Secondary 2 History

Secondary Two
History
(Part-1)
Content
Page
1. The Causes of the First World War 1
2. The First World War 1914-1918 9
3. The Treaty of Versailles 27
4. Weimar Germany and the rise of Hitler 35

1919-1933
5. Hitler in Power 1933-1938 49
6. The Growth of German Power 1933-1938 59

SECONDARY TWO
HISTORY
1 - THE CAUSES OF THE FIRST WORLD WAR

EUROPEAN RIVALRIES
At the beginning of the 20th century, there were six major powers in
Europe; Britain, France, Germany, Russia, Austria-Hungary and Italy. Power
politics in Europe was based on the relations between these six major powers
and some of these relations of rivalry.
One of the main rivalries in Europe was that between France and
Germany. France defeated in the Franco-Prussian war, had to cede Alsace and
Lorraine to Germany. Many French men felt humiliated by the defeat and by
the peace terms imposed by Germany. They wanted revenge and recovery of
the territories of Alsace and Lorraine. Therefore, the rivalry between France and
Germany continued into the 20th century. Another European rivalry was that
between Britain and Germany. Britain as an island nation and the possessor of
a vast oversea empire, maintained the strongest navy in the world. Germany
attempted to challenge British naval supremacy. Britain viewed the building of
a large German navy as a threat to its oversea trade and empire and started its
own programme of naval expansion.
THE GREAT POWERS AND RIVAL ALLIANCES

In 1879, Germany signed a secret agreement with Austria-Hungary which
brought about a defensive alliance known as the Dual Alliance. In 1882, the
Dual Alliance was expanded into the Triple Alliance when Germany and Austria-
Hungary concluded a secret agreement with Italy. So the six most important and
powerful countries in Europe were split into two armed groups. One group was
made up of the Central powers: Germany, Austria-Hungary and Italy, known as
Triple Alliance. The other group was made up of the Entente Powers: Britain,
France and Russia, known as the Triple Entente. Both groups were hostile to
each other, and both were increasing their stocks of weapons.
Germany
Germany was made up of many small states that had united and became
one country only as recently as 1871. Otto von Bismarck, who was Chancellor
of the newly united Germany, firmly believed that all questions of the day could
be solved by military strength; in his own words, by ‘blood and iron’. Germany
could afford to support a large and well equipped army because of the success
of its industry. By 1900, Germany’s industrial output had overtaken Britain’s
and was second only to that of the USA. The strong national feeling in Germany
and its wealth from industry made the Germans keen to play a leading part in
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world affairs. Kaiser Wilhelm II was determined to build up the navy and win an
empire for Germany which would rival that of Britain.
Austria-Hungary
The empire of Austria-Hungary was Germany’s oldest ally. This large
and ancient empire, made up of many different peoples: Germans, Austrians,
Hungarians, Czechs, Slovaks, Italians, Serbs, Croats, Poles and others. Germans
was the language of governments, but each group spoke its own language and
had its own customs. This made the empire very difficult to rule. Many of these
people were demanding their independence.
Italy
Italy was the weakest of all the Central Powers. It had become a united
country only in 1870, just one year ahead of Germany. Italy too was looking
for new areas of land to colonize. Unlike Germany, however, Italy had very little
industry. Southern Italy was very backward.
THE ENTENTE POWERS

France
One of France’s main aims ever since 1870 had been to take revenge
on Germany for the terrible defeat it had suffered in the Franco-Prussian war.
France was building up its industrial strength, although it was not making such
rapid progress as Germany. However, France knew that it would need allies as
well as resources if it was to defeat Germany.
Russia
Russia was by far the largest of the Great Powers in area and population.
Its land and people stretched from Eastern Europe into Asia. By 1900, however,
this vast country had made little progress compared to Germany, Britain and
France. After the alliance of 1892, French money helped to pay for some new
industry. Most Russians still lived as peasants in thousands of Russian villages.
The ruler of Russia, the Tsar, was in complete personal control of the country.
Britain
In the nineteenth century, Britain was the ‘workshop of the world’. Its
industrial goods were traded all over the world. By the turn of the century, the
British lead was being challenged by Germany, France and the USA, but Britain
was still a great trading nation. It still had the largest merchant fleet in the world.
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HISTORY
Its main concern was the British empire, which stretched over nearly a quarter
of the world’s surface, and included parts of North and South America, Asia and
Africa. Britain held this vast empire together with its navy, the strongest in the world.
Gradually, it became clear to British government that the Kaiser’s naval
and colonial plans for Germany were a far greater threat to Britain. In 1904, the
Entente Cordiale was signed between Britain and France. In 1907, therefore a
Triple Entente was signed between Britain, France and Russia.
With the countries of Europe divided into two power blocks, was could
have come at any time in the early years of this century. Tension and rivalry
increased. Armies were drilled and war plans prepared. Any small incident
between the rival countries was likely to drag the whole of Europe into war.
STEPS TO WAR
Rivalry Increases
Between 1905 and 1914, the Great Powers were involved in a series of
crises in Morocco in North Africa and the Balkans in Eastern Europe. They were
involved in a race to build up their arms and navies. The effect was that the rival
alliances grew stronger and more aggressive and this eventually led to war.
Events in Morocco, 1905-6

Kaiser Wilhelm II was jealous of the empires built up by Britain and
France. In 1905, Kaiser visited Morocco and promised to support Morocco’s
independence and to throw the French out. This upset the French, who were
interested in occupying Morocco as a colony. Kaiser was also testing the strength
of the new friendship between Britain and France. A conference which included
the French, the Germans and Moroccans was held at Algeciras in 1906 to settle
the point. Britain and Russia stood by France and it was agreed that Germany
should have no say in Morocco, so Kaiser had to back down. This strengthened
France’s alliance with Britain who shortly afterwards made a colonial agreement
with Russia, in 1907, so forming the Triple Entente with France.
The Balkans
The war eventually arose from the Balkans. The Ottoman or Turkish
Empire had once covered all the Balkans by 1900, several countries – Greece
Romania, Bulgaria and Serbia had won their freedom from the Turkish rule. The
Turkish Empire in Europe was now small. Two rivals came into and this were
Austria-Hungary (backed by Germany) and Russia. Many of the people of the
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HISTORY
Balkans had links with Russia. The Serbs and Bulgars are Slavs, like the Russians,
they were Orthodox Christians, whereas the Austrians were Roman Catholic.
Therefor they looked to Russia for help. Russia supported independence and
expansion for the Balkans states.
Independent Slav countries were just what Austria-Hungary feared. If the
Slavs in the Balkans became independent, the Slavs and others inside Austria-
Hungary and would want independence. If that happened, Austria-Hungary
would collapse. Most annoying of all to Austria-Hungary was ‘Little Serbia’.
Serbia had plans to create a country of the Southern Slavs – ‘Yugoslavia’. In
order to stop Serbian expansion to the west, Austria-Hungary took over Bosnia in
1908. Since most of the people in Bosnia were Slavs, this action greatly annoyed
the Serbs. Several secret societies were formed in Serbia whose members were
dedicated to throwing the Austrians out of the Balkans. One of these societies
was called the ‘Black Hand’. At the conference in London in 1913, the area was
divided up again with a new agreement which enlarged Serbia, making it more
determined to be a leader of the Slav people in both the Balkans and Austria-
Hungary. In the midst of all the tension created by this situation, the Archduke
visited Sarajevo, the capital of Bosnia and he was assassinated by a member of
the Black Hand organization. From then on, the countries of Europe, one by one
slid into war.
The Naval Race, 1906 – 14

In 1900, Britain had the largest navy in the world. When the Germans
began to build their navy in 1898, the British thought that it was an attempt to
challenge Britain and its colonies. Germany and Britain began a race to expand
their navies as fast as possible. In 1906, Britain launched the Dreadnought. This
battleship had heavier guns and thicker armour-plating and was faster than any
other battleship in the world. A new battleship that could easily destroy any of
the older type battleships. Kaiser immediately ordered to produce a German
version. Both sides built Dreadnoughts, and the naval race reached its peak in
1909. Britain had far more Dreadnoughts than the Germans.
The Build-up of Armies, 1900 – 14

The existence of large armies in Europe was another threat to peace.
Military leaders argued that the only way to ensure peace was to have a strong
enough army to prevent an invasion from another country. All the Great Powers
increased the size of their armies during this period. In 1913, the French raised the
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SECONDARY TWO
HISTORY
period of compulsory military service from two years to three and the Russians
raised theirs from three to three-and-a-half years. Britain was the only power
that had not introduced conscription (compulsory military service) before 1914.
THE ASSASSINATION AT SARAJEVO

On 28 June 1914, the heir to the throne of Austria-Hungary, the Archduke
Franz Ferdinand, and his wife visited the town of Sarajevo, a town in Bosnia.
A group of Serbian, who were the members of the Black Hand organization
planned to kill him as they considered the Archduke as a serious threat to a
union between Bosnia-Herzegovina. A large number of Serbs living in Bosnia-
Herzegovina wanted to be liberated from the Austro-Hungarian rule. There were
two attempts. In the first a bomb was thrown at the Archduke but it missed
and fell to the behind car, exploded and injured the two officers. Luckily the
Archduke and his wife were unhurt. The Archduke continued the visit but insisted
on visiting the injured in hospital. On leaving the hospital the driver of the car
took a wrong turning. As he stopped to reverse, one of the waiting assassins,
Gavrilo Princip fired two shots: the first one hit the Archduke, the second hit his
wife. The Archduke’s wife died immediately and he died on the way to hospital.
Six weeks after this assassination, the First World War started.
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SECONDARY TWO
HISTORY
KAISER WILHELM II 1859–1941

Wilhelm was the grandson
of Queen Victoria, nephew of
Edward VII and cousin of George
V. At his birth, his left arm was
badly damaged and he remained
almost one-handed all his life.
His childhood was strict; he was
not clever, but was expected to
do a great deal of studying for
several hours each day. However,
he enjoyed swimming, tennis,
shooting and riding. The big
events of his childhood were the great victories of Prussia over Denmark, Austria
and France. At the age of twelve, he rode in the victory parade to celebrate the
Franco-Prussian War in 1871. After his school education, he joined the army. He
loved the army with its traditions and ceremonial, and always wore his uniform.
He made friends in the army and could relax with them.
As a young man, he appeared rather vain and quarrelsome. He fell out
with his father. His British relatives found him difficult. As Queen Victoria said,
‘He might at any moment become impossible.’ In 1888, both his grandfather
and then his father died. He settled his quarrel with his father before his death,
but was determined not to leave the running of Germany to Bismarck, as his
father and grandfather had done. In 1890, he dismissed Bismarck. One of Kai-
ser Wilhelm’s greatest problems was that he never found such an able minister
again.
His actions over the next twenty-four years are not the sole cause of the
First World War, of course, but he had a knack of going about things the wrong
way. He let France and Russia form an alliance. He alarmed the British by start-
ing to expand his navy. There was no reason why Germany should not have a
strong navy, but Wilhelm made no attempt to explain his reasons to the British.
He tried to drive a wedge between Britain and France, allies from 1904, by
provoking the crises in Morocco. He succeeded only in bringing them closer
together and making them more anti-German. He backed Austria’s plans in the
Balkans, which led to the war in 1914. He did not want war: If my grandmother
had been alive, she would never had allowed it, he said. However, he made
more enemies than friends, inside and outside Germany. His wish for glory, for
himself and for Germany, frightened many people.
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HISTORY
When the First World War started, Wilhelm went to the Front. After the
Battle of the Marne, however, he lost his nerve. He could not concentrate on his
duties and was increasingly ignored. In 1918, with defeat and revolution threat-
ening, he abdicated and fled to Holland.
He lived for another twenty-three years in Holland. Three of his sons
became Nazis, and the Nazi Party talked of calling him back. This, however, was
only a way of winning support among those who were nostalgic for the old pre-
1914 days. When Hitler came to power, he ignored the Kaiser. Eventually, the
actions of the Nazis horrified him. When the Germans invaded Holland in 1940,
he was left alone by the occupying forces, and died, forgotten, soon afterwards.
ASSIGNMENTS i. German troops enter Belgium

