• World War II (1939–1945) was a renewed and
perfected “total war,” even more intense than
World War I and ultimately taking a toll of
some 50 million dead.
Appeasement
• British conservative Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain (1869–1940)
advanced a policy of “appeasement.” (The term today has associations
that it lacked at the time. To contemporaries, it signified compromise by
meeting justified complaints to avoid renewed war.) It enjoyed popular
support at first, although Foreign Secretary Anthony Eden resigned in
protest. France pessimistically followed the British lead.
• Presenting himself as a defender of minorities, Hitler demanded from
Czechoslovakia the Sudetenland, where 3.5 million “Sudeten Germans”
lived. Czechoslovakia refused, and war seemed near by September 1938.
In a dramatic initiative,
Chamberlain flew to meet
Hitler and engaged in what
would today be called
“shuttle diplomacy.”
Chamberlain was willing to compromise to avert war
“because of a quarrel in a faraway country between people of whom we know nothing.”
•
•
•
A summit meeting took place in Munich on September 29, 1938,
with Hitler, Chamberlain, Mussolini, and French Prime Minister
Edouard Daladier (1884–1970), but without the Czechs. The
conference assigned the Sudetenland to Germany and
Chamberlain returned home with promises of “peace in our time.”
Contrary to Hitler’s promises, in March 1939 Germany occupied
the rest of Czechoslovakia.
This proved to be a turning point in the evaluation of Hitler’s
intentions; Britain and France extended guarantees to Poland, the
likely next victim.
When Poland was invaded, France and
Britain declared war, September 1939
• In his broadcast to the
nation, Mr. Chamberlain
spoke of his sadness that
"the long struggle to win
peace" had failed. He
continued: "I cannot
believe that there is
anything more or anything
different that I could have
done and that would have
been more successful."
But fighting didn’t begin right away, leading
to several months of what became known as
the “Phony War”, which saw few clashes.
• Churchill described appeasement as akin to
waiting to be eaten last, and war was only
delayed by a year. But there is a range of
contemporary verdicts on appeasement.
The War Begins in Europe
• Germany overran Denmark and Norway in a swift campaign
in the spring of 1940.
• Germany invaded the Netherlands, Belgium, and France in
May 1940.France fell with alarming speed, in part due to
domestic divisions.
• In June 1940, the French signed an armistice with Germany.
• British forces narrowly escaped from Dunkirk.
Britain “Stands Alone”
• Some in the British
cabinet urged
seeking peace, but
this was turned
down by Winston
Churchill (1874–
1965), who became
Prime Minister on
May 10, 1940. In a
dramatic gesture,
bolstered by his
remarkable oratory,
Churchill urged the
union of France and
Great Britain.
Britain now endured “standing alone” for 18
months, holding out against the air war of the Battle
of Britain.
The Hitler-Stalin Pact
•
•
•
•
Stalin aimed to stay out of the next war to
•
save the revolution (recalling the 1918
Treaty of Brest-Litovsk). Stalin, who
trusted no one and decimated those he
felt were potential enemies, chose to
•
trust, of all people, Adolf Hitler.
•
The diplomatic bombshell that paved the
way to war was the Nazi-Soviet Pact of
August 1939.
The pact had seemed impossible due to the
mutual ideological hatred of the parties, but
British diplomacy to promote an alliance
with the Soviet Union was slow and
irresolute, reflecting serious questions
about Soviet intentions and the Polish
refusal to cooperate.
Meanwhile Stalin signaled his desire to
come to terms with Hitler, replacing Litvinov
with Vyacheslav Molotov as Foreign
Minister in May 1939.
Von Ribbentrop was sent to Moscow to
negotiate the treaty between Nazi Germany
and Soviet Russia. Officially, it was a
nonaggression treaty, harking back to the
earlier Treaty of Rapallo of 1922.
In a secret
appendix…
Central and eastern Europe
were divided between
the signatories. Poland
and the Baltic states were
to be wiped off the map,
recalling the 18th-century
partitions of Poland.
The existence of the secret
treaty was denied by the
Soviet Union until just
before its collapse.
• Hitler gained the
assurance of avoiding a
two-front war.
•
ers on August 23, 1987,
o Hirvepark in Tallinn to
emorate the anniversary of
ning of the Molotovtrop Pact.
by the State Security
ttee (KGB) of the Estonian
Poland is carved up, Russia takes the
Baltics, and tries to take Finland
• German forces conquered Poland in five
weeks, and Soviet forces moved in from
the east, partitioning Poland.
• Stalin sought to solidify control over his
sphere of influence. He gave ultimatums
to the Baltic states (Estonia, Latvia, and
Lithuania), which were forced to accept
• Soviet bases and were annexed in 1940;
mass deportations followed. The Soviets
executed captured Polish officers at
Katyn.
