diplomacy and war, 1919 1945

Diplomacy and War, 1919 -

1945

❖A more formal expression of the congress system established after the Napoleonic Wars.

❖Founders tried to balance the interests of the smaller and larger states.

❖The League’s authority to enforce its will was stated in Article 10 of the Covenant:

League of Nations

❖The members of the League undertake to respect and preserve as against external aggression the territorial integrity and existing political independence of all Members of the League. In case of any such aggression or in case of any threat or danger of such aggression the Council shall advise upon the means by which this obligation shall be fulfilled.

League of Nations

❖President Woodrow Wilson (1913-1921), was the architect of the League of Nations.❖He envisioned a worldwide organization with all states as members, subscribing to the Covenant.❖League initially met in Geneva in 1920.❖Germany and Russia were not invited.

League of Nations

❖Greatest void was the United States!!!❖Wilson signed the treaty, but the US Senate refused to ratify it.❖Thus, the US never officially belonged to the League!❖Austria and Bulgaria joined in 1920, Hungary in 1922, Germany in 1926, Turkey in 1932, and the Soviet Union in 1934.

League of Nations

❖In a crisis, when national self-interest conflicted with League policy, the League was usually ignored. ❖Many people put their faith in the League, only to become disillusioned during the turbulent 1930s.

League of Nations

❖United States, Britain, France and Japan were dominant states of the world.❖Most difficult problem from Versailles was reparations.❖By 1923, German inflation was severe and government began printing money 24 hours a day!

Search for Security

❖The mark was worth 100 000 to the dollar in June 1923.❖4 trillion, 200 billion to the dollar in November 1923.

Search for Security

❖Hitler insisted that Germany must have lebensraum (living space) for the expansion of German people.❖Called for unification of those he termed Aryan peoples, the “master race,” under one German state.❖1930s, countries were unwilling to go to war to stop German aggression.

German Rearmament

❖Hitler realized this pacifist mood would allow him to achieve his ends without challenge.❖Withdrew from League of Nations in 1933.❖Proclaimed Germany would ignore disarmament clauses of Versailles.

German Rearmament

❖German troops marched into the Rhineland in March 1936.❖Italy invaded Ethiopia in 1935 as part of Mussolini’s quest for empire.❖Both actions were condemned by all nations.❖A pact of co-operation between Italy and Germany was signed in October 1936.

German Rearmament

❖Birth of the Rome-Berlin Axis.❖Japan joined this alliance known as the Axis at the end of November.

German Rearmament

❖Hitler wanted Austria to be incorporated into Germany in an Anschluss (union).❖March 1938, Hitler invaded Vienna and Austria became a part of the Third Reich.❖Welcomed by many Austrians.❖Response of England and France was a policy of appeasement.❖Not prepared to go to war over central Europe.

Anschluss, Appeasement, and Munich

❖After Austria, Hitler took Czechoslovakia.❖It was a multinational state with Czechs, Slovaks, Hungarians, as well as three million German-speaking inhabitants in the Sudetenland.❖Stalin wanted to avoid war and hoped Fascist and democratic states would fight.❖Signed Nazi-Soviet Pact in August 1939, non-aggression treaty.


❖September 1, 1939, German troops invaded Poland.❖Chamberlain could be appeased no more!❖Allies declared war on Germany 2 days later and WWII began.


❖Hitler’s strategy was based on blitzkrieg, or lightning warfare.❖Germany was more modern and better equipped than any other by 1939.❖Airplanes were used to knock out industry and supply lines.❖Tanks were used to break through defences and make way for infantry.

Axis Offensives

❖Soviet Union entered war on September 17, 1939.❖Aim was to claim Polish territories that was promised in Nazi-Soviet Pact.❖Two armies – Germany and Russia – crushed Polish resistance.❖Winter of 1939/1940 was a time where little was happening – known as “phony war.”

Axis Offensives

❖Lull ended on April 9, 1940 with German invasion of Denmark and Norway.❖May 1940, Chamberlain resigned as prime minister and was replaced by Winston Churchill.❖Continuously urged that Britain should ally itself with other countries to stop Hitler.❖May 10, Hitler invaded the Netherlands and Belgium.

Axis Offensives

❖Germans bombed Dutch city of Rotterdam and killed approximately 40 000 civilians.❖May 14, Dutch surrendered.❖May 28, Belgians surrendered.❖Germans invaded France next.❖Mussolini entered war on June 10.❖Germany took France out of war and Paris was taken by mid-June.

Axis Offensives

❖Fall of France shocked the world.❖French people blamed democracy for weakening the French military.❖Hitler called his planned invasion of England “Operation Sea Lion.”❖Strategy was to send fleet across English Channel to occupy Britain.❖To protect fleet, German air force, Luftwaffe, had to establish control of air.

Axis Offensives

❖July 1940, German planes attacked. ❖Royal Air Force, including Canadian pilots and planes, inflicted heavy losses.❖Invention of radar enabled Royal Air Force to gain immense strategic advantage.❖Hitler cancelled “Operation Sea Lion” in mid-September.❖Battle of Britain was over.

Axis Offensives

❖Hitler turned eastward and planned to invade Russia in “Operation Barbarossa” in December 1940.❖Hitler decided the Soviet Union would have to be defeated before it could launch an offensive.❖Russia was important part of Hitler’s world vision.❖Securing territory for expansion.

Axis Offensives

❖Orders were issued on certain fronts not to take prisoners but to “exterminate” members of “inferior races.”❖Germany counted on conquering Ukraine to provide food and raw materials for Third Reich.❖If Russia were not defeated quickly, Germany risked winter and a two-front war.

Axis Offensives

❖June 22, 1941, German troops invaded Soviet Union.❖Germany conquered Ukraine by the end of the summer.❖Soviet Union retreated, hoping winter would do what Soviet army could not.❖December 8, 1941, Hitler halted operations for the year, realizing that the Russian winter would not permit him to continue.

Axis Offensives

❖United States entered the war after the attack on Pearl Harbour on December 7, 1941.❖Japan felt justified in attacking American soil due to an embargo on goods against Japan as a result of their aggression against China.❖United States, Britain, China, and other states formally declare war on Japan.

Axis Offensives

❖Japan surrenders after the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki (August 1945).

Axis Offensives

❖Operation Overlord - Allied invasion of France: D-Day (June 6, 1944)!!!

How Does It End?!

❖Within one month, over 1 million Allied troops were stationed in Europe.❖Germany is now surrounded with the USSR to the east.❖Germany finally surrenders in 1945 and Hitler commits suicide.

How Does It End?!

❖Allies divide up Germany.Aftermath…

❖Trials are held in Nuremberg, Germany to try specific people (avoids war guilt of nations) for atrocities of the Holocaust.❖But, the United Nations is created to maintain peace throughout the world and The Universal Declaration of Human Rights is signed in 1948 :)

Aftermath…

diplomacy and war, 1919 1945

Career