WWI NOTES

Identify THREE common features of interwar dictatorships. 3 marks

All interwar dictatorships saw the creation of a single party state with mass ideology; the USSR saw the Bolsheviks rise to power, Italy the National Fascist Party, Nazis, and Tojo’s autocratic beaurocracy. They all utilised a system of terror - assassinating political enemies, and initiated a planned economy.

Describe the role of ONE prominent individual in the Nazi State to 1939

Gertrud Scholtz Klink was a prominent individual, in charge of the National Socialist Women’s League and 1934 head of Women’s Bureau in the German Labour Front, put in charge of Nazi’s mother service, aiming to increase birth rates. She was significant as the figurehead of the NSD which replaced all women’s organisations and for her role in encouraging German women to play subservient roles in the domestic sphere. She was significant for propaganda use, to show the Third Reich’s interest in women and their importance in society - though her views were considered unimportant and she never sat in cabinet meetings.

1)  Describe the role of one prominent individual in Nazi Germany. (3 marks).

Joseph Goebbels was head of the Nazi Party’s Propaganda Department, and would later become Minister of Propaganda and Public Enlightenment when Hitler was appointed Chancellor. He controlled media and the arts, using it to elevate perceptions of Hitler, and was a propagandist who helped sustain the Hitler Myth. He was also the prime organiser of Kristallnacht, the first coordinated nationwide act of public violence against the German Jewish community.

Outline the conditions that led to the rise of dictators in the interwar period (4 marks)

The end of World War I set the stage for new conflicts, with radical revolutionaries emerging amidst social hardship, political instability, and economic struggle. The Treaty of Versailles angered and humiliated Germany, created frustration in Italy over unmet territorial promises, and pushed Japan towards ultra-nationalism when their racial equality clause was rejected by the Allies. The war devastated economies and revealed governmental incapacity, leading to widespread disillusionment with liberal democracy. In Italy, economic decline caused parliamentary democracy to collapse, while the Great Depression fostered authoritarianism in Japan and Germany. Germany's economy, tied to reparations, hyperinflation, and reliance on U.S. loans, saw a drastic decline in living standards and business closures. Furthermore, the war's brutality permeated society, making violence and authoritarianism more acceptable. Democracy came to be seen as serving only the governing elite, fuelling a desire for a political party to transcend politics. Prewar fears of a cultural crisis intensified post-war, with dictators promising cultural and national renewal Propaganda filled with hate transformed previously non-violent societies into ones where political opponents engaged in abusive rhetoric and violence, further paving the way for dictatorial regimes.

1.      How did the peace treaties following WWI contribute to a rise in tensions in the 1920s?

The peace treaties following WWI, particularly the Treaty of Versailles, significantly contributed to rising tensions in the 1920s by reshaping the political landscape of Europe and leaving many nations dissatisfied. The harsh terms imposed on Germany, including heavy reparations and territorial losses, fostered resentment and economic instability, creating fertile ground for extremist ideologies. Italy, feeling shortchanged by the Treaty of Saint-Germain, harbored nationalist resentment due to unmet territorial promises. Japan resented the Western powers' refusal to include clauses on racial equality, while Russia's exclusion from the peace process altogether added to its isolation and dissatisfaction. The disappearance of four European empires and the creation of new countries displaced millions, further destabilizing the region and setting the stage for future conflicts.

Different peace treaties?

1. Treaty of Versailles → Germany

2. Treaty of St Germain → Austria

   1. Landlocked country, army cut down to 10,000, to pay reparations Anschlauss forbidden

3. Treaty of Neuilly → Bulgaria

   1. Lost western Thrace to Greece, army limited to 20,000 and was to pay reparations

4. Treaty of Sevres → Turkey (later Lausanne)

   1. First, reparations and army limited to 50,000. However, Turkey would retain its areas and no reparations needed

5. Treaty of Trianon → Hungary

   1. Small, landlocked state, lost Slovakia and Transylvania went to Romania. Army limited to 35,000. to pay reparations

Outline the Treaty of Versailles:

1. Reparations → 40 billion

2. ‘War guilt clause’

3. Lost its colonies

4. Army limited to 100,000 and only 6 battleships

5. Lost over 100,000 square km of territory and 7 million people

Consequences of the Treaties:

1. Political geography of Europe

   1. four empires disappeared, landlocked states, Polish cooridoor cut off.

