Causes of the 2nd WW
Economic
Road to war (Historical perspectives) and Countries foreign policies
Countries foreign policies
German foreign policy
Hitler factor
Orthodox view: Hitler was an unprincipled opportunist constrained by internal politics, and responding to the ebb and flow of events in a flexible manner. Hitler had a fanatical will and a consistent program of aggression.
Revisionist view: Most revisionists reject the idea of Hitler being an all-powerful leader in complete control of events. They portray him as a referee controlling bitter disputes between competing factions, individuals and organizations within Nazi Germany. They
view Hitler as being more indecisive and weak than was previously thought
The major cause of the Second World War was Hitler's desire for the expansion of Germany (this interpretation was used by the prosecution judges in the international military tribunal in Nuremberg 1945- 1946)
Invade of Manchuria
Economic perspectives from the Great War to beginning of WWII.
The maximum historical debate of Hitler's policy was based on this question: Was Hitler's foreign policy unique or did it just represent a continuation of earlier German foreign policy?
Hitler's foreign policy was "unique" (Friedrich Meinecke, Gerhard Ritter, Ralf Dahrendorf)
Hitler's foreign policy was not very unique (some agree with A.J.P. Taylor's view that it followed earlier German traditions) (Detlev Peukert, A.J.P. Taylor, Lewis Namier, Fritz Fischer, Geoffrey
Eley, Gordon Craig). Some of the arguments are:
The restoration of the German Army power was a desire for the Army throughout the Weimar
period
Hate for socialism was a major feature of the old Junker class who welcomed the destruction of
socialistic parties and trade unions
German dominance in eastern Europe and the subordination of the Slavs were key aims of the
German government during W.W.I
Several of Hitler's foreign policy aims was chaired by Weimar governments, especially the ones
between 1930 and 1933
Lebensraum can be traced back to propaganda pamphlets produced by the Pan German League
before 1914
"Hitler just represented a right-wing consensus in Germany over the basic goals and aims of
German foreign policy"
Germany, extreme depression
Italy
USA
Japanese political-military phase
Frech foreign policy
The destructions that suffered caused resentment to its population.
French foreign policy during the 1930's was obsessed with security and defense. France had no intention of stopping Hitler by force, and therefore willingly allowed Chamberlain to march France along the road to Munich. France did this because they feared losing British support if they didn't
Italy Foreign policy
Japan economy was influenced about the desicion of invading Manchuria because of the hurt economy of the time, they had a expansionism perspective.
Mussolini did not have as much power as one of the European leaders, he was a fascist and ruled Italy, he also signed the Pact of Steel, which would be a pact between Germany and Italy, it arose for economic and political purposes, on the part of Germany, it wanted its actions against other European countries are not intervened by Italy and Mussolini proposed to help with weapons and militarily help the Nazi government.
Japan left the LoN in 1933 because of the warnings about invading Manchuria.
Japan was able to conqueer Manchuria because of his powerful condition
Mussolini's foreign policy was ineffective, immoral, designed to grab headlines and to please Italian public opinion, and it lacked any clear objectives
The economy benefit of the invasion was of the large amount of minerals that Japan take advantage.
The Pact of Steel represented the expression of parallel desires in mind of the two dictators to
achieve their aims by alliance in war
USSR Foreign policies
Stalin Foreign policy
Stalin's foreign policy was to make a treaty with Hitler, despite having different government policies, Stalin's goal was not to start a war since his army was not strong enough to fight against a power, his main objective was industrialize your country.
Japanese Oil embargo
Because the need of of sustainability in terms of raw material was beyond China, the philippines, indo-china and the dutch east indies, being this lands uncapable of providing engine supplies to the military war machinery just like oil
, Oil was neccesary to follow the militarized foreign policy that would lead Japan to invade the southern regions like French indo-China or Singapore that were key bases at the far East.
The Nazi-Soviet Pact was ”Stalin’s blank check” to Hitler, which virtually guaranteed that war would start in 1939. Stalin's support for collective security was a cynical ploy to mask an underlying desire for a Nazi-Soviet pact
Soviet foreign policy during the 1930’s desired a reconstruction of the close Soviet-German relationship, established by the co-operative Soviet-German Treaty of Rapallo in 1922, and broken off by Hitler in 1933.
Hitler's foreign Policies (important events)
Rhineland
Czechoslovaquia
Saarland
For many years the Rhineland area had been a key industrial region of Germany, producing coal, steel and iron resources. The Rhineland also formed a natural barrier to its neighbour and rival, France. In the event of a war, the River Rhine, if properly defended, would be a difficult obstacle for an invading force to cross.