Empathy ii. Austria-Hungary issues ultimatum to
1. Read Source 1C. Imagine you are a Serbia
friend of Gavrilo Princip – a young iii. Britain declares war on Central
student, proud of being a Serbian. Powers
Write a short speech that you would iv Austria-Hungary declares war on
give to defend Princip. Start with your Serbia
attitude to Austria following its actions v. Archduke Ferdinand assassinated at
in 1908, describe your reaction to the Sarajevo
Archduke’s visit to Sarajevo and explain vi Russian army mobilises
why Princip decided to assassinate him. b. Explain why these events must have
2. Look again at Sources 2A, 2B and 2C. happened in the order you have put
Explain why: them in.
a. Some British people were hostile
and suspicious of Germany, and Themes for discussion
b. Some German people were hostile 1. Was the First World War ‘inevitable’ at
and jealous of Britain, especially in the some time in the early years of the 20th
years after 1906. century? Do you think the slide to was
could have been stopped at any point,
Knowledge and understanding and, if so, how?
1.a Explain the reasons for hostility 2. Do you think assassination is ever
between the following pairs of countries justified? Did Garvrilo Princip achieve
in the years before 1914. what he wanted by assassinating the
i. France and Germany Arehduke? What have been the results
ii. Russia and Austria-Hungary of the assassinations of:
iii. Britain and Italy i. Gandhi (see Ch.22)
b. Describe how the six countries came ii J. F. Kennedy (see Ch.19)
together in the Triple Alliance and the iii. Martin Luther King (see Ch.19)
Triple Entente. iv Anwar Sadat (see Ch.20)?
2.a Put the following events into chrono- Why do assassinations take place?
logical order:
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SECONDARY TWO
HISTORY
General von Kluck
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SECONDARY TWO
HISTORY
2 - THE FIRST WORLD WAR 1914-1918

THE SCHLIEFFEN PLAN
German commanders realized that if war came they faced the danger of
fighting two enemies at once. Germany believed war with France was extremely
likely revenge for her defeat in the Franco-Prussian war. This mean, France to
the west and Russia to the east of Germany assumed France would also attack as
she was both an ally of Russia and keen for the east. Germany wanted to avoid
this at all costs. The German commanders therefore worked out a plan called the
Schlieffen Plan, and it was calculated gamble. The Germans took two risks, the
first was that Russians would be slow to get ready for war. The second risk they
took was that Britain would not join in the war when Germany invaded Belgium.
If they were right, and these two gambles worked, the Germans believed they
would be able to defeat France rapidly. This plan was worked out by General
Alfred von Schlieffen. According to this plan, the left wing would attack France
along the frontier from Metz to Switzerland. The right wing would sweep round
through Belgium, taking France by surprise, cross northern France, capture Paris
and trap the French army from behind. Then, with France defeated, the whole
plan was carefully worked out in detail to a strict timetable.
The war began on 4th August 1914, when Germans troops invaded
Belgium, they were nearly succeeded. Their right wing swung through Belgium
and France, until they were only 20 miles from Paris. However, several important
things went wrong. First, the Belgians put up more resistance than expected,
especially at Liege. This slowed down the German advance. The British kept
to their treaty with Belgium that was Britain had promised to support Belgium’s
neutral position in war and go to its help if attacked in 1839 and sent over
the British Expeditionary Force (BEF). The Russians, for their part, mobilized
more quickly than the Germans had expected and invaded Germany. So, the
Germans advance was too rapid for their own supply transport to keep up. By
late August, the Germans had reached the River Marne, but were weakened,
tired and hungry. At this point, the Allies (France and Britain) counter-attacked.
The battle front was so close to Paris that the French used taxis from the city to
drive soldiers to the front line.
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SECONDARY TWO
HISTORY
The German advance was stopped at the Battle of Marne (6-12 September)
and then pushed back. For five days, the German army retreated until they
managed to dig themselves into trenches and the Allies could not advance any
further. If you look at the Map 2-1 you will see that these trenches eventually
stretched from the Channel coast to the Swiss border. There was little change in
these positions until mid-1918. Both sides were held in a deadlock.
TRENCH WARFARE
No war had ever been fought like this before, and no war has been quite
like it since. The main reason why it was fought from trenches was the weapons
used by the two armies. In the fifty years before the war, most European countries
had developed heavy industries. The factories making iron steel and chemical
now provided the materials for new deadly weapons to equip each army. The
most effective weapons were those used by the soldiers in defensive positions,
the rifle, the mortar, the heavy guns of the artillery and above all, the machine
gun. The rifle was the basic weapon issued to every soldier. The mortar lobbed
small shells about half a mile. The heavy guns fired huge numbers of shells to
soften up the enemy before from a trench or a dug-out, could kill with great
efficiency.
The Trench System

The only place which was safe from the deadly fire of machine guns was in
a trench dug into the ground. Every soldier carried tools to dig with as part of his
equipment. The trench system became more complex and stronger defensively.
A front line of trenches was backed up by two more, the support and reserves
lines. The front line faced the enemy, who might be between 200 and 800 metres
away. The space in between was called No-man’s-Land. Each side protected
itself with rows of barbed wire, secretly erected at night. No-Man’s-Land became
a deserted strip of devastated battleground, full of shell holes and muddy from
rain). Behind the front line were the “reserve trenches”. These were a second
line of defence in battle, in case the front line should be captured. They were also
used as a resting place for the front-line troops. Sometimes the reserve trenches
were known as the “second line” or “support trenches”. There were even parts
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SECONDARY TWO
HISTORY
of a third line in places. Running across these lines were the “communication
trenches”. They led back to safety sometimes for a kilometer or more. Everything
going up to the front had to use these communition and all other supplies.
Life in the Trenches

Most days were very monotonous and boring and seemed to pass very
slowly. People were killed, but there were few great battles. Troops did not often
to hungry, there was little variety in their diet. There was usually tinned “bully” or
corned beef and a loaf of bread, which had to be shared among up to ten men. If
nothing else was available there were always emergency supplies of hard biscuits
but these were like concrete. Some troops had no hot meals for weeks on end.
There were few cooking utensils, so all the food was cooked in the same pots,
making it all taste the same, Water was a problem, normally it was brought in
petrol cans to the front, where chloride of lime was added to kill the germs. This
made it taste awful, in winter snow and ice were melted to make tea. Hygiene
was another big problem. Diseases were common in the trenches, where men
crowd together in unhygienic conditions. Everyone had lice – in his hair, on his
body, thriving in every part of his clothing. Rats also ran everywhere, feeding on
rotting bodies. They even nibbled the troops as they slept.
One of the common diseases suffered by the soldiers in the trenches was
known as “trench foot”, which was caused by standing for long periods in mud
and water. The feet would swell and go completely numb for a few days and
then they would become extremely painful and begin to rot. Sometimes the feet
had to be amputated. Much more serious were the epidemics. Germs in food
and water led to typhus, cholera and dysentery. These killed thousands of men.
Much of the day was boring. Finally, the soldiers in the trenches had to put up
with the extremes of the weather, from snow and frost in the winter to rain on a
regular basis, especially in Belgium. The bottom of the trenches was frequently
under at least a foot of water. Rain quickly made most trenches very muddy, so
“duckboards” were laid along the bottom. These were flat planks of wood nailed
together like a ladder. The troops lived in dug-outs – holes dug out of the sides
of the walls. Often, two or three men slept above each other, as if on bunks.
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SECONDARY TWO
HISTORY
Dangers in the Trenches

There were many dangers apart from disease and rats.
- Enemy marksmen known as snipers would wait for the soldier who
popped his head over the parapet. Many unsuspecting new arrivals were killed
this way. Even a lighted match could be fatal and soldiers never lit more than two
cigarettes. When the sniper spotted the light of the match, he took aim and fired.
- Enemy bombardment, which happened most days, could lead to injury or
death from flying splinters.
- Poisonous gas, first used by the Germans brought a slow, horrible death
to many.
- Men lived constant fear of attack from shells. Some soldiers suffered from
shell shock caused by the constant strain of living under shellfire. Early in
this war, this mental illness was not understood by the Army, many men
who suffered from shell shock were accused of cowardice and shot.
The experiences in the trenches led to bitterness amongst some of those

who served on the Western Front. This was expressed in songs, paintings or
poems. The early war poems were often optimistic, describing men bravely
going off to fight, with great hopes for the future. Later, poems show how bitter
the soldiers became, once they knew what the trenches were like. The optimism
had gone. War had hardened them. Then, finally, came the protest poems and
demands that there should never be anything like again. Two of the more famous
poets were Siegfried Sassoon and Wilfred Owen.
The generals on both sides did not know how to break the deadlock at
the trench warfare. Modern methods of transport, such as trains, could carry
thousands of men to the battlefield. The generals had not worked out how to use
them once they were there.
CHRISTMAS 1914
Christmas 1914 came --- the time when soldiers on both sides expected
to come home Victorious. On Christmas Day itself, an extraordinary thing
happened at many points along the front line. An unofficial “truce” began and
the shooting died away. Germans soldiers sang carols, and from their trenches
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SECONDARY TWO
HISTORY
the British responded. They shouted greetings to each other. In some places,
men from both sides climbed out of their trenches and walked into the area
between known as No-Man’s-Land. Here, they swopped cigarettes and played
football. Two days later, however, the shooting started again.
Poison Gas
The first poison gas attack was made in April 1915. The German invented
the poison gas during World War One. When the Germans broke through the
Allies front line at Ypres, their success was due to chlorine gas. The Germans
released gas which wafted in the wind into the British trenches across the No-
Man’s-Land. There was panic as the soldiers coughed, retched and struggled
to breathe. However, the wind changed direction and blew the gas towards the
German’s line causing more casualties than the Allies. Soon both sides were
using gas. The Germans later used phosgene, which was more powerful and
in 1917, used mustard gas which had no smell. This gas temporarily blinded its
victims, burned their skin and poisoned their lungs. In the worst cases, death was
slow and painful, others who survived, died later of lung diseases.
Tanks
The last chance of a breakthrough came on 15 September when the British used
tanks for the first time. The tank was the British invention during World War
One. Winston Churchill, head of the navy (Admiral) thought of the idea and his
department funded its development. Two years later, the tanks were used at the
battle of Somme. They advanced ahead of the infantry, crushing barbed-wire
defenses and spraying the enemy with machinegun fire. These tanks were used to
pound the enemy trenches. Tanks could get up to speeds of 6 kilometres an hour.
They were armed with two high-powered naval guns and three machine guns.
Eight men were needed to crew a tank. A major effect of the tank in battle was
psychological. They frightened the enemy and those on the battle field watching
from the trenches was raised by the sight of these ‘metal monsters’ lumbering
towards the enemy. Tanks were used in great numbers at the Battle of Cambrai
in 1917, they were still very primitive in design. As technology improved they
came to play a greater part in trench warfare.
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HISTORY
The Western Front 1914-17 The Western Front 1918
MAIN EVENTS OF THE FIRST WORLD WAR ON THE

