AP European history Prose Readings
WWII - today
World War II
I. The Road to War or Revenge and Depression lead to Totalitarianism and Disaster
France—The Treaty of Versailles forced Germany to pay 132 billion marks ($33 billion) in reparations. In
1922, after only one year of payments, inflation and a lack of revenue caused the German government to
stop payments. Outraged by what they considered to be Germany’s violation of the peace settlement,
French troops occupied the Ruhr valley. Since the Germans would not pay reparations, the French would
collect them by operating and using the Ruhr mines and factories.
Both Germany and France suffered from the French occupation of the Ruhr. The German government
adopted a policy of passive resistance that was largely financed by printing paper money. The German
mark soon became worthless. In 1914, 4.2 marks equaled $1.00; by November 1923 it was 4.2 trillion
marks to the dollar. Economic disaster fueled political upheavals as Communists staged uprising in October
and Adolf Hitler’s band of Nazis attempted to seize power in Munich in November. The cost of the French
occupation was not offset by their economic gains, and they were also looking for a way out of their
situation.
In August 1924 an international commission under the leadership of an American Banker (Dawes) reduced
reparations and stabilized Germany’s payments on the basis of its ability to pay. The Dawes Plan also
granted an initial $200 million loan for German recovery, which opened the door to heavy American
investment in Europe and created a new era of European prosperity between 1924 and 1929. In 1925
Germany and France signed the Treaty of Locarno that guaranteed Germany’s new western borders with
France and Belgium. Germany’s new eastern borders with Poland were absent from the agreement, a clear
indication that Germany did not accept those borders as permanent. Germany’s entry into the League of
Nations in 1926 reinforced the new spirit of conciliation.
The Great Depression caused political instability in France. During a 19 month period in 1932 and 1933,
six different cabinets formed as France faced political chaos. French Fascist groups marched through
French streets and rioted in February 1934. Many Frenchmen began to believe that the Fascists intended to
seize power. These fears drove the leftist parties together, and in 1936 they formed the Popular Front. The
first Popular Front government was formed in June 1936 and was a coalition of Communists, Socialists,
and Radicals. The Socialist leader, Léon Blum served as prime minister. The Popular Front initiated a
program for workers similar to the New Deal. It established the right to collective bargaining, a 40 hour
work week, two-week paid vacations, and minimum wages. These polices failed to solve France’s
economic problems. In 1938, French industrial production was still below the levels of 1929. French
conservatives hated Blum and the Popular Front. “Better Hitler than Blum” was a common slogan among
the right. By 1938, the French were so divided politically that they were unprepared to deal with Germany.
Italy and the birth of Fascism—World War I had an enormous cost on Italy. An estimated 700,000 Italian
soldiers died. Benito Mussolini rose to power against a background of violent social unrest that broke out in
the industrial centers of northern Italy at the end of World War I. In 1919-1920 Italy tottered on the brink of
revolution, with frequently changing inept socialist and liberal governments. Mussolini was a World War I
wounded veteran who gathered around himself students and ex-soldiers whom he organized into
paramilitary units called fasci di combattimento. The term fasci, from which derives the word fascism,
refers to a bundle of rods containing an axe, which in ancient Rome symbolized authority. It was widely
used in Italy by both radical and nationalist movements. Beginning in April 1919, Mussolini’s black shirted
squads engaged in street brawls and attacked the offices of leftist organizations and newspapers. Strikes by
workers and peasants were broken up by force. Claiming that he was saving the country from communism
and anarchy, Mussolini persuaded frightened industrialists and landlords to give him financial support.
Mussolini deliberately created conditions of social disorder knowing that fascism could flourish in such an
environment. Fascists construed themselves as the party of order and drew the bulk of their support from
the middle and upper classes. Mussolini’s ambition was to acquire dictatorial power. The Fascist following
in parliament was small (less than 10%) and total membership in the party was only around 300,000. Yet,
in October 1922 Mussolini demanded that King victor Emmanuel III appoint him to form a cabinet. The
king hesitated, since no one, Mussolini included, really knew what Mussolini and the Fascist stood for. To
force the issue Mussolini organized a “March on Rome,” a coordinated advance on the capital by thousands
of Fascists Blackshirts. The bluff worked, and the government capitulated even before the march occurred.
The king appointed Mussolini prime minister. Twenty-four hours later the Fascists Blackshirts were
allowed to march into Rome in order reinforce the image of Fascist power.
Mussolini, like Hitler after him, subverted democratic institutions only after he had succeeded in legally
becoming head of government. In December 1922 parliament gave Mussolini dictatorial powers for one
year to restore order. Almost immediately turbulence subsided. Strikes were either broken-up or called off.
Factories were restored to their owners. Street fighting and robbery were suppressed and the civil service
was reformed. In the elections of 1924 the Fascists received 65% of the popular vote. The elections
represented a genuine vote of confidence in Mussolini’s government. With a parliamentary majority,
Mussolini proceeded to acquire permanent dictatorial powers. In 1925-26 he issued a series of decrees that
transferred to him, as leader, Il Duce, all the essentials of legislative authority. A secret police, known as
the OVRA, was also established. In 1928 universal suffrage was abolished and only candidates officially
approved by the Fascists could run for office.
Mussolini conceived of the Fascist state as totalitarian; he even invented the word. A totalitarian state used
modern mass propaganda techniques to conquer the minds and hearts of their subjects. The total state
aimed to control not only the economic, political, and social aspects of life, but the intellectual and cultural
as well. That control had a purpose: the active involvement of the masses in the achievement of the
regime’s goals. Mussolini did try to create a totalitarian apparatus for police surveillance and for
controlling mass communications, but this machinery was not very effective. Despite the instruments of
repression, the use of propaganda, and the creation of numerous Fascist organizations, Mussolini failed to
achieve the degree of totalitarian control accomplished in Hitler’s Germany or Stalin’s Soviet Union.
Mussolini never really destroyed the old power structure. The armed forces, the judiciary, the monarchy,
and the Catholic church, were never absorbed into the Fascist state. In February 1929, Mussolini’s regime
recognized the sovereign independence of Vatican City. This agreement also guaranteed the church a large
grant of money and recognized Catholicism as the “sole religion of the state.” In return, the papacy
recognized the Italian state and urged Italians to support the Fascist regime.
Germany & Adolf Hitler’s rise to power—Hitler was born in Austria in 1889, the son of an Austrian
customs official who died when Hitler was 14. His mother died a few years later. He dropped out of high
school at 16 and moved to Vienna where he worked at various menial jobs. The young Hitler did not like
what he saw in Vienna. He disliked the privileges of the Habsburg court and the nobility, he disliked the
mixed nationalities of the empire, he disliked the Vienna workingman's attachment to Marxism, and most
of all, he disliked the Jews who held many distinguished positions in business, law, medicine, art, and
journalism in the city. He became exceedingly race conscious, like many others in many countries at the
time.
In 1913 Hitler moved to Munich, and when World War I broke out he volunteered for the German army.
He was a good soldier, serving as a dispatch runner to the front-line; he was temporarily disabled in a gas
attack, he rose to the rank of corporal, and he received important military decorations for his services. For
Hitler the war was a thrilling, noble, and liberating experience. When the war ended Hitler was transferred
to Bavaria. In 1919, Bavaria was a principal area of Communist activity; a Bavarian Soviet Republic even
existed for about three weeks until the federal government crushed it. Bavaria swarmed with secret
societies and paramilitary organizations, both Communist and anti-Communist. Hitler, working with the
army's political instruction program, joined at the army's request a tiny party called the German Workers'
party and soon became its leader. Early in 1920 he proclaimed its 25‑ point program. Thus were born the
Nazis, so called from the German way of pronouncing the first two syllables of National. Now
demobilized, Hitler was fully launched on a career of radical politics.
In January, 1919 the German government was reorganized by a popularly elected National Assembly
convened in the town of Weimar. The Assembly wrote a constitution that gave Germany a parliamentary
democracy, with a strong executive. It was the most democratic constitution Germany had ever had. From
its inception the Weimar Republic had to contend with opposition from the Communists on the left and
extremist parties on the right. The Republic put down several Communists uprisings with the help of the
right wing. The right wing detested the Social Democrats, the leading party in the government, whom they
accused of having "stabbed in the back" the German army in the last months of the war by fomenting
strikes and mutinies. They scorned the government for signing the Treaty of Versailles and for complying
with the Allied demands for reparations. They murdered political opponents and staged repeated uprisings.
Throughout Germany there was dissatisfaction with the inability of the Weimar Republic to stand up to
what were widely considered unreasonable and degrading foreign demands, especially from France. The
Great Depression caused the middle class to look about desperately for someone to save them from
Bolshevism. The depression also stirred up the universal German loathing for the Treaty of Versailles.
Many Germans explained the ruin of Germany by the postwar treatment it had received from the
Allies‑ ‑ the constriction of its frontiers, the loss of its colonies, markets, shipping, and foreign
investments, the colossal demand for reparations, the occupation of the Ruhr, the inflation of the 1920s, and
much else. Hitler inflamed all such feelings by his propaganda. He denounced the Treaty of Versailles. He
denounced the Weimar Republic as too weak to protect German rights. Hitler declared that Germans, pure
Germans, must rely on themselves. He frightened the middle class with fears of a Communist take‑ over.
Above all he denounced the Jews. In anti‑ Semitism Hitler found a lowest common denominator upon
which to appeal to all parties and classes. At the same time the Jews were a small minority (only 600,000 in
Germany—less than 1% of the population), so that in an age of mass politics it was safe to attack them.
Hitler succeeded in coming to power in a perfectly legal manner by taking advantage of the widening rift
between right and left to present himself as the leader of a "revolution" leading to national unity and
strength. In July, 1932 the Nazis won the largest number of votes and became the strongest party in the
Reichstag. They demanded that Hitler be named Chancellor, but President von Hindenburg refused on the
basis that the Nazis were likely to exacerbate, not decrease, social conflicts. In November, 1932 new
elections were held and this time the Nazis lost 2 million votes, while the Communists made another
advance. The good showing of the Communists frightened the traditional conservatives and induced them
to seek an alliance with the Nazis. In January 1933, Hitler was invited by the conservatives to head a
coalition government. The men who engineered this deal had little sympathy or respect for Hitler, but they
believed that by bringing him into the government they could thwart the Communist danger and at the same
time control the government. On January 30, 1933, Hindenburg appointed Hitler Chancellor.