2. Future hope?

   1. Woodrow wilson hoped the peace treaties would bring about new order, the “world to end all worlds”

3. Beyond Europe:

   1. Return to isolationist traditional policy for US

   2. Japan offended by racial equality clauses

   3. National feeling growing (ie Ho Chi Minh)

4. Dangerous future for Europe:

   1. Discontented minorities

   2. Humiliated, angry Germany

   3. Excluded Russia

What caused dictatorships to rise?

Prewar conditions: progress to parliamentary government but growing attack on that system → radicalisation of politics

Cultural crisis → prewar, many believed Europe was in crisis. After war, ideas intensified, dictators claimed they could bring this reform

The Great War → TOV angered and humiliated Germans, planted seeds of distrust and frustration in Italy, Japan’s move to ultranationalism

Interwar economics: undermined democracy, crises accelerated transition from liberal democracy to dictatorship → Italy suffered decline, led to collapse and Mussolini. Depression in Japan helped bring authoritarian rule. Economic issues and social issues civil war → Russia

The GD: Living standards fell, businesses closed, unemployment soared. Dictatorships promised simple solutions to complex problems

Post WWI Political struggle: parliamentary democracy → nations under authoritarian governments and monarch empires not used to democracy. Proportional representation → fragmented legislations, narrow sectional interests magnified divisions between ethnic, religious and political groups

Cult of personalities

Ideology of Bolsheviks:

Marxist ideology with ideals expanded upon by Lenin’s own pphilosophy

• Radical transformation of society → empire overthrown by bourgeois → proletariat overthrow

Features of Russia’s dictatorship:

Economy: Socialism in one country (NEPMEN and KULAKS) → centrally planned economy, collectivisation, Five Year Plans

System of terror: single party state, newspapers, speeches, firms, monitored people. Cult of personality → images of Stalin everywhere, ‘Lenin’s disciple’. Old Bolsheviks eliminated and executed, purges (700,000 of 1.5 million arrested executed)

Society and culture: New society supposedly communist ideas of collective effort, self discipline, but Stalin reversed (family code 1936). Secular society free of religion, restriction of culutral expression, communist youth group KOMSOMOL.

Foreign policy: interplay between ideology but ultimately would see Russia seek national security over revolutionary ideals

Ideology of Mussolini:

Adjusted away from radical themes that criticised the monarchy and catholic church → emphasise a strong nationalist vision that widened fascist audience and appeal. Included traditional nationalism and non-marxist socialism

Why did Italy fall to dictatorship?

• Left Paris Peace Conference dissatisfied:

  • lost over 650,000 men: inefficiency

  • promises in Treaty of London not upheld (no territories!!)

  • Large loans but struggled with repayments → economic collapse

  • By 1920, 2 million Italians unemployed, political instability

• PNF benefited from social unrest → Mussolini a skilled orator, inspired followers. Flexible with ideas, coincided with decline influence of Italy’s popular parties, fascism claimed to be a ‘third option’.. II Duce

Features of Italy’s dictatorship:

Economy:

• Important reforms: Battle for Grain, aimed to make self sufficient. Never took control like USSR

• Attempts to organise according to corporatist principles, ‘Rocco law’, 22 cooperations established, prestige projects

System of terror:

• Single party dictatorship: propaganda, press censorship

• Musssolini’s cult of personality, ‘new cesar’

• Blackshirt violence used, secret police OVRA, violent repression in colonies

• Mussolini never achieved full control, Catholic Church, Army and Monarchy existed separately

Society and culture:

• Conservative sociocultural practices, Catholicism official, women expected to stay at home → Wages Law (50%), adultery illegla

• Education system, youth groups but limited

Foreign policy:

• Expansionary → restore power and prestige of Italy, ‘Spazio Vitale’

• Sponsorship of fascist movements

• Invasion of Abyssynia, interference in Spanish civil war

Why did Japan’s dictatorship rise?

Series of crises: Rice riots, Great Kanto earthquake, communist ideas spread and so government restricted left wing influence

Versailles left Japan disatisfied: Shandong problem. Humiliated when Britain and US forced Japan to accept strict limitations on Naval fleet (60%)

Great Depression harmed Japanese economy, tensions grew, radical ideas more popular

Political assassinations and attempts → failed military coup

Chiang Kai Shek saw Japan’s economic interests in China threatened

Growing domestic population put stress on Japan’s resources and food supplied (adopted imperialistic ambitions)

Why was dictatorship in Japan accelerated?

