1) The World in 1914: Outbreak of the first world war:

1.1) Prologue:
a) 3 August 1914, Germans entered Belgium to control Liege.

1.2) The World in 1914:

a) Europe still dominated the rest of the world in 1914:
1. US was no.1 industrially
2. In Europe Germany was industrially and militarily superior
3. Japan after Russo-Japanese war 1904-5
b) The variation in political systems:
1. USA, UK, France -> Democratic
2. Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia and Austria -> Monarchy
(Restricted Franchise)
c) Imperial Expansion:
1. The scramble for Africa
d) The two alliance in Europe:
1. The Triple Alliance and the Triple Entente
e) Causes of friction:
1. Naval rivalry btw UK and Germany
2. French resented the loss of Alsace-Lorraine to Germany in
Franco-Prussian War (1871)
3. Germans feared "encircling"
 4. Germans were not much successful in their imperial expansion
(Weltpolitik)
5. Russians were suspicious of Austrian ambitions in the Balkans
and were worried about the growing military strength of
Germany
6. Serbian nationalism :
i. King Milan and his son Alexander (assassinated in 1903)
were pro Austrian
ii. Treaty of Berlin (1878), Austria allowed to occupy Bosnia
iii. Serbs under Peter Karageorgevic became Pro-Russian and
dreamed of uniting all Serbs and Croats to make Yugoslavia.
iv. The Habsburg empire was a mixture of ethnicity hence
feared that it will break away if the Serbs and Croats left
hence Austrians were keen for a preventive war

1.3) Timeline of war:

a) The Moroccan Crisis (1905-6):
1. Germans announced that they would assist the Sultan of
Morocco to maintain his country's independence in order to
assert their diplomatic domination.
2. Germans wanted to test the "Entente Cordiale (1904)" which
they thought wouldn't work due to historical hostility btw UK and
France.
 3. "Entente Cordiale" : France would recognize UK's position in
Egypt in return for British approval of a possible French takeover
of Morocco.
4. British believed that Germans would virtually control Morocco if
French didn't.
5. Britain, Russia, Italy and Spain supported the French in the
Algeciras conference (Jan1906, Southern Spain).
b) The British agreement with Russia (1907):
1. Russian perspective: The Japan defeat of Russia, the outbreak
of revolution in Jan 1905, weakened the country internally.
Russians were anxious to attract British investment for their
industrial modernization Programme.
2. British perspective :
i. earlier - corrupt, anti-democratic aristocratic government and
a threat to British interests in the far East and India.
ii. later - Russian alliance with France (1894), Russian defeat
against Japan suggested weak military of Russia, Tsar
granted freedom of speech and an elected parliament.
3. Resolved the differences in Persia, Afghanistan and Tibet.
4. Germans fear of getting "encircled" grew.
c) The Bosnia Crisis (1908):
1. In 1878 the Congress of Berlin decided that Bosnia should be
part of Turkey but Austria should be allowed to administer it.
 2. In 1908 the "Young Turks" formed the new govt. in Turkey and
wanted to control Bosnia.
3. The Austrians strike first and annexed Bosnia formally. This was
a major setback for Serbia and their dream of greater Serbia.
4. Serbia sought Russian help, Russia called for a conference:
i. Germany made it clear that it would support Austria
ii. French and British drew back to avoid a war
iii. Russians drew back due to lack of support of allies
5. Serbia became bitterly hostile to Austria and Russia went for a
military build-up and modernization of Army to avoid further
humiliation
d) The Agadir Crisis (1911):
1. French were to annex Morocco meanwhile Germans sent a
gunboat (the Panther) to Agadir port hoping to pressurize the
French into giving Germany compensation, perhaps the French
Congo.
2. British were worried about German annexation of Agadir
because it could be used as a Naval Base from which to
threaten Britain's trade routes, hence Britain warned Germany.
3. The Germans drew back and agreed to recognize the French
Protectorate in return for two strips of territory in the French
Congo.
4. The Germans became intensely anti-British also due to the naval
race.
e) The first Balkan War (1912):
1. The Turkish empire was weak and the Balkan League (Serbia,
Greece, Montenegro and Bulgaria) launched attack on Turkey.
2. Sir Edward Grey, the British Foreign Secretary arranged a peace
conference in London to demonstrate that Germany and Britain
could still work together. The former Turkish land was divided
among the Balkan States.
3. Serbs were unhappy they wanted Albania (Sea access) but
Austrians with German and British support insisted that Albania
should become an independent state.
f) The Second Balkan War (1913):
1. Bulgarians were dissatisfied by the peace settlement and wanted
Macedonia. They blamed Serbia and attacked it but Greece,
Romania and Turkey supported Serbia and the Bulgarians were
defeated.
2. By the Treaty of Bucharest (1913) Bulgarians forfeited most of
their gains from the first war.
3. Anglo-German influence had prevented an escalation of the war
by restraining the Austrians who wanted to support Bulgaria and
attack Serbia.
4. Serbia was strengthened after the war and ready to stir up
trouble among the Serbs and Croats living inside Austria-
Hungary.
 5. Germans took Grey's willingness to co-operate as a sign that
Britain was prepared to be detached from France and Russia.
g) Assassination of the Austrian Archduke Franz Ferdinand:
1. The Archduke - Franz Ferdinand, nephew and heir to the
Emperor Franz Josef was paying an official visit to Sarajevo, the
capital of Bosnia on 28 June, 1914 when he and his wife were
shot dead by a Serb terrorist Gavrilo Princip.
2. The Austrians blamed the Serb Govt. and sent a harsh
ultimatum. The Serbs accepted most of the demands in it but
the Austrians with a promise of German support were
determined to use the incident as an excuse for war.
3. On 28th July, Austria - Hungary declared war on Serbia starting
the chain of wars known as the first world war.

Time Chart of main events:

1882 - Triple alliance of Germany, Austria-Hungary and Italy
1894 - France and Russia sign alliance
1897 - Admiral Tirpitz's Navy Law - Germany intends to build up fleet
1902 - Britain and Japan sign alliance
1904 - Britain and France sign 'Entente Cordiale'
1904-5 - Russo-Japanese War, won by Japan
1905-6 - Moroccan Crisis
1906 - Britain builds first 'Dreadnought' battleship
1907 - Britain and Russia sign agreement
1908 - Bosnia Crisis
1911 - Agadir Crisis
1912 - First Balkan War
1913 - Second Balkan War
1914 - 28 June - Archduke Franz Ferdinand assassinated in Sarajevo
28 July - Austria - Hungary declares war on Serbia
29 July - Russia orders general mobilization of troops
1 Aug - Germany declares war on Russia
3 Aug - Germany declares war on France
4 Aug - Britain enters war
6 Aug - Austria-Hungary declares war on Russia

1.4) What Caused the War, and who was to Blame ?

The war between Austria-Hungary and Serbia sparked off the outbreak of
war. The following are the suggested reasons for the escalation of the war:

a) The alliance system made war inevitable:

1. This explanation doesn't seem to be convincing because there
were many crises since 1904 but none of them led to a major
war.
2. There was nothing binding about these alliances. No power
actually declared war because of one of these treaties of
alliance.
3. Examples:
i. France didn't support Russia against Japan
ii. France didn't support Russia against Austrian annexation of
Bosnia.
 iii. Austria didn't support Germany in preventing France from
taking over Morocco
iv. Germany restrained Austria from attacking Serbia during 2nd
Balkan War
v. Italy a member of the Triple alliance entered the war against
Germany in 1915.
b) Colonial rivalry in Africa and the Far East:
1. This explanation is also not convincing because previous
disputes had always been settled without war.
2. In early July 1914 Anglo-German relations were good: an
agreement favourable to Germany had just been reached over a
possible partition of Portuguese colonies in Africa.
c) Naval race between Britain and Germany:
1. Admiral Tirpitz's Navy law of 1897
2. Introduction of powerful British 'Dreadnought' battleship in 1906.
3. However in 1914 naval rivalry had ceased to be a cause of
friction because Britain was far ahead of Germany
d) Economic rivalry:
1. Critics point out that Germany needed peace much more than
war to become the economic master of Europe.
e) Russian support for Serbia:
1. Serbia became reckless due to Russian backing.
2. Russia was the first to order mobilization.
3. Russians feared the control of Dardanelles, the outlet from the
Black Sea by Germany and Austria.
 4. Russian prestige as a leader of Slavs would suffer if they failed
to support Serbia.
5. War may have been a good idea to divert attention away from
domestic problems.
f) German support for Austria:
1. Germans promised Austrians help without any conditions
attached. The Kaiser urged them to attack Serbia.
2. The Germans had restrained Austrians from declaring war on
Serbia in 1913 but encouraged them to go ahead in 1914. This
change of policy has been explained by the following
interpretations:
i. In 1967 a German Historian Fritz Fischer suggested that
Germany deliberately planned for and provoked war with
Russia, Britain and France in order to make Germany the
dominant power in the world both economically and
politically, and also as a way of dealing with domestic
tensions. In the elections of 1912 the German Socialist Party
(SPD) won over a third of the seats in the Reichstag (lower
house), making it the single largest party. In Jan 1914
Reichstag passed a vote of no-confidence in the Chancellor,
Bethmann-Hollweg but he remained in office because the
Kaiser, Wilhelm 2 had the final say. A victorious war
seemed as a good distraction.
ii. The combination of the following situations simultaneously
may have led to the decision for a preventive war:
(a) They felt encircled
 (b) Superior British Naval power
(c) Russian massive military expansion
(d) German army expansion being hampered by opposition
from the Reichstag which refused to sanction the
necessary tax increases
(e) Huge loans to Russia by France
3. Germans may have wanted to avoid war and took a strong line
in support of Austria that would frighten the Russians into
remaining neutral.
g) The mobilization plans of the great powers:
1. Moltke, the chief of the German General Staff insisted on
carrying out the full Schlieffen Plan. The Schlieffen Plan for
German Mobilization was drawn up by Count Von Schlieffen in
1905-6.
2. The Schlieffen Plan assumed that France would automatically
join Russia; the bulk of German forces were to be sent by train
to the Belgium frontiers, and through Belgium to attack France,
which would be knocked out in 6 weeks. German forces would
then be switched rapidly across Europe to face Russia, whose
mobilization was expected to be slow.
3. The Kaiser and Bethmann tried to avoid war and urged the
Austrians to negotiate with Serbia on 30th July which perhaps
suggests point 3 above. Wilhelm suggested a partial
mobilization against Russia only, instead of the full plan; he
hoped that Britain would remain neutral if Germany refrained
 from attacking France. But due to lack of time, Moltke suggested
otherwise.
4. Terence Zuber a historian using documents from the former east
German military archive argued that Schlieffen plan was only
one of at least five alternatives being considered by the German
high-command in the years after 1900 and Germans tried to
blame their defeat on the rigidity and constraints of the
"Schlieffen Plan" which had never existed in the form they tried
to make out.
h) A 'tragedy of miscalculation'
1. Historian L.C.F. Turner put forward another interpretation that
most of the leading rulers seemed to be incompetent and made
bad mistakes:
i. The Austrians thought Russia would be neutral
ii. Germany promised to support Austria with no conditions
attached
iii. Politicians in Russia and Germany miscalculated by
assuming that mobilization would not necessarily mean war
iv. Moltke miscalculated by sticking rigidly to their plans in the
belief that this would bring a quick and decisive victory.
2. Fitz Fischer's theory is accepted as the most convincing one by
majority of Historians.
3. Russia's defeat by Japan in 1905 -> severely weakened the
govt. -> Revolution in Russia -> Foreign policy shifted towards
the Balkans.
4. Pyotr Stolypin, Russia's leading minister who favoured peace
was assassinated in 1911.
5. Naval agreement of Russia and Britain to safeguard Russian
access to the Mediterranean, if the Germans and Turks should
ever try to block the Dardanelles.
6. This agreement outraged the Germans and saw it as a betrayal
by the British.
2) The First World War and its aftermath:

The two opposing sides in the war were :

a) The Allies or Entente Powers:
1. Britain and her empire (including troops from Australia, Canada,
India and New Zealand)
2. France
3. Russia (left Dec. 1917)
4. Italy (entered May 1915)
5. Serbia
6. Belgium
7. Romania (entered Aug 1916)
8. USA (entered April 1917)
9. Japan
b) The Central Powers:
1. Germany
2. Austria-Hungary
3. Turkey (entered Nov. 1914)
4. Bulgaria (entered Oct. 1915)
2.1) 1914:
a) The Western Front:
1. According to the Schlieffen Plan, France would have to be
knocked out in 6 weeks so that Germans would not have to face
full-scale war on two fronts.
 2. An unexpectedly strong Belgian resistance held up the German
advance and it took 2 weeks to capture Brussels, the Belgian
Capital.
3. This delay also left the Channel ports free, enabling the British
Expeditionary force to land.
4. Instead of sweeping round in a wide arc and approaching Paris
from the West after capturing the Channel Ports as the
Schlieffen Plan had intended so that the French armies would
be surrounded, the delay in capturing Belgium made the Plan
redundant and the Germans found themselves just east of Paris,
making straight for the City.
5. The French Govt. withdrew to Bordeaux.
6. In Sept. the faltering Germans were attacked by the French
under Joffre in the Battle of the Marne; they were driven back to
river Aisne, where they were able to dig trenches. The trench
line eventually stretched from the Alps to the Channel Coast.
7. Although Germans captured Antwerp, the British forces held on
to Ypres, this saved the channel ports of Dunkirk, Calais and
Boulogne, making it possible to land and supply more British
troops.
b) The Eastern Front:
1. Russians mobilized more quickly than the Germans expected,
but made the mistake of invading both Austria and Germany at
the same time.
2. Russians were successful against Austria occupying the
province of Galicia.
 3. Germans defeated the Russians and drove them out of
Germany.
4. Vast amount of Russian equipment and ammunition was lost in
battle against Germany.
5. Serbs drove out an Austrian invasion at the end of 1914.

2.2) 1915:
a) Stalemate in the West:
1. Germans and British tried to break the trench line but both
couldn't make a decisive breakthrough.
2. The Trench Warfare tactics made any advance on either side
difficult.
b) The East:
1. Germans captured Warsaw and the whole of Poland.
2. The Dardanelles was blocked by Turkey hampering the
Russians, who were already short of arms and ammunitions.
3. The Gallipoli Campaign was launched to eliminate the Turks so
that:
i. The Dardanelles could be opened up to send help to Russia
ii. Bring Bulgaria, Greece and Romania into the war on the
Allied side
4. The campaign was a total failure and it was a big blow to the
Allied Morale.
5. Bulgaria decided to join the Central Powers in Oct. and together
with Germany quickly overrun Serbia.
 c) Italy declares war on Austria-Hungary (May 1915):
1. Italians were hoping to seize Austria-Hungary's Italian speaking
provinces as well as territory along the Easter shore of the
Adriatic Sea.
2. A secret treaty was signed in London in which the Allies
promised Italy Trentino, the South Tyrol, Istria, Trieste, part of
Dalmatia, Adalia, some islands in the Aegon Sea and a
protectorate over Albania.
3. Allies thought that Austrians troops would be occupied with Italy
which would relieve pressure on the Russians. But Italians made
little headway and Russians were unable to stave off defeat.

2.3) 1916:
a) The Western front:
1. The two terrible battles: Verdun and the Somme:
i. Verdun: Germans under Falkenhayn launched a massive
attack against the French fortress town of Verdun in Feb.
They expected to draw all the best French troops to its
defence, destroy them and carry out a final offensive to win
the war. The French lost 3,15,000 men and Germans lost
2,80,000 men without any territorial gains.
ii. The Battle of the Somme: Series of attacks by British
beginning on 1 July and lasting through Nov. The aim was to
relieve pressure on the French at Verdun, take over more of
the Trench line as the French army weakened, and keep the
Germans fully committed, so that they would be unable to
 risk sending reinforcements to the Eastern front against
Russia. On the very first day 20,000 British troops were
killed and 60,000 injured. The German morale was down
due to this battle.
2. Heavy Casualties on both sides due the strategy of mass
infantry charges – “the big push”.
3. British general Douglas Haig criticized for not producing any
alternative tactics.
4. British PM Asquith resigned due to Somme.
b) David Lloyd George becomes PM of Britain (Dec. 1916):
1. War Cabinet
2. Introduced the ministry of National Service for mobilization of
men into Army.
3. Adopted Convoy system.
c) In the East:
1. In June 1916, Russian under Brusilov attacked the Austrians in
response to a plea to divert German attention away from
Verdun.
2. Advanced 100 miles, took 400000 prisoners and large amount of
equipment.
3. In Aug. Romanians invaded Austria but Germans came to
rescue, occupied the whole of Romania and seized her wheat
and oil supplies.
2.4) The War at the Sea
Both sides were cautious and didn’t dared to risk their main fleets.
a) The Allies aimed to use their navies in three ways:
i. Blockading the Central powers for starving them.
ii. Keeping their own trade routes open
iii. To transport British troops and keep them supplied
2. British were successful in carrying out these aims.
3. In Battle of the Falkland Islands destroyed one of the main
German squadrons.
4. By the end of 1914 all German armed surface ships were
destroyed apart from their main fleet and the squadron
blockading the Baltic to cut off supplies to Russia.
5. In 1915 the British navy was involved in the Gallipoli Campaign.
b) The Allied blockade caused problems:
1. British navy started stopping and searching all neutral ships.
2. USA strongly objected to this.
c) The Germans retaliated with mines and submarine attacks:
1. Insufficient U-Boats and problems of identification so submarine
attacks on passenger liners.
2. “Lusitania” a British passenger liner sunk by a torpedo attack
carrying vast quantities of weapons and ammunition and also
128 Americans.
3. American protests caused Bethmann to tone down the
submarine campaign, making it even less effective.
d) The Battle of Jutland (31st May 1916)
 1. German Admiral Von Scheer tried to lure part of the British fleet
out from its base so that that section could be destroyed by the
numerically superior Germans.
2. More British ships came out than anticipated.
3. Germany lost 11 ships while Britain lost 14.
4. Germans failed to destroy British sea power, leaving Britain
control of the surface complete.
e) “Unrestricted” submarine warfare (began Jan 1917)
1. Sink all enemy and neutral merchant ships in the Atlantic.
2. Britain and France would be starved into surrender before the
Americans could make any vital contribution.
3. Convoy system of Lloyd George – escorting warships saved the
situation.
4. Submarine campaign brought USA into the War.

2.5) 1917
a) In the west
1. Mutiny in French army at Champagne, under Nivelle, sorted out
by Petain.
2. The third Battle of Ypres – British – enormous casualties.
3. Battle of Cambrai – tanks used properly brock the deadlock of
trench warfare- model for successful allied attacks.
4. Italians defeated by Austrians and Germans at Caporetto in Oct.
- proved to be a turning point – Allied supreme war council.
5. Clemenceau, the new French premier.
 b) On the eastern front
1. Russia withdrew from the war (Dec. 1917) (2 Revolutions ->
Bolsheviks)
2. British captured Baghdad and Jerusalem from the Turks.
c) The entry of the US (Apr. 1917)
1. German U-boat campaign
2. Germany trying to persuade Mexico to declare war on USA
promising her Texas, New-Mexico and Arizona in return.
3. Overthrowing of the Russian Tsar
4. Supplied Britain and France with food, merchant ships and
credit.
5. Psychological boost to the Allies.

2.6) The Central Powers defeated

a) The German spring offensive, 1918
1. Last desperate attempt launched by Ludendorff
2. Germans broke through on the Somme in March and by the end
of May were only 40 miles from Paris
3. French were able to hold under the command of Marshal Foch.
b) The Allied counter-offensive begins (8th Aug.)
1. Launched near Amiens, the counter-attack involved hundreds of
tanks attacking in short sharp jabs at several different points
along a wide front.
2. Germans avoided forming a salient and withdrew their entire
line.
3. Allies broke the Hindenburg line in Sept.
 4. Ludendorff insisted that German Govt. ask President Wilson for
an armistice (3rd Oct.), because he was convinced that they
would be defeated in the spring of 1919.
5. Negotiations went on and an armistice was signed on 11 Nov.
c) Why did the war last so long?
1. The two sides were fairly evenly balanced
2. Became a global conflict due to personal goals of different
nations.
3. Germans – wanted to protect themselves from getting encircled,
hence aimed to take Poland and Belgium to act as buffer zones.
4. French – take back Alsace-Lorraine
5. British – Preventing Germans from taking Belgium, a country so
near to their coast.
6. Austria-Hungary – preserve its empire against Serbia.
7. Trench Warfare led to stalemate.
8. Propaganda using media helped motivate general public as well
as the military on both sides.
d) Why did the Central Powers lose the War?
1. Two front war for Germany due to failed Schlieffen Plan.
2. Allied Sea power was decisive.
3. German Submarine campaign failed due to convoy system.
4. USA joined the Allies.
5. Allied political leaders at the critical time – Lloyd George and
Clemenceau – were probably more competent than those of the
central powers.
6. The continuous strain of heavy losses told on the Germans.
 7. Germany was badly let down by her allies.
e) Effects of the War:
1. The ‘lost generation’, (around 12% of fighting men died).
2. Revolution in Germany, Kaiser Wilhelm compelled to abdicate,
formation of the Weimar Republic.
3. Habsburg Empire collapsed, Karl -1 forced to abdicate,
independent nations declared, Austria and Hungary split.
4. Two revolutions in Russia (Feb-March & Oct.-Nov.), Nicholas – 2
overthrown and Lenin and the Bolsheviks to power.
5. Rise of Fascist Dictatorship in Italy – Mussolini – heavy debts.
6. Japan, China and USA expanded their trade, Japan and China
began their Industrialization programmes. Economic boom in US
in 1920’s but led to over-expansion and then in Oct. 1929 the
Wall Street crash heralded the ‘Great Depression’.
7. President Woodrow Wilson of the US came up with a plan for a
League of Nations.
8. Final stage of the partition of Africa. German colonies under the
control of League of Nations.