Hitler's first step was to abolish civil rights protecting the opposition. On February 27, 1933, unknown
arsonists (most likely Nazis) set fire to the Reichstag building in Berlin. Hitler immediately blamed the fire
on the Communists. He demanded that Hindenburg (who was senile) invoke constitutional emergency
provisions and suspend civil liberties to safeguard the security of the country. On February 28 an
"Ordinance for the Protection of the People and the State" was issued that indefinitely suspended civil
liberties, authorizing:
"restrictions on personal liberty, on the right of free expression of opinion, including freedom of the Press,
on the rights of assembly and association; violations of the privacy of postal, telegraphic, and telephonic
communications; warrants for house searches; orders for confiscations as well as restrictions on property."
The police were by then largely in Nazi hands and they attacked the Communists with a vengeance. The
party was outlawed and their leaders were arrested‑ ‑ with them went many Social Democrats and other
outspoken anti‑ Nazis. "Political" and "criminal" offenses (as defined by the Nazis) were handed over to
the political police (the Gestapo) and "People's Courts," created in 1934. Regular courts were enjoined from
interfering with the police and confined to civil suits. In March, 1933 the Reichstag passed an "Enabling
Act" divesting itself of legislative authority. As Chancellor, Hitler could henceforth issue laws, even those
violating the constitution, without consulting the Reichstag.
Hitler called his new order the Third Reich. He declared that, following the First Reich, or Holy Roman
Empire, and the Second Reich, or empire founded by Bismarck, the Third Reich carried on the process of
true German history. Like Mussolini, Hitler took the title of leader, or, in German, the Fuhrer. With the
authority he now possessed, Hitler rapidly proceeded to establish control over the whole of state and
society. In the spring of 1933 all political parties were disbanded, and the Nazi party was declared the only
lawful political organization in the country. Labor unions were abolished and strikes were forbidden. The
government assumed increasing controls over industry, while leaving ownership in private hands--Hitler
needed the support of big business to launch his rearmament program. Churches, both Protestant and
Catholic, were "coordinated" with the new regime; their clergy were forbidden to criticize its activities. A
Nazi Youth Movement, and schools and universities, indoctrinated the young in the new concepts.
To assure his personal power Hitler established an elite corps, the SS (Guard Detachment). The SS began
as a bodyguard whose members took the oath of personal loyalty to Hitler and swore to carry out without
question any orders he issued. Into it were recruited the most vicious elements of the Nazi movement. They
staffed police posts, both overt and secret, and gradually penetrated much of the party and state machinery.
From their ranks were drawn the concentration camp guards and, during world War II, the mass murderers.
The advent of the Nazis to power led immediately to the issuance of anti-Jewish laws. Using the
assassination of a third secretary in the German embassy in Paris by a young Polish Jew as an excuse,
official anti-Semitism was initiated in November 1938 with the infamous Kristallnacht, or night of
shattered glass. A Nazi-led destructive rampage against the Jews took place in which synagogues were
burned, 7,000 Jewish businesses were destroyed, and at least 100 Jews killed. Moreover, 30,000 Jewish
men were sent to concentration camps. Kristallnacht led to laws that deprived Jews of German citizenship
(and hence the protection of the state) and forbade them to marry "Aryans." Jews were defined as anyone
who professed the Jewish faith or who had at least one grandparent who was Jewish. Jews were beaten up,
hounded, driven from public office, ruined in private business, fined as a community, put to death, or
forced to flee the country after being stripped of all their possessions. These actions foreshadowed the
wartime extermination of millions of Jews.
Hitler's main objective, once he gained dictatorial powers, was to give Germany a powerful armed force
with which to conquer "living space" and subjugate the Continent. Shortly after the Nazis came to power
the Germany economy was put on a wartime footing. Production soared: between 1932 and 1935 alone
German steel production trebled. Hitler expected the armed forces and the economy to be fully geared for
war by 1940.
The Soviet Union—The civil war in Russia had come to an end by the beginning of 1921. It had taken an
enormous toll of life. Once the war ended peasants began to sabotaged the government’s economic
program by hoarding food. Added to this problem was drought, which caused a great famine between 1920
and 1922 that claimed as many as five million lives. Industrial production also collapsed. By 1921,
industrial output was only 20% of the 1913 levels.
Lenin died in January 1924, and after a bitter power struggle between Leon Trotsky and Joseph Stalin,
Stalin became the Chairman of the Communist party. Trotsky was expelled from the party. He moved to
Mexico where he was murdered in 1940, probably on Stalin’s orders. Stalin’s economic goal was the
transformation of Russia from an agricultural country into an industrial state. His first five-year plan
succeeded in quadrupling the production of heavy machinery and doubling oil production. The annual
growth rate of the Soviet Union was between 14 and 20 percent a year.
Rapid industrialization was accompanied by an equally rapid collectivization of agriculture. Strong
resistance from wealthy peasants (the kulaks) caused Stalin to brutally enforce his program of
collectivization. By 1934 Russia’s 26 million family farms had been collectivized into 250,000 units. This
program caused widespread famine. During World War II Stalin admitted that 10 million peasants died in
the artificially created famines of 1932 and 1933.
To achieve his goals, Stalin strengthened the party bureaucracy under his control. Stalin’s desire for sold
control of decision making also led to purges of the Old Bolsheviks. Between 1936 and 1938, the most
prominent Old Bolsheviks were put on trial and condemned to death. During this same time, Stalin
undertook a purge of army officers, diplomats, union officials, party members, intellectuals, and numerous
ordinary citizens. Estimates are that eight million Russians were arrested; millions were sent to Siberian
forced labor camps, from which they never returned.
II. The European Causes of World War II
During his first two years as Chancellor Hitler pursued a relatively cautious foreign policy so as not to
alarm Britain and France until he had solidified his grip on Germany and made progress with the secret
rearmament program. Hitler made his first overt aggressive move in March, 1935. He formally denounced
the disarmament clauses of the Versailles Treaty and introduced compulsory military training. This
measure did not produce any response from Britain and France. In fact Britain signed with Germany a
naval agreement which, by establishing ratios of naval power between the two nations, implicitly
legitimized Hitler's breach of the Versailles Treaty. A year later German troops marched into the
demilitarized zone of the Rhineland. Again nothing happened, although Hitler had knocked out another
prop of the French security system. There is general agreement among historians that the years 1935-1936
offered the last chance to stop Nazi expansion short of general war. We know now that German troops
marching into the Rhineland had orders to pull back in the event of French countermeasures. The impunity
with which Hitler violated the Versailles Treaty gained him immense prestige in Germany and vastly
increased his self-confidence.
Behind Allied inaction lay the mood known as "appeasement." It was a crucial element in the chain of
events leading to World War II, and indirectly played a major part in the conduct of international relations
in the Cold War that followed World War II. To "appease" meant yielding to the demands of the dictators
in the belief that once these demands were satisfied the dictators would settle down and turn into good
members of the international community. The principal and universal element behind appeasement was
pacifism. World War I had settled few of the political problems of Europe at a horrible cost--half of all
French males between the ages of 20 and 32 in 1914 had been killed in the war. There was widespread
expectation that another world war would be infinitely more destructive, particularly for the civilian
population. Anything seemed preferable to fighting. The pacifistic mood of the time is well reflected in a
resolution adopted by some Oxford University students one month after Hitler came to power: "This
House will under no circumstances fight for its King or country." Antiwar sentiment also pervaded much of
German public opinion. Hitler's early popularity at home derived in large part from the fact that he
achieved his aims by diplomatic pressure and not by war.
With the exception of Winston Churchill, remembered chiefly for the fiasco of the 1915 Gallipoli campaign
and for his poor performance as Chancellor of the Exchequer, and who was kept out of the British Cabinet
and ignored, British leadership was addicted to appeasement. As late as 1938 Britain's expenditures on
armaments were only one‑ quarter those of Germany.
In October, 1935 Italy launched an unprovoked attack on Ethiopia from Italian Somalia. The League of
Nations condemned Italy as the aggressor and voted to impose on it economic sanctions. The economic
sanctions were never enforced and Italy soon had all of Ethiopia. But the League's actions were irritating
enough to push Italy into Germany's arms. Before long the two countries established close diplomatic links.
Mussolini spoke of Rome and Berlin as forming a political "Axis." The term was subsequently applied to
the whole anti‑ democratic, totalitarian bloc.
The Ethiopian war was barely over when a civil war broke out in Spain. In July, 1936 A group of
conservative army officers, led by General Francisco Franco, invaded Spain from Morocco with the
purpose of overthrowing a left‑ wing republican government which had recently won the elections. The
Spanish Civil War was the most devastating war in all Spanish history; over 600,000 died, and it was
accompanied by extreme cruelties on both sides. Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy immediately aligned
themselves with Franco and sent troops (the Italians over 50,000) and equipment. The Soviet Union sent
equipment, technicians and political advisors to the government side and stigmatized the rebels under
Franco as the agents of international fascism. Forty thousand volunteers of leftist or liberal sympathy, from
the U.S. and Europe, served in Spain with the loyalist republican forces. The Spanish Civil War split the
world into fascist and antifascist camps. The war ended in March 1939 with a victory by Franco’s forces.
Franco soon established a dictatorship that lasted until his death in 1975. Franco’s government, while
friendly to fascist Germany and Italy, was not a fascist government. It favored large landowners, business,
and the Catholic clergy, and was yet another example of a traditional, conservative, authoritarian regime.
In November, 1936, Germany and Japan signed the Anti-Comintern Pact, ostensibly directed against the
Communist International, but actually a treaty of friendship. Italy signed a year later, and in 1941 the pact
was renewed with eleven other countries also joining. Thus, while the democracies were ineffectually
trying to preserve peace at any price, a group of expansionist countries formed a counter‑ alliance. The
successes of Nazi diplomacy lay in its knowledge of precisely how far to push blackmail before its victims
rebelled. Its crowning achievement was the Munich agreement of 1938.
Hitler believed that the 85 million Germans had to acquire additional "living space," raw materials and food
stuffs or face extinction. Since history showed that space could be acquired only by violence, Hitler
believed that war was inevitable--the only question was when, and under what conditions. Germany would
attain the peak of military strength in 1943-1945, and this would be the latest date for launching war,
although it could begin earlier. In any event, Hitler's immediate goal in 1938 was to destroy Austria and
Czechoslovakia so as to protect Germany's flank for the critical operations in the West. Hitler cleverly
camouflaged his assault on Austria and Czechoslovakia with slogans of national self‑ determination. All he
wanted, he proclaimed, was to bring into the Reich the Germans who against their will had been separated
from it: the Austrians and the German minority in the Sudeten region of Czechoslovakia.
