Chapter 31, Section 1

Aggression, Appeasement, and War

Setting the SceneDuring the 1920s, the western democracies

tried to strengthen the framework for peace.

In the 1930s, that structure crumbled due to dictatorships in Spain, Germany, and Italy (as well as militarism in Japan.)

Unlike these dictators, leaders of the western democracies were haunted by the memories of the Great War (WWI).

During the 1930s, the two sides tested each other’s commitment and will.

Dictators Challenge World PeaceDuring the 1930s,

dictators took aggressive action but met only verbal protests and pleas for peace from the democracies.

Mussolini and Hitler viewed that desire for peace as weakness and responded with acts of aggression.Mussolini invaded and

conquered Ethiopia.This only resulted in

sanctions by the League of Nations which could not be enforced.

Dictators Challenge World Peace In defiance of the Versailles

Treaty, Hitler built up the German military.

Then, in 1936, he sent German troops into the “demilitarized” Rhineland bordering France – another treaty violation.

Since Germans hated the Versailles Treaty, these actions gained Hitler more popular support at home.

Western democracies denounced the moves but took no real action. Instead, they adopted a policy of

appeasement, giving in to the demands of an aggressor to keep the peace.

Appeasement and NeutralityThe western policy of appeasement

developed for a number of reasons:France was demoralized and suffered

from political division.They could also not move against Germany

without British help.Britain, however, had no desire to

confront the German dictator.Some British even believed that the Germans

were justified in violating the Treaty of Versailles because it had been “too harsh” against Germany.

Appeasement and NeutralityIn both Britain and France, many saw Hitler and

fascism as a defense against a worse evil – the spread of Soviet Communism.

Additionally, the Great Depression sapped the energies of western democracies.

Widespread pacifism, or opposition to all war, pushed governments to seek peace at any price.

The United States passed a series of Neutrality Acts.The fundamental goal of American policy,

however, was to avoid involvement in a European war, not to prevent such a conflict.

Rome-Berlin-Tokyo AxisIn the face of the democracies’ apparent

weakness, Germany, Italy, and Japan formed what became known as the Rome-Berlin-Tokyo Axis.The Axis Powers agreed to fight Soviet

communism.They also agreed not to interfere with one

another’s plans for expansion.The agreement cleared the way for these

anti-democratic, aggressor powers to take even bolder steps.

German Aggression ContinuesIn the meantime, Hitler pursued his goal of bringing

all German-speaking people into the Third Reich.Hitler claimed he was seeking Lebensraum (“living

space”) for the German people.Hitler, who believed in the superiority of the

German, or “Aryan race,” though that Germany had the right to conquer the inferior Slavs to the east.

“Nature is cruel,” he claimed, “so we may be cruel, too … I have the right to remove millions of an inferior race that breed like vermin.”This viewpoint is a perversion of Social Darwinism.

Austria AnnexedBy 1938, Hitler was ready to engineer the

Anschluss, or union of Austria and Germany.Earlier that year, he forced the Austrian

chancellor to appoint Nazis to key cabinet posts.When the Austrian leader balked at other demands,

Hitler sent in the German army “to preserve order.”The Anschluss violated the Versailles treaty and

created a brief war scare but Hitler quickly silenced any Austrians who opposed him.The western democracies took no actions against

Hitler.

The Czech CrisisGermany’s next victim was Czechoslovakia.At first, Hitler insisted that the three million

Germans in the Sudetenland – a region of western Czechoslovakia – be given autonomy.

Czechoslovakia was one of only two remaining democracies in Eastern Europe.

As British and French leaders searched for a peaceful solution, Hitler increased his demands.The Sudetenland, he said, must be annexed to

Germany.

The Munich ConferenceAt the Munich

Conference in September 1938, British and French leaders again chose to follow a policy of appeasement.The caved in to Hitler’s

demands and then persuaded the Czechs to surrender the Sudetenland without a fight.

In exchange, Hitler assured Britain and France that he had not other plans to expand his territory.

“Peace for Our Time” Returning from Munich,

British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain told cheering crowds that he had achieved “peace for our time.”To Parliament, he declared

that the Munich Pact had “saved Czechoslovakia from destruction and Europe from Armageddon.”

French leader Edouard Daladier had a different reaction to the joyous crowds that greeted him in Paris.“The fools, why are they

cheering?” he asked.

The Czech CrisisThe Czech crisis

revealed the Nazi menace.

British politician Winston Churchill, who had long warned of the Nazi threat, judged the diplomats harshly:“They had to choose

between war and dishonor. They chose dishonor; they will have war.”

Europe Plunges Toward WarJust as Churchill predicted, Munich did not

bring peace.Instead, Europe plunged rapidly toward

war.In March 1939, Hitler gobbled up the rest of

Czechoslovakia.The democracies finally accepted the fact

that appeasement had failed.At last thoroughly alarmed, they promised to

protect Poland, most likely the next target of Hitler’s expansion.

Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact In order to secure his eastern

front for a future war, Hitler began talks with Joseph Stalin in the Soviet Union.

In August of 1939, Soviet Foreign Minister Vyacheslav Molotov and Nazi Foreign Minister Joachim von Ribbentrop signed the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact. This pact, also known as the Nazi-

Soviet Non-Aggression Pact, was a peace treaty between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union.

Both sides agreed not to attack one another in the upcoming war and to partition, or divide up, eastern Europe between the two of them.

German Expansion