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From Appeasement to War Packet #33

S. Gerhardt Global 10R

The Aggressive Acts That Led to World War II

Japan’s Foreign Expansion

1930s Japan is being run by military leaders who want to solve the country’s economic problems by foreign expansion. They planned a Pacific empire that included a conquered China. The empire would provide Japan with raw materials and markets for its goods. It would also give Japan room for its growing population.

Japanese businesses had invested heavily in China’s Northern Province Manchuria. It was an area rich in iron and coal. In 1931, the Japanese army seized Manchuria. The army then set up a puppet government. Japanese engineers and technicians began arriving in large numbers to build mines and factories.

The Japanese attack on Manchuria was the first direct challenge to the League of Nations. In the early 1930s, the Leagues members included all major democracies except the United States. Also members were the three countries that posed the greatest threat to peace – Germany, Japan and Italy. When Japan seized Manchuria, many League members vigorously protested. The League condemned Japanese aggressions, but it had no power to enforce its decisions. Japan ignored the protests and withdrew from the League in 1933.

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Mussolini Attacks Ethiopia

The League’s failure to stop Japan encouraged Mussolini to plan aggression of his own. Mussolini dreamed of building a colonial empire in Africa like that of Britain and France. He bitterly complained that Britain and France had only left “a collection of deserts” from which to choose from.

Ethiopia was one of Africa’s four remaining independent nations. The Ethiopians had successfully resisted an Italian attempt at conquest in the 1890s. To avenge the defeat, Mussolini ordered a massive invasion of Ethiopia in October of 1935. The spears and swords of the Ethiopians were no match for the Italian guns, tanks and poison gas. In May 1936, Mussolini told a cheering crowd: “Italy has her empire at last…… a Fascist empire!”

The Ethiopian emperor Haile Selassie urgently appealed to the League for help. Although the League condemned the attack, its members did nothing. By giving into Mussolini in Africa, Britain and France hoped to keep peace in Europe.

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Hitler Defies the Treaty of Versailles

Hitler had long pledged to undo the Treaty of Versailles. Among its provisions, the treaty limited the size of Germany’s army. In March of 1935, Hitler announced that Germany would no longer obey the restrictions of the treaty. In fact, he had already begun rebuilding his army. The League issued a mild condemnation.

The Leagues failure to stop Germany from rearming convinced Hitler to take even greater risks. The treaty had forbidden German troops to enter the 30 mile wide zone on either side of the Rhine River. Known as Rhineland, it formed a buffer zone between France and Germany. It was also an important industrial area. On March 7, 1936, German troops moved into the Rhineland. The French were stunned but were unwilling to risk war. The British urged appeasement, giving in to an aggressor to keep peace.

Hitler later admitted that he would have backed down if the British and the French had challenged him. The German occupation of the Rhineland marked a turning point in the march toward war. First, it strengthened Hitler’s power and prestige within Germany. Cautious generals who urged restraint now agreed to follow him. Second, the balance of power changed in Germany’s favor. Finally, the weak response by France and Britain encouraged Hitler to speed up his military and territorial expansion.

Hitler’s growing strength convinced Mussolini that he should seek an alliance with Hitler and Germany. In October of 1936, the two dictators reached an agreement that became known as the Rome-Berlin Axis, A month later, Germany also made an agreement with Japan. Germany, Italy and Japan came to be called the Axis Powers.

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Aggressive Acts that Lead to World War II

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After examining the readings and completing the graphic organizer, what conclusion can you come to about the League of Nations and their role in the build-up to World War II?

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From Appeasement to War Reading

Need to Know Vocabulary:

1. Appeasement: Giving into the demands of an aggressor in order to keep peace

2. Pacifism: Opposition to all war

3. Neutrality Acts: Series of acts passed by the U.S. Congress from 1935-1939 that aimed to keep the U.S. from becoming involved in World War II

4. Axis Powers: Group of countries led by Germany, Italy and Japan that fought the allies in World War II

5. Francisco Franco: General from Spain who successfully created a fascist dictatorship in Spain after a bloody civil war

6. Anschluss: Union of Austria and Germany

7. Sudetenland: A region of western Czechoslovakia

8. Nazi-Soviet Pact: Agreement between Germany and the Soviet Union in 1939 in which two nations promised not to fight each other and to divide up land in Eastern Europe

9. Deliberation: Long and careful consideration or discussion

10. Justifiable: Able to be shown to be right or reasonable; defensible

11. Aggressor: A person or country that attacks another first

12. Autonomy: Self-rule

13. Horrendous: Extremely unpleasant, horrifying, or terrible

Aggression Goes Unchecked

Throughout the 1930s, challenges to peace followed a pattern. Dictators took aggressive actions but met only verbal protests and pleas for peace from the democracies. Mussolini, Hitler and the leaders of Japan viewed the desire for peace as a weakness and the shortcomings of the democracies’ policies. These policies, however, were the product of long careful deliberation. At the time, some people believed they would work.

