Hi and welcome back to Heimler’s History.
Now we’ve been going through Unit 7 of AP
World History and we’ve just got out of
World War I.
Now I went ahead and spoiled it in another
video, but there is in fact a World War II.
And that’s crazy because the people who
fought in the Great War, which is what World
War I was known as before there was a World
War II, they said this was the war to end
all wars.
And yet twenty years after the ink was dry
on the Treaty of Versailles, there was another
global war.
So the purpose of this video is to talk about
the causes of World War II.
In the next one we’re going to talk about
how the war was actually carried on, but this
one, just the causes.
So let’s get to it.
Now if we ask the historical record, “what
caused World War II?” then we’re given
answers that have to do with, number one,
an unsustainable peace treaty in the Treaty
of Versailles and the rise of the Nazi party
in Germany.
Now to be fair, Japan was also doing its part
to start the war, but we’ll get to them
near the end.
But for now, let’s consider why the Treaty
of Versailles, which was the treaty that ended
World War I, was an unsustainable peace agreement.
Now it’s kind of astonishing is that it’s
not just historians who live now, who have
the benefit of hindsight, who say “yeah,
that was unsustainable.”
It’s people who were living in that time
who saw the provisions of peace with their
own eyes who said, “yeah this is going to
lead us to another war.”
One such person was a French General named
Ferdinand Foch.
Upon the signing of the treaty, he was reported
to have said, “This is not peace; it is
an armistice for twenty years.”
What’s crazy is that World War I ended in
1918 and World War II began in 1939, which
is to say twenty one years.
So, he was off by a year, but man, he nailed
it.
So what was it that people like Foch could
see in that treaty that so plainly announced,
there’s some flaws here?
First, the treaty demanded that the Germans
pay reparations to the tune of billions of
dollars to repair the damage done by the war.
And you didn’t have to be a genius to realize
that such a provision was going to ruin the
German economy.
And it did.
And then if you add a worldwide Great Depression
and a profound level of hyperinflation, the
German economy would be on the brink of utter
collapse.
Second, the German treaty mandated that the
Allied forces occupy the Rhineland, which
was a strip of German land between the French
and German border.
And as you have probably might have guessed
from our study of world history up to this
point, ain’t nobody like to be occupied
by nobody.
Third, the war guilt clause of the treaty.
And this was a clause in which Germans were
made to accept full responsibility for the
war and all the destruction caused by it.
So put all these things together during the
interwar period and not only are the Germans
suffering profoundly in economic terms, but
they are also being humiliated on the world
stage.
And as my grandpappy used to say, “If you
humiliate a nation on a world stage in a peace
treaty, be careful that you don’t get the
Nazis.”
Well thank you, grandpappy, that is a remarkably
prescient statement.
So all that to say, we can pin this cause
of the war squarely on the Allied powers,
specifically Britain and France, and even
more specifically France, for codifying in
the Treaty their desire to punish Germany.
And that brings us to the second major cause
of World War II and that is the rise of the
Nazi party, and this one we’re going to
go ahead and pin squarely on the Germans.
So I already mentioned all the suffering and
humiliation that Germans were made to bear
after World War I.
And out of this mess a man rose through the
ranks of German politics with a plan to fix
it, and his name was Adolf Hitler.
Now after World War I ended, the German kaiser
was replaced with a parliamentary style government
namely the Weimar Republic.
Now because the policies of the Weimar Republic
didn’t do much to stem the tide of economic
collapse and suffering of the German people,
they saw this government as pretty weak and
so they longed for a stronger central government
that could actually solve their problems.
And it’s here where I need to introduce
you to a political party called the National
Socialist German Workers’ Party, or if you’re
not into saying all that, the Nazi Party.
Now the Nazis took power in the German parliament
in 1932.
And we need to stop for a second.
Because that thing that I just said about
them taking power, because we have certain
ideas in our heads when we say the word Nazi,
that can be misinterpreted.
I said they took power in parliament.
And you might be tempted to think they rolled
in with tanks and guns and took over power
in a military coup.
But no, the Nazis were, wait for it, elected
to their position.
It was totally democratic and legit.
The people actually liked the Nazi plaform
and put them in power.
And so what was it about their platform that
actually appealed to the people?
Well, among other things, they advocated for
the nullification of the Treaty of Versailles,
for the purification of the German population,
and for a stronger central authority who could
fix the problems of the German people.
Now, by 1933 Adolf Hitler is appointed chancellor
of the German government.
And by 1934, after the death of the German
president Paul von Hindenburg, Hitler declared
himself president and began enacting policies
close to his heart.
