Chp 1 Impact of WW1 on Europe
Explain the terms of the Treaty of Versailles / why the terms made the Germans angry.
War guilt Germany had to bear full responsibility/take full
clause blame for the war.
(Article 231)
Reparations Bearing full responsibility/full blame meant
Germany would have to pay reparations, or
compensation for the war, to the Allied powers. This
amount was eventually fixed at £6 600 million in
1920.
Military The German Army was restricted to 100 000
Terms professional soldiers. This would ensure that
Germany would not be able to build up a large
reserve force that it would call up in the event of war.
All of Germany’s wartime weapons were to be
destroyed.
Conscription was prohibited.
Germany was not allowed to have an air force,
submarines or tanks.
The Navy was limited to 15,000 men, six battleships
and a few smaller ships.
The Rhineland, along Germany’s western borders
with France, was made a demilitarised zone, meaning
that Germany was not allowed to station any military
forces in the area. Allied troops would occupy the
Rhineland for 15 years until 1934.
German Germany also had to return all the land it took from
territorial other countries:
losses 1. Alsace-Lorraine to France.
2. The Polish Corridor to Poland.
The Allies would take over the control and running
of Germany’s overseas colonies.
Lost control of the coal-rich region, the Saar, to the
French for 15 years,(the French would get all the
profits from Saar), after which a plebiscite would be
organized to allow the inhabitants to decide which
country they wished to belong to.
Was not allowed to form a political union or
anschluss with Austria.
The Germans felt that it was unfair for the
Allies to hold Germany totally
responsible when they have also
contributed to the chain of events that led
to the war. This was also the first time
that one country in a war had ever been
expected to take the full blame for the
war.
The amount of reparations would keep
Germany poor for many years. German’s
economy would not recover. Germany
would be weak and could be invaded by
stronger countries. Weak Germany was a
blow to their pride.
Germany would become very weak and
could be invaded by the other stronger
countries.
These military terms was also a blow to
their pride; Germany not seen as a strong
nation anymore (no longer possess a
strong defence force; unable to protect
their own country)
[Explanation above +
Foreign troops occupying German
territories infringed on German
sovereignty and was a blow to their pride]
The Allies would be to gain economic
benefits from these territories. Germany
would not be able to use the economic
benefits from these territories to recover.
The Allies would be stronger than
Germany, posing a threat to Germany.
The loss of these territories was a blow to
their pride; Germany not seen as a strong
nation anymore (no longer an empire as
they lost their territories; unable to protect
and retain their territories)
[Combined explanations of the other two]
+ Germans in Saar could be discriminated
by the French
Austrians are German speakers; German-
speakers were divided into separate
countries.
1
The Treaty of Versailles fair to Germany/too harsh on Germany. Do you agree? Explain your answer.

Unfair/too harsh
Self-determination Under the terms of the Treaty of Versailles, segments of Germany’s population would be
principle not applied divided by new borders and would be forced to join other nations.
equally for all Hence, the Germans felt that the Allied leaders are hypocrites. They talked so much about
countries self-determination at Versailles, yet they take land away from Germany and do not let
Germans living there choose where they want to belong. They have also unfairly banned
Germany from joining the League of Nations.
Diktat/ Dictated In past conflicts, both sides negotiated the terms of the peace treaty. However, when the
peace/Not allowed to leaders of the former Allied Powers met at the Paris Peace Conference in 1919 to discuss how
join peace to deal with German, Germany representatives were not allowed to attend the talks nor
negotiations negotiate the armistice that ended the war. Besides, Germany did not surrender so Germans
felt it was wrong not to include German representatives at Versailles. Many Germans called
the Treaty of Versailles a ‘Diktat’ – a piece of dictation forced on them.
Treaty too punitive The Germans felt that it was unfair for the Allies to hold Germany totally responsible when
(War Guilt Clause they have also contributed to the chain of events that led to the war. This was also the first
unfair) time that one country in a war had ever been expected to take the full blame for the war.
Treaty too punitive Germany cannot afford to pay the heavy reparations because it was in an economic crisis
(Reparations too then. And when the Allies take away their land, their people, their coalfields and their colonial
crippling) possessions, the Germans argued that they would not be able to survive and start afresh
without those areas that support their industrial growth.
Treaty too punitive Germany lost all their colonies. Therefore, Germany is unable to get a cheap source of raw
(Loss of colonies) materials from their colonies to manufacture goods to sell for profits.
Treaty too punitive With its army restricted to only 100,000 men, Germany would not be able to defend itself
(Reduced armed from attacks by other countries.
force)
Ordinary Germans They also felt that the Allies should not hold the democratic government responsible for the
should not pay the actions of Kaiser Wilhelm’s government. They argued that the Allies should find the Kaiser
price of their leaders’ and his government and punish them instead of the ordinary Germans.
mistakes
Britain and France Lloyd George, Prime Minister of Britain, was elected because he promised the British that he
thinking only of their would make sure Germany paid a high price. So, he could not afford to be seen as lenient to
own interests Germany. Similarly, the French were pressing Clemenceau for revenge against Germany and
so he had to let the French feel that Germany had been punished for starting a war that had
ruined many parts of their country. Besides, Germany has attacked France in 1870 and 1914
and so he wanted to cripple Germany as a military power and create a ‘buffer zone’ between
Germany and France so that France would be safe from future German attacks.
Fair/Not harsh
Only right to pay for Germany had started the war, which had many terrible effects. For example, some countries,
what they have like France, suffered ruin to their land. They had to do significant rebuilding. Many lives were
damaged/sufferings also lost. The countries also suffered huge economic problems like unemployment and
they have caused enormous debts. Therefore, Germany had to pay reparations for what the Allies had suffered.

Prevent Germany Germany had attacked France in 1870 and 1914. Clemenceau did not want it to happen again.
from being aggressive He wanted France to be safe from attack from Germany in the future. Therefore, he wanted to
again cripple Germany as a military power and to create a ‘buffer zone’ between Germany and
France.

Germany had also Most people in the Allied countries felt that the terms of the Treaty of Versailles were fair.
been unfair to The Allied leaders argued that Germany had itself imposed an even harsher treaty on Russia
Russia/imposed an when Russia wanted to stop fighting in 1917. Under the terms of the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk,
even harsher treaty on Russia had to give Germany more territories (some of Russia’s best industrial land), industries
Russia and coal-mines, compared to what Germany had to give to the Allies.

2
Explain the aims of the League of Nations

Resolve The League tried to implement a programme of Reducing the chances of war from
conflicts disarmament worldwide and monitor a move happening and limit the damages even
towards reducing armaments among countries. if war was to occur.
The League could serve as a platform for Therefore all this was to resolve
countries to come together and discuss their conflicts and prevent wars from
differences through peaceful means. The breaking out.
General Assembly and the Court of Justice also
worked to solve disputes between nations. As
members of the League, smaller states could
seek assistance from other countries, whether be
it in times of political crisis or simply in
economic relations. It aimed to resolve
international problems through negotiation,
arms reduction and, as a last resort, through the
use of force against countries that committed
acts of aggression against others.
Collective Main goal of the league was to act as an World peace would thus be achieved
security international organisation whose main role was through international cooperation and a
to maintain world peace and security. All commitment to open and honourable
members of the league would work together relations between nations as countries
towards preventing wars and conflicts. pledged to work together in the League
to maintain the peace.

A system of The League also laid out a system of
law international law and helped to maintain, or
modify, treaties between nations. All
international treaties had to be registered and
their contents known.
Disarmamen The League aimed to get countries to disarm
t and lower their amount of weapons. Military
capabilities could be reduced through
international agreements.
It could prevent any form of
misunderstanding or confusion, and
thus prevent conflicts and wars from
occurring, as happened before World
War I.
This would reduce the ability of
countries to wage war and thus
preserve the peace.

‘The League of Nations was successful in achieving its aims.’ Do you agree? Explain your answer.

Resolve The League tried to During the League’s 1932 Disarmament The other countries,
conflicts / implement a programme of Conference, Germany wanted other countries to worried from a possible
disarmament worldwide disarm to Germany’s level, but they, especially German invasion, also
maintain France, refused. Hitler pulled out of the increased their size of
and monitor a move
collective conference and quickly increased the size of its armies to catch up,
towards reducing
security. armed forces. starting an arms race in
armaments among Europe. [unsuccessful]
countries.

3
 The League could serve as
a platform for countries to
come together and discuss
their differences through
peaceful means. The
General Assembly and the
Court of Justice also
worked to solve disputes
between nations. As
members of the League,
smaller states could seek
assistance from other
countries, whether be it in
times of political crisis or
simply in economic
relations. It aimed to
resolve international
problems through
negotiation, arms reduction
and, as a last resort,
through the use of force
against countries that
committed acts of
aggression against others.
Reasons for the weakness of the League of Nations
In 1920, both Finland and Sweden laid A conflict that could
claim to the Aland Islands. The league lead to a war was
investigated the claims and awarded the successfully resolved.
Aland Island to Finland. Sweden accepted [successful]
this decision.
In 1921, both Germany and Poland laid
claims to the industrial area of Upper
Silesia. The league conducted plebiscites
and used the results to split the area
according to the wishes of the people living
in those areas. Both Germany and Poland
found this acceptable.
In 1925, Greece invaded Bulgaria A war was ended,
following a dispute. The league demanded Bulgarians’ sufferings
that Greece withdraw from Bulgaria. ended. [successful]
Greece complied.
In 1920, Poland seized Vilna, the former The League could ask
capital of Lithuania. However, the league members to contribute
did not take action. troops to an international
fighting force to go to
From1920 to 1922, there was an outbreak
war to keep the peace.
of war between Greece and Turkey.
However, they were very
However, the league was unable to prevent unwilling to do so. It
war. expected nations to
In 1923, in a dispute between Italy and accept the League’s
Greece, Italy took over the Greek island of decisions in disputes but
Corfu. The League could not make Italy that was not the case. As
withdraw until Greece gave in on the they became more
dispute. certain that the League
In 1923, Germany stopped making its would not resort to force,
they became less willing
reparation payments to Allies. France and
to listen to the League.
Belgium invaded and occupied the German The League lost its
industrial area of Ruhr but the league did credibility as an
not take any action. organisation that could
resolve conflicts and
maintain world peace,
which it had aimed to do.
[not successful]
4
 Membership 1. The absence of the USA
The US Senate rejected to join the League and
supported the policy of isolationism. It did not
want the USA to become involved in world affairs
that might require its young men to fight another
war.
2. Some countries are not allowed to join
Germany, Austria and Hungary were not allowed
to join the League.
3. Countries could join and leave
It was also possible for countries to leave the
League quite easily. Nations left because they felt
the League was not helping them. They also left if
the League objected to their actions. For example
Japan left in 1931 when the League refused to
recognise Manchukuo which Japan claimed to
protect.
Failure to make During the League’s 1932 Disarmament Conference,
countries disarm Germany wanted other countries to disarm to
Germany’s level, but they, especially France, refused.
Hitler pulled out of the conference and quickly increased
the size of its armed forces.
Failure to deal 1. Took a long time to decide on actions taken against
with aggressors aggressors due to their self-interests
When Italy invaded Abyssinia, the League’s members
had a long debate before deciding that they would stop
selling rubber and metal to Italy, and took a longer time
to decide if it should ban the export of oil to Italy.
1. No army of their own
The League could ask members to contribute troops to
an international fighting force to go to war to keep the
peace. However, they were very unwilling to do so.
Besides, other countries were not willing to contribute
troops to the League. It expected nations to accept the
League’s decisions in disputes but that was not the case.
Countries acted in When Italy invaded Abyssinia in 1935, Britain and
their own self- France bypassed the league and entered into secret
interest negotiations with Italy to resolve the conflict. The
League was also not able to impose meaningful
sanctions to stop Italy. Abyssinia was conquered as a
result of Britain and France not helping to enforce
collective security.
Chp 2 Stalin’s Soviet Union
Because the USA, was also the
strongest country at that time, did
not join, this caused the League to
not have a major powerful country
to support and back it up. Hence
other countries did not take the
League seriously and could openly
challenge its decisions. Thus the
League was seen as weak.
So it was never an organisation of
all nations. This made the league
weak as countries only saw it as an
organisation for the victors of
WW1.
So the League had very little
control of its member states. And
after invading other countries,
members could leave and the
League could not do anything to
resolve the conflict.
The other countries, worried from a
possible German invasion, also
increased their size of armies to catch
up, starting an arms race in Europe.
The aggressors became convinced that
the League would not be able to stop
them and they got bolder and invaded
more countries.
The weaker countries lost confidence
in the League as they knew the
League would not be able to protect
them.
Other countries also began
protecting their own interests first
instead of acting together.
5
Reasons for the rise of Stalin

