What were the long-term
consequences of the peace treaties of 1919–23?
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At first, the British were satisfied with the harsh treaty. But by the 1930s many were taking the view that
the treaty was excessively harsh.
-
The French took the view that the Treaty was not harsh enough,
many aspects of the treaty were designed to make a repeat attack on France
impossible and another attack from a resurgent Germany was France's main
concerns
-
The Treaty of Versailles was hated by the German people and this
was used very effectively by Hitler to help him become German leader in 1933
St Germaine
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Lost territory to Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia, Italy and Poland
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Reparations
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Armed forces limited to 30,000 men
Neuilly
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Territory lost to Yugoslavia, Greece and Romania
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Reparations of £100 million
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Armed forces limited to 20, 00
Trianon
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Territory lost to Romania, Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia
-
Reparations to be paid
-
Armed forces limited
Seures
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Territory lost to Greece, Italy and Bulgaria
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Parts of land became British or French mandates or French
protectorates
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Reparations to be paid
-
Armed forces were limited
Versailles
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War Guilt Clause - had to accept blame for starting war
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Reparations - £6.6 billion
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Territories and Colonies - colonies became mandates of L of N,
Alsace- Lorraine returned to France, lost land to Poland, forbidden to unite
with Austria
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Armed Forces - army limited to 100,000 men, conscription banned,
not allowed armoured vehicles, submarines or aircraft, navy could have 6 ships,
Rhineland was demilitarised
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League of Nations was set up - not able to join until 1930's
Hitler’s foreign policy to
1939:
1.
Reversal of the Treaty of Versailles
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Return of lost land
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Abandonment of reparations
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Removing restriction of Germany’s military
2.
Acquisition of “Lebensraum”
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More “living space” for the German people – expansion eastwards
3.
Destruction of communism
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Suggested war with the USSR
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To Hitler communists and Jews were linked
4.
The creation of “Gross Deutschland”
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To create a “greater Germany”
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This includes all ethnic Germans
5.
Supremacy of the “Herrenvolk”
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To create a “master race”
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Non Aryans may be tolerated – unless they were Jews or Slavs
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Removing restriction of Germany’s military
The Wall Street Crash 1929
-
The Great Depression created severe economic problems across the
world and leading democratic countries such as Britain and France felt unable
to spend money on military actions supporting the League.
-
The world-wide economic problems caused by the Wall Street crash
and the Depression that followed meant that millions of ordinary people lost
their jobs and ability to support their families.
-
Many blamed the democratic system of government for the problems
and turned their support to extreme political parties such as the Nazis
The Disarmament Conference
1932 – 1934
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The League wanted all counties to give up aggression
-
The main problem that they were discussing was what to do with
Germany. Germany had been involved in the league since 1926 and people has
started to accept that Germany should be treated more fairly
-
Germany wanted the terms of the Treaty to be abolished
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The Germans walked out of the conference in July 1932 when the
other counties refused to reverse the terms, Hitler then left the League
The Saar 1935
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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 was to be held after 15 years to decide if it was to
be returned to the Germans. 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 and Conscription
1935
-
Hitler has doubled arms spending in 1934, but only in 1935 did he
re-introduce conscription
-
The German army was to be built up to hold a million men in 35
divisions
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.
-
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.
Stresa Front 1935
-
The Stresa Front was an informal agreement by Britain, France and
Italy to keep Nazi Germany under control and mainly to stop Nazi Germany taking
over Austria.
Occupation of the Rhineland
1936
-
Hitler moved German troops back into the demilitarised area of the
Rhineland.
-
This was a risk for Hitler as it was clearly a breach of the terms
of the Treaty of Versailles, the German army consisted of only 22,000 men and
if the French army had reacted they would have retreated.
-
The men were also under strict orders to withdraw if they were
faced with any opposition but, neither the French nor British did anything
Spanish Civil War 1936 -1939
-
Hitler sent military support to General Franco in his rebellion
against the left-wing government of Spain
-
This helped cement the relationship with Italy, already improving
since the Abyssinian crisis, Mussolini had also placed troops in Spain
-
It gave valuable experience to the Luftwaffe which practised its
bombing skills on various Spanish towns
-
This helped install a friendly fascist regime, the third in Europe
Annexation of Austria 1938
-
Hitler was Austrian born and he wished to see Germany and Austria
united as one country
-
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 didn't resign.
-
The Nazis also held their own votes regarding the unification with
Germany and 99% of those who voted were in favour of the union.
-
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 didn't take any
action.
Destruction of Czechoslovakia
1938
-
Hitler invaded and occupied the remains of Czechoslovakia
-
Bohemia and Moravia were now controlled by Germany.
-
Slovakia was independent in theory; however it was largely
dominated by Germany.
-
Large armies and industries had to be handed over
-
The invasion added “Lebensraum” and “Grossdeutschland”
Munich Conference 1938
-
Neville Chamberlain made one last attempt to maintain peace at the
Munich Conference.
-
Chamberlain met with Daladier, Hitler and Mussolini at Munich in a
bid to resolve the Sudeten Crisis.
-
The Czech representatives weren’t 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.
-
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.
The Pact of Steel 1939
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The pact was signed between Hitler and Mussolini.
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They promised to act together regarding future events that may
take place. It was clear that Europe was now being divided
Nazi Soviet Pact 1939
-
The German Foreign Minister, Ribbentrop, and the Soviet Foreign
Minister, Molotov, signed the Nazi-Soviet Non-Aggression Pact
-
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.