2.7) The problems of making a peace settlement

a) War aims:
1. None of the participants had any specific idea about what they
hoped to achieve except Germany and Austria who wanted to
destroy Serbia in order to preserve the Habsburg Empire.
2. British PM Lloyd George mentioned his war aims as (in Jan
1918):
i. Defense of democracy and righting of injustice done to
France in 1871 (Alsace and Lorraine).
ii. Restoration of Belgium and Serbia
iii. Independent Poland
iv. Democratic self-governance for Austria-Hungary
v. Self-determination for German colonies
vi. International organization to prevent war
3. US President Woodrow Wilson stated US war aims in his
famous 14 points:
i. Abolition of Secret diplomacy
ii. Free navigation at sea for all nations in war and peace.
iii. Removal of economic barriers between states
iv. All round reduction of armaments
v. Impartial adjustment of colonial claims in the interests of the
populations concerned
vi. Evacuation of Russian territory
vii. Restoration of Belgium
viii. Liberation of France and restoration of Alsace and Lorraine
ix. Readjustment of Italian frontiers along the lines of nationality
x. Self-government for the people of Austria-Hungary
xi. Romania, Serbia and Montenegro to be evacuated and
Serbia given access to the Sea
xii. Self-Government for the non-Turkish peoples of the Turkish
Empire and permanent opening of the Dardanelles
 xiii. An independent Poland with secure access to the Sea
xiv. A general association of nations to preserve peace.
b) Differing Allied views about how to treat the defeated powers:
1. France (represented by Clemenceau) wanted harsh peace to
ruin Germany economically and militarily so that she could never
again threaten French frontiers. Since 1814 Germans had
invaded France 5 times.
2. Britain (Lloyd George) – less severe settlement, Germany major
costumer of British goods, reparations to be paid by Germany,
Public expected a harsh settlement.
3. USA (Wilson) – lenient peace, disappointed by Germans
because they ignored the 14 points and imposed the harsh treat
of Brest-Litovsk on Russia, accepted demands of reparations
from Germany but limited it to loss of civilian property, in favor of
Self-determination and democratic govts. Of their own choice.

2.8) The treaty of Versailles with Germany

a) The Terms:
1. Germany had to lose territory in Europe:
i. Alsace-Lorraine to France
ii. Eupen, Moresnet and Malmedy to Belgium
iii. North Schleswig to Denmark (after plebiscite)
iv. West Prussia to Poland
v. Memel to Lithuania
vi. Saar to be administered by the LoN for 15 years and then a
plebiscite
 vii. Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania given to Germany by Russia
(Brest-Litovsk) to be set as independent states.
viii. Union between Germany and Austria was forbidden.
2. Germany’s African colonies were taken under LoN supervision.
3. German armaments were strictly limited.
4. The war Guilt clause fixed the blame solely on Germany,
proposed trail for war crimes for the ex-Kaiser.
5. Germany was to pay reparations (6600 pounds).
6. League of Nations formed.
b) Why did the Germans object, and how far were their objections
justified?
1. It was a dictated peace – no discussions with Germans, only
allowed to criticize in writing which was also ignored except one
point.
2. Many provisions were not based on the 14 points – not a valid
objection because the 14 points had never been accepted as
official.
3. Loss of territory in Europe – Upper Silesia was to be given to
Poland but due to German protest a vote was conducted among
the population and Germany was allowed to keep two-third of
the area. The settlement left a million Germans under Polish rule
and almost 3 million in Czechoslovakia. Austria had a
completely German population. All these Germans wanted to
become part of Germany but unification of Austria and Germany
was forbidden.
 4. Loss of Germany’s African Colonies – annexation of German
colonies in the name of LoN by the Allies.
5. The disarmament clauses were deeply resented – difficult to
enforce law and order at time of political unrest with only 100000
troops.
6. ‘The War Guilt’ clause – entire blame on Germany.
7. Reparations – too high and impossible to pay.

2.9) The peace treaties with Austria-Hungary

When Austria was on the verge of defeat in the war the Habsburg
Empire disintegrated and various nationalities declared themselves
independent. Austria and Hungary separated and declared
themselves republics.
a) The Treaty of St. Germain (1919), dealing with Austria:
Austria Lost:
1. Bohemia and Moravia to Czechoslovakia
2. Dalmatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina to Serbia which with
Montenegro, now became known as Yugoslavia
3. Bukovina to Romania
4. Galicia to Poland
5. The South Tyrol, Trentino, Istria and Trieste to Italy

b) The Treaty of Trianon (1920), dealing with Hungary:

Not signed until 1920 because of political uncertainties in
Budapest; the communists led by Bela Kun, seized power but was
later overthrown.
 1. Slovakia and Ruthenia were given to Czechoslovakia
2. Croatia and Slovenia to Yugoslavia
3. Transylvania and the Banat of Temesvar to Romania
c) The treaties left both Austria and Hungary with serious economic
problems:
1. Austria:
i. Population reduced from 22 million to 6.5 million.
ii. Most of industrial wealth lost to Czechoslovakia and Poland.
iii. Constant loans from LoN
2. Hungary
i. Population reduced from 21 million to 7.5 million.
ii. Rich corn land lost to Romania

2.10) The settlement with Turkey and Bulgaria

a) The Treaty of Sevres (1920), dealing with Turkey
1. Turkey was to lose Eastern Thrace, many Aegean Islands and
Smyrna to Greece, Adalia and Rhodes to Italy.
2. The Straits were to be permanently open.
3. Syria became a French mandate. Palestine, Iraq and
Transjordan became British mandates.
4. Led by Mustafa Kemal, the Turks rejected the treaty and chased
Greeks out of Smyrna.
5. The Italians and French withdrew their occupying forces from the
straits area, leaving only British troops at Chanak.
 6. The settlement was revised by the treaty of Lausanne (1923), by
which Turkey regained Eastern Thrace including Constantinople
and Smyrna.
7. The people in the mandates were Arabs and fought against the
Turks led by an English officer T.E. Lawrence hoping for
independence as a reward after their brave struggle.
b) The Treaty of Neuilly (1919), dealing with Bulgaria:
1. Lost territory to Greece, Yugoslavia and Romania, depriving her
of her Aegean coastline.
2. 1 million Bulgars were under foreign govt. as a result of the
treaty of Neuilly.

2.11) Verdict on the peace settlement:

a) The peace treaties were not a great success:
1. USA failed to ratify the settlement and never joined the LoN.
2. France was disenchanted because the Anglo-American
guarantee of her frontiers couldn’t now apply.
3. Italy felt cheated because she hadn’t received all the territories
promised to her in 1915.
4. Russia was ignored due to its Bolshevik Govt.
b) Germany was only temporarily weakened:
1. German territory was virtually untouched.
2. It was soon widely accepted that Germany had not been
defeated.
3. German Industry was able to switch back to peacetime
production very quickly.
3) The League of Nations

Summary of Events:
1. Came into existence on – 10 Jan. 1920
2. Main aim – Settle international disputes and prevent War.
3. Helped refugees and prisoners to find their way home.
4. After 1935 respect for the league declined and it was unable to
exert any influence.
5. Dissolved in 1946 – a complete failure in preventing War.

3.1) What were the origins of the League?

a) The League was the result of coming together of suggestions for
an International Organization by Lloyd George Lord Robert Cecil
of Britain, Jan Smuts of South Africa, Woodrow Wilson of US and
Leon Bourgeois of France.
b) The two main aims of League:
1. Maintain peace through collective security.
2. Encourage international co-operation.

3.2) How was the League Organized?

It had 42 member states at the beginning and 55 by 1926.
Its five main organs were:
a) The General Assembly:
1. Met annually
2. Representatives of all the member states and each had one vote
 3. Unanimous decision making.
4. Gave small states a chance to raise issues and have their say.
b) The Council:
1. Met at least three times a year.
2. 4 permanent members – Britain, France, Italy and Japan
3. USA didn’t join the league.
4. Non-permanent members elected for periods of 3 years.
5. Unanimous decisions.
c) The Permanent Court of International Justice:
1. Consisted of 15 judges of different nationalities.
2. Dealt with legal disputes.
3. Started functioning in 1922 and by 1939 dealt successfully with
66 cases.
d) The Secretariat:
1. Dealt with all the paperwork.
2. Acted like an international civil service.
3. Members from 30 different countries.
e) Commissions and Committees:
1. Committees for international labour, health, economic and
financial organization, Child welfare, drug problems and
women’s rights.

3.3) Successes of the League:

a) Not a total failure:
1. The International labour organization (ILO) – led by Albert
Thomas (French Socialist), persuaded governments to:
 i. Fix a maximum working day and week
ii. Specify adequate minimum wages
iii. Introduce sickness and unemployment benefits
iv. Introduce old-age pensions.
2. The Refugee Organization – led by Fridtjof Nansen (Norwegian
explorer), helped millions to return home.
3. The Health Organization – combated typhus epidemic in Russia.
4. The Mandates Commission – Organized the 1935 plebiscite for
Saar which voted to be returned to Germany.
5. The Disarmament Commission – made no progress.
b) Political disputes resolved:
1. Many political disputes were referred to the league in the 1920s
and in all but two cases the League’s decisions were accepted.
i. Quarrel between Finland and Sweden over the Aaland
Islands, the verdict went in favour of Finland (1920).
ii. Germany vs. Poland, industrial area of Upper Silesia,
partitioned between the two.
iii. Greek invaded Bulgaria, Greek troops withdrawn and
damages paid to Bulgaria.
iv. Turkey claimed the province of Mosul (Iraq), decision in
favour of Iraq.
v. Peru vs. Columbia.
vi. Bolivia vs. Paraguay
2. LoN twice overruled by ‘the conference of Ambassadors’:
i. Rival claims of Poland and Lithuania to Vilna (1920)
ii. The Corfu Incident (1923)
3.4) Why did the League fail to preserve peace?
a) It was too closely linked with the Versailles Treaties:
1. Seemed like an organization created especially for the benefit of
the victorious powers.
2. It had to defend a peace settlement which was far from perfect.
b) It was rejected by the USA.
c) Other important powers were not involved.
1. Germany not allowed to join until 1926.
2. USSR joined in 1934 (when Germany left).
d) The Conference of Ambassadors in Paris was an embarrassment:
1. This gathering of leading Ambassadors was only intended to
function until the league was up and running, but it continued
and took precedence over the league on several occasions:
i. Poles seized Vilna from Lithuania, in 1920 league supported
Lithuania’s claim to Vilna but the CoA opposed it and the
league allowed awarding Vilna to Poland.
ii. The Corfu Incident (1923): 3 Italian officials working on the
boundary commission were killed who were working on the
boundary dispute between Greece and Albania. Mussolini
blamed the Greeks, demanded huge compensation and
bombarded and occupied the Greek Islands of Corfu.
Greece appealed to the LoN, but Mussolini refused to
comply and threated to withdraw from LoN, whereupon the
Ambassadors ordered Greece to pay the full amount
demanded.
e) There were serious weaknesses in the Covenant:
1. Difficult to get unanimous decisions.
2. League had no military force of its own, and a resolution was
passed in 1923 that each member would decide for itself
whether or not to fight in a crisis!
3. An attempt to strengthen the covenant by British labor PM
Ramsay MacDonald – the Geneva Protocol – pledged members
to accept arbitration and help any victim of unprovoked
aggression.
4. The conservative govt. following MacDonald refused to agree to
the Protocol, due to strongly pacifist opinion of the British public.
f) It was very much a French/British affair:
1. Absence of US and USSR, hostility of Italy made it so.
2. The British conservatives were not very enthusiastic about the
league and they preferred to sign the Locarno Treaties (1925),
outside the League.
g) The World economic crisis began in 1929:
1. Onset of the economic crises, or the Great Depression brought
unemployment and falling living standards which led to the rise
of extreme right-wing governments in Japan and Germany;
together with Mussolini they refused to keep to the rules.
h) The Japanese invasion of Manchuria (1931):
1. Japan invaded Chinese territory of Manchuria in 1931.
2. China appealed to the League, which condemned Japan and
ordered her troops to be withdrawn but Japan refused.
 3. League appointed a commission under Lord Lytton, which
decided that there was faults on both sides and suggested
Manchuria to be governed by LoN.
4. Japan rejected this and withdrew from the League (March 1933).
5. Britain and France were reluctant to apply a trade boycott
because of serious economic problems.
i) The failure of the world Disarmament Conference (1932-33)
1. Germans asked for equality of armaments with France, which
French demanded to be postponed for at least 8 years.
j) The Italian invasion of Abyssinia (Oct. 1935)
1. Italy invaded Abyssinia, League condemned Italy and introduced
economic sanctions however these were not applied to exports
of oil, coal and steel to Italy.
2. The conquest of Abyssinia was completed without much
inconvenience.
3. Mussolini drew closer to Hitler due to these sanctions.
4. Small states lost all faith in the League.
5. Hitler was encouraged to break the Versailles Treaty by
introducing conscription (March 1935) and sending German
troops to Rhineland.
6. Britain and France must share the blame for the League’s failure
because they were reluctant to be forced into military action due
to economic problems.
4) International Relations, 1919-33

Summary of Events:
1. International Relations between the two World Wars can be
divided into two distinct phases, with the division at Jan 1933,
the month in which Adolf Hitler came to power in Germany.
2. The First phase can be divided into:
i. 1919-1923
ii. 1923-1929
iii. 1930-1933
a) 1919 to 1923:
1. Both Turkey and Italy were dissatisfied with the peace
settlement. Hence the Italian seizure of Fiume from Yugoslavia,
the Corfu incident and the aggression against Abyssinia (1935).
2. Different attitude of Britain and France regarding German
reparations caused strains between the two of them.
3. An attempt by Lloyd George to reconcile France and Germany at
the 1922 Genoa conference failed miserably.
4. French occupation of German Industrial region – Ruhr, due to
refusal of payment of Reparations by Germany led to collapse of
German currency.
5. US insisted on full payment of European war debts.
6. Western countries along with Japan intervened against the
Bolsheviks in the Civil War of Russia during 1918-20.
 7. The new states – Yugoslavia, Czechoslovakia, Austria, Hungary
and Poland had serious problems and were divided among
themselves.
b) 1924 to 1929:
1. General improvement in International atmosphere due to
changes in political leadership.
France – Edouard Herriot and Aristide Briand
Germany – Gustav Stresemann
Britain – James Ramsay MacDonald
2. The Dawes Plan (1924) – eased the situation regarding German
reparations.
3. The Locarno treaties – Guaranteed the frontiers in Western
Europe fixed at Versailles, hence removed French suspicions of
German intentions.
4. Germany was allowed to join the league in 1926.
5. The Kellogg – Briand Pact (1928): 65 nations signed renouncing
war.
6. The 1929 Young Plan reduced German reparations to a more
manageable figure.
c) 1930 to 1933:
1. Japan invaded Manchuria in 1931.
2. Mass unemployment in Germany.
3. The World Disarmament Conference met in 1932, only to break
up in a failure after German delegates walked out.
4.1) What attempts were made to improve international
relations, and how successful were they?
a) The League of Nations.
b) The Washington Conferences (1921-22):
1. Purpose – try to improve relations between USA and Japan.
2. Agreements:
i. To prevent naval building race, the Japanese navy would be
limited to three-fifths the size of the American and British
navies.
ii. Japan would withdraw from Kiachow and Shantung province
of China, which she had occupied since 1914.
iii. Japan would keep the former German Pacific Islands as
mandates.
iv. Western powers promised not to build any more naval
bases within striking distance of Japan.
v. The USA, Japan, Britain and France agreed to guarantee the
neutrality of China and respect each other’s possessions in
the Far East.
c) The Genoa Conference (1922):
1. The British PM Lloyd George called this conference to solve the
problem of Franco-German hostility, European war debts to
USA and the need to resume diplomatic relations with the Soviet
Russia.
 2. The Conference failed because:
i. French refused to compromise on German reparations.
ii. Americans refused to attend.
iii. Russians and Germans withdrew and signed a mutual
agreement.
d) The Dawes Plan (1924):
1. An attempt to break the deadlock by MacDonald, Herriot and
Stresemann (German Foreign Minister).
2. The conference was chaired by an American representative
General Dawes.
3. No relaxation was made on the total amount that Germans were
expected to pay, but it was agreed that they should pay annually
only what they could reasonably afford until they become more
prosperous.
4. A foreign loan of 800 million Gold marks, mostly from USA, was
to be made to Germany.
5. The French agreed to withdraw their troops from the Ruhr.
e) The Locarno Treaties (1925):
1. Germany, France and Belgium promised to respect their joint
frontiers; if one of the three broke the agreement, Britain and
Italy would assist the state which was being attacked.
2. Germany signed agreements with Poland and Czechoslovakia
providing for arbitration over possible disputes.
3. Germany agreed that France would help Poland and
Czechoslovakia if Germany attacked them.
 4. No pact was signed to guarantee the frontiers of Poland and
Czechoslovakia by Germany and Britain.
5. Germany was allowed to enter the league in 1926 with a seat on
the permanent council.
6. In Sept. 1926 Stresemann and Briand (French foreign minister)
reached agreement on the withdrawal of French troops from the
Rhineland.
7. Stresemann, Briand and Austen Chamberlain (British foreign
minister) were jointly awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
f) The Kellogg-Briand Pact (1928):
1. Briand’s idea: France and the USA should sign a pact
renouncing war.
2. Frank B. Kellogg (US Secy of State) proposed that the whole
world should be involved.
3. 65 states signed, agreeing to renounce war as an instrument of
national policy.
4. No mention was made of sanctions against any state which
broke its pledge.
5. Japan signed the pact, but waged war against China only three
years later.
g) The Young Plan (1929):
1. The French were willing to compromise and a committee
chaired by an American banker, Owen Young, decided to
reduce reparations from 6600 million pound to 2000 million
pound.
 2. Nazi party in Germany campaigned against accepting it.
3. A series of events which destroyed the fragile harmony of
Locarno even before the Young plan came into operation:
i. The death of Stresemann (Oct. 1929)
ii. The Wall Street crash of the American stock exchange in
Oct. 1929 – the Great depression. 6 million unemployed in
Germany by 1932.
iii. Hitler became German Chancellor in Jan. 1933.
h) The Lausanne Conference (1932) – Britain and France released
Germany from most of the remaining reparations payments.
i) The World Disarmament Conference (1932-33):
1. No reduction (in fact increase) of armaments by the LoN
members apart from Germany, contrary to the promise made by
them.
2. This conference was held in Geneva to work out a formula for
scaling down armaments.
3. Excuses:
i. British – needed more armament to protect their empire.
ii. France – alarmed by the rise of Nazis in Germany refused to
disarm and allow Germany equality of armaments with them.
iii. Germany – Hitler withdrew from conference knowing that
Britain and Italy sympathized with Germany. A week later
Germany also withdrew from the League.
 4.2) How did France try to deal with the problem of Germany
between 1919 and 1933?

Due to two German invasions in less than 50 years, the French wanted to
make sure that Germans would never dare to invade France again, for
which they tried the following methods to deal with the problem:
i. Trying to keep Germany economically and militarily weak.
ii. Signing alliances with other states to isolate Germany
iii. Working for a strong LoN
iv. Extending the hand of reconciliation and friendship
a) Trying to keep Germany Weak:
1. Insistence on a harsh peace settlement:
i. Germany army was to number no more than 1,000,000 men
and a severe limitation on armaments.
ii. German Rhineland was to be demilitarized.
iii. Saar to be used by France for 15 years.
iv. Britain and USA promised to help France if Germany
attacked but, USA rejected the entire peace settlement
(March 1920) and didn’t join the league due to fear of
another War and the British used this as an excuse to cancel
their promises.
2. Clemenceau demanded that the Germans should pay the
reparations.
i. Reparations was fixed in 1921 at 6600 million pounds.
ii. It was thought that the strain of paying this amount would
keep Germany weak for 66 years (instalment period).
 iii. Financial troubles in Germany soon caused the Govt. to fall
behind with the payments.
iv. French became desperate because they needed the
reparation from Germany to repay their war debts to USA.
3. Attempts to force the Germans to pay;
i. Occupation of Ruhr by Belgian and French forces in Jan.
1923.
ii. French managed to seize goods worth about 40 million
pounds.
iii. Collapse of the German Mark.
iv. Britain strongly disapproved of the Ruhr occupation and
sympathized with Germany (decline of British Export).
b) A network of alliances and a strong League:
1. The ‘Little Entente’ with Poland, Czechoslovakia, Romania and
Yugoslavia.
2. The states involved were comparatively weak.
3. French tried to build up a strong LoN but they failed due to lack
of cooperation from Britain (The Geneva protocol) and USA.
c) Compromise and reconciliations:
1. The Dawes Plan.
2. Good relations between Briand (French Foreign Minister) and
Stresemann (German foreign minister) led to Locarno treaties,
the Kellogg-Briand Pact, the Young Plan and the cancellations
of most of remaining reparations.
 d) A tougher attitude towards Germany:
1. French adopted a tougher attitude towards Germany due to:
i. Death of Stresemann (Oct. 1929)
ii. World Economic crisis
iii. Growth of support for Nazis in Germany
2. Germans proposed an Austro-German customs union to ease
the economic crisis. France took the matter to the International
court and the court ruled against it.
3. The failure of the World disarmament Conference due Hitler
withdrawing from the League as well as the Conference ruined
the relations.

