Finally, the league became quite powerless when it came to prevent the bad events happening in Europe which eventually led to WWII.
Adolf Hitler’s ideas were basically against the Treaty of Versailles. He hated the fact of the Treaty of Versailles, in fact, controlling his country. His main ideas were just the opposite of the ToV’s. He wanted to have a huge army and saw no reason why not to. He wanted the land of Rhineland to be protected with troops. He wanted to unite with Austria. He did not accept the fact that the people of his nation couldn’t live in the same country. He was against the idea of separating his people. His people and Austria’s people share the blood in their veins. Hitler was running for a political system that he liked. A Nazi system – a form of socialism featuring racism and expansionism – was what Hitler struggled for, as the title stated. Germans were forced to live in Czechoslovakia and Poland which he didn’t like either. He wanted his nation’s people to live in their country. They shouldn’t be put in another place, left out from their motherland. The Treaty was a constant reminder to the Germans of their humiliation in World War I. Hitler did not accept that the German army had lost the war, and he was determined to make Germany great again.
As the German population was growing Hitler said that the German nation needed more Lebensraum, which meant ‘living space’ in German. He was strong-minded to get Lebensraum by conquering land in Eastern Europe and enlarging a future empire that was soon top rule the world.
Nazis are fascists: basically they are the exact opposite of the communist Russian. Hitler blamed the Russians for Germany’s defeat in WWI and feared that Russia was preparing a takeover. He was firm about destroying communism at any costs, even though it meant war with Russia.
The ideas of Mein Kampf, which was after all a very well written piece of work, could sometimes sound philosophical. They were very clear, yet well-explained concepts of a world Hitler would like to live in. His next steps were to fulfill his requirements. Hitler left no doubts about his goals for the German nation:
“If the National Socialist movement really wants to be consecrated by history with a great mission for our nation […] it must find the courage to gather our people and their strength for an advance along the road that will lead this people from its present restricted living space to new land and soil.”
From Mein Kampf, 1924.
He tells his people that they have to fight for their nation and stand up for it. They are not to be ashamed of their country!
Hitler came to power in 1933. He did not agree with the Treaty of Versailles and very soon he began to go against what it said. Basically he was to put the ideas of Mein Kampf into action.
As Hitler came to power he be began to build up his armed forces. This was of course against the ToV. In 1935 he began recruitment men to the army. Britain and France let him get away with it. This did once again show the weakness of the LoN. Secretly he built up an army exceeding the accepted amount. At first he train his soldiers in locations where they could not be seen, but as the army grew and he felt it was strong enough he did it without hiding. The LoN wouldn’t interfere because the consequence of that could be that they might not ‘preserve world peace’. The recruiting and expanding of machinery was very effective. From 1932-39 the amount of warships increased from 30 to 95 (270%), the air force grew from 36 to 8250 (23000%) planes and the army from 100000 to one million (1000%). As you can see all the increases are gigantic. This shows the great leadership skills of Hitler and the will in the German’s hearts to create a new Germany.
Hitler’s army, together with Italy’s and Japan’s, was greater than the United States’. The Allies knew about this. They knew about a first class air force being built. They knew about all factories being built and the speed up production of planes and engines as well as tanks and artillery. They knew about the training of soldiers and pilots, yet they did nothing to stop this. They were afraid of another World War, or at least wanted to escape one by all means.
On March 7th, 1936, Hitler took his big, first and very risky step by invading Rhineland. This was before his army had become huge. It was a complete gamble, because it would never had defeated the French army. Hitler knew about Mussolini invading one of the few un-colonized countries in Africa without being offended or attacked by the League of Nations and therefore decided to take the risk which had a chance of succeeding. This broke the ToV on a 100% basis. The German army had only 22000 soldiers against a lot more. If the Frenchmen would attack, the German army was to retire. They didn’t. The other army retired – once again France and Britain did nothing. England said they won’t go into war for a small piece of land which was previously German and France wouldn’t go to war if England does not. What was happening was basically a bad loop.
In 1938, Hitler took over Austria. He wanted all the Germans to be united. He didn’t want them to be spread out over two countries. Firstly, Hitler encouraged the Austrian Nazis to demand union with Germany and then he invaded Austria on March 11th. This broke the Treaty of Versailles once again, but once again Britain and France did nothing.
Austria was Adolf Hitler’s country of birth. It was the place except Germany with the larges amount of German-speaking people. He was very confident about joining those countries together. He expected that France and Britain would do nothing. What he wanted to do was to resolve the treaty completely. The Nazi party in Austria created a time of riots, by burning buildings and starting street fights creating problems for the Austrian government. The government then banned the Nazi party. Hitler spoke to the leader, and he didn’t agree with him. Hitler wanted all important government places to be taken by members of the Nazi Party. Schuschnigg avoided Hitler’s demands and explained that it would have to be a democratic vote. When Hitler realized he wouldn’t get the support he wanted he called it off. The Austrian leader called for help form the coalition, but didn’t get any. Eventually he had to appoint the members of the Nazi Party to the important government places not to risk an invasion of Germany. Yet that was the follow-up and Austria was a part of Germany.