• The Great Depression:

  • economy harmed, 40% UE, moderate parties lost popularity

• Manchurian incident:

  • Chinese hostilities, railway blew up, Japan blamed China and declared war, army occupied Mukden, League accused them, they left

• Right Wing terrorism:

  • Frustrated groups turned to violence, extremist groups like Black Sea society → assassination of more than 2 presidents

Japan’s ideology:

• Appeal to traditional values, resurrection of internationalism, military ultranationalism

  • Ideas of Kokutai → dissolution of parties in favour of emperor ruling, racial superiority, militarism → samurai, bushido, territorial expansion

• 1938: Japanese government launched concept of New Order in East Asia

• Unite in partnership → Great East Asian co-prosperity scheme

Features of Japan’s dictatorship

AUTOCRATIC BUREAUCRACY

economy: militarist imperialism → Japanese capitalism where Zaibatsu dominated

System of terror: left wing politicans, groups and individuals ttargetted (TOKKO secret police) and Kenpeitai. 1925 Peace Preservation law, gov censorhsip

Society and culture: Japanese emperor head of national family, service and sacrifice part of the dictatorship → militarism promoted, National Spiritual Mobilisation Movement to promote nationalism. Women’s groups and youth groups assissted in propaganda

Foreign policy: Abandonment of diplomatic cooperation, invasions

Reasons for the collpase of the Weimar Republic?

1. Long term (failure of democracy)

2. Short term (economic conditions, rise of Nazi Party)

Depression most important

Events in Nazi consolidation of power:

1. Beer Hall Putsch (significance)

2. Reichstag Fire (suspended right to assembly, reign of terror)

3. March elections 1933 (violence, goerring’s auxilary police, dissemination of propaganda)

4. Enabling Act (emergency powers for next 4 years)

5. Banning of Opposition and becoming single party state

6. Light of Long Knives (1934)

7. Process of Gleischaltung (special political courts, nuremberg laws in 1935, banning of ungerman books as early as 33, communism banned, coordination of states, civil service law, chancellor and president combined, trade unions bannedm DLF created)

8. Death of President Von Hindenberg

The Nature of Nazi ideology

German nationalism → destruction of Versailles and restoring Germany’s power

Racial theory: Volksgemeinschaft→ Aryan race and Jewish people as Volksfeind

Fuhrerprinzip: complete loyalty to Hitler

Social darwinist struggle: struggle in part for Lebensraum → seek racial strategies → embrace natural conflict → triumph for German people. Justified war, rejected liberal democracy, influenced health policy

Anti-communist: opposed to marxism, free market capitalism, ein rich, ein volk, ein fuhrer

Key groups in the Nazi Party:

Einsatzgruppen: SS death squads

Freikorps: right wing and anti-semitic organisation

Gestapo: secret police

SA: Nazi private army

SD: internal police force, intelligence service

SS: originally Hitler’s personal bodyguard squad

Key individuals in the Nazi state:

Hitler: Fuhrer. Propogation of Hitler myth → quasi veneration

Goebells: Head of NSDAP Propaganda Department: control over media and arts → control perceptions of Hitler by Nazi Party → propagandist, prime organiser of Kristellnacht

Robert Ley: Head of German Labour front: introduced Strength through Training.

Methods used by the Nazi regime to exercise control:

Laws - consolidate power → appearance of legality:

• Fire Decree: suspended civil liberties

• Decree for the Defence Against Malicious Attacks against the government: criminalised dissent, beginning of supression

• Law Against the Establishment of Parties: NSDAP only allowed to exist → consolidated power

• New Gestapo Law → compromise of individual rights and subsequent power over individual

• Nuremberg Laws: reinforced Nazi ideology, justified protection of German society, reich citizenship laws

• Decree against the camoflauge of Jewish businesses: banned name changes

Propaganda: emphasise and celebrate achievements of Nazi regime, promote policy or enlightenment of citizens.