-
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.
-
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.
Invasion of Poland and the outbreak of the war 1939
-
Hitler decided to invade Poland soon after Germany had signed the
Nazi-Soviet Pact.
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Because of the pact he didn’t 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 and Britain and France would do anything to
avoid 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.
-
On the 1939, Hitler sent German troops into Poland and Britain and
France had to act to due to “collective security”
How far was Hitler’s foreign
policy to blame for the outbreak of war in 1939?
-
Hitler had an aggressive foreign policy which included expanding
Germany territory to create more "living space" for overcrowded
Germans and overturning the Treaty of Versailles
-
In accordance with this policy Hitler took "the 5 steps to
war" in re-militarizing the Rhineland, created an Anschluss with Austria
making Germany stronger which corresponds to the policy of "Greater
Germany"
-
Hitler took over the Sudetenland
of Czechoslovakia overturning the Treaty of Versailles and took over the
rest of Czechoslovakia creating more living space doing the same with the
invasion of Poland
-
Invading Poland finally triggered aid from Britain and France who
declared war on Germany just 2 days later.
-
Hitler's aims for Germany were only achievable through aggression
and therefore were a very important factor.
-
There were also several other contributing factors to the outbreak
of war in 1939 including failures by the league of nations, the allies policy
of appeasement and the great depression.
What were the consequences of
the failures of the League in the 1930s?
-
The Manchurian and Abyssinian crisis proved the league to be
ineffective which led to Hitler gaining confidence and starting his 5 steps to
war
-
They has also failed to reach an agreement at the disarmament
conference, Hitler pulled out and began to rearm and prepare for war in 1939
Was the policy of appeasement
justified?
-
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
Arguments for Appeasement
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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.
-
Pacifism was on a high the public did not want to fight another
war
-
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 wasn’t ready to go to war. Rearmament had only started
slowly in 1936 and the British forces were no match of the Germans.
-
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 wasn’t right that Britain and France were allowing Germany to
break the terms of the Treaty of Versailles.
-
Going to war would solve economic problems through rearmament, as
jobs were created
-
Chamberlain misjudged Hitler. He had believed that he was simply a
normal leader. Appeasement encouraged Hitler that he could do anything he
wanted.
-
It didn’t prevent a war.
The increasing militarism of
Germany, Italy and Japan
Aggressive nationalism of
Japan
-
Japan was not looked upon as a threat to peace in the 1920’s, like
Italy she had been on the allied side in the first world war however several
factors combined to make the country more aggressive
-
The depression wrecked the Japanese economy, which relied on
exports from countries like USA, by 1931 half of Japan’s factories were idle
and unemployment and poverty had rapidly increased
-
In 1932 the Japanese prime minister was murdered after this the
military took over and ran the government
-
Japan had only few raw materials necessary for a modern economy,
with international trade disrupted it had to take them by force
Aggressive nationalism of
Italy
-
In 1922 Mussolini seized power in Italy, his fascist part brutally
suppressed political opposition, Hitler borrowed many ideas from Fascist Italy
-
Mussolini aimed to turn Italy into a great power and acquire raw
materials which Italy lacked
-
Muss pursed a policy of “aggressive nationalism”, putting the
interests of you own country first
-
The aggressive approach was in part of a reaction to a sense of
national inferiority, Italy had been dominated by others for the last century,
lagging behind other European states
Aggressive nationalism of
Germany
-
Following World War I Germany was torn apart by the Treaty of
Versailles
-
The German people were forced to deal with harsh punishments
imposed onto them by the Allies at the 1919 Treaty of Versailles, precipitating
a hyperinflation and terrible economic crises.
-
The Germans, angry at their own situation in the 1920s, chose to
blame other minorities for their problems
-
This meant that Hitler with his strong nationalistic speeches was
brought to power with a massive popular support in 1933 due to the rise of
extremist parties
-
Hitler knew how to achieve him German foreign policy aims from the
start, Hitler exploited political opportunities as they arose ruthlessly
-
Between 1932 and 1939 Germany increased the navy from 30 to 95
warships, the air force from 36 to 8250 planes, and the army from 100,000 to almost
a million soldiers
How important was the
Nazi-Soviet Pact?
-
It allowed Hitler to invade Poland without having to worry about
fighting Russia as well, a war on two front his main problem from world war one
-
It ended any hopes the Western Allies had of using Russia against
Germany
-
Hitler became so over-confident as a result of this pact that he
did not believe the Allies would honour their promise to protect Poland from
Germany
-
The pact was significant to Hitler because it could be argued that
without it being signed he would not have gone to war
Why did Britain and France
declare war on Germany in September 1939?
-
Hitler was intent on conquering the sovereign nations of Europe
-
Hitler had already annexed Austria and Britain and France allowed
him to annex the Sudetenland of Czechoslovakia in the Munich Agreement.
-
When Hitler invaded the rest of Czechoslovakia it proved
appeasement had failed. The only other choice was to declare war.
-
Hitler is hugely responsible for the war but it wasn’t just his
fault. The other countries, Britain and France also held some responsibility.
-
The USSR signing the Nazi Soviet Pact meant that Germany could
invade Poland without having to face the risk of a Soviet attack.
-
Britain and France’s Policy of Appeasement had led Hitler to believe
that he could get away with anything.
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