WESTERN FRONT
1914 – Battle of the Marne. Both sides take up trench positions by end of year.
British and French armies operate separately – no united command.
1915 – Germans attack at Ypres: gas first used.
1916 – Tremendous German attack on French at Verdun; French hold on, led
by General Petain, despite huge losses.
New British general, Sir Douglas Haig, attacks at Battle of the Somme;
20,000 killed on first day; a few miles gained.
1917 – USA enters on side of Allies.
British attack at Arras; Canadian soldiers capture Vimy Ridge.
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HISTORY
New French general, Nivelle, attacks. Germans know the attack is

coming, so their general, Hindenburg, has prepared defences: the
Hindenburg Line. Terrible French losses. Some French soldiers mutiny.
To help French, Haig attacks again at Passchendaele, near Ypres.
300,000 killed in mud and rain.
1918 – Russia drops out of the war. Germany brings thousands of soldiers
by train over to the Western Front. General Ludendorff prepares a
final effort. British and French at last combine under one Supreme
Commander, Marshal Foch. American troops and supplies arrive.
German advance just held and turned back. Germans retreat. Ceasefire
11 Nov ember 1918.
THE HOME FRONT

The First War was a war fought on many fronts, on land, sea and in the air, and
it affected everybody, including civilians at home. There was, of course, a great
contrast between life in the trenches and life back home in Britain. The soldiers
in the trenches had to get used to terrible living conditions and to the fact that
they were likely to be killed. They disliked the war but quietly put up with it. At
home, civilians had little ideas of what conditions were like at the front. They still
talked only of glorious victories and heroic fighting. Soldiers, home in Blighty on
leave or wounded, found this very strange.
Conscription
Conscription was not started until 1916.
SOURCE
Until then the British army was made up
Oh we don’t want to lose you
of volunteers. Different kinds of pressure But we think you ought to go,
were put on young men to join up. Some For your King and Country
women began giving white feathers to Both need you so.
We shall want you, and miss you
young men in the street who were not in
But with all our might and main,
uniform. Posters were issued and music- We shall cheer you, thank you, kiss
hall songs were composed which carried you,
the same message. When you come back again.
Music-hall song
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Questions.
a. Explain how poster caught people’s
attention.
b. What feeling does poster stir up?
c. Why would poster make men ashamed
if they were not in the army?
The White Feather Movement
d. How do you think a man would feel on
hearing the song in sung by a glamorous singer at a music hall?
Women at Work
With so many men away at war, women had to take their places. Before
the war, women had been regarded as incapable of many jobs. Now, women
joined in wherever they could. They took jobs in arms factories and on buses
and trains. After this effort, they could not easily be treated as second class
citizens again.
Food
European countries had to import some of their food to feed their people.
As food supplies were disrupted by the war, people at home began to suffer. In
Britain sugar, meat, butter and fats were rationed in 1915, followed later by jam,
marmalade and tea. Other things like potatoes and coal were in short supply.
In Germany and Austria, however, things were much worse, because of the
Allied blockade. By 1918, most people were nearly starving in those countries.
However, some people did quite well out of the war: workers in certain key
jobs were not allowed to join up and earned good money. The owners of firms
supplied the armies prospered.
THE WAR AT SEA

The Kaiser had built up the German navy before the war, but the British navy
was still much stronger. As soon as the war started, the British navy blockaded all
German ports. This cut off supplies of raw materials, machine tools and food to
Germany. This gradual stranglehold on Germany was an important cause of its
defeat. No country can fight a modern war for very long if it has no raw materials
for its industries. Germany was soon very short of food as well. The winter of
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HISTORY
1917-18 was called the ‘Turnip-Winter’ in Germany because turnips were almost
all that the people had to eat.
If this blockade was important, it was not what the public expected. They
expected spectacular naval battles between the two carefully prepared fleets. In
fact this never really happened. When war broke out, several German surface
raiders were on the high seas. The cruiser Goeben escaped from the British fleet
in the Mediterranean and reached Constantinople. This success encouraged
Turkey to enter the war on Germany’s side. Several ships were also sunk by the
German cruiser Emden before the Australian cruiser Sydney managed to put it
out of action.
The admirals on both sides were very cautious. They both realized that if
they lost a major sea battle they could ‘lose the war in an afternoon’. The British
tried to tempt the Germans into leaving their bases at Kiel and Wilhelmshaven,
while the Germans tried to lure the British out of Scapa Flow and Rosyth. Early in
the war, before the blockade was fully enforced, there were minor battles between
cruisers at Heligoland in 1914 and at the Dogger Bank in the following year.
Several German cruisers slipped out of port and shelled Yarmouth, Scarborough
and Hartlepool before being driven off. By late 1915, however, both fleets were
firmly anchored in port, behind a forest of mines and submarine nets.
The German fleet in the Pacific was destroyed at the Battle of Falkland
Islands. By early 1915, the only German battleships left were penned up in
German ports by the Allied blockade.
From 1915 onwards, the Germans tried to tip the balance of the naval war
thir way by using submarines (U-boats) to sink ships bringing supplies to Britain.
Any ship heading for Britain was declared a target. In May 1915 the passenger
liner Lusitania sailing between the USA and Britain was sunk by a German
U-boat. Over 1,000 passengers were killed. Many passengers were Americans,
and the killing of American civilians produced a wave of strong anti-German
feeling in the USA. U-boat warfare was cut down on the Kaiser’s orders.
The Battle of Jutland

The main German High Seas Fleet had to act. The Germans knew they could
not take on the entire British Grand Fleet but hoped to lure them into a surprise
17
SECONDARY TWO
HISTORY
trap of submarines. On 31 May 1916, the German fleet left port with the cruisers
leading the way as a bait to lure out the British fleet. On the same day admiral
Jellicoe, leading the British fleet, put to sea. The two fleets, 259 ships in all, met
off the coast of Denmark in the Battle of Jutland. (See Map 2-5 overleaf.) Smoke,
mist and nightfall prevented a really decisive outcome. Both fleets returned
home, the British having lost fourteen ships and 6,000 men. German losses
were eleven ships and 2,500 men. The battle highlighted weaknesses in British
gunnery, amour and signaling. However, the British fleet was still in control of
the North Sea. As a New York newspaper put it, ‘the German fleet has assaulted
its jailer but remains in jail’, The great German fleet now rested at anchor until
the war ended, by which time the sailors were ready to mutiny.
The Convoy System

The Germans now had to return to unrestricted U-boat warfare – sinking
everything on the high seas – as their only hope of winning the war. They nearly
succeeded; British merchant ships were sunk in large numbers. In March and
April 1917, 600 ships were sunk, amounting to nearly 1,000,000 tons of shipping
in April. At one point London was reduced to only two days’ supply of food.
Then a change of Prime Minister
brought a change of tactics. David
Lloyd George took over from Herbert
Asquith and introduced a convoy
system. In this system, merchant
ships sailed in large groups escorted
by fast destroyers. Although convoy
escorts sank relatively few U-boats,
they did make it much more difficult
for U-boats to attack. Sea defences
were also strengthened, and
thousands of mines were laid in the
English Channel and the North Sea.
Gradually the situation improved
and the emergency passed. Britain
never suffered the severe shortages
of food and other imported goods
that Germany did. The Battle of Jutland 1916
18
SECONDARY TWO
HISTORY
Although there were no large, decisive sea battles, the war at sea was an
important element in deciding the result of the First World War.
THE WAR IN THE AIR

Aeroplanes were still new inventions in 1914, and the part they could play
in war had not really been thought out. At first, they were used for reconnaissance
– to find out what the enemy was doing. The light open planes could easily fly
over enemy lines to take photographs. Soon, however, new developments took
place. Fighter planes were designed and built. Planes were developed to carry
bombs, although these were small, killed fewer people than modern aeroplanes
do, and did little damage to buildings.
Questions
a Notice the guns fixed on the plane
in the picture. In which direction did
they fire?
b What do you think the flying
conditions might be like for the pilots
of these planes?
c In the picture, you can see one of the Sopwith F1 Camel
airmen holding the bombs ready to
drop them on the enemy. What do
you think were the drawbacks of this
sort of operation?
This aspect of the war, unlike

the trench war, did produce individual
heroes: Albert Ball (British), Billy British pilots ready to take-off on a
Bishop (Canadian) and Baron bombing raid
von Richthofen (German) became
famous for the number of planes
they shot down. People began to
realize the potential of air warfare.
The Royal Flying Corps, which had
been founded in April 1912, Became
the basis of the Royal Air Force in
1918. Dropping Bombs by hand in WWI
19
SECONDARY TWO
HISTORY
Both sides also used airships during the war. At that time, they could fly
faster and carry more arms than aeroplanes. German Zeppelins bombed London
and other British cities. Towards the end of the war, large Gotha bombers also
raided London.
During the war, the size, efficiency and speed of aircraft improved. Both
sides learned a great deal about aircraft design, and huge numbers of aircraft
were produced. Although the number of people killed in air raids was not large,
it became obvious that in any future war civilians would suffer even if they were
many miles away from the fighting itself.
THE WAR ON OTHER FRONT

The Eastern front
Russia soon fell back on the Eastern Front. The brave attacks which
launched into Germany in 1914 could not be kept up. The Germans stopped
the Russian advance at Tannenberg and the Masurian Lakes. (See Map 2-6)
SOURCE
The sight of thousands of Russians
driven into two huge lakes to drown
was ghastly and the shrieks and cries
of dying men and horses I will never
forget. So fearful was the sight of
these thousands of men… struggling
in the water that, to shorten their
agony they (the Germans) turned
their machine guns on them… The
mowing-down of the cavalry brigade
at the same time, five hundred men
on white horses, all killed and packed
so closely together that they remained
standing….was the ghastliest sight of
the whole war.
German Officer at Tannebenberg
The Eastern Front
Questions
a What can you tell from this source about Russian equipment and tactics?
20
SECONDARY TWO
HISTORY
In 1915, German and Austrian troops advanced steadily. The huge

Russian army could not stop them. The Russian soldiers fought bravely, but
they were short of guns, ammunition, supplies and food. Their road and railway
systems were not able to take the strain of war. Russian military commanders,
led personally by the Tsar, were often incompetent. General Brusilov lead a
successful Russian counter-attack in 1916, but this put an even greater strain
on the Russian economy. There were strikes and riots at home. In March 1917,
there was a revolution and in January 1918, the new Communist rulers of
Russia made peace with Germany. Germany gained hundreds of square miles
of Russia, and could now throw all its strength into the Western Front.
Italy
Italy was allied to Germany and Austria-Hungary in 1914. The Italians,
however, stayed neutral at first, then in 1915 declared war on Austria-Hungary.
They hoped to gain some land on the Austrian border and a share in the German
colonies if the Central Powers were defeated. A most unusual and difficult war was
fought for two years, high up in the mountains and valleys of the Alps. In 1917
Germany had to send help to the Austrians and brought about a major Italian
defeat at Caporetto. This left the Italians angry and ashamed, with important
results for Italy after the war.
The Middle East

In the Middle East, British forces attacked the Turkish empire. Their efforts
were greatly helped by a British officer, Colonel T.E. Lawrence, ‘Lawrence of
Arabia’. He encouraged the Arabs to fight a guerrilla war against the Turks. By
the end of the war the British had captured Syria, Palestine and Mesopotamia
from the Turks.
Gallipoli
In 1915-16, Turkey itself was attacked. The attack was the idea of the First
Lord of the Admiralty, (Winston Churchill). His plan was to break the deadlock
on the Western Front by attacking the Central Powers from a completely new
21
SECONDARY TWO
HISTORY
direction. The attack could also open up a route by which supplies could be sent
to the Russians. Troops were landed at Gallipoli in a combined army and navy
operation. The Turkish soldiers, however, fought bravely and well. The Allied
forces were unable to move more than a few miles inland. The bravery of the
Anzacs – the Australian and New Zealand troops – became a legend, but the
Gallipoli campaign failed. After eight months of tough fighting the Allied troops
withdrew.
The Middle East 1918
THE END OF THE WAR

In 1917, the USA entered the war on the Allied side. Americans had been
angered by the sinking of the Lusitania in 1915 and furious when the Germans
announced early in 1917 that their U-boats would attack any ship trading with
Britain. This was the main reason they decided to declare war on Germany. The
old links between the United States and Britain and a shared belief in democracy
also played a part. President Woodrow Wilson said that he wanted to make ‘a
world safe for democracy’.
22
SECONDARY TWO
HISTORY
That America had entered the war was good news for the Allies, even
though it would take time for the American soldiers to arrive. It came just as
Russia seemed to be dropping out of the war. The Russian Revolution and the
delay before the Americans arrived gave Germany one last chance. General
Ludendorff pulled together all his forces, including many which he could
withdraw from the Eastern Front. All through the summer of 1918, German
forces attacked the Allied trenches. They broke through in many places, seeing
open country in front of them for the first time for four years. However, the Allies
retreated, regrouped and stopped the German advances.
British and French food supplies were good, unlike those of the Germans.
The first American troops began to arrive, and the Allies appointed one supreme
commander, Marshal Foch, to unite their efforts. Having blocked the German
attack, the Allies counter-attacked. Tanks were used in large numbers. The
French had more than three hundred and the British more than five hundred.
The Germans were pulled back all along the Western Front. The German
commanders asked for an armistice before the fighting reached Germany itself.
At the same time, there were riots and revolution among the starving German
people. With chaos at home in Germany, fighting stopped on 11 November
1918.
Why Germany Lost the War

The main reasons why Germany lost the war are:
a The effects that the long war had on the German economy. Once the
Schlieffen Plan had failed, Germany had to fight on two fronts at once. It
was unlikely ever to win such a long drawn-out war.
b The arrival of the Americans, This tipped the scales of economic and
industrial strength decisively against Germany.
c The naval blockade.. The shortages of raw material weakened German
industry, and lack of food broke the morale of the German people.
d On the battlefield, the development of the tank made trench warfare out-
of-dat. The Germans were not successful in developing a tank of their
own. Allied tanks were very important indeed in 1918.
23
SECONDARY TWO
HISTORY
Images of World War I
Franz Ferdinand The sinking of the Lusitania
Horrors of the battle of the Somme

before the battle this had been a tree lined
road.
Famous recruiting poster with

Lord Kitchener
24
SECONDARY TWO
HISTORY
First World War

Weapons
During WWI, the soldiers in the trenches used a wide variety of weapons,
these included:
- Rifles and pistols
- Machine guns
- Artillery
- Bayonets
- Torpedoes
- Flame throwers
- Mustard and chlorine gases and
- Smokeless gunpowder.
As well as using them in the trenches, some of the these weapons were
used by tanks, U boats, Zeppelins (left) and planes.
In the trenches, the weapon

carried by all British soldiers was the
bolt-action rifle (see picture top right).
It was possible for the soldier to fire
15 rounds per minute and could kill
someone up to 1,400 metres away.
French soldiers used the bayonet.
Unlike today, machine guns

were not the main weapons of
soldiers. They needed 4-6 men to
carry them in 1914 and had to be
positioned on a flat surface. They
could fire up to 400 rounds per
minute and had the fire power of 100
guns!
25
SECONDARY TWO
HISTORY
Artillery is the word used to describe

large-calibre mounted field guns. The
caliber is the diameter of the barrel. The
picture to the left is an example of the heavy
artillery that was used in the trenches. The
stalemate meant they needed long-range
weapons that could deliver devastating
blows to the enemy. They needed crews
of up to 12 men to work them; the shells
weighed up to 900lb – very heavy.
Britain was bombed by German airships, called

Zeppelins after their inventor Count Ferdinand
von Zeppelin. The airships had a cigar-shaped
aluminium frame covered in cotton cloth and
could attain speeds of up to 32 km/h.
Above Map of the Gallipoli peninsula

and the Dardanelles, where several
Allied warships were destroyed in the
first part of the attack.
The steep slopes up which the Allied troops had to

attack at Gallipoli made the Turk’s task of defence
quite easy.
26
SECONDARY TWO
HISTORY
3 - THE TREATY OF VERSAILLES

The fighting in the First World War came to an end on 11 November 1918.
The news meant different things to different people.
SOURCE - 1A
(In London) I could distinguish the hooting of motors, the ringing of handbells, the banging
of tea-trays, the shrilling of police whistles, the screaming of toy trumpets. Among the
many ludicrous incidents to be observed was a person marching at the head of a group of
parishioners, singing lustily, with a Union Jack stuck in the top of his silk hat.
World Crisis, Winston Churchill
SOURCE - 1B
(On the Western Front) Thank God! The end of a frightful four years: the awful winters in
waterlogged trenches…the terrible trench assaults and shellfire, loss of friends, exhaustion
and wounds.
General Jack’s Diary
Questions
a Put in your own words the different moods described by the writers in Sources 1A and 1B.
b Give reasons for the differences.
Now that the fighting had stopped, it was up to the politicians to work out
a lasting peace. The representatives of the victors met at Versailles, near Paris.
They worked out terms which would be presented to the defeated powers to
sign. This took them well into 1919.
The representatives in Versailles had many points to consider. If you had
been in their place, what would you have done? After your study of Chapters 1
and 2, how would you answer these questions:
a Who caused the war?
b How should a defeated country be treated?
c How could the peacemakers make sure there would never be such a war
again?
You can compare your answers with the final terms of the treaty which are
set out on page …. You have the advantage of looking back on what happened
after many years have passed. The men of 1919 were very close to the events
and had to act quickly.
27
SECONDARY TWO
HISTORY
Questions SOURCE - 2
a Which of the four countries represented here
was most affected by the war?
b How might that affect the attitude of its
representative to the discussions?
c Which was the weakest country represented here?
d Which country represented here was least
affected by the war?
e How do you think that might affect the attitude
of its representative?
f All four of the countries represented here were
democracies. How might this fact influence
the treaty?
g Which countries are not represented here (From left to right) Lloyd George
although they were deeply involved in the war? (Britain), Orlando (Italy), Clemenceau
h Why do you think this is? (France), Wilson (USA)
THE VERSAILLES NEGOTIATIONS

Wilson, USA
Woodrow Wilson, the American President, was an idealist who wanted to
build a better, safer world out of the war. When he led the USA into war in 1917,
he did so on the basis of his ‘Fourteen Points’. He had put these forward in the
hope that, if they were accepted, they would prevent another war from ever
taking place.
THE FOURTEEN POINTS

1. There should be no secret treaties; all international agreements should be open.
2. The seas were to be free to all countries at all times.
3. Customs barriers between countries should be removed.
4. Armaments should be reduced.
5. The wishes of the people in colonies should be taken into account when settling colonial
claims.
6. German forces must leave Russia.
7. Belgium should be independent.
8. Alsace-Lorraine should be returned to France.
9. Italy’s frontier should be adjusted to avoid quarrels with Austria.
10. There should be self-determination for the peoples of Eastern Europe. This meant that
the different nationalities should be allowed to govern themselves in independent countries.
11. Serbia should be given a coastline.
12. There should be self-determination for the peoples of the Turkish empire.
13. Poland should become independent from Russia and be given a coastline.
14. An international organization to settle all disputes between countries should be set up, to
be called the League of Nations.
28
SECONDARY TWO
HISTORY
Woodrow Wilson now hoped that these Fourteen Points would be the basis
of the treaty. Notice that there is no mention of punishing Germany in them. All
fourteen of the points were meant to remove any possible disagreement which
might lead to war in the way that the Sarajevo incident had done in 1914.
Clemenceau, France
Clemenceau was an old man who had seen his country invaded by
Germany in 1870 and again in 1914. Since then, he had seen his country
shattered by four years of war. Clemenceau was now determined on revenge.
His main aim was to weaken Germany so that it could never attack France again
and to gain compensation for all the damage suffered by France. Wilson’s ideals
had no appeal for him.
Lloyd George, Britain

Lloyd George saw the danger in punishing Germany too severely. However,
he had just won an election in Britain in which he had gained votes by promising
to ‘make Germany pay’, to ‘squeeze Germany till the pips squeak’ and even to
‘hang the Kaiser’. He also disagreed with point 2 of Wilson’s Fourteen Points. He
thought that Britain’s safety depended on controlling the seas.
Orlando, Italy
Italy’s Representative was only really concerned with seeing his country
did as well as possible out of the treaty.
Making Peace
Clearly, there was going to be some disagreement among the four countries
concerned. Wilson was popular in Europe but did not know as much about
European affairs as the other three representatives did. Many times, he had to
give way to them in order to keep their support for the idea which was most
important to him: point 14, the setting up of the League of Nations. This point
was written into the treaty. Several other points from the fourteen were accepted
but only when it suited Clemenceau, Lloyd George and Orlando.
The peacemakers did not have much time to consider the problem. They
had to act quickly, for Europe was in chaos. A terrible flu epidemic was killing
more people, already weak from food shortages, than the whole war had done.
29
SECONDARY TWO
HISTORY
Map 3-1 The Treaty of Versailles
In Germany, the Kaiser had abdicated and fled to Holland. A new democratically
elected republic was set up. The new German republic hoped for reasonable
terms from the treaty.
Elsewhere, there was political chaos. Following the example of the Russian
Revolution in 1917, Communists tried to seize power in parts of Germany and
Hungary. In Eastern Europe, some people had taken the law into their own
hands and set up their own states before the treaty gave them the right to do so.
30
SECONDARY TWO
HISTORY
Lastly, the conference met near Paris, in the heart of a country badly hit by
four years of war. The peacemakers could not get away from feelings of revenge:
they might have done so more easily if they had met on neutral ground.
Note that, there was no representative from Russia, a former ally of France
and Britain, then in the middle of a Communist revolution. Note also that, there
was no one present from the defeated countries: Germany, Austria-Hungary,
Turkey and Bulgaria. It was not a negotiated peace. This later led to criticism
when the terms were announced.
In the light of these facts and knowing the aims of the main peacemakers,
judge for yourself the terms of the Treaty of Versailles.
THE TERMS OF THE TREATY

Territory (see Map 3-1)
1. Alsace-Lorraine was returned to France. (It had been seized from France by
Germany after the war of 1870.)
2. The Saar (part of Germany, with an important coalfield) was taken from
Germany and given to France for fifteen years. At the end of this time, a vote
was to be taken among the people of the Saar to decide to which country they
wanted to belong.
3. The left bank of the Rhine in Germany was to be occupied by the Allies. A strip
50 km wide on the right bank was to be demilitarized – that is, no forts, army
bases, weapons or soldiers were to be allowed inside it.
4. Poland was made an independent country. It was given a ‘corridor’ to be Baltic
Sea. This ‘Polish Corridor’ cut off East Prussia from the rest of Germany.
5. Danzig, a city with both Polish and German citizens, was made a ‘free city’ and
placed under international rule.
6. Finland, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia, formerly parts of Russia, were made
independent countries.
7. Czechoslovakia, formerly part of Austria-Hungary, was made an independent
state.
8. Austria and Hungary became two separate countries.
9. A new independent country, Yugoslavia, was created out of a much enlarged
Serbia.
10. Italy was given South Tyrol and Istria.
11. Romania, Greece, Belgium and Denmark all received small pieces of land from
the defeated countries.
31
SECONDARY TWO
HISTORY
Colonies
Germany and Turkey had all their former colonies taken away from them. They
were given to other countries as mandates. This meant that the countries receiving
them had to agree to lead them, eventually, to independence. The League of
Nations was to make sure that the territories under mandate were properly looked
after.
a The German empire
Tanganyika was given to Britain, the Cameroons to France, South-West Africa
to South Africa and the Pacific islands to Japan.
b The Turkish empire
Palestine, Jordan and Iraq were given to Britain; Syria and Lebanon to France.
Arms
1. The German army was to be cut down to 100,000 men.
2. All wartime guns and weapons were to be melted down as scrap metal.
3. The German navy was to be cut down to 6 ships. Germany was not allowed to
have any submarines in future.
4. Germany was not allowed to have an air force.
5. Germany was forbidden ever to make and alliance with Austria again.
Blame
By. article 231 of the treaty, Germany had to accept total blame for the war.
Reparations
Because Germany was held to blame for the war, it was decided that it should
pay reparations to the Allies to compensate them for their losses. This was later
fixed at £6,600 million.
The German people and their government were angry and bitter about
terms of the treaty. In land, people and assets they lost the following: 13% of
their land, 12% of their people, 10% of their coal, 48% of their iron, 15% of their
agricultural production and 10% of their manufacturing industries. The loss of
their armed forces deeply wounded their national pride. The victorious countries
did not cut down their armed forces to anywhere near the same levels. The ‘war
guilt’, clause hurt most of all. Even if the German government of 1914 had
been solely to blame for the war (which is doubtful), why punish a new government
trying to replace the Kaiser’s rule with democratic government? A mood of
bitter resentment grew in Germany which later made people eager to listen to
32
SECONDARY TWO
HISTORY
Hitler’s criticisms of the treaty. However, the SOURCE - 4