4.3) How did relations between the USSR and Britain,

Germany and France develop between 1919 and 1933?
1. War between the new Bolshevik Government (Nov. 1917) and
the Western countries because Bolsheviks tried to spread the
revolution by pouring in propaganda against capitalist masters.
2. Lenin called representatives from communist parties all over the
World in March 1919 – The Third International or the Comintern.
3. Aim of Comintern – Bring world’s communists under Russian
leadership and train them to organize strikes and uprisings.
4. Britain, France, Czechoslovakia and Japan tried half-heartedly to
destroy the Bolsheviks by intervening in the Russian civil war.
5. Russians were not invited to the Versailles conference in 1919.
6. By 1920 the countries that intervened in Russia admitted failure,
Russia was exhausted by the civil war and at the third
 Comintern Congress in June 1921 he admitted the need for
peaceful co-existence and economic cooperation with the
capitalist world.
a) The USSR an Britain:
1. Anglo Russian trade treaty (March 1921) between Lloyd George
and Lenin. Important for Russia for commerce and also for
gaining political recognition internationally.
2. Lloyd George suggested that the Bolsheviks should pay war
debts incurred by the Tsarist regime. The Russians were
offended; they left the Conference and signed the separate
Treaty of Rapallo with Germans.
3. MacDonald and the Labour Govt. (1924) gave full diplomatic
recognition to the communists.
4. A new trade treaty was signed and a British loan to Russia was
proposed however due to unpopularity the MacDonald’s govt.
was soon brought down.
5. Under the Conservatives (1924-29), relations with Russia
worsened because :
i. Evidence to suggest that Russian propaganda was
encouraging the Indian demands for Independence.
ii. Police claimed to have found evidence of Russian plotting
with British communists to overthrow the system when they
raided the British communist party headquarters in London
(1925) and the premises of a soviet trading organization,
Arcos (1927).
 6. The new pro-Western foreign minister, Maxim Litvinov,
encouraged the Labour govt. to resume diplomatic relations
(1929) and signed another trade agreement.
7. The Conservative dominated national govt. which came in power
in 1931 cancelled the trade agreement.
8. The Russians retaliated by trying 4 engineers for spying and
wrecking, however when Britain placed an embargo on imports
from Russia, Stalin released them (June 1933).
9. Stalin became nervous about threat from Hitler and hence
prepared to take pains to improve relations with Britain.
b) The USSR and Germany:
1. Germans saw advantage to be gained from exploiting friendship
with USSR while Bolsheviks were anxious to have stable
relations with at-least one capitalist power.
2. Trade Treaty was signed (May 1921) and Russia granted trade
and mineral concessions to some German industrialists.
3. The Rapallo treaty (16 Apr, 1922):
i. Full diplomatic relations and cancelations of reparations
between the two states.
ii. Cooperate to keep Poland weak.
iii. Germany as buffer for USSR against any future attack from
West.
iv. Germans were allowed to build factories in Russia for
manufacturing airplanes and ammunition, enabling them to
get around the Versailles disarmament terms.
v. Russians would supply grains to Germany.
 4. The Treaty of Berlin (1926): renewed the Rapallo agreement for
a further five years. Germany to be neutral if Russia were to be
attacked by another power.
5. Hitler (anti-communist) abruptly ended Germany’s special
relationship with Soviet by signing a non-aggression pact with
Poland in Jan. 1935.
c) USSR and the France:
1. French thought of the Bolsheviks as a menace to be destroyed
as soon as possible.
2. French sent troops to help the anti-Bolsheviks in the Civil War.
3. French intervened in the war between Russia and Poland in
1920.
4. Alliance between France and Poland (1921), directed against
Russia and Germany.
5. Relations improved in 1924, when the moderate Herriot govt.
resumed diplomatic relations.
6. French Communist party was under orders from Moscow not to
co-operate with other left wing parties.
7. Rise of Nazis in Germany led to change of heart on both sides.

4.4) The ‘Successor’ States:

1. Yugoslavia, Czechoslovakia, Austria, Hungary and Poland
known as the successor states.
2. Guiding principles behind their formation – Self-determination
and democracy; hoped to act as a stabilizing influence in central
 and Eastern Europe and as buffer against potential attacks from
communist Russia.
3. They all developed serious problems and weaknesses:
i. Only larger national groups were lucky enough to have their
own homeland. Ex. Croats in Yugoslavia, Slovaks and
Germans in Czechoslovakia, Germans, white Russians and
Ukrainians in Poland.
ii. Democracy survived only in Czechoslovakia for a significant
time.
iii. All suffered economic difficulties especially after the Great
depression.
iv. Territorial disputes because Austria and Hungary resented
the peace settlement.
a) Yugoslavia:
1. Formed out of Serbia, Montenegro, Croatia, Slovenia and
Dalmatia.
2. Known as the Kingdom of the Serbs, Croats and Slovenes until
1929.
3. New constitution provided for an elected parliament, which was
dominated by Serbs. The Croats and other national groups
formed a permanent opposition.
4. Croats protested for being discriminated by the Serbs and in
1928 withdrew from the parliament and set up their own
government in Zagreb.
5. There were talks of proclaiming a separate republic of Croatia to
which King Alexander (a Serb) responded by proclaiming
himself a dictator and banning political parties.
6. Yugoslavia was badly hit by the depression due to falling prices
of agricultural products.
7. King Alexander was assassinated by a Macedonian who was
connected with a group of Croat revolutionaries living in
Hungary.
8. There seemed to be danger of war with Hungary but the new
king, Peter 2, was only 11 years old, and Alexander’s cousin
Paul, who was acting as regent believed it was time to
compromise.
9. In 1935 Paul allowed Political parties and in Aug. 1939
introduced a semi-federal system which enabled 6 Croats to join
the govt.
10. Treaties of friendship with Czechoslovakia (1920) and Romania
(1921) – ‘Little Entente’, Italy (1924), Poland (1926), France
(1927) and Greece (1929).
11. Yugoslavs were deeply suspicious of Mussolini despite signing
the friendship treaty because :
i. He was encouraging Croats rebels.
ii. He was tightening his grip on Albania, threatening to encircle
Yugoslavia.
12. Prince Paul began to look towards Nazi Germany for trade and
protection because:
i. Disappointed with the economic help from France.
 ii. Nervous of Mussolini’s intentions.
13. Trade treaty with Germany in 1936, 40% exports to Germany
by 1938.
14. Reduced threat from Mussolini because of Rome-Berlin Axis
agreement of Hitler in 1936.
15. Treaty with Italy in 1939.
16. Yugoslavia found itself uncomfortably aligned with the Axis
powers in 1939.
b) Czechoslovakia:
1. Multinational state consisting of Czechs, Slovaks, Germans,
Hungarians, Ruthenians, Romanians and Jews.
2. The new state worked well, being based on solid partnership
between Czechs and Slovaks.
3. Elected parliament of two houses and an elected president who
had powers to choose and dismiss govt. ministers.
4. German speaking population of Sudetenland complained at
being forced to live in a ‘Slav’ state, where they were
discriminated against.
5. The great depression brought huge unemployment and the
Sudeten Germans and Slovaks blamed the Czechs for their
problems.
6. Inspired by imitation movements due to rise of Hitler, the
Sudeten Germans formed their own party under the leadership
of Konrad Henlein.
7. In 1935 elections they became the second largest party in the
lower house of the parliament.
 8. In 1936 Henlein began to demand self-govt. for the German-
speaking areas.
9. Hitler in 1938 decided that Sudetenland must become part of
Germany and the state of Czechoslovakia must be destroyed.
10. Czech foreign minister, Edvard Benes, build up a system of
protective alliances. ‘Little Entente’ with Yugoslavia and
Romania (1920-21), treaties with Italy and France (1924).
11. Locarno agreement in 1925: France promised to guarantee
Czechoslovakia’s frontiers and Germany promised that any
frontier dispute would be settled by arbitration.
12. Agreement with USSR (1935): promised to help each other
only if France assisted the country under attack.
c) Poland:
1. Poland lost its independence in 1795 and was divided among
Russia, Austria and Prussia.
2. The Versailles settlement gave them almost everything they
wanted.
3. Danzig (main port) to be a free city under LoN control so they
built another port Gdynia.
4. Democratic constitution in March 1921, president and elected
parliament of two houses.
5. Lot of ethnic diversity led to 14 political parties and coalition
governments. 13 different cabinets between 1919 and 1926.
6. In May 1926, military coup by Marshal Jozef Pilsudski, founder
of Polish Socialist party and the man who declared polish
independence at the end of the war.
7. He became the PM and minister of war, acted as a virtual
dictator in a right-wing, authoritarian and nationalist regime until
his death in 1935.
8. Ignatz Moscicky as president and Jozef Beck as foreign minister
continued with the same system but still no effective measures
were taken to deal with the economic crisis and high
unemployment, and the govt. became unpopular.
9. Several frontier disputes with neighboring states:
i. Both Poland and Germany claimed Upper Silesia (industrial
area).
ii. Poland and Czechoslovakia both wanted Teschen.
iii. Dispute with Russia on the Curzon Line.
iv. Dispute with Lithuania on the city of Vilna.
10. Poland took benefit of the civil war in Russia and occupied
Ukraine on 7 may 1920.
11. The Red army chased them back to Poland and prepared to
attack Warsaw.
12. Poland drove out Russians with French help.
13. An armistice in Oct. 1920 and in March 1921 the Treaty of Riga
which gave Poland a 100 mile wide territory along her Eastern
frontier.
14. Polish troops refused to withdraw from Vilna and LoN
recognized it as belonging to Poland.
15. Teschen was divided between Poland and Czechoslovakia by
conference of ambassadors in July 1920.
 16. Upper Silesia was divided between Germany (3/4th) and Poland
by a plebiscite in March 1921. Poland gained vast majority of
province’s coal mines.
17. The treaty of friendship with France in Feb. 1921.
18. Hitler’s 10 years non-aggression pact with Poland in Jan. 1933,
to bind Poland to Germany against USSR.
19. Foreign Minister Beck took advantage of the new ‘friendship’
with Hitler to demand and receive the rest of Teschen from the
doomed Czechoslovakia at the Munich conference in 1938.
d) Austria:
1. Set up by the Treaty of St. Germain in 1919, a small country with
a small population and a vast majority of German speaking
population.
2. Lost all its industrial wealth to Czechoslovakia and Poland. Huge
foreign loans from LoN to fight inflation and financial crises.
3. Union with Germany was the natural solution to economic
problems but the condition of foreign loans by LoN was not to
unite with Germany for at least 20 years.
4. The new democratic constitution – parliament elected by
proportional representation, a president and a federal system.
5. Two main parties’ left-wing Social Democrats and right-wing
Christian Socials. Ignaz Seipel, a Christian Social was
Chancellor between 1922 and 1929 but the Capital Vienna
controlled by Social Democrats.
6. Social democrats in Vienna – welfare and housing projects while
the Christian Socials – reduced expenditure and sacked
thousands of govt. officials for economic stability.
7. The economic situation didn’t improve and the conflict between
right and left became violent.
8. Private armies: right – Heimwehr, left – Schutzband.
9. Encouraged and supported by Mussolini, the Heimwehr
announced an anti-democratic fascist programme in 1930.
10. Due to economic depression the govt. in March 1931
announced that it was preparing to enter a customs union with
Germany.
11. France withdrew all its funds from the leading Austrian bank
and made the cash available only when Austria agreed to drop
its plan for customs union.
12. Rise of Austrian Nazi party, campaigning for union with
Germany.
13. Initiatives taken by the new chancellor, Engel Bert Dollfuss, a
Christian Social in May 1932:
i. Dissolved the parliament and announced to run the country
by decree until new constitution had been prepared.
ii. Schutzband was declared illegal and the Heimwehr replaced
by new paramilitary organization – Fatherland Front.
iii. Nazi part banned and dissolved.
14. These policies had catastrophic results:
i. Vicious propaganda campaign by Germans against Dollfuss
in Oct. 1933. He survived an assassination attempt.
 ii. Schutzband defied the ban, anti-govt. demonstration in
Vienna and Linz. Order restored but 300 people killed.
Socialists joined the Austrian Nazis as the best way to
oppose the govt.
iii. The ‘Rome protocols’ with Italy: agreements on economic
co-operation and a declaration of respect for each other’s
independence. Hitler promised to respect Austrian
independence in fear of alienating Italy.
iv. Dollfuss killed in an attempted coup on 25th July 1934. Coup
failed because it was badly organized. Italy supported
Austrians which guaranteed their independence for now.
15. Kurt Schuschnigg, the next chancellor, worked hard to preserve
alliance with Italy. Signed an agreement with Germany in which
Hitler recognized Austrian independence and Schuschnigg
promised to follow policies in line with her nature as a German
state (July 1936).
16. Austrian Nazi party was allowed to operate and two Nazis
taken into the cabinet.
17. Italy began to draw closer to Hitler, signed the Rome-Berlin
Axis (1936) and the Anti-Comintern Pact with Germany and
Japan (1937), which made Mussolini to be less interested in
backing Austrian independence.
e) Hungary:
1. The republic of Hungary was declared in Nov. 1918 with Michael
Karolyi as the first president.
2. Czech, Romanians and Yugoslavian troops occupied large
swathes of Hungarian territory.
3. Karolyi replaced by Bela Kun, the founder of Hungarian
Communist party in March 1919.
4. Russians couldn’t support Kun because of defeat from Germans.
5. Nationalization and other socialist measures bitterly opposed by
the wealthy landowners.
6. Romanian troops captured Budapest in Aug. 1919 and Kun fled
for life.
7. Admiral Horthy, commander of the Austro-Hungarian fleet in
1918, organized troops and restored order. Elections held in
Jan. 1920 and won by the Right.
8. Romanians withdrew under allied pressure.
9. Hungary to be a monarchy with Admiral Horthy acting as regent
until the king is decided.
10. The most likely candidate, the last Habsburg emperor Karl, died
in 1922.
11. Horthy continued to be regent until Hungary was occupied by
Germany in 1944.
12. The new govt. forced to sign the treaty of Trianon in June 1920,
agreeing to massive losses of territory containing about 3/4th of
Hungary’s population to Czechoslovakia, Romania and
Yugoslavia.
13. Entire foreign policy centered on the major aim of getting a
revision of the treaty from the ‘little entente’ members.
 14. Treaties of friendship were signed with Italy (1927), Austria
(1933) and a trade treaty signed with Germany (1934).
15. Admiral Horthy presided over an authoritarian regime in which
opponents were liable to be arrested.
16. In 1935, PM Gombos announced that he wanted to cooperate
more closely with Germany and restriction on the activities of
Jews were introduced.
17. Hungary took advantage of the destruction of Czechoslovakia
to demand and receive a sizeable strip of South Slovakia during
Munich Crisis in Sept. 1938. It was followed by Ruthenia in
March 1939.
18. Hungary signed the anti-Comintern pact and withdrew from the
LoN.

4.5) United States Foreign Policy, 1919-33:

1. After a deep involvement in First World War the Republican
Party in US was strongly against any further involvement in
European affairs.
2. US senate voted to reject both the Versailles peace settlement
and the LoN hugely disappointing President Woodrow Wilson.
3. From 1921 until early 1933, the USA was ruled by the
Republican govt. which believed in a policy of isolation, hence
no American representative attended the Locarno Conference.
4. In 1920’s the Americans tried to increase trade and profits by
investment abroad. Serious dispute with Mexico over American-
owned oil wells, a compromise solution was eventually reached.
5. The Washington Conferences called by President Harding
because of concern at Japanese power in the Far-East.
6. Allied war debts to the USA caused much ill-feelings:
i. Loans to Britain and her allies amounting to 12 billion dollars
at 5% interest.
ii. The Europeans hoped that the Americans would cancel the
debts, since USA had done well out of the war, but US
insisted on full payment of debts.
iii. Americans refused to agree on the connection between
German reparations and US debts.
iv. Britain agreed to pay full amount over 62 years at 3.3% rate.
v. Other states followed and USA allowed the interest rate to
vary according to poverty levels of the country. Italy got
away with 0.4% causing strong objections from Britain.
7. German financial crisis of 1923 made the Americans change
their mind on the connection between reparations and debts and
hence they agreed to take part in the Dawes and Young Plans.
8. USA lent money to Germany to pay reparations so that the Allied
nations can pay back their debts to USA!
9. America’s insistence on keeping high tariffs was a contributory
cause of the world economic crisis.
10. Relations with Britain were uneasy due to debts as well as due
to restrictions on British naval expansion. MacDonald organized
a conference in 1930 attended by UK, USA and Japan
reaffirming the 5:5:3 ratio of naval power agreed at Washington.
11. This successfully re-established friendship between Britain and
USA, but the Japanese soon exceeded their limits.
12. USA returned to the policy of strict isolation when Japan
invaded Manchuria in 1931. President Hoover condemned the
Japanese action but refused to join in economic sanctions
consequently Britain and France felt unable to act.
13. The Americans remained determined not to be drawn into a
conflict throughout the 1930s.
5) International relations, 1933 – 39:

Summary of Events:
1. The Locarno spirit faded due to economic problems.
2. Japan invaded Manchuria in 1931 and both Hitler and Mussolini
took note of the failure of LoN.
3. Germany violated the Versailles settlement by reintroducing
conscription in March 1935.
4. Britain, Italy and France drew together and condemned Hitler at
the meeting in Stresa.
5. The French signed treaty of mutual assistance with the USSR.
6. The Stresa front was broken in June 1935 by the British signing
of the Anglo-German Naval agreement that allowed the
Germans to build submarines – another breach of Versailles.
7. Mussolini’s successful invasion of Abyssinia in Oct 1935.
8. Hitler sent troops into the forbidden Rhineland in March 1936.
9. The Rome-Berlin axis and the anti-Comintern pact.
10. The Spanish Civil War in summer of 1936: The right wing
Nationalist groups under the leadership of Franco and with
German and Italian help tried to overthrow the left-wing
republican govt. who were supported by Soviets.
11. Britain and France refused to intervene and by 1939 Franco
was victorious.
 12. The Sino-Japanese war in 1937.
13. Hitler started the annexation of Austria in March 1938.
14. Hitler demanded Sudetenland. The conference of Munich
(Sept. 1938) agreed to give Germany Sudetenland from
Czechoslovakia in order to avoid war.
15. In March 1939, Hitler broke his agreement and sent German
troops to occupy Prague, the Czech capital.
16. Hitler signed non-aggression pact with Russia in August 1939
and then decided to invade Poland on 1st Sept 1939.
17. British PM Neville Chamberlain decided that Hitler had gone
too far and must be stopped hence Britain and France declared
war on Germany.

5.1) Relations between Japan and China:

a) The Japanese invasion of Manchuria in 1931:
1. Japan was given a privileged position and Port Arthur as a result
of the Russo-Japanese war (1904-5).
2. Japan had invested millions of pound in Manchuria in the
development of Industries and Railways.
3. By 1931 they controlled the South Manchurian Railway and the
Banking system.
4. China seemed to be growing stronger under the rule of Chiang
Kai-shek and the Japanese feared this might result in their being
excluded from Manchuria.
 5. The Japanese announced that they had turned Manchuria into
the independent state of Manchukuo under Pu Yi, the last of the
Chinese emperors.
b) The Japanese advance from Manchuria:
1. In 1933, the Japanese began to advance from Manchuria into
the rest of North-Eastern China.
2. By 1935 Beijing had fallen under Japanese control.
3. Chinese Civil war between Chiang Kai-Shek’s KMT govt. and the
communist led by Mao Zedong.
c) Further Invasions:
1. After the Anti-Comintern Pact (1936), the Japanese army began
invasion of other parts of China in July 1937.
2. The PM prince Konoye, was against such massive intervention
but he had to give way to the wishes of the war minister General
Sugiyama.
3. By 1938, Japanese captured Shanghai, Nanking (Capital) and
Hankow, committing terrible atrocities.
4. Chiang reached an agreement with the Communists to
cooperate against the invaders and with Russian help a spirited
Chinese resistance was mounted.
5. A new capital was reestablished well inland at Chungking.
6. Japan landed in the south of China and captured Canton.
7. Britain and China were too busy coping with Hitler.
8. USA still followed its principle of isolation.
5.2) Mussolini’s Foreign Policy:
1. Mussolini Wanted to make Italy great, respected and feared but
was unsure on how to achieve this.
2. He thought that an adventurous foreign policy was his best line
of action, hence the Corfu incident and the occupation of Fiume
in 1923.
a) 1923 – 34:
1. Strained relations of Italy with Yugoslavia.
2. Fear that a weak Austria may fall under the influence of
Germany.
3. Mussolini was worried about a possible German threat via the
Brenner Pass.
4. Mussolini attended the Locarno Conference in 1925, but was
disappointed when the agreements signed didn’t guarantee the
Italian frontier with Austria.
5. He was friendly towards Greece, Hungary and especially
Albania, the southern neighbor and rival of Yugoslavia.
Economic and defense agreements were signed with the result
that Albania was virtually controlled by Italy.
6. He cultivated good relations with Britain: He supported her
demand that Turkey should hand over Mosul province to Iraq,
and in return, the British gave Italy a small part of Somaliland.
 7. Italy became the first state after Britain to recognize the USSR; a
non-aggression pact was signed between Italy and USSR in
Sept. 1933.
8. He supported the anti-Nazi Dollfuss govt. of Austria by signing
trade agreements with Austria and Hungary.
9. Mussolini sent army to the frontiers during the Austrian Nazis
coup of July 1934, due to which the seize attempt was called off.
b) After 1934:
1. Mussolini joined the Stresa front to Condemn Germany for
restarting conscriptions in Apr. 1935.
2. Both German and French turned a blind eye to Italian attack on
Abyssinia which Mussolini interpreted as approval towards old-
fashioned colonial expansion.
3. The Anglo-German Naval agreement signed in June 1935
convinced Mussolini of British cynicism and self-interest.
4. The motives behind the 1935 attack on Abyssinia, the last
independent state left in Africa were:

i. Italy’s existing colonies in East Africa (Eritrea and

Somaliland) were not very rewarding

ii. Mussolini’s attempt to dominate Abyssinian economics by

the treaty of ‘friendship’ signed in 1928 failed because of the
efforts made by emperor of Abyssinia, Haile Selassie.