Hitler’s next step was to invade Sudetenland. Austria had lost that land in the Treaty of St. Germain. It was signed September 10th, 1919 to end Austria’s incorporation with Germany. Austria lost 3 million German speaking people, which Czechoslovakia gained. They used the same method as in Austria. The Nazi Party started riots creating a hard political time for the president.
Fearing war, the British Minister of Foreign, Chamberlain, met Hitler to discuss world peace. Eventually the Munich Agreement was signed by Hitler, Mussolini, Chamberlain and Daladier. Those were the people responsible in Britain, France, Germany and Italy. The agreement stated that the Sudetenland was to be taken by Hitler the day after the agreement was put into action without any public vote. Hungary and Poland were to be able to take border districts from Czechoslovakia and finally Britain and Germany said they would never go to war. Chamberlain returned to England with his famous piece of paper saying ‘I believe it is peace for our time’. A cheering crowd accepted the new information; however, Churchill was not that sure. Chamberlain claimed that Hitler was ‘a man you could rely on’.
All those discussions were about land of Czechoslovakia, even though any minister from that nation did not participate in the talks. Basically the coalition and opposition discussed the fate of another country. Hitler might have looked satisfied, but really Chamberlain screwed his possibility of taking over Prague. Next day Germany marched into Sudetenland and took it over. Then Hitler went for Prague, even though Chamberlain may have changed the plans a little. Germany threatened to bomb Prague, so they surrendered. The Allies realized that the method of appeasement did not work. They had to promise to protect Poland, in other ways promise to preserve peace there.
Hitler claimed that a 1000 year old Deutsche Reich was to begin, meaning a German Empire.
The only thing left for Germany to conquer that wasn’t a part of LoN. Russia was the only thing in the way. By the summer of 1939, in August, Hitler’s plans to invade Poland were complete. He realized that to invade Poland it might cause Britain to attack him on another front. Hitler was however more concerned to avoid a Russian attack from the East. Therefore to avoid a war on two fronts, he arranged the Nazi-Soviet Pact, which said that if either country went to war the other would remain neutral.
Hitler gained the chance to invade Poland with a war on one front, if Britain supported Poland. Russia was afraid of Germany and signed it to get more time to arrange their army. Germany felt strong enough, but they had to get through Poland. Stalin of USSR gained time to rearm in case Hitler attacked him later, and the chance to gain the eastern half of Poland. This would provide the USSR with a buffer zone for idling and preparing their army for further attacks.
On September 1st, 1939, Hitler invaded Poland. Two days later, on September 3rd, 1939, Chamberlain declared war on Germany. This was the beginning of a long-lasting World War - a war that would take away the lives of 6 million Jews, as well as other peoples’. Soldiers and innocent children would die because of a leader with dreams of taking over the world.
Britain and France followed a policy of Appeasement in the 1930’s. They tried to keep Hitler happy by giving him what he wanted.
The fear of involving England in another conflict like the Great War prompted the British Prime Minister, Neville Chamberlain, to do anything to avoid disagreements. Chamberlain was not prepared to sacrifice Englishmen in a battle over German-speaking people in Czechoslovakia. As a result, Chamberlain worked to convince France not to support Czechoslovakia, and France agreed because she was concerned about having to fight Germany alone.
Chamberlain believed that if Hitler did not get what he demanded, a major war would occur. To avoid war, he was prepared to give Hitler what he wanted to appease or satisfy him. Once the threat of France was eliminated by England, Hitler had the Nazis in Czechoslovakia cause problems again. During the riots, Czech police shot a group of German supporters, and the gave Hitler and excuse he was looking for and threaten invasion.
Basically appeasement is seen as a sign of weakness in the opponent’s eyes. Though the situation was hard, neither Britain nor France stood up once for another country. They believed in too much. They trusted a man with and evil mind.
It took too long for Chamberlain to understand that appeasement did not work. Of course he really tried to avoid war, as it was the last thing he wanted his nation to be a part of, yet believing in a man who’s lied once, or even twice in a row, when it comes to such serious discussions; it is just too much.
Some other quick reasons why to appease:
Britain’s small army was too weak to go to war in 1938; needed time to rearm.
Rearmament meant high taxes, which made democratic leaders unpopular.
It was right to try everything possible to keep peace. Many people, especially young ones, wanted peace.
America Tried to stay out of European and Asian affairs in the 1920’s and 1930’s. Some historians argue that America did nothing to prevent war in Europe and Asia until it was too late.
When America joined the Great War in 1917, it tilted the balance against the Central Powers, Germany and her allies, because of her large population and industrial might. When the war ended, President Wilson was in a strong position to influence the peace treaties - the peace settlement was based in fact upon his "Fourteen Points", a new international body called the League of Nations was to be set up to keep the peace between nations.
Only 6 of these points concerned every nation. The 8 ones left had to do with concrete countries. Back to the points:
- No secret treaties.
- Freedom of the seas for all nations.
- Removal of all economical barriers and tariffs.
- Reduction of national weaponry.
- Fair adjustment of all colonial claims, with equal thought given to the people of the region and nation.
