1) Japan drifts from constitutional monarchy to militaristic rule, headed by Emperor Hirohito:

• Japan’s constitution limited the powers of the executive (prime minister), and there was no civilian control of the military (which reported only to the Emperor).

• The government was blamed for inadequately dealing with the effects of the Depression.

• Military leaders gained popular support by using nationalism and appealing to a sense of tradition of the Emperor as a “symbol of state power”.

2) Japan addresses the Depression:Seeks “foreign expansion” (imperialism), establishing a “Pacific Empire” (including China), providing Japan with:• raw materials for its industries• captured markets for its goods• land for its growing population to colonize

3) Japan expansion & international reaction:• Japan seized Manchuria (NE China) in 1931,

and set up a puppet government there.• The League of Nations condemned & protested

the invasion; Japan ignored the complaints and withdrew from the L.O.N.

4) Japan expands beyond Manchuria:In 1937, Japan further expands with a full-scale invasion of China following a staged “border incident”, seizing vast territory all along their coast.

Japan occupies China despite being outnumbered: The Japanese military was better equipped & trained than the larger Chinese military.

The League of Nations & international community continued to do nothing.

Japanese occupation of China (1937 – 1945):The existing Chinese government & military retreats west, to the interior of China.The Chinese communists remain in the east, to conduct guerrilla warfare against the Japanese (winning the support of many Chinese citizens, which will help them in their communist revolution & civil war after WWII ends!)

5) Japanese treatment of Chinese during the occupation:

“Killed tens of thousands of captured soldiers and civilians”…

“Rape of Nanking”: Japanese murder approximately 200,000 Chinese civilians in 6 weeks.

6) Mussolini seeks an “Italian Empire”:Already has Libya & Somalia… Italy then conquers Ethiopia in 1935.

7) Reasons for success:• Superior industrialized weapons (planes, tanks,

poison gas, machine guns) against non-industrial weapons (spears, swords).

• An impotent League of Nations condemned the attack, did nothing to stop it.

• Britain sacrificed Ethiopia for presumed “peace in Europe”, even allowing Italy military access through the Suez Canal on its way to Ethiopia.

Haile Selassie, Emperor of Ethiopia, in a speech at the League of Nations: “It is us today. It will be you tomorrow”.

8) Hitler violates the Treaty of Versailles: 1935: Builds up Germany military capacity (enlarges

army, rapid weapons build-up) 1936: Sends German troops to occupy the Rhineland (German territory on French border).1938: Germany annexes Austria (the “Anschluss”)

9) British & French reaction to German aggression:A policy of APPEASEMENT: making concessions

(or, giving in) to an aggressor in the hopes of keeping the peace.

10) AXIS POWERS Germany

Italy

Japan

11) Spanish Civil War (1936-1939):• The Republicans (pro-democracy liberals &

socialists) vs. the Nationalists (pro-fascist military leaders, led by Francisco Franco).

• The Nationalists (Fascists) won, w/ the aid of Germany and Italy, who both sent military assistance (in part to gain experience and test out their new weapons in anticipation of further imperial expansion in Europe).

• The Republicans received marginal support from the USSR, and an “international brigade of [anti-fascist] volunteers”… it wasn’t enough. Western democracies (U.S., U.K., France) remained neutral.

Abraham Lincoln Brigade: American citizens who fought against fascists in the Spanish Civil War: 2800 volunteers, 700 dead

12) The Spanish Civil War and the build-up to WWII:• It resulted in more fascism and less democracy in

Europe.• Western democracies stayed neutral, sending a

message that they would back down as fascism expanded.

• It made Hitler & Mussolini stronger and more confident in their larger goals of imperial conquest in Europe.

• It provided the militaries of Germany and Italy with more experience for combat and effective use of their weapons.

13) U.S. foreign policy during the Depression:• ISOLATIONISM (political disengagement) • Lesson of WWI – stay out of global problems• U.S. passed a series of Neutrality Acts, banning

financial assistance or arms sales to any warring nations.

Unrealistic: you cannot be disengaged politically while being engaged economically… politics and

economics are intertwined!

14) Munich Agreement, September, 1938: (WWII is exactly one year away)• Germany demanded the right to annex the

SUDETENLAND, Czechoslovakian territory on the border w/ Germany, which was the home to a majority of ethnic Germans.

• War was (temporarily) avoided when Germany, Italy, France, and Britain (NOT Czechoslovakia!) met in Munich to “resolve” the crisis, by allowing Germany to take the Sudetenland in return for pledging to then respect the new Czech borders.

• Germany was APPEASED in order to avoid military conflict!

15) Munich Agreement, September, 1938: Failure for the Western democracies, who continue to appease Hitler!

Six months after the Munich Conference, in March of 1939, Germany annexed the rest of Czechoslovakia; Hitler then had his sights set on reclaiming land lost to Poland from the Treaty of Versailles. He respected NO treaties or agreements… this will finally change when Britain & France pledge support of Polish sovereignty.

 

16) Why appeasement toward Hitler & fascists?• Non-fascist nations preferred peace to war,

particularly in the context of the recent memory of WWI.

• Nations were distracted and pre-occupied with the economic crisis of the Depression.

• Belief and hope that an appeasement approach would be effective.

• As Germany got stronger, no one nation could stop them anyway

• A bigger fear of communism than fascism, initially Communist revolution had already occurred in Russia,

and might appeal to the working class during the Depression, furthering its aims of spreading on a global level.

17) Failure of appeasement:• It encouraged Hitler to be more belligerent (esp. in

violating the terms of the Treaty of Versailles!)• It made Hitler more popular among German citizens,

giving him more “power and prestige” in Germany, solidifying his grip on power.

• It sent a message that democratic nations would back down when challenged, shifting the “balance of power” to fascist nations.

• No consequences for bad behavior = no change in bad behavior (psychology 101!).

• It gave Germany more time to build up its military and become even more dangerous as it implemented its imperial goals (Mein Kampf!).