i. radios → loudspeakers permeated everywhere

ii. cinema → censorship, conditioned to unquestionably support regime. I ACCUSE, TRIUMPH OF THE WILL

iii. Newspapers → controlled dissemination of information

iv. rallies: sense of belonging, Volksgemeinschaft

v. art: supported Hitler’s cult of personality

vi. architecture: created sensation of a single, cohesive community

vii. Literature: increased Nazi credibility, indoctrination

viii. music: exposure to nazi ideology

CENSORSHIP:

Editors Law, Reich Chamber of culture, book burnings ‘think uniformly, react uniformly and place themselves body and soul at the disposal of the govt’

REPRESSION AND TERROR:

Eliminate potential political opponents and ensure complete conformity. Blockleiters - gossip listening, atmosphere of fear and suspicion that prevailed → brutality of concentration camps, effectiveness.

Intentions of the League of Nations:

• Achieve international peace and security, where all members were obligated to not to resort to war

• Disputes between nations to be resolved by consultation and arbitration

• Member nations agreed to respect and preserve territorial integrity and independent

• General disarmament

• Trade sanctions, joint military action against aggressors

Successes of the League of Nations

Failed in primary goal of preventing war, Hobsbawn said it was ‘an institution for collecting statistics’.

• Settled dispute between Finland and Sweden over Aland islands

• Ended Yugoslavia’s invasion of Albania in 1921

• Stopped war between Greece and Bulgaria in 1925

• Humanitarian efforts → tackled slavery and drug trade, working conditions

Weaknesses of the League of Nations:

• Some major powers were not members (only britain and france were)

• Members didn’t always agree and had their own agendas “nations were not prepared to hand over to the league any real power” Stromberg

• League did not have a military force

The failure of the league and its escalation to WWI?

Manchuria → Mukden incident, Japan didn’t listen, ‘feebleness’ of League of Nations -Kershaw

Hitler’s withdrawal from disarmament converence

Abyssinian Crisis: Trade sanctions, oil not included → “The crisis was fatal to the league. nobody took it serious again” Historian JR Western.

Together with the Manchurian Crisis, Abyssinian Crisis highlighted the league would not stand up to countries, ‘Discredted the league mortally” -historian Overy

Ambitions of Germany in Europe

Weimar Period:

• Germany did not accept the Treaty of Versailles.

• Weimar foreign policy aimed to restore German strength, refusing reparations and seeking diplomatic cooperation with Western powers.

Nazi Period (1933 Onwards):

• Continuity in Foreign Policy:

  • Overthrowing Versailles restrictions (disarmament, army size, demilitarized Rhineland).

  • Nationalist agenda (rearmament, territorial recovery, uniting ethnic Germans, securing resources).

• Change in Foreign Policy:

  • Focus on racial purity and the Herrenvolk (master race), seeking Lebensraum (living space) in Eastern Europe.

Early 1930s:

• Diplomacy and Alliances:

  • Temporary cooperation with Western powers.

  • Sought alliances with Britain (Aryan, anti-communist) and Italy (fascist ally).

  • Formed the Rome-Berlin Axis (1936), Anti-Comintern Pact (1937), and Pact of Steel (1939) with Italy.

Mid-1930s to WWII:

• Aggressive Moves:

  • Reintroduced conscription (1935).

  • Anglo-German Naval Agreement (1935).

  • Reoccupation of the Rhineland (1936).

• Appeasement and Expansion:

  • Britain and France's passive responses encouraged Hitler.

  • Annexation of Austria (Anschluss).

  • Demanded and received the Sudetenland (Munich Conference and Pact, 1938).

• Further Aggression:

  • Occupied the rest of Czechoslovakia (1939).

  • Nazi-Soviet Pact (1939) ensured non-aggression and divided Eastern Europe.

  • Invaded Poland on September 1, 1939, prompting Britain and France to declare war.