The Austrian Republic was brought down in March, 1938, by the combined pressures of Germany from
without and a Nazi "Fifth Column" from within. The country with its 6 million Germans was then fused
with Germany into a Greater Reich. The Czechs, unlike the Austrians wanted no dealings with the Germans
and were prepared to resist them: their military equipment was first rate, and their frontier was heavily
fortified. Czechoslovakia was the only country in central Europe in 1938 that was still a democracy and it
had the highest standard of living east of Germany. Strategically it was the keystone of Europe. It had a
firm alliance with France, and an alliance with the Soviet Union; Soviet aid was made dependent of the
functioning of the French alliance. In the spring of 1938 the Nazis began to stir up trouble among the 3
million Germans inhabiting the Sudeten region. Prague was prepared to go far in meeting the Sudeten
Germans' demands for autonomy, but each time it made a concession the stakes were raised and more civil
disturbances followed. Hitler, declaring "intolerable" alleged Czech persecution of the Sudeten Germans,
threatened to intervene on their behalf. In September, 1938, war seemed imminent.
Hitler invited the British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain, the French Premier Edouard Daladier, and
Mussolini to a meeting at Munich to deal with the crisis. Czechoslovakia and the Soviet Union (which had
been urging a firm stand against Germany) were excluded from the meeting. At Munich, Chamberlain and
Daladier accepted Hitler's terms and then put enormous pressure on the Czech government to yield. France
repudiated its treaty obligations to protect Czechoslovakia, and ignored the Soviets who had reaffirmed
their willingness to aid the Czechs if the French acted. Germany was allowed to annex the Sudetenland.
This area contained the mountainous approaches and the fortifications, so that its loss left Czechoslovakia
militarily defenseless. Hitler promised to guarantee the integrity of what remained of Czechoslovakia.
Barely one month after the signature of the Munich agreement, in total disregard of his pledges, Hitler
ordered the German army to occupy the remainder of Czechoslovakia. The republic, shorn of its
fortifications and with no allies, could offer no resistance and capitulated in March 1939.
Hitler then began to apply pressure on Poland, demanding Danzig and a corridor linking Germany with
East Prussia. The Poles refused to bargain on these matters. Britain and France finally realized that nothing
short of European hegemony would satisfy Hitler and they guaranteed Poland's independence. But Hitler
doubted that these pledges would be honored should he succeed in smashing Poland with one quick blow.
On April 3, 1939, he issued secret orders to prepare the invasion of Poland.
Stalin realized the Hitler posed a serious threat to the Soviet Union. Hitler's threats of an anti-Communist
crusade and the 1936 conclusion of the Anti-Comintern Pact with Japan were direct threats to his country.
The Soviet Union was diplomatically isolated, and in the event of a combined German-Japanese attack
could count on the support of no major power. Stalin took measures to overcome this isolation. In
September 1934 the Soviets joined the League of Nations. In May 1935 it signed the previously mentioned
treaties with Czechoslovakia and France. Perhaps the Soviet purges of 1935-1938 were connected with the
international situation, serving to eliminate rivals for power in the event of war and internal anarchy.
Western appeasement of Hitler aroused Stalin's suspicions. He began to believe that it was part of a
deliberate plot on the part of England and France to buy their own safety by deflecting Hitler's ambitions
NEW PACTET STARTS HERE
from the West to the East. The Munich agreement and the German occupation of Czechoslovakia seemed
to confirm these suspicions. Stalin appears to have concluded that Eastern Europe had been conceded to
Hitler as a springboard for an attack against the Soviet Union. Since by early 1939 Japanese and Soviet
troops were involved in clashes along the Mongolian border, Stalin's alarm was based on realistic
considerations. Stalin decided to buy himself time. On August 23, 1939 the Soviet Union and Germany
signed a treaty of nonaggression and friendship. In a protocol kept secret at the time, it was agreed that in
any future territorial rearrangement the Soviet Union and Germany would divide Poland between them, that
the Soviet Union would have a "sphere of influence" over Finland, the Baltic States, and Bessarabia (which
had been lost to Rumania in World War I). In return the Soviets pledged to stay out of any war between
Germany and Poland, or between Germany and the Western democracies.
The Nazi-Soviet pact stupefied the world. Communism and Nazism, supposed to be ideological opposites,
had come together. The pact was recognized as the signal for war; all last minute negotiations failed. The
Germans invaded Poland on September 1, 1939. On September 3 Great Britain and France declared war on
Germany. On September 17 the Soviet Union sent its troops into eastern Poland. Europe was again at war.
III. World War II—1939-1941
The invasion of Poland exceeded all Nazi hopes. Using mechanized units to break through enemy lines,
spread out behind them, and form vast "pincers" to isolate and trap large enemies units, the German
blitzkrieg ("lightning war") reached Warsaw in a week. (To illustrate how deadly war had become, the
Germans took 45,000 casualties in the "easy" victory over Poland). On September 17 the Soviet Union
entered eastern Poland to claim the territories accorded it by the secret agreement with Germany.
Simultaneously, Soviet troops occupied strategic bases in the three Baltic republics.
In October, 1939, when Finland refused Soviet demands for territorial concessions (Leningrad was only 20
miles from the Finnish border) the Soviet army attacked. The campaign at first went badly for the Soviets,
confirming European opinion in its low estimate of their fighting capacity. In the end, however, Soviet
superiority in numbers forced the Finns to capitulate in March 1940. The Finns had to yield somewhat
more territory to the USSR than originally demanded but retained their independence.
In the West the winter and spring of the first year of war passed without action, in what came to be known
as the "phony war." The only important engagement occurred in Scandinavia. The British and the Germans
simultaneously tried to seize Norway, but the Germans got there first with larger forces, occupying
Denmark on the way in April, 1940. The Scandinavian campaign cost Germany most of its navy. In July,
1940 the German navy could only deploy for action three cruisers and four destroyers. All the other ships
of destroyer size or larger had been sunk or damaged. These losses would be significant when Hitler
wanted to invade Britain.
The German offensive against France through the Low Countries began on May 10, 1940. Belgian
fortresses were captured in a matter of hours by specially trained parachute units. Dutch cities were bombed
into submission. Rotterdam was leveled, killing in the process 40,000 civilians. Refugees seeking to flee
the combat zone were deliberately machine‑ gunned from the air to create chaos, clog the roads, and
hamper reinforcements. The French and British sent into Belgium the majority of their forces. But the
Germans delivered their main armored thrust through Luxembourg and the Ardennes forest, long
considered by the French to be impassable to tanks. The German divisions drove deep into northern France
and cut off the Allied armies in Belgium. The Dutch and Belgian armies capitulated and a large part of the
French army surrendered.
Subsequently, the British managed to evacuate nearly their entire trapped Expeditionary Force, plus a
considerable French contingent--338,000 men in all--through Dunkirk, but most of their equipment had to
be left behind. On June 13-14 the Germans entered Paris, and shortly after France signed an armistice. The
country was divided into two zones: the northern one was placed under German occupation, and the
southern one was established as a satellite state ruled from Vichy. The republic was dead; the very slogan
Liberty, Equality, Fraternity was banned from official use.
Mussolini attacked France on June 10 as soon as it was clear that Germany had defeated it. Shortly
thereafter, he invaded Greece and moved against the British in Africa. The Duce tied his own destinies, for
good or ill, to those of the Fuhrer. Since the Germans were emphatically the senior partner in this
combination, since they were on good terms with Franco in Spain, and since the USSR was benevolently
neutral, they now dominated the European continent. Hitler impressed millions of French, Russians, Poles,
Czechs, and others, prisoners of war or civilians, to work as slave labor in his war industries, in one of the
largest forcible displacements of population in history.
Britain was left alone to face the Axis powers. In May, 1940, Winston Churchill became Prime Minister.
Churchill never wavered in his determination. Britain, he announced, would fight "if necessary for years, if
necessary alone," until Germany gave up all its conquests. Confronted with this intransigence Hitler
prepared to invade Britain. The first phase of the operation was to secure mastery of the air, essential for
the safe transport of the invasion force across the Channel. Early in August the Luftwaffe, the German air
force, launched its offensive against the Royal Air Force (RAF). British aircraft and training were slightly
superior to Germany's, the British had broken the German communication code, and the use of radar, all
combined to give the RAF a two to one kill ratio over German aircraft. If Germany had continued its attack
on the RAF it would have succeeded in its plan to destroy the British air force, but the Luftwaffe's losses
were so high that in September it changed tactics: instead of daytime attacks on air installations, it carried
out nighttime attacks on cities. The intention was to break civilian morale and force Britain to make peace.
These attacks failed and Hitler lost the Battle of Britain and his chance to invade England.
At the end of 1940 Hitler was at the peak of his power. Yet his power derived from a five-year priority in
armament, the gap between German and foreign military power was bound to narrow: everyone was
arming now, including the United States. In other words, Hitler had to act while he still held his great
advantage. In September, 1940 Germany concluded with Italy and Japan a Tripartite Pact dividing Asia and
Africa into spheres of influence: Italy was to have the Mediterranean, Japan southeast Asia, and Germany
central Africa.
In December 1940 Hitler gave his General Staff instructions to prepare for Operation Barbarossa, the
invasion of the Soviet Union. Hitler's strategy was to launch a lightning offensive that would bring German
armies in 8 to 10 weeks to the banks of the Volga. The territories conquered were to provide Germany with
abundant foodstuffs, raw materials, and slave labor, transforming German-dominated Europe into a selfsufficient, impregnable fortress. Areas east of the Volga were to be left to the Russians. Having destroyed
the Soviet army, Hitler intended to turn southward and take over the Middle East and North Africa. The
assault on the USSR was conceived not merely as a war of conquest; it was to be a war of extermination,
the first phase in clearing Eastern Europe of the "inferior races" for subsequent German settlement. The
Germans about to invade the Soviet Union were given the explicit authority--indeed, they were told that it
was their patriotic duty--to kill anyone whom they considered to be or chose to define as being a
"Communist" or an "intellectual," as well as captured enemy soldiers.
The German invasion of the Soviet Union was originally scheduled for mid-May, 1941 but it had to be
postponed a month. The Italians bogged down in Greece, and in April Hitler sent troops to bail them out. In
the process the Germans also invaded and occupied Yugoslavia. On June, 22, 1941, three million German
troops along with more than 500,000 soldiers of countries allied with Germany (and over 600,000 horses)
plunged into Soviet territory. The Soviets were not prepared for the attack, and had not even fully
mobilized. Within six weeks the road to Moscow lay open. By the end of September the Germans had
taken a toll of 2.5 million men, 22,000 guns, 18,000 tanks, and 14,000 planes. But Hitler, intending to avoid
Napoleon's mistake, decided to postpone capture of the capital in order first to destroy what was left of
Soviet armies and industrial resources in the northern and southern parts of the country.
Hitler's decision to postpone the capture of Moscow gave the Soviets two months in which to raise fresh
troops in the east and organize their defenses. It also forced the Germans to open the drive on Moscow at
the onset of the winter, for which they had made no provisions. The offensive resumed early in October. On
December 2, in savage fighting, the Germans penetrated the suburbs of the city, but here they were stopped.
