Section 3: Why Did War Break Out? International Relations 1929-39

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Section 3: Why did war break out? International relations 1929-39

This file contains additional notes to supplement the Modern World Unit 1 Student Book (9781846908033), offering further development on the following topics:

The end of prosperity: the effects of the Great Depression on Germany
The Italian invasion of Abyssinia: Haile Selassie
Hitler - a growing problem? Lebensraum and making allies
The road to war: guaranteeing Poland, Romania and Greece

The end of prosperity

Page 51 of the Student Book discusses the Great Depression. The text below explains how this affected the League and provides further information on the effects it had on Germany.

During hard times, countries look to their own affairs rather than international co-operation. Thus the League proved powerless against Japanese, Italian and German aggression – because its members were unwilling to act and threaten their own fragile economies.

The effects of the Great Depression on Germany

The Great Depression, which started in the USA, had world-wide effects. This is not surprising, as the USA had, during and after the First World War, lent many countries money and provided economic help via the American Relief Administration. The effects of the Depression on the German economy were worse than in any other European country, simply because Germany lost more aid and had economic problems that had been made worse by the problems created by the Treaty of Versailles.

Many businesses were forced to close. They depended on loans from German or US banks, both of which were calling for their loans to be repaid. Also, there was less demand for most goods, as people could not afford them.
Many people lost their savings when the banks collapsed and those who could not repay loans on their homes lost those, too.
Unemployment shot up: in 1929 there were 1.3 million unemployed; by 1932 it was 5.1 million.
The government cut unemployment payments, to try to cope with having to pay out to so many more people, and then raised taxes to help to pay the benefits.
The rentenmark(Germany’s currency) began to lose value. This was particularly significant in Germany. People remembered the inflation of the early 1920s. The introduction of the rentenmark in late 1923 had begun a recovery – but they worried that the rentenmark was about to collapse in the same way as the mark had.

Stresemann, the Chancellor (who had introduced the rentenmark), had died. The government could not agree on how to deal with the effect of the Depression. They looked weak. Extremist parties, who had been losing support as the economy recovered, began to gain support again.

The Communists improved their share of the vote. Many people thought they would have a better life in a country without private ownership of land and business, and with state support for everyone. In the 1929 elections, they won 54 seats. In 1932, they won 89 seats.
The Nazis made the greatest gains. They ran a clever election campaign that promised the things people so badly needed, such as work and bread. They did not aim at one group in Germany, such as the workers. They targeted the poor and the middle classes, the workers and employers, by playing on their various fears (e.g. the employers’ fear of communism) and promising to solve them. In 1929, when the economy was recovering, they only won 12 seats in the German parliament, with about a million votes. In 1932, they won 230 seats and had about 13 million votes.

By exploiting these economic hardships, Adolf Hitler was able to rise to power in Germany: for desperate times brought people to support desperate measures. It was this that gave him the chance to pursue his expansionist ideals on reuniting the German-speakers of Europe.

The Italian invasion of Abyssinia

Pages 54-55 of the Student Book look at the Italian invasion of Abyssinia. The reasons Britain and France failed to act against it and the result of the invasion are discussed further in the text below.

Haile Selassie

Britain and France were also unwilling to impose sanctions on Italy that might threaten their own economic recoveries, following the Abyssinian invasion. This is another reason why they did not close the Suez Canal to Italian ships.

Like Manchuria before it, the Abyssinian crisis had proved that the League was ineffective when dealing with the interests of great powers. Over the next three years, Hitler exploited this to the full.

Hitler – a growing problem?

Pages 58-59 of the Student Book look at Hitler’s plans for foreign policy, including the idea that Germany must expand.These, and his alliances, are discussed further in the text below.

Lebensraum

Hitler often discussed the expansion of Germany as Germany’s need for lebensraum – living space. It was much better propaganda than talking about ‘invasion’ or ‘empire’. It made it seem such a natural need. The Nazis said the obvious place to find this lebensraum was in the land to the east of Germany, because:

these borders had always been more disputed and shifting. Some of the land to the east had been given to Germany by the Treaty of Brest Litovsk and unreasonably taken away by the Treaty of Versailles
there were already significant numbers of Germans, or people with German ancestry, living in Eastern Europe – especially Czechoslovakia and Poland. The Nazis said these people, the Volksdeutsche, were being badly treated.

The Nazis did not feel it necessary to explain in any detail what would happen to the people already living in the land that would give Germany lebensraum. It was enough to say that these people would be ‘re-settled’.

Making allies – links with Italy and Japan

Hitler knew that Britain, France and Russia were suspicious of his policies. He knew he would need allies if he went to war, so looked for them in other totalitarian regimes.

On 6 November 1936, Germany and Italy signed the Rome-Berlin Axis, an agreement to co-operate.Italy felt threatened by Anglo-French objections to their desire to expand. Later that year,they both supported the Nationalists in the Spanish Civil War, allowing them to test their new military prowessand continuethe fight against communism.

On 25 November 1936, Germany and Japan signed the Anti-Comintern Pact. This was supposedly aimed at opposing communism internationally; it did not specifically name the USSR. Japan broke the agreement signed at the Washington Conference with Britain, the USA and France in 1921 to join with Germany.

On 6 November 1937, Italy joined the Anti-Comintern Pact.The growing solidarity with Germany encouraged Mussolini's invasion of Albania in April 1939. In May,the Rome-Berlin Axisbecame a military alliance, the Pact of Friendship and Alliance (Pact of Steel). Each agreed to help the other if at war.

On 27 September 1940, Japan joined the Pact, making the Tripartite Pact and extending the war to the Pacific. They began to refer to themselves as the 'Axis Powers' – upon which the world revolved.Japan would threaten Britain's colonies and keep the USA at bay,and– Mussolini hoped – balance Hitler's dominance of the Pact.

These alliances were clearly dangerous. Italy could hold France in check, Japan could threaten the USSR and Germany could hold off central Europe. Belgium, seeing trouble coming, had withdrawn from an alliance with France and declared itself neutral in October 1936. Germany agreed to respect this neutrality in October 1937. They made natural allies: their militaristicrulers had much in common; they shared a desire for expansion through force; and they were united in their hatred of communism and democracy. Hitler knew he would need to fight as Britain moved away from appeasement andthe Pact gave him the assurances that he would not do so alone;Mussolini hoped to gain some control over the timing, as he felt Italy's forces would not be readybefore 1942; and the Japanese hoped to draw Hitler into war with the USSR - its major rival for dominance in the East.

The road to war

Pages64-67 of the Student Book look at the build-up to war, including Britain and France’s promises to Poland, Romania and Greece, which are discussed further in the text below.

Guaranteeing Poland

Britain and France offered similar guarantees (as they had to the Poles) to Romania and Greece.

Britain

Britain followed a policy of appeasement and worked with France to try to avoid war (undermining the League of Nations). Believed Treaty of Versailles had been hard on Germany. Britain and France promised to support Poland in March 1939, and to support Greece and Romania in April 1939, in response to Germany’s developing alliances. Britain signed Anglo-Polish Mutual Assistance Pact in August 1939. Declared war when Germany invaded Poland.