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The League of Nations
The League of Nations started in January the 10th in 1920, was an intergovernmental organization founded as a result of the Paris Peace Conference that ended the First World War. It was the first international organization whose principal mission was to maintain world peace. -
The Wall Street Crash
June-- Factory output starts declining. Steel production starts declining.
3 Sept-- The last day of rising prices.
5 Sept-- The index of share prices drops ten points.
6 Sept-- Market recovers.
Mon 21 Oct-- Busy trading. Much selling. So much trading that the 'ticker' which tells people of changes in prices falls behind by 1.5 hours.
Thu 24 Oct-- Busiest trading yet. Big falls.
Mon 28 Oct-- Banks stopped supporting share prices.
Tue 29 Oct-- Masiive falls. Peopel sell for whatever thay can get. -
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Causes of the Second World War
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Manchurian crisis
The first major test of the League came when the Japanese invaded Manchuria in 1931. Japan had been badly hit by the Depression. Her industrial strength depended on exports. These fell by 50% between 1929 and 1931. Without exports she could not buy the inports she needed. The country was also overcrowded. The military leaders believed that Japan should expand for more living space and raw materials. -
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Disarment
1932
July--When the Conference failed to agree the principle of 'equality', the Germans walked out.
Sept--The British went some way to agreeing equality.
Dec--An agreement was finally reached to treat Germany equally.
1933
Jan--Germany announced it was coming back.
Feb--Hitler became Chancellor of Germany, and rearmed secretly.
May--Hitler promised not to rearm if other nations destroyed their arm in 5 years.
June--Britain produced a disarment plan.
Oct--Hitler took Germany out of the Leagues. -
The 1932 Presidential Election
In the 1932 election President Hoover paid the price for being unable to solve the problems of the Depression. It was party his own fault. Until 1932 he refused to accept that there was a major problem. -
The New Deal-- The Hundred Days
4 March-- Roosevelt inaugurated.
5 March-- Closed banks.
9 March-- Selected banks reopened .
12 March-- Roosevelt's first radio 'fireside chat'. Encouraged Americans to put out their money back into the banks. Many did so.
31 March-- The Civilian Conservation Corps set up.
12 March-- The Agricultural Adjustment Act passed.
18 May-- The Tennessee Valley Authority created.
18 June-- The National Industrial Recovery Act passes. -
Hitler took Germany out of the Leagues.
Hitler took Germany out of the league of nations, by leaving the Leagues-- the worlds' biggist organisation that wants to save peace, he had already showed that he wasn't going to anything peacefully after leaving the Leagues and started to rearm secretly, and started his plan. -
Tried to take over Austria but was prevented by Mussolini.
He created an 'Anschluss' with Austria. Hitler also was born in Austria and this made him want Austria, but was stopped by Mussolini. -
The Saar plebicite
On 13 January 1935, the plebiscite was held, overseen by two judges from Italy and Holland, and a US History Professor, Sarah Wambaugh – they declared that the election had been fair, and that the result was genuine. The result was overwhelming: 90.3% of the voters voted to return to Germany. -
Held massive rearmament rally in Germany.
By March 1935, Hitler felt strong enough to go public on Nazi Germany's military expansion - which broke the terms of the Versailles Treaty. And Britain had already helped to dismate the Treaty by signing a naval agreement with Hiltler in 1935, