There was now a long and frustrating delay. The league’s officials sailed around the world to assess the situation in Manchuria for themselves. It was September 1932, a full year after the invasion, before they presented their report. It was detailed and balanced, but the judgement was very clear, Japan was in the wrong and had acted unlawfully, Manchuria should be returned to the Chinese. However in February 1933 instead of withdrawing for Manchuria the Japanese announced that they were going to invade even more of china. They still argued that this was in self-defence. On 24th February 1933 the report from the league officials was approved by 42 votes to 1, only Japan voted against, smarting at the insult Japan resigned from the league and a week later invaded Jehol. The league was powerless, they discussed economic sanctions, but without America, Japans main trading partner, there was no point. Besides, Britain seemed more interested in keeping up good relationships with Japan than agreeing to sanctions. The league also discussed banning arm sales, but members could not even agree on that, they were worried that Japan would retaliate and war would escalate. There was no prospect at all of Britain and France risking their navies or armies in war with Japan. Only the USA or the USSR had the resources to remove the Japanese from Manchuria and they weren’t even members of the league.
The significance of this crisis was obvious, the league would be powerless if a strong nation decided to pursue and aggressive policy and invade its neighbours. The Japanese had committed blatant agrees ion and got away with it.
The fatal blow to the league came when the Italian dictator Mussolini decide to invade Abyssinia (now Ethiopia) in 1935. There were both similarities and differences from the Japanese invasion of Manchuria. Like Japan, Italy wanted to expand its empire by invading another country, however unlike Manchuria this dispute was on the league’s doorstep. Italy was a European power, it even had a border with France, and Abyssinia bordered on the Anglo-Egyptian territory of Sudan and the British colonies of Kenya, Uganda and British Somaliland. Unlike the events in Manchuria the league could not claim that this problem was in an inaccessible part of the world. Some argued that Manchuria had been a special case, but what would the league do about the Abyssinian crisis?
Then origins of this event lay back to the previous century. IN 1896 Italian troops had tried to invade Abyssinia but had been defeated by a poorly equipped army of tribesmen. Mussolini wanted revenge for this humiliating defeat; he also had his eye on the fertile lands and mineral wealth of Abyssinia. However, most importantly he wanted glory and conquest. His style of leadership needed military victories and he had often talked of restoring the glory of the Roman Empire. In December 1934 there was dispute between Italian and Ethiopian soldier at the Wal-Wal oasis – fifty mile inside Abyssinia. Mussolini took this as his cue and claimed that this was actually Italian territory. He demanded an apology and began preparing the Italian army for an invasion of Abyssinia. The Abyssinian emperor Haile Selassie appealed to the league for help.
Once again there was long delay, and when orders were given they were once again ignored. This crisis made the league seem powerless and irrelevant as no league members could agree on an effective sanction. France and Britain even tried to do a secret deal with Mussolini to give him most of Abyssinia. These are the two blows that gave Hitler the confidence the need. He thought that if they didn’t stop Mussolini from invading a country then why would they stop Hitler from invading land that used to be Germany’s in the first place. It also showed him how none of the major powers wanted to risk their army and navy at war over such disputes. The thing that gave Hitler even more confidence was the fact that Britain sympathised with Hitler, first of all he was anti-communist and Britain was also very against communism at this time, and secondly, most of Britain, and especially the Politicians, sympathised with Germany as they felt the Treaty of Versailles was too harsh on Germany as well. With this in mind he knew he only had France to overcome then, and he also knew, that without Britain, France would do nothing, as proved in Manchuria and Abyssinia.
Appeasement was first introduced in 1936 for a number of reasons. Firstly, Hitler was not the only concern for Britain, infact he wasn’t even there main one. If anything, they were more concerned about the particular dangers to world peace opposed by Stalin, the new leader of the USSR. There were certainly many in Britain and France who, despite their agreement with Russia in 1953, wholly approved of Hitler anti-communist policies and saw Hitler as the buffer to the threat of spreading communism. Secondly, many felt that the Treaty of Versailles was unfair to Germany. They assumed that once these wrongs were put right then Germany would become a peaceful nation again. Finally, both the British and French leaders vividly remembered the horrific experiences of WWI. The British and French people and their leaders did not want to see another generation wiped out by shells and machine guns. They wish to avoid war at almost any cost. The policy was first put into practice in 1936 when Germany retook the Rhineland. Britain and France had more pressing affairs at the time and simply allowed Hitler to take the Rhineland. From this, Hitler got more and more risky, in 1938, Hitler created an Anschluss with Austria, another direct violation of the Treaty of Versailles. This was a very important pint for the policy of appeasement. Austria and a modern enough army and large resources that were all added to Germany, having control of Austria now made Germany much more powerful. On the other hand, most Austrians spoke German and Austria had joined through a plebiscite. In the end, Britain and France gave Hitler Austria.
