4: Outbreak of World War II in Europe – Review Flashcards

Context: World Situation Before WWII

• Post–WWI Optimism ($1919{-}1929$)
  • Paris Peace Conference ($1919$) appeared to inaugurate an era of lasting peace.
  • Late-$1920s$ economic boom: world trade expanded; U.S. Dawes & Young loans stabilised the German mark, permitting French withdrawal from the Ruhr.
  • Optimism short-lived: rising imperial tensions in Europe & Asia–Pacific foreshadowed renewed conflict.
• The Great Depression (after U.S. crash of $1929$)
  • Global economic collapse exposed the fragility of the post-war order.
  • Governments embraced economic nationalism: protectionist tariffs, calling-in of foreign loans, competitive devaluations, and rearmament to shield domestic economies.
  • Socio-economic despair fuelled radical ideologies—Nazism in Germany, Fascism in Italy—undermining democratic stability.

Ineffectiveness of the League of Nations (LON) in the $1930s$

• Foundational Aims
  • Resolve disputes peacefully (collective security) and achieve multilateral disarmament.
• Structural Concerns & Weaknesses
  • Absence of the USA and later withdrawal of Japan, Germany, Italy undermined universality.
  • Reliance on moral authority and economic sanctions; no standing army.
• Early Disarmament Efforts (outside direct League control)
  • Washington Naval Conference ($1921$): set capital-ship tonnage ratios (e.g. $5{:}5{:}3$ for USA, UK, Japan) – not a League initiative.
  • Locarno Treaties ($1925$): Franco-German border guarantees accepted Versailles; again, outside LON.
  • League Commission for World Disarmament ($1926$): UK & France refused parity, stalling progress.
  • Kellogg–Briand Pact ($1928$): $63$ states renounced war but lacked enforcement.
• World Disarmament Conference ($1932{-}1934$)
  • $60$ states (incl. USA) convened; failed to define “offensive” v. “defensive” weapons.
  • Consensus collapsed over Germany’s demand for equality of armaments; Germans walked out (Oct $1933$) and quit LON, beginning secret rearmament.
• Abyssinian Crisis ($1935{-}1936$)
  • Mussolini exploited Walwal Oasis skirmish to invade Abyssinia (Ethiopia).
  • LON sanctions excluded vital commodities—oil, coal, steel—owing to British/French commercial interests.
  • France & Britain kept the Suez Canal open; secret Hoare–Laval Pact (Dec $1935$) proposed gifting $\tfrac{2}{3}$ of Abyssinia to Italy.
  • Result: Italy conquered Addis Ababa (May $1936$) → Rome–Berlin Axis (Nov $1936$); LON prestige shattered, encouraging Hitler (e.g. unopposed remilitarisation of Rhineland).

Hitler’s Ideology, Aims & Early Aggression ($1933{-}1937$)

• Core Beliefs (Mein Kampf)
  • Abolish the Treaty of Versailles (TOV).
  • Destroy Communism/Bolshevism.
  • Gain Lebensraum in Eastern Europe.
  • Elevate German racial nationalism & militarism.
• Domestic Strategy
  • Radical nationalism: primacy of Volksgemeinschaft.
  • State-directed economic revival via public works (Autobahnen) & massive rearmament.
• Foreign Policy Actions
  • Withdrawal from LON & Disarmament Conference (Oct $1933$).
  • Saar plebiscite ($1935$): $90\%$ vote to rejoin Reich.
  • Conscription & open rearmament announced (Mar $1935$); Luftwaffe revealed.
  • Rhineland remilitarised (Mar $1936$) – direct TOV & Locarno breach; no Allied response.
  • Spanish Civil War intervention (from $1936$) – testing ground for Wehrmacht/Luftwaffe.
  • Anti-Comintern Pact ($1936$) with Japan (Italy joined $1937$).

Policy of Appeasement

• Definition: Conceding to aggressive states’ demands to avert war.
• Principal Architects: UK (Neville Chamberlain), France (Édouard Daladier after $1938$).
• Motivations
  • Collective trauma of WWI – “Never Again”.
  • Perceived LON impotence; bilateral diplomacy seen as the only lever.
  • Desire to buy time for rearmament (e.g., RAF fighter production, French Maginot Line).
  • Sympathy for German grievances regarding TOV “harshness”.
  • Anti-Communist calculus – Germany viewed as bulwark against USSR.
  • Economic constraints during Depression; limited public support for war.
• Critiques (contemporaneous & historiographical)
  • Emboldened fascist aggression; sacrificed smaller states’ sovereignty.
  • Misread Hitler’s ideological rigidity; assumed demands were finite.