Factors contributing to the ambitions in Asia Pacific

• Chinese Nationalist Party posed a threat to Japanese interests

• Increasing power of USSR placed Japanese interests in northern China and Manchuria at risk

Early 1930s German foreign policy:

• Alliances with other nations, cooperation

• Wanted agreement with Britain (anti-cmmunist, aryan, but never happened → Rome Berlin Axis and anti-comintern pact)

Mid 1930s German Foreign Policy:

• Rearmament, mandatory conscription. reoccupation of the Rhineland

The passive, neutral responses of France and Britain emboldened Hitler → Anschluss, then request of Sudetenntland, and promised this would be his last territorial demand. Britain and France used appeasement → highest point during the Munich Pact (ultimatum)

Soviet pact and then invasion of Poland in 1939, Britain and France declared war as a diplomatic gesture to maintain prestige as powers

Factors contributing to ambitions in Asia Pacific in the 20s and early 30s:

• Chinese Nationalist Party a threat to Japan

• Increasing power of USSR and Manchuria at risk

• Japan’s resentment of the west for dualistic foreign policy, “For over a century and a half the Asiatics have been pressed down by the Whites and subjected to Western tyranny”

• Mukden incident → internationalism replaced by perceptions of nationalism, expansionist policy

• When Hitler invaded Poland, WWII began in Europe → Western colonial powers distracted by Germany’s impressive victories → power vacuum and time for Japan to increase its sphere of influence

Factors contributing to ambitions in Asia Pacific in the Mid-to-late 30s and 40s

• Feeling of encirclement: dependent on imports, Japan needed to refrain from expansionism or advance into South East for resources

• Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere → self sufficient coalition of Asian nations led by Japan, promising to free Asians from European domination → attempt to justify military aggression

• Japanese racial superiority

• Axis Treaty → US embargoes on all war materials except oil → freezing of Japanese assets final straw

• Saw these sanctions as bullying from the west, saw a solution of attacking Pearl Harbour

Significant achievements in the first year of the UN?

• discussion over peaceful use of nuclear energy

• drafting of declaration of human rights

• crime of genocide recognised

• address post-war problems of refugees and food shortages

• specialist agencies: including IMF

Main intentions of the UN:

• Maintain international peace and security

• Promote and foster friendly relationships among nations

• Assist nations to cooperate in solving international problems to an economic, social, cultural and humanitarian nature

• To promote respect for humanitarian rights

Successes of the UN:

There have not been any wars on the scale of WWI or WWII.

• Declaration of Human Rights

• Convention on Refugees

• Rights of the Child

• Mediated an armistice to end Korean War

• Ceasefire between Israel and Egypt

Failures and weaknesses of UN:

• Little achievement in terms of disarmament ie nuclear weapons

• Unresponsive to genocide

• Incapable of adequately dealing with dictatorship

• Filaed to prevent war

• Veto power undermines effectiveness to achieve effectiveness → internationalist principles not held above national self interest

• In early decades, the UN authority was undermined by the superpower rivalry of the USSR and US

Impact of Nazi regime on workers:

• Lost right to organise, freedom of movement, collective bargaining and to an extent vocational choice

• Rhetoric antagonised Jewish business owners in alignment with anti-semitic ideology, Decree on Jewish Businesses

• Subjected to propaganda to unite the workers into a collective united front after being led astray by ‘Marxist and Jewish’ leadership

• Important reforms that improved workers lives:

  • fixed rents

  • decline in heating and lighting costs

  • Beauty of Labour Office (improve working environments and gave an illusion of prosperity and worker satisfaction with Hitler’s policies and leadership)

• Worker Programmes increased, DAF established, ‘the real job was to control German Labour, not work for its good’ -historian Thomsett

• Increased employment, unemployment eliminated 3x faster than US

• Labour pass -Arbetsbuch

• Strength Through Joy → aimed to encourage hard work (free holidays)

Worker opposition to Nazis:

‘'People’s manifesto’ called for removal of Nazis → declared illegal but still circulated

Strike threats, industrial conflicts → small and short lived

Absenteeism and resentment intensified in Measures of September 1939, wage cuts and civil conscirption →production disrupted in October

Georg Elser attempted assassination attempt on Hitler, also the Uhrig Group which encouraged worker disruption

Impacts of the Nazi regime on women:

• ‘Deprivation of rights’ by enforcing equality

  • Kinder, Kurch, Kuche

  • Volksgemeinschaft, Women’s Bureau

• Forcing women out of public service, employment and discouraging them entering other occupations

• Efforts to encourage marriage; marriage loans to women who would quit, free loans

• Efforts to encourage childrearing to produce more Aryan Children → Mothering Day, Mother’s cross medal → medals, tax writeoffs for more than 6 children

• Liberalisation of divorce, shut down of abortion clinics, abortion illegalised

• Traditional family unit, division into peer group associations by gender weakened family bonds