Stalin’s Working for For a long time, Stalin worked for the leadership, not Therefore, Stalin was able to
strengths/ power than the revolution or the Party. While Trotsky did win the support of the Party
outwitted running the whatever Lenin told him to do for the good of the members to become the next
his rivals country well Communist Party, Stalin was more focused on leader.
consolidating his power than on running of the
Stalin country. He saw the advantage of staying in Moscow,
was not building up jobs and supporters in the Communist
an Party, sticking close to Lenin.
obvious
Pretended to As Lenin’s health worsened, Stalin made sure that he Hence, the Party members did
candidate be close to not know of Lenin’s warning
looked after Lenin and this gave him the opportunity
for Lenin and and chose Stalin as the next
to take messages to the Politburo from Lenin. When
leadershi prevented leader.
Lenin realised that Stalin wanted too much power
p but, Lenin’s letters
from reaching and tried to write a letter to the Politburo to ask them
although
the Politburo to stop him, Stalin suppressed the letter.
he was
not a Outwitted his Stalin tricked his biggest rival, Trostsky into missing Many Party members were
great rivals Lenin’s funeral by giving him the wrong date. angry with Trotsky for
speaker disrespecting Lenin. They did
and was not support Trotsky to be the
not next leader and chose Stalin
instead.
famous
Pretended to When Lenin died, Stalin organized the funeral to The Party members thus were
like have been make it seem as if he had always been close to Lenin. convinced that Stalin was the
Trotsky, close to Lenin He gave himself the role of chief mourner at the natural successor and therefore
he was funeral. He also published photos showing that he supported Stalin to be the next
cunning was close to Lenin when Lenin was alive. leader.
and made Prevented the In his will, Lenin claimed that Trotsky was the most If the will was read, Party
the most reading of able man and argued that Stalin was unsuitable to be members might support
Lenin’s will Secretary-General because he might not always use Trotsky, Lenin’s preferred
of his
the power he had with caution and should be choice, instead of Stalin.
chances. replaced. However, Lenin’s will also
criticised other leaders, so
Stalin was able to get their
support to not read Lenin’s
will.
Made Stalin also formed alliances with other members to With the removal of Stalin’s
Alliances get rid of his opponents. For instance, Stalin formed rivals, the Party members had
an alliance with Kamenev and Zinoviev because he no one else to support but
knew that they wanted his support in their struggle Stalin to be the next leader.
against Trotsky for the leadership of the Communist
Party. However, once Kamenev and Zinoviev had
served their purpose by helping Stalin to eliminate
Trotsky as a rival candidate, Stalin found new allies
to remove them as well.

Used his As Secretary-General, Stalin appointed his supporters Stalin was able to pack a 1925
position as to important posts. Thus, many key Party officials Party meeting with his
Secretary- remained loyal to him as they owed their position to supporters, who voted to
General him. Besides controlling the central Party machine, remove Trotsky from his
Stalin also controlled the local Party committees, posts.
spreading his influence even more broadly among the
rank and file members.
6
 Trotsky’s weakness Trotsky drew support from only a narrow base – the Thus, many Party members
youths, students and the Red Army. As Trotsky did not support Trotsky to be
believed he would succeed Lenin, he was complacent the next leader.
about building support within the ranks of the Party.
Hence, most Party members considered him arrogant.

Party members prefer Stalin’s idea of ‘Socialism in Since Trotsky did not change
one country’ as it was more practical and rejected his idea, many of the Party
Trotsky’s idea of ‘Permanent Revolution’. Stalin’s members decided to support
idea was more attractive as it meant that the Stalin instead of Trotsky,
Communist Party would focus on strengthening which enabled Stalin thus to
communism in Russia first before finally spreading it rise to power.
to other places in the world. This made the Party
members favour Stalin’s idea. Trotsky’s idea
however, was to continually spread Communism
throughout the world and then continue fighting
against the anti-Communist forces, until the whole
world had become Communist. The Party members
remembered how hard they had fought to establish
communism in Russia and were hence weary of
having more fighting. They thus did not support
Trotsky’s idea.

Zinoviev’s and Kaminev’s Zinoviev and Kaminev, also made the mistake of Stalin made use of them to
folly joining up with Stalin to go against Trotsky. By the remove Trotsky before
time they realised their folly and became anti-Stalin removing them as threats to
in 1926, it was too late. the coveted position.

Establishment of a Stalin He banned other political parties from the Soviet Therefore, no one dare to
dictatorship Union. Any person who opposed him was beaten, challenge him and oppose his
jailed or even killed. rule.

Stalin used propaganda to persuade people to accept

and obey him as the rightful leader of the country.
For example, he exaggerated his achievements and
made writers and journalists write about him as a
hero of the people.

Stalin also exercised control through the education

system. The education system was centralized and
brought under government control. Schools had to
teach Marxist and Leninist ideas and instil complete
loyalty to the state among the students.

Effects of Stalin’s rule

7
First Five-Year Very few workers in the Soviet Union had the skills that were required for factory work.
Plan They were trained on the job by workers who were often slightly more skilled. Added to the
he emphasis on rapid production, the goods produced were often of poor quality. Many
(Industrialisation could not read or write. Machines were often damaged because of the workers’ ignorance or
/ lack of training. When their equipment broke down, the workers did not know how to repair
Not beneficial) it and it would lie unused on the factory floor.

People were crowded into the new industrial towns to live and work in appalling conditions.
Living conditions, especially at first, were cramped, often with no running water or
sanitation. People were uprooted from their homes and sent to work wherever workers were
needed. As many of the new industrial workers were farmers who had lived in the
countryside, they were not used to life in the cities and often found it hard to adjust to their
new living environment. Thus, they were not motivated. Added to the problem of the
workers who were unable to use the machinery, they were inefficient and their
industrial output was unable to meet the targets of the first Five-Year Plan.

Initially, due to the emphasis on heavy industries, industries that produced basic goods were
neglected. The Russians suffered in the bitterly cold winters because they could not buy
suitable clothing and their houses were poorly heated. Basic goods, including food, clothes
and shoes, were in short supply. These items had to be rationed, which meant that each
family could only buy a fixed amount of the items. The shortages also led to high prices.
Between 1928 and 1933, the actual value of the workers’ salaries fell by 50%, as they could
only buy less with the same amount of money. Hence, the standard of living of the
Soviets declined.

There were unrealistic production targets and workers suffered from poor working
conditions. For example, all factory workers had to work seven days a week. By 1929, there
was labour unrest, as workers protested against their conditions.

The government took strict disciplinary action against workers who were underperforming
or who engaged in sabotage. They also imposed more restrictions on the workers. Workers
were not allowed to move around the factories during working hours, would be sent to
prison if they broke any rules in the factories and could be dismissed if they missed a single
day or work. All this meant that working conditions in the factories were poor, causing
the Russian workers to suffer as a result.

Collectivisation However, with the government running the farms, the kulaks would lose their farms and
(not beneficial) become paid labourers on the state-owned farm. The state fixed their hours and wages. Low
production or absence from work resulted in punishment. They also had to sell a percentage
of their crops to the government at a very low price. Previous attempts at collectivization
during the Civil War years (1918 – 1920) led to food shortages. All these led to farmers
resisting collectivisation.

Stalin then forced farmers to hand over their crops and farms. The farmers reacted by
assassinating the Communist officials sent to take over their farms. Stalin then ordered the
secret police to help by shooting farmers who resisted or send them to labour camps.
Because Stalin had to force the Russian farmers into collectivizing their farms using very
repressive means, this proves that collectivisation was not popular with them and the
farmers, especially the kulaks suffered a declined in their standard of living or even lost
their lives.

8
 Stalin ordered 17 million horses used in farming to be killed so that farmers would be forced
to use tractors instead. However, there were not enough tractors to replace the horses that
had been killed. The tractors, built in the new factories by badly trained workers trying to
reach high production targets, often broke down. When this happened, many peasants
reverted to traditional, inefficient farming methods. The amount of crops harvested fell as a
result and a famine resulted, worsened by farmers burning their crops to resist
collectivisation, and natural disasters like droughts and floods. Thus, the Soviets had little
or no food and they suffered from starvation causing their lives to become worse.

Development of In 1936, the old Bolshevik leaders, such as Kamenev and Zinoviev, were put on show
a terror state (not trials. They confessed to all the charges against, crimes they had not committed, often after
beneficial) torture or threats to their families, much to the shock of the Russian public and were
executed.

During the period of the purges, people were encouraged to inform on their fellow workers,
their neighbours, friends and family members if they made any comments against Stalin or
the Soviet Union. The secret police had a huge network of informers, arresting, questioning
and even shooting people suspected of being anti-Stalin. People were arrested for even
trivial examples of opposition, like an anti-Stalin joke. There was much fear and
suspicion as a result. As no evidence was needed for an arrest, anyone who had a grudge
could get rid of another person by denouncing him to the Secret Police, who would often
take away people from their homes in the middle of the night or in the early hours of the
morning.

The purges resulted in Stalin being more secure in power as dictator of the Soviet Union
because nobody dared to challenge or disobey him. They lived in a climate of terror and
fear and many lost their lives. However, due to the large amount of people purged from
1934-1938, the Soviet Union suffered from a lack of capable politicians and officials to
run the country well. The purging of army officers resulted in a weakened Red Army
that was not able to defend Soviet Union.