The heavily industrialized region was economically valuable, due to the wealth of its coal deposits and location on the border between France and Germany. Saarland was returned to Nazi Germany in the 1935 Saar status referendum. Following World War II, the French military administration in Allied-occupied Germany organized the territory as the Saar Protectorate on 16 February 1946
But, in 1936, Hitler boldly marched 22,000 German troops into the Rhineland, in a direct contravention of the Treaty of Versailles
Hitler wanted that heavy industrial power for the German Reich, and so his expansionist plans had had Czechoslovakia as their first target of takeover since at least 1937, when he had first ordered his generals to draw up plans for a possible future military invasion
Anschluss
Hitler also wanted control of the largely German-speaking area within Czechoslovakia, called the Sudetenland. Importantly, Austria shared a border with this area. In an attempt to realise his goals, Hitler was determined to destabilise Austria and undermine its independence. His ultimate goal was Anschluss (union) with Austria.
proposals like the "autarky", the mediterranean as "mare nostrum" and to sign treaties like "kellog-briand pact" were used to distract the people of the internal problems that facism bringed to Italy
so that in response US (as a member of the LofN) banned all exports of oil to Japan and brought tensions in the mainlands of the pacific and diplomatic conflict with the western power.
Attack to Shangai
Historical perspectives:
Economic depression
Reduced military status
For the orthodox historians in the US the pacific war began at 1937 at the Marco Polo bridge by the Japanese hit of aggression and expansion.
Revisionist US historians, generally arguing during the US war in vietman, stablish that Japans actions up to 1941 were primarily aimed at purging Asia from west corruption
The revisionist historian Kevin Boyle argues that: "Roosevelt ignored or even suppressed warnings of military commanders in Hawaii so as to ensure a successful surprise attack on the US fleet" (Boyle 1993)
Britain
Economic depression
Weak condition.
The japanese historian Michiko Hasegawa argues that the attack on pearl harbor was not in line with Japans long-term planning ans was caused by the oil embargo which forced war.
A reduced military status.
URSS
They were in a period of industrialization and collectivization.
They had an expansionist mindset
The significance of this attack is holded in the fact that it was home of thousands of expatriated americans and europeans, meaning that this incident compared with the Manchurian one would be considered as a direct challenge to the western powers
The Rise of Mussolini
State of economic recovery
A military power in the process
Attack on the pearl harbor
Germany leaves the League of Nations
Japanese attempt to disable the only power that could block a Japanese conquest of south-east asia and also a direct way to disable options a Japanese withdrew from China.
To leave the US without military intelligence would be useless to stop the attack on the far Eastern possessions they needed to continue their expanist goals
So refusing the negotiations of 1941 between the US and Japan to get an agreement of respect toward the territorial integrity of it neighbours to pursue its policies peacefully and to mantain and open door trade policy.
By the same time Japan attacked Hong Kong and Singapore, advancing to the Dutch East indies, the phillippines and Malaya on 8 December.
By the other hand the military presented its plans to the Japanese cabinet that agreed some actions on 4 september of 1941
Take all diplomatic meassures vias - a vis the USA and Great Britain and thereby endeavour to attain our objectives
In the event there is no prospet of our demands being met by the first ten days of October... we will inmediatly decide to commence hostilities against the United States, Britain and the Netherlands.
Our empire will for the purpouse of self-defense and self-preservation complete preparations for war
By the end of december Japan controlled the Guam, Hong Kong and Wake Island and also 2 british battleships (the prince of wales and the repulse) so causing a direct offense to the LofN members and pushing to war.
Lytton report
The relation with the British would be weakenned due to the Lytton Report ans so Japan to do not consider Britain example of diplomacy anymore. Japan was considered to had a "genuine grievances" by seeking illegal control of China because the excuse of "self-defense" by Japan was rejected, so having as a colateral effect breaking the agreements made at the "London disarmamament conference" (1930) so creating tensions with both US and Britain
This attack incured huge loses like the 90% of the mid-pacific air and sea power wither destroyed or badly damaged. This burtal air assault killed 2,403 and injured 1,178 US military
This economic problem after WWI, allow Hitler to rise to power on the promise of revitalization.
His goal was to unify all german speaking people
Reduce unemployment
He solved Germany's economic problems almost completely.
When Hitler came to power, after having recovered economically, he decided to invade Polinia
The UK and France declared war to Germany.
which was a cause of World War II.
Stalin implemented an economic policy called "Revolution from above" that allowed for fast industrialization and collectivization of agriculture.
Development of transport networks
Construction of factories
Increased working time for workers
Introduced non-military labor conscription, as well as military service.
Because of the multitudinous mediations,
unemployment rose
imports declined
modern creation fell
causes
The pace of gross venture declined
It failed to modernize horticulture. The shift from buyer to speculation products was pitiful contrasted with the other aggressive economies.
LoN did not allow Germany to have its own weapons of war (tanks, bombers, etc.), so it abandoned it and began its course of rearmament.
The separation with the League of Nations allowed in 1933 Germany to modernize militarily armament, in order to attack and defend itself and to be able to take economic advantage of other weaker countries.
The First World War affected the productive structure of USA, influencing the economic growth and production of the country during those years.
Its economy was sustained by industrial production and mining, but the Great War influenced the general economy of whole Europe.
After the WWI, Italy benefited from the territorial extension of some countries of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. That is why it had more resources and a more stable economy than other countries of that time.
Treaty of versailles
After losing WWI, Germany was forced to pay economic reparations to the winner countries. This created a context of poverty and humiliation.