German army could not fight any longer, the Through the doors at the end come
people were starving and the government four officers of France, Britain,
America and Italy. Then, isolated
knew they had no choice: they had to sign
and pitiable, come the two German
the treaty. Below is an eye-witness account delegates. They keep their eyes
of the signing, written by a member of the fixed upon the ceiling. They are
deathly pale: They do not appear as
British delegation at Versailles. representatives of brutal militarism.
The one is pale and pink eye-
lidded: second fiddle in A Brunswick
Questions orchestra. The other is moon-faced
a Can you tell what feelings the writer has about and suffering: an ordinary private.
the signing of the treaty?
b What clues does Harold Nicolson give about the Peacemaking 1919,
kind of people who were now ruling Germany? Sir Harold Nicolson
THE RESULTS OF THE TREATY

Apart from its effect on Germany, the treaty has been criticized for many
reasons. Most of all, it failed to keep the peace, for only twenty years later world
war broke out again. The treaty ignored some minority groups and set up small,
weak countries from others. Both these actions made Europe less stable. The
old Austria-Hungary was split up according, where possible, to the wishes of its
many peoples. But it had been built up as a single economic unit. Now road,
rail and river links were broken and industries cut off from their suppliers or their
markets. This contributed to the economic weaknesses of the new countries.
Some of these, like Czechoslovakia, had large minorities of other peoples inside
their borders (see Map 3-2).
Wilson’s aim of self-determination (point 10 of the Fourteen Points)
was not applied to all national minority groups equally. German minorities in
particular were ignored: in 1919, there were three and a half million Germans
in Czechoslovakia, one million Germans in Poland and half a million German-
speaking Austrians in Yugoslavia and Italy. Self-determination did not seem to
apply to the peoples who were on the wrong side at the end of the war. Some
new countries had little experience of democracy and soon fell under the rule of
dictators. Many were too small and weak to resist Hitler in 1940-41 or to resist
Russia in 1945.
33
SECONDARY TWO
HISTORY
On the other hand, the map of

Europe, except for Germany and Poland,
had remained very much the same. The
tangle of national minorities was really an
impossible problem for the peacemakers
to solve. In some areas, the frontiers could
have been drawn in any of several places
and still have been unfair to some of the
countries set up in 1919, only Yugoslavia,
Austria and Finland have continued more
or less independently. Map 3-2
National minorities in Czechoslovakia
However, as Chapter 25 will show, the people of Czechoslovakia, Hungary,
Poland and Romania are far from being completely crushed. Their pride in their national
independence, given to them in 1919, is still something which they hold dear.
ASSIGNMENTS
Empathy
1. Get into groups of four. Each member of the group is a British, French, American or
Italian delegate at the Peace Conference at Versailles. You are to discuss:
a A piece of territory where most of the people are Polish, but 25% are German.
b A German colony.
Explain the attitudes of your country to these two problems.
Knowledge and understanding

1. Look at the terms of the Treaty of Versailles and the ‘Fourteen Points’. Choose two of
the terms which would have pleased each of the three main Allied statesmen: Lloyd
George, Clemenceau, Woodrow Wilson, and one which would have pleased Orlando.
Fully explain your choices.
Themes of discussion
1. a List the problems facing the peacemakers at Versailles in 1919.
b What better solutions can you think of which would solve these problems while
avoiding the faults of the Treaty of Versailles?
2. a In what ways might the Treaty of Versailles be called unfair?
b Why did these unfairnesses happen?
c What might be the results for the future?
34
SECONDARY TWO
HISTORY
Weimar Germany and

the rise of Hitler
1919 – 1933
In this chapter you will learn about:
- why Germany’s new government had so many problems
after the end of the First World War;
- how Germany recovered from some of these problems
during the years 1924 – 29;
- how events after 1929 led to the collapse of this government;
and
- what National Socialism (Nazism) means and why Hitler
and his National Socialist Party and managed to come to
power in Germany by 1933.
Look at the photograph on this page.

This is one of the most well-known faces
in the history of the twentieth century. The
actions of this man have had a tremendous
impact on the lives of people not just in
Europe but all over the world. Millions of
people lost their lives because of the things
that he did. His name is Adolf Hitler.
In 1914, Hitler was unknown. A
photograph taken at the time shows him
as part of a crowd hearing the news of
the outbreak of the First World War. Look
carefully at both photographs: unknown man
in a crowd in the photograph on the next
page; leader of his country in the photograph
on this page. This chapter tells you how the
unknown man in the crowd turned into the Adolf Hitler
leader of Germany. What he did when he
came to power and the effects his actions
had on the people of Germany and the rest
of the world.
35
SECONDARY TWO
HISTORY
Hitler in a crowd
hearing of the
outbreak of
World War I
A new government in Germany

You learned how Germany came to have a new kind of government at the
end of the war. This government was known as the Weimar Republic, after the
small German town where it was first set up.
When the emperor had been in charge, the German people did not have
much say in how they were governed. The new government of Germany was
democracy. This means that the people were able to choose their own leaders. All
adult Germans could vote for the president of the Republic. They were also able
to take part in regular elections to choose their representatives in the German
parliament (Reichstag).
The way in which they voted was known as proportional representation.
A political part received the same percentage of places in the parliament as they
had received of the votes. For example, if a party received 15% of the votes in
the election, it would receive 15% of the places in the parliament. This system
meant that a wide range of views were represented in the parliament. However,
it had disadvantages. It encouraged a lot of small parties to be formed. Because
there were so many parties, no single party was ever able to win a majority of the
places. Most governments of the Weimar Republic therefore were made up of
politicians from a number of parties. Some of these coalition* governments were
weak and did not last long. This helped the people who were trying to replace
the Weimar Republic with a completely different kind of government.
36
SECONDARY TWO
HISTORY
Supporters of a
right-wing uprising in
Berlin, 1920,
raise a nationalist flag
The troubled years: 1919 – 1923

Scenes such as the one in the photograph on the right took place on a
number of occasions in the early years of Weimar Republic. There were many
attempts to overthrow the Republic during its early years. Many Germans blamed
the Republic for Germany’s losses at the Treaty of Versailles. They also blamed it
for the economic problems that the country was experiencing during these years.
Throughout Europe, times were bad immediately after the war. Fewer goods
were produced and, as a result, people lost their jobs. Many soldiers came home
to find that there were no jobs for them. The government became the scapegoat,
someone whom you blame, for all these problems.
Threats to the Weimar Republic came both from the left wing and right
wing*. The left wing wanted more power to be given to the ordinary people
and were usually very sympathetic to socialism and communism. The right wing
were people who did not greatly like democracy and wanted to return to the kind
of strong government Germany had had before the war.
The left wing wanted the kind of communist government that had been
created in Russia after 1917. Attempts by them to overthrow the government
included an uprising in Berlin in 1919, led by a group known as the Spartacists,
and an attempt to form a communist government in Munich, a major city in the
south of Germany. Both were unsuccessful.
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SECONDARY TWO
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The right wing was even more of a threat to the Republic. Supporters of
the right wing often had friends in high places, for example in the law courts,
government departments and the armed forces. This often explained why little
or no action was taken against them. For example, there were many politically
motivated murders during this time; most of which were obviously committed by
right-wingers, but virtually none of them were punished.
The government also had to face right wing armed gangs which roamed
the streets and made life unpleasant for people from other political parties. These
groups were behind the attempt by an army officer, Kapp, to seize control of
Berlin in 1920. As with the left wing ‘uprisings’, this was unsuccessful. There was
a further unsuccessful attempt by right-wing forces in Munich in 1923. This was
staged by the new National Socialist Party*, headed by their leader Adolf Hitler.
You can read more about this Munich putsch* later in this chapter.
As if all these problems were not enough, the German government
found itself in a difficult position because of the very bad state of the German
economy. Production in mines and factories fell; more and more people became
unemployed. Soldiers returning home from the war were unable to find jobs and
some ended up begging in the streets.
Because of the state of the economy, the German government did not
have enough money to pay for reparations. The French government was very
annoyed about this and, to punish Germany, sent troops into Ruhr, an area in
western Germany which was the centre of the country’ heavy industry. This, of
factories in manufactured goods

French invade Ruhr
Ruhr close down in short supply
government prints
rise in prices
more money not enough money
people lose savings/

money worth less government blamed
poorer
more support for parties wanting to overthrow Weimar Republic
Diagram : The chain of events following the French invasion of the Ruhr
38
SECONDARY TWO
HISTORY
course, in its turn made the economic situation even worse, as you can see from
the diagram below.
The factories in the Ruhr stopped producing manufactured goods. As
there were fewer manufactured goods being made, the price of those that were
available went up. Prices had already been going up but now rose even higher.
Soon the rise in prices got completely out of hand. The government’s response
was to print more paper money. This simply made the situation worse. Money
became worthless; people’s savings were wiped out; the standard of living
dropped dramatically. Source B on the next page shows what happened to the
mark, the Germany currency.
Many German people suffered as a result of this economic crisis. They
were very bitter about what was happening. In their anger many of them blamed
the government for their sufferings. This led to further support for extreme
political parties, both right wing and left wing, who were planning to overthrow
the Weimar Republic. It was during this Ruhr crisis of 1923 that Adolf Hitler
staged his attempted putsch in Munich.
Source question
Sources A, B and C all refer to Germany’s economic problems in 1923. Study the sources and
then answer the questions below.
SOURCE A:
A scene in front of
a bank in Berlin
in 1923.
The washing
baskets contain
bank notes.
These are being
collected so that
wages can be paid.
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SECONDARY TWO
HISTORY
SOURCE B:
Value of the German mark (the German currency) in relation to the U.S. dollar (on the first
line the figure 4.2 means that in July 1914 one U.S. dollar was worth 4.2 German marks)
Month and Year US $1 was worth:

July 1914 4.2 marks
January 1919 8.9 marks
July 1919 14.0 marks
January 1923 17,972.0 marks
July 1923 353,412,0 marks
August 1923 4,620,455,0 marks
September 1923 98,860,000.0 marks
October 1923 25,260,208,000.0 marks
November 15, 1923 4,200,000,000,000.0 marks
SOURCE C:
A British woman who lived in Berlin in 1923 remembers what life was like at the time. This
account was written in 1974.
Two women were going to the bank with a washing basket filled with notes. They
passed a shop and saw a crowd standing round the window, put down the basket
for a moment and hurried forward to see if there was anything going that could be
bought. Then they turned round and found that all the notes were there, untouched.
But the basket had gone.
a. Source B shows how much inflation there was in Germany after the First World
War. Using a dictionary and Source B, explain what inflation means. (2)
b. Read again the earlier part of this chapter which deals with Germany during the
years. 1919 – 23. What two reasons for inflation can you find? Explain these in
your own words. (4)
c. Look at Source A and read Source C. Why did people have to take washing baskets
to the bank? (2)
d. What is the point that the writer of Source C is trying to get across? (2)
e. What were the effects of the inflation of 1923 on the way of life of the German
people? (3)
f. What were the effects of the inflation on the Weimar Republic? (2)
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SECONDARY TWO
HISTORY
The Weimar Republic: the years of recovery, 1924 – 29

The Weimar Republic did not,
however, collapse in 1923. The Munich
putsch won little support and was easily
dealt with. Other attacks on the government
also failed. The economy began to recover.
More people were employed. The mood,
for a time at least, appeared to change. It
looked as if Weimar was here to stay.
The recovery of the Weimar Republic
during the mid-1920s was due largely
to Gustav Stresemann. You can see his
photograph on the right. Stresemann was
chancellor (prime minister) and Foreign
Minister of Germany for much of the period
1923 – 29.
Stresemann wanted Germany to be
prosperous again. He also wanted Germany
to get on better with other countries. One
of his first achievements was to persuade
the French to withdraw their troops from
the Ruhr. This helped to get the factories
producing once again, which in turn, meant Gustav Stresemann
that more people could find work.
The French only agreed to leave the Ruhr if Germany promised to keep
on making its reparation payments. This had been the reason why they had sent
troops there in the first place. Stresemann had to go along with this. However,
he tried to make sure that Germany had more time in which to pay. He did this
by making a deal with the USA, one of the other countries that was receiving
reparation payments. Stresemann promised that Germany would not fall behind
with its payments. In return, Germany was given more time in which to pay. The
USA also agreed to lend money to Germany to help its economy to recover.
At the same time, Stresemann was tackling the problem of Germany’s
currency. This, you will remember, had collapsed. The mark, the old German
money, had become worthless. Stresemann decided to withdraw all the old
money and replace it with a new currency, known as the rentenmarks, in which
people would feel confident. Along with his other actions, this helped convince
41
SECONDARY TWO
HISTORY
people that Germany was once again a prosperous country. They felt that at last
Germany was beginning to recover from the problems it had experienced just
after the war.
Stresemann’s greatest interest was in foreign affairs. Here his aim was to
make Germany once again the strongest country in Europe. He did not want to
do this by quarrelling with or attacking other countries. His plan, instead, was to
get on better terms with other countries and encourage them to trust Germany.
In this way, he hoped eventually, that Germany might be allowed to recover
some of the lands and rights which it had lost at the Treaty of Versailles.
Stresemann’s successes in foreign affairs

1. Signing the treaties of Locarno with Germany’s wartime enemies in 1925.
By signing these treaties, the Weimar Republic agreed not to try and recover
any of its lost lands in western Germany. Stresemann hoped that this would
show that Germany could now be trusted. It certainly helped to make the
governments of Britain, France and Italy less suspicious about Germany.
2. Managing to get Germany allowed in to the League of Nations in 1926. The
League of Nations was mostly controlled by the countries which Germany
had fought against in the First World War. When Germany joined alongside
these countries, it was a sign that they were now on better terms with each
other.
3. Persuading the Allies in 1929 to withdraw their troops from the Rhineland.
This was five years before the Treaty of Versailles said they had to leave.
The fact that the Allies agreed to do this shows that Stresemann’s policy of
getting other countries to trust Germany again had worked.
4. Getting the USA to agree to an even better deal about reparation payments.
This agreement, known as the Young Plan, was made in 1929. In return for
promising that it would continue to pay reparations, the amount Germany
had to pay was greatly reduced.
The effects of the Wall Street Crash (1929) on Germany

You read about the Wall Street Crash. It brought Germany’s years of
prosperity to a sudden end. The country was once again thrown into the kind of
disorder it had experienced after the First World War.
Germany had come to rely on US loans. Now that the US economy had
collapsed, these were withdrawn. The USA, and other countries, had less money
to buy German goods. As a result, German factories were closed down and
42
SECONDARY TWO
HISTORY
workers found themselves without jobs. Soon the situation was far worse than
in the early 1920s. This time there was no inflation, but even more people were
out of work. As in the years after 1919, people blamed the government for their
problems. Once again people began to give their support to extremist parties.
Many of them began to give their support to the National Socialists and their
leader Adolf Hitler.
Hitler and the National Socialist Party

Look again, at the picture of Hitler at beginning of this chapter. For most
of the 1920s, this man was not a major figure in German life. By 1933, he had
become Chancellor. By 1934, he had become President and virtual dictator.
Why did this happen? What sort of a man was he?
Hitler’s career to 1929

Hitler was born in Austria in 1889. Austria was a German-speaking country
and Hitler grew up thinking of himself as part of the German race. As a young
man living in Vienna, the capital of Austria, he learned many of the ideas that
were later associated with National Socialism. In particular, he came to dislike
democracy and to hate the Jewish people who lived in Vienna and in many
other central and eastern European cities at that time. He also came to believe
that the Germans were the best people in the world and that the German state
should be strong and powerful. In 1913, Hitler moved to Germany. He joined
the German army and fought in the First World War.
It was at the end of the First World War that Hitler decided to become
involved in politics. He set up a small party known as the National Socialist
German Workers’ Party. At first there were very few members.
It was called a ‘nationalist’ party because it wanted the German nation
to be strong again and to recover all the power and lands it had lost at the end
of the First World War. It was called a ‘socialist’ party because it attacked the
rich and wanted to spread wealth more evenly across the different classes. As a
‘nationalist’ party that was also ‘socialist’, it hoped to win support from ordinary
people. Unlike most other ‘nationalist’ groups at that time, Hitler’s party appealed
to the man and woman in the street and not just to the middle and upper classes.
In the early years, however, Hitler received little support. You have already
read about the Munich putsch of 1923 when he tried to seize power in the
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SECONDARY TWO
HISTORY
southern German city of Munich. The attempt was a failure, though Hitler’s
arrest and trial gave him a lot of useful publicity in the newspapers. While he was
briefly in prison, as punishment for his part in the putsch, he wrote an account
of his political views known as Mein Kampf (My Struggle).
After his failure in Munich in 1923, Hitler was convinced that he would
only be able to come to power by peaceful mean. For the rest of the 1920s, he
concentrated his efforts on trying to make his party better organized. He formed
new branches in different parts of Germany; he set up a youth movement, to
attract support from young people; he organised large public meetings. By 1929
he was in a strong position to take advantage of any crisis that might occur.
Why Hitler rose to power, 1929 – 1933

The table opposite shows how between 1929 and 1932 the National
Socialist Party changed from being one of the smallest parties in the German
parliament to being the largest. Notice how the:
- German Nationalist People’s Party and the Social Democratic Party
lost quite a lot to support;
- Roman Catholic Centre Party kept the same level of support;
- Communist Party gained a certain amount of support;
- National Socialist Party increased its support more than ten times.
Total numbers of vaotes obtained by major political parties in elections to the Reichstag, 1924-32.
(The figures in brackets represent the percentage of he total votes that were obtained by each party.)
- May December May September July November
1924 1924 1928 1930 1932 1932
German Nationalist 5.695.000 6.209.000 4.382.000 2.245.000 2.187.000 3.131.000

People’s Party (19.5%) (20.5%) (14.2%) (7%) (5.9%) (8.8%)
Social Democratic 6.009.000 7.886.000 9.153.000 8.576.000 7.960.000 7.251.000

Party (20.5%) (26%) (29.8%) (24.5%) (21.6%) (20.4%)
Centre Party 3.914.000 4.121.000 3.712.000 4.127.000 4.589.000 4.230.000

(13.4%) (13.6%) (11.1%) (11.8%) (12.4%) (11.91%)
Communist Party 3.693.000 2.712.000 3.265.000 4.590.000 5.370.000 5.980.000

(12.6%) (9%) (10.6%) (13.1%) (14.3%) (16.9%)
National Socialist 1.918.000 908.000 810.000 6.407.000 13.779.000 11.737.000

German Workers’ (6.6%) (3%) (2.6%) (18.3%) (37.3%) (33.1%)
Party
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It should be obvious from the table that extremist parties such as the
Communists and National Socialists won support, while more moderate parties
such as the nationalists and the social democrats lost it. As in the years after the
end of the First World War, this was partly because of the economic situation.
As you can see from the figure below, the number of unemployed people in
Germany greatly increased.
Year 1928 1930 1932

Number of unemployed 1,368,000 3,076,000 5,250,000
The governments during those years seemed unable to stop the number of
unemployed from rising. The Communists and the National Socialists promised
to get rid of these governments and solve the problem of unemployment by
spending government money to create new jobs.
As in the period after the First World
War, governments were often weak and
did not last for long. They were mostly
coalition governments, formed out of a
number of different parties. These parties
often found it difficult to agree with each
other, even though they were supposed
to be part of the same government.
The two strongest parties wanting
the Weimar Republic to continue were
the Centre and the Social Democrats.
They could not agree with each other
and were unable to unite to stop the
National Socialists. Hitler was a powerful speaker
In these difficult years, Hitler and the National Socialists seemed to offer
hope for the future. Hitler was a brilliant speaker. You can see how passionate
he could be at public meetings in the above photograph. These meetings were
carefully stage managed, with floodlights, military music and marches by Nazi
supporters in uniform. All this stirred people into supporting Hitler even when
45
SECONDARY TWO
HISTORY
they had only the vaguest ideas of what they were agreeing to.
Hitler also managed to get support from some wealthy German industrialists
who thought that a National Socialist Germany was likely to be strong and there
could solve Germany’s economic problems. These people were worried by the
growth in support for communism. They feared that the communists would
take their wealth away from them, as had happened to the rich in Russia. They
thought that Hitler was the best way of stopping Germany from being taken over
by the communists.
In the end, though, the result was that Hitler came to power because
his party was the largest one in the parliament. The other parties were simply
unable to forget about their differences and combine against him. The President,
Hindenburg, therefore had little choice but to appoint Hitler as Chancellor. This
was in January 1933. It was the beginning of the end for Weimar Germany and
the start of what Hitler came to call the ‘Third Reich’ (the third German Empire).
On the evening that Hitler was made Chancellor, huge crowds marched past
the government offices in Berlin, the German capital. Carrying flaming torches,
they greeted Hitler enthusiastically as he waved to them from the balcony. Many
other Germans stayed at home, locked their doors and feared for the future.
Stimulus question
Read the following list of demands made by the National Socialist Party in the 1920s
and then answer the questions below. You will need to refer to the previous section in order to
answer some of the questions.
1. We demand that all Germans are united to form a great Germany.
2. We demand the abolition of the Treaty of Versailles.
3. We demand land for our surplus population.
4. Only people of German blood may be members of Germany; no Jew, therefore,
may be a German.
5. We demand that all incomes that are not earned by work be abolished.
6. We demand that the workers share in the profits of the major industries.
7. We demand education of gifted children at the state’s expense.
a. In (1) Hitler is demanding that German people are brought together in one
state. Name three groups of Germans living outside Germany that he would
have wanted to become part of a united Germany.
b. Why did Hitler, like many other Germans, want to get rid of the Treaty of
Versailles?
46
SECONDARY TWO
HISTORY
c. Why would demand (3) have appealed to some Germans during the 1920s?

