Things fall apart

1
Things fall apart

• Plunging toward World War II

2
1930s

• Period of growing tumult
• Depression strains regimes
• Ethno-nationalism as growing problem
• A world increasingly unsafe for democracies
• A world in which democracies, successor states,
  many people increasingly unsafe

3
Germany

• Systematic evasion of Versailles Treaty
• Covert Soviet aid after Rapallo Accords, 1922-33
• Gliding clubs to train air force
• From 1926 manufacture of planes under guise of
  transport, sport
• Import from neutrals
• Expansion of army in guise of police

4
Hitler on a roll

• Further rearmament from 1933
• 6 months Labour Service from 1934
• Withdraws from Disarmament Conference League of
  Nations, 1933
• Victory in Saarland Plebiscite, 1935
• Universal military service, 1935
• Reoccupation of Rhineland, 1936

5
Consolidation of Nazi Regime

• Constant mobilization
• Gleichaunshaung narrows private space
• Use of terror
• Glorification of leader
• Book-burnings
• Removal of enemies
• Targeting of selected groups
• Nuremburg Laws
• Kristalnacht

6
Spread of authoritarianism

• Hungary, 1919
• Italy, from 1922
• Poland, 1926
• Lithuania, other Baltic States
• Bulgaria
• Romania

7
Spanish Civil War Domestic conflict or prelude
to WWII?

• Collapse of monarchy, 1922
• Dictatorship of Primo de Rivera, 1922
• 2ND Republic proclaimed, 1931
• Republicans move quickly to introduce reforms
• Freedom of religion, secular education, equality
• Provoke backlash from Church, Military,
  conservative traditional elements
• Insurrection civil war from 1936
• Nationalists, under Generalissimo Franco, rebel

8
Foreign intervention

• Germans, Italians support nationalists
• Soviets, left groups (MacKenzie-Papineaus,
  Lincoln Brigades support Republicans)
• 3 year civil war used to test weapons, aerial
  bombing
• Definitive victory for Franco Nationalists in
  1939
• Establishment of an authoritarian regime
  autarchic, isolated, neutral
• Isolated until 1960s
• In place until 1970s

9
Response of Britain France

• Watch rise of Nazism with trepidation, but also
  admiration
• Fail to act at crucial moments
• Reoccupation militarization of Rhineland, 1936
• Anchluss, annexation of Austria, 1938
• Dismemberment of Czechoslovakia, 1938
• Issue of Sudatenland Germans
• Munich Accord
• Incorporation of Bohemia, Moravia as colleagues
• Establishment of Slovakia as independent state

10
Explanations

• Lack of political will, reflecting WW I,
  trenches?
• Preoccupation with domestic issues
• Faulty intelligence
• Overestimating German strength
• Underestimating Hitler
• Crosscutting pressures (Wasserstein)

11
Pressures

• Uncertainty about how to manage the depression
• Economic orthodoxy
• Balance budgets
• Cut expenditures
• Maintain value of currency
• Insufficient funds for military
• Fear of Soviet Union

12
France

• Deep divisions, fragmented multiparty system
• Growing strength of fascist movements
• Weakness of coalition governments
• Preoccupation with domestic issues

13
Popular Front, 1934-36

• Cabinet of Radicals, Socialists
• led Socialist, Leon Blum
• supported by Communists
• Attempts to reflate economy, put people back to
  work
• Fails to devalue rapidly enough
• Plagued by unrest, activities of extreme right
• Evokes fears strong opposition
• weaken regime, forced to devalue
• Dissipates by 1936

14
Britain

• Minority Labour govt under Ramsey MacDonald from
  1929-31
• National Government (Liberals Conservatives
  from 1931
• First Ramsey MacDonald (Labour)
• Then Stanley Baldwin
• Neville Chamberlain
• Worry not only about Germany, but also sustaining
  empire/commonwealth
• Military has insufficient funds, men, matériél to
  do both

15
Bottom line

• Flawed treaties but perhaps unavoidably so
• Multiple powers flexing muscles
• Germany
• Japan
• Italy
• Absence of a viable or effective system of
  collective security
• Failure of League of Nations
• A talking shop, without clout
• Failure of Locarno Accords
• No Concert of Europe or equivalent
• No effective balance of power
• Democracies, successor states threatened from
  within from without