- Establishment of “a general association of nations”, which would guarantee political independence and protection to large and small states alike. Basically the LoN.
The League was to make sure that countries follow these points. As Wilson lost the next election the Americans turned their back on ever going back to war. Many of them believed that the sacrifices they had made in the Great War had been a waste of money and men. They were opposed to anything that might drag America into another European war. So the USA did not officially accept the Treaty of Versailles nor did they join the League of Nations. Many Americans simply wanted to enjoy the prosperity that had developed in the previous decade and felt that foreign entanglements would threaten it.
During the 1920's and 1930's, America was in isolation; the country kept itself to itself and took only a little part in international relations. In addition America isolated itself in terms of trade. Taxes were put on foreign goods to protect American industry.
America turned its back on Europe in another way. It cut down the number of immigrants allowed into the USA. America was a nation of immigrants. Up until the Great War millions of people, mainly from Europe, had gone to America to seek their fortune and/or escape poverty and maltreatment. In 1921 the "open door" policy ended and quotas, a fixed number allowed, were introduced. By 1929 only 150,000 immigrants per year were allowed. USA felt they didn’t have to have anything to do with any other continent. They lived wealthy and cheerfully and would not by any means break that line.
The League of Nations was designed to give countries a chance to talk over their problems rather than fight over them. However, the League was weak and did very little to stop Germany and Italy and Japan from doing what they wanted.
The LoN was created to preserve peace on the world. To create an organization capable of doing such thing you need to be clear about what actions can be taking. The LoN was too passive. They had the problem with underestimating the enemy and trusting him too much. Honestly, the league was never very powerful. As the German army was much more powerful than USA’s, which had the greatest army before that happened something was wrong. Without USA the league would never work – it was too weak. The league was messed up. Since there were a lot of members and only a unanimous decision was accepted it took way too long to decide something. Somewhat the decisions got frozen without deciding anything. The Great Depression made members think about their own country before the league and its concept about world peace. When the league failed (as it did every time in appeased), less people trusted it. This resulted in a boycott. Italy and Japan betrayed the league, and the other members did nothing about it, following up on the idea about only caring about their own, internal affairs. In the 1920s, the League had dealt with weak countries. In the 30s great empires like Germany, Italy and Japan attacked weaker countries. The league was too weak to stop them thus letting them do everything. I therefore think that it was a big cause to WWII. Since the league supposedly was to keep everything together, but still didn’t, people would use it. Hitler is the main example. He realized very quickly how weak they are and knew that they are not an enemy. Therefore he could put his ideas into action and create his empire which would be even stronger and the chance of eliminating would be even smaller. Of course the US had the influence that if they would have joiner the LoN, it would be stronger and could perhaps have used force to show what they like or dislike. A leader is not dumb enough to attack a League that is way stronger than him, as it would be with the US, but was not without.
It took the league one year to solve the problem of Japan invading Manchuria. This lead to the fact that they had already taken over the whole place. It was then nearly impossible for them to cope with the new problem. The unanimous decisions did obviously not work.
When Italy invaded Abyssinia (Ethiopia), the league talked to Mussolini, but he just sent the army to Africa. When he’d done that, (of course the league didn’t know about it) the league suggested a plan to just give a part to of Abyssinia to Italy. This was completely ignored, so the league banned weapon sales and natural resource productions. The Italians used force to get it, and upon the emperor’s appeal, nothing was done. The incompetent league failed again.
The Treaty of Versailles didn’t solve anything. In fact, it just created anger in the minds of the Germans. The treaty made Hitler more aggressive and would easier commit and act of vengeance.
The LoN was always weak, and did a lot of things wrong. They probably did everything wrong. They couldn’t handle their objective creating an unstable protection for the coalition.
Appeasement encouraged war. Hitler thought nobody could stop him when the LoN acted as it did. He could therefore go on and on and on, pushing the limit and exceeding it to a level deep enough to ruin the world. It also led to the secret Nazi-Soviet Pact which created an ‘alliance’ between one of the two major powers in the world.
Hitler himself could be a reason for the war. He was a leader with his special attitude and opinions. Perhaps he was in some way screwed that he had no reason, but to fight. He thought that WWI was unfair and wanted to make WWII fair.
Perhaps the following events, when Hitler conquered more and more led to him suddenly wanting to fight a war. As he realized he was strong enough to do it nothing could stop him.
In my opinion it is a combination of all of the above points, perhaps excluding the one that there was no reason. I’d say that ever since the loss in WWI Germany had searched for revenge. AS the ToV showed up they became more angry and wanted their revenge even more and then the LoN made them understand how easy it would be for them to do this.
Sources
http://histclo.hispeed.com/essay/war/ww2/cou/us/ww2us-iso.html
http://www.johndclare.net/RoadtoWWII1.htm
http://www.rpfuller.com/gcse/history/6.html
http://encarta.msn.com/encyclopedia_761560118/League_of_Nations.html
http://encarta.msn.com/encyclopedia_761556540_1____11/Hitler_Adolf_:_Rise_to_Power_:_Mein_Kampf.html
World History – People and Nations, Revised Edition - Anatole G. Mazour, John M.
Peoples