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Ginny McCullough 10B2
Homework Why had international Peace Collapsed by 1939? 27th of March 03
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When Hitler came to power in Germany in 1933 he was pledged to reverse the treaty of Versailles and to increase German territory. Hitler was pledged to reverse the treaty of Versailles and to increase German territory because he said he would in his book Mein kampf. He was pledged to carry out these actions because he had promised them in 1924 only if he was elected into power. In 1933 the people liked his pledges so they elected him so he could carry out his pledges, now Hitler could get to work. The treaty was a constant reminder of defeat and humiliation. Hitler believed the treaty was unfair and made Germany look weak so he had to abolish it. If Hitler were going to demolish the treaty of Versailles then he would also get back the land that was taken away from Hitler in the treaty. So he could really kill two birds with one stone. Hitler wanted to gain more land too and build an Empire so he could also increase German territory. Hitler’s people expected the pledges to be for filled so Hitler must complete them to keep Germany satisfied with its leader.
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In the 1930’s there were two incidents that really tested the League of Nations. The failure of the League of Nations in Manchuria and Abyssinia, which made it easier for Hitler to achieve his objectives. The Manchurian crisis helped Hitler to achieve his objectives. In 1933 when Hitler came to power. Japan left the League of Nations because they had decided Japan had invaded Manchuria unlawfully and must withdraw. Japan took over Manchuria and invaded more of China. The League was powerless to stop Japan, and ended up only discussing sanctions that it could use against Japan, but they never used any action, so Japan got away with it. This gave Hitler the impression that the League was weak when it came to protecting a country that was being invaded for land gaining purposes. So this gave Hitler the confidence to invade other countries with positive assurance that the League would not intervene. Japan was isolated and needed a friend, Germany wanted strength on its side, so Japan would be an obvious ally choice. Hitler had seen that Britain wanted to remain friends with Japan so they weren’t willing to do anything to protect Manchuria. Self-interests of France and Britain were on the priority list. Japan setting the example though to invade a country and get away with it gave Hitler the idea to invade another country. The weak actions and delayed decisions of the League that lead the league failing to protect Manchuria. Because the League seemed weak and ineffective after the failure Hitler was encouraged by their lack of strength to invade a country. Invading a country would help Hitler to gain land and even get land back that the treaty of Versailles had taken off Germany. This would mean that Hitler had started to complete his objectives by breaking the treaty by taking land that was taken away from Germany back; and to invade other countries and gain land. The Abyssinian crisis helped Hitler to achieve his targets because the League let Italy take Abyssinia and did nothing to help it but made the situation worse. Britain and France are the main leading countries of the League so they make the decisions. The decisions that the League made should have revolved around making countries safe from attack. This was not the case with Britain and France. Britain and especially France wanted to appease Mussolini because he was their strongest ally against Hitler for the fear of future war. If Italy could not have Abyssinia they would be unhappy so the League delayed decisions put sanctions in place against Italy that wouldn’t even work. France told Hoare that if Italy were not given two thirds of Abyssinia then it would not support sanctions. Britain and France wanting to give Italy two thirds of Italy was leaked to the French press and soon got around Europe. The only reason they wanted to appease Italy is to have a strong ally against Hitler. This demonstrated to Hitler that the League thought it would extra strength against Hitler in a war and would use appeasement to get it. Because the League also failed to protect Abyssinia then this shows Hitler another failure of strength after Manchuria making the League look like a walk over. Because the League was so busy with the Abyssinian debate they failed to see what Hitler would be doing with the time the league was too busy to watch Him. Hitler was building up Troops and weapons that were not allowed by the treaty of Versailles. On the 7th of March in 1936 Hitler moved his troops into the Rhineland an act that was not allowed in the treaty. This was because the league had not been paying enough attention to Hitler’s movements and was too distracted with the Abyssinian debate and protecting themselves. In 1936 Hitler and Mussolini signed an agreement called the Rome Berlin Axis. So from the failure of Abyssinia Hitler had got a new ally rearmed land and was breaking the treaty of Versailles.
