Transcript Reviewing the Causes of World War II

Sharing the Blame
Europe

Mostly
One War or Two

 Debated as to whether or not the Pacific was the same war as
the one in Europe
 Did the First World War make the Second World War
inevitable?
 ‘Thirty-Year Crisis’ Thesis
 Due to the settlements after Versailles
 Disagreements over how to achieve peace between all
 Evidence to counter this
 Brief success of the League in the 20s
 German relations with France did improve in the 20s
 German political stability improved in the 20s
 Was it just a ‘German Problem’?
 From weltpolitik on, had sought to become a world power
 Unification in 1871 certainly shifted Europe’s balance of power
Role of Hitler

 Responsibility undoubted, desire for expansion insatiable
 Master-planner or Opportunist
 Aggressive planner, were his aims fixed?
 Was it due to domestic pressures?
 Did he exploit the opportunities provided to him?
 Was there continuity in German foreign policy from 1871?
 Even had evidence of desire to redraw borders in the 20s
 Had been Pan-German League pre-1914 (Austria, Czech.)
 Counterargument is unique nature of Mein Kampf, wanted
to go further than revising Versailles
Hitler’s Foreign Policy

 Twenty-Five Points (1920) – the original Nazi Party
manifesto
 Mein Kampf (1924) – Hitler’s autobiography
 Hitler’s Second Book (1928) – Further outline of
foreign policy
 Four Year Plan Memorandum (1936) – Laid out
Hitler’s thinking on the need to prepare the German
economy to support a war within 4 years
 Hossbach Memorandum (1937) – Notes of a meeting
with top chiefs in which Hitler announced his plans
Emphasis on
Rearmament

 Government spending in armaments increased by 20
times from 1932 to 1938
 1933: 100,000 men, no tanks, no warplanes, a navy of
limited tonnage
 1939: 1200 bombers, 98 army divisions, navy of 2
battleships, 2 cruisers, 17 destroyers, 47 U-boats
 1939: 66% of industrial investment in arms production
 Was he seeking Blitzkrieg or Total War?
 Will get trapped in a long war in Russia
 Perhaps thought Poland would not provoke European war
yet
Foreign Policy Timeline

 November 1937 Hossbach Memorandum
 March 1938 Anschluss
 1938 Sudeten Crisis
 September 1938 Munich Agreement
 March 1939 Destruction of Czechoslovakia
 1939 Hitler’s Demands on Poland
 August 1939 Nazi-Soviet Pact
 September 1939 Hitler’s Invasion of Poland
Responsibility of Britain
and France

 To what extent are they to blame?
 Failed to stand up to Hitler throughout 30s
 Rearmament and Rhineland issues
 Were not the ones to challenge the status quo
 European war was inevitable, appeasement only postponed
it
 Appeasement logical





Economic problems of Depression
WWI memories, failure to rearm
Lack of support from USA
Contrasting views from France and Britain
Fears of communism
Failure of International
System

 League of Nations suffered from weaknesses




Lack of great power membership
Lack of peacekeeping force
Preoccupation with domestic issues
Highlighted in Manchuria, Abyssinia
 Great Depression
 Nazis had been a fringe party until unemployment rise
 Devastated Japan economically, exports halved, leading to
rise of militarism
 Contributed to Mussolini’s foreign policy changes, may
have sought to galvanize struggling state
 USA, Britain, France looked inward




Responsibility of
Mussolini

More limited than Hitler
Remained second-rate power
Had been focused on domestic situation
Favorable conditions prevailed though
 League undermined first with Manchuria and then by
Hitler
 Had once been concerned about Hitler and expansion into
Austria/Balkans, gives green light for Anschluss in 1938
 Conclusion of Stresa Front 1935, Invades Abyssinia 35-36,
Spanish Civil War 36-39, Rome-Berlin Axis 36
 Did not enter World War II until June 1940, had brokered
Munich Agreement in 1938
Responsibility of the
USSR

 Stalin’s foreign policy had been passive in interwar period, result of the
Russian Civil War
 Had been ostracized by the world in terms of Versailles and League of Nations
 Had focused on Socialism in One Country
 Then sought collective security

Joined League, alliance with France, Spanish Civil War
 Early 1930s, Stalin anxious about possibility of two-front war
 Following Japanese invasion of Manchuria in 1931, had signed Anti-Comintern
Pact in 1936
 Conflict in 1939, major Soviet victory, directs Japan south
 Non-Aggression Pact in 1941 with Japan

Led to Pearl Harbor, arguably
 Nazi-Soviet Pact had a significant impact on Hitler
 Faith in collective security shaken by Munich

Did he hope to set Hitler against the West, leaving himself strongest in the end
Responsibility of the
U.S.