Religious Under Stalin’s rule, Russians were not allowed to practice their religion. Young Communist
persecution Party members spread anti-religious propaganda by distributing pamphlets and journals or
(Lack of freedom organizing lectures that criticized religion for promoting ‘harmful superstitious.’ Churches,
and rights/ not mosques and synagogues were vandalized and Christian, Muslim and Jewish religious
beneficial) leaders were persecuted. Thus, the Soviets suffered from a lack of religious freedom and
the rights to practice their religion.

Control of Many teachers were purged if it was felt that they had taught the pupils to be anti-Stalin.
culture Writers, artists and musicians had to made art praising Stalin and his programmes. Those
who depicted him and his programmes in the negative light were arrested and sent to labour
(Lack of freedom camps. Stalin had his pictures and statues placed almost everywhere. All offices, classrooms
and rights/ not and factory floors had pictures of Stalin and the successes of the country were attributed to
beneficial) him.

The control of education and the arts, and propaganda allowed Stalin to indoctrinate the
people and make them even more submissive to his rule and worship him as the leader. He
portrayed himself as a fatherly, cheerful and popular man. These helped to strengthen his
dictatorship as there were lesser chances for people to express their discontent. However, as
a result of these restrictions, there was a lack of variety in the arts in Communist Russia.
Russians were not free to express their ideas in the arts and lost their rights to know
the truth and learnt about different perspectives through education.

9
First Five Year- The first Five-Year Plan, from 1928 to 1932, focused on heavy industries. The target,
Plan doubled in output of iron, steel, electricity, chemicals and engineering, was ordered to be
(Industrialisation completed in four years instead of five because of early successes. The increase in
/ production of oil and coal generated more electricity for the industries and the needs of
beneficial) the people. More than 1500 factories and more than 100 new cities were built.
Magnitogorsk, largest industrial city in Soviet Union, was completed within 3 years and
steel from its new factories was used for building industrial products such as tractors and
railways, which improved farming output and allowed agricultural and industrial
output to be transported to other parts of Soviet Union who needed them, or for export
to earn profits.

Foreign experts, who were sympathetic to the Communist cause, were hired to teach the
Russians, especially in technical areas, resulting in more educated Soviet workers.

As there were many opportunities for work, more women were employed and farmers were
encouraged to move to the cities to work in the industries. Employment increased and
there is an increase in the standard of living for the Soviets.

Many Russians, especially young, idealistic Party members supported Stalin’s first Five-
Year Plan and formed ‘Shock Brigades’ or groups of highly-motivated workers, which
increased output.

Second Five The second Five-Year Plan from 1933 to 1937 gave more attention to industries that
Year-Plan produced consumer goods such as clothing. Rationing ended in 1936 and more goods
(Industrialisation became available. Thus Soviets’ standard of living increased. Transport and
/ communication networks were also improved greatly, which facilitated the transportation
beneficial) of agricultural and industrial output to the other parts of Soviet Union who needed
them, or for export to earn profits.

Working To ensure that their targets were met, the Communist government decided to offer salaries
conditions based on how much a worker produced. The workers were allocated housing. Hard work
(Industrialisation was rewarded with medals and the opportunity to go on a holiday at a discount, thus
/ beneficial) increasing output. Many Russians were also able to earn a higher salary, which improved
their standard of living. Workers received cheap meals and free uniforms, thus they were
able to save money for other uses.

As the labour force was uneducated, the government started a big campaign to teach the
Russian workers new skills. New colleges, schools and universities were built. Primary
education was made compulsory. Education was free. Thousands of teachers, scientists and
10
 engineers were trained. By the 1930s, Russian workers were educated and able to obtain
well-paid, high-skilled jobs and improved their standard of living.

Improved There were subsidized health care and the provision of extensive leisure facilities, such as
standard of cinemas, public parks, sports fields and gymnasiums, considerably improved the lives of
living the Russians.
(Industrialisation
/
beneficial)
Collectivisation Most of the farms were small strips of land owned by individual farmers. They used ploughs
(beneficial) to work in the fields and harvest the crops. Farms in the Soviet Union would be more
productive if they had bigger plots of land and used modern farming machinery such as
tractors and harvesters, loaned to the farms by government, which reduced costs. The state
provided homes, food, fuel and clothing for the workers on the state-run farms. It also
provided healthcare and education. Hence, the Soviets’ s standard of living improved.
Government officials managed the farms, which would be more efficiently run. The farms
had to sell a percentage of their output to the government, which made it easier to get
cheap and regular food supplies to the cities. With more crops grown, the Soviet Union
would be able to sell the surplus to other countries and used the profits earned to build
new factories. Fewer people would also be needed to work the land. So, some of the people
in the countryside would be able to move to the cities to work in the new factories, so
industrialisation would become more successful.

Balanced conclusion for Stalin’s rule

Before Stalin’s policies, the Soviet Union was a backward country. Agriculture was backward and there was very
little social welfare. He also knew that the Western powers hated Communism and that they would attack the
Soviet Union if they got a chance. And so even though the Five Year Plans and collectivisation resulted in
hardship for the Russians at first, in the long run, the successes of these plans and policies provided a lot more
benefits for them, such as a stronger economy, the availability of consumer items, improved standard of living
and a stronger military. This led the Russians to believe that Stalin’s rule was creating a new and better society for
all of them. Soviet Union’s ability to sustain development and more importantly, build military equipment
enabled it to become a modern superpower and enabled it to defend itself against Germany’s attack in June 1941.

However, the truth is that Stalin’s dictatorship was a disaster for some Soviet people, but not for others.

For people in the cities, Stalin’s dictatorship was not a disaster. But it was at an enormous cost. The
collectivisation policy was a real human disaster from which Soviet agriculture never fully recovered. The
peasants also paid a terrible price for resisting Stalin’s plans to control them. Millions died of starvation and all
citizens lost their individual freedom and rights, living in terror and fear, in making sure that the state came first.
He was successful but at a price.

The main victims of the terror and the purges were the better-off, middle classes, like managers and officers in the
armed forces. So, if you were a wealthy peasant or an intellectual, then life didn’t get better because you were one
of Stalin’s targets. But if you were a hard-working peasant or labourer, who didn’t care much about political
rights and just kept your head down, then there were benefits. Therefore, the ordinary working people were less
affected. So, whether or not Stalin’s dictatorship was a disaster depended a lot on who you were and what work
you did.

11
Chp 3 Nazi Germany

Reasons for the rise of Hitler

Weakness of the Weimar Government

Weakness of Under the Weimar system, the President had the power to rule by decree by suspending the
the Constitution under Article 48. Article 48 allowed the President to also retain the Chancellor or
constitutional appoint another one even if the latter did not have the support of the Reichstag. Thus even
system and of when Hitler did not have the support of the Reichstag, he was nonetheless appointed as
proportional Chancellor and that helped him rise to power.
representation
The system of proportional representation allowed many parties to gain seats and no single
party could gain dominance in the Reichstag. Under this system, governments did not last
long. For example, from 1919 to 1933, there were 16 Chancellors and the longest government
only lasted 2 years and 2 months. Having governments with very short life-spans was very
disruptive to the day to day running of Germany.

Because of proportional representation in the constitutional system, governments that emerged

were always coalition governments which were weak and disunited. This gave Germans the
impression that the democratic system was useless since the politicians were more interested
in forming coalitions and squabbling among themselves than governing the country.

Because the Nazi Party under Hitler was the exact opposite of the Weimar government
since it appeared more united, disciplined and interested in helping Germany, the people
were more inclined to support them instead, thus helping Hitler rise to power.

Opposed by The Right consisted of people who were primarily Nationalists and the Armed Forces.
the Right
When the Weimar government was forced by the Allies and by circumstances in the war to
sign the Treaty of Versailles, many Germans and armed forces personnel felt intensely
betrayed because they did not believe that Germany had lost. Rather they believed that the
German Army could continue fighting but were betrayed by the Weimar politicians who
‘stabbed them in the back’ when the decision was made to sign the Treaty.

Hence top military leaders and even the Kaiser’s former advisors were determined to
undermine the Weimar government from the start. With such weak support from the
12
 beginning, the Weimar government was doomed to fail, which naturally made it easier
for Hitler to rise to power.

Opposed by The Communists in Germany were against the Weimar government and wanted to set up a
the Left Communist government instead. They took part in several revolutions in cities such as Berlin
and Munich. They set up soviets (workers’ councils) like those in the USSR, in the cities to try
and establish a Communist state.

This made the Weimar government look weak to the Germans and so when Hitler
appeared with strong anti-Communist messages, the people who opposed Communism
would support him instead. This helped to account for his support and subsequent rise to
power.

Unable to keep The Weimar government was unable most of the time to put down rebellions by the
order in the Communists and had to constantly rely on the Freikorps (Free Corps – anti-Communist ex-
country servicemen) to do so. This made them appear weak to the people. When the Freikorps in turn
rebelled with the Kapp putsch, the Weimar government could not stop it and was only saved
by a general strike in Berlin because it denied the rebels vital supplies to carry on their
rebellion.

All these helped to discredit the Weimar government immensely. Therefore people lost
faith in Weimar and would be more inclined to support extremists like Hitler instead
especially when he appeared in force with the SA, which helped him rise to power.

Lost the The Weimar government lost the support of the middle class by allowing inflation and then
support of the hyperinflation to occur in 1923 due to the reparations repayment. This resulted in many
middle class Germans having to suffer economic hardship such as seeing their life savings being wiped out
overnight. When this happened, they blamed the Weimar government and decided not to
support it in future even when the economy recovered in 1924. This thus gave a chance for
Hitler to rise already.

Hitler was further given more chances when economic ruin happened to Germany again in
1929. Having been let down economically twice in the same decade, the middle class
Germans would therefore not want to support Weimar but flock to Hitler instead
especially since he promised autarky for Germany. This allowed for his rise to power.

Loss of Stresemann had been responsible for Germany’s success after WW1 because he had managed
capable to negotiate the Dawes and Young Plan, and for more time to pay the reparations. This helped
leaders in the to ensure Germany’s economic progress as he was able to secure short term loans from the US
Weimar to aid Germany’s economy. Stresemann had also helped to end the Ruhr occupation by the
government French and the Belgians, as well as getting the French and British to respect Germany’s
Western borders through the Locarno Pact in 1925. Finally, Stresemann had helped to improve
Germany’s relations with her former enemies, which resulted in Germany being able to
become a member of the League of Nations. All these positive developments from 1924-1929
led some people to describe this period as a golden age for Germany.

However, when Stresemann died there was no one left who could continue to ensure
Germany’s economic stability and prosperity. Therefore Hitler’s extremist ideas had the
chance to become popular in Germany as the Weimar government started to decline,
making certain that he could rise to power.

Hitler’s Abilities

Excellent Hitler had the ability to command people’s attention and influence them to believe him whenever he
speaker and spoke. His fiery speeches and use of rhetoric enabled Germans to listen to him for hours as he
13
charismatic seemed to be able to understand their problems. He knew how to exploit the difficulties that the
leader Weimar Republic was having with a simple message that the Nazis would put things right and gave
them jobs and food. He also portrayed his party as the saviour of Germany which would prevent
‘evil’ communism from taking over. Because Hitler often told the Germans what they wanted to
hear and would promise to bring order to Germany and make it great again, the people
believed in him and gave him their support. Therefore that led to his rise to power.

Hitler’s appeal could also be felt in his book Mein Kampf which he wrote while he was
imprisoned.* The book contained all his ideals, thoughts and plans for Germany, which Hitler
published upon his release from prison. He did this so that these ideas could be spread to the
Germans so as to help win more support for him. One example of his ideas that appealed to
*charisma can Germans would be to demand for the union of all Germans to form a Greater Germany, which could
also be felt in be found in the Twenty-Five Points of the first NSDAP programme. Because his book was
the written popular amongst the Germans, it facilitated his rise as people were convinced by his ideals for
word apart Germany.
from the
spoken word
Reorganizatio As a result of his jail sentence, Hitler realized that he could not use force to gain power. Rather he
n of the Nazi had to use legal means. Therefore Hitler reorganized the Nazi Party into a political party that could
party win power through elections.
(NSDAP)
Next, Hitler reorganized the Nazi party by setting up branches in different parts of Germany to gain
support from more Germans in the country. Each branch would organise large public meetings
that were often held to attract more new members. Because the Nazi party now had more
structure and organization, Hitler was able to gain more support from the Germans and therefore
rise to power.

Hitler had created a youth wing of the Nazi party (Hitler Youth) to garner the support of the
younger generation so that he could rely on them to gain power even if the older generation
would not readily support him.

Exploited fear During the years of the Great Depression, economic hardships made the Germans more willing to
of support extremist politicians. Apart from the Nazis, the Communists were the other group of
Communism extremist politicians who were also trying to take over control of Germany from the Weimar
to win support government. The Communists were genuinely popular with the Germans but Hitler would spread
fear about them so that people would support the Nazis instead.

By creating propaganda that displayed the message of the Communists being only interested in
creating disorder and spreading revolution in Germany, and of them wanting to take the property of
leading landowners and industrialists away to redistribute to the workers, Hitler managed to make
the Germans fearful of the Communists and supportive of the Nazis instead. This allowed Hitler to
gain support from the Germans and do away with his political enemies at the same time. Because
Hitler further promised that the Nazis were the only ones who could provide order and
prevent the Communists from forming the government and taking away the properties of the
rich landowners and industrialists, these people supported Hitler and this helped him rise to
power.
Many rich Germans had given Hitler and the Nazis financial support because they believed that the
Nazis could install an anti-Communist government which they had wanted. With these funds,
Hitler could build up a large private army, the SA (Stormtroopers) which would protect him
and help destroy the Communists, thereby ensuring Hitler’s rise to power.

Skillful at Since the Nazis became the largest single party in the Reichstag after the July 1932 elections with
manipulating 37.3% of the votes, this put the Nazis in a powerful position as no one could form any government
politicians without them. Hitler recognized that and therefore refused to join any coalition unless he was given
the position of Chancellor. He was refused by President Hindenburg but was later accepted because
14
 he was anti-Communist and furthermore agreed to work with Franz von Papen and the
conservatives in the government. Because he convinced them that he was not a threat, Hitler
was able to gain the support of the other politicians in the government and used his office of
Chancellorship to gain more power for himself and thus rise to power.

Use of The Nazis kept things simple, repeating slogans such as ‘Work and Bread’ over and over. As soon
propaganda as they came to power, the Nazis set up a Ministry of Enlightenment and Propaganda, run by Joseph
Goebbels.

The Nazis spread propaganda through a few methods. They did it at mass rallies, on posters, in
newspapers, in schools and in the workplace, through Nazi organizations for children and adults and
also by censoring books, plays and all other media. The Nazis also spread propaganda on the radio.
The Ministry had total control over what was broadcasted.

The Nazis also controlled the cinemas, where only movies that were approved by the Nazis could be
shown. The German movies in the 1930s usually praised the Nazis or showed the Jews as enemies
of the Germans. Short films which highlighted the achievements of the Nazis and which contained
Nazi beliefs had to be screened before the start of all movies. As a result of Nazi propaganda,
most of the Germans believed Hitler and supported him therefore allowing Hitler to rise to
power.

Other Factors

Global events The Weimar government could stay in power as long as the economy remained sound, its
(Great economic growth relied on US aid. However, Great Depression in US meant that it could no
Depression) that longer provide loans and even asked loans to be repaid. The weak post WW1 German economy
had an effect on went into a spiral, bringing about hyperinflation and massive unemployment. The Weimar
Germany government’s image of being able to economically secure Germany had collapsed, paving the
way for Hitler and the Nazis to take over as more and more people started to support them
instead, which helped them to rise to power.

Presence of Hitler was lucky to have competent ministers, in particularly Joseph Goebbels. Goebbels was
capable leaders in originally opposed to Hitler. But because Goebbels was convinced by Hitler’s ideals in the
the Nazi Party Bamberg Conference in 1926, he joined the Nazis and helped to increase the power of their
propaganda. Because Goebbels came to head the Ministry of Public Enlightenment and
Propaganda, he was responsible for generating the material that would help the Hitler and
the Nazis become more popular with the Germans, facilitating Hitler’s rise to power in the
process.

15
Effects of Hitler’s rule

Positive

Political Hitler’s private army, the SA, helped to get rid of the communists who were causing trouble in
Impact/ Germany. Later, Hitler’s elite bodyguard unit, the SS and Gestapo, the secret police, carried on
Law and order arresting and getting rid of dissenters, Communists and other people who would disrupt German
established in society. Hence, there was not much trouble from Communists or other people who were
Germany disgruntled with the Nazis, and law and order was maintained.

Social Impact/ The Nazis continued to use spectacular parade and rallies, the biggest being the annual Nazi
Parades and Party rally in Nuremburg, to impress Germans with the Nazi uniforms, colourful flags,
Rallies searchlights and torchlight processions, which Germans found appealing as it gave an
impression of power and unity and felt a sense of pride in Germany.

Economic In place of the trade unions, Hitler formed the German Labour Front (DAF), which allowed
Impact/ Hitler to keep the support of the workers as they would still have an organisation to represent
Working them and protect the rights of workers. The DAF tried to improve lives of the workers through
conditions its ‘Strength through Joy’ programmes, which included cheap holidays, cruises and sporting
improved activities, providing leisure and rewards for those who worked hard. Hitler also set up Beauty of
Labour to improve working conditions – making factories cleaner and safer and providing hot
meals.

In addition, the DAF had a programme that enabled all workers to have their own cars. The
workers had to pay instalments of 5 marks per week and when they had paid 750 marks, they
would be given their own People’s Car (Volkswagon).

Economic Hitler introduced the National Labour Service that employed jobless people to build schools,
Impact/ New hospitals and highways. The civil service was expanded to provide thousands of administrative
jobs were jobs.
created
Hitler also recruited more soldiers, increasing the size of the Army to 1.4 million men. More
weapons were thus needed. Thus, more jobs were created in the factories to build the guns,
tanks and battleships for the German armed forces.

16
 Unemployment fell from 6 million before Hitler came to power to below 1 million in 1939.
With jobs, Germans had money for food and basic necessities. Their lives and standard of
living improved.

Economic German rearmament proved very profitable for big businesses. Apart from the weapons
Impact/ Big manufacturers, the coal, steel, chemical and transport sectors won large contracts to provide
businesses military and military-related supplies to the army, enabling them to gain high profits.
benefited
The big businesses also had the support of the Nazis. The Nazis abolished the trade unions and
workers were not allowed to strike or bargain for better working conditions. With these
restrictions in place, prices were stabilized as the big businesses were able to function more
effectively. This lead to the German economy improving eventually and thus Germans as a
whole benefitted.

Negative

Political 1933 Reichstag fire The Germans now had

Impact / When the Reichstag building caught fire, the Nazis blamed the Communists for no more political
Democracy the fire and accused them of wanting to overthrow the government. Hitler freedom to choose who
destroyed in claimed that the country was in grave danger and convinced the President to would govern them,
Germany give him emergency powers to deal with the Communist threat. Hitler arrested ensuring that their lives
the Communists and other opponents of the Nazis. All civil and political rights, would be miserable
Hitler used his such as the right to hold meetings were suspended. since it would become
position as 1933 Enabling Act subjected to Hitler’s
Chancellor to To get the two-thirds majority of the Reichstag needed to pass the Enabling will entirely. Therefore
wipe out Act, which would give him dictatorial powers for 4 years and allow him to Hitler’s rule was not
democracy in ignore the constitution, the Reichstag and the President, he outlawed the beneficial for them.
Germany Communist Party and arrested most of his opponents to prevent them from
voting against him. Since all civil and
political rights became
To strengthen his control, he replaced all members of other political parties suspended, the
from all government departments with Nazi officials. He also banned all trade Germans had even
unions and reorganised them into a Nazi-controlled organisation, the German lesser political freedom.
Labour Front (DAF). In July 1933, he banned all other political parties. Thus Hitler’s rule was
Threats to Hitler from the Nazi Party were removed not beneficial.
Hitler distrusted the influence of his 4million strong army, the SA. Its leader,
Ernst Rohm, had called the SA to be made into a second Germany Army and With the Enabling Act
for large firms to be nationalized, which might cause the Army and the in place, there was
industrialists to oppose Hitler. Hitler had Rohm and many other SA leaders virtually no more
arrested and executed. He also made use of the opportunity to eliminate other freedom for the
political leaders who opposed him by imprisoning or executing them. Germans. Germany had
effectively become a
Hitler became Fuhrer
dictatorship. Without
When President von Hindenburg died, he took over the role of the President, in
political freedom, there
addition to being Chancellor of German, instead of calling for new elections for
was no benefit in
a new President. Hitler had become the Fuhrer (supreme leader) of Germany,
Hitler’s rule.
and now had unlimited powers and there was no one powerful enough to stop
him.

17
Social Impact/ Under the 1933 Enabling Act, the Nazi government suspended political and civil rights, and The
Emergency had the power to arrest anyone suspected of being anti-government, normally political people
laws opponents, church leaders, trade unionists and academics. The suspects could be imprisoned thus did
(Loss of for an indefinite period of time, without being brought to a court of law. The courts were also not had
rights/Terror under the total control of the Nazis. Only Nazis or Nazi supporters could become judges and a just
and Fear) hence it became impossible to get a fair trial. legal
Social Impact/ The SS (Hitler’s personal elite bodyguard unit) and Gestapo (secret police) arrested and often system
The SS and the killed all those who opposed Hitler and the Nazi Party, and they were both not accountable to and they
Gestapo the courts or to any law. Nazi Germany became a police state, because of the virtually lived in
(Terror and unlimited power of its police force. They arrested who they chose or told to, and used torture fear and
fear) as a means to extract confessions, even though they might be innocent. terror of
Social Impact/ Under Nazi rule, people were encouraged to report on their families and neighbors who did not the
Presence of show total support for Hitler and the Nazi Party. People often lived in fear of each other as a Nazis.
Nazi informers result of such measures, because they could be arrested or even killed.
(Terror and
fear)
Social Impact/ Between 1933 and 1939, more than 200 000 anti-government Germans were arrested and sent
Concentration to concentration camps where they were forced to work very hard with minimal food, clothing
camps and housing. They had no date of release. There were many deaths in the concentration camps
(Terror and and the relatives of those who died in the concentration camps had to pay the Nazis to take
fear) away the bodies of their loved ones for burial. Anybody, including Germans, could be sent to
these concentration camps even without evidence to prove that they were anti-government.
Social Impact/ Under Nazi rule, all cultural activities, such as musical performances, films and art exhibitions, were
Only pro-Nazi aimed at shaping the minds of the Germans to think like Nazis (Nazification). The Nazis organized a lot of
cultural cultural activities to encourage the Germans to support Hitler. The development of other forms of culture
activities was not permitted. There was a lack of variety in the arts and culture in Nazi Germany. German lost the
allowed freedom to express their ideas in the arts.
(Lack of
freedom and
rights)
Social Impact/ Under Joseph Goebbels who was an expert in using propaganda, the Nazis were able to gain the people’s
Use of support for the Fuhrer and the Fatherland. Goebbels often used the tactic of repeating simple messages
Propaganda many times to get the people to believe whatever the Nazis told them.
(Lack of
freedom and The Nazis also brought all radio stations under their total control. All Germans were encouraged to buy
rights) radios which were sold very cheaply in Germany. Radio loudspeakers were also installed in all public
areas and work areas, such as factories. Whenever Hitler gave speeches, orders would be given for
everyone to switch on their radios and listen to the Fuhrer’s speech.

The Nazis also controlled the cinemas, where only movies that were approved by the Nazis could be
shown. The German movies in the 1930s usually praised the Nazis or showed the Jews as enemies of the
Germans. Short films which highlighted the achievements of the Nazis and which contained Nazi beliefs
had to be screened before the start of all movies. The Germans thus suffered from a lower standard of
living as their entertainment and relaxation activities were controlled.
Social Impact/ The Nazis controlled all forms of media and there was very strict censorship. Publications, including
Censorship newspapers, could publish only what was approved by the Ministry of Public Enlightenment and
(Lack of Propaganda. Any publications that did not follow this was closed down and the people responsible
freedom and arrested and thrown in the concentration camps. Books written by Jews and other ‘undesirable’ people
rights) were removed from libraries and shops and burnt in public. The German lost the freedom and right to
express their views in the media and to read and learn about different perspectives.
Social Impact/ To get all young people to become Nazis, special Nazi youth organizations were set up. After Hitler came
Youths were to power, all other youth organizations were closed or merged with the Nazi youth organizations. The
brainwashed main role of the Nazi youth organizations was to teach the German youths that they should believe only
by the Nazis Nazi ideas. Boys went through programmes of military athletes that emphasised physical and military
(Lack of training while girls learn how to be physically fit and how to take care of babies. All of these groups had
freedom and evening and weekend activities and took children away to camps for more group activities and training.
rights) Youths who were not members of these youth organizations found it difficult to enter universities or
obtain jobs. Additionally, they were also discriminated against by other youths.

18
Social Impact/ Hitler made sure that schools encouraged loyalty and obedience to Nazi beliefs. The Nazis had total
Education control over the subjects and textbooks. The main objective of education was to teach Nazi ideas and to
controlled by instil a sense of loyalty to Nazism in all young Germans.
Nazis
(Lack of Any 2 – 3 examples will do:
freedom and i. The Nazis emphasised Physical Education and all children had to exercise daily to ensure that all
rights) children were healthy.
ii. The Nazis believed History should be taught from the Nazi point of view. Pupils learnt about how
unfair the Treaty of Versailles was and the rise of the Nazis to power.
iii. They were taught to believe that Jews and Communists were bad. History lessons focused on the
glory and heroism of the German people.
iv. They learnt about the superiority of the Aryans in Race Studies.

iv. In Biology, German pupils leant about the division of human beings into two groups, namely
superior and inferior human beings. Girls also learnt about basic health care in Biology
v. In Geography, the pupils learnt about the lands that were formerly part of Germany and why they
should be retaken.
vi. All teachers had to attend special training camps to help them teach Nazi beliefs more effectively
in the classroom. Teachers who refused to attend such training sessions lost their jobs.
vii. Gifted boys were identified and selected to attend the Adolf Hitler Schools, where they were
trained to be the future leaders of Nazi Germany.

Germans lost their rights to know the truth and learnt about different perspectives through
education.

Social Impact/ The Nazis believed that women should only be concerned about ‘children, church, kitchen’. Hitler thought
Women given that the role of German women was to produce racially pure and healthy German babies and to look after
limited their families. Many professional women were forced to give up their jobs and stay at home. Women who
responsibilities bore many children received special awards and cash to encourage them to have more children. Abortion
(Lack of and divorce were discouraged in Nazi Germany. German women thus lost their rights to work, in
freedom and marriages and childbirth.
rights)
Social Impact/ Hitler had made it clear from the time he entered politics that he hated the Jews and that they should not
Jews were be allowed to take part in German life. Hitler was strongly opposed to marriages between German and
treated cruelly Jews for he felt that this weakened the German race. He wanted the Germans to remain racially pure.
(Lack of Although the Jews were only about one per cent of the German population, Hitler convinced many
freedom and Germans that the Jews were responsible for all the bad things that were happening in Germany.
rights)
When he came into power, he immediately took measures against them. Jews could not trade or own
shops or businesses. They were stripped of their German citizenship and banned from marrying Germans.
The Nazis then attempted to exterminate all the Jews in Germany and in the lands that they had
conquered. More than 6 million Jews in Europe were killed. This meant that Hitler’s rule was
discriminatory and had negatively impacted the Jews.

Social Impact/ Hitler established the Reich Church, which preached Nazi values, and placed all Protestants churches
Christian under it. In 1933, Hitler signed an agreement with Catholic church leaders not to interfere with their
churches churches. However, Hitler did not observe his promise and encouraged Nazi Catholic groups to spread
controlled by Nazi values. Members of the Catholic church who opposed the Nazis were arrested and sent to the
the Nazis concentration camps. The Nazis were able to significantly reduce the influence the church had over the
(Lack of people. This was achieved through closing all church schools and church youth groups. Thus, the
freedom and Germans suffered from a lack of religious freedom and the rights to practice their religion.
rights)
Economic All trade unions were banned and strikes declared illegal in 1933. Trade union leaders were arrested and
Impact/ Poor placed in the concentration camps. With the banning of the trade unions, the German worker lost his right
working to negotiate for better wages and working conditions. Also, wages were not increased even though
conditions workers had to work longer hours.

19
 The unemployed men had little choice about the work provided. Because factories were now state-run,
they produced what they were told to produce. People who complained about any of this were arrested and
sent to labour camps. Hence, the Germans had no choice in the work they did, making Hitler’s rule
negative for them.
Economic The number of unemployed did not drop significantly. The official figure showed a drop because women
Impact/ who had been forced to stop working and Jews who had been removed from their jobs were not included.
Unemploymen
t still existed
Economic Although thousands of workers paid their installments for their cars, in reality, none of them received their
Impact/ car as Germany stopped making cars once the war broke out in 1939.
Promised
increased When war broke out in 1939, the people of Germany suffered greatly as a result of shortages of food and
standard of daily necessities such as clothing. Therefore, the living standards of the Germans declined.
living not
realized
Economic The 1936 Four Year Economic Plan did not achieve autarky for Germany as intended. Germany
Impact/Aim failed to develop viable oil and rubber substitutes and was still importing more than one-third of its raw
not achieved materials in 1939.

Hitler’s economic plan could not last, as it depended on Germany having enough money to keep building
weapons for war. Germany was also spending more money to buy goods from abroad than it was earning
from sales of German goods abroad.
Economic Also small-businesses were not treated as favourably by the Nazis as the large companies.
Impact/Small
businesses
suffered

Balanced Conclusion

You could argue that he did govern well. When he came to power, there was great instability, the economy was in
ruins, there were 6 million people unemployed and there was a widespread fear of a communist revolution. In
1933, when Hitler came to power, he took away the threat of communism by introducing tough measures. His
policies of rearmament and self-sufficiency provided for the unemployed jobs in the factories producing
ammunition and restored people’s pride in themselves and in the German nation. He also brought down
unemployment by increasing the size of the army and introducing public works. The Four-Year Plans did help to
revive Germany’s economy.

However, from the moment he gained power, he became a dictator. Individual thinking was just not allowed.
Politically and socially, the Germans lost their rights and freedom of choice and lived in terror and fear of Hitler
and his Nazi party. The young people were subjected to constant brainwashing and made to believe in the
supremacy of the Nazis and the Aryans and to hate all minorities, especially Jews.

As is often the case, it depends on who you are. If you were unemployed in 1933 and starving, then gaining
employment, even at the cost of your civil liberties certainly improved your life. If you were Jewish, then once
the Nuremburg laws came into being, your life became almost intolerable. Some Germans, those supported Hitler
and his Nazi party, and the big businesses, benefited from his rule but the majority of the Germans, especially the
women, were marginalized and many of the Jews even lost their lives.
Although Hitler’s aim to restore Germany as the leading country of Europe again and ensure Germany would
become powerful was again, it came at the expense of the suffering of the Germans. And to achieve Hitler’s grand
aim of a German empire across Europe, the Germans got involved in another world war and suffered greatly
during World War II.