German soldiers were exhausted from 6 months of continuous combat and froze in their summer uniforms;
their motorized equipment stalled for lack of antifreeze. On December 5-6 the Russians counterattacked
and by the middle of January, 1942 the German army had been pushed a 100 miles to the west of Moscow.
Hitler, infuriated by the reverse, sacked his top officers and assumed personal command.
On the Soviet side, the German invasion produced a tremendous surge of national sentiment. At first the
population offered little resistance to the Germans, and in some areas even welcomed them. But as soon as
the army and SS began to shoot civilians and prisoners, and ship people to Germany (ultimately over 3
million were sent as slave labor) resistance stiffened. Surrounded Soviet military units often refused to
surrender, fighting to the last man. Stalin, in his propaganda, abandoned all pretense of defending
communism, and frankly exhorted the nation to fight for "Holy Russia." The Soviet determination had not
been planned for by Hitler and his generals, for the miserable showing the Red Army had made in the war
with Finland led them to expect a rapid collapse of Soviet morale.
IV. World War II—1942-1945
The war in Asia began in July 1937 when Japanese troops invaded northern China. When the Japanese
occupied French Indochina in July 1941, the Americans responded by cutting off sales of vital scrap iron
and oil to Japan. Japan decided to preempt any further American response by attacking the American
Pacific fleet at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on December 7, 1941. Three days later, Hitler declared war on the
United States. this action enabled President Roosevelt to overcome strong American isolationist sentiment
and to bring the United States openly into the European conflict. The United States had made no pretense
of neutrality from the beginning of World War II. By mid-1941 the American navy was escorting merchant
shipping to Britain and attacking German submarines “on sight.” In addition, the United States had been
supplying the Allies with military aid through its Lend-Lease program since March 1941.
During joint American and British talks held in early 1942 it was decided that the Allies would give
priority to the European theater. Germany was the most powerful of the Axis partners, and if allowed to
consolidate its hold on the Continent could transform it into a fortress that no subsequent effort would be
able to reduce.
The greatest contribution the United States could make to the Allied cause was to put to military use its vast
industrial plant. One year after Pearl Harbor the American production of armaments equaled that of
Germany, Italy, and Japan put together, and by 1944 it was double that. The consumption of men and
machines in World War II was enormous. For example, during world War II the Soviet Union received
from the U.S. over 400,000 trucks, 12,000 tanks, 14,000 planes, and an large quantity of other goods,
totaling 17.5 million tons. The Soviets themselves built approximately 100,000 tanks, 100,000 aircraft, and
175,000 artillery pieces during war. About two thirds of this material was destroyed in the fighting and 20
million Russians died. At first it looked as if the Germans, with their blitzkrieg that could rapidly penetrate
an enemy's front by a large force of tanks, closely assisted by ground‑ attack aircraft and followed by
motorized infantry and artillery, had found a way around the terrible slaughter of trench warfare. Once
through the front line, the tanks would push on at high speed to the enemy's higher command posts and
vital communications centers deep in the rear and spread chaos behind the front, which would then collapse
almost of its own accord when the troops holding it found themselves cut off from their own headquarters
and supplies.
No innovation in warfare stays a surprise for very long, and by the middle of the war, when German forces
were fighting deep inside the Soviet Union, attrition had returned with a vengeance. The solution to the
blitzkrieg tactic of rapid penetration was to make the defended zone deeper--many miles deep, with
successive belts of trenches, mine fields, bunkers, gun positions, and tank traps which would slow down the
armored spearheads and eventually wear them away. This moving front caught up cities and civilians in its
maw, chewing them up as it moved along. On the average the countries from Germany eastward, where the
fighting was most intense and prolonged, lost about 10 percent of their populations killed (in contrast, the
U.S. lost about 1/2 of 1 percent of its total population with no physical damage to its homeland). In 1943
and 1944 the Soviet army's casualties were 80 percent of the forces engaged. Being an officer did not help.
In general, officer casualties in the British and American armies in the rifle battalions that did most of the
fighting were around twice as high proportionally as the casualties among enlisted men.
The British, remembering the slaughter of World War I, wanted to fight Germany on the periphery,
combined with bombing raids against Germany itself and the encouragement of resistance forces in the
occupied countries. Churchill was determined to let the Continentals do their own fighting. The American
military opposed Churchill's policy, although not for political reasons, but because they believed that the
closing and tightening the ring concept was risky rather than safe, that it would waste lives and material
rather than save them. Chief of Staff George Marshall believed that it was very foolish to leave the Red
Army to face almost all of the German Army alone. There was a real possibility they would be defeated.
Marshall also feared that if U.S. troops did not get involved in combat soon, the "Asia-firsters," with their
already impressive political base in the U.S. would be able to switch priorities and force the administration
to concentrate on the Japanese.
Thus in early 1942 a rather intense debate developed among the Allies, and within each country, on where
and when the Anglo-Americans would first strike the Axis. The Soviet Union was being devastated by the
German army and Stalin desperately sought relief through a second front in western Europe. Churchill with
his "closing the ring" theory, and desiring to reestablish British political control in the Mediterranean,
suggested an invasion of French North Africa. Roosevelt had to decide. The pressures on him, from all
sides, were enormous. Roosevelt, aware of Soviet anxiety and eager to bolster Soviet resistance, told the
Soviet Foreign minister in May, 1942, that he hoped to launch a second front in Europe that year. The
Soviets interpreted Roosevelt's statement as a definite promise for a second front in 1942. Yet the United
States was nowhere near full mobilization, it did not have the necessary equipment for a full scale invasion
of Europe, and its troops were green. German submarines were sinking enormous numbers of allied ships
off the North American coast in the first half of 1942; getting supplies and men to Europe was a difficult
task. Any invasion of France would mean heavy casualties, maybe even defeat. Roosevelt chose North
Africa. The subsequent failure of the U.S. and Great Britain to strike across the channel in 1942 and 1943
deeply disappointed the Soviets and heightened their suspicions of the western Allies. The issue of a second
front began to sow the seeds of the later Cold War.
The November, 1942 North Africa invasion (operation Torch) had far reaching implications. After the
defeat of the Germans there, it seemed logical to go into Italy and Sicily beginning in July, 1943. These
were impressive gains on the map, but it delayed the invasion of the continent by another year and did not
contribute to any significant destruction of German power. It was the Red Army, who in Winston
Churchill's phrase, "tore the guts out of the German army." The key battle was Stalingrad. The importance
of Stalingrad was not so much strategic as psychological. As at Verdun in 1916, the two sides decided here
to make their supreme contest of will. After they were beaten, many Germans for the first time realized that
the war was lost.
In the spring of 1942, when operations on the Russian front resumed, the Germans were in a favorable
position. They controlled the principal industrial and agrarian regions of the Soviet Union. They had
suffered less than a million casualties, while inflicting 4.5 million casualties on the Red Army. They were
also entrenched near the Soviet Union's two major cities, Moscow and Leningrad. Hitler decided once more
to postpone the capture of Moscow, and to concentrate instead on seizing the Caucasus, where lay the
Soviet Union's richest oil deposits. The Germans failed to reach the oil producing areas, and worst of all,
they could not reduce Stalingrad, whose capture Hitler had demanded. The more troops they sent against it,
the more troops the Soviets committed to its defense. For Stalin, Stalingrad had a personal significance.
The city was named for him because in 1919 he had played an active part in directing its successful defense
against the White Army. The fighting was brutal and house to house--the Soviets lost more men in the
battle of Stalingrad than the United States lost in combat during the entire war.
Suddenly, on November 19-20, the Soviets launched a powerful counter attack, breaking through the
Hungarian, Rumanian, and Italian units guarding the flanks of the German Sixth Army. The German
generals pleaded with Hitler for permission to stage a breakout from the trap while there was still time, but
Hitler insisted that the troops hold on to every inch of gained ground. Outnumbered, freezing, so short of
food that some of them resorted to cannibalism, the Germans held out for two months. Then, at the end of
January, 1943, the Sixth Army surrendered. The Soviets captured 91,000 prisoners, 1,500 tanks, and 60,000
vehicles. To straighten out the front after the loss of the Sixth Army, the German army had to retreat along
the entire front, giving up most of the ground conquered the preceding spring. It was, as Winston Churchill
cautiously put it in a speech delivered in November, 1942, "not the end, not even the beginning of the end,
but possible the end of the beginning."
Hitler was determined to hold out to the last. He counted partly on Allied disagreements (he tried to get a
separate peace with the Soviet Union) and partly on new weapons like jet airplanes and the V-1 cruise
missile, of which 22,400 were launched (many of which were shot down by Allied aircraft), and beginning
in September 1944, the V-2 ballistic missile, of which 1,115 fell on London causing severe damage. As the
Allied ground forces advanced, V-1s and V-2s were increasingly fired at Antwerp, with its great harbor.
Over 15,000 people were killed and more than 45,000 wounded from these rocket attacks.
On the eastern front the Germans undertook in July 1943, one more major offensive with 17 armored
divisions. In the greatest tank battle in history the Soviets repulsed the attack, and pushed the German army
back 200 miles. The best the Germans could henceforth hope for was simply to hold in the East. The
Soviets had twice the manpower, and two to three times the weapons and equipment. Wherever the
Germans retreated, they looted that which was movable and dynamited or set on fire what was left,
including ancient churches and historic monuments.
On June 6, 1944, D-Day, the allied invasion of France through Normandy occurred. The Allies landed 8
divisions (156,000 men) on the first day, five divisions from the sea, and three airborne divisions from the
air. To bring such an army across the Channel required 5,000 ships and 12,000 planes. Although the
Germans had 60 divisions, 11 of them armored, facing the Allies, their preparations for the invasion were
hampered by disagreements and miscalculations. Because Hitler insisted that the entire coast be defended,
the German units were thinly dispersed. Furthermore, the Germans were so certain the Allies would land
their main army at Calais that it concentrated there its main force, leaving Normandy relatively
unprotected. One week after D-Day the Allies had more troops in France than did the Germans. They also
had complete mastery of the air. In late August the Allies took Paris.
In July, 1944, a group of anti-Hitler conspirators attempted to assassinate the Fuhrer and end the war.
Involved in the plot were conservative statesmen and high army officers, who had become convinced that
Hitler would bring about the total destruction of Germany. A briefcase containing a powerful bomb was
placed at Hitler's headquarters. It exploded, but failed to kill Hitler. The Gestapo quickly rounded up and
executed the conspirators.
The Allied advance was halted only once, at the Battle of the Bulge in December, 1944, but the Allies
quickly retook the initiative, crossing the Rhine on March 7, 1945 at the Remagen Bridge which the
Germans had neglected to destroy. At that time the Soviet Army, with 1,250,000 men, was poised on the
Oder River, 35 miles from the eastern suburbs of Berlin. On April 30, 1945, Hitler committed suicide.
