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This is a timeline showing the events that followed the Great War. It is not a very detailed timeline, only marking some of the bigger events. It begins with the end of the Great War up until Hitler's re-armament.

This is a painting of Adolf Hitler. He was the Nazi leader of Germany, and also the Chancellor of Germany. He began the re-armament movement in 1933.

This is a painting of Benito Mussolini. He is the leader of Italy. Italy was the only nation that came close to preventing Germany's re-armament. However, Italy and Germany joined force for World War Two.

ROADS TO WAR – THE ORIGINS OF THE SECOND WORLD WAR AND THE RISE OF FASCISM 1929-1941

Chapter 1- The “New Era”: Hopes for Peace in 1929

· Locarno and the “New Era” o In 1925 leading European statesmen met for a conference in the Swiss town of Locarno. o There they discussed a number of problems that had not been settled at the end of the Great War. o The most difficult problem facing them was the fact that Germany and France were still on bad terms after fighting each other in the Great War. § Their hostility deepened in 1923 when French and Belgian armies occupied Germany’s Ruhr Valley after the German government said that it would not pay for damage done to France and Belgium in the Great War. o The result of the conference at Locarno was a group of agreements known as the **Locarno Treaties.** § The first of these was between France, Germany and Belgium, agreeing to respect each other’s borders: · Germany would never attack France and Belgium as she had done in 1914 · France and Belgium would never use force against Germany as they had done n 1923. · Britain and Italy agreed to make sure the terms were not broken. § Several other Locarno Treaties were signed. · France promised to support, Poland and Czechoslovakia if Germany ever quarreled with them. · All the countries involved agreed that they would never to go war if a dispute took place between them. · The Locarno Treaties removed many of the suspicions between Germany and her neighbors. · Friendship between nations o By 1929 it seemed that a “new era” really had begun. o All but two of the world’s nations were at peace. § Only a border clash between Paraguay and Bolivia disturbed the calm and that was quickly over. o Far from fighting wars, many countries signed agreements of peace with each other in 1929. o The most important of these was the **Kellogg-Briand Pact.** § It was an agreement thought up by the Foreign Ministers of the US and France, Kellogg and Briand, not to use war as a way of settling disputes. § By July 1929, when it came into force, sixty-five countries had signed the Kellogg-Briand Pact. o Several other peace agreements were made in 1929. § The USSR signed an **Eastern Pact** with six of its neighboring states agreeing not to use war to settle disputes amongst themselves. § Also a number of pacts of friendship were made between countries which had recently been in dispute with each other: · Greece and Yugoslavia, · Chile and Peru, · Arabia and Turkey, · Iran and Iraq, all settled long-standing quarrels in 1929. · The League of Nations o 1929 was the Tenth Anniversary of the world’s first peacekeeping organization, the **League of Nations.** o The LON was created in 1919 by the peace treaties, which ended the Great War. § It had two aims: To keep peace between nations § And to make the world a better place for all people. o To help achieve the aim of keeping world peace, countries that joined the League had to sign a promise not to go to war with any other member of the League. § They also agreed that if any member did attack another, the other members would join force to defend the country, which was under attack. § This idea for keeping peace was called **Collective Security.** o The rules of the League stated that it would take “any action’ to keep the peace between nations. o There were however, only three peacekeeping actions that the League could realistically consider taking. § One was to deal with a dispute of legal means, in the League’s Permanent Court of International Justice. § Another was to impose economic **sanctions** on an attacker. · This meant that all league members would refuse to trade with the attacker, thus threatening it with economic ruin if it did not stop the attack. § The third and most extreme course of action would be to impose military sanctions against the attacker. o During its first ten years, the LON was asked to deal with nine disputes between member countries. § In all but two cases it settled the disputes without even having to use sanctions. § Also to its credit, the LONN had a number of special departments, which by 1020 were doing valuable work to improve international relations. § One of these was the **Disarmament Commission** that tried to persuade member nations to reduce their weapon stocks and to rely instead on collective security for their defense. o Great hopes were aroused when the Commission announced that sixty nations would meet in Geneva in 1932 for the world first ever disarmament conference. · The Limitations of the League o First and most important, not every nation belonged to the League. § The USA was not a member, for the US government of the 1920s followed a “policy of isolation” from the affairs of Europe, and did not want to get involved in unnecessary foreign affairs. § The USSR was not a member because its communist leaders saw the League as a club for “capitalists” countries opposed to communism. § Although there were only ten non-members in 1929, the fact that these two major powers did not belong to the LON was a serious weakness. o A second problem was that some members lacked enthusiasm for the League. § Germany, beaten in the Great War, was excluded until 1926. Even after being admitted, many Germans looked on he LON as a “club of victors” – the countries that had beaten them in 1918. o A third problem was that the LON’s ability to keep the peace has never been fully tested by 1929. § Although it had solved many disputes brought before it, none had involved the world’s major powers and none had required the use of sanctions. § There was no proof yet as to whether their powers could settle a problem between 2 major powers and there is no proof that a sanction could stop a war. o Despite its limitations, the Lon was an established feature of the world scene by 1929 and was highly regarded by people all over the world.

