WW2 Flashcards
(17 cards)
Long term causes of ww2
- treaty of Versailles
- League of Nations
- Great Depression
- hitlers foreign policy aims
- appeasement
Short term causes of ww2
- German invasions of Czechoslovakia
- nazi soviet pact
- German invasion of Poland
What were hitlers foreign policy aims
- join Germany and Austria
- destroy communism - partly why he wanted to take over the east
- for unions of Germans to form greater Germany i.e. All German speaking land, land taken away by treaty of v
- cancel treaty of v
- land and colonies will feed our people and settle huge population
- an empire with eastern land like Russia, Poland, Czech , living space for Germans
- use violence no diplomacy
How did hitter break the terms of the treaty of v in the 1930s
1933 -hitler came to power and immediately set out his secret plans to rearm Germany
1935 - hitler began to rearm German from 1933. By ‘35 he had introduced an airforce, a larger navy, conscription into the army -> all forbidden but allies did nothing
‘36 - Germans reoccupied the Rhineland with 30000 troops allies did nothing
‘37 - from 1936 to November hitter mad an alliance with Japan and Italy
‘38 - in March hitler reunited with Austria, Germans occupied Austria which was forbidden under tofv. Nazis v popular. Allies did nothing .
- in sept hitler demanded control of the Sudetenland region of Czechoslovakia, majority of people here were German speakers. CS government said no but British prime minister Neville chamberlain didn’t want war so gave into demands let hitler take over this area in oct. known as Munich agreement
What is appeasement
Giving someone waht they ant in order to keep them happy
Who pursued an policy of appeasement in the 1930s
British prime minister Neville chamberlain
With an aim to reach agreement with Germany and settle grievances
Why can appeasement be criticised as a dangerous policy to pursue
Because hitler was confident, attacking places and becoming stronger.
This meant that britian allowed Germany to become stronger therefore harder to beat if war did occur
How did Britain and other countries appease nazi Germany
Sat back and watching him break the t of v in several ways e.g. Making agreement w/ Austria, sending troops into the Rhineland , building and improving his army, invading other countries
- Rearmament - 1933 onwards including Anglo naval agreements 35% of British navy to air base created
- Remilitarisation of the Rhineland in 1936
- Invasion of Austria 1938
- Sedation land sept/out 1938 -> Munich conference
- 1939 March Czech is invaded
- Britian gave a guarantee to Poland to protect them which hitler ignored and invaded Poland sept 1939
5 arguments for appeasement
- GERMANY DESERVES A FAIR DEAL - t of v too harsh
- Germans should be governed by Germany
- with this Germany might settle down - FEAR OF ANOTHER WAR - people still recovering
- many people would do anything for no war - FEAR OF COMMUNISM - communist government now taken over Russia
- people lost money and many killed
- hitler didn’t want communism - BRITAIN NEEDED TIME - chamberlain was a pacifist -> wanted any solution to avoid war
- britian reduced their army, no point fighting so much stronger Germany , no time to rearm
- rear entrance peaks at certain times, 1930 = new weapons don’t spend all the money on old ones
- had a 4 year rearmament plan
BRITISH PEOPLE HAD TO WANT WAR
-many people thought Czechoslovakia wasn’t worth fighting over
- when hitler invaded Poland the British public wanted to go to war to stop him. Austria and Canada joineded the war for the same reason
5 arguments against appeasement
- THIS ENCOURAGED HITLER TO BE AGGRESSIVE
- every time hitler got away with aggressive acts he became sure the allies would never act
- hitlers confidence grew
- was encouraged to make more demands for land - GERMANY WAS GROWING STRONGER
- each time Germany took more land it became stronger
- it chained different things from them - THE MUNICH AGREEMENT
- Churchill thought that chamberlain didn’t fight enough for Czech
- he also thought this time wasn’t used wisely - APPEASEMENT SCARED THE USSR
- Britain didn’t stand up to hitler
- Stalin didn’t think Britain would help ussr if it was invaded
- this persuaded Stalin to side with Germany - HITLER WAS DETERMINED TO CONQUER EASTER EUROPE
- hitler made this clear from start
- they should had know after several invasions hitlers peace promises were worthless
Battle of Britain plan
- after Dunkirk, Hitler was now the master of Europe, except Britain and the USSR
- hitler now turned his attention to an invasion of Britain - Operation Sea Lion
- the first stage involved German Air Force
- German bombers would attack British airfields and destroy the RAF aircrafts
- as an island the British airforce was a crucial part of its military strength
- Germans believed that their bombers would be able to put down any defensive reactions easily.
Germany’s strengths in the battle of britian
- larger force of pilots and received a lot more training than British
- German had 824 fighter planes and 1017 bombers - British had just 591 fighter planes
- took 5 mins for German aircraft channel but 15 mins for British fighters to ready to be up and ready to intercept than
Why did Germany loose the Battle of Britain
- German fighter could only carry enough fuel to fly over Britain for 30 mins
- German fighters told to fly close together , made easy targets
- British befan to target bombers rather than fighters as they posed a bigger fight
- britian increased production of fighter planes producing really 4x as much per month summer ‘40
- by Autumn it was clear that Germany had failed to destroy RAF in time for a German invasion of Britain
Why did hitler invade the USSR 1941
- Germany had failed with the Battle of Britain and the blitz and needed a quick morale boost
- he had always hated communism and wanted to destroy it
- aimed and wanted to gain an empire in the east, known as living space for his people
Why might hitler be confident about the invasion of the USSR
- size of his army
- a surprise attack
- USSR was much poorer than hitler and hitler thought they were weak with bad equipment
Why might hitler be worried about the invasion of the USSR
- Russia is huge and the fear of being drawn into the centre and surrounded without materials
- bad long line of resources and fear of winter
Why did the nazis fail in Russia
- SCORED EARTH POLICY : as the Russians retreated they burnt everything so there was nothing for the nazis. Makes life impossible for nazis as they had to rely on the food being brought down the lines
- THE RUSSIAN WINTER : -40degree c by December Germany’s army wasn’t equipped for this
- THE SIEGE OF LENINGRAD : Leningrad was surrounded by the Germans for 2.5 years. Germans spent ages waiting for them to surrender. Distracted and delayed
- RUSSIAS MILITARY STRENGTH : the Russians had huge numbers of well organised troops compared to Germans. Determined to defeat the nazis and very ruthless
