- CAUSES OF THE SECOND WORLD WAR
Why did peace collapse in Europe in 1939?
- Hitler’s plans :
- abolish treaty of Versailles
- expand German territory
- defeat communism
- Hitler’s actions
- Hitler was seen as a gambler rather than a planner (each time took another logical step to get what he wanted) and it was also allies mistake that they didn’t stop him -> he became more self confident
Rearmament
- 1933 – Hitler came to power -> aim: increase army forces -> thousands of workers draft to the army -> less unemployment -> fulfilled promises
- He rearmed first secretly saying that other countries also refused to disarm
- 1935 – openly staged a massive military rally
- 1936 – reintroduce conscription
- Rearmament was popular to people + Britain who sympathized with Germany because they saw them as possible buffer against communism
- Britain + Germany – agreement – Germany can have army until it is 35% under B. army
The Saar plebiscite
- Saar had been ruled by League since 1919 (part of Germany) -> In 1935 plebiscites for people whenever they want be part of Germany or not -> Hitler won
Remilitarization of the Rhineland
- In March 1936 Hitler moved his troops into Rhineland (even he agreed not to do this in Locarno treaty and Treaty of Versailles) -> huge risk
- USSR and France signed an agreement to help each other if Germany attacks -> Hitler claimed Germany is under threat and should be allowed to have troops on his own frontier.
- Hitler’s army wasn’t so equipped as French -> but any leader in France didn’t want to get France into war and in fact they didn’t know how Germanys army was weak.
- In the same time League was solving problems in Abyssinia and didn’t have power to stop Hitler -> Hitler’s action paid off