World War II

1
World War II
2
Liberalism in the Interwar Period

• Treaty of Versailles (1919)
• Disillusionment with BOP politics
• National self-determination
• Yugoslavia, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, the Baltic
  countries
• Liberal Idealism
• Woodrow Wilson The Fourteen Points

3
The League of Nations (1920)

• Collective security principle
• Aggression against one is aggression against all
  (art. 16)
• Outlaw aggression
• Pledge to assist victims of aggression
• Act collectively against aggressor
• Decisions by unanimity
• US did not join the League
• Treaty of Locarno (1925) allows Germany into the
  League

4
The Failure of Collective Security

• Japanese invasion of Manchuria (1931)
• Italian invasion of Ethiopia (1935)
• German annexation of Sudetenland (Czechoslovakia)
  1938
• Munich Agreement between Hitler and Chamberlein

5
Hitlers Rise to Power

• National Socialist Party (Nazis) win and becomes
  chancellor 1933
• National humiliation
• Economy devastated
• Hyper inflation
• Totalitarian state system
• Fascist and nationalist ideology
• Expansionist foreign policy

6
Appeasing Hitler

• March into Rhineland (1936)
• Annexation of Austria (1938)
• The Munich Agreement over Czechoslovakia (1938)
• Treaty between Germany and USSR

7
Blitzkrieg and Over-reach

• Germany invades Norway, Holland, Belgium, France,
  pushes back the British
• Germany invades USSR (1942)
• Japan and the US get involved (1941)
• Germany defeated 1945

8
The Nuremberg Trials (1945-1949)
9

• Causes of WWII?

10
Structural Causes

• Post WWI peace unstable Treaty of Versailles
• Failure of institutions and collective security
• Failure to balance German power

11
Domestic Politics

• Rise of fascism in Germany, Spain, Italy
• Isolationism in the US
• Imperialism in Japan
• The Great Depression and economic collapse
• Internal divisions in liberal democracies

12
The Role of Individuals

• Hitlers war?
• Poor judgment on the part of Neville Chamberlain?
• Miscalculation of by Japanese leadership?
• Wrong lessons learned from WWI?

13

• Was World War II inevitable?
• What factors contributed most to this event?

14
Lessons of WWII

• Appeasement leads to larger conflicts
• Nationalism taken to extreme dangerous
• Disillusionment with collective security and
  international institutions
• The Holocaust Never Again!

15
War and Its Causes

• Frequency of war 5500 years of recorded history
  14,500 wars.
• 278 from 1480 to 1940.
• 224 from 1816 to 1980
• Several causes of war (Farnsworth, 1992)
• Human nature
• Balance of power theory imbalances cause war,
  equilibrium causes peace
• Arms races and security dilemma
• Number of states in system - both directions
  some argue more equal powers equals less war
  others like Waltz that fewer is better
• Demands of domestic system - capitalist economies
  battle over rights to resources competing
  economic/political systems colonial wars
• Nationalism
• Bad leadership and policy choices