Zusammenfassung der Ressource
Democracies On The Defensive
- Abyssinian Crisis
- October 1935
- 1932
- Mussolini started
planning the annexation
of Abyssinia
- This would provide land for Italian settlers
and connect Eritrea with Italian - Somali
land.
- Mussolini was convinced that neither
Britain or France would get involved.
- France had already offered a
free-hand to Mussolini.
- Britain were keen to reach a compromise to avert a crisis - they wanted to give
Italy control without the annexation.
- CONSEQUENCES
- October 13th: LON condemmed the actions of
Italy and voted for sanctions.
- December: Foreign ministers of F and B produced a plan
to give 2/3 of Abyssinia under italian control, but it was
then dropped.
- Gave Hitler opportunity to illegally rearm the Rhineland
- Remilitarisation of the Rhineland.
- Remilitarised on March 7th 1936
- Hitler planned to re-occupy it in 1937 but
exploited the Abyssinian crisis instead!
- The combination of the diplomatic situation
and the need to distract Germany from its
economic problems meant it was remilitarised
earlier.
- German army started Prep in Dec 1935.
They only sent a few soldiers at first who
were lightly equipped.
- Didn't want France suspecting the take over.
- France didn't want to retaliate if they weren't
backed by Britain
- MAGINOT LINE: A line of concrete forts constucted by France along its border with G (Eastern Front)
- British public just saw it as Hitler 'walking into his own back garden'
- CONSEQUENCES: the destruction of the
Locarno settlements / treaties; Nazi Germany
was strenghtened.
- Spanish Civil War
- July 1936: nationalist revolution lead by the army broke out against the
Spanish Republican Government
- Nationalists looked to Germany and Italy for help and the Republicans looked to Britain, France and Russia
- Republicans asked France for help but France said no cos they realised it would lead to divided French society
(which was already politically divided) and Britain were not intervening; so intervening would ruin any chance of
a anglo french negotiation.
- Hitler wanted to stop Spain becoming Communist but also wanted to distract the
western powers so he could continue his actions without intervention
- Agreed to provide a fleet of transport aircraft to Francos men (led the nationalists) and dispatched 6000 troops.
- Mussolini also agreed to assist Franco.
- To stop spreading war Br and Fr introduced a non intervention
agreement which was signed by European Powers except
Germany and Italy
- Republican Government approached Soviet Russia in sept
1936: sent military advisers and equipment
- Stalin didn't want a nationalist victory in spain cos it would strengthen forces
of Fascism and make a german attack on the Coviet Union more likey. But by
1937 he realised the Republicans could not win; reduced the flow of arms so
as not to continue conflict. This was successful.
- CONSEQUENCES: polarised public left/right opinion; threatened Fr
with encirclement; Germany benefitted the most
- The Axis Powers Align 1936 (Berlin-Rome Axis)
- Causes
- Increase in friendly
relations between Rome
and Berlin.
- Br refused to acknowledge that Italy had control of Abyssinia - pushing Italy
towards German relations.
- Hitler and Mussolini cooperated to block a British
idea to update the Locarno treaty
- October Protocols
- The understanding between Italy and Germany over Austria lead to the
German-Italian agreement
- Signed in Berlin October 1936
- Mussolini announced the new alignment at a meeting in Milan Oct
1st: "understanding between certain countries.. Berlin torne line is
an axis around which.. European states will collaborate around
peace".
- CONSEQUENCES/SIGNIFICANCE
- Germany and Italy were now an alliance and Franco - italian agreements had failed.
- Showed how weak any agreements were
- Democracies were looking at a Europe where they were
on the defensive from dictatorship that had risen;
growing in power and aligning
- Arms Race/German Rearmament
- Hossbach Memorandum
- Nov 5 1937
- Hitler called a special meeting attended by
his commanders in cheif and war ministers
- What Hitler was saying was recorded as his 'Last will and
testament'; stressed his main aim was Lebensraum within
Europe rather than African colonies . He would move against
Czech and Austira before 1945 as France was distracted by Italy.
- SIGNIFICANCE: showed Hitler wasn't after African land and was his first
official declaration which lead to the arms race
- ARMS RACE
- Germany
- 4 year plan to prepare for war: concerntrated
on synthetic materials; raised taxes; by august
1939 lufftwaffe had 4000 frontline aircraft and
2758000 men.
- Rearmament would be done by mid 1940's
- France
- cause big economic and
social problems; strikes
in paris against diverting
all resources to
rearmament
- Rearmament slow due to bad economy
- military expenditure increased by 6
times between 1936-9
- Aimed to complete rearmament by 1940
- Britain
- 4 Year plan prioritising navy
and air force
- incresed miliatry experience
- aimed to
complete
rearmament by
1940