20
Chapter 4 Outbreak of WW2 in Europe
Reasons for outbreak of WW2 in Europe
Hitler’s To end the Treaty He wanted to put right the injustices of Treaty of Versailles and reverse the hated Treaty of
foreign of the Versailles Versailles by restoring to Germany the territories and the pride that it had before the Treaty
policy and make of Versailles. Hitler wanted to break the terms of the Treaty of Versailles and make
(expansi Germany strong Germany military strong again. He demanded equal rights for the German people in its
onist) again/take back dealings with other nations and the end of the Treaty of Versailles. By breaking the Treaty
the land that of Versailles, Hitler would become a threat to other countries. This would cause them
Germany had lost to take actions to stop him eventually by using force and thus this would lead to war.
To get Hitler had promised the Germans that he would obtain ‘living space’ for them. He also wanted more
more land so that all German-speaking people could live together in an area he called, ‘Greater Germany’.
land ‘Greater Germany’ would be made up of Germany, Austria and countries in Central and Eastern
(Lebensr Europe, such as Poland, Czechoslovakia and Russia. Hitler also felt that Germany’s growing
aum) for population needed more room to live and to grow food. He called this lebensraum (living space).
Germany However, the other countries would not want to be under German rule and so they increased
the size of their armies to catch up with Germany, so that they could stop him using force and
that would thus lead to war.
To fight Hitler wanted to conquer Communist Russia and get living space for the Germans. Russia had
communism plenty of land and it produced a lot of food. He believed that the Germans would be able to farm
the land better and put it to better use. He also wanted to destroy communism. He believed that if
he did not destroy communism first, it would destroy Germany. Hitler also knew that there were
many Jews in East Europe. By gaining control of East Europe, he will also be able to exterminate
the Jews living there. However, Russia would not want to be under German rule and so
Russia increased the size of its armies to catch up with Germany and defend itself against
Germany, thereby leading to war breaking out.
Hitler’s Rearmament In February 1932, a Disarmament Conference was held to strengthen the commitment made at
actions the Treaty of Versailles to limit weapons and ships. Germany announced that it would disarm
only if there was international disarmament because he wanted military equality. And so when
France refused to agree to any limitations, Hitler pulled Germany out of the Disarmament
Conference in October 1933 and the League as well. Hitler also announced that he was
increasing the size of the army, from 100000 to 300000, and finally to 550000 men in 1935. He
also reintroduced compulsory military service for all male citizens in 1935. They also made
more weapons and began to build up their armaments. Then they tested the strength of their

21
 forces in the Spanish Civil War. There was very mild reaction to the rearmament of Germany.
No one was prepared to enforce the terms in the Treaty of Versailles. Thus, Hitler was able to
keep his army. This made Hitler a threat and thus the other European countries increased
the size of their armies to defend themselves against possible German invasion. All this
would eventually lead to war when Germany needed to be stopped using force.
Re- In 1936, Hitler ordered troops into the Rhineland, retreating only if they were fired upon. But
militarisation that did not happen. France was horrified but was not willing to take any action without British
of the support. The British claimed that Germany was only ‘marching into its own backyard’. Hence,
Rhineland no action was taken against the German troops. However, Hitler became a threat to France,
and Britain and France increased the size of their armies to catch up with Germany. War
would eventually break out as Britain and France would need to stop Hitler using force.

Anschluss The Treaty of Versailles stated that there should be no political union (Anschluss) between
Germany and Austria. However, Hitler wanted to make Austria part of ‘Greater Germany’. In 1938
Hitler threatened to send his army into Austria if the Austrians did not agree to Anschluss. German
troops marched into Austria and 99.75% of Austrians voted for anschluss and Austria became a
province of Germany. By taking over Austria, Hitler’s ambition and threat became apparent
as Germany became more powerful after taking over Austria’s resources. Other countries in
Europe would therefore take measures to defend themselves against German expansion. War
would break out especially when Hitler needed to be stopped using force as he was expanding
and increasing Germany’s power too rapidly.
Weak- Italian In 1934, Mussolini made plans to invade Abyssinia. The Emperor of Abyssinia, Haile Selassie,
nesses of aggression in asked the League of Nations for help. The League decided to stop selling their goods, excluding
the Abyssinia – oil, to Italy, after a long debate. However this was not effective in stopping Italy and Abyssinia
League League of was conquered.
of Nations was
Nations too weak to Italy’s actions showed that the League was not strong enough to protect countries from
maintain attacks by its members. Its members did not use collective security. It also encouraged
peace in the other authoritarian regimes that were considering territorial aggression that the League
1930s would not be able to deal with them effectively. This thus would lead to the likelihood of
war breaking out as aggressor countries would eventually need to be stopped using force.

Anglo- Britain was not as concerned as France about German rearmament but signed the Anglo-German
German Naval Treaty with Germany because it wanted to control the size of the German navy. The treaty
Naval allowed Germany to increase the size of its navy up to 35% of the size of the British navy.
Treaty - The Germany could also have submarines. However, this violated the Treaty of Versailles, which did
members of not allow Germany to have submarines, nor to increase the size of its navy. Britain, the most
the League powerful member of the League of Nations had broken the Treaty of Versailles and put its own
of Nations interests first. Other members of the League followed Britain’s example. They began
put their protecting their own interests first instead of acting together. Thus the authoritarian
own regimes that were considering territorial aggression took advantage of this to further their
interests first own interests, posing a threat to the other countries. War would be likely to break out as
countries would need to stop aggressor nations eventually using force.

The In February 1932, a Disarmament Conference was held to strengthen the commitment made at the
League of Treaty of Versailles to limit weapons and ships. Germany announced that it would disarm only if
Nations there was international disarmament because he wanted military equality. And so when France
could not refused to agree to any limitations, Hitler pulled Germany out of the Disarmament Conference in
make October 1933 and the League as well. Hitler also announced that he was increasing the size of the
countries army, from 100000 to 300000, and finally to 550000 men in 1935. He also reintroduced
give up compulsory military service for all male citizens in 1935. No one was prepared to enforce the terms
their in the Treaty of Versailles. Thus, Hitler was able to keep his army. However, Hitler had become a
weapons/ threat to them and the other European countries increased the size of their armies to catch up
Failure to with Germany. This would ensure that war would break out when they eventually tried to
disarm stop Hitler using force.

22
 The The Munich Agreement was signed between Britain, France and Germany. In the Agreement, Britain and France
policy of would accede to Hitler’s request to take over the Sudetenland from Czechoslovakia and merge it with Germany.
appease This was done in exchange for Hitler’s promise not to demand for or invade any more lands in Europe.
ment Czechoslovakia was not consulted on this and became severely weakened from this agreement. Later Hitler broke
his promise and invade the whole of Czechoslovakia. The Munich Agreement and the policy of appeasement
convinced Hitler that Britain and France would never go to war over other countries and so he was encouraged to
take over the other countries in his plans. This emboldened Hitler and led him to demand for more, making
Germany a threat to the peace in Europe. Because Hitler would need to be stopped using force when the
policy of appeasement had failed, this would lead to an outbreak of war eventually.

‘The Policy of Appeasement was justified.’ Do you agree? Explain your answer.

Yes
In the 1930s, Britain and France adopted a policy of appeasement towards Germany, giving Germany what it wanted
to avoid war. Europeans cannot forget the sufferings and deaths they suffered in World War I. If they do not make
peace with Hitler, then there would be another war in Europe and millions of young men would die. Hence, the
Europeans were willing to give Hitler what he wanted as long as it prevented another war in Europe. Few British
actually thought that it was worth going to war over some ‘distant country’, countries they had never hear of –
especially as France seemed reluctant to take action, the League was a toothless tiger and Britain’s armed forces were
weak. As the British government had campaigned for re-election on the promise of not having another war, it had to
avert war by appeasing Germany then.
Germany had modernized its military and was ready to fight a war. Britain and France were not ready. Appeasement
would give them more time to modernize their armies.
The British economy was badly damaged by World War I and the Great Depression. The government needed time to
rebuild the economy. The economy would be destroyed totally by another war. Therefore, the British had to appease
Germany to avert war.
Britain and France cannot win a war against Germany without the support of USA. However, the USA was currently
following a policy of isolation and would not get involved in the affairs of other nations.
The biggest worry to many democratic European countries was not these authoritarian regimes, but the possible
spread of communism from the USSR. They felt that Communism was a far greater threat than Nazism. There was
real fear that the discontent among working people, created by the economic problems of the 1930s, would lead to
communist revolts in their country like the one in Russia in 1917. Authoritarian regimes were anti-communist.
Therefore, democratic countries were tolerant of these authoritarian regimes because they could direct their armies
against USSR and communism. A strong Germany would prevent Communism from spreading to Western Europe.
Then, the democracies would be safe. Authoritarian regimes were also organised which made them more effective in
dealing with the Communists.
They felt that Germany was entitled to join Austria if that was what the Austrian people wanted as it was in line with
self-determination. When the Saar voted to unite with Germany in January 1935, the European powers also allowed
it. And when German troops remilitarised the Rhineland in March 1936, the Europeans were alright with it as they
felt that Germany was only marching into its own backyard. In September 1938, Germany took Sudetenland, which
was part of Czechoslovakia with no protest because European powers felt that Germany had taken land it had a good
claim to. Besides, Hitler had promised to stop there.
23
 Many British believed that the Treaty of Versailles was unfair to Germany. Hitler was merely making this treaty less
unfair. Once these problems were solved, Germany would become a peaceful nation again.
No
Chamberlain was not right to try to appease Hitler. Hitler was continually pushing to see what he could get away
with. If Chamberlain had stood firm over re-armament then many of the other things would not have happened. In the
end, Chamberlain got Hitler to agree a deal over Czechoslovakia and returned to Britain as a hero. Six months later,
Hitler invaded Czechoslovakia and Chamberlain looked foolish. Chamberlain wanted to avoid war. The way to do
that was to stand up to Hitler. What was needed was for Chamberlain to work with France to threaten Hitler when he
re-militarised the Rhineland or joined with Austria. These went against what the Treaty of Versailles said, so Hitler
was breaking international agreements and should have been stopped. Hitler might not have carried out some of his
actions if Britain had stood up to him. But by appeasing Hitler, Hitler got bolder and invaded more countries.
The Munich Conference also convinced Hitler that Britain and France would never go to war over other countries
and so he could now safely plan to take over.
Britain and France have disappointed and let down Czechoslovakia. Czechoslovakia’s main defences in the
Sudetenland have been taken away and thus, it would become very easy for Germany to take over Czechoslovakia.

‘The immediate cause of the outbreak of World War II in Europe was …’ Do you agree? Explain your answer.

Policy of Hitler did not keep the promises he made at the Munich Conference in September 1938. He had said
appeasement that he only wanted to get back all the German territories that the Treaty of Versailles had taken
ended away or to get areas where the majority of people spoke German. However, in March 1939, he sent
his troops to Czechoslovakia, which never belonged to Germany. Its people were not German
speakers.

The German invasion of Czechoslovakia in March 1939 convinced Britain and France that Hitler
could no longer be trusted. It looked as if he wanted to take over the whole of Europe. Thus, Britain
and France ended their policy of appeasement. Britain and France warned Hitler against invading
Poland and began preparing for war. Because Britain and France ended appeasement, they went
to war with Germany when Germany invaded Poland and WWII started.

The Nazi- Stalin was very concerned about the rise of Hitler because Hitler had said that he wanted to destroy
Soviet Non- Communism. It also looked as if Hitler wanted to invade Russia. Stalin also believed that Britain
Aggression and France allowed German rearmament as they wanted the Germans to destroy Communist Russia.
Pact While Stalin was wondering what to do about the German threat, the Germany offered to sign a
non-aggression pact with Russia and share Poland, which Stalin agreed. Hitler wanted Poland but
was worried about having to fight a war on two fronts. He would have to fight Britain and France
on Germany’s Western border. At the same time, he would have to fight Communist Russia on
Germany’s Eastern border.

