Chapter 6: The path to European war, 1930–39
Chapter 6 analyses the origins of the Second World War in Europe. It sets out how the Great Depression deepened existing tensions of international diplomacy and turned them into a full-blown breakdown of relations among the leading powers. In Europe the key event was the collapse of the Weimar Republic and Hitler’s appointment as German Chancellor in January 1933. Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy both sought to transform their internal orders by war and revolution abroad. Britain and France attempted to deter the European dictatorships and draw them back into a stable order that excluded the United States and the Soviet Union. The high-water mark of this diplomatic effort to establish a four-power system came in September 1938. In 1938 Britain and France deterred Hitler from risking a European war over Czechoslovakia, but in 1939 he was determined to have his war against Poland regardless of the consequences.
Multiple Choice Questions
Exam Questions
Discussion Questions
Were the foreign policies of the Germany & Italy driven more by anger at the Versailles settlement or by the Great Depression?
Why was appeasement a reasonable policy for Britain and France?
How did American isolationism influence European diplomacy in the 1930s?
What were Russia’s interests in dealing with Nazi Germany, 1933-1939?
Why did Britain reach a deal with Germany at Munich in 1938?
How did estimation of military strength influence allied diplomacy, 1935-1939?
How did the experience of the First World War shape Anglo-French policies in the 1930s?
How did domestic politics in France influence French policies towards Germany in the 1930s?
To what extent were European statesmen driven by ideology in the 1930s?
How did Italian Fascist foreign policy differ from that of Nazi Germany?
Exam Questions
The Second World War was made inevitable by the Great Depression. Discuss.
Why were the western allies (Britain and France) unable to deter German expansion 1938-1939?
Was there a real chance of Russia working alongside Britain and France to halt Germany in the 1930s?
Weblinks
http://avalon.law.yale.edu/imt/munich1.asp – text of the Munich Pact of October 1938
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/1939pact.asp – text of Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, 1939
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/1938PEACE.asp – text of Chamberlain “Peace in Our Time” speech 1938
http://www.emersonkent.com/speeches/international_morality.htm – text and audio of Haile Selassie speech at the League of Nations 1936
http://www.emersonkent.com/speeches/quarantine_the_aggressor.htm – text and audio of FDR’s Quarantine Speech in 1937
https://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/disp_textbook.cfm?smtID=3&psid=4057 – text of US neutrality legislation in 1935
http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/The-War-Years-1931-1941-Clipreel-Part-4/1fba603c65821eb2941af00d7b9b6a3d?searchfilter=Compilations%2fUniversal+Newsreels%2fThe+War+Years+1931-1941+Clipreel%3a+Part+4%2f19621 – AP newsreel clips of Italian invasion of Ethiopia 1935
http://avalon.law.yale.edu/wwii/tri1.asp – text of 1936 Anti-Comintern Pact
http://spartacus-educational.com/2WWanschluss.htm – statements by Schuschnigg and others on the Austrian-German Anschluss in 1938
http://avalon.law.yale.edu/wwii/blbk07.asp – Hitler speech on German-Polish relations, 1938
Bibliography
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Cooper, Chris, “‘We have to cut our coat according to our cloth’: Hailsham, Chamberlain, and the Struggle for Rearmament, 1933-4,” International History Review 36:4 (2014) 653-672.
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McKercher, B. J. C., “Anschluss: The Chamberlain Government and the First Test of Appeasement, February-March 1938,” International History Review 39:2 (2017) 274-294.
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Ramsay, Scott, “Ensuring Benevolent Neutrality: The British Government’s Appeasement of General Franco during the Spanish Civil War, 1936-1939”, International History Review 41:3 (2019) 604-623.
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