APPEASEMENT AND THE OUTBREAK OF THE 2 ND WORLD WAR Hitler and the breaking up of the Versailles Treaty The Wall Street Crash of 29 October 1929 led to the Great Depression. The Great Depression was a period during which economies of the countries around the world were negatively affected by the drop in price of shares on the Wall Street Stock Market. This left many individuals and businesses bankrupt. Because the USA had emerged after 1919 as the financial hub of the world, the economies of many countries were heavily depended on the USA economy.

Such that when the economy of the USA “sneezed” the rest of the world caught the flu. Germany was relying for money to make its reparations from loans provided by banks from the USA through the Dawes plan. As a result of problems in the USA all the banks that had loaned money to Germany requested for a repayment of the loans and this left Germany in a severe economic state. This economic situation in Germany helped in the rise of Hitler.

Hitler’s Foreign Policy Hitler wanted to achieve the following:- Destroy the Treaty of Versailles Create a Greater Germany to include all Germans outside the country Carry out the Anschluss (union with Austria) Gain Lebensraum (living space) for the German people with land taken at the expense of the Poles and Russians Rearm Destroy the hated French and Communist Russia

The Time – line in the breaking up of the Versailles Treaty 1933 – Germany left the disarmament conference and the League of Nations – Germany failed to achieve Anschluss. Nazis murdered the Chancellor of Austria, Dollfus and Hitler appeared to be getting ready to invade. However, he was stopped by Mussolini, who moved part of the Italian army to the border with Austria as a warning to Hitler – People voted by 9 to 1 to in a plebiscite to rejoin Germany – Germany openly announced rearmament, an extra men were to be conscripted in to the army. Plans were made to build 95 warships and 8250 warplanes by – The Anglo-German Naval Agreement signed that allowed Germany to build warships up to 35% of the number in the British Navy, thereby breaking the terms of the Versailles – Germany remilitarized the Rhineland

1936 – Hitler signed the Rome-Berlin Axis Agreement with Mussolini – Hitler sent help to General Franco in the Spanish Civil War. The Germans used this as a training ground for their tank crews and Luftewaffe pilots – The Anti- Commintern Pact was signed between Germany and Japan to fight Communism. The world’s three most militaristic powers were now linked by an agreement – Anschluss with Austria (Union of Germany and Austria)

1938 – The Munich Agreement between Britain, France, Italy and Germany gave Sudetenland to Germany without the consent of the Czech people – Germany occupies the rest of Czechoslovakia – Nazi-Soviet Non-aggression Pact and agreed to divide Poland between themselves 1939 – On 1 September 1939, Germany attacked Poland to regain the Polish corridor and Danzig which it had lost through the Versailles Treaty – on 3 September Britain and France declared war on Germany and this marked the beginning of the second world war.