The Pact meant that Germany no longer had to fight a war on two fronts and thus Germany
boldly invaded Poland. World War II started when Britain and France declared war on
Germany to save Poland.

Hitler’s The Nazi-Soviet Pact gave Hitler the confidence to attack Poland. Communist Russia would remain
invasion of neutral and not send its armies to fight Hitler. Hitler no longer had to worry about having to fight a
Poland war on two fronts. Hitler also believed that Britain and France would not go to war over Poland.
Even if they did, they were far away from Poland. There was very little they could do to help
Poland.
24
 On 1 September 1939, Hitler invaded Poland. The following day, Britain and France told Hitler to
withdraw from Poland or face war. Hitler refused. He believed that Britain and France would not go
to war. This time he was mistaken. Britain and France were determined to keep their promise
to Poland. They declared war on Germany on 3 September 1939. World War II had begun in
Europe.

Chapter 5: Germany’s defeat in WW2

Reasons for Germany’s defeat

Entry of USA – indirect Although USA followed a policy of isolationism, it had indirectly helped the Allies
involvement (Cash and against Germany. President Roosevelt persuaded American Congress to allow Britain
Carry to Lend Lease) and France to buy arms from USA on a ‘cash and carry’ basis. This meant that as long
as they were willing to pay the US and carry back the war items themselves, USA
would willingly sell it to them. This move provided the Allies with much needed
supplies to continue fighting against the Germans. The Americans then further
expanded this policy into the Lend Lease Act. This allowed the USA to supply
weapons, food and equipment to the Allies without them having to pay immediately
and that the US would deliver the items to them. This Act allowed the Allies to gain
supplies and continue fighting against Germany. Thus Germany was defeated
eventually as the Allies were strengthened after the Americans helped them by
supplying them on a large scale.
Entry of USA – arsenal Under this policy by Roosevelt, the USA would give 50 old destroyers to the British in
of democracy return for 8 British bases in the Caribbean. This allowed the British to continue
fighting the Germans and thus this lead to Germany’s eventual defeat.
Entry of the USA – The USA was the world’s largest producer of goods at that time. When it formally
contribution of vast entered WW2 on the side of the Allies in 1941, it was able to send large numbers of
resources and American soldiers, intelligence officers and war equipment to directly bolster the
manpower Allied military efforts against the Germans. For example, the Americans contributed
11 million soldiers, supplied $31.4 billion worth of supplies to the Allies, and managed
to out-produce the Axis powers to support the Allies. Because of such a vast
contribution by the Americans, the Allies were able to sustain fighting the
Germans and eventually overwhelmed them.
Entry of the USA – The Americans were able to help the Allies gain control over the air and the sea. These
collaboration with not only prevented essential resources from reaching Germany but also gave the Allies
Allies on military greater opportunities and success at bombing German cities and military production
strategies facilities. For example, the American Navy would take over escort duties from the
British in the sea to protect the shipping lanes and they were able to support the D-Day
25
 landings which helped to push back the Germans massively. The Americans were also
able to combine their air force with the British and successfully bomb the German
cities and oil plants. Because of all these actions, the Germans were never able to
fully recover and thus were defeated eventually.
Germany’s weaknesses Apart from Hitler, no one else had the power to make big decisions. Hitler insisted on
– ineffective command making decisions that were supposed to be made by the military. These turned out to
structure be wrong decisions and they proved to be costly mistakes such as the Battle of Britain
where Germany failed to defeat Britain and the invasion of the USSR which also
bogged down German forces. Because of such fatal errors at the top of the German
command, this greatly reduced the capability of the German armed forces,
thereby leading to Germany’s defeat.
Germany’s weaknesses The Germany armed forces suffered from an inappropriate use of resources. Firstly,
– inappropriate use of different sections of the German armed forces would compete for funds as their
resources and military respective leaders wanted to develop their own sections without considering for the
funds others. Secondly, Hitler diverted resources to the development of newer untested
weapons where he should have focussed on the production of proven and essential
weapons such as infantry vehicles, tanks and trucks. Thirdly, there was a lack of
people for producing weapons as the factories were staffed by starving slave labourers
and because women were made to stay home. Due to all these factors, the German
armed forces became weaker and more inefficient, leading to Germany’s defeat.

Germany’s weaknesses Germany’s major weakness was the heavy reliance on petroleum. Germany itself had
– heavy reliance on very little petroleum reserves on its own but still decided to use petroleum to power its
petroleum war machine anyway. To counter this problem the Germans were able to develop
synthetic oil. However, the Allies were successful at bombing the German synthetic oil
plants and its oilfields. This resulted in the German war machine nearly grinding
to a halt after it had almost run out of fuel. Without sufficient fuel, the Germans
would become more easily overcome as they could not rely on their tanks and
heavy equipment to fight. This thus caused Germany to be defeated eventually.
Germany’s weaknesses Hitler’s greatest mistake was possibly his decision to fight a war on two fronts. After
– war on two fronts Hitler had chosen to invade the Soviet Union, this opened up the Eastern Front. This
meant that Germany had to divide its forces into two and thus would become
overstretched. At first the Germans seemed to be succeeding but after Hitler had
foolishly declared war on the USA, the two fronts became difficult to maintain.
This was especially because the Germans could not fight so many countries and
with the USA out-producing Germany at the same time. When the Russians
counterattacked, most of the German forces were defeated and pushed back. After
suffering defeat on both the Western and Eastern fronts, the Germans never
recovered and thus were defeated eventually.
Allied resistance – At first the Soviets were badly defeated by the Germans and were in full retreat.
reorganisation of the However they did not surrender but chose to continue resisting the Germans. When
Soviet Union the bitter Russian winters came, combined with producing effective weapons in
large quantities and moving its war factories beyond the reach of the Germans,
the Russians were able to drive back the Germans. Together with American Lend
Lease aid, the Russians were further able to increase their military production
and counterattack the Germans effectively. From this point on the Germans were
not able to recover and were thus defeated eventually.
Allied resistance – Hitler had decided to bomb British cities instead of destroying the RAF. However the
British resistance British despite being heavily bombed by the Germans and being nearly defeated
refused to surrender. They also continued to resist the Germans because they were
rallied by their Prime Minister Winston Churchill not to surrender. Since the British
did not surrender despite being bombed, this enabled the British armed forces to hold
out for American aid to come. Because Britain was not defeated and did not
26

Resistance movements
in Europe
Chapter 6 Outbreak of WW2 in the Asia Pacific
Reasons for the outbreak of WW2 in the Asia Pacific
Japan’s ambition to
establish itself in Asia and
Europe
Worsening relations with
the US
Crisis in Japan – economic
crisis
surrender, this meant that they could continue the fight against the Germans and
eventually defeat them.
Countries which faced occupation by the Germans resisted when their people formed
resistance movements. These movements would provide vital information and behind
the lines support to the Allies. Some of them included the Free French under Charles
de Gaulle. There were also people who joined the Communist resistance and helped to
ensure that German war efforts were undermined. Because of the efforts of the
resistance movements, the Allies were more successful at fighting the Germans
and thus defeat them.
As Japan modernised and developed, it wanted to have empires like the Western
powers and control colonies. Japan believed that the only way to do so was to have
a strong military. With a strong military, Japan could protect itself, and more
importantly could use that military to expand itself so as to gain recognition and
more lands. After getting into conflict with Russia and China, Japan was able to
use its military to gain colonies like Korea, Taiwan and Manchuria. After
successfully gaining these lands, Japan was accepted by the West and this
encouraged Japan to continue the quest to expand itself. This eventually would
lead to war as Japan would attempt to compete with the West for their
colonies in the Asia Pacific through aggressive means in the future.
The US was also a rising power in the Asia Pacific and they saw Japan as a threat.
As a result there was tension between the two countries. To begin with, the
Americans were racist towards the Japanese by launching Exclusion Acts to forbid
the Japanese from living and working in the US. Then in the Paris Peace
Conference, President Wilson rejected Japan’s recommendation of racial equality to
be included as a clause in the covenant of the League of Nations. Finally, at the
Washington Naval Conference in 1921, the Japanese had to limit their size of their
navy to 3/5 of that of the Americans and the British. All these made Japan feel
discriminated by the Americans. This sowed the seeds of discord and made the
Japanese feel antagonistic towards the Americans, thus leading to the
outbreak of war in the Asia Pacific in the future.
During the 1930s, Japan faced economic crises. Firstly, it suffered from a shortage
of land for farming. This resulted in a shortage of rice especially when the farmers
themselves were not capable of producing high quantities of rice. Secondly, due to
the Great Depression, Japan’s economy was adversely affected especially when its
exports of silk fell drastically due to the protectionist measures that other countries
adopted.
27

Crisis in Japan –
overpopulation
Crisis in Japan – growth of
the military
Japanese expansionist
foreign policy
Weakness of the LON
Japan’s response to world
developments in the 1930s
All these led to the Japanese people being very discontented with the
government as they felt that the government could not solve their problems. In
turn they supported the military leaders who were calling for expansion to
solve Japan’s problems. Because of the support that the military gained from
the people, this put Japan on the road to war, thereby leading to the outbreak
of war in the Asia Pacific.
Japan also suffered from overpopulation in the 1930s. There was a need for more
housing, goods and products as the population increased. The way to solve this
problem was to expand and gain more land. This directly fed Japan’s expansionist
ambitions, as occupation of more land meant access to more resources and space.
Thus overpopulation lead to war in the Asia Pacific as Japan would have to
resort to aggressive measures to gain these extra lands.
Parliamentary rule in Japan ended in 1932 when martial law replaced it because
Prime Minister Inukai was assassinated. Under martial law, the military effectively
controlled the government, with 10 members of the cabinet being military leaders
and only 5 being civilian leaders. In addition, a military figure in the form of
Admiral Makoto Saito became the Prime Minister. The Emperor who could
influence politics was unwilling to limit the influence of the military on politics and
even granted concessions to military leaders. Because of the rise of the military
leadership in the government, Japan became even more aggressive at
expanding itself and thus, was firmly placed on the road to war in the Asia
Pacific.
Japan embarked on an expansionist foreign policy because it wanted to acquire
resources. Japan had limited resources and had to rely on trade to import essential
resources such as oil. After the Great Depression Japan learnt that relying on trade
was not the best way to gain resources as countries could restrict trade to Japan.
Therefore the best way was to control territories near Japan to gain these resources.
For example, Japan gained Korea and Taiwan for sugar, cotton and wool while it
controlled Manchuria for minerals and extra land. However these were not enough
and Japan decided to expand into Southeast Asia to gain additional raw materials
like rubber and oil, while operating under the guise of the Greater East Asia Co-
Prosperity Sphere. Due to the need to maintain the Sphere and to continue
expanding to gain resources, Japan had to resort to aggressive means as the
places that Japan was interested in had already belonged to the Europeans.
This thus led to the outbreak of war in the Asia Pacific.
When Japan was aggressively expanding, the League of Nations was unable to stop
Japan. This happened when Japan invaded Manchuria in 1931 in the Mukden
Incident followed by a full scale invasion of China in 1937 after the Marco Polo
Bridge Incident. In both cases, Japan was clearly the aggressor and the League only
condemned Japan but did not do anything else significant to stop it. In response
Japan withdrew from the League and the league could not enforce any action
on Japan. This eventually led to the outbreak of war in the Asia Pacific
because Japan could aggressively expand without being checked.
American foreign policy changes
After WW1, the Americans had adopted the policy of isolation. However, President
Roosevelt had changed America’s position into adopting the need for aggressor
nations to be ‘quarantined’. In 1939, Roosevelt cancelled the 1911 commercial
treaty with Japan and placed restrictions on US trade with Japan. When Japan
invaded Vietnam in 1940, Roosevelt imposed a trade embargo of steel, scrap iron
and oil on Japan. As Japan suffered from a loss of these resources, it would
need to search elsewhere for them, thus leading to outbreak of war in the Asia
Pacific as Japan had to conquer other places to get these resources for itself.
War in Europe
28
 The war in Europe had created an opportunity for Japan to attack and gain the
European colonies in Southeast Asia for itself. The Europeans were preoccupied
with defending themselves against the Germans and thus left their colonies in
Southeast Asia poorly defended. Japan recognised that it would be easy to gain
these colonies and hence attacked them. Thus, war broke out in the Asia
Pacific.

