This document provides a full summary of the Second World War IB History book (Cambridge). It includes all relevant information, dates and historians that will help you get a 7 in IB History SL. It also contains the concepts that are required in order to answer an official Paper 2 exam.
It is very common to establish the roots of the Second World War in the unsatisfactory ending of
the First World War, with evidence to support this claim. The victors were left in ruin (except the
USA). Germany and other Central Powers were denied a seat at Versailles and didn’t have a
say in their countries’ futures. The Nazis came to power on a promise of reversing the Treaty of
Versailles. The Bolshevik government in Russia had to face three more years of civil war. The
commander of the French Army (Marshal Ferdinand Foch), recognized that this end had
brought instability to Europe and really only was an “armistice that would last 20 years, not a
peace”.
Because wars are created to address issues in international relations the unsatisfactory
outcome seems to suggest some of these issues were outstanding for some combatants. The
victors sought to recreate the conditions of the 19th century that had brought them to the
commanding positions they had enjoyed in international politics and economics.
Britain focused their attention into a return of its empire to its former position, still being part of
the League of Nations to confirm that it was the leader of the empire and therefore its needs
came first. Going back to the balance of the 19th century also meant returning to the belief that
international disputes could be sorted by discussion, without having to resort to war.
This approach couldn’t help solve issues, though. Most of these issues remained, if altered.
Germany was upset with its place in European politics, especially because Versailles had taken
their colonies, which were sources of income that needed to be replaced. Nationalism affected
the Italians and posed a threat to more established empires such as France and Britain.
France and Britain controlled about a third of the world by the 1930s, and saw its empire as vital
to its economic health, which was especially true after the crisis in 1929. Moreover, even though
colonies were a great economic asset, they could cause instability in Europe if colonial issues
collided in Africa or Asia. Protecting these large empires was expensive and in the 1930s no
,one could afford it completely, so both France and Britain had to defend theirs with limited
military power.
While the government approached the international situation with continuity, the general
population focused on change. Many Europeans saw the war with a sense of unease and
pacifism, and there was popular support for official neutrality in the US. Overall, the legacy of
the war in western Europe was one of military and diplomatic weakness, but at the time there
was no big problem because no power challenged this weakness, a situation that would change
after the rise of fascism in the 1920s and 1930s.
Fascism
The chaos of the First World War convinced many of the incapability of the liberal democracy
based political systems for organizing modern states in a beneficial way for many. Two
ideologies that rejected liberal principles rose; one from a class perspective and one from an
ultra-nationalist perspective. The latter one was Fascism, and mainly focused on expansionism.
In Italy, Mussolini used violence and theater to rise to power. He used theater to invoke the
Roman Empire with symbols, and the autarky policy plus the Great Depression also helped. The
Italian military was expanded as an expression of national strength, and when Italy began
invading territories such as the Balkans or Abyssinia to create an empire, the diplomatic
situation in Europe was destabilized.
In Germany, something similar happened. By using Darwinism and racial superiority of the
Germans, Nazis convinced Germany of the importance of expanding, as said by the
Lebensraum. They became a modern national military that portrayed national strength.
Restoration of territories also fueled Nazi ideology, and justification for war was built for them.
SHORT TERM CAUSES
The Great Depression
After the war, the only economy that could be considered healthy was the USA, which meant
that other countries would rely on Americans to restore their own economies. This was
confirmed with the Dawes Plan, which consisted of loans from the US to Germany so that they
,could pay France and Britain the war reparations. This system worked at first, and Germany
began to recover from 1924 to 1929 during the Weimar Republic.
However, when the Wall Street Crash occurred and the US could no longer give Germany the
loans they needed, they fell into depression, with a rise in unemployment, a condition that
facilitated the Nazi rise to power. In that circumstance, the Great Depression could be
considered a long-term cause for the war because it promoted an expansionist ideology, while
prompting countries to adopt protectionist economic policies that isolated countries such as
Japan or Germany. Economic isolation fueled diplomatic isolation, and hampered the
rearmament of the western allies at the same time that expansionist powers grew.
German expansion
Hitler set about undoing the Treaty of Versailles. In 1935 he tore up the disarmament and
announced his rearmament. An example of Hitler’s approach to the West Powers could be seen
then: after the announcement of the rearmament he waited for an Allies response, and when
nothing came back he simply accelerated the process. In that same year, the Anglo-German
Naval Agreement was an indirect approval of German rearmament, even if it seemingly limited
German naval building.
In 1936 he tested the West’s commitment to Versailles, when he ordered the occupation of the
Rhineland, a territory that had previously been owned by the Germans. He ordered their
commanders to withdraw should France have intentions of intervening, but when they did
nothing, Hitler was empowered. The next year he helped Franco during the Spanish Civil War
while France and Britain kept their non-interventionism stance (because why should they
intervene to German expansion in the east if they had not responded to threats on its borders?).
The territorial ambitions of Nazism pushed Germany to annex Austria, the Anschluss, in 1938,
even though this was restricted by the Treaty of Versailles, and again they were met with no
objections. The British were especially worried because Hitler seemed to act without recourse to
diplomacy or negotiations. If Germany ignored international relations that had rules such as the
importance of treaties and agreements and war as a last resort, European relations' approach
was meaningless. This was demonstrated when Hitler invaded Czechoslovakia a few months
after signing the Munich Agreement.
, Appeasement
Appeasement is to give in to demand in order to avoid conflict. It was British Prime Minister
Chamberlain’s approach to German foreign policy in the 1930, based on negotiations, avoiding
war and considering British interests.
These principles were applied by the British to each of Hitler’s foreign policy adventures. When
he reoccupied the Rhineland, it was clearly no direct threat to British interests and could be
seen as a return to a more normalized situation of German autonomy. Likewise it was not clear
how the Anschluss threatened British interests. Certainly the Sino-Japanese war was more of a
concern for Britain globally. At Munich, Chamberlain judged the Czechs’ sovereignty to be less
of a concern than the costs of any kind of British intervention, if such an intervention was even
feasible, and negotiated an end to the crisis. Germany’s actions did not threaten her shores as
any movement toward France or Belgium would. It did not threaten their sea routes and
communications through the Mediterranean. It in no way impeded the operation of the British
Empire. Rearmament, started in 1938, nevertheless continued in Britain.
There were two underlying assumptions when it came to applying this policy to German actions
in central Europe. This assumption was that German leadership held the same values as did
Britain and France in terms of international agreements. The second assumption was that
German ambitions could be satisfied. Both assumptions in the end proved to be false. Once it
became obvious that they were false, and the British rearmament programme was close to
putting Britain on par with German military output, war became a more feasible solution to future
situations.
This interpretation suggests that the key question is not why did the Allies not fight for
Czechoslovakia, but rather why did they fight for Poland? As mentioned, British rearmament
had reached peak production by mid-1939 and French rearmament was progressing. Globally,
the Sino-Japanese war seemed to be sapping Japanese ability to menace British holdings. The
Nazi-Soviet Non-aggression Pact removed the USSR as a deterrent to German expansion. In
the end, the British abandoned their assumption that Hitler could be sated and thus their ability
to affect the course of world affairs and by so doing protect their interests through diplomacy
was no longer feasible. Appeasement had worked until it did not.
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