Landmark Appeasement Crises ($1935{-}1939$)

• Anschluss with Austria (Mar $1938$)
  • TOV forbade union; Austrian Nazis fomented unrest.
  • Hitler marched troops under guise of ensuring a “free” plebiscite; vote (Apr $1938$) claimed $99.75\%$ in favour.
  • Raw materials (iron ore, armaments capacity) added to Reich.
  • UK’s Lord Halifax hinted non-opposition → signal of weakness.
• Sudetenland & Munich Agreement (Sept $1938$)
  • Region held $3.5$ million ethnic Germans; Hitler threatened war.
  • Britain, France, Italy met Germany—without Czechoslovakia or USSR.
  • Sudetenland ceded; Chamberlain’s “peace for our time” speech.
  • Czechoslovakia lost defensible border & armaments industries (e.g., Skoda works).
• Final Collapse of Appeasement
  • March $1939$: Hitler occupied rest of Bohemia–Moravia; Britain issued Polish Guarantee.

Nazi–Soviet Non-Aggression Pact ($23$ Aug $1939$)

• Public Clause: $10$-year pledge of neutrality.
• Secret Protocol
  • Partitioned Eastern Europe into spheres: USSR to receive Eastern Poland, Baltic states (Latvia, Estonia, Finland’s interests), Bessarabia.
• Hitler’s Calculus
  • Avoid two-front war; secure eastern flank for Polish campaign.
• Stalin’s Calculus
  • Distrusted feeble Anglo-French diplomacy; sought to buy time (≈ $18$ months) to modernise Red Army after purges.
  • Hope to regain Tsarist territories without immediate conflict.
• Immediate Impact
  • Shocked global opinion; undermined anti-Hitler alliance talks in London/Moscow.

Invasion of Poland & Outbreak of WWII

• German Demands
  • Return of Danzig “Free City” (German majority) & extraterritorial corridor linking East Prussia.
• Polish Government
  • Refused concessions; relied on Anglo-French guarantees (Mar $1939$).
• Operation Fall Weiß (Case White)
  • $1$ Sept $1939$, Wehrmacht crossed frontier; Blitzkrieg tactics achieved rapid breakthroughs.
• Allied Response
  • Britain & France issued ultimatums; declared war $3$ Sept $1939$.
  • Official start of World War II in Europe.

Thematic Connections & Significance

• Economic dislocation (Great Depression) ↔ rise of extremist regimes.
• Failure of collective security ↔ unilateralism & bilateral pacts (e.g., Munich, Ribbentrop-Molotov).
• Appeasement as both pragmatic delay and moral failure; still debated by historians (Orthodox vs. Revisionist vs. Counter-revisionist schools).
• Ethical dimension: small-state sovereignty sacrificed for illusory peace; precedent for modern discussions on deterrence & international law.

Exam-Style Essay Prompts

• "Assess the extent to which the Treaty of Versailles and the Great Depression caused WWII in Europe."
• "Was the League destined to fail because of inherent structural weaknesses rather than particular crises?"
• "Analyse motives behind appeasement and evaluate its success or failure."
• "To what extent was Hitler’s foreign policy the primary catalyst of war compared with other variables?"
• "Examine the strategic impact of the Nazi–Soviet Pact on the timing and scope of Hitler’s invasion of Poland."

Glossary of Key Terms

• Appeasement – granting concessions to avoid conflict.
• Anschluss – union of Austria & Germany (Mar $1938$).
• Axis Powers – Rome–Berlin Axis ($1936$) later joined by Japan.
• Collective Security – mutual defence principle underlying LON.
• Disarmament – reduction of armed forces; ideal seldom realised $1920s{-}30s$.
• Economic Nationalism – protectionist, self-sufficient policies post-$1929$.
• Fascism – ultranationalist, authoritarian ideology (e.g., Mussolini).
• Great Depression – world economic slump after Wall Street Crash $1929$.
• Lebensraum – "living space"; Nazi territorial expansion doctrine.
• League of Nations – interwar peace organisation (est. $1920$), fatally weakened by absent/withdrawing great powers.
• Munich Agreement – Sept $1938$ settlement ceding Sudetenland.
• Nazism – Hitler’s totalitarian, racist, expansionist ideology.
• Nazi–Soviet Pact – Ribbentrop–Molotov treaty ($1939$) dividing Eastern Europe.
• Protectionism – trade barriers to shelter domestic industries.
• Remilitarisation of the Rhineland – German troops enter demilitarised zone (Mar $1936$).
• Rome–Berlin Axis – Italian–German alliance ($1936$).
• Sudetenland – German-speaking borderlands of Czechoslovakia.
• Treaty of Versailles (TOV) – WWI peace settlement imposing reparations, territorial losses & armament limits on Germany.