d. The National Socialist Party claimed to be both ‘nationalist’ and ‘socialist’.
Identify two of these demands that strike you as ‘nationalist’ and two which
strike you as ‘socialist’.
e. Why do you think support for the National Socialist Party was not very strong
during the mid-1920s?
f. Why did support for the National Socialists increase after 1929?
Structured question
a. Which groups of people in Germany were hostile to the Weimar Republic in the
years 1919 – 23?
b. Give reasons why each of these groups was hostile to the Weimar Republic.
c. Why, despite this hostility, did the Weimar Republic survive throughout the 1920s?
d. Describe how, after 1929, the Weimar Republic came to be replace by a Nazi
dictatorship.
e. Explain why the Nazis were so successful during the early 1930s.
KEY HISTORICAL TERMS

Coalition
An agreement between different groups or different political parties. Many
of the governments of the Weimar Republic were coalitions.
Left-wing and right-wing

These are terms that were first used a long time ago referring to the people
who sat on the left and right in parliament. Those on the left wanted change
and reform; those on the right tended to support things as they were. In Europe,
between the world wars ‘left-wing’ normally meant socialists or communists
and ‘right-wing’ meant those who supported the existing state of affairs or who
wanted to go back to the kind of world that had existed before the First World
War.
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SECONDARY TWO
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National Socialism (or Nazism)

These are the ideas that Hitler stood for as leader of the National Socialist
Party. The important ones are given below.
Intense nationalism. This means putting loyalty to one’s national or country
before anything else. It also means putting the interests of one’ country before
those of other countries. In practice, it meant having an aggressive foreign policy
towards other countries.
Strong Government. Nazis disliked democracy and believed that the state
should be under the control of one strong ruler. They called Hitler their Fuhrer
(leader).
Dislike of communism and socialism. As well as attacking democracy, Nazis
also saw communists and socialists as their main enemies. Unlike socialists and
communists, the Nazis did not want to get rid of private property. The Nazis were
also mainly concerned about Germany, not about helping workers to get a better
deal.
Racism. Nazis believed that some races were superior to others. In particular,
they believed that the Germans were superior and Jews were inferior.
Social reform. Nazis sometimes attacked the rich, especially those who did not
work. They promised a better deal for ordinary people.
Putsch
An attempt to take over control of the government. This is a German word.
It is normally used to refer to the various attempts to overthrow the Weimar
Republic during the years after the First World War.
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SECONDARY TWO
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Hitler in power
1933 – 1938
- how Hitler strengthened his power in Germany in 1933 – 34.
- how between 1933 and 1939, Hitler tried to influence all
aspects of the lives of the German people.
- how and why Jewish people in Germany suffered as a result
of Hitler’s rule; and
- what is meant by totalitarian dictatorship’.
Hitler shakes
hands
with Presendent
Hindenburg
on becoming
Chancellor
When Hitler came to power, in Germany in 1933 he set about creating

a ‘thousand year Reich’, in other words, an empire that would last a thousand
years. He and his supporters had high hopes that Nazi rule would go in forever.
In fact, Hitler’s Third Reich (third empire) lasted only twelve year. It ended in
1945, with Germany’s defeat in the Second World War and Hitler’s own suicide
amidst the ruins of Berlin. In previous chapters, you can read how Hitler’s actions
led to this war and eventually brought about his downfall. This chapter looks at
what happened inside Germany in the years before the war broke out.
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SECONDARY TWO
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The Reichstag Fire

Hitler became Chancellor in January 1933 with the support of the
President, the German army and many politicians. These people hoped that he
would make the government strong again and sort out Germany’s economic
problems. Then they intended to get rid of him. Hitler, however, was determined
to stay. As soon as he became Chancellor, he set about making sure that he had
complete power.
His first step was to call new elections for the Reichstag (parliament). The
Nazis were already the largest single party in the Reichstag, but Hitler wanted
them to have an overall majority. Now that he was in control of the government,
Hitler was able to make sure that his party had all the advantages. He stopped
the newspapers from writing hostile things about the Nazis. He dismissed those
officials who were opposed to him. He used his uniformed followers to break
up the meetings of other parties and beat up his opponents. These were known
as the SA or brownshirts (he also had a group known as the SS or blackshirts,
who ran his secret police force). There was extreme Nazi violence throughout the
election campaign, especially against the communists.
A week before the election,
the Reichstag building in Berlin
went up in flames. You can see
a photograph of this on the left.
Hitler blamed the fire on the
communists. He used it as an excuse
to issue an emergency law taking
away the freedoms people had
been promised by the Weimar
Republic, such as the right to a
fair trial and to a free press. The
German people now had very
few rights left. The Reichstag
Fire was almost certainly started
deliberately by the Nazis, though
the German people did not know
The Reichstag Fire
this at the time.
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SECONDARY TWO
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As you might expect, the Nazis increased their support in the election.
However, they still only obtained 43% of the votes. With the help of the Nationalist
party, which supported Hitler, they just managed to scrape together an overall
majority of 51%.
The Enabling Act, 1933

Hitler’s aim now was to persuade the Reichstag to give up its powers and
allow him to rule as a dictator*. To do this, he had to get the Reichstag to pass
an ‘Enabling Act’. This needed a two-thirds majority, which he achieved in three
ways:
- banning the communist deputies from coming to the
Reichstag, so that they could not use their votes;
- persuading the Centre Party to vote for Act by vague
promises of things he would do for them in the future; and
- using the votes of his allies, the Nationalists.
The end of democracy in Germany

Due to the Enabling Act, democracy in Germany ended. Other political
parties were banned. Trade unions were taken over by the Nazi party. Press,
radio and cinema were placed under total Nazi control. Opponents of Hitler
were arrested, killed or imprisoned. Some went to concentration camps, forced
labour camps which were set up in different parts of Germany. The Gestapo
(secret police) and SS struck terror into the hearts of opponents of the Nazis.
Many Jews, democrats and other opponents fled the country. They included
some of the most famous Germans of their day, such as the scientist Albert
Einstein and the writer Thomas Mann.
The Night of the Long Knives, 1934

Hitler also wanted to make sure he had complete power within his own
party. The leader of his brownshirts (SA), Ernst Rohm, was disappointed that he
was not playing a more important part in the new government, and that Hitler
was not keeping his promise to introduce social reforms. He began to cause
trouble. Hitler therefore decided to get rid of him and many of his followers. He
did this by calling the leaders of the SA to a special conference. During the night,
he had them dragged from their beds and shot. On the same night, many other
opponents all over Germany were dealt with in the same way. The fact that there
were no public protests about what had happened showed how powerful Hitler
had become. This became known as The Night of the Long Knives.
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SECONDARY TWO
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Two months later, President Hindenburg died. To complete his power,

Hitler decided to combine the jobs of Chancellor and President. At the same
time, he became commander in chief of the armed forces. Hitler was now the
supreme dictator of Germany.
Source B
“They salute with both hands now”

British cartoon of the Night of the Long
Knives, 1934
The slogan on the banner reads
“Loyalty, Honour and Order”.
“Deutschland” means “Germany”.
Source A
Source question
Propaganda means the attempt
to persuade people to take a certain
point of view. Governments and
political parties are involved in
propaganda all the time. Below are
two examples of propaganda is issued
in Germany in the early 1930s. Study
Sources A and B, and also the British
cartoon above, and then answer the
questions that follow.
a. Source A was issued in 1932.
What events of 1932 are referred
to in the cartoon?
“Only the stupidest cows choose
their own butcher”
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SECONDARY TWO
HISTORY
b. Explain what Source A is trying to say. How do you know it was

issued by opponents of the Nazis?
c. How do you know that Source B was issued by supporters of
Hitler? What kind of impression of Hitler does it give?
d. Compare the way the two artists in Sources A and B have drawn
Hitler. What differences do you notice?
e. Look at the British cartoon about the Night of the Long Knives
at the top of p….. What do you think the artist is trying to tell us
about Hitler?
Hitler’s Germany
A Hitler youth
camp in the
1930s
The young people

The Nazi party had many ways of controlling the lives and influencing
the thoughts of the Germany people. Party officials were everywhere: at work,
at school, at university. Even at home, people were carefully watched. Every
street had its blockwart, a party representative who watched what everyone was
doing and reported on their behavior to party headquarters. There was also the
Gestapo and the SS. In these ways, Hitler did his best to establish in Germany
a totalitarian dictatorship* where the government controlled every aspect of
people’s lives.
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SECONDARY TWO
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Hitler was especially keen to win over the minds of young people. Education
was carefully controlled. Children were encouraged to be loyal to their Fuhrer
(leader) and to put him and their Fatherland (Germany) before everything else.
Girls and boys were also strongly encouraged to join the Hitler Youth. This
was divided up into different sections according to age. People who did not join
found it difficult to go on to university or even to get a job when they left school.
The Hitler Youth was another way of making young people believe what the
Nazis wanted them to believe. Older boys also did a lot of physical exercises, to
prepare them for military service in the German army.
The Jews
The picture below is from a book published by the Nazis. It shows Jewish
children and their teacher being expelled from a school. The non-Jewish children
are delighted at what is happening. This is kind of indoctrination you have just
read about. Its purpose is obvious: to make children hate the Jews.
The Nazis had always attacked the Jews, blaming them for all of Germany’s
problems. Once in power, they began a campaign of anti-semitic* persecution.
They were arrested and beaten up. Many were forced out their jobs. Jewish
shops had slogans painted over their windows and people were discouraged
from buying their goods. Although many Jews left Germany, most stayed on
surviving as best they could. This was their home; they had always lived here;
they had nowhere else to go.
Cartoon from
an anti-semitic
children’s book
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SECONDARY TWO
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In 1935, the Nuremberg Laws forbade Jews to marry non-Jews. These

laws also took away from all Jews their rights as citizens. In 1938, there was
a dreadful wave of violence throughout Germany. The SA broke into Jewish
homes, burnt down their synagogues (places of worship) and beat up, tortured
and killed any Jews they could find. Jews were not allowed to go to public parks,
sporting events or concerts.
The mass murder of Jews, what the Nazis called the ‘The Final Solution’
to the ‘Jewish problem’, did not take place until after the outbreak of the Second
World War.
The Christian Churches

Germany was a Christian country. Most Germans were Protestant
Christians, though there were also many Roman Catholics. Hitler did not trust
the Christian churches because he feared that they had too much influence over
the people. He did not like the idea that people were more loyal to the churches
than they were to him.
He tried therefore to bring the churches more under the control of the
government. He was very successful in doing this with the Protestant churches.
He created a new state Church with a Nazi bishop in charge. With the Roman
Catholics he was less successful. This was partly because the Roman Catholic
Church was an organization with branches all over the world and therefore more
difficult to control. However, many German Roman Catholics seemed fairly
happy with the Nazi regime.
Some German Christians saw how Nazism was in many ways the opposite
of Christianity and they condemned it as the enemy of their faith. Many were
arrested because they refused to give up their beliefs. One of these was Pastor
Martin Niemoeller, who refused to join the Nazi state Church. He formed the
Confessional Church and openly opposed many aspects of Nazism. In the last
sermon he was allowed to preach, he told his followers: ‘we must obey God
rather than man’. He was placed in Dachau concentration camp, where he
remained until the end of the war.
55
SECONDARY TWO
HISTORY
The economy
Look at the photograph in the middle of the page. This was one of the
new roads that Hitler built in Germany in the 1930s. Hitler’s programme of road
building was one of the ways in which he tried to solve Germany’s economic
problems. Road building provided jobs for large numbers of people. Now that
they were in work, these people were able to buy more goods. This, in its turn,
helped to provide work for others. Hitler slow employed people to reclaim waste
land and pull down slums in the cities. He was therefore able to reduce the
number of unemployed.
The building of
new motorways
(autobahns)
provided
jobs for many
people
The growth in the German army, which you read about in the next chapter,
also helped to provide work. It led to a greater demand for armaments; as a
result, there were more jobs for people in the arms factories. Overall, the number
of unemployed fell from 6 million in 1933, when Hitler came to power, to 2.5
million in 1935.
Hitler’s success in reducing the number of unemployed made him popular
with many Germans. There were no further genuine elections after 1933, so it
is not possible to know how much support he actually had. There is little doubt,
however, that large numbers of ordinary Germans continued to give Hitler their
enthusiastic support.
56
SECONDARY TWO
HISTORY
Stimulus question
Read the following passage, written by an opponent of the Nazis. It refers
to the period immediately after the Reichstag Fire in 1933.
Before the ashes of the Reichstag Building were cold the air waves
were alive with National Socialist voices blaring forth details about
the murderous….. plans of the Communists. SA men rushed
about in trucks, drunk with victory and roaring threats at people;
in the cellars of SA barracks woolen blankets stifled the cries of
the victims. Outside the polls, giant posters screamed… Stamp out
Communism! Crush Social Democracy!’
a. Explain why the burning of the Reichstag Building in 1933 helped
Hitler.
b. What did German people at the time not know about the Reichstag
Fire?
c. What is meant by propaganda? What do you learn from the first
sentence about one of the ways in which the Nazis put across their
propaganda?
d. Who were the SA and what part did they play in Hitler’s rise to power?