iii. A victorious war would divert attention from internal troubles

and provide a new market for Italian exports.
 iv. It would please the nationalists and colonialists and avenge
the defeat of 1896 hence garnering popularity for Mussolini.
5. The conquest of Abyssinia demonstrated the ineffectiveness of
collective security. The LoN didn’t apply the economic sanction
on oil and coal which could have seriously hampered Italian war
efforts.
6. It emerged that the British foreign secretary, Sir Samuel Hoare
had made a secret deal with Laval, the French PM in Dec. 1935,
to hand over large sections of Abyssinia to Italy, but couldn’t do
so due to public opinion in Britain.
7. Reason for weak stand against Italy by Britain and France were:

i. They were unprepared for war against Italy.

ii. They wanted to appease Mussolini to act as an ally against
Germany.
8. Mussolini was annoyed by sanctions and grew closer to Hitler.
Hitler hadn’t criticized the invasion and had not applied
sanctions. In return, Mussolini dropped his objection to a
German takeover of Austria.
9. Hitler took advantage of the general preoccupation with
Abyssinia to send troops into the Rhineland.
10. Mussolini supported Franco in the Spanish civil war to get naval
bases in Spain from which he could threaten France.
11. The Rome-Berlin Axis and in 1937 the Anti-Comintern pact with
Germany and Japan against Bolshevism.
 12. Pointless occupation of Albania in Apr. 1939 which was already
under Italian economic control just to imitate Hitler’s occupation
of Czechoslovakia.
13. The pact of Steel (May 1939): A full alliance with Germany
including full military support if war came.

5.3) What were Hitler’s aims in foreign policy, and how

successful had he been by the end of the 1938?
a) Hitler aimed to make Germany into a great power again.
1. He hoped to achieve this by:

i. Destroying the Versailles settlement

ii. Building up the army
iii. Recovering lost territory such as the Saar and the Polish
corridor

iv. Bringing all German-speaking peoples inside the Reich;

which involved annexing Austria and taking territory from
Czechoslovakia and Poland.
2. Disagreement between Historians on his further plans. Hitler
claimed that German population was too large for the area into
which it was constrained hence he was fighting for gaining more
land called Lebensraum (living space).
 3. Some historians claim that this was only a propaganda to attract
support and unite the Nazi party because Hitler was only
prepared to have a limited war against Poland.
4. But if Hitler was serious of setting up a Nazi empire in Europe
than he would have occupied the rest of Czechoslovakia and
Poland and then occupy Russia as far as the Ural Mountains.
b) A series of successes:
1. Germany was militarily weak in 1933 hence Germany withdrew
from the world disarmament conference and from the LoN,
because France wouldn’t agree to Germany having equality of
armaments.
2. Hitler signed a 10-years non-aggression pact with the Poles in
Jan. 1934 to ruin the France’s Little Entente and also it
guaranteed Polish neutrality whenever Germany decided to
move against Austria and Czechoslovakia.
3. In July 1934 The Austrian Nazis who were encouraged by Hitler
failed to garner power in Austria due to Italian support of Austria.
4. The Saar was returned to Germany in Jan 1935 after a plebiscite
which produced results favorable to Germany because of Nazi
propaganda. Hitler announced that all causes of grievance of
France and Germany had been removed.
5. Hitler reintroduced the forbidden conscription in March 1935
giving the excuse that Britain had just announced air-force
 increases and France had extended conscription from 12 to 18
months.
6. The Anglo-German Naval agreement in June 1935: Germany
agreed to limit German navy to 35% of the strength of the British
navy. British thought that Germany was already breaking the
settlement by building a fleet, it would be as well to have it
limited.
7. By the end of 1938 Hitler had a large army, navy, U-Boats and a
large air force.
8. Hitler sent his troops into the Rhineland in March 1936. Troops
had orders to withdraw at the first sign of French opposition but
no resistance was offered.
9. The Rome-Berlin Axis with Mussolini in 1936 and the Anti-
Comintern Pact with Japan and Italy in 1937.
10. Germany and Italy helped Franco in the Spanish civil war.
Germany mercilessly bombed the defenseless town of
Guernica.
11. The Austrian Chancellor Schuschnigg due to internal tensions
by the Austrian Nazis announced a referendum to join Germany.
Hitler unsure about the outcome of referendum moved in troops
in Austria before the referendum and thus Austria became part
of the third Reich.
 12. The Anschluss with Austria:

i. Showed the value of understanding with Italy

ii. Revealed the weakness of Britain and France.
iii. Czechoslovakia could now be attacked from 3 sides.
13. Hitler’s campaign for Sudetenland ended in triumph at the
Munich conference in Sept. 1938.

5.4) Appeasement:
a) What is meant by the term ‘appeasement’?
1. Appeasement was the policy followed by the British, and later by
the French, of avoiding war with aggressive powers by giving
way to their demands, if they were not too unreasonable.
2. Two phases of appeasement:

i. From mid-1920s until 1937: war must be avoided at all cost,

acceptance of acts of aggressions and breaches of
Versailles.

ii. Neville Chamberlain became PM of Britain in May 1937. He

tried to find out what Hitler wanted and then showed him that
reasonable claims could be met by negotiations only.
3. Examples of appeasement: the Dawes and Young Plans and the
Locarno treaties and their vital omission – Britain didn’t
guarantee Germany’s eastern frontiers.
 4. The greatest appeasement: The Munich conference that gave
away Sudetenland to Germany which led to destruction of
Czechoslovakia.
b) How could appeasement be justified:
1. It was thought essential to avoid war. Strongly pacifist
sentiments in Britain.
2. Many felt that Germany and Italy had genuine grievances. British
thought that Italy was cheated and Germany was treated too
harshly hence Britain showed sympathy when Germans tried to
revise the most hated clauses of Versailles.
3. Failure of LoN hence Chamberlain believed in personal contact
between leaders to settle disputes and bring all together to
respect international law.
4. Economic co-operation between Britain and Germany would be
good for both. If German economy would recover then its
internal violence would die down.
5. Fear of communist Russia among British Conservatives.
Germany would be a buffer against communist expansion
westwards.
6. Britain was totally unprepared for a full-scale war. Chamberlain
hoped that appeasement would give Britain time to prepare a
strong military.
c) What part did appeasement play in international affairs, 1933-39?
1. Hitler took appeasement as a weakness of Britain and France
and hence risked attacking Poland, starting the WW-2.
2. Appeasement was mainly a British policy to which the French
didn’t always agree.
3. French foreign minister in 1934 - Louis Barthou tried to build up
a strong anti-German group including Italy and USSR, hence
USSR entry into LoN in Sept. 1934.
4. Barthou was assassinated in Oct. 1934 along with King
Alexander of Yugoslavia by Croat terrorists.
5. Barthou’s successor Pierre Laval signed an alliance with Russia
in May 1935 but there was no provision for military co-operation
because Laval distrusted the communists.
6. The hopes of friendship with Italy were also dashed by the failure
of the Hoare-Laval Pact.
7. No decisive foreign policy of France because of split between left
and right, since the right admired Hitler.
8. Examples of appeasement at work:

i. No action taken against German rearmament.

ii. The Anglo-German Naval agreement broke the Stresa Front
and the French confidence in Britain.

iii. Only half-hearted British action against the Italian invasion of

Abyssinia.
 iv. The French didn’t mobilized their troops at the German
reoccupation of the Rhineland (March 1936).

v. Neither Britain nor France intervened in the Spanish Civil

War. Britain tried to entice Mussolini to remove his troops by
officially recognizing Italian possession of Abyssinia but
Mussolini failed to keep his side of the bargain.

vi. Both Britain and France protested strongly against the

Anschluss between Germany and Austria (March 1938) but
didn’t engage in any action against it.

vii. Chamberlain’s supreme act of appeasement – The Munich

Conference, which gave Sudetenland to Germany.

5.5) Munich to the Outbreak of War : Sept. 1938 to Sept. 1939:

a) Czechoslovakia:
1. Hitler decided to destroy Czechoslovakia because:

i. It was a part of his Lebensraum policy

ii. He hated the Czechs for their democracy
iii. They were Slavs and their state had been set up by the
hated Versailles settlement

iv. Control of the area would bring great advantages for

Germany’s military and economic dominance of central
Europe.
2. The propaganda campaign in the Sudetenland:

i. Hitler started the propaganda campaign that the Sudeten

Germans under the leader Konrad Henlein were being
discriminated by the Czech govt.

ii. Unemployment was more serious among the Germans

because most of them were industrial workers and industries
were hit the most by depression.

iii. The Nazis organized huge demonstrations which the

president Edward Benes interpreted the disturbances as an
excuse made up by the Germans so that their troops could
march in ‘to restore order’.

iv. Chamberlain and Daladier, the French PM, were afraid of

that if this happened, war would break out. They wanted to
avoid war so they put tremendous pressure on the Czechs to
make concessions to Hitler.

v. Benes agreed to hand over Sudetenland to Germany and

Hitler seemed to accept the offer explained by Chamberlain.

vi. But at the second meeting Hitler stepped up his demands.

Now he wanted more of Czechoslovakia and immediate
entry of German troops into the Sudetenland.

vii. Benes refused the demand and ordered immediate

mobilization of Army. With the help of her allies USSR and
France and the anti-tank defenses and bunkers which they
 had built, Benes thought any German attack could be
repulsed.
3. The Munich Conference, 29th Sept. 1938:

i. Hitler invited Chamberlain, Daladier and Mussolini when the

war seemed inevitable to Munich.

ii. Mussolini produced a plan (which was actually written by the

German foreign office) which was accepted by others in
order to avoid war.

iii. Sudetenland was handed over to Germany, Poland was

given Teschen and Hungary received South Slovakia.

iv. Germany along with the other three powers, guaranteed the
rest of Czechoslovakia.

v. Czechs and Russians were not invited to the conference.

vi. The Czechs were told that if they resisted the Munich
decision, they would receive no help from Britain and France
even though France had guaranteed Czech frontiers at
Locarno.

vii. Czech military resistance seemed hopeless due to betrayal

by France and Germany hence they had no choice but to go
along with the decision.

viii. Chamberlain and Hitler signed a statement which promised

that they both would renounce warlike intentions against
 each other and would use consultation to deal with any
problem that might arise.
4. The destruction of Czechoslovakia, March 1939:

i. Czechoslovakia was crippled by the Munich agreement: 70%

loss of heavy industry, 1/3rd loss of population, 1/3rd of
territory and all fortifications.

ii. In 1939 Slovak PM Father Jozef Tiso, encouraged and

pressurized by Germany began to demand complete
independence from Prague (Central Govt. of
Czechoslovakia).

iii. On 9th March 1939 the new Czech President, Emil Hacha,
forestalled the expected declaration of independence by
Slovaks by deposing their cabinet, Tiso was placed under
house arrest and the Slovak govt. building was occupied by
police.

