Year 10 History - Causes of WWII

Date the Treaty of Versailles was signed

28 June 1919

TOV British delegate

David Lloyd George

TOV USA delegate

Woodrow Wilson

TOV French delegate

Georges Clemenceau

TOV Italian delegate

Vittorio Emanuele Orlando

Armistice November 1918

Germany signed the armistice in November 1918, believed they were only accepting Wilson's 14 point plan

Justification for the harsh punishments of the treaty

Germany taking complete blame for starting WWI

Blame clause in TOV

Clause 231 or the "war guilt clause" meant that Germany took complete blame for starting WWI

Reparations in TOV

Germany had to pay 6,600 million pounds

Armed forces restrictions in TOV

Army restricted to 100,000 men, conscription banned, no submarines allowed and navy limited to 6 battleships

Territory loss in TOV

Germany lost 13% of its territory, one-tenth of its population with the creation of new countries and ALL of its colonies

Area of Germany demilitarised on French border

Rhineland

French goal in the Treaty of Versailles

To cripple Germany financially and militarily

Hyperinflation

A very rapid rise in the cost of goods; an extremely high rate of inflation causing the value of the currency to decline.

Effect of hyperinflation on Germans

Loss of savings for the middle class, growing resentment and distrust in Weimar government and rapidly rising prices of basic goods

Who betrayed Germany in the TOV

Belief that the Weimar government had stabbed the German nation in the back by taking the blame for starting WWI and signing the TOV.

Conditions leading to the rise of fascism in Germany

Great Depression and hyperinflation, fear of communism, appeal to nationalism, unstable and distrusted government (myth of betrayal), resentment and impact of TOV

Reason for Hitler's sudden rise to power in 1929

Crash of the US Stock Market, the Great Depression

NSDAP votes won in 1932 Reichstag election

37.8% of the votes received from all spheres of society

Hitler becomes Chancellor of Germany

30 January 1933

Reichstag Fire

27 February 1933, 5 days before next election

Reichstag Fire Decree

28 February 1933, suspension of civil liberties including censorship and the arrest of Nazi political opponents

24 March 1933

Enabling Act passed giving Hitler the power to make laws without the consent of the Reichstag (government)

The policy of negotiating with aggressive foreign powers to avoid war

appeasement

Reasons for appeasement

Britain and France hoped to avoid a second world war, US isolationist policy and worldwide economic problems (Great Depression)

Rearmament of the Wehrmacht

Conscription reintroduced, all members swear the 'Hitler Oath', jewish people dishonourably discharged

Anglo-German Naval Agreement

June 1935, signed by Hitler and Chamberlain allowing German navy to equal 35% of British surface ships and 45% of British submarines

German military marches 3000 troops into the Rhineland, France and Britain do not enforce TOV

7 March 1936

Anschluss

15 March 1938, Hitler announces the reunification of Austria and Germany after German troops entered Austria to support their new Nazi government

Sudetenland

German speaking area of Czechoslovakia on the eastern German border

Munich Agreement

29 September 1938, Sudetenland is given to Germany by Britain, France and Italy in exchange for no further demands for land by Hitler

1 October 1938

Germany marches into and now occupies the Sudetenland

Invasion of Czechoslovakia by Germany

15 March 1939

The end of appeasement

The invasion of Czechoslovakia, Hitler had broken the Munich Agreement

Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact August 1939

Signed by Molotov (Soviet Prime Minister) and Ribbentrop (Nazi foreign minister), agreeing to nonagression and dividing Europe into Soviet and German spheres of influence

Start of World War II

Invasion of Poland, 1st September 1939

3rd September 1939

Britain declares war on Germany following the invasion of Poland