes in gov’t
policy
• Increased Nazi agitation
• Czech independence guaranteed by
treaties with France, Russia, Yugoslavia,
Romania
The crisis
• Hitler demands self-determination for Sudetenland
• Chamberlain meets with Hitler at Berchtesgaden (15
Sept. 1938), gains delay
• Czech gov’t concede self-determination in exchange for
British & French guarantees
• Hitler increases demands at subsequent meeting at
Godesberg
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–
–
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Immediate annexation of Sudetenland
Plebiscites in other German-speaking areas
Polish and Hungarian claims to be met
Acceptance by Sept. 28th
• Czechs reject, mobilize
• British and French mobilize
Munich
Hitler, Mussolini, Chamberlain, Daladier
meet on 29 Sept. at Mussolini’s
suggestion
• Agree to
– German annexation of Sudetenland, Oct. 10th
– Plebiscites in other minority areas
– British and French to guarantee new frontiers
• Czechoslovakia told to accept or fight
alone
Chamberlain’s position
• Apparent sincere desire to engage Hitler
• Show that ‘legitimate’ claims could be
achieved by diplomacy
• Leader of a country which was
– Not necessarily willing to fight for a distant
land
– Unready to do so
Problems with this:
• Hitler was not a ‘reasonable’ opponent
• Nor necessarily appeased
• Munich agreement surrenders defensible
borders
• Using Slovak demands as pretext, Hitler
declares that Czechoslovakia has ceased to
exist
• Prague invaded, March 15, 1939
• Britain declares guarantees invalid because
Czechoslovakia has disintegrated
Outbreak of war:
• In the aftermath, Britain signs treaties guaranteeing
independence Poland, Romania, Greece, Turkey
• Germany begins making demands on Poland (increased
access across Polish corridor
• Germany and USSR sign non-aggression pact
• Germany makes demands on Poland
• Invades, Sept. 1, 1939 on pretext of faked Polish attack
• Britain and France demand withdrawal, declare war
• USSR attacks Poland from the east, Sept. 17th
Some final considerations
• Absence of effective international institutions
• Absence of stable balance of power
– Britain and France unable to engage USSR against
Germany:
• Problem of Poland
• Problem of mutual mistrust
– Fail to enlist Italy against Germany
• Fundamental misperception of German aims by
the British