iv. Tiso and Slovaks proclaimed independence on 14th March

and asked for German protection.

v. The Nazis threatened Hacha that Prague would be bombed

if he refused their demand that a German protectorate must
be imposed over rest of Czechoslovakia. Left with no
alternative Hacha agreed.

vi. On 15th March 1939 German troops occupied

Czechoslovakia.
 vii. Bohemia and Moravia were declared a protectorate within
Reich, Slovakia was to be an independent state under
protection of Reich and Ruthenia was occupied by
Hungarian troops.

viii. Chamberlain didn’t took any action sighting the excuse that
German troops had entered by invitation.
b) Poland:
1. After taking over the Lithuanian port of Memel, Hitler turned his
attention to Poland.
2. Hitler demands the return of Danzig:

i. Since Czechoslovakia was already seized the Polish

neutrality was no longer needed hence in April 1939, Hitler
demanded the return of Danzig and a road and railway
across the corridor, linking East Prussia with the rest of
Germany.

ii. The demand was not unreasonable because Danzig was

mainly German-speaking but with it coming just after the
seizure of Czechoslovakia, the Poles were convinced that
the Germans demands were only the preliminary to an
invasion.

iii. Colonel Beck, rejected the German demands and refused to

attend a conference, being afraid of another Munich. British
pressure on Poles to surrender Danzig was to no avail.
 3. The Germans invade Poland

i. Germans signed a non-aggression pact with the USSR so

that she couldn’t help Britain and Poland against Germany.

ii. A secret agreement between Germany and USSR on 24th

Aug to divide Poland between themselves.

iii. Hitler was convinced that Britain and France wouldn’t risk
intervention since Russia was neutral and hence Hitler took
the British ratification of their guarantee to Poland as a bluff.

iv. A full scale German invasion of Poland began on 1 Sept.

1939.

v. Chamberlain still suggested that if Germans agreed to

withdraw then a conference could be held but there was no
response from the Germans.

vi. Chamberlain sent an ultimatum to Germany to withdraw

from Poland but Hitler didn’t bother to reply and hence
Britain was at war with Germany on 3 Sept. Soon after
France also declared war.

5.6) Why did war break out? Were Hitler or the appeasers to
blame?
a) Possible factors responsible for war:
1. The Versailles Treaties which filled the Germans with bitterness
and the desire for revenge.
 2. The LoN and the idea of collective security because they failed
to control potential aggressors.
3. The World economic crisis due to which Hitler came to power.
4. These factors may not be fully responsible for the war because,
Germany’s reparations were largely cancelled, the disarmament
clauses had been ignored, the Rhineland was remilitarized and
Austria and Czechoslovakia were brought under the Reich.
b) Were the appeasers to blame?
1. Britain and France should have taken a firm line with Hitler
before Germany had become too strong.
2. Lack of resistance by France during Rhineland occupation
increased Hitler’s prestige at home.
3. The surrender at Munich convinced Hitler to gamble on war with
Poland.
4. Chamberlain had been criticized to choose the wrong issue over
which to make a stand against Hitler. He should have backed
the Czechs and made his stand at Munich since Czechs were
militarily and industrially stronger than Poland.
5. Chamberlains’ defenders claim that Munich gave time for Britain
to rearm itself for eventual fight against Hitler.
c) Did the USSR make war inevitable?
1. USSR has been accused of making war inevitable by signing the
non-aggression pact with Germany on 23 Aug. 1939 and also a
secret agreement to divide Poland between USSR and
Germany.
2. Russian historians justify the pact on the ground that it gave the
USSR time to prepare its defenses against a possible German
attack.
d) Was Hitler to blame?
Most Historians agree to the idea that:
1. Hitler wanted to destroy Poland and Russia and control it
permanently to make a greater Germany which would have
living space for generations to come.
2. Hitler wanted a genocidal war to destroy the Jews and other
groups which the Nazi considered inferior to the German master
race.
3. Hitler probably didn’t wanted a war with Britain and France but
he knew that such a war was inevitable in future hence he risked
to ruthlessly attack Poland as early as possible before the
Western powers become too powerful to defeat.
6) The Second World War, 1939-45

Summary of Events:
The War falls into four clearly defined phases:
1. Opening moves: Sept 1939 to Dec 1940:
i. Germans and Russians occupied Poland by end of Sept.
ii. German forces occupied Denmark and Norway in Apr. 1940
iii. In May, attacks were made on Holland, Belgium and France,
who were soon defeated.
iv. The Battle of Britain (July to September 1940).
v. Mussolini’s armies invaded Egypt and Greece.
2. The Axis offensive widens: 1941 to the summer of 1942:
i. Hitler invaded on Russia in June 1941.
ii. Japanese attacked the American Pearl Harbor in Dec 1941.
iii. Japanese took territories such as the Philippines, Malaya,
Singapore and Burma.
3. The offensives held in check: summer 1942 to summer 1943:
i. In June 1942, The Americans drove off a Japanese attack on
Midway Island, inflicting heavy losses.
ii. In Oct, the Germans advancing towards Egypt, were halted
at El Alamein and later driven out of North Africa.
iii. By Sept. 1942 the Germans had penetrated as far as
Stalingrad on the river Volga. But in the following Feb the
German army was surrounded and forced to surrender.
 4. The Axis powers defeated: July 1943 to Aug 1945:
i. Italy was the first to be eliminated.
ii. The Anglo-American invasion of Normandy in June 1944
liberated France, Belgium and Holland.
iii. Allied troops crossed the Rhine and captured Cologne.
iv. Russians drove the Germans out and advanced on Berlin via
Poland.
v. Germany surrendered in May 1945 and Japan in Aug after
the Americans dropped the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and
Nagasaki.

6.1) Opening Moves: Sept 1939 to Dec 1940:

a) Poland Defeated:
1. The Poles were defeated swiftly by the German Blitzkrieg.
2. The Polish railway system was put out of action and the Polish
air force was destroyed.
3. The French couldn’t help directly because their mobilization
procedure was slow and out-of-date, also it was difficult to
transport sufficient troops to Poland to be effective.
4. On 29 Sept Poland was divided up between Germany and the
USSR (as agreed in the pact of Aug 1939)
b) The ‘phoney War’:
1. Russians took over Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania and invaded
Finland (Nov 1939), forcing her to hand over frontier territories.
 2. The French and the Germans manned their respective defenses
– the Maginot and Siegfried Lines.
3. Hitler halted his invasions temporarily hoping that the pause
would weaken the resolve of Britain and France and encourage
them to negotiate peace.
4. This pleased Hitler’s generals because they were not convinced
that the German army was strong enough to attack in the West.
c) Denmark and Norway invaded, Apr 1940:
1. Germans wanted to control Norway because:
i. The Narvik port of Norway was the main outlet for Swedish
iron-ore, which was vital for German armaments industry.
ii. The Germans were afraid that the British would try to take
some of the Norway’s ports.
iii. Admiral Raeder, the German navy chief realized that the
Norwegian fjords would be excellent naval bases from which
to attack Britain’s transatlantic supply lines.
2. A British destroyer chased a German vessel into a Norwegian
Fjord and rescued the 300 British prisoners aboard.
3. Hitler decided to act and on 9th April German troops landed in
many ports along the Fjord. The Norwegian troops were not
even mobilized.
https://historicalresources.files.wordpress.com/2008/09/norway.jpg
 4. British and French troops arrived a few days later but after a
temporary success at Narvik, all allied troops were withdrawn by
early June because of the growing threat to France itself.
5. The local Nazis in Norway under their leader Vidkun Quisling,
gave the invaders every assistance.
6. Results of the Norwegian campaign:
i. Germany assured her bases and her iron-ore supply.
ii. Germany lost 3 cruisers and 10 destroyers which made
German navy less effective at Dunkirk.
iii. Chamberlain was forced to resign and Winston Churchill
became British PM.
d) Hitler attacks Holland, Belgium and France:
1. The attacks on Holland, Belgium and France were launched
simultaneously on 10 May using Blitzkrieg methods.
2. The Dutch city of Rotterdam was bombed which killed a
thousand people and they surrendered after only 4 days.
3. Belgium surrendered at the end of May which left only Dunkirk in
Allied hands.
4. Hitler ordered the German advance towards Dunkirk to halt on
24 May due to marshy terrain and numerous canals which were
unsuitable for tanks. The British Navy evacuated around 3 lakh
troops from Dunkirk despite constant Luftwaffe attacks.
5. It became impossible for Britain to help France because the
evacuated troops had lost all their arms and equipment.
 6. Paris was captured on 14 June and France surrendered on 22
June. The ceasefire was signed at Compiegne in the same
railway coach which was used for the 1918 armistice.
7. The Germans occupied Northern France and the Atlantic coast
giving them valuable submarine bases, and the French army
was demobilized.
8. Unoccupied France was allowed its own govt. under Marshal
Petain, but it had no real independence and collaborated with
the Germans.
e) Why was France defeated so quickly?
1. The French were unprepared for the war and were bitterly
divided between the left and the right parties.
i. The fascist right admired Hitler and wanted an agreement
with him while communist left was also against war after the
non-aggression pact between Germany and USSR.
ii. The ‘phoney war’ allowed time for peace party to develop on
the right, headed by Laval. He argued that since the Poles,
whom they were supposed to protect, were already defeated
hence there was no point in continuing with the War.
2. There were serious military weaknesses:
i. French had to face an undivided German offensive unlike
1914.
 ii. The French defense line – the Maginot line didn’t extend to
the frontier of Belgium from which the Germans eventually
broke through because:
(a) It might have offended the Belgians.
(b) Petain believed that the Ardennes should be strong
enough barriers.
iii. The French tanks and armored vehicles were split up so that
each infantry division had a few which slowed them to the
speed of marching soldiers.
3. The French generals made fatal mistakes:
i. No attempt was made to help Poland by attacking Germany in
the West in Sept 1939, which might have had a good chance
of success.
ii. No troops were moved from the Maginot line to help the
German breakthrough on the river Meuse on 13 May 1940.
iii. Poor communication between German army and air force.
4. Military defeats gave the right a chance to put pressure on the
government to accept a ceasefire. PM Reynaud resigned and
Petain took over.
f) The Battle of Britain (12 Aug to 30 Sept 1940)
1. Goering’s Luftwaffe tried to destroy the Royal Air Force as a
preliminary to the invasion of Britain, by bombing harbors, radar
stations, aerodromes and munition factories.
 2. In Sept they began to bomb London in retaliation, they claimed,
for a British raid on Berlin.
3. The RAF inflicted heavy losses on Luftwaffe and British air
power was far from being destroyed. The reason for British
success were:
i. The chain of new radar stations gave plenty of warning on
approaching German attackers.
ii. The German bombers were hampered by limited range –
they could only carry enough fuel to last about 90 minutes in
air.
iii. The switch to bombing London was a mistake because it
relieved pressure on the airfields at the critical moment.
g) Mussolini invades Egypt, Sept 1940:
1. Mussolini sent an army from the Italian colony of Libya into
Egypt and an army invading Greece from Albania (Oct).