INTER WAR YEARS TIMELINE

Lets start with the events leading up to the start of WW2 after WW1

Among the causes of World War II were Italian fascism in the 1920s with the rise to power
of the fascist Benito Mussolini.( A fascist is a follower of a political idea characterized by
authoritarian views and a strong central government fascists have no tolerance for opposing
opinions. Under fascist rule, the emphasis is on the group — the nation — with few
individual rights) Benito Mussolini was a fascist and he was prime minister from 1922 to
1943 when the Italian people killed him!

Japanese militarism and Japanese Expansion in the period before World War II was
growing rapidly with invasions of China in the 1930s, killing between 17 and 22 million
people!

The greatest cause of WW2 however was the political takeover in 1933 of Germany
by Adolf Hitler and his Nazi Party, and its aggressive foreign policy.

WW1 ended with Germany's defeat on 11th November 1918 ending Germany's 2nd Reich
(Reich means Rule / regime, The First Reich was the medieval Holy Roman Empire, which
lasted until 1806. The Second Reich included the German Empire from 1871-1918, and the
Third reich ( Hitlers Nazi Germany) from 1933 and lasting until 1945 when Germany
were defeated at the end of WW2.

The Treaty of Versailles was signed on 28 June 1919 in Versailles France between
Germany and the Allied Powers. ( The victorious allied powers the United States, Great
Britain, France, and other allied states)

Due to the Versailles treaty, Germany was forced to pay incredibly sizeable reparations to
France and Great Britain. The treaty imposed punitive territorial, military, and economic
provisions on defeated Germany as it was agreed Germany started WW1.

Germany was economically devastated after a draining defeat in World War I.

Germany found the treaty too difficult to adhere to, their money ( the mark) was almost
worthless people were taking their wages home in wheel barrows! The decline made it
impossible for Germany to buy foreign exchange or gold using paper marks. Instead,
reparations were to be paid in goods such as coal. By November 1923, the US dollar was
worth 4,210,500,000,000 German marks!
Germany's military power was also reduced they were not allowed to have submarines or an
air force. It could have an army of only 100,000 men and a navy of only 6 ships, and it was
not allowed to place any troops in the Rhineland.

Germany in the 1920s remained politically and economically unstable. The Weimar
democracy ( Germany's government before Hitlers Nazi party won power), could not
withstand the disastrous consequences of the treaty of Versailles. Problems began to mount
for the Weimar democracy such as hyperinflation, attempted revolutions and public
discontent, pushing it increasingly towards the edge. How could the Republic possibly
survive?

In 1923, the Weimar Republic was on the verge of collapse and many politicians went on
strike!, but, surprisingly, the crisis was the start of a period of stability and success. The
period 1923-1929 was a time when the economy boomed and cultural life flourished in
Germany.

This dramatic turnabout happened because Germany was saved by two people - Gustav
Stresemann and Charles Dawes.

Gustav Stresemann had been a nationalist, but he realised that something needed to be
done to save Germany. The most important thing he did in 1923 was to organise the Great
Coalition of moderate, pro-democracy parties in the Reichstag (Germany's parliament).
At last, Germany had a government that could make laws! Under Stresemann's guidance,
the government called off the strike, persuaded the French to leave the Ruhr and even got
the rest of the world to allow Germany to join the League of Nations in 1926.

Stresemann also introduced reforms to help ordinary people such as job centres,
unemployment pay and better housing.

Charles Dawes an American was the US budget director. In 1923, he was sent to Europe to
sort out Germany's economy. Under his advice, the German Reichsbank was reformed
and money in Germany was called in and burned! This ended the hyperinflation. Dawes also
arranged the Dawes Plan with Stresemann, which gave Germany longer to pay
reparations. Most importantly, Dawes got America to lend Germany 800 million gold
marks, which kick-started the German economy.