Chapter 2-

· The Great Depression o The GD started in 1929. o The stocks in NYC Wall Street fell to an all time low. o Which resulted in thousands of Americans going bankrupt. o The GD that began in the USA quickly spread to most other countries.

o This affected world peace: § First, the governments of the countries hit hardest by the GD tried to protect their people with new economic policies. · Some raised the customs duties on foreign goods coming into their countries. o This was called **protectionism** and its aim was to boost the demand for goods made in their own countries by keeping out foreign goods. o With this, they hoped would created more jobs for their people. · Some countries went even further. o They tried to keep out foreign goods entirely, by making themselves self-sufficient. o In the long run, these policies of protectionism and self-sufficiency harmed international relations. o The more selfish each country acted to protect its people, the more they forgot the ideas of world co-operation behind the LON. § The second way in which the Depression affected world peace was by causing unrest among the people of many countries. · Social unrest was the result of mass unemployment. o People blamed the government for what had happened. o Desperate for food and work people often supported extreme political parties that promised them help if elected. o Which caused anti-democratic parties to power, and they ac aggressively towards other countries in an attempt to improve the situation in their own country. · The Problem of Empires o The GD added to a problem that was already a threat to world peace – the division of the world into powers that owned large empires and those which did not. o As a result of their victory in the Great War, France and GB enlarged their empires by taking over Germany’s colonies as “mandates”, governing them on trust for the LON. o As a result they ruled over one third of the world. o How did these affect world relations? § First, some countries envied the French and Britain empires and wanted to enlarge their own. · The Italians, who were on the winning side of the Great War, had long wanted more colonies in Africa and thought it unfair that they were not given any German colonies at the end of the war. · The Japanese, also on the winning side, had been given some German islands in the Pacific Ocean, but these were small and of little value. o The Japanese therefore wanted to add to their empire with land nearer home. · And the Germans were pissed about their loss. § The GD increased the resentment of Italy, Japan and Germany, for as the GD worsened, Britain and France was able to increase their trade with their empires and thus avoid its worst effects. · Ambitious soldiers and politicians in Italy, Japan and Germany began to think that adding colonies to their own empires would also help them to avoid the worst effects of the Depression – even if this meant grabbing land from other countries. § Owning large empires, however, caused problems for Britain and France like no other. · In many of their colonies, people were demanding the right to govern themselves, which caused violent clashes. · So they had to keep large military forces in these colonies, which is expensive and meant that they could not fully support the aim for world peace and disarmament.

Japan Manchuria and the League 1931- 1933

§ The attraction of Manchuria o Japan has already taken over four areas in and around China – Formosa, Korea, Liaodong and Kiaochow. o But Manchuria was the area that Japanese wanted the most. o By 1931 the Japanese controlled most of Manchuria’s economy. § Japan owned all its most important mines, railways, factories and ports. § To keep these possessions it kept a large army in Kwantung in South Manchuria. o When the Japanese government proved unable to help the GD, there was widespread unrest among the people. § Their unrest spread to the army. § Army officers began to talk about conquering foreign land as a way out of the GD. § With new colonies, they argued, Japan would gain raw materials, trade and many more jobs. § So they decided to start with Manchuria. § Japan invades Manchuria o Acting against the orders of the Japanese government, officer of the Kwantung army plotted a military take over of Manchuria § During the night of 18 September 1931, Japanese soldiers blew up a section of the South Manchuria Railway at Shenyang. § They blamed the explosion on local Chinese people and used it as an excuse to occupy Shenyang. § China immediately asked the LON for help. § The LON’s first response was to order the Japanese government to withdraw its troops. § The Japanese delegate to the LON agreed to this demand and claimed that the invasion had been the work of “some military hot-heads”. o However, the Kwantung army continued to advance into Manchuria. o By the end of 1931 it had occupied the entire province and made it into a semi-independent state named Manchukuo. § The problem was that the government had lost control of the Kwantung army: its officers were acting against their orders. His meant that the LON has no power. § The League and Manchuria o In 1931-32, no member of the LON wanted to use sanctions against Japan. § For a start, the GD had already damaged trade between nations and nobody wanted to damage it further by refusing to trade with Japan. § Second, even the most powerful members of the LON doubted whether they could enforce sanctions. o Therefore they tried to restore peace by means of persuasion. § A commission of Enquiry, led by Britain’s Lord Lytton, was sent to Manchuria to investigate the crisis. § The report tried to satisfy both China and Japan. · It suggested that the Japanese should leave Manchuria, but that the region should continue to be a semi-independent country instead of returning to Chinese rule. § This attempt was approved by the LON in 1933. · However, Japan resigned the LON before any actions were made. o The Manchurian affair damaged the reputation of the LON. § One of its leading members had gone to another member and the LON failed to stop it. § By the end, even the LON’s strongest supporters had doubts about its ability to maintain world peace.