Earlier that month, Mussolini, seeking to escape to Switzerland, was caught by a band of Italian partisans
and shot. On May 7, 1945 Germany surrendered. The Allies then turned their attention toward Japan. The
dropping of atomic bombs on Japan caused it to surrender in August.
The Holocaust—Once he gained control of the continent of Europe, Hitler began to construct his "New
Order." In late 1941 Jews in German‑ held territories were herded into walled ghettoes and required to
wear the Star of David. After the attack on the Soviet Union the Nazi leaders decided to commence the
physical annihilation of the 11 million European Jews. Special detachments of the SS began to round up
Jews for "evacuation." The victims were merely told they were being shipped to points east, where they
would be relocated and employed. The shipment was done in cattle cars, into which the Jews were herded
without food or water. Many died in transit. Upon reaching the concentration camp they were immediately
divided into two parts. One group, consisting of able-bodied men and women, was sent to production
centers to perform heavy labor on substandard food rations. The intention was literally to work them to
death. When they collapsed they were returned to the extermination camp for slaughter. The other group,
that judged unsuited for work--it included all children and elderly--was sent directly to the gas chambers.
To lull suspicion these chambers were disguised as shower rooms. The victims were told to undress and
wash. As soon as they had filled the purported shower room and the guards bolted the doors, poison gas
was injected. For 15 or 20 minutes the condemned would choke amid inhuman struggles and shrieks. Once
silence descended, the doors were unlocked and detachments of prisoners removed the corpses to search
them for hidden valuables and to remove gold tooth fillings. Finally, the remains were cremated. The
operation was carried out with such efficiency that at Auschwitz alone 10,000 persons could be disposed of
without a trace each day.
On Soviet territory the Nazis did not bother to establish extermination camps. There, detachments of the SS
rounded up the Jewish inhabitants in towns and villages, herded them into a nearby ravine or forest, and
mowed them down with machine guns. Outside large cities giant pits were dug; the victims, lined up at the
edge and shot, fell directly into their mass graves. In Kiev alone over 30,000 Jews were massacred in such
a manner in a single day.
Between 1941 and 1945 the Germans killed an estimated 6 million Jews, a quarter of them children. This
crime has no precedent in human history. Never before had a whole ethnic or racial group been condemned
to die, for no reason and without possibility of reprieve. Little was done to rescue those destined to die, and
in the U.S. and Great Britain there was even a tendency to discount news of the massacres which was
leaking out of occupied Europe. There were only a few honorable exceptions to the prevailing indifference.
The Danes ferried most Danish Jews to neutral Sweden. In Hungary, Prime Minister Horthy refused to
condone deportation proceedings and his tactics saved the lives of some 200,000 Jews; another 200,000
perished in 1944, after the Germans occupied Hungary. The Bulgarians and the Italians resisted to the end
German pressures to hand over their Jews to the SS.
The Nazis were also responsible for the deliberate death by shooting, starvation, or overwork of at least
another 9 to 10 million people. Because the Nazis also considered Gypsies a race containing alien blood,
they were also exterminated. About 40% of Europe’s one million Gypsies were killed in the death camps.
The leading elements of the “subhuman” Slavic peoples—the clergy, intelligentsia, civil leaders, judges,
and lawyers were deliberately killed. Probably, an additional four million Europeans lost their lives as slave
laborers for Nazi Germany, and three to four million Soviet prisoners of war were killed in captivity. The
Nazis also singled out homosexuals for persecution, and thousands lost their lives in concentration camps.
About 50,000 persons directly participated in the Nazi slaughters. After the war only a fraction of these
were ever brought to trial, and only some 500 executed. As the Cold War developed, the United States
wanted a strong and friendly West Germany to help it in its struggle with the Soviet Union and the
ex‑ Nazis were allowed to quietly slip back into civilian life.
V. The Home Front
Great Britain—The British were especially determined to make use of women. Most women under 40 were
called upon to do war work of some kind. By 1944, women held almost 50% of the civil service positions,
and the number of women in agriculture doubled. The government encouraged a “Dig for Victory”
campaign to increase food production. Even with 1.4 million new gardens in 1943, Britain still faced a
shortage of food as German submarines continued to sink hundreds of British merchant vessels. Food
rationing intensified during the war as the British became accustomed to a diet dominated by bread and
potatoes. The British made substantial gains in manufacturing war materials during the war. The production
of aircraft grew from 8,000 in 1939 to 26,000 in 1943.
The Soviet Union—Known to the Soviets as the Great Patriotic War, the German-Soviet war witnessed the
greatest land battles in history as well as incredible ruthlessness. Forty percent of all persons killed in
World War II were Soviet citizens. The initial defeats of the Soviet Union led to drastic emergency
mobilization measures that affected the civilian population. Leningrad, for example, experienced 900 days
of siege, during which its inhabitants ate dogs, cats, and mice. As the German army made its rapid advance
into Soviet territory, the factories in the western part of the country were dismantled and shipped to the
interior. As a result of the emphasis on military goods and the capture of farm land by the Germans, Soviet
citizens experienced incredible shortages of food and housing. Civilian food consumption fell by 40%
during the war. Soviet women played a major role in the war effort Overall, the number of women working
in industry increased almost 60%.
Germany—To maintain the morale of the home front during the first two years of the war, Hitler refused to
convert production from consumer goods to armaments. Blitzkrieg allowed the Germans to win quick
victories, after which they plundered the food and raw materials of conquered countries in order to avoid
diverting resources away from the civilian economy. Early in 1942, Hitler finally ordered a massive
increase in armaments production and the size of the army. Germany was able to triple the production of
armaments between 1942 and 1943 despite the intense Allied air raids. Hitler, fearful of civilian morale
problems that would undermine the home front, refused any dramatic cuts in the production of consumer
goods and a total mobilization of the economy was not implemented until 1944. Because Germany had
access to slave labor from its conquered regions, the number of German women working outside the home
increased only slightly.
The Bombing of Cities—The first sustained use of civilian bombing in World War II begin in early
September 1940, when the Luftwaffe subjected London and many other British cities to nightly air raids.
The Blitz (as the British called the German air raids) became a national experience. The German raids on
London were relatively ineffective because they were widely scattered over a very large city. Smaller
communities were more directly affected by the devastation. In November 1940, for example, the
Luftwaffe destroyed 100 acres of the city center of Coventry. British war production was little affected by
German air raids.
The British began major bombing raids in 1942. With the entry of the Americans into the war, the bombing
strategy changed. American planes few daytime missions aimed at the precision bombing of transportation
facilities and war industries, while the British Bomber command continued nighttime saturation bombing
of all German cities with populations over 100,000. After D‑ Day the Allied air forces concentrated all
their resources on the destruction of Germany. During the war 593,000 German civilians were killed, and
over 3.3 million homes destroyed. But the cost to the attacking forces were high‑ ‑ 46,000 British aircrew
were killed, and as much as one third of British military and civilian manpower and industrial resources
was devoted to supporting Bomber Command in the latter years of the war.
In some cases the air attacks were huge successes. In July 1943, in a raid on Hamburg, the Allied air forces
were able to start a firestorm and kill 40,000 people in about two hours. If they had been able to produce
that result every time, bombing would have ended the war in six months. But only once more, at Dresden in
1945, were all the circumstances right to produce a firestorm (135,000 dead). The usual consequences were
far less impressive. Over the whole war, the average result of a single British bomber sortie with a sevenman crew was less than three dead Germans--and after an average of 14 missions, the bomber crew
themselves would be dead or prisoners. Moreover, since the damage was done piecemeal over a long
period of time, German industrial production for military purposes actually managed to continue rising
until late 1944. Even in 1944 and 1945, Allied raids cut German production of armaments by only 7%.
(Hence the appeal of the atomic bomb--destruction of the enemy was certain, fast, and cheap).
Post War Europe, 1945-1970
I. The Foundation of the Cold War
In October 1944 Winston Churchill met with Stalin in Moscow and the two leaders agreed to postwar
spheres of influence. The Soviet Union received 90% influence in Romania and 75% in Bulgaria, whereas
Britain obtained 90% influence in Greece. Eastern European countries that had a strong tradition of
Western ties, such as Yugoslavia and Hungary were divided “fifty-fifty.”
By the time of the conference in Yalta in February 1945, the defeat of Germany was a foregone conclusion.
The Western powers, which had earlier believed that the Soviets were in a weak position, were now faced
with the reality of 11 million Red Army soldiers taking possession of Eastern and much of central Europe.
Stalin was still operating under the notion of spheres of influence. He was deeply suspicious of the Western
powers and desired a buffer to protect the Soviet Union. At the same time, Stalin was eager to obtain
economically important resources and strategic military positions. FDR was moving away from the notion
of spheres of influence and to the ideal of self-determination. Liberated countries were to hold free
elections to determine their political systems. These elections would probably produce anti-Soviet
governments in much of Eastern Europe. Roosevelt sought Soviet military help against Japan. He agreed to
Stalin’s price—possession of Sakhalin and the Kurile Islands as well as two warm water ports and railroad
rights in Manchuria.
At Yalta, the Big Three reaffirmed that Germany must surrender unconditionally and created four
occupation zones, Churchill, over the objections of the Soviets and Americans, insisted that the French be
given one occupation zone, carved out of the British and American zones. German reparations were set at
$20 billion. It was agreed that a provisional government would be established in Poland that would include
both Communists and non-Communists. Stalin also agreed to future free elections. The principle was that
Eastern European governments would be freely elected, but they were also supposed to be pro-Soviet. This
attempt to reconcile two irreconcilable goals was doomed to failure.
Even before the conference at Potsdam took place in July 1945, Western relations with the Soviets were
deteriorating rapidly. Once the Nazis were defeated, the many differences that troubled East-West relations
came to the surface. Each side committed acts that the other viewed as unbecoming of “allies.” From the
perspective of the Soviets, the United States’ termination of Lend-Lease aid before the war was over and its
failure to respond to the Soviet request for a $6 billion loan exposed the Western desire to keep the Soviet
state weak. On the American side, the Soviet Union’s takeover of Eastern Europe was seen as a violation of
Soviet promises. At Potsdam, President Truman demanded free elections throughout Eastern Europe. Stalin
responded: “A freely elected government in any of these East European countries would be anti-Soviet, and
that we cannot allow.” By the middle of 1945, only an invasion by Western forces could undo
developments in Eastern Europe, and after World War II, few people favored such a policy.
