The Road to World War II: Versailles, the League, and Aggression
The War Guilt Clause (Article 231)
- Germany accepted sole responsibility for World War I. This ignored broader Allied responsibility, despite the later Fischer Thesis (1961) arguing that German militarism had long-term war aims.
- Psychological Humiliation: Germans called the Treaty a “Diktat” (a dictated peace), fueling the Dolchstosslegende (stab-in-the-back myth), which the Nazis used to discredit the Weimar Republic.
- The clause justified £6.6 billion in reparations, equivalent to 2% of Germany’s GDP annually. Payments were scheduled until 1983 (the last payment was actually made in 2010).
- Economic Devastation: Led to the 1923 Ruhr invasion by France and Belgium, resulting in passive resistance and hyperinflation. By November 1923, one loaf of bread cost 200 billion marks.
- Political Consequence: The crisis undermined moderate parties, causing extremist votes to rise significantly (e.g., Nazi votes rose from 2.6% in 1928 to 37.3% in July 1932).
Structure of the League: Strengths and Fatal Weaknesses
- The Assembly met once a year, and decisions required unanimity. This structure was designed to prevent domination but ultimately blocked rapid action.
- The Council included permanent members (Britain, France, Japan, Italy), but these nations were often self-interested.
- The Secretariat was severely under-resourced, having only 700 employees (compared to the UN’s 44,000 today).
- The League had no independent military; it relied on voluntary force contributions, which were often refused.
- The Permanent Court of International Justice ruled on disputes but lacked enforcement powers (e.g., Poland ignored the ruling regarding Vilna in 1920).
League Successes: Precision and Context
- Aaland Islands (1921): Finland and Sweden contested ownership. The League ruled for Finland. The decision was accepted due to mutual respect and low stakes.
- Upper Silesia (1921): A plebiscite was held after violence. The League divided the region fairly (Germany kept the industrial north, Poland received the rural south).
- Greek-Bulgarian War (1925): The League intervened within four days, demonstrating speed when major powers had no conflicting interests.
- Nansen Passport Scheme (1922): Aided 450,000 stateless refugees, showcasing the League’s humanitarian ability.
Major League Failures and Examples
- Vilna (1920): Poland seized the city. The League ordered withdrawal, but the order was ignored, demonstrating a lack of enforcement power against new nationalisms.
- Corfu (1923): Italy bombarded the Greek island. The League ordered Greece to pay compensation, fearing Mussolini. This showed that power politics often prevailed.
- Abyssinia (1935): Sanctions failed due to fear of pushing Mussolini toward Hitler. Oil was excluded from the embargo. The exposure of the Hoare-Laval Pact (secretly offering two-thirds of Abyssinia to Italy) revealed Allied hypocrisy.
- Manchuria (1931–33): The Lytton Commission took 14 months to report. Japan withdrew from the League in February 1933, setting a precedent for ignoring the organization.
Manchuria Crisis: Detail and Effect
- Japan faced an economic crisis post-Depression and sought Manchuria’s resources (coal, iron, and land for expansion).
- Japan staged the Mukden Incident (blowing up a railway line and blaming the Chinese) as a pretext to invade in September 1931.
- The Lytton Report (1932) ruled the invasion unjustified. Japan left the League in February 1933, proving the League had no deterrence capability.
- Impact: This inspired Hitler and Mussolini, who copied Japan’s tactic of “act first, ignore later.” It showed that the League could be openly defied without punishment.
Membership Issues and National Self-Interest
- The USA’s absence meant the League lacked economic or military enforcement power. Britain and France were overburdened by debt and focused on maintaining their empires.
- Italy and Japan were on the Council, allowing aggressor states to avoid condemnation.
- Britain feared war more than injustice; economic self-interest meant it did not want to lose trade with Japan in the 1930s.
- France prioritized security, focusing more on German resurgence than acting decisively against Italy or Japan.
The Nazi-Soviet Pact (August 1939)
- Publicly: A non-aggression pact. Secretly: The Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact divided Eastern Europe (e.g., Poland was split).
- The pact allowed Hitler to invade Poland on September 1, 1939, without facing a war on two fronts.
- Hitler betrayed his anti-communist ideology—a short-term strategy to isolate Britain and France and delay war with the USSR.
- The USSR used the pact to buy time to rearm. Hitler viewed it as temporary; the invasion of the USSR (Operation Barbarossa) followed in June 1941.
Causes of World War II
Hitler’s Foreign Policy
- Lebensraum: Expansion east into the USSR and Poland.
- Destroying the Treaty of Versailles:
- Remilitarized the Rhineland (March 1936). This was a major gamble (22,000 troops vs. France’s 100,000 on the border), but it worked.
- Anschluss with Austria (March 1938): Germany gained 7 million people and Austria’s rich natural resources (e.g., iron and gold reserves).
- Sudetenland (September 1938): Hitler claimed Czech Germans were mistreated, leading to the Munich Agreement and Chamberlain’s policy of appeasement.
- Invasion of Czechoslovakia (March 1939): Hitler invaded the rest of Czechoslovakia, an area with no German speakers, causing appeasement to collapse.
The Policy of Appeasement
- Appeasement was seen as practical due to Britain’s weak military (only 48 trained divisions vs. Germany’s 103 by 1939).
- Prime Minister Chamberlain viewed Hitler as reasonable until the invasion of Czechoslovakia.
- Historians like A.J.P. Taylor (1961) later argued that Hitler was an opportunist, not a meticulous planner, and appeasement enabled his actions.
The Abyssinia Crisis in Detail (1935–1936)
- Mussolini sought a colonial empire to rival Britain and France. Abyssinia was independent but poorly armed.
- Invasion: October 1935 – May 1936. Italy used modern weapons and poison gas (banned under the Geneva Protocols).
- Sanctions Failure: The League imposed sanctions, but crucially excluded oil, steel, coal, and the Suez Canal (key for Italian supply lines).
- Hoare-Laval Pact (December 1935): Britain and France secretly agreed to give Italy most of Abyssinia. When leaked, the pact destroyed the League’s credibility.
- Result: Italy took the capital, Addis Ababa, in May 1936. Italy subsequently left the League, moved closer to Hitler, and signed the Rome-Berlin Axis (November 1936).
Treaty of Versailles: Advanced Facts
- Signed June 28, 1919—exactly five years after Archduke Franz Ferdinand’s assassination (a symbolic punishment).
Territorial Losses
- Germany lost 13% of its land, 10% of its population, 48% of its iron resources, and 16% of its coal resources.
- Alsace-Lorraine was returned to France.
- The Polish Corridor split East Prussia from the rest of Germany.
- Anschluss (union) with Austria was forbidden under Article 80.
- German colonies became mandates run by Britain and France.
Military Restrictions
- No conscription, no air force, and no tanks were allowed.
- The Rhineland was demilitarized for 15 years.
These terms led to the rise of revanchist nationalism, with Hitler promising to reverse every article of the Treaty.