• Efforts to change appearance, i.e braided hair ineffective → Eva Braun continued wearing lipstick

Women’s opposition to the Nazi regime

Minna Cammens - distributing anti-Nazi pamphlets, husband recieved her ashes in a cigarette case

Sophie Schell → white rose group and executed with guillotine. Leaflets (intellectual group)

Impact of Nazi Germany on the Youth:

• Hitler Youth formed in 1922, gave a sense of belonging, unity, conditioning to support them. Reached all class lines

• ‘Hitler jugend and Madchen - given lectures on Nazi ideology, superiority of Aryan blood, taught to preserve the ‘purity of German blood’ and importance of Lebensraum

Impact of Nazis on education:

‘the whole function of schools was to create Nazis’

• centralised control of schools, stab in the back most important subjects

• school culture nazified

• biology → aryan race superior

• teachers spied on by students encouraged to challenge authority and denounce their teachers and parents

• HJ very successful → flag raising, parades, hikes, camping, wargames, indelible impression on young Germany

Youth opposition to the Nazis

• Edelweiss pirates: working class who engaged in physical confrontation

• Swing Youth: antipolitical group of jazz and singing lovers, admired African way of life

• White Rose: non violent, intellectual resistance group

Impact of Nazi Germany on cultural expression:

• culture used to promote:

  • antisemitism

  • importance of family and work

  • German nationalism

  • Membership into culture

  • Fertility of German Heimat

  • New holidays

  • Copy of Mein Kampf given to newlyweds

Impact of Nazi Germany on minorities:

• National boycott of jewish businesses

• Nuremberg laws

• Mischlinge of mixed blood

• Jewish works burned

• Kristellnacht, 100 Jews killed, 20,000 arrested, 1 billion reparations

• Exclusion of Jewish children

Roma/sinti people viewed as societal burdens due to nomadic nature → subject to German racial laws → eugenic beliefs

Reich Cental Office for Combatting the Gypsy Nuisance → persecution

Gays, Jehovahs killed for refusing to fight in war and commitment to peace and internationalism

Disabled people: Law for the Prevention of Diseased Progeny → streilisation of over 300,000, T4

Religion in Nazi Germany

• Originally Hitler gained support → Concordat which was immediately broken. Replacement of youth groups, ccrosses

• Reich ministry of Church affairs → quasi veneration of Hitler, modern pagan ceremonies, religious holidays

Religious opposition to Nazi regime

Surprisingly limited, few brave individuals, as most Catholics and protestants were conflicted as they agreed with some Nazi policies, like anti-communism. Did not protest unless it directly affected their interests or christian teaching.

Historians on the Versailles settlement (Hobsbawm):

Hobsbawm: “The Versailles treaty was doomed from the start, and another war was therefore practically certain”

Richard Overy on the disillusionment felt after the treaties:

“Italy complained that it was not rewarded sufficiently… Japan deeply offended by the Western State’s refusal to include a clause on racial discrimination… Treaty nobody liked except Britain and France”

Some factors contributing to interwar dictatorship:

• Mass politics and mass society → environment for large scale political activity and dissemination of radical politics

• Growth in nationalism → rise and spread of racist thinking linked to pseudoscientific racial theory

• WWI → people became used to ‘total war’ with government interference: including Britain’s DORA legislation and Germany’s War Precautions act

• Post-war peace settlements made conditions for the rise of dictators: Italy and Germany, minorities provided easy scapegoats for nationalist sentiment

• Too democratic → no party ever won a majority, unstable coalitions, many people wanted something to transcend petty policking

• Economics: Post war recessions, World Agricultural Depression, Great Depression in 1929.

Consequences of the Treaty of Versailles:

Signed June 1919

1. Germany left economically cripled

2. Radically altered geography → lost citizens, agricultural resources

3. Army reduced to 100,000 men, Rhineland demilitarised, weakened morale

4. ‘Stab in the back’ myth → suggested that they didn’t lose the war but the politicians betrayed them

5. German nationalism → bonded over resentment towards other European nations

Treaty of St Germain:

• Signed September 1919 with Austria-Hungary.