Adolf Hitler a corporal in WW1 was identified as a good public speaker and an intelligent
person, he was used by the army to spy on civil unrest and met Dietrich Eckart he was a
German journalist, playwright, poet, and politician who was one of the founders of the
Deutsche Arbeiterpartei (German Workers' Party - DAP), which later evolved into the Nazi
Party (NSDAP). He was a key influence on Adolf Hitler in the early years of the Nazi Party
and was a participant in the 1923 Beer Hall Putsch. Hitler tried to take advantage of the crisis
facing the Weimar government by instigating a revolution called the Munich Putsch. At
first, the Nazis were just a terrorist group however Hitler assembled a large group of
unemployed young men and former soldiers, known as the (the SA) they were storm
troopers and Hitlers private army, they attacked other political groups and disrupted their
political gatherings.
Hitler had many comrades to aid his rise to power such as:

Joseph Goebbels trusted friend and fellow anti semmetic great public speaker and expert in
propaganda

Herman Goering WW1 fighter pilot he would help win favor and votes from the germany
nobles and high class. He would go on to command the luftwaffe ( german air force in ww2.

Rudolph Hess great friend and party member went to prison with hitler after the munich
putzch and co wrote mien kamph with hitler active high ranking NAZI

Ernst Rohm leader of the SA ( the brown shirts) was used by Hitler as his private army /
police force disrupting other political parties and damaging jewish shops and assaulting
Jewish people

Hienrich Himmler Primary involvement of the Holocaust and carrying out the final
solution he was head of the SS black shirts also called the Gestapo

The Munich Putsch seemed like the perfect opportunity, as Mussolini had gained power in
this way in Rome in 1922, but poor planning and misjudgement resulted in failure and the
subsequent imprisonment of Adolf Hitler. The Nazis marched in the streets, the police
opened fire but Hitler escapes he is soon captured, tried for treason and serves 9 months in
Landsberg prison The Nazi party was banned, and Hitler was prevented from speaking in
public until 1927. In prison he wrote 'Mein Kampf' meaning “my struggle” millions of
Germans read it, and Hitler's ideas became very well-known.

In 1925 Hitler re-found the Nazi party and decided that he would never come to
power by revolution; he realised that he would have to use constitutional means, so
he organised:
• the Hitler Youth
• propaganda campaigns
• mergers with other right-wing parties
• local branches of the party, which tried to get Nazis elected to the Reichstag
• the SS as his personal bodyguard, which was set up in 1925 It was this
strategy of gaining power legitimately and for him a large slice of good
luck that eventually brought him to power.

This great slice of luck was the Great Depression in the U.S.A in 1929. The disaster began
in the United States of America, the leading economy in the world. It was the deepest and
longest-lasting economic downturn in the history of the Western industrialized world. In the
United States, the Great Depression began soon after the stock market crash of October
1929, which sent Wall Street into a panic and wiped out millions of investors.
 Hitler seized this great opportunity

The Depression hit hardest those nations that were most deeply indebted to the United
States, i.e., Germany and Great Britain. In Germany, unemployment rose sharply
beginning in late 1929, and by early 1932 it had reached 6 million workers, or 25 percent of
the work force.

It also meant the U.S.A would call in the loan it had made to Germany.
The following events would change the entire world and would lead to a second world
war.

The Wiemar government depended on American money that now stopped, and Germany
was ready to return to crisis.

In the General Election of 1930, the Nazi Party increases its representatives in parliament
from 14 to 107. Hitler was now the leader of the second largest party in Germany.
In 1932 Hitler becomes a German citizen—enabling him to stand in the Presidential
election against Hindenburg.He became the first person to electioneer by aircraft, the
campaign (masterminded by Josef Goebbels) was entitled 'Hitler over Germany'.
In JAN 1933 Hitler becomes chancellor of a coalition government, where the Nazis have a
third of the seats in the Reichstag.

In FEB 1933 the German Reichstag is destroyed by fire. The plot and execution is almost
certainly due to the Nazis but they point the finger at the communists and trigger a General
Election.