These included a powerful and militaristic
German nationalism.
Also there was what’s called scientific
racism which is the claim that certain races
were genetically superior to others.
Related to that was Hitler’s deep and abiding
anti-semitism by which he claimed that Jews
were responsible for all the nation’s woes.
And as a result, Germany could only be great
if purged of the corrupting influence of the
Jews.
Now the first major legislative push against
the Jews of Germany was in the Nuremberg Laws.
These were a set of discriminatory laws that
essentially pushed Jews to the margins of
society.
And to add fuel to this fire, in 1938 a German
diplomat was assassinated by a Jewish teenager.
And this event led to what’s called in German,
Kristallnacht, which when being translated
means “night of broken glass.”
It was a series of anti-Jewish riots in which
Germans ended up killing 90 Jews and destroying
nearly every Jewish synagogue in the city.
In addition, over 30,000 Jews were arrested
and sent to concentration camps.
Now, most of these would be released from
the camps and deported, but later prisoners
would not get such treatment.
Now something else that loomed large in Hitler’s
imagination was the German need for what he
called lebensraum, or living space.
And how much lebensraum would Hitler need
for his purified German people?
Oh I don’t know, how about the whole dang
European continent?
Now, if you’re all the other nations on
the European continent, at this point you’re
getting a little twitchy because those are
clearly fighting words.
And in that vein, Hitler went ahead and made
a military alliance with Italy in 1936 called
the Rome-Berlin Axis.
Also Germany allied themselves with Japan
in the Anti-Comintern Pact.
And these three nations together would become
known as the Axis Powers in the war.
A further cause of the war was Germany’s
aggressive militarism.
Now, the Treaty of Versailles had a provision
for the significant demilitarization of Germany.
But the problem with that is, when your sights
are set on getting all that lebensraum, you
gotta have a lot of pew pew in order to get
the people out of it.
So in March of 1935 Hitler broke the treaty
and began to build up the German military.
And he further broke the treaty by sending
troops into the Rhineland in 1936.
Now at this move Britain and France wagged
their finger at Hitler and said, stop it.
But that’s basically all they did.
For them, the policy of appeasement seemed
the best way to keep from starting another
world war.
So Hitler decided to go ahead and take some
more land.
Next up was Austria, which happened to be
the place of Hitler’s birth.
And he threatened to invade, and used the
weight of that threat to pressure the Austrian
chancellor to give more power to the Nazi
party in Austria.
Well that happened, and then the Austrian
Nazis basically welcomed Hitler to occupy
Austria in 1938.
And then came Czechoslovakia.
There was a little strip of land called the
Sudetenland that bordered Germany.
And because most of the population there were
German-speaking folks, Hitler demanded that
the Sudetenland be ceded to Germany.
And at this point Hitler met with the leaders
of Britain, France, and Italy to discuss this
seizure of land.
Here, British prime minister Neville Chamberlain
was convinced that appeasement of Hitler’s
desires was the best way to satisfy him and
keep the peace.
And so in the Munich Agreement everyone agreed
that Hitler could have the Sudetenland but
no more.
Now, look, that’s it, you understand that
right?
Ya.
I mean, you occupied the Rhineland and we
did nothing.
Ya.
You took Austria and we didn’t retaliate.
Ya.
And now the Sudetenland is yours and you don’t
want anything else, right?
Ya (fingers crossed).
And so as it happened the Munich Agreement
had the exact reverse effect.
Hitler could see now, clearly, that whatever
he did, Britain and France were not going
to oppose him.
And so with the Sudetenland in his possession,
he went ahead and invaded Czechoslovakia in
1939, and baby, now we’re starting to get
some lebensraum and let’s just keep invading.
Next up, Poland.
Hitler set his sights now on the Port of Danzig.
And once this became known, Britain’s policy
of appeasement officially reached its end.
Britain agreed to defend Poland in the case
of a German invasion and then they went ahead
and allied themselves with Russia and France
to this end.
And you see where this is going on September
1st, 1939 Hitler invaded Poland.
And at that, the Allied Powers declared war
on Germany, and that’s how you get a second
world war.
Now that’s the crescendo of that story,
but earlier I said I’d mention Japan and,
so real quick, here’s Japan.
By the time all this was going on in Europe,
Japan had been encroaching on China and Korea
for about half a century.
And in 1937 fighting blew up between the Japanese
and Chinese troops, and that battle marked
the official beginning of the war in the Pacific
theater.
Alright, that’s what you need to know about
Unit 7 topic 6 of AP World History.
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