  • Empire to be dissolved

  • Responsibility for starting the war

  • Lost 60% of their territory including Bukovina

  • Army limited to 30,000, conscription abolished

  • Austrian navy abolished → new map, no coast

  • Anschluss fobidden

  • Austria went bankrupt before reparations were agreed upon

Treaty of Nueilly:

• Signed November 1919 with Bulgaria and Western Allies

• They had no say, it was adapted from Treaty of Versailles

• Give up Western Thrace, recognise existence of Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes

• Accept 90 million british pounds of reparations

• Bulgarian airforce and warships surrendered or destroyed

Treaty of Trianon:

• June 1920

• Signed by Hungarian representatives

• Territorial losses of up to 2/3 of pre-war territory including loss of Burgenland

• Hungarian army limited to 35,000 men. Landlocked nation

• Accept culpability for war

Treaty of Sevres:

• August 10th 1920, annulled during Turkish war of independence

• Signed by representatives of the Ottoman empire

• Harsh territorial concessions to divide and dissolve the empire, complete allied control over the economy.

Main reasons for the collapse of the Weimar Republic and Rise of the Nazi Party:

• Political issues related to Weimar model: No electoral threshold, small parties like Nazis could enter and secure disproportionate levels of power

• Treaty of Versailles: reparations, territory, limits on military, war guilt clause → public looks for figure to transcend, stab in the back myth made a legend of jews, polticians, communists who sabotaged the war effort. November criminals, and Hitler used these to his advantage

• Kapp Putsch: The coup left Berlin without working trains, water, gas electricity → highlighted weaknesses of Weimar government, lack of support from Reichswehr → although it didn’t directly influence the rise of the party, many of the supporters were natural supporters of the Nazi Party later

• Crisis in the Ruhr: rising levels of debt → contributed to hyperinflation, which would see real waves drop 25% for the middle class → deep seated resentment towards Weimar govt, weakened trust, spread of nationalist fervour

• Beer Hall Putsch: revealed to Hitler revolution was not the way forward, and that he must use constitutional means → organised Hitler Youth, propaganda, merger with other right wing organisations, local branches of the NSDAP which helped see other members elected into the Reichstag, SS as bodyguard. Also, used the trial as a way to promote theparty and wrote Mein Kumpf in prison.

Initial consolidation of Nazi power 1933-34:

1. Appointment of Hitler as Chancellor → January 30th 1933. Won 37% of the vote, newspaper mogul Hugenberg gave extensive, favourable media coverage for Hitler, von Papen thought they could control him

2. Reichstag Fire Decree → February 1933; Reichstag burnt down, blamed communists, Decree for the Protection of German people, police to break up and ban all political meetings and organised activities → Reichstag Fire Decree → suspended many constitutional rights, i.e right to assembly, freedom of speech

3. Early policies and reforms (Enabling Act, Dissolution of Trade Unions) → Enabling Act: 1933: Hitler given dictatorial powers over Germany, to make his own laws without approval, Dissolution of Trade Unions in May 1933: police units to occupy trade union headquarters and arrest all leaders and officials → DAF created such as strength through joy. Also Reichskonkordat → gain the vote of the Centre Party

4. Night of Long Knives → 85 killed, mostly SA leaders because he wanted the Army’s support

5. Death of President Paul von Hindenburg → combined Chancellor and President, was now dictator of Germany and the Third Reich

Different forms of control on Nazi cultural expression:

“means to an end” -Hitler

2. Reich Film Chamber → “major step towards total control” (Evans). Triumph of the Will, I accuse, The Eternal Jew

3. The Reich Music Chamber → jazz, blues, etc banned, Beethoven promoted

4. The Reich Theatre Chamber → outdoor ampitheatres to watch plays

5. The Reich Radio Chamber, historian Defoy, “penetrate the whole people with the broadcasting to make state leadership a united unity”

6. Reich Chamber for Fine Arts: "Degenerate art included Jewish, expressionism, Dadaism, New Objectivity etc. Nazi art had to glorify while being traditional

7. The Reich Press Chamber → responsible for the regulation of German Press → production of pro-Nazi stories and articles

8. The Reich Writing Chamber: proceeded by burning of books in May, responsible for literature produced. Blood and Soil novels

Examples of anti-Jewish laws passed:

• Nuremberg laws of 1935: law for protection of German blood and Honour

• Army Law: expelled from armies

• Law against overcrowding in schools and universities: limited the numbers of Jewish children to attend schools

