Toward World War II

1
Toward World War II
2
Some questions

• A separate conflict or part of a 31 year
  conflict?
• Was World War II avoidable?

3
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

4
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)

5
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

6
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

7
Rome-Berlin Axis - 1936

• Italy recognizes German position in Central
  Europe
• Germany recognizes Italys position in the
  Mediterranean
• Both join in anti-Bolshevik crusade
• Supplemented by German-Japanese Anti-Comintern
  pact

8
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

9
Britains 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

10
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

11
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 govt
  policy
• Increased Nazi agitation
• Czech independence guaranteed by treaties with
  France, Russia, Yugoslavia, Romania

12
The crisis

• Hitler demands self-determination for Sudetenland
• Chamberlain meets with Hitler at Berchtesgaden
  (15 Sept. 1938), gains delay
• Czech govt concede self-determination in
  exchange for British French guarantees
• Hitler increases demands at subsequent meeting at
  Godesberg
• 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

13
Munich

• Hitler, Mussolini, Chamberlain, Daladier meet on
  29 Sept. at Mussolinis 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

14
Chamberlains 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

15
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

16
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

17
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