 USA little direct role, pursues isolationism
 Britain and France had to contend with Germany and Italy
alone
 Great Depression strained relations
 Did little to confront Japanese aggression as well
 Toughened appreciably in 1940-41, key factor
 1940 on, Roosevelt drew USA closer to Britain
 Open to debate if USA enters without Pearl Harbor
 Had involved itself in some ways
 Dawes and Young Plans, Kellogg-Briand Pact, Naval
disarmament conferences
 1935 and 1937 Neutrality Acts
 Only began to rearm after invasion of France in mid-1940
Asia

Totally
One War or Many

 How far did the Manchurian Crisis of 1931 set Japan
don the road to full-scale war with China, USA and
Britain?
 How far did the Japanese military take control of
Japanese politics and force an increasingly
aggressive and militaristic policy?
Japanese Aggression

 Long-term policy development
 1853 Commodore Perry visits Japan
 1868 Meiji Restoration
 1902 Anglo-Japanese Alliance
 1904 Russo-Japanese War
 1915 Twenty-One Demands
 1919 Treaty of Versailles a victory and defeat
 1921 Washington Conference
Japanese Aggression

 Increased after 1931
 Began with Depression, unemployment rocketed
 Foreign expansion seen as the way out
 May have been a response to political situation in China
 Nationalists under Jiang Jieshi sought to end all foreign incursions
 1931 invaded Manchuria, following Mukden Incident
 Key moment in shift of power from civilian politicians to military
in Japan
 Decision made by army officers, not the government
 Many politicians wanted to respect China’s sovereignty
 May 1932, nationalist officers assassinated PM Inukai
 Encouraged by lack of resistance, felt ostracized by League’s
response
 May have also included other interest groups in Japan
 Not seen as a direct threat by the West
Japanese Aggression

 London Naval Conference (1935)
 Followed Washington Naval Treaty (1922) and
London Naval Treaty (1930)
 Japan walked out
 Sino-Japanese War (1937-45)
 This and Manchurian incident may or may not be
linked
 But in July 1937, not really seeking full-scale war with
China
 Escalated by Second United Front
 Became trapped in a long war of attrition
Road to Pearl Harbor

 Long standing tensions between the two nations
 Tension even amongst the Japanese though


North wanted to attack USSR, South wanted South-East Asia
Decision made in 1939 at Khalkin-Gol on Mongolian-Manchurian border, major
Soviet victory

Non-Aggression Pact with USSR in April 1941
 U.S. had wanted German possessions after WWI
 Had avoided confrontation in Manchurian Crisis

1937 invasion of China had not invoked response either
 1938 though, Japan announced ‘New Order’ in East Asia

Alarmed the American government
 Key moment was invasion of Indo-China in 1940


Response was embargo of scrap metals, same month as Tripartite Pact
Japan announced Great East Asian Co-Prosperity Sphere
 Economic sanctions increased again in 1941, July, all fuel


Demands were tough, must leave all of Asia including China
Japan had two years left of oil
Why Attack Pearl
Harbor?

 Japan faced with two options; 1) humiliating loss of
resources or 2) going to war with the USA to take
control of the resources it needed in Asia
 Realized they could not defeat the U.S. in a long war,
calculated a surprise attack on Pearl Harbor would
give them 9 months to secure their goals
 Would give them time to dig in, America would not
have the stomach for such a war, would settle for
peace
Who’s Who?

A Game

Emperor Hirohito


Prime Minister
Hideki Tojo


Francisco Franco


Mao Zedong


Victor Emmanuel III


Vladimir Lenin


Gustav Stresemann


Manuel Azana


Jiang Jieshi


Benito Mussolini


Leon Trotsky


Paul von Hindenburg


Kaiser Wilhelm II


Neville Chamberlain


Winston Churchill


Franz Ferdinand


Puyi


Woodrow Wilson


Franklin D. Roosevelt


Herbert Hoover
