The Treaty of Versailles

• In 1919, representatives from more than two dozen countries gathered in France to draft peace treaties that would set the terms for the end of World War I
• Negotiations dragged on for months, but in the end, the Treaty of Versailles forced Germany to accept blame for the conflict, give up its overseas colonies and 13 percent of its European territory, limit the size of its army and navy, and pay reparations (financial damages) to the war’s winners.
• Germans were incensed and staged protests over what they saw as harsh and humiliating terms

• Further, one of the central tenets of the Nazi party was to undo the deal, and campaign promises like those helped the group gain followers.

The League of Nations and Diplomatic Idealism

• The League of Nations emerged from the Treaty of Versailles with thirty-two member countries, including most of the victors of World War I, and eventually expanded to include Germany and the other defeated nations

• Under the organization’s founding agreement, these countries promised not to resort to war again

• Traumatized and weakened from the First World War, the League’s great powers proved not only unable to respond to these security threats but uninterested in addressing them
• By the onset of World War II, the League had been effectively side-lined from international politics

• The League’s powers were limited to persuasion and various levels of moral and economic sanctions that the members were free to carry out as they saw fit

The Rise of Hitlerya n

• Back-to-back crises hit the German economy
• In the early 1920s, the country experienced hyperinflation, a situation in which prices skyrocketed so quickly that German currency lost much of its value
• After a period of economic recovery—and a moment in which it seemed democracy could take hold in Germany—the Great Depression kicked off a new era of financial and political turmoil.
• Between 1929 and 1932, German unemployment skyrocketed nearly fivefold, eventually affecting a quarter of the labour force.

• At this moment, the Nazi party capitalised the situation, and promised to undo the Treaty of Versailles

• They also sought to create a much larger, racially pure Germany. Under Nazi ideology, Germans were racially superior and entitled to greater territory or lebensraum (living space) in the east

• The appointment of Hitler as Chancellor further, poised the situation for racism and extremism in politics eventually setting up for War

Japanese Imperialism

• Japan had long sought to accumulate imperial power.
  • Taiwan became Japan’s first colony in 1895, and more territory followed.
  • In 1931, Japan invaded China’s Manchuria region
• But Japan’s ascendancy and the conflict in Europe concerned USA
• So, the United States declared war on Japan on December 8, 1941, one day after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour