Transcript Conflict in Europe

Conflict in Europe
1935 - 1945
By
S. Angelo
Head Teacher History
East Hills Girls Technology High School
2009
Growth of European tensions
Dictatorships in Germany & Italy
 League of Nations and collapse of collective
security
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Abyssinia
 Spanish Civil War
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Britain, France and the policy of
appeasement: - assessment
 Significance of the Nazi-Soviet NonAggression Pact
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Path to the Dictatorship in Germany
1920
1921
1923
1924
• Hitler announced his party policies
• Freikorps – Kapp Putsch
• NSDAP – Hitler assumes control
• Allies present reparations to Germany
• Polish irregulars attempt to seize Upper Silesia; Allies agree to plebiscite &
60% voted to join Germany – beginning of the move for a Greater Germany
• French troops occupy Ruhr: State of Emergency declared
• Stresemann declared end to passive resistance and resumes reparation payments
• M unich Beer Hall Putsch – Hitler used trial to highlight NSDAP aims
• Dawes Plan for repayments of reparations; easing rate & economic stresses
• Hitler writes Mein Kamp; released from prison early
Dictatorship in Germany
1927
1929-30
1932
• Germany admitted to League of Nations
• Inter-Allied Commission withdrawn from Germany
• Allies agree to Young Plan – further easement of reparation
payments
• Nazis win 107 seats in Reichstag
• Presidential elections – Hindenburg won over Hitler
• Lausanne Conference to end reparations
• NSDAP largest party in Germany – 230 seats in Reichstag
Dictatorship in Germany
1933
1934
• Hitler appointed Chancellor
• Reichstag Fire – Decree for the Protection of the State
against Communist Acts of Violence Endangering the
State
• Enabling Act
• Death of Hindenburg
• Law on the Head of State of the German Reich –
the Fuhrer and the Reich Chancellor
Dictatorship in Italy
1919
1921
1922
• First Fascio di Combattimento formed in Milan (Fascists or Blackshirts)
• Fascists broke up Socialist demonstration in Milan
• Fascists won 35 seats in national elections
• Fascist seize control of Ravenna (Ferrara & Bologna – 1922)
• Socialists declare general strike
• Mussolini began march on Rome
• Fascists seize power after King Victor Emmanuel gave in to fear and
invited Mussolini to form a government
HITLER’S AIMS
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NEWTON
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Hitler-Papen gov’t 1933
Emergency Decree 28/2/1933
Elections – 43.9% NSDAP
Goebbels – propaganda
Enabling Act
Vatican Concordat
Political parties banned
Germany leaves League of Nations
1934 Hitler visits Mussolini in Venice
Pro-Nazi coup lead to murder of Dollfuss –
Schuschnigg – Austrian Chancellor
Death of Hindenburg – Hitler becomes Fuhrer
Totalitarianism
1935 – rearmament; allied confusion
1936 – Rhineland & Spain
1937 – alliance with Italy – seeks alliance with
Britain
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Mussolini visits Berlin
Hossbach Memorandum on Lebensraum
Italy, Germany & Spain – Anti-Comintern Pact
Lord Halifax visits Hitler at Berchtesgaden
1938 – Austria & Sudentenland
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CANTWELL
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Hitler – frustrated artist
Fought in WWI & profound nationalist –
common with Mussolini
Drexler et al formed a German Worker’s
Party to revolutionise the nation – 1919
(just before the creation of the Fascist
Party)
Drexler saw the potential in Hitler to be an
outstanding orator – another trait he had
in common with Mussolini
Hitler’s Brownshirts & Mussolini’s
Blackshirts – indoctrinated militia
Mein Kampf & Doctrine of Fascism
Nazi salute came from Mussolini’s
Blackshirts
Hitler & Mussolini arrested
Hitler & Mussolini recognised need for
public support
Hitler & Mussolini resorted to violence if
necessary to achieve aims
HITLER’S AIMS
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WEBB
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Ideology – lebensraum & racial purity
Pragmatist – pursue policies that
achieved short term gains even if it
contradicted his long term gains
Opportunist
Revisionist
Autarky – self sufficiency
France first
Creation of GrossDeutschland
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Poland, Czechoslovakia
Anschluss
Said what people wanted to hear
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DENNETT & DIXON
Not military dominance but equality
Peaceful Europe
Return of territory taken in 1919
Bulwark against spread of communism
Last territorial demand in Europe
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Rescue the German people from the
shame of defeat in WWI
Free Germany from restrictions of
Treaty of Versailles
Could only be achieved “by the sword”
Supported by military
Harnessed economic strength of
Germany
Germany still relied on imported raw
materials (iron ore, copper, rubber,
oil)
Built up military strength – but still
under equipped & short of munitions
German navy could not match Britain’s
MUSSOLINI’S AIMS
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NEWTON
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Mussolini’s attack on Abyssinia was
a blow against the Stresa Front
Invasion of Abyssinia caused
concerns for Britain & France
Hoare-Laval Pact – Britain &
France wanted to buy off Mussolini
& divide Abyssinia up - collapse of
negotiations
Hitler noted western powers
preferred “appeasement” to
confrontation
This showed weakness of Britain &
France
Mussolini sent 1000s of troops to
help Franco
Mussolini proposed the Munich
Agreement that led to Germany
gaining the Sudentenland
CANTWELL
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Totalitarian Regimes
Extensive legal & constitutional changes
Elimination of political opponents & parties
Propaganda
Reduction of personal freedoms & rights
Economy & workforce accountable to State
Direct impact on culture and society (youth
groups, education,
women, art, music, church)
Use of terror & repression
Secret police forces
Control of media & publishing
National armies for aggressive purposes
Intolerance of alternate political systems
Single dictator as leader
Belief regimes could not be defeated
MUSSOLINI’S AIMS
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WEBB
Major social, economic & political problems
post WWI
Hoped to make territorial gains at Peace
Conference – not met
High unemployment, civil disorder –
Mussolini grabbed power in 1922 with
march on Rome
Set up Corporate State; Secret police
Major expansion in primary & secondary
education
Improved working conditions
Hydro-electric schemes
Pontine marshes drained
Lateran Accord – Vatican & Italy
Italian strength & military glory
Foreign policy similar to Germany
Land; rearmament; conscription, military
strength
SERIOUS MAJOR EUROPEAN POWER
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DENNETT & DIXON
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Pledged to restore Italy to its former
glory
Roman/Italian empire
Invaded Abyssinia 1935
Italy had been poorly treated by the
Treaty of Versailles
Program of modernisation hindered
by
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Small scale primary industry
Reliance on imports (raw materials –
coal, oil, scrap iron, copper, rubber)
Britain controlled naval bases at
Gibraltar & Suez & could blockade
Italian supplies
Italy relied on British ships
HISTORIANS
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Medlicott: The Coming of War in 1939
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Kershaw: Hitler 1936-45 – Nemesis
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War produced the demand for lebensraum
Mack Smith: Mussolini
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Expansion
Hitler used politics to restore Germany’s greatness
Taylor: Origins of the Second World War
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Hitler’s aims remained the same - lebensraum
Hitler was an opportunist
Italians needed to have their character forged in battle
Mussolini proud of the terrorist methods used by them in Spanish Civil
War
Thomson: Europe Since Napoleon
 Hitler main beneficiary from Italian-German relationship & Spanish Civil War
 Hitler kept Mussolini pre-occupied in Spain while extending German influence in
the Balkans: Italy was Germany’s “cat’s paw”