As the war slowly receded into the past, the reality of conflicting ideologies reappeared. Many in the West
interpreted Soviet policy as part of a worldwide Communist conspiracy. The Soviets viewed Western,
especially American, policy is global capitalist expansionism or, in Leninist terms, as nothing less than
economic imperialism. In March 1946, in a speech in Fulton, Missouri, Winston Churchill declared that “an
iron curtain” had “descended across the continent.” Stalin branded Churchill’s speech a “call to war with
the Soviet Union.”
II. The Truman Doctrine, the Marshall Plan, and NATO
In 1946 civil war broke out in Greece between the Communist forces and the anti-Communist government
supported by the British. Continued postwar economic problems forced the British to withdraw. President
Truman, alarmed by British weaknesses, the possibility of Soviet expansion in the eastern Mediterranean,
and strong political pressures at home, responded with the Truman Doctrine. The Truman Doctrine said in
essence that the United States would provide aid to countries that claimed they were threatened by
Communist expansion. In 1947, Congress allocated $400 million in economic and military aid to Greece
and Turkey. As Secretary of State Dean Acheson explained: “Like apples in a barrel infected by disease,
the corruption of Greece would infect Iran and all the East. . .likewise Africa. . .Italy. . .France. . . .Not
since Rome and Carthage had there been such a polarization of power on this earth.”
In June 1947 the United States’ Marshall plan provided $13 billion for the economic recovery of war-torn
Europe. Underlying it was the belief that Communist aggression fed off economic turmoil. From the Soviet
perspective, the Marshall Plan was capitalist imperialism, a thinly veiled attempt to buy the support of
Western Europe, which in return would be expected to submit to economic exploitation by the U.S. The
Soviets were in no position to compete financially with the United States and could do little to counter the
Marshall Plan.
The fate of Germany also became a source of heated contention between East and West. The Soviets took
reparations from Germany. The technology-starved Soviets dismantled and removed to the Soviet Union
380 factories from the western zones of Berlin before transferring their control to the Western powers. By
the summer of 1946, 200 chemical, paper, and textile factories in the Soviets’ Easter German zone had
likewise been shipped to the Soviet Union. The Western powers began to merge their occupation zones
economically and, by February 1948, were making plans for the unification of these three Western sections
of Germany and the formal creation of a West German federal government. The Soviets responded with a
land blockade of West Berlin. The Soviets hoped to secure economic control of all Berlin and force the
Western powers to halt the creation of a separate West German state.
An attempt to break through the blockade would have risked World War III. The solution to keeping the
2.5 million people alive in West Berlin was the Berlin Air Lift. At its peak, 13,000 tons of supplies were
flown to Berlin daily. The Soviets, also not wanting war, and hurt by a counter-blockade, lifted the
blockade in May 1949. The West German Federal Republic was formally created in September 1949, and a
month later, a separate German Democratic Republic was established in East Germany. Berlin remained
divided and the source of much contention between East and West.
The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) was formed in April 1949 when Belgium, Britain,
Denmark, France, Iceland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, and Portugal signed a treaty with
the United States and Canada. All the powers agreed to provide mutual assistance if any one of them was
attacked. A few years later West Germany, Greece, and Turkey joined NATO. The Soviet Union followed
suit with the 1955 Warsaw Pact. Albania, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, East Germany, Hungary, Poland,
Romania, and the Soviet Union organized a formal military alliance.
III. The End of European Colonies
Not only did World War II leave Europe in ruins, it also cost Europe its supremacy in world affairs. The
Japanese had humiliated the Western states by overrunning their colonial empires during the war. In
addition, colonial soldiers who had fought on behalf of the Allies were well aware that Allied war aims
included the principle of self-determination. The European states no longer had the wealth to maintain their
colonial empires. A rush of decolonization swept through the world. Between 1947 and 1962, virtually
every colony achieved independence.
In Asia, the United States initiated the process of decolonization in 1946 when it granted independence to
the Philippines. Britain followed suit with India. The conflict between India’s Hindu and Muslim
populations was solved by forming two states, a mostly Hindu India and a predominantly Muslim Pakistan
in 1947. In 1948 Britain granted independence to Ceylon (Sri Lanka) and Burma (Myanmar). When the
Dutch failed to reestablish control over the Dutch East Indies, Indonesia emerged as an independent nation
in 1949. The French effort to remain in Indochina led to a bloody struggle with Vietnamese nationalists
guerrillas, led by Ho Chi Minh, the Communist and nationalist leader of the Vietnamese. After their defeat
in 1954, the French granted independence to Laos and Cambodia, and Vietnam was temporarily divided in
anticipations of elections in 1956 that would decide its fate. But the elections were never held (the West
knew Ho would win), and the division of Vietnam into Communist and pro-Western regimes eventually led
to the Vietnam War.
In the Middle East and North Africa, Arab nationalism was a powerful factor in ending colonial empires.
When the British left Palestine in 1947, the UN voted to created both an Arab state and a Jewish state.
When the Arabs attempted to destroy the new Israeli state, Israel’s victories secured its existence. In 1956
the French granted independence to Morocco and Tunisia. Since Algeria was home to two million French
setters and was governed as a integral part of France, France attempted to retain its dominion there. In 1954
a war of liberation broke out. The French people became so divided over this war that the French leader,
Charles de Gaulle, accepted the inevitable and granted Algerian independence in 1962.
In 1957 British Ghana was the first sub-Saharan colony granted independence, and by 1960, almost all
French and British possession in Africa had gained their freedom. In 1960 The Belgians freed the Congo.
The Portuguese held on stubbornly but were also driven out of Africa by 1975. The white settlers of Kenya
refused to grant independence to the native peoples, and it took a nasty war of independence for the
Kenyans to finally gain their liberty in 1963. In Rhodesia (Zimbabwe) the white settlers refused the British
declaration of independence. African rule was not achieved until 1980 after an international boycott and
violent rebellion.
IV. The Soviet Union: From Stalin to Khrushchev
To overcome the devastation of World War II Stalin focused the state’s economy on industrialization.
Working hard for little pay, poor housing, and few consumer goods, Soviet laborers were expected to
produced goods for export with little in return for themselves. The income capital from abroad could then
be used to purchase machinery and Western technology. By 1950, Soviet industrial production was 40%
above pre-war levels. While the development of thermonuclear weapons in 1953, jet fighters from 1950
1953, and the first space satellite (Sputnik) in 1957 elevated the Soviet state’s reputation as a world power
abroad, the Soviet people were shortchanged domestically.
Contact with the West during the war had shaken many people’s belief in the superiority of the Soviet
system. Returning Soviet soldiers brought back stories of the prosperity of the West, and the obvious
disparity between the Western and Soviet system led to a “crisis of faith” for many young Communists.
Partly for this reason, Stalin imprisoned many soldiers, who were simply shipped from German prison
camps to Soviet concentration camps.
After Stalin’s death in March 1953 a collective leadership succeeded Stalin until Nikita Khrushchev
emerged as the chief Soviet policy maker. At the Twentieth Congress of the Communist Party in 1956,
Khrushchev condemned Stalin for his “administrative violence, mass repression, and terror.” Khrushchev
undid some of the worst features of Stalin’s repressive regime. Some intellectual freedom was permitted. In
1962 he allowed the publication of Alexander Solzhenitsyn’s A Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich, a grim
portrayal of the horrors of the forced-labor camps. Khrushchev reduced the power of the secret police (the
KGB), freed some political prisoners, and closed some of the Siberian prison camps. Nevertheless, when
Hungary rebelled in 1956, Soviet troops crushed the uprising, and Khrushchev and the Soviet leaders,
fearful of further undermining the basic foundations of the regime, downplayed their campaign of
deStalinization.
Khrushchev failed in his attempt to increase agricultural output failed and damaged his reputation within
the Communist party. The agricultural failures, combined with increased military spending, hurt the Soviet
economy. The higher members of the party bureaucracy disliked Khrushchev’s attempt to curb their
privileges. Khrushchev’s failed plan to place nuclear armed missiles in Cuba was his final mistake. In 1964
the Soviet Politburo voted him out of office (because of “deteriorating health”) and forced him into
retirement. Leonid Brezhnev, a “trusted” supporter of Khrushchev who had helped engineer his downfall,
became the new Chairman of the CPSU.
Eastern Europe—Between 1945 and 1947, Communist governments became firmly entrenched in East
Germany, Bulgaria, Romania, Poland, and Hungary, In Czechoslovakia, which had a strong tradition of
democracy, the Communists were the largest political party by 1946, but it shared power with nonCommunist parties. When it appeared that the non-Communist parties would win the 1948 elections, the
Communists seized power in February and barred all other parties. Albania had a strong Communist
resistance movement during the war, and at the war’s end the party took control of the country. The party
was rigidly Stalinist but independent of the Soviet Union.
In Yugoslavia, Josip Bro, known as Tito, was the leader of the wartime Communist resistance movement.
After the war he refused to capitulate to Stalin’s demands and gained the support of the people by
portraying the struggle as one of Yugoslav national freedom. In 1958, the Yugoslav party congress asserted
that Yugoslav Communists did not see themselves as deviating from communism, only Stalinism.
Communism—a foreign product—did not develop deep roots among the peoples of Eastern Europe.
Moreover, Soviet economic exploitation of Eastern Europe made living conditions harsh for most people.
The Soviets demanded reparations from their wartime enemies Bulgaria, Romania, and Hungary. They also
forced the Eastern European states to trade with the Soviet Union at the latter’s advantage.
In 1956, after the circulation of Khrushchev’s denunciation of Stalin, protests—especially by workers—
erupted in Poland. In response, the Polish Communist party adopted a series of reforms. Polish
Communists declared that Poland had the right to follow its own socialist path. Fearful of Soviet armed
response, the Poles pledged to remain loyal to the Warsaw Pact, and the Soviets agreed to allow Poland to
follow its own path to socialism. The Catholic church was also permitted to administer its own affairs.
The developments in Poland inspired Hungary to seek the same kinds of reforms and independence.
Hungarian dissent was not directed simply against the Soviets, but against communism in general. The
secret police had also bred much terror and hatred. This dissatisfaction, combined with economic
difficulties, created a situation ripe for revolt. In order to quell the rising rebellion, the Communist leader,
Imry Nagy, declared Hungary a free nation, and out of the Warsaw Pact, on November 1, 1956. He
promised free elections, and the mood of the country made it clear that this would mean the end of
Communist rule. Three days after Nagy’s declaration, the Red Army attacked Budapest and reestablished
control over the country. Two hundred thousand Hungarians fled the country and thousands more were
killed in the fighting. Nagy was executed by the Soviets in 1958.