In March 1933 The Enabling Act passed—powers of legislation pass to Hitler’s cabinet for
four years, making him virtual dictator.
He proclaims the Nazi Party is the only political party permitted in Germany. All other
parties and trade unions are disbanded. Individual German states lose any autonomous
powers, while Nazi officials become state governors.

Also in 1933 in Germany the Communist party are banned, Hitler hates Communists which
is the primary politics in Russia. Socialists, Trade Unions and strikes are also banned.
Hitler withdraws from the League of Nations. In the following months, he trebles the size of
the German Army and ignores the arms restrictions imposed by the Treaty of Versailles.
JUNE 1934
Night of the Long Knives. Hitler crushes all opposition within his own party—thus
eliminating all of his rivals.
JULY 1934
After the death of President Hindenburg, Hitler becomes “Fuehrer and Reich Chancellor”
and abolishes the title of President.
Hitler re-arms Germany with the aim of undoing the Treaty of Versailles and uniting all the
German peoples. Military conscription is introduced.
•
March 1938
The Austrian Chancellor, leader of the Austrian Nazi Party, invites the German army to
occupy Austria and proclaim a union with Germany.
• September 1938
British Prime Minister, Neville Chamberlain meets Hitler in Germany. Britain, France and
Italy sign the Munich Agreement which gives the Sudetenland (the German populated
borderlands of Czechoslavakia), to Germany.
• October 1938
German army occupies the Sudetenland.
November 1938
In what is historically referred to as Crystal Night, 7,500 Jewish shops are destroyed and
400 synagogues are burnt. The attack is portrayed as a spontaneous reaction to the death of a
German diplomat by a Jewish refugee in Paris. It is actually orchestrated by the Nazi party
who also kill many Jews and send 20,000 to concentration camps.
Crystal Night is considered to be the beginning of the Final Solution and the Holocaust which is the
mass killing and attempted genocide of the Jewish people.

APPEASEMENT
Instituted in the hope of avoiding war, appeasement was the name given to Britain's policy
in the 1930s of allowing Hitler to expand German territory unchecked. Most closely
associated with British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain, it is now widely discredited as
a policy of weakness. Neville Chamberlain was the British prime minister who believed in
appeasement. As the League of Nations crumbled, politicians turned to a new way to keep
the peace - appeasement. This was the policy of giving Hitler what he wanted to stop him
from going to war. It was based on the idea that what Hitler wanted was reasonable and,
when his reasonable demands had been satisfied, he would stop.
In 1938, Germans living in the border areas of Czechoslovakia (the Sudetenland) started to
demand a union with Hitler's Germany. The Czechs refused. Hitler threatened war. On 30
September, in the Munich Agreement - without asking Czechoslovakia - Britain and France
gave the Sudetenland to Germany.

Reasons for appeasement

There were many reasons why Chamberlain appeased Hitler, but here are the main ones:
1. The British people wanted peace - they would not have supported a war in 1938.
2. Many of Hitler's complaints appeared reasonable at the time - especially about the Treaty
of Versailles.
3. Chamberlain wanted a strong Germany to serve as a barrier against expansion by
communist Russia.
 4. Britain's armed forces were not ready for a war, and they could not have helped
Czechoslovakia anyway.
5. Many people admired Hitler. In 1938, the American magazine 'Time' declared him 'Man of
the Year'.
6. Chamberlain remembered the slaughter of the First World War; he thought another war
would destroy civilisation.

Results of appeasement
Here are the main ones:
• Czechoslovakia was weakened. Poland and Hungary took other land.
• Britain gained a year to build up its armed forces, but so did Hitler.
• Hitler decided that Britain and France were afraid of him, and that they would not stop
him whatever he did.
• Russia decided that Britain and France would never stand up to Hitler, and that war with
Germany was inevitable.
• The people of Britain realised that they had been duped, and decided that war was
inevitable.
• It improved the war morale of the British people, who knew they had done everything
possible to avoid war.