The Western policy of appeasement developed for a number of reasons. France was demoralized, suffering from political divisions at home. It could not take on Hitler without British support. The British, however, had not desire to confront the German dictator. Some even thought Hitler’s actions were a justifiable response to the terms of the Treaty of Versailles, which they believed had been too harsh on Germany.

In both Britain and France, many saw Hitler and fascism as a defense against a worse evil – the spread of Soviet Communism. Additionally, the Great Depression drained the energies of the western democracies. Finally, widespread pacifism, or opposition to all war and disgust with the destruction from the previous war pushed many governments to seek peace at any price.

As war clouds gathered in Europe in the mid-1930s, the United States Congress passed a series of Neutrality Acts. One law forbade the sale of arms to any nation at war. Others outlawed loans to warring powers. The fundamental goal of American policy, however, was to avoid involvement in a European war, not to prevent such a conflict.

In the face of apparent weakness of Britain, France and the United States, Germany, Italy and Japan formed what became known as the Rome-Berlin-Tokyo Axis. Known as the Axis powers, the three agreed to fight Soviet communism. They also agreed not to interfere with one another’s plans for territorial expansion. The agreement cleared the way for these anti-democratic aggressor powers to taken even bolder steps.

Main Ideas:

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German Aggression Continues

In the meantime, Hitler pursued his goal of bringing all German-speaking people into the Third Reich. He also took steps to gain “living space” for Germans in Eastern Europe. Hitler, who believed in the superiority of German people, thought that Germany had a right to conquer the inferior people in the east. Hitler claimed, “I have the right to remove millions of an inferior race that breeds like vermin.” Hitler’s aggressive plans also served economic purposes. Production of military equipment would benefit German industry, which would also gain new materials and markets in the east.

By March 1938, Hitler was ready to engineer the Anschluss. When Austria’s chancellor refused to agree to Hitler’s demands, Hitler sent in the German army to preserve order. To indicate his new role as ruler Hitler made a speech from the Hofburg Palace, the former residence of the Austrian emperors.

The Anschluss violated the Treaty of Versailles and created a brief scare. Some Austrians favored annexation. Hitler quickly silenced any Austrians who opposed it. Since the Western democracies took no action, Hitler easily had his way.

Germany turned next to Czechoslovakia. At first, Hitler insisted that the three million Germans in the Sudetenland be granted autonomy. Czechoslovakia was one of the only two remaining democracies in Eastern Europe. Still, Britain and France were not willing to go to war to save it. As British and French leaders searched for a peaceful solution, Hitler increased his demands. The Sudetenland, he said, must be annex to Germany.

At the Munich Conference in September of 1938, British and French leaders again chose appeasement. They caved to Hitler’s demands and then persuaded the Czechs to surrender the Sudetenland without a fight. In exchange, Hitler assured Britain and France that he had no further plans to expand his territory.

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Europe Plunges Towards War

Winston Churchill, Prime Minister of England had warned the Western democracies that appeasing Hitler was going to lead them straight into war. Just as he had predicted Europe plunged rapidly towards war. In March 1939, Hitler broke his promises and gobbled up the rest of Czechoslovakia. The democracies finally accepted the fact that appeasement had failed. At last thoroughly alarmed, they promised to protect Poland, most likely the next target of Hitler’s expansion.

In August of 1939, Hitler stunned the world by a non-aggression pact with his great enemy – Joseph Stalin, the Soviet dictator. Publicly the Nazi-Soviet Pact bound Hitler and Stalin to peaceful relations. Secretly, the two agreed not to fight if the other went to war and to divide up Poland and other parts of Eastern Europe between them.

The pact was based not on friendship or respect but on mutual need. Hitler feared communism as Stalin feared fascism. Hitler not only wanted Poland, but he did not want to have to fight the Soviet Union and the Western democracies at the same time. For his part, Stalin sought allies among the Western democracies against Hitler and the Nazis. Mutual suspicions, however, kept them apart. By joining with Hitler, Stalin tried to protect the Soviet Union from the threat of war with Germany and grabbed a chance to gain land in Eastern Europe.

On September 1, 1939, a week after the Nazi-Soviet Pact, German forces invaded Poland. Two days later, Britain and France declared war on Germany, World War II had begun. The devastation of World War I and the awareness of the destructive power of modern technology made the idea of more fighting unbearable. Unfortunately, the war proved to be even more horrendous than anyone had imagined.

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German Aggression Chart: Using the information from the readings please fill in the chart below.

Hitler’s Aggressive Acts

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General Tojo Hideki:

Helped plan the attack on Manchuria and also served as the Prime Minister for Japan during most of WWII

Mussolini aka Il Duce

Head of the Fascist Party in Italy and commands a secret police known as the “Black Shirts”

Emperor Haile Selassie

Emperor of Ethiopia and pleaded with the League of Nations for help, but it never came!

Rhineland

France

WWII

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