The World Between WarsFrom Versailles to the Brink of War

Preview Questions

• What issues did Europe face after WWI?• How did the Great Depression affect the

world’s economy? • What political philosophies were adopted by

Germany, Italy, Japan, Spain, the USSR, Britain, France, and the United States in the 1930s?

• What events led to the outbreak of WWII?

The Legacy of World War I

• The Failures of the Treaty of Versailles – Rise in nationalism – Economic depression – Rise of authoritarian governments

“In general, it has seemed that the treaty was either to harsh or too mild. It was too harsh to reconcile Germany with its former war enemies and to integrate it into a lasting peaceful postwar order, and it was too

mild to weaken Germany so as to make it impossible for it to ever again become a great power.

-Professor Raffael Scheck, Colby College

The Legacy of World War I

• The War’s Extreme Cost – Nearly 30 million causalities– $338 billion in economic costs– Destruction of homes, farms, towns

“In France and Belgium, where most of the war was fought, 300,000 houses, 6,000 factories, 1,000 miles of railway, 2,000 breweries and 112 coal mines were destroyed…In

some ways, mankind has never recovered from the horrors of the First World War.”

-John D. Clare, First World War (1994)

The Legacy of World War I

• The “Lost Generation”– Term used to describe disillusionment, insecurity,

and despair following WWI

“All of you young people who served in the war. You are a lost generation...”

– Author Gertrude Stein as quoted in epigraph of Ernest Hemingway’s The Sun

Also Rises.

The Great Depression

• Causes – Uneven distribution of wealth– Overproduction– Decreased consumer demand– Risky stock market investments

• World economy depended on U.S. prosperity

The Great Depression

• Effects– U.S. aid to Europe

declines– Decreased world trade– Soaring unemployment– Loss of faith in

democratic governments – Renewed interest in

Communism and Socialism

GERMANY

• The Weimar Republic– Germany’s democratic

government formed in 1919

– Blamed for WWI defeat and the terms of the Treaty of Versailles

“The Weimar Republic was not successful for a number of reasons. Perhaps the most formidable reason was that the fledgling republic was a political experiment for a country that had only known the reign of Kaisers for much of its recent history…

The times were not conducive to an emerging republic: economic problems, threatening national bankruptcy, unemployment and social unrest all lead to the failure. With over 30 parties near the end of the Republic, German citizens responded positively to Hitler's call to fervent nationalism, law and order, and a return to the tradition moral sense of the Fatherland.”

- Elizabeth Kirkley Best, Ph.D.

GERMANY“Many observers -- politicians and historians -- have tended to blame the rise of the Nazis on Versailles,

following the dictum of an eminent democratic German politician. When asked about the ultimate reasons for

the failure of the democratic Weimar Republic, he replied: "Versailles and Moscow." By "Moscow" he

meant that subversive communist activity guided by the Russian Bolshevist government had undermined democracy in tandem with the Nazis. By mentioning

"Versailles" he claimed that the peace treaty had had detrimental effects on the viability and domestic

authority of the German democracy.”

– Professor Raffael Scheck, Colby College

GERMANY

• Economic Crisis– Hyper-inflation of 1923– Staggering war reparations– People question the value of the government

In November 1923, one U.S. dollar was equal to one trillion German marks. (PBS.org)

In this picture, a woman uses German marks for fuel.

GERMANY

GERMANY

• Efforts at Lasting Peace– Treaty of Locarno• France and Germany pledge not to wage war against

each other• Germany promises to respect French and Belgian

borders• Germany joins League of Nations

GERMANY

• Efforts at Lasting Peace– Kellogg-Briand Pact• Major nations renounce

war as an instrument of national policy

– League of Nations • No military forces • U.S. refusal to join

“I dare predict that the influence of the Treaty for the Renunciation of War will be felt in a large proportion of all

future international acts.”

-U.S. President Herbert Hoover

“The League is very well when sparrows shout, but no good at all

when eagles fall out.”

-Benito Mussolini

GERMANY

• National Socialism – Extreme Nationalism – Superiority of Aryan Race– Expansionism

• Lebensraum: Living Space

• Beer Hall Putsch– Failed coup led by Hitler

in 1923– Spends 9 months in jail

and writes Mein Kampf

GERMANY“ Never forget that the most sacred right on this earth is man's right to have the

earth to till with his own hands, the most sacred sacrifice the blood that a man sheds for this earth....”

- Hitler in Mein Kampf

“The broad masses of a population are more amenable to the appeal of rhetoric than to any other force.”

- Hitler in Mein Kampf

“I believe that I am acting in accordance with the will of the Almighty Creator: by defending myself against the Jew, I am fighting for the work of the Lord.”

-Hitler in Mein Kampf

“What we have to fight for is the freedom and independence of the fatherland, so that our people may be enabled to fulfill the mission assigned to it by the creator.”

- Hitler in Mein Kampf

GERMANY

• Hitler Becomes Chancellor– Appointed chancellor in 1933– Appointed dictator in 1934– Turns Germany into a

totalitarian state– Power relied on secret police,

propaganda, censorship, and indoctrination

– Rise of the Nazis

Adolf Hitler (left) and Herman Göring (right) at a January 1933 Berlin rally to celebrate Hitler's

appointment as Chancellor.

- Photo: Rabbi Herscel Schachter, courtesy of USHMM

GERMANY

“Health, child protection, fighting poverty, aiding

travelers, community, helping mothers: These are the tasks

of the National Socialist People's Charity. Become a

member!”

Posters via http://www.calvin.edu/academic/cas/gp

a/posters2.htm

GERMANY

“"Long live Germany!." "Before: Unemployment, hopelessness, desolation, strikes, lockouts. Today: Work,

joy, discipline, camaraderie. Give the Führer your vote!"

ITALY

• Benito Mussolini – Fascism: Emphasize

nationalism and needs of the state

– Used Black Shirts to capture Rome in 1922

– Appointed Prime Minister in 1922

“The truth is that men are tired of liberty. “ –Benito Mussolini

“The keystone of the Fascist doctrine is its conception of the State, of its

essence, its functions, and its aims. For Fascism the State is absolute,

individuals and groups relative. “

-Benito Mussolini

SPAIN

• Civil War– Fascists, led by

Francisco Franco, overthrow the democratic government

– Establish dictatorship– Franco aided by Hitler

and Mussolini

Spanish dictator Francisco Franco

SOVIET UNION

• Joseph Stalin – Totalitarianism:

Complete control of people

– Collectivized land– “5 Year Plans” to

modernize– Killed 8-13 million people

JAPAN

• Militarists Control Japan – Focus on creating an

empire through expansion in the Pacific

– Fulfill need for raw goods, new markets, and population expansion

– General Hideki Tojo appointed Prime Minister in 1941

Japanese Emperor Hirohito at an Army inspection in 1938

BRITAIN AND FRANCE

• Strongest democracies in Western Europe

• Desire to Avoid War – Horrors of WWI– Still rebuilding– Recovering from Great

Depression

• Appeasement: Giving in to an aggressor’s demands

Surveying the destruction in London 1915

UNITED STATES• Isolationism– Belief that political ties

to other countries should be avoided

– Neutrality Acts (1935): Banned the sale of arms to nations at war

“Providing for the prohibition of the export of arms, ammunition, and implements of war

to belligerent countries; the prohibition of the transportation of arms, ammunition, and implements of war by vessels of the United

States for the use of belligerent states…”

- The Neutrality Act of 1935

THE ROAD TO WAR

• Manchurian Invasion– Japan invades

Manchuria in 1931– “Condemned” by League

of Nations, but no action taken

– Encouraged Mussolini and Hitler to begin expansion

Manchuria was a region rich in iron and coal. Once occupied, the Japanese built mines and

factories in Manchuria.

THE ROAD TO WAR

• Italy invades Ethiopia in 1935

• Hitler Defies the Treaty of Versailles (3/35)– Began rebuilding military– Invaded Rhineland (3/36)– Formed Rome-Berlin Axis

(10/36)– Allied with Japan (11/36)

Ethiopian men standing with Italian soldiers cs. 1935-1936.

-Image via Corbis

THE ROAD TO WAR

• Massacre at Nanjing (Dec. 1937 – March 1938)– Japanese troops capture Chinese city of Nanjing – 250,000-300,000 people murdered

Chinese prisoners being buried alive by their Japanese captors outside the city of Nanjing,

during the infamous Rape of Nanjing.

-www.corbis.com

THE ROAD TO WAR• German Reich Expands– Anschluss: Annexed

Austria in March 1938

A billboard in Austria reads “Common Blood Belongs Together in one Reich”

-Image via Corbis

THE ROAD TO WAR

– The Sudetenland• A region of Czechoslovakia annexed in 1938

THE ROAD TO WAR

• Munich Pact (September 1938) – Hitler’s demand of Sudetenland appeased by

Britain and France

“I believe it is peace for our time” – British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain upon returning

from the Munich Conference

“Britain and France had to choose between war and

dishonor. They chose dishonor. They will have war”

– Future Prime Minister Winston Churchill’s reaction to the Munich Pact

THE ROAD TO WAR

• Nazi-Soviet Non-Aggression Pact (1939)– Agree not to attack each other– Secretly agree to divide Poland

OUTBREAK OF WAR

• September 1, 1939: Germany invades Poland– Considered start of

WWII• September 3, 1939:

Britain and France declare war on Germany “Invading German troops approach

Bydgoszcz. Poland. September 18, 1939.”

-http://www.ushmm.org