In the 1930s there were two events that truly tested the League of Nations. One of these was when Japan invaded Manchuria in north-east China, known as the Manchurian Crisis, from 1931-33. In Japan the depression threatened a complete collapse of the country’s industry. It led the Japanese to take over Manchuria. Even after a long delay deciding what action the League of Nations should take in this crisis, nothing was done. In turn this made the League of Nations seem weak and ineffective. Later, Italy invaded Abyssinia, known as the Abyssinian Crisis, from 1935-36. League members could not agree effective sanctions against Italy, Britain and France even tried to make a secret deal to give most of Abyssinia to Italy to make the problem disappear as quickly and effectively as it could. After this event the world saw the League of Nations as powerless and irrelevant to any problems that could arise in Europe.
Hitler saw that the League of Nations would not try to stop him if he made a move. The failure of the League of Nations in Manchuria and Abyssinia made it easier for Hitler to achieve his military objectives. The rest of Europe regarded the League of Nations as ineffective and that it wouldn’t accomplish anything because the countries involved were too self-absorbed to come to any kind of agreement. At the disarmament conference of 1932-34 Germany complained that only it had disarmed. The League of Nations could not get any other member to agree to disarm. Forthwith, Germany left the League of Nations and began to rearm openly. League of Nations members such as Britain and France no longer tried to stop it and other League of Nations members also began to rearm themselves. This proved that the terms of the Treaty of Versailles meant nothing any longer and the League of Nations would not uphold any of its prior agreements. By the end of the Abyssinian Crisis the League of Nations had lost any influence it had on problems in Europe and any confidence countries had in what the League of Nations could accomplish. The self-interest of members of the League of Nations had caused it to fail in its quest to sustain peace in Europe and had made it totally unsuccessful.
In 1936 Hitler began his policy of reclaiming lost German territory. Once again Britain and France took the easy option of appeasement. Appeasement allowed Hitler to do practically anything, including claiming more territory for Germany. Appeasement encouraged Hitler to be aggressive, every time Hitler got away with acts of aggression he became even more certain that Britain and France would do nothing to stop him. If Britain and France had done something in the early stages, when Germany was weakest, they would have stood more of a chance of limiting German ambition, but Germany was annexing more and more land and subsequently becoming stronger and stronger. Hitler was succeeding in fooling world leaders by promising that he wouldn’t do anything bad. Because Britain and France did not stand up to Hitler when he invaded Czechoslovakia, Stalin believed that Britain would not help the USSR either if Hitler invaded it. This persuaded Stalin that he should reach an agreement with Germany and, on August 23, 1939, the Nazi-Soviet Pact was signed. This allowed Hitler to invade Poland in 1939. In reality, western politicians should have known what to expect from Hitler. From the start he made it clear in his speeches and writings that he wanted to conquer Eastern Europe. They should have known after the invasions of the Rhineland and the Sudetenland that his promises of peace were worthless.
The Nazi-Soviet Pact of 1939 helped Hitler and Stalin by giving them time to do what they wanted. Stalin had bought time to build up soviet defence while Hitler was employing his plan of capturing Poland. After Czechoslovakia, Poland was next. Because Poland was already surrounded by German troops it would be easy land to capture. Hitler had said that he wanted to conquer the USSR and Stalin was fearful for soviet security, Hitler had killed and imprisoned many communists in Germany already. Stalin signed sign the Nazi-Soviet Pact with Hitler agreeing not to fight each other, and in the event that Poland is invaded, Germany and the Soviet Union would split it fifty-fifty. Hitler had lost the chance to invade the USSR but this was the perfect chance to seize Poland. Stalin had not only succeeded in protecting his country but also gained more territory from Poland.
When Hitler invaded Poland in 1939, Britain and France finally stepped in. 17 days after Hitler invaded Poland on September 1, Stalin did likewise. Hitler did not believe Britain and France would go to war but on September 2, to Hitler’s surprise, they did. Hitler’s gamble to invade Poland triggered Britain and France to take matters into their own hands. Poland and the Polish Corridor was valuable land that European leaders could not allow Hitler to gain control of. It was the main trade route through Europe and cut East Prussia off from the rest of Germany. Germany resented this partition and demanded permission to build a road and rail link across the Corridor, and Poland implacably refused this, which was one of the primary causes of tension in the build-up to World War II. Hitler had become too powerful and he needed to be stopped. The League of Nations did nothing, and none of the treaties made by members of the League were being upheld.
Although it was Hitler’s actions which led to war, many other factors were important in the cause of World War II, such as appeasement causing the failure of the League of Nations. I think that if the League of Nations had done something to stop Hitler when he first started building Germany up and going against the points laid out in the Treaty of Versailles, Hitler would have been caught early and wouldn’t have had the chance to make Germany so strong by invading other countries. If members of the League of Nations were able to agree on what actions they should take then the Manchurian and Abyssinian Crisis would have been solved, showing that the League of Nations could uphold its laws and have influence over the actions of other countries, that the League of Nations shouldn’t be disputed. I also believe that appeasement was an enormous mistake. Hitler’s confidence in himself grew too strong. So strong in fact that he believed he could do anything and no one would challenge him. If Britain and France, or any other country, had tried to stop him when he first started rearming or when he invaded the Rhineland, World War II could have been avoided. What politicians didn’t know when Hitler sent troops into the Rhineland was that they had orders to retreat if they came up against any opposition. If Hitler was stopped in the early stages of his ambitious scheme, when he first started going against the wishes of the League of Nations and the Treaty of Versailles, I doubt that World War II would have happened.
