road to war

• Britain and France declared war on Germany.
• Germany was angry and bitter about its harsh treatment in the peace treaties of 1919–23.
• Some British politicians felt the peace treaties were too severe.
• Germans turned to extremist parties such as the Communists and Nazis.
• The Nazi Party was founded with the aim of reversing the Treaty of Versailles.
• Many Germans blamed the Treaty of Versailles on democratic politicians.
• This led to many Germans turning against democracy, as it was not working.
• Reparations led to the Ruhr Crisis and Hyperinflation in Germany, which further increased hatred of the politicians who had signed the Treaty.
• Germany, Italy and Japan became more aggressive around 1930 due to the Depression.
• Hitler became Chancellor in 1933 and had promised to overturn the Treaty of Versailles.
• Hitler targeted lands in the east (Poland, Czechoslovakia) and wanted to remilitarise the Rhineland etc.
• Italy invaded Abyssinia (now Ethiopia) in 1935.
• Japan invaded Manchuria in 1931.
• The Pact of Steel was signed between Italy and Germany in May 1939, strengthening their alliance and making both sides more likely to go to war.
• The League of Nations failed to stop Germany, Italy and Japan from becoming aggressive in the 1930s.
• The League could not force countries to stay in the League.
• Italy imposed economic sanctions on Italy in 1935, but other countries (e.g USA) traded with Italy anyway because they needed the money.
• Chamberlain abandoned appeasement in March 1939 when Hitler broke his promise not to invade the rest of Czechoslovakia.
• On 1 October 1938, Hitler marched unopposed into the Sudetenland.
• The British–Russian (i.e Anglo-Soviet) talks failed due to suspicions and choices.
• Britain and France declared war on Germany in September 1939 because Poland refused to give control of Danzig to Germany.
• The Pact stated that Stalin (Russia) would not stop Hitler invading Poland and Hitler would give half of Poland (the eastern half) to Russia.
• Stalin (Russia) had wanted an agreement with Britain and was scared of Hitler’s intentions.
• Hitler had gone too far, even for Chamberlain.
• The Nazi-Soviet Pact was shocking because the two sides were complete opposites and hated each other.
• Stalin wanted to speak directly with the British Foreign Minister, but Britain did not trust Stalin.
• The Nazi–Soviet Pact was signed on 23 August 1939 between Fascist Nazi Germany and Communist Russia (the USSR, the Soviet Union) and is also known as the Non-Aggression Pact.
• On 30 September, Chamberlain returned to England with his famous piece of paper ‘I believe it is peace for our time’, he told the cheering crowds.
• The impact of the Nazi-Soviet Pact was that it freed up Hitler to invade Poland, ended Britain's hopes of an alliance with Russia to stop Hitler, improved morale of British people for war, and showed Hitler to have no morals.
• Hitler wanted the Pact because he thought that it would stop Britain from defending Poland and he also preferred not to be surrounded by enemies (i.e Britain and France in the west, Soviet Russia in the east).
• The Depression made countries more selfish, for example, GB, France, USA.
• Japan was told to leave Manchuria in 1931, but it took the League a year to do this and Japan stayed in Manchuria but left the League.
• The failure of the League in the 1930s made WWII more likely because none of the aggressive countries was afraid of it anymore.
• Hitler felt free to remilitarise the Rhineland, unite with Austria, invade Czechoslovakia etc because he knew that the League of Nations would never stop him.
• Hitler also knew that the USA was isolationist and was not interfering in European or world affairs.
• The German airforce bombed Spanish cities during the Spanish Civil War.
• Neville Chamberlain was the British Prime Minister who led the policy of Appeasement.
• Hitler got involved in the Spanish Civil War, fighting on Franco’s side.
• Hitler took over Austria, despite this being banned in the Treaty of Versailles, in 1938.
• The policy of appeasement was justified because it gave Britain time to re-arm and it gave Britain the moral high ground when war came.