Getting Austria was a big morale boost for Hitler. In 1938, appeasement started to show cracks. Hitler next wanted the Sudetenland – a rich border area of Czechoslovakia. Hitler claimed that he wanted to re-unite the Czech-Germans. When war seemed immanent in September, Chamberlain made a last-ditch effort to avoid it and flew to meet Hitler on 15th September. The meeting appeared to go well. Hitler moderated his demands saying all he was only interested in some part of the Sudetenland – and then only if a plebiscite showed that the Sudeten Germans wanted to join Germany. Chamberlain thought this was reasonable. He felt that it was yet another one of the terms of the Treaty of Versailles that needed to be addressed. Chamberlain seemed convinced that if Hitler got what he wanted he would at last be satisfied. To justify his demands he claimed that the Czech government were mistreating the Germans in the Sudetenland and that he intended to ‘rescue’ them by October 1st. Chamberlain told Hitler his demands were unreasonable, the British navy was mobilised, and war seemed immanent. With Mussolini’s help a final meeting was held in Munich on 29th September. While Europe held it’s breath, the leaders of Britain, Germany, France and Italy decided the fate of Czechoslovakia. On 29th September they decided to give Hitler what he wanted, they announced that Czechoslovakia was to lose the Sudetenland, they did not consult the Czech’s or the USSR. This certain agreement with Hitler was known as the ‘Munich Agreement’.
Although British people welcomed the Munich agreement, they did not trust Hitler, in an opinion poll in October 1938, 93% said they did not believe him when he said he had no more territorial ambitions in Europe. In March 1939 they were proved right, on 15th March, with Czechoslovakia in chaos, German troops took over the rest of the country. There was no resistance from the Czechs, nor did Britain and France do anything about the situation, however it was now clear that Hitler could not be trusted, for Chamberlain it was a step too far, unlike the Sudeten Germans, the Czechs were not separated from their homeland by the Treaty of Versailles, this was an invasion. If Hitler continued unchecked, his next target would be Poland. Britain and France told Hitler that if he invaded Poland they would declare war on Germany. The policy of appeasement was ended, however after years of appeasement Hitler did not actually believe that Britain and France would risk war by resisting him
In this situation, Hitler wanted to strengthen is eastern borders more than his western. His rearmament program had left Britain and France behind and Hitler did not expect them to give up their policy of appeasement until they had fully rearmed. Stalin on the other hand had been very worried about the German threat to the Soviet Union ever since Hitler came to power in 1933. Hitler had openly stated his interest in conquering Russian land. He had denounced communism and imprisoned and killed communists in Germany. Even so Stalin could not reach any kind of lasting deal with Britain or France in the 1930’s. From Stalin’s point of view it was not for want of trying. In 1934 he had joined the League of Nations, hoping the league would do a guarantee his security against a threat from Germany. However all he saw at the league was it powerlessness when Mussolini successfully invaded Abyssinia, and when both Mussolini and Hitler intervened in the Spanish Civil War. Politicians in Britain and France had not resisted German rearmament in the 1930’s. Indeed some seemed to even welcome a stronger Germany as a force to fight communism, which they saw as a bigger threat to British interests than Hitler.
Stalin’s fears and suspicions grew in the mid 1930’s. He signed a treaty with France in 1935, which said that France would help the USSR if Germany invaded Russia. But Stalin was not so sure he would trust the French to stick it, particularly when they failed to stop Hitler moving into the Rhineland which was right own their own border. For Stalin the Munich agreement in 1938 was the final straw. He was not consulted about it. Stalin concluded from the agreement that France and Britain were powerless to sop Hitler, or even worse, was happy for him to take over Eastern Europe and the Russia.
Stalin felt that Russian interests were ignored by Britain and France, so when Ribbentrop, a very senior Nazi, flew to Moscow for talks, Stalin decided that Russia’s interests would be better served with an agreement with Germany.
On 24th August 1939 Hitler and Stalin, the two archenemies, signed the Nazi – Soviet pact. They announced to a stunned world that they had agreed not to attack each other. Privately and unknown to the rest of the world they had agreed to divide Poland between themselves. Hitler was now confident of success. On 1st September 1939, the German armed forces attacked Poland from the west and on 17th September Soviet forces attacked from the east. Poland soon fell, but to Hitler’s surprise, Britain and France held their promises and declared war on Germany, Hitler had taken one gamble too many.
Although it was Hitler’s actions that led to war, there were many other factors important in the breakout of war. The league’s powerlessness was a big factor, as if they had stopped Hitler in the early stages or even showed that they were not afraid to, perhaps by punishing Mussolini, then Hitler would have feared more and wouldn’t have aimed so high. Neville Chamberlain’s idea Appeasement was also a big factor in war, this once again gave Hitler the confidence he needed to do almost anything he wanted, as Britain would let him, then leaving no one who could stop him, as France were not a big enough force against Hitler alone. The final and maybe the most important of the three was Britain’s attitude towards Hitler and war at the time. The were very against communism, and Hitler knew this, so he thought, and thought correctly that they would be on his side, all he would have to do was just say he wanted to destroy communism, despite him obviously wanting power, so Britain’s ignorance in the situation was a major factor.