e. What happened to the SA in 1934, and why?
f. How were the views of
(i) The German democratic parties such as the Social Democrats, and
(ii) The Communists different from those of the Nazis?
g. Why was Hitler successful in 1933 – 34 in stamping out Communism
and crushing Social Democracy in Germany?
Structured question
a. Describe the steps by which Hitler established a Nazi dictatorship in
Germany in 1933 – 34.
b. Describe Hitler’s policies during the years 1933 – 39 towards (i) the
Jews and (ii) the Christian churches in Germany.
57
SECONDARY TWO
HISTORY
c. How, in other ways, did Hitler try to shape the minds of the Germany
people?
d. Did Hitler rule Germany with the support of the German people? Give
reasons for your answer.

Dictator
A dictator is someone who has complete power over the country he or she
rules. Dictatorship is the name we give to this kind of government. There have
been many dictators in the twentieth century. You will read about some of them
in this book. They include Hitler, Stalin and Mao Zedong.
Totalitarian dictatorship
A totalitarian dictatorship is where the dictator has control over every aspect
of people’s lives. Totalitarian governments control the press, cinema and radio.
They indoctrinate people through propaganda. They use education to make
sure that children only believe what the government wants them to believe. They
try to control all aspects of people’ lives, even what they to in their spare time.
Anti-semitism
This means being opposed to the Jews (‘anti’ means against and ‘semitic’
means Jewish). Many right-wing political parties in Europe between the two wars
were anti-semitic. Jews were a convenient scapegoat (someone to blame) for the
problems European countries faced during these years. The most violently anti-
semitic of these parties were the Nazis in Germany.
Gigantic
swastika flags
at a Nazi rally
58
SECONDARY TWO
HISTORY
The growth of
German power 1933-1938
- how Hitler wanted to make Germany the greatest power in Europe;
- how Hitler rearmed Germany and broke the Treaty of Versailles;
- how Germany became involved in the Spanish Civil War (1936 – 39);
- why Britain and France did so little to stop the growth of German
power; and
- what is meant by the term ‘appeasement’.
This chapter, and previous chapter,

try to answer the question ‘why did the
Second World War break out in Europe in
1939?’ Any answer to this question must
begin with Hitler.
Long before he came to power, Hitler had made it clear that he hated
the Treaty of Versailles. He saw it as the main thing that was stopping Germany
from becoming once again the greatest power in Europe. He decided to break it
whenever he could. He probably did not have any precise plans, but hoped to
turn every situation to Germany’s advantage.
Rearmament
Hitler’s first step was to try and rearm Germany. The Treaty of Versailles
had forced Germany to keep its armed forces very small. Hitler greatly resented this.
The first sign of what he was intending to do came in 1933 when the League
of Nations held a worldwide conference on disarmament*. The purpose of this
conference was to try find ways of reducing the number of arms in the world.
Hitler was not interested in disarming (getting rid of arms). Instead, he looked
towards rearmament*. In October 1933, Hitler pulled out of the disarmament
conference. At the same time, he withdrew Germany altogether from the League
of Nations. This was a clear signal to other countries that Germany no longer
intended to be bound by international agreements.
59
SECONDARY TWO
HISTORY
From then onwards, Hitler began to build up Germany’s army and military
equipment in ways that the Treaty of Versailles did not allow. The graph below
shows how much money was spent on armaments in Germany during the 1930s.
(the figures are in millions of marks).
17.25
18
16
Money spent 14
on armaments 12 10.96 11.91
10.27
by the German 10
government, 8
1933-40 5.5
6
4.2
4
0.75
2
1933-34 1934-35 1935-36 1936-37 1937-38 1939-40 Apr-Sept

1939
Hitler did not ask permission from France, Britain and the other countries
which had signed the Treaty of Versailles. He simply did it.
Hitler brings back conscription

One way, the Treaty of Versailles
had tried to keep the Germany army small
was by banning conscription*. After 1919,
soldiers serving in the German armed forces
had to be volunteers and had to serve for a
long period of time.
Hitler decided to put an end to this
ban on conscription. He wanted to build
up a large military force that could be called
up at a moment’s notice. He also thought
it would be good for young German men
to do military service. It would provide
work for those who were unemployed. It
would also help to make them loyal to the Hitler talking to German generals
during military exercises
government.
In 1935, Hitler therefore announced that conscription was being brought
back. It was a popular decision with many Germany people.
60
SECONDARY TWO
HISTORY
Germany regains the Saar, 1935

The first territory that Hitler was able
to regain for Germany was the area of the
Saar coalfield in the west of Germany.
This area had been ruled by the League
of Nations since 1919. It had always been
agreed that after fifteen years the people of
the Saar would decide whether they wished
to continue to be ruled by the League or
be ruled by France or Germany. A vote
was held in 1935 and a majority of the
inhabitants, most of whom were Germans,
voted in favour of a return to Germany.
Nazi poster encouraging the

people of the Saar to vote for a
Hitler sends German troops into
return to Germany, 1935
the Rhineland, 1936
Another popular move, at least with the German people, was to send
German troops back into the Rhineland. It is large area in the west of Germany
which had been demilitarised by the Treaty of Versailles. This meant that Germany
had been forbidden to put troops into that area.
This was one part of the treaty that Germans felt to be most unfair. After
all, they claimed, this was German territory and Germany ought to be able to do
what it liked in it. Again, Hitler did not ask permission from the other countries
which had signed the treaty. Guessing that they would not actually fight to stop
him, he ordered his troops to go in.
German troops march
across a bridge over
the Rhine on the
way to reoccupy the
Rhineland, 1936
61
SECONDARY TWO
HISTORY
Appeasement
Appeasement means giving way to other countries in order to avoid conflict
and war. This is obviously something that most countries do from time to time.
This is what Britain and France did towards Germany after 1933. They did it so
often that it came to seem that they had a definite policy to do so. This policy
came to be known as appeasement. When the word is used, it is normally used
by people who do not like the policy. People who accused Britain and France of
appeasement wanted them to stand up to Germany, not to give way.
The politician whose name is most linked with appeasement is Neville
Chamberlain, British Prime Minister from 1937 to 1940. However, the policy
had started long before 1933. It helps to explain why Hitler was able to do the
various things you have just read about, such as bring back conscription and
send troops back into the Rhineland. Britain and France did little or nothing to
stop him. Why did Britain and France adopt this policy? These are some reasons.
1 Memories of the First World War

People still remembered the First World War, with all its suffering and
terrible loss of life. Above all, what they wanted to avoid was another war on
that scale. If giving way to Germany was necessary to avoid war, then they were
prepared to do so.
2 Britain’s other problems

Britain had a large overseas empire. This was causing a lot of trouble:
in India and Palestine there was growing opposition to British rule. The British
government did not want conflict in Europe as well.
3 Attitudes towards the Treaty of Versailles
Many British and French politicians had come to feel that the Versailles
settlement had been too harsh on Germany. They therefore felt some sympathy
for Hitler’s demands.
4 Attitudes towards Hitler
It took most British and French politicians a long time to realize that
Hitler was going to continue to demand more and more. They assumed that he
was a reasonable man who would stop making these demands once some of
62
SECONDARY TWO
HISTORY
Germany’s main grievances had been appeased. They did not realize that every
sign of weakness on their part simply encouraged Hitler to demand more.
5 Attitudes towards communism

Some politicians in Britain and France disliked communism much more
than they disliked Nazism. They could see some advantages in having a strong
anti-communist government in Germany.

Disarmament
Getting rid of armaments, by reducing the number of weapons or getting rid of
them altogether. Attempts to do this by the League of Nations during the years
between the two world wars were largely unsuccessful.
Rearmament
Building up armaments, after having reduced them. Germany was forced to
disarm (get rid of arms) by the Treaty of Versailles. As soon as he came to power,
Hitler set about rearming.
Conscription
Compulsory military service. Germany had been forbidden to have this by the
Treaty of Versailles. It was brought back by Hitler in 1935.
Fascist
Mussolini and his followers in Italy used this term to describe themselves. It is
also used to describe people with similar views in other European countries.
Nazism was similar in many ways to fascism, Fascists put their country before
everything else and were often aggressive towards other countries. They believed
in dictatorship and rule by a strong leader. They were very hostile to both
democracy and communism. They usually believed that some races, especially
their own, were better than others.
63

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Secondary Two

2. The First World War 1914-1918 9

3. The Treaty of Versailles 27

4. Weimar Germany and the rise of Hitler 35

5. Hitler in Power 1933-1938 49

6. The Growth of German Power 1933-1938 59

1 - THE CAUSES OF THE FIRST WORLD WAR

THE GREAT POWERS AND RIVAL ALLIANCES

THE ENTENTE POWERS

Events in Morocco, 1905-6

The Naval Race, 1906 – 14

The Build-up of Armies, 1900 – 14

THE ASSASSINATION AT SARAJEVO

KAISER WILHELM II 1859–1941

ASSIGNMENTS i. German troops enter Belgium

General von Kluck

2 - THE FIRST WORLD WAR 1914-1918

The Trench System

Life in the Trenches

Dangers in the Trenches

The experiences in the trenches led to bitterness amongst some of those

The Western Front 1914-17 The Western Front 1918

MAIN EVENTS OF THE FIRST WORLD WAR ON THE

New French general, Nivelle, attacks. Germans know the attack is

THE HOME FRONT

THE WAR AT SEA

The Battle of Jutland

The Convoy System

THE WAR IN THE AIR

This aspect of the war, unlike

THE WAR ON OTHER FRONT

The Eastern Front

In 1915, German and Austrian troops advanced steadily. The huge

The Middle East

The Middle East 1918

THE END OF THE WAR

Why Germany Lost the War

Images of World War I

Franz Ferdinand The sinking of the Lusitania

Horrors of the battle of the Somme

Famous recruiting poster with

First World War

In the trenches, the weapon

Unlike today, machine guns

Artillery is the word used to describe

Britain was bombed by German airships, called

Above Map of the Gallipoli peninsula

The steep slopes up which the Allied troops had to

3 - THE TREATY OF VERSAILLES

THE VERSAILLES NEGOTIATIONS

THE FOURTEEN POINTS

Lloyd George, Britain

Map 3-1 The Treaty of Versailles

THE TERMS OF THE TREATY

Hitler’s criticisms of the treaty. However, the SOURCE - 4

THE RESULTS OF THE TREATY

On the other hand, the map of

Knowledge and understanding

Weimar Germany and

Look at the photograph on this page.