Focus Point 2 – What were the consequences of the failures of the League in the 1930s?
The failure of the League in the 1930s is covered elsewhere. But there were two main consequences:
- It encouraged leaders like Hitler to be bolder. This can be seen in the remilitarisation of the Rhineland, where Hitler took advantage of world attention to break a term of the Treaty of Versailles.
- It weakened countries faith in the League of Nations. Countries such as Britain and France began to rearm, and to pursue their own policies even if they undermined the effectiveness of the League. This can be seen in the policy of appeasement, which gave into Hitler’s aggression rather than try to confront it through collective action. A specific example is in 1935 when Britain signed the Anglo-German Naval agreement, allowing Germany to rebuild its navy.
Focus Point 3 – How far was Hitler’s foreign policy to blame for the outbreak of war in 1939?
Hitler’s foreign policy and how it brought war closer.
Focus Point 4 – Was the policy of appeasement justified?
What was appeasement?
A policy which aimed to prevent aggressors from starting wars by finding out what they really wanted and then agreeing to those demands which seemed reasonable. Followed by Britain and France for most of the 1930s when neither was willing to risk another war with an aggressive power.
Britain and appeasement
Most politicians thought it was in Britain’s interest to avoid becoming entangled in Europe’s affairs again. Most British people supported the policy of appeasement. Winston Churchill was one of the few politicians to speak out against it.
Arguments For Appeasement
- The Empire was more important than Europe. The Japanese threatened to attack British colonies in the Far East. Britain could not afford also to fight Germany in the West.
- British armed forces were not sufficiently large to fight another major war. Britain needed time to rearm.
- To fight a successful war against Germany, Britain needed the support of the USA and Dominions such as Australia. But they wanted to stay out of European affairs.
- The horror of war lived on after 1918. Public opinion strongly supported disarmament.
- The Government believed the next war would be fought in the air and that thousandsa of civilians would be killed by bombing raids. It wanted to avoid this.
- Many British people: a) felt guilty that the Treaty of Versailles had been too harsh, b) sympathised with the German desire to bring German-speaking peoples into one nation.
Arguments Against Appeasement
- Agressors have no ‘final demands’. The more they are given the more they will try to take.
- If Germany was allowed to become a powerful European state it would soon become a threat to the British Empire.
The Sudetenland Crisis and the Failure of Appeasement
What Happened:
Hitler’s actions
- He wanted to unite the German speaking majority of the Sudetenland, part of Czechoslovakia, a democratic country
- He also wanted the resources in the Sudetenland, and it was the first step to breaking up Czechoslovakia
- He encounraged Konrad Henlein, leader of the pro-Nazi Sudeten German Party, to stage protests and an uprising, allowing Hitler to say that he intended to send German soldiers in to restore order.
- He made it clear over the summer that he intended to make the Sudetenland part of a Greater Germany.
Chamberlain’s actions (the British Prime Minister)
- Britain and France had made guarantees to the Czechs that they would defend them, but
a) Chamberlain believed in appeasement
b) the British people wanted peace at any price – Czechoslovakia was a small distant country
c) Britain needed time to rearm
d) He accepted Hitler’s assurance that this was his last territorial demand.
- Over the meetings in September 1938, Hitler increases his demands, claiming the whole of the Sudetenland.
- This leads to the Munich Conference, Sept 29-30
a) France, Britain, Italy and Germany were present
b) Czechoslovakia and its ally, the USSR were not invited or consulted
c) The Sudetenland was to be transferred to Germany
d) Britain and Germany agree not to go to war in future (his famous ‘piece of paper’)
Results of the Munich Agreement
Moreover:
Czechoslovakia
- was deserted by its allies and fatally weakened by the loss of resources and military defences.
Stalin
- was offended by being excluded from the Munich talks
- lost confidence that Britain and France would defend Communist Russia against Hitler, if they were not prepared to defend democratic Czechoslovakia
Hitler
- decided Britain and France were unlikely ever to oppose him by force
- gained popularity at home and be came more determined to achieve lebensraum
- in March 1939 invaded Bohemia-Moravia, the rest of Czechoslovakia.
End of Appeasement
- the invasion of the rest of Czechoslovakia showed that Hitler’s promises could not be trusted
- Hitler’s argument that he was only bringing Germans into Greater Germany no longer held since he was now taking over the lands of non-Germans
- Britain and France speeded up rearmament
- Guarantees were given to defend Poland, Hitler’s obvious next target, against German aggression.
Focus Point 5 – How important was the Nazi-Soviet Pact?
The Pact, August 1939
- Publicly agreed that the USSR would not object or fight if Germany attacked Poland
- secretly agreed that, once Poland was overrun, the two powers would divide it between them. Thus the USSR would regain land lost to Poland in 1921.
This came as a surprise agreement between two arched enemies. Stalin had joined the League of Nations in 1934 so as to win allies against the threat from anti-communist Hitler. In the summer of 1939 there had been talks with Britain and France.
Why did tasks fail between Britain, France and the USSR?
- Stalin would not simply guarantee to defend Poland. He proposed a full military alliance with France and Britain.
- France and Britain were unwilling to agree because they:
a) disliked Communism and did not want to defend it
b) suspected Stalin aimed eventually to control Eastern Europe
c) thought the Red Army was too weak to fight effectively
- Poland refused to allow Soviet troops on its soil.
- Stalin mistrusted Britain and France, suspecting that they would not put up a fight against Hitler. They had not resisted Hitler over the Rearmament, the Rhineland, Austria, and most importantly the Sudetenland where he had been excluded from the Munich conference.
Why did negotiations between the USSR and Germany succeed?
- Stalin:
a) realised France and Britain were not serious about military talks
b) could not face Germany alone
c) could not manage to fight in Europe as well as Japan on the Manchurian border
d) wanted to take land in Poland
- Hitler needed a deal. The deadline for invading Poland was close. Neither trusted the other, but it was convenient for the moment.
Focus Point 6 – Why did Britain and France declare war on Germany in September 1939?
Simply put Britain and France declared war on Germany on 3 September to honour its guarantee to defend Poland, following its invasion by Hitler. Hitler had believed that as before, Britain and France would not got to war over some distant land, but he miscalculated.
On a more complex level war is declared because of a number of factors:
- How the resentment over the Treaty of Versailles led to the beliefs and plans of Hitler that would lead to aggression.
- How the failure of the League to stop aggression and uphold the treaty encouraged Hitler and others to be more aggressive. And how the weakness of the League encouraged Britain and France to follow an alternative policy in appeasement.
- How Hitler in particular gradually undid the terms of the treaty in his foreign policy.
- How Britain and France’s policy of appeasement encouraged Hitler to be bolder, how they undermined the League.
- How others such as Stalin contributed to bringing war closer.