In Czechoslovakia Alexander Dubcek was elected first secretary of the Communist Party in January 1968
and he introduced a number of reforms, including freedom of speech and press, freedom to travel abroad,
and a relaxation of secret police activities. Dubcek hoped to create “communism with a human face.” A
period of euphoria erupted that came to be known as the “Prague Spring.” Dubcek tried to establish a
neutral Czechoslovakia outside the Warsaw Pact. The Red Army invaded Czechoslovakia in August 1968
and crushed the reform movement. Dubcek was replaced by a hard-line Communist who maintained the old
order until the end of 1987.
V. Western Europe
All the countries of Western Europe faced similar kinds of problems at the end of World War II. They
needed to rebuild their economies, recreate their democratic institutions, and face the growth of Communist
parties. The important role that Communists had played in the resistance movements against the Nazis
gained them respectability and strength after the war. As part of their electoral strategy, Communist parties
often joined forces with other left-wing parties. The Cold War and the rapid economic recovery of Europe,
aided by the Marshall Plan, hurt the cause of socialism. By 1950, industrial output in Europe was 30%
above prewar levels.
France—The post war history of France was dominated by Charles de Gaulle. De Gaulle was convinced
that he had a historical mission to reestablish the greatness of France. During the war, de Gaulle played an
important role in the Free French forces. The creation of the Fourth Republic, with a return to the
parliamentary system based on parties that de Gaulle considered weak, led him to withdraw from politics.
Eventually, he formed the “French Popular Movement,” a decidedly rightist organization. It blamed the
parties for France’s political mess and called for a stronger presidency.
The fragile political stability of the Fourth Republic was badly shaken by the Algerian crisis. The French
army had been defeated in Indochina in 1954 and was determined to resist Algerian demands for
independence. But a strong antiwar movement led to bitter divisions within France. The Algerian war led
some French army officers to attempt a revolt and opened the door to the possibility of civil war. In 1958
the panic stricken leaders of the Fourth Republic offered the government to de Gaulle.
De Gaulle drafted a new constitution for the Fifth Republic that greatly enhanced the power of the
president, who now could choose the prime minister, dissolve parliament, and supervise both defense and
foreign policy. Determined to conduct an independent foreign policy, de Gaulle pulled France out of the
NATO high command. He increased French prestige among the Third World countries by consenting to
Algerian independence. France exploded its first nuclear bomb in 1960. De Gaulle did not really achieve
his goals of France as a world power. France was too small for such global ambitions.
De Gaulle centralized economic decision making. Between 1958 and 1968, the French GNP increased by
5.5% annually, faster than the U.S. economy was growing. By concentrating on industrialization, France
failed to build the hospitals, houses, and schools that it needed. Moreover, the expansion of traditional
industries, such as coal, steel, and railroads, which had all be nationalized, led to large government deficits
and inflation. Increased dissatisfaction with de Gaulle’s government led to a series of student protests in
May 1968. A general strike soon followed. Tired and discouraged, de Gaulle resigned from office in April
1969 and died within a year.
West Germany—Konrad Adenauer served as chancellor of West Germany from 1949 to 1963. Adenauer
sought respect for Germany by cooperating with the U.S. and other Western European nations. In 1955
West Germany joined NATO. Beginning in 1953, West Germany began to make payments to Israel and to
Holocaust survivors and their relatives in order to make some restitution for the crimes of the Nazi era.
Great Britain—In elections held immediately after the war, the Labor Party overwhelmingly defeated
Churchill’s Conservative Party. The Labor Party had promised social welfare reforms, and in a country
with a tremendous shortage of consumer goods and housing, its platform was appealing. The government
proceeded to create a modern welfare state. The Bank of England, the coal and steel industries, public
transportation, and public utilities were all nationalized. A comprehensive social security program was
initiated that included nationalized medical insurance. The health act created a system of socialized
medicine that required doctors and dentists to work with state hospitals, although private practices could be
maintained. The British welfare state became the norm for most European states after the war.
Continued economic problems brought the Conservatives back into power from 1951 to 1964. Although
they favored private enterprise, the Conservatives accepted the welfare state and even undertook an
ambitious construction program to improve British housing. Although the British economy recovered from
the war, it did so at a slower rate than other European countries. The slow rate of recovery masked a longterm economic decline caused by a variety of factors. Workers’ wages rose faster than productivity. The
British were not willing to invest in modern industrial machinery and adopt new methods. As a result of the
war, Britain had lost much of its prewar revenues from abroad but was left with a burden of debt.
Britain’s ability to play to role of a world power declined substantially as was evident in its withdrawal
from Greece in 1947. In July 1956 Egypt nationalized the Suez Canal, an act strongly condemned by the
British and French as a threat the their vital interests. On October 29, British, French, and Israeli forces
attacked Egypt. Strong U.S. opposition forced the invaders to accept a UN cease-fire resolution and
withdraw their troops. The Suez debacle made it clear that Britain and France were no longer world
powers.
VI. The Emergence of a New Society
The structure of European society was altered after 1945. A new group of managers and technicians that
depended upon specialized knowledge acquired from some form of higher education developed. Since their
positions usually depended upon their skills, they took steps to ensure that their own children would be
educated. Changes also occurred among the traditional lower classes. Between 1900 and 1960, the
percentage of the workforce engaged in farming dropped from 75 to 25 in Russia, from 41 to 20 in France,
and from 9 to 3.6 in Britain. The number of industrial workers began to dwindle as the number of service
employees increased. At the same time, a substantial increase in their real wages enabled the working class
to aspire to the consumption patterns of the middle class. The number of paid holidays increased. In the
1960s German and Italian workers received between 32 and 35 paid holidays a year. The increase in the
welfare state—government subsidized housing, medical care, pensions, and higher education—greatly
increased the amount of money states expended on social services. By the 1980s social welfare spending
accounted for 40 to 50% of the GNP of the major European countries.
Women were removed from the workforce at the end of World War II to provide jobs for the returning
troops. During the 1960s, with the advent of the birth control pill, married women began to return to the
workplace. The increased number of women in the workforce did not change some old patterns. Women
still made less than men. In addition, women tended to enter traditionally female jobs. Women did not gain
the right to vote in France and Italy until 1945. In 1949 Simone de Beauvoir published her highly
influential work, The Second Sex, in which she argued that as a result of male-dominated societies, women
had been defined by their differences from men and consequently received second-class status. De
Beauvoir’s work, along with Betty Friedan’s 1963 book, The Feminine Mystique, played a major role in
the American and European women’s movements of the post-war world.
Before World War II, higher education was largely the preserve of Europe’s wealthier classes. As late as
1950, only 3 or 4 percent of West European young people were enrolled in a university. After the war
European states began to foster greater equality of opportunity in higher education by reducing or
eliminating fees, and universities experienced an influx of students from the middle and lower classes.
Enrollments in European universities more than tripled between 1940 and 1960. But there were problems.
Classrooms with too many students, professors who paid little attention to their students, and administrators
who acted in an authoritarian fashion led to student resentment. In addition, students often believed that the
universities were not providing an education relevant to the realities of the modern age. This discontent led
to an outburst of student revolts in the late 1960s.
Europe Since 1970
I. The End of the Soviet Union
The years under the leadership of Leonid Brezhnev were relatively calm. Brezhnev benefited from the
more relaxed atmosphere associated with détente. The Soviets had reached a rough parity with the U.S. in
nuclear arms and enjoyed a sense of external security that seemed to allow for a relaxation of authoritarian
rule. The regime permitted more access to Western styles of music, dress, and art, although dissenters were
still punished. Two problems bedeviled the Soviet economy. The government’s insistence on central
planning led to a huge, complex bureaucracy that discouraged efficiency and innovation and that reduced
productivity. Moreover, the Soviet system, based on guaranteed employment and a lack of incentives, bred
apathy, complacency, absenteeism, and drunkenness. Agricultural problems added to Soviet economic
woes. Collective farmers lacked incentives. Poor harvests in the mid-1970s, caused by bad weather, forced
the government to buy grain from the West. To their chagrin, the Soviets were increasingly dependent on
capitalist countries for basic food products.
By the 1970s, the Soviet Union had developed a ruling system that depended on patronage as a major
avenue of advancement. Those who desired to rise in the system needed the support of successful party
leaders. Party and military leaders received material privileges not available to other citizens. Brezhnev was
unwilling to tamper with the party leadership and state bureaucracy despite the obvious inefficiency and
corruption.
By 1980, the Soviet Union was in serious trouble. A declining economy, a rise in infant mortality rates, a
dramatic surge in alcoholism, and a deterioration in working conditions all gave impetus to a decline in
morale and a growing perception that the system was foundering. When Yuri Andropov, the head of the
KGB, came to power after the death of Brezhnev in 1982 he attempted to reform the system, but he was in
poor health and he was unable to make any substantive changes. His most significant move was his support
for a young reformer—Mikhail Gorbachev. Andropov died in 1985. After a brief interlude under
Konstantin Chernenko, the Communist Party leaders chose Gorbachev as the new general secretary in
March 1985.
Gorbachev realized that Soviet society needed to change. In February 1986 he told party members that “the
practical actions of the Party and state agencies lag behind the demands of the times and of life itself. . .
.Problems grow faster than they are solved. Sluggishness, ossification in the forms, and methods of
management decrease the dynamism of work. . . .Stagnation begins to show up in the life of society.”
Gorbachev’s program was called perestroika or “restructuring.” At first Gorbachev only called for the
beginning of a market economy with limited free enterprise and some private property. Radicals demanded
decisive measures; conservatives feared too rapid changes. In his attempt to compromise, Gorbachev often
pursued partial liberalization which satisfied neither faction and also failed to work.
Gorbachev came to realize that attempts to reform the economy without political and social reform would
be doomed to failure. One of the most important instruments of perestroika was glasnost or “openness.”
Soviet citizens were encouraged to discuss openly the strengths and weaknesses of the Soviet Union.
Pravda began to include reports of official corruption, sloppy factory work, and protests against
government policy. In June 1987, the principle of two-candidate elections was introduced. Most dissidents
were released. In 1989, A new Soviet parliament was created whose members were chosen in competitive
elections. Early in 1990, parties other than the Communist Party were allowed. Gorbachev attempted to
consolidate his power by creating a new state presidency separate from the Communist Party. In March
1990 Gorbachev became the Soviet Union’s first president.
One of Gorbachev’s most serious problems stemmed from the fact that the Union of Soviet Socialist
Republics was a multiethnic country, containing 92 nationalities and 112 recognized languages. Previously,
the iron hand of the Soviet Union had kept a lid on ethnic and national tensions. As Gorbachev released this
iron grip, tensions resurfaced, a by-product of glasnost that Gorbachev had not anticipated. The Red Army,
in disrepair since the defeat in Afghanistan, had difficulty controlling the situation. In March 1990
Lithuania declared itself an independent state. The Soviet parliament declared the Lithuanian proclamation
null and void.