Chapter 4 – The Revival of Germany, 1933-35

§ Hitler’s foreign policy aims o The Nazi Party was set up in 1919 shortly after Germany’s defeat in the Great War. o Like many other Germans, the Nazis refused to believe that the German army had been beaten. § They blamed Germany’s defeat on government ministers whom they accused of cowardice. § They were even angrier when they were forced to sign the **Treaty of Versailles** in 1919. o The Treaty of V blamed Germany for starting the **GW,** cut her armed force, took away all her colonies, and ordered them to pay for war damages and gave large areas of her land to neighboring states. § The treaty was harsh and unfair. o When Hitler became Chancellor in 1933 he had three basic aims in his foreign policy. § First he aimed to tear up the Treaty of V.  § Second, he intended to unite all German-speaking people in one country, called **Greater Germany.** § Third, he aimed to give Germans “**lebensraum”** or “living space”; Germany was overcrowded, he said, and did not have enough food or raw materials. o The way to get these things, would be to take over the land east of Germany, particularly in the USSR and Poland. § Re-armament o None of Hitler’s aims could be achieved without armed forces. They have to conquer or at least threaten to get what they need. o However, the armed forces were weak at the time. Hitler would have to build up the armed forces in defiance of the treaty. o At a secret meeting in early 1933, Hitler announced the army generals a plan to increase the armed forces. o For the next two years, the German armed forces re-armed in secret. § By March 1935 the new air force, the Luftwaffe, had 2500 aircraft and the army had 300,00 men. § Hitler announced in public that there would be compulsory military service for all men, and that the army was to increase to 550,000. § Reactions to German re-armament o Even though the Germans could be stopped, none of the major powers did. § British, had problems of their own in the Empire and did not want to be deeply involved in European affairs. · Moreover, the GD meant that the British government did not want to spend scarce money on building up Britain’s armed forces. § The French was also unwilling because they put their efforts into defending France with the **Maginot Line,** a series of heavily armed concrete forts built along the length of the French and Germany border. o Italy was the only country that came close to taking action against Germany at this time. § In 1934 Nazis took over the Austrian government, and people thought the Hitler would try to control Austria. § To prevent this, Mussolini placed army units in threatening positions on the border between Italy and Austria. § It was a clear warning to Hitler that he would not allow such a union to take place. o Hitler’s announcement of compulsory military service in 1935 alarmed other European leaders, but no one took action. o Instead, the Prime Minister of France, GB, and Italy met at Stresa in Italy to form what they called the **Stresa Front.** § They issued a protest against Hiter’s rearmament plans, but otherwise took no action. o By April 1935, there was a very uneasy peace. o Events in Manchuria and Germany had shown that two of the world’s lading nations were not prepared to abide by international law- and that nobody was going to try to make them do so.

Summary – There was a time when Europe was at peace, many countries were making friends with each other. The League of Nation was set up as a peacekeeping organization, however it has its limitations and was proved to be not as strong as they claimed to be after they were unable to solve the Manchurian Conflict. The Great Depression started in USA in 1929 and it gradually spread over the world, and it caused many countries to have economic downfalls. As nations’ leaders tried to save their country, conflicts between nations arise. At the same time, Germans were unhappy about the unfair and harsh treatments of the Treaty of Versailles, so Hitler started the re-armament and started putting together a large army, and decide to begin attacking the USSR and Poland.

Questions: 1. When did the Great Depression start? 2. Why did other nations not try to stop Germany’s re-armament? 3. Where did Japan plan on attacking? 4. How did the Great Depression motivate the Japanese to attack others? 5. What countries were not part of the League of Nations?