The Roots of War Treaty of Versailles 1918

The Roots of War

Treaty of Versailles, 1918 • Created a set of small new nations in Eastern Europe = vulnerable to aggression from larger neighbors (Germany & Soviet Union) • Italy & Japan = failed to recognize their stature as world powers • Germany = betrayed (Stab in the back myth) rather than defeated (this leads to the unconditional surrender demand), harsh war reparations and loss of lands

1920’s & 30’s • Economic crisis and political instability fueled the rise of right-wing dictatorships that offered territorial expansion by military conquest as way to redress old rivalries, dominate trade, and gain access to raw materials (Hitler, Germany; Mussolini, Italy; Franco, Spain; Stalin, Russia; Emperor Hirohito, Japan)

Japanese Nationalism • Wanted to expel Europeans and Americans from Asia and create a Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere (Asia controlled by Japanese) • Japanese ambition in Asia was to create a Pan-Asian empire with Japan at the center as an imperial power and a defensive ring of 500 miles to protect the homeland. • Most of Japanese territorial gains would be in China, Southeast Asia, and the Pacific Islands • Earliest national aggression in WWII was when Japan invaded Manchuria in 1931 • In 1937 Japan launched a brutal invasion of China

European Nationalism • Expansion of territories through military aggression • Italy: conquest of Ethiopia in 1935 & intervention in Spain in support of Gen. Franco • Germany: Hitler made himself the German Fuhrer, 1934 (absolute leader) • Thousand Year Reich – combined historic German interest in eastward expansion with tradition of German racial superiority • Lebensraum (living space) created by taking land from the Russian Slavic peoples

European Nationalism • Genocide (systematic murder) of the Jewish people of Europe • Nuremburg Laws, 1935 denied civil rights to Jews • NAZI government took Jewish property and excluded Jews from most jobs • Concentration Camps were prisons created by the Nazis to punish political dissidents, Jews, Gypsies, homosexuals, and other ethnic groups considered undesirable • The camps evolved into harsh labor camps and finally into extermination camps

Rome-Berlin Axis, 1936 • Alliance between Germany & Italy • Grew into the Tripartite Act, 1940 which included Japan • Alliance of Germany, Italy, and Japan became known as the Axis Powers (aggressor nations)

Hitler’s War in Europe

Pre-War territorial expansion • 1936 – re-occupied the German Rhineland, violated terms of Versailles by re-militarizing Germany • 1938 – annexed (added) Austria • Sept. 1938 – Munich Agreement = forced Czechoslovakia to cede the Sudetenland to Germany • March 1939 – Germany occupied the majority of Czechoslovakia

German invasion of Poland • Sept. 1, 1939 triggered start of WWII in Europe • Blitzkrieg invasion “lightening war” included armored divisions with tanks and motorized infantry rapidly seized control of territory (new form of warfare which made trench warfare of WWI obsolete) • Nazi-Soviet Non-Aggression Pact, 1939 – cleared the way for Hitler’s invasion of Poland with Germany & Russia splitting the country between them

War in Europe: 1939 -1941 • May 1940 -German invasion of Denmark & Norway to the North • May & June 1940 – German invasion of Netherlands, Belgium, and France to the West • Defeat of France led to the narrow escape of British soldiers from the beach at Dunkirk back to England • Vichy French (Pro-Nazi) government established under French Gen. Marshall Petain to govern southern France during the war • General Charles de Gaul – continued to lead the French forces

War in Europe: 1939 -1941 • Summer of 1940 –German aerial attack of Great Britain (Battle of Britain) • Failed to subdue Great Britain who would continue the war against Germany • May 1941 –Germany enlisted Hungary, Rumania, and Bulgaria as allies and conquered Yugoslavia and Greece to the South in the Balkans • June 1941 = unable to knock Great Britain out of the war, Hitler invaded the Soviet Union in the East • Invasion caught Soviets off-guard due to the non-aggression pact • Heavy losses by the Soviets coupled with deep penetration of German, Italian, and Rumanian forces into the Soviet Union led to the near capture of Moscow and other strategic cities