By 1991, the conservative leaders of traditional Soviet institutions—the army, party, KGB, and military
industries—had gown increasingly concerned about the impending dissolution of the Soviet Union and its
impact on their own fortunes. On August 19, 1991, a group of these discontented rightist arrested
Gorbachev and attempted to seize power. Gorbachev’s unwillingness to work with the conspirators, and the
brave resistance of Boris Yeltsin, president of Russia, and thousands of Russians who had grown
accustomed to their new liberties, caused the coup to fail.
The weakness of both Gorbachev and his opponents allowed the Soviet republics to declare their
independence. The Ukraine voted for independence on December 1, 1991, and a week later, the leaders of
Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus announced the Soviet Union had “ceased to exist” and would be replaced by a
Commonwealth of Independent States. Gorbachev resigned and turned over his responsibilities as
commander-in-chief to Yeltsin.
II. The Collapse of Communism in Eastern Europe
Poland—In 1980 worker protests erupted in Poland over huge increased in food prices. The demands of the
workers led to the rise of an independent labor movement called Solidarity. Led by Lech Walesa, Solidarity
represented 10 million of Poland’s 35 million people. Solidarity became a tremendous force for change and
a threat to the Communist Party’s monopoly of power. With the support of the workers, many intellectuals,
and the Catholic church, Solidarity was able to win a series of concessions. In December 1981 the
government arrested Walesa and other Solidarity leaders, outlawed the union, and imposed military rule.
Serious economic problems continued, and in 1988 new demonstrations led the Polish regime to agree to
free parliamentary elections—the first free elections in Eastern Europe in 40 years. Solidarity won the
election, thus ending 45 years of Communist rule in Poland. Walesa was chosen as the new Polish
president. Rapid free market reforms led to severe unemployment and popular discontent and in the
elections of November 1995 Walesa was defeated and a former Communist took over. However, free
market reforms continued and in 1999 Poland joined NATO.
Hungary—In Hungary the Communist government had enacted the most far-reaching economic reforms in
Eastern Europe. In the early 1980s, Hungary legalized small private enterprises. These economic reforms
were termed “Communism with a capitalist facelift.” As the 1980s progressed, the economy sagged. In
1989 new political parties called for Hungary to become a democratic republic. In elections in March 1990
the Communists came in fourth, winning only 8.5% of the vote. The new government committed Hungary
to democratic government and the institution of a free market economy. In 1999 Hungary became a
member of NATO.
Czechoslovakia—In Czechoslovakia in 1988 and 1989 mass demonstrations against the government broke
out. By November 1989, crowds as large as 500,000 were forming in Prague. In December as
demonstrations continued, the Communist government, lacking any real support, collapsed. The President
resigned and was replaced by Vaclav Havel, a dissident playwright who had played an important role in
bringing the Communist government down. On January 1, 1993 Czechoslovakia split into the Czech
Republic and Slovakia. In 1999 the Czech Republic joined NATO.
Romania—In 1965 leadership in Romania passed into the hands of Nicolae Ceausescu, who with his wife
established a rigid and dictatorial regime. Opposition to his regime grew as Ceausescu rejected the reforms
in Eastern Europe promoted by Gorbachev. The ruthless crushing of a demonstration in a city outside the
capital led to other mass demonstrations. After the dictator was booed at a mass rally, the army refused to
support any more repression. Ceausecu and his wife were deposed and they were executed on Christmas
Day, 1989.
East Germany—After a 1953 workers’ revolt in East Berlin was crushed by Soviet tanks, a steady flight of
East Germans to West Germany ensued, primarily through Berlin. This exodus created economic problems
and led the East German government in 1961 to build the Berlin Wall separating West from East Berlin. In
1988 fueled by a continual economic slump (which affected most of Eastern Europe) as well as the ongoing
oppressiveness of the Communist regime, another mass exodus of East German refugees took place.
Violent repression as well as the refusal to institute reforms only led to a larger exodus and mass
demonstrations in the summer and fall of 1989. Capitulating to popular pressure on November 9, East
Germany opened its entire border with the West. Hundreds of thousands of Germans swarmed across the
border, mostly to visit and return. The Berlin Wall became the site of massive celebrations as thousands of
people used sledgehammers to tear down the wall. In March 1990 free elections were held in East Germany
and the Communists lost power. On July 1, 1990, the economies of West and East Germany were united
and the West German deutsche mark became the official currency of the two countries. Political
reunification was achieved on October 3, 1990.
Yugoslavia—From its beginning in 1919, Yugoslavia had been an artificial creation. After World War II,
the dictatorial Tito had managed to hold the six republics and two autonomous provinces that constituted
Yugoslavia together. After his death in 1980, no strong leader emerged, and his responsibilities passed to a
collective state presidency and the Communist Party. In 1990 divisions between Slovenes who wanted a
loose federation and Serbians who wanted to retain the centralized system caused the collapse of the
Communist Party. New parties quickly emerged.
When new non-Communist parties won elections in 1990 in the republics of Slovenia, Croatia, BosniaHerzegovina, and Macedonia, they began to lobby for a new federal structure that would fulfill their
separatist desires. Slobodan Milosevic, who had become the leader of the Serbian Communist Party in
1987, and had managed to stay in power by emphasizing his Serbian nationalism, rejected these efforts. He
maintained that these republics could only be independent if new border arrangements were made to
accommodate the Serb minorities in those republics who did not want to live outside the boundaries of a
Greater Serbian state. Serbs constituted 11.6% of Croatia’s population and 32% of Bosnia-Herzegovina’s.
Slovenia and Croatia declared their independence in June 1991. Milosevic sent the Yugoslavian army into
Slovenia, but without much success. In September 1991, it began a full assault against Croatia.
Increasingly, the Yugoslavian army became the Serbian army, while Serbian irregular forces played a
growing role in military operations. Before a cease-fire was arranged, the Serbian forces captured one-third
of Croatia’s territory in brutal and destructive fighting.
The Serbs then turned their guns on Bosnia-Herzegovina. By mid-1993, Serbian forces had acquired 70%
of Bosnian territory. The Serbian policy of “ethnic cleansing”—killing or forcibly removing Bosnian
Muslims for their lands—was reminiscent of the Nazi atrocities in World War II. Despite worldwide
outrage, European and the American governments failed to take a decisive and forceful stand against
Serbian actions. By 1995, 250,000 Bosnians had been killed, and two million others left homeless.
In 1995 new offensives by mostly Muslim Bosnian government forces and by the Croatian army regained
considerable territory. Air strikes by NATO bombers, strongly advocated by President Bill Clinton, were
launched in retaliation for Serb attacks on civilians and weakened the Serb military positions. All sides met
in Dayton, Ohio for negotiations and a formal peace treaty, based on the Dayton accords, was signed in
Paris on December 14, 1995. The agreement split Bosnia into a loose union of a Serb republic (with 49% of
the land) and a Muslim-Croat federation. NATO agreed to send a force of 60,000 troops (20,000
Americans) to monitor the frontier.
A new war erupted in 1999 over Kosovo, which had been made an autonomous province in 1974. Kosovo’s
inhabitants were mainly ethnic Albanians. Kosovo also contained a Serbian minority who considered
Kosovo a sacred territory because it contained the site where Serbian forces had been defeated by the
Ottoman Turks in the fourteenth century in a battle that became a defining moment in Serbian history. In
1989 Milosevic had stripped Kosovo of its autonomous status and outlawed any official use of the
Albanian language. In 1993 some groups of ethnic Albanians founded a Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA)
and began a campaign against Serbian rule in Kosovo. When Serb forces began to massacre ethnic
Albanians in an effort to crush the KLA, NATO countries sought to arrange a peace plan that would give
the ethnic Albanians in Kosovo broad autonomy. In March 1999, after Milosevic refused to sign the
agreement, NATO began a bombing campaign to force the Serbs to cooperate. In retaliation, Serb forces in
Kosovo began a ruthless campaign of ethnic cleansing. In June, Milosevic capitulated and allowed NATO
forces to occupy Kosovo.
III. Modern Western Europe
After two decades of incredible economic growth, Europe experienced severe economic recessions in
1973-74 and 1979-83. Both inflation and unemployment rose dramatically. While conditions improved,
unemployment was still high in the 1990s—France had an unemployment rate of 11.7% at the end of 1995.
In 1957, France, West Germany, the Benelux countries and Italy created the European Economic
Community (EEC), also known as the Common Market. The EEC eliminated customs barriers for the six
member nations and created a large free-trade area protected by a common external tariff. With a total
population of 165 million, the EEC became the world’s largest exporter and purchaser of raw materials.
Only the U.S. surpassed the EEC in steel production.
In 1973 Great Britain, Ireland, and Denmark joined what its members now began to call the European
Community (EC). By 1986 Spain, Portugal, and Greece had been added. By 1992 the EC comprised 344
million people and constituted the world’s largest single trading entity, transacting almost one-fourth of the
world’s commerce. On January 1, 1994, the Maastricht Treaty created the European Union. The Union
created a common currency, the “euro,” in early 1999, and continued to work toward economic and
political integration.
Guest Workers and Immigrants—As the economies of the Western European countries revived in the
1950s and 1960s, a severe labor shortage forced them to rely on foreign workers. Scores of Turks and
eastern and southern Europeans came to Germany, North Africans to France, and people from the old
Commonwealth countries to Great Britain. There were probably 15 million guest workers in Europe in the
1980s. They constituted 17% of the labor force in Switzerland and 10% in Germany.
The foreign workers created social and political problems for the host countries. Many foreign workers
complained that they received lower wages and inferior social benefits. Their concentration in certain cities
and certain sections within those cities often created tensions with the native populations. Foreign workers,
many of them nonwhites, constituted almost one-fifth of the population of Frankfurt, Munich, and Stuttgart.
Many foreign workers were unwilling to leave, even after the end of the postwar boom in the early 1970s
led to mass unemployment. Moreover, as guest workers settled permanently in their host countries,
additional family members migrated to join them. Some European countries began to restrict immigration.
In 1991, thousands of Albanians fled their homeland after its Communist government began to fall apart,
but when they arrived in Italy, the Italian authorities forcibly evicted them.
In the 1980s, the problem of foreign workers was intensified by an influx of other refugees, especially to
West Germany, which had liberal immigration laws that permitted people seeking asylum for political
persecution to enter the country. During the 1970s and 1980s, West Germany absorbed over a million
refugees from Easter Europe and East Germany. In 1986 alone, 200,000 political refugees from Pakistan,
Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka entered the country.
This great influx of foreigners, strained the social services of European countries and the patience of many
native residents who opposed making their countries ethnically diverse. Anti-foreign sentiment, especially
in a time of growing unemployment, increased and was encouraged by new right-wing political parties.
Neo-Nazi groups have organized campaigns of violence, especially against African and Asian immigrants.