Outbreak of World War 2

Hitler’s Expansionist Goals• Unite the German volk

into one nation– Nationalism: One racial

group, unified under one government

– Removal of the Jews and other non-German peoples

• Expand borders– Lebensraum: living space

for German people– Seize Poland and Ukraine

for living space and food production

– Unite a “Greater Germany”: Austria, Sudentenland, East Prussia

– Destroy the legacy of the Treaty of Versailles

Failure of League of Nations• League created in 1919, as

discussion forum to end war, but lacked military

• Lacked USA, Russia, Germany (until Locarno); USA refused to ratify Versailles treaty; Germany later joined and then left (Hitler pulled out of League when Germany was criticized for human rights abuses against Jews)

• Lacked Security Council, so required majority of all members for security issues

• Treaty of Versailles included promises to reduce arms for all countries

• 1931: Japan’s invasion of Manchuria brought only a weak condemnation of Japan

• 1935: League only condemned Hitler’s announcement to begin militarization

Italian Invasion of Ethiopia• 1935: Italian invasion of

Ethiopia (“Italo-Abyssinian Wars”)

– official condemnation from League (Mussolini replied to criticism over human rights that Ethiopians weren’t fully human, and so didn’t have human rights)

– weak economic sanctions against Italy, but not for oil sanctions

– But Britain allowed Italy to use Suez Canal, so invasion succeeded

– Alienated Mussolini turned to ally with Hitler

• Nazi Remilitarization of the Rhineland

– Britain and France registered complaint with League, but no other action

“The man who took the lid off” 1935

Anschluss• 1934 attempt to annex

Austria had failed due to Italian threats

• 1938, after alliance with Mussolini, Hitler bullied Austrian chancellor Schuschnigg to let Austria be annexed by Germany

• Schuschnigg began to organize a plebiscite, so Hitler invaded preemptively

• Anschluss left Czechoslovakia encircled by Germany

1938 Czechoslovakia Crisis• 3.5M Germans lived in

Sudetenland, Czechoslovakia, born of A-H empire in 1919

• Hitler hoped to destroy Czechoslovakia, pro-western, allied with France and USSR

• Hitler organized Nazi sympathizers in both Czech and Slovak areas to divide country against itself

• 1938: Hitler Nuremberg speech caused pro-German rioting in Sudetenland

Appeasement: Munich Conference• Chamberlain negotiated with

Hitler three times in September

• Forced Czechoslovakia to surrender Sudetenland, lest England and France abandon the country altogether

• At 1938 Munich Conference, Germany, France, England, Italy agreed that Sudetenland would become German, leaving Czech. surrounded by Germany

• Hitler renounced further territorial aims, but then occupied Prague in 1939

Poland• 1939: Hitler demanded that

Poland give Danzig to Germany and allow access to East Prussia

• England and France publicly allied with Poland, but Hitler did not take alliance seriously

• 1939: Public Nazi-Soviet non-aggression pact

– Also called Molotov-Ribbentrop pact

– Soviets feared that west intended USSR to bear burden of defending Poland

– secretly promised USSR eastern Poland and Bessarabia

• September 1, 1939 Hitler invaded Poland; Britain and France declared war

Molotov signs the German-Soviet non-aggression pact.

Behind him are Ribbentrop and Stalin.

Conclusions• Chamberlain, perhaps

misguided by apparent success of earlier negotiations to avert war, underestimated Hitler’s desire for land

• Hitler, perhaps misguided by earlier successes of brinkmanship, underestimated Britain and France’s seriousness in defending Poland

• Hitler’s demand for a Greater Germany was a plausible rationale for the Anschluss and Czech crisis, but was less convincing for invasion of Poland