• In a disastrous campaign—the Finnish
Winter War (November 1939–March
1940)—Soviet forces
• invaded Finland.
• The Soviet Union was expelled from the
League of Nations.
The War Progresses
• Churchill worked to bring the neutral United States into the
war. U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt began Lend-Lease
deliveries to Britain from March 1941. On August 14, 1941,
Roosevelt and Churchill signed the Atlantic Charter, which laid
out common principles, including self-determination.
• Hitler worked on the reordering of Europe. Germany, Italy, and
Japan signed the September 1940 Three Power Pact of mutual
aid; henceforth, they would be known as the Axis Powers.
The US joined the
Allies on
December 11th
1941 when Hitler
Declared war on
the US.
June 22, 1941~Operation Barbarossa
Germany’s Attack on the Soviet Union
• Pursuing his ideological long-term goals, Hitler
turned to attack his ally, Stalin’s Soviet Union.
• After a counterattack before Moscow in winter
1941 and the German defeat at Stalingrad in
early 1943, the Soviets began to drive the
Germans back.
Great Britain and the Soviet
Union allied in July 1941.
The United States began
shipments of materials to the
Soviet Union.
(The Soviet Neutrality Pact with
Japan of April 1941 saved the
Soviets from war on both
fronts.)
Allied Diplomacy
The January 1942 Washington Pact committed the 26 “united nations” associated
with the Allies not to make a separate peace with the Axis Powers.
After earlier meetings, Roosevelt and Churchill met at the Casablanca Conference
(January 14–24, 1943) and agreed on demanding Germany’s unconditional
surrender.
At the November–December 1943 Tehran Conference, Stalin, Roosevelt, and
Churchill (“The Big Three”) met together for the first time. Stalin’s calls for a
second front were finally met with the decision to invade northern France and
not pursue Churchill’s southern strategy to invade through southern Europe. A
secret agreement agreed that Russia and Poland were to be shifted westward at
Germany’s cost. Stalin demanded keeping his gains in eastern Europe.
(Roosevelt and Churchill worried about Stalin making a separate peace with
Hitler. Roosevelt won agreement on setting up an international organization.
Seeking to pin down Stalin’s demands, Churchill flew to Moscow in October 1944,
concluding the Percentages Agreement. This strange encounter established
spheres of influence in the Balkans, scrawled on a scrap of paper. The Soviets
were to have most of their influence in Romania and Bulgaria, the British in
Greece, and equal influence in Yugoslavia and Hungary.
Wartime negotiations climaxed at the Yalta Conference (in the Crimea) between
Stalin, Churchill, and Roosevelt (already seriously ill) in February 1945—the most
important of the summit meetings. The Allies had reached Germany’s borders.,
so the the main issue was Poland (which received Silesia, Pomerania, and most of
East Prussia) and establishing zones of occupation in Germany (Stalin also agreed
to enter the war against Japan). Roosevelt pressed his plan for a United Nations
and got Stalin’s agreement. The leaders signed the Declaration on Liberated
Europe, promising national sovereignty and democracy for the future, and Stalin
agreed to free elections in Poland. The French were not invited to negotiate but
received an occupation zone in Germany at Churchill’s
urging.
The Aftermath of Yalta
• Many eastern Europeans
see Yalta as emblematic of
their consignment to the
Soviet sphere; some have
viewed it as a Western
betrayal. Other scholars
respond that Yalta was the
best that could be
realistically achieved at the
time.
• But most agree that Yalta
left eastern Europe to
Stalin, who insisted on
friendly governments.
The trap closed on Germany and its allies.
• Mussolini was overthrown and in September 1943, Italy changed sides.
• Senior Nazis sought to negotiate but were turned down. When Roosevelt
died on April 12, 1945, Hitler hoped in vain for a repetition of the “Miracle
of the House of Brandenburg” of 1762, which had saved Frederick the
Great.
• On April 30, 1945, Hitler killed himself.
• On May 8, Germany’s total surrender came into effect.
• After the United States dropped two atomic bombs on Japan in August
1945 and the Soviets declared war, Japan surrendered on September 2,
1945.
In the wake of immense
destruction and suffering,
Europeans awaited a new
peace, but one that now
would be determined from
outside.
Europe is Flanked
• Now, Europeans witnessed
the beginning of their
continent’s division into
two blocs, western and
eastern, both under the
patronage of outside
powers that now in practice
became European powers.
• The Western Bloc would be
led by the United States,
which now dramatically
changed earlier patterns
• of its involvement in foreign
affairs.
• The Eastern Bloc was
dominated by the Soviet
Union, a Eurasian power,
inheriting the ambitions of
• the earlier Russian Empire.
One important decision the Allies made
was to hold the Nuremberg Trials