Transcript 6. Powerpoint - Colby College

HI 112
Raffael Scheck
Colby College
A Survey of Modern Europe
6
Europe Between the Wars
The Paris Peace Conferences


Comparison 1815 to 1919
Goals of the victors:
–
–
–
–
–
Democracy
National self-determination
Security for France (cordon
sanitaire)
Weakening Germany
(Treaty of Versailles, 1919)
League of Nations as a
peaceful mediating
institution
Why did the Peace Order Not
Work?




Germany unreconciled
Nationality problems in
Eastern Central Europe
Withdrawal of U.S.
Unsettled situation in
the Soviet Union
Germany and the Treaty of Versailles
Phases of the Postwar Period
1918-23
Instability. Threat of communist
revolution in East Central Europe
and Germany. Russian civil war
(1918-21). Small-scale wars.
1924-29
Relative stability. American loans to
Germany (Dawes Plan). Beginning
reconciliation. Stabilization of
German democracy (Weimar
Republic).
Economic and political havoc. Great
Depression. Crisis of democracy.
Hitler comes to power.
1929-33
Revolutions and Unrest: Hungary under
Béla Kun (1918-19)
A Personal Connection for
Reconciliation: Briand and Stresemann
Treaty of Locarno, 1925
Great Depression and Mass
Unemployment, 1929-33
The Rise of Totalitarianism
What is Totalitarianism?








Party - strong influence on state
State - reaches into every area of life
Army - high prestige
Ideology - shapes state and society
Propaganda - used unscrupulously
Police Repression - largely outside of the law
Leadership Cult - adulation of charismatic leader
through state-controlled media
Internal and external target groups of aggression
Fascism’s Three Sources (according
to Scheck)
Crisis of Christian and humanitarian values
and of liberal-democratic states based on
these values
 Deep-seated fear of communism and
socialism
 World War I experience: brutalization of
politics; veneration of military order; stress
on struggle; extreme nationalism

Italian Fascism






Mussolini
Fascist Party, black shirt
paramilitary organization
March on Rome, October
1922
Gradual consolidation of
power by 1926
Corporatism
Lateran Accord, 1929
The Triumph of Hitler and
National Socialism




Anti-Semitic rabblerousing, 1919-1923
Beer Hall Putsch 1923
Organizing a mass
party, 1925-28
Sudden mass success
because of the Great
Depression, 1930-33
The Rise of the KPD and
NSDAP
(in percent of the electorate)
40
35
30
25
20
KPD
NSDAP
15
10
5
0
1920 1924 1924 1928 1930 1932 1932
(I) (II)
(I) (II)
Stalinism
Massive industrialization at gigantic human
cost (five-year plans), 1929-1941
 Extremely repressive police state
 The Great Purges, 1935-39
 The Gulag
 Foreign policy: out of isolation into an
alliance first with the West (1935) and then
Nazi Germany (1939)

The Road to World War II
Hitler’s Successes
Makes Germany strong and respected again
 Rearms Germany
 Wins an alliance with Italy (1936)
 Revises the Versailles peace order by
annexing Austria and the Sudetenland
 He achieves all of this WITHOUT war

Mussolini’s Foreign Policy
Initially: opposition to Nazi designs on
Austria (1934) and efforts to contain Nazi
Germany (Stresa Front, 1935)
 Attack on Abyssinia (1935-36)
 Alliance with Germany (1936) and Japan
(1939)
 Involvement in Spanish Civil War (193639)

German Foreign Policy
1933-38: Main Events
October 1933
Withdrawal from the League of Nations
March 1935
Reintroduction of the draft; air force
buildup announced
Stresa Conference (It, GB, Fr);
Franco-Soviet Treaty
April 1935
June 1935
Anglo-German naval agreement
March 1936
Remilitarization of the Rhineland
Summer 1936
Alliance Germany-Italy-Japan
March 1938
Anschluss: annexation of Austria
September 1938
Munich Conference: annexation of the
Sudetenland
Annexation of Czechoslovakia
March 1939
What Made Hitler’s Foreign Policy
Successes Possible?
General misunderstanding of Hitler’s
ultimate aims (Lebensraum, racial policy)
 Doubts about Versailles
 Disillusionment with postwar order
 “No more war” sentiment
 Global diversions for Britain (Japan, Italy,
U.S. competition)

Concentration Camp Flossenbürg
Axis Berlin-Rome
Italian Atrocities in Ethiopia
Spanish Civil
War
Anschluß
Maginot Line
Munich Conference
Unemployment in Germany 1932-39
6000
5000
4000
Unemployed (in
thousands):
Yearly averages
3000
2000
1000
0
32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39
German Military Spending 1932-39
40000
35000
30000
25000
Military
Expenditure (in
million marks)
20000
15000
10000
5000
0
32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39
World War II
Cause

Hitler wants war
–
–
Obsession with his own mortality
Exploitation of temporary advantage in terms
of rearmament
The Outbreak



Hitler-Stalin Pact (August
1939) dooms Poland and
misleads Hitler to believe
that France and Britain
will not go to war
France and Britain do
declare war but do not
attack (Phony War)
Soviet Union takes its
“share” of Poland
The Defeat of the Allies in the
West, 1940


Reasons: German
tactics and slowness of
Franco-British
response
Consequence:
Germany in control of
most of Continental
Europe and able to
attack the Soviet
Union
Britain Stays in the War


Decision to keep
fighting
Inconclusive air battle
over Britain, 1940-41
The Attack on the Soviet Union




Hitler’s priority
War of annihilation
Tied to the Holocaust
Too risky gamble
The Long Road to Axis Defeat




Soviet resilience
U.S. entry into the war
after Pearl Harbor
Axis defeats in Russia,
North Africa, the
Atlantic
D-Day and final
defeat of Germany
Consequences




Europe looses its
predominant
position
Utter destruction in
many areas
50-65 million killed
Soviet Union
dominates Eastern
Europe
The Holocaust
Ideological Background and
Context


The Nazi vision of
races
Racial hygiene
Stages of Radicalization

Segregation (1933-38)
–

Expulsion (1938-41)
–
–

Nürnberg laws 1935
Crystal Night 1938
Madagascar Plan 1940-41
Mass murder (1941-45)
–
Ghettos, gas vans, mass executions, death
camps, death marches
I: Segregation
The Nürnberg Laws, 1935
“Jews Unwanted”
II: Expulsion
Crystal Night, Nov. 1938
III: Mass Murder
The Wannsee Conference, 1942
Euthanasia
Ghettoization of Jews in Poland
The Ramp at Auschwitz (194245)
Open Discussion
Who was responsible?
 How many people knew?