Attack on Pearl Harbour

Due to the previous American embargo on Japan for oil and scrap iron, Japan either
had to stop its expansion or retaliate and attack the Americans. Japanese politicians
decided that they could not back down and thus persuaded the Emperor that war
was necessary to gain resources. The navy and army chiefs further told the emperor
that oil reserves would only last 2 years and thus war with the USA to gain
resources was unavoidable. Because of this need to expand and gain resources,
Japan had to attack Pearl Harbour which was blocking its plans for
expansion. When Japan eventually attacked Pearl Harbour, this directly led to
the outbreak of war in the Asia Pacific.

Chapter 7 Japan’s defeat in WW2

Reasons for Japan’ defeat

Strengths of the USA – The Americans were determined to fight a total war to defeat Japan, especially at
economic strength the encouragement of Roosevelt. Fighting a total war meant that the USA had to
switch its production entirely to war production which it was able to do as it was
the world’s largest industrial producer at that time. After the Great Depression,
there were many people in USA who were willing to work. Additionally, the
American war factories were well out of range of any Axis attack. Thus the
Americans were able to out-produce Japan in terms of war equipment and
eventually overwhelm them. Therefore due to the large economic strength of
the USA, Japan was defeated.
Strengths of the USA – In the USA, Women Ordnance Workers (WOWs) worked in factories to produce
contribution of women to weapons, vehicles and equipment necessary for the war effort. Some of them even
war effort joined the war directly by serving as nurses and even soldiers. Due to the
involvement of American women in the war effort, the US had more labour
and was able to out-produce Japan and defeat it eventually. This is especially
because Japan on the other hand did not involve their women in the war effort
until it was too late. Therefore Japan was defeated.
Strengths of the USA – Apart from its large production capability, the Americans also had a large military
military and naval strength which it used against Japan after Pearl Harbour. The Americans were able
strengths to rebuild their fleets and launch successful counterattacks against the Japanese in
the Pacific. For example, the Japanese did not completely cripple the US at Pearl
Harbour and the Americans were able to retaliate from there using their aircraft
carriers once Pearl Harbour was functioning again. More importantly, the US was
able to win decisive victories such as the Battle of the Coral Sea and the Battle
of Midway, and through the island-hopping strategy, which pushed Japan
back and destroyed most of its fleets. Japan was never able to recover from
these setbacks and thus was eventually defeated.
Japan’s weakness – weak Japan did not have a strong industrial base like the US to support a long term war
industrial base effort. The Japanese were also not able to successfully defend their merchant fleets
29

Japan’s weaknesses –
ineffective defence of
overextended Japanese
Empire
Desire of Allies to secure a
quick victory in the Pacific
Allied victory in Europe
Dropping of the atomic
bomb
from the Allies which meant that the Japanese economy became severely weakened
as war carried on. As Japan started to lose more colonies the Japanese people had
less food and its factories had fewer resources to carry on war production. In
addition Japan’s war factories had been continuously bombed by the Allies in
1944-1945, and nearly ¼ of Tokyo had been destroyed, bringing Japan’s economy
to a near standstill. Due to a combination of all these, Japan’s war production
stood on the brink of collapse and it could not fight back decisively against the
Allies, thereby leading to its eventual defeat.
By 1942, Japan was in control over Southeast Asia and most of the Pacific. This
area was too large for Japan to protect all at one time. The Japanese Empire had
thus become overstretched and difficult to defend. Japan lost its empire when it
continued to lose key battles, experienced pilots and aircraft carriers after Midway
and Coral Sea. These happened in strategic areas like Guadalcanal, Solomon
Islands, the Philippines, the Marianas Islands, Iwo Jima and Okinawa. Due to the
loss of Japan’s empire, it could not keep up its war effort thereby leading to its
eventual defeat.
The Allies had been fighting the Japanese for a long time and were determined to
end the war with Japan quickly. This was especially because the Allies had wanted
to minimize their losses from the Japanese kamikaze attacks which had proved to
be relatively successful. In addition, the Allies had also wanted to liberate their
POWs who had been harshly treated by the Japanese. Ending the war with Japan
sooner would mean that the POWs could be freed earlier. This desire to win
quickly for these reasons therefore made the Allies fight harder and thus
contributed to the defeat of Japan.
The Japanese had relied on the Allies being distracted by Hitler’s armies in Europe
to continue maintaining their dominance in the Pacific. However when Hitler was
defeated, Japan had lost a major ally. More importantly this meant that the Allies
could now concentrate all their efforts on Japan collectively. For example, the
Americans were supporting the Allied effort in the Pacific and the Russians had
overrun Manchuria. As Japan was now alone in facing all of the Allies, this
meant that it could not stand a chance and would therefore be definitely
defeated.
Despite losing it empire and being bombed heavily by the Allies, Japan still had not
surrendered. The Allies did not want to lose more soldiers invading Japan and thus
used an atomic bomb on Japan to end the war once and for all. However after the
first bomb on Hiroshima, Japan was still stubborn and did not want to surrender.
This led to the dropping of another atomic bomb which destroyed Nagasaki.
Because of the dropping of the two atomic bombs, Emperor Hirohito realised
that Japan could not afford anymore destruction and therefore accepted the
unconditional surrender as demanded by the Allies, leading to Japan’s defeat.

Do you think that the use of the atomic bomb was justified? Explain your answer.

Balanced Conclusion

It cannot be justified because of the targeting of innocent civilians and the causing
of massive destruction. There was also no need to exact such great revenge on
Japan especially when they were already losing and that they had only bombed
Pearl Harbour to begin with. Japan was trying to also seek an honourable
surrender.

30
However in the end it was justified because the Americans justified themselves.
They chose not to see other alternatives. They did not want to negotiate with Japan
as they wanted unconditional surrender. They knew that Japan was losing but
were impatient and wanted to end the war quickly. Also because they convinced
themselves that the bomb would also have a long term bonus impact such as
convincing the Russians of American military superiority, the Americans in the end
chose to use the bomb. Thus the use of the bomb could only be justified only if we
adopted the perspectives of the Americans. And since they won in the end, no one
could challenge them and say that they were wrong. Victors write history, losers
have no say. Thus using the atomic bombs was justified.

2 (b) “It was a mistake by the Germans to support Hitler and the Nazis as rulers of
Germany.” How far do you agree with this statement? Explain your answer. [12]

Yes it was a mistake to support Hitler and the Nazis as rulers of Germany. This was because
after the Nazis and Hitler became rulers, they started a dictatorship which severely limited the
political freedom of the Germans. Germans were not allowed to vote, and their freedom of
democracy was destroyed. Also being dictators, Hitler and the Nazis were able to enforce
totalitarian control over Germans, which meant that their lives were even more limited and
restricted under Nazi rule. Also since the Jews were being persecuted and exterminated, the
Germans thus allowed Hitler and the Nazis to commit acts of genocide against another race. In
the end allowing Hitler and the Nazis to become rulers meant that Germans and Jews suffered
one way or another. Thus this was a mistake by the Germans.

Another reason why it was a mistake was because Nazi rule of Germany led Germany to war
once more. After having suffered the death and destruction of WW1, the last thing that the
Germans deserved was another war and more destruction. However since the Nazis had
already rearmed Germany and introduced conscription after coming into power, they led
Germany onto the path of war again. Then Hitler decided to expand Germany and invade other
countries, which started WW2. In the end Germans suffered more harshly than WW1 as
Germany was destroyed more than before and many more people died as a result of Hitler’s
expansion. In the end allowing Hitler and the Nazis to become rulers meant that Germans
themselves had to endure war and suffering, which proved that their decision to support Hitler
and the Nazis as rulers was a mistake.

However supporting Hitler and the Nazis was not a complete mistake. This was because
supporting them as rulers brought about benefits for Germans. Under the Weimar government,
Germany had to pay reparations, had to suffer economic ruin due to the Great Depression and
also had to constantly endure the threat of Communism. However when Hitler and the Nazis
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became rulers of Germany, they were able to solve Germany’s economic problems. Germany
attained autarky and the employment shot up massively. Also Germany did not have to pay
reparations which damaged their economy and finally the Communists were eliminated from
power, giving much peace and stability to Germany. Thus Hitler and the Nazis were able to help
Germans get jobs and gave them political peace and stability. Therefore supporting them as
rulers was not a mistake.

Another reason why supporting Hitler and the Nazis was not a complete mistake was that under
them, Germany could become strong and powerful again. Hitler had promised that he would
destroy the TOV and gain lebensraum for Germans. He managed to accomplish this by rearming
Germany and conscripting soldiers so as to invade and take over other places like Austria,
Czechoslovakia and recover lost German territories like the Rhineland for example. All these
made Germany become strong like it once had been. Hitler had been able to restore the national
pride of Germany, something which Weimar was unable to do. When Germany became
powerful, no other Europeans dared to attack her. Thus supporting Hitler and the Nazis was not
a mistake since they were able to make Germany militarily strong once more.

L3 + I do agree that it was a mistake to support Hitler and the Nazis as rulers of Germany. This
was because even though there were benefits to doing so, in the end the outcome eliminated
all the gains. Germany did become powerful again and perhaps even rich, but all this was lost
once Germany went back to war and became defeated. In addition the people had to endure
suffering and hardship once again and become humiliated since this time Germany had properly
been invaded and conquered. Also, even though there was political stability and peace, there
was also a severe lack of freedom. People who realised that they were under a dictatorship
could not protest and could not do anything about it even if they were unhappy. Ultimately the
Germans had shackled themselves unto slavery and destruction by supporting Hitler and the
Nazis, which proved to be a mistake which they paid for with the lives of others and themselves.

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