The Continuation of the
First World War, 1939-1941
LTC (Retired) Oakland McCulloch
Outline
• End of WWI and the Versailles Settlement
• Mood of the World
– World Wide Depression
– Casualties From WWI
– Appeasement to Avoid Another War
• Failure of the League of Nations
– In Europe
– In Asia
– Failure of Other Countries
• Rise of ‘isms’
– Nazism, Fascism, Communism, Nationalism
• Another War Was Inevitable Because…
The End of WWI
• Germany defeated
but not destroyed
• War ended with
German Army still
on French soil
• German people felt
betrayed by the
government
• All major European
Powers exhausted
The Continuation of the
First World War, 1939-1941
The Versailles Settlement
• Drawn up by peace congress in Paris made up of French,
British, American delegations, assisted by a myriad of
diplomats from other minor allied powers.
• Redrew the map of Europe
• Germany lost territory
• 9 new or renewed states formed in Eastern Europe
• Germany Punished
• Germany lost territory
• Germany must pay huge war reparations for war damages
• Developed structure of League of Nations
• Germans were not involved and received the final text and
signed the treaty on 28 June 1919.
German Army restricted to
NMT 100,000 soldiers
No Armor & no General Staff
German territorial losses and economic & military restrictions
Restructured Eastern Europe
The Casualties
Continuation
of the
In World War
I
KIA War,
WIA
% of Mobilized
First
World
1939-1941
Allied Powers
Powers 4,950,000
After the War76.3
Russia The Great
1,700,000
France
1,357,800 4,266,000
76.3
• World
Wide Depression
British Empire
908,371 2,090,212
35.8
Cost of World
War I
Italy
947,000
39.1
• Casualties
from WWI650,000
United
126,000
234,300
Major States
Allied Powers
Major Cental 8.2
Powers
Others to Avoid Another
409,944
---• Anything
War 343,492
Germany
32.3
USTotal
32.3 5,152,115 12,831,004
52.3
Austria
39.3
Britain
39.3
Central
Powers
Turkey
52.0
British
Empire
52.0
Germany
4,216,058
64.9Billion
Total 85.2
France
49.9 1,773,700
Austria-Hungary
3,620,000
90.0
Russia
21.6 1,200,000
Turkey
400,000
34.2
Italy
18.1 325,000
Bulgaria
87,500
152,390
22.2
Total 213.2 Billion
Total
3,386,200 8,388,448
67.4
The Continuation of the
First World War, 1939-1941
The Failure of the League of Nations
Failure in Europe
• Oct 35 Italy invades Abyssinia
• Mar 36 Occupation of Rhineland
• Mar 38 Annexation of Austria
• Sep 38 Annexation of Sudetenland
• Mar 39 Take over of Czechoslavakia
• Apr 39 Italy occupies Albania
• Jul 36 – Mar 39 Spanish Civil War
• 1 Sep 39 Invasion of Poland
Failure in Asia
• 31-32 Japan occupies Manchuria
• Jul 37 – Dec 39 Invasion &
occupation of whole North East
quarter of China
• Sep 40 Occupation of French
Indo-China
• 7 Dec 41 Pearl Harbor
No other countries tried to stop the aggression
The Continuation of the
First World War, 1939-1941
The Rise of ‘isms’
• Nationalism is a policy of putting the interest of one’s won nation
before the interests of all other nations and the common interest
of mankind.
• 1931-1945 was full of ‘isms’
• communism, Nazism, fascism, capitalism, colonialism, imperialism
• all subordinate to Nationalism
• all except capitalism linked to racism
• Use of mass media (radio, film & papers) to inspire population
and soldiers to carry on the fight
• Nationalism caused WWII, it dominated the way the war was
fought and it survived it
The Continuation of the
First World War, 1939-1941
Another War Was Inevitable Because…
• Germany could not live with the treaty restrictions and
punishments
• Germany would have to attempt to restore its dominance in Europe
• France and Poland would have to prevent it
• Eastern Europe’s various points of friction
• The rise of Nationalism, Fascism, Nazism and Communism
The Continuation of the
First World War, 1939-1941
Questions ?