History

• The big 3

  • george clemenceau
  • david lloyd george
  • woodrow wilson
• Treaty of Versallies terms

  T - territory (germany lost 10-13% of land including alsace-lorraine)

  R - reparations (£6.6 billion)

  A - armaments (no tanks, submarines, airforce, only 100,000 men)

  W - war guilt

  L - league of nations (couldnt join)
• Germany called the treaty of versallies a diktat
• WW1

  • started in 1914
  • ended in 1918
  • german government named the "november criminals" because they signed the armistice (an agreement to stop war)
• Permanent members of the league of nations;

  • Britian
  • France
  • Italy
  • Japan
• Strengths of the league

  • Had a vast membership
  • Could deal with weak countries (e.g. The aland islands)
• Weaknesses of the league

  • No army
  • Complicated structure which was time consuming
  • America didnt join
  • Couldnt control strong countries (e.g. Manchuria and Abysina)
• The locarno treaty

  • 1925
  • france and germany
  • League of nations wasnt involved
• Effect on the league in the 1930s

  Britian - suffered unemployment so were not willing to sort out international disputes

  France - Built frontier defences on the german border

  Germany - suffered unemployment and poverty so extreme parties rose in popularity
• The manchurian crisis

  • 1931
  • Japan invaded
  • The league wrote a report (the lytton report)
  • Japan ignored the report, left the league and invaded the rest of china in 1938
• The abyssinian crisis

  • 1935
  • Italy invaded abyssina
  • the league failed to stop the conflict
  • Italy attacked with chemical weapons
• The league failed because it WAS DUMB:

  W - weak

  A - america

  S - structure

  
  

  D - depression

  U - unsucessful

  M - members

  B - big bullies
• GRASP

  G - germany rearms in 1935

  R - rhineland 1936

  A - austria/ anschluss in 1938

  S - sudentenland and czechoslovakia in 1938

  P - poland in 1939
• Hitlers forgein policy aims:

  • Unite germany and austria (anschluss)
  • Abolish the treaty of versallies
  • wanted more living space for germans to farm (lebensraum)
  • To destroy communism
• Appeasement policy

  • chamberlain (britian)
  • Gave hitler a little bit of what he wanted in hope to avoid war (britian was afraid of war)
• Dollfuss affair

  • 1934
  • Hitler wanted to reunite austria and germany
  • He ordered a nazi to create havoc, in resuly they killed dollfus
  • Mussolini moved his troops
  • Germany failed
• The saar plebiscite

  • 1935
  • Saar land was given to the league for 15 years
  • They held a vote to decide if germany or france would regain it
  • Hitler gained industrial assets
• Sudetenland crisis

  1. Military - czechoslovakia had factories that could be used to build tanks and weapons.
  2. Economically - czechoslovakia had glass and coal factories (could be used for trade)
  3. Politically - Sudetenland was home to 3 million german speaking people
• Appeasement was right

  • Many of hitlers actions were in favour of others e.g. anschluss pleased 99% of the austrian public
  • Many people believed the treaty was too harsh
  • Britian wasnt prepeared for war, so following appeasment hoped to avoid it
• Appeasement was wrong

  • Hitler was misjudged, people believed he was a reasonable politician
  • Hitler became greedy and confident
  • Appeasement left countries like austria and czechoslovakia occupied by nazis who treated people brutally
• Why did the nazi-soviet pact happen?

  T - time to prepare for war

  H - hoped to gain

  U - unhappy with britian

  G - germany
• Nazi-soviet pact (germanys reasons)

  • Poland could provide lebensraum, but the USSR might prevent this
  • To give them more time to rearm
  • To gain territory without conflict
• Causes of WW2

  • Appeasment
  • Nazi-soviet pact
  • Hitler
  • Failure of the league of nations
  • The depression
• Unification of germany happened in 1871
• Germany under the kasier

  • Kaiser wihelm ruled as an autocrat (made all his own decsions)
  • The borders were very large and hard to defend
  • Germany was made up of many different kingdoms (so all disagreed with eachother)
• Industralisation strengths

  • Landowners, businessmen and factory owners made lots of money
  • Producing more iron and steel than britian
  • Joined trade unions (rise of socialism)
• Industrialisation weaknesses

  • workers were disatisfied leading to the growth of socialism (only bad for the rulling classes)
  • less in agriculture (less food grown)
• Weltpolitik means world policy, to take over the world
• Militarism means to build up an army or the belief to have a strong army
• Kaiser abdicated in 1918
• Proportional representation is a system where all votes are counted up and then divided by the number of seats e.g. 10% of votes was 10% of the seats in the reichstag
• Article 48 gave the president of the weimar republic the right to dismiss the parliment and rile by himself if there was a state of emergency
• The weimer constitution 1919

  • Aimed to establish a democratic system where everybody had a say
  • Article 48 reacted quickly to an emergency but could be exploited
  • Very slow process
  • No party ever won more than half votes in any election (needed 50% to be apart of the government)
• Spartacist uprising

  • 1919
  • rosa luxemburg and karl liebknecht
  • communists
  • Ebert sent freikorps, both leaders were brutally beaten and murdered
• The SA

  • set up in 1921
  • also known as the brownshirts or stormtroopers
  • purpose = to protect nazi speakers and break up other political party meetings
• 1923

  • occupation of the ruhr
  • hyperinflation
  • munich putsch
• Winners of hyperinflation

  • People who borrowed money could pay off debt easily
• Losers of hyperinflation

  • People with savings, all their money stayed the same in the bank
  • Elderly people witha fixed income could afford essential items e.g.food
  • Small buisnesses couldnt keep up with price changes
• Outcomes of the munich putsch

  • Hitler flees and gets arrested
  • Whilst on trial hilter impresses the judge (gets a sentence of 5 years) and criticised the german government
  • In prison "mein kamf" was written
• Kapp putsch

  • 1920
  • wolf gang kapp and freikorps
  • took control to germany, everything stipped working for 100 hours