• Law against the Camoflague of Jewish businesses

• Decree on the confiscation of Jewish property

Examples of opposition to the Nazi Regime:

• Eidelweiss pirates

• Swing Youth

• The Confessing Church: refused to accept the Nazi merging of 28 protestant Churches → Niemoller opposed Nazification of the Church and Bonhoffer was an anti-Nazi spy

• The Catholic Church: the Pope Pius XI issued an encyclical and condemned the breaches of Reichskonkordat: condeming ‘neopaganism’, condemnation of the exaltation of race, condemnation of ‘pantheistic confusion’

• Political Left → heavily targetted by Gestapo,approx 20,000 of 325,000 deaths were political

Historian Bernard Porter on the ambitions of Germany and Japan in WWI?

‘Power abroad’

Ambitions of Germany in Europe:

1. Lebensraum → bigger living space

2. Social Darwinism → justify exaltation of Aryan Race.

3. Neurordnung: more specifically,

   1. Creation of German racial state

   2. Supremacy of Aryan-nordic master race

   3. Final Solution

   4. Extermination, expulsion or enslavement of Slavic People

   5. Implementation of a long-range economic program → state planned and expansion

Japan’s ambitions in the Asia pacific?

Imperalist, with concept of ‘living space’, subjugation and torture of ‘inferior groups’

• Invasion and occupation of Manchuria → September 1931 when the army invaded after the Mukden Incident. The invasion spanned over five months → Japanese Victory.

• Japan’s aim was to create a puppet state, Machukuo, because they wanted the 200,000 square kilometres of agricultural land, they were justified because Chinese were ‘inferior’. Pulled out of League of nations, and later that year invaded Jehol.

Japan also wanted to take the USA’s place as the dominant Pacific power and lay claim for the title for themselves.

1. Bombing of Pearl Harbour in 1941

2. 1941 takeover of Guam and Wake island

3. In 1942, the Philippines, Dutch EAst Indies, Hong Kong, Malaya, Singapore and Burma fell to the Japanese.

Nazi ideology in a nutshell:

• German nationalism → destroy Versialles Treaty, restore military power, militarisation and expansionist policy

• Race race theory → Volkgemeinschaft (racial utopia of the Aryan race), remove all Jewish minority, Jews were parasitic, dangerous, all threats attributed to Jews. Slavics, Asians, coloured identified as incapable of creating their own culture → agents of Jews

• Fuhrerprinzip → POWERFUL LEADER WHO LED GERMANY TO SALVATION

• Social Darwinist Struggle → adopted Social Darwinist Struggles about survival of the fittest → struggle for Lebensraum

• Anticommunist → opposition to marxism, opposed free market capitalism and liberalism due to emphasis on the rights of the individual

Ein Reich, Ein volk, Ein Fuhrer. One nation, one people, one leader.

General Laws used to control the population:

1. Reichstag Fire Decree → feb 1933; suspended civil liberties

2. Enabling Act → march 1933; allowed Hitler to make laws without prior approval of the Reichstag or president

3. Law against the establishment of parties → July 1933: political parties banned

4. The Hitler Youth Law → December 1936: large scale indoctination, made it almost impossible to not join

Racial Laws:

1. Law for the Restoration of Professional Civil Service → April 1933: permitted dismissal from government employment, marked the beginning of the expulsion of Jews from everyday life

2. Law Against the Overcrowding of Schools April 1933: Restricted Jewish enrolments in High schools, unis

3. Law for the Prevention of Diseased Progeny 1933 → meant the involuntary sterilisation for 300,000 Germans with physical or mental disabilities

4. Nuremberg Laws → September 1935: prohibited marriage between Jews and Non Jews, Jews, gypsies and black Germans no longer considered German citizens and couldn’t vote.

How did the Nazis use terror?

SS: removal and murder of political enemies, assumed responsiblity for security, identification of ethnicity, etc. An independent ideological executive force, playing a decisive role in the elimination of political opposition.

SD: Nazi’s intelligence group, gathered intelligence about the Party’s enemies, real and percieved. Quickly became one of the regime’s key sources of info about the Jews.. Atmosphere of terror and enforced conformity

Gestapo: Secret police who carried out majority of terror and repression of the German population. Would read mail, tap telephones, etc. Was partly successful because of public denunciations.

Even blockleiters → in charge of listening to gossip, keeping an eye on neighbours/