The threat of Hitler and his empire expanding was a prominent threat that troubled much of Europe in the mid 1930s. In 1937, during the Spanish civil war, Hitler showed what new technology in the wrong hands could really do, when an air raid attack on the city of Guernica completely destroyed it. This quickly promoted the government to make more detailed plans about evacuation. Hitler’s uprising came as morale in Germany was at an all time low.
Hitler had already shown what could happen to a city, when he attacked Guernica in 1937. This intimidated Britain greatly, and so the began making detailed plans, in case the worst were to happen and another world war took place. The government decided that if evacuation need to happen those children in the cities would be evacuated to the countryside. This was because when Hitler bombed several cities in the Spanish civil war he realised that bombing cities would have a much larger impact. Hitler’s main aim was to cause as much civilian death as possible and he realised that bombing cities could achieve this in a relatively short amount of time. Hitler knew that bombing cities would have a huge impact and if an attack were to happen in London the government realised it would be devastating for the whole country in all. London was the centre of government and administrations and there were a large number of people who lived there. This is one reason why the government decided to evacuate cities.
Cities were the centres of population, including children, schools and hospitals and an attack on the people would heavily weaken morale. It was important to keep morale up in the cities and an attack would also destroy industrial areas and factories that would be producing vital war materials. Also attacking major cities would cut off essential communication links and disrupt transport. Bombing London could also be used as a way of imitating the British government into surrendering, which would then cause Hitler to expand further. An attack on London was a huge threat, and an attack happened in the Blitz in September 1940 through to may the following year. However many people argue that Hitler would have never been able to rise to power if it hadn’t had been for the failure of the League of Nations.
The League of Nations was created by American president Woodrow Wilson. The committee was set up to improve to qualities of people’s lives and jobs by promoting cooperation in trade and social agencies. It was also created to encourage nations to disarmament, enforce the treaty of Versailles and most importantly prevent another world war from happening. Members of the treaty of Versailles included Britain, France, Italy and another 39 countries. However three major countries did not join the league which in turn made it weak from the beginning. The USA did not join, USSR was not a member until 1934 and Germany wasn’t allowed to join until 1926 because of their punishment in causing the First World War. However this wasn’t the only thing that made the league weak. In the Vilna Conflict in 1920, Poland refused to obey the leagues orders and the league were proven to be powerless. This was because the league didn’t have an army, and this proved to be the leagues worst failure, because the league didn’t have an army Hitler was allowed to take over Germany, and there was nothing the league could do. In April 1946 the league was abandoned and labelled as a great failure.
On the first of September 1939, Germany invaded Poland. This caused Britain to declare war on Germany. The government decided it was time to take the first steps in evacuating its people. Children and there teachers were evacuated, because children were seen as the next generation and the future of the country. The government realised that dead children will definitely weaken morale and will of their parent to fight. Children weren’t needed in the war efforts as they were non productive and didn’t contribute to the war. The government decided that children would be evacuated in their classes this made the process of evacuation much more simple and as they could be easily organised from their schools. The government also wanted parents to contribute in the war effort without having to worry about the well being of their children and they saw evacuating children as the best way to protect the future of Great Britain.
Evacuation in Britain turned out to be very successful and many lives were saved. Advance in technology, the expansion of Hitler, the threats made to cities and the failure of the League of Nations all contributed to evacuation taking place in Britain in the second world war . However each factor is somehow related to another one, for example, if the League of Nations hadn’t failed then Hitler would never be able to expand, also if technology wasn’t so advanced could Hitler have caused as much damage as he did to Gurernica in 1937. In Conclusion each factor is directly related to each other and they are all very important, however the failure of the League of Nations is a more significant. It could be argued that the failure of the league nation, did in turn lead to the Second World War. The overall aim of the league was to prevent another world war, and because it was weak it failed at this. This is why the failure of the League of Nations not only lead to Britain evacuating its children in august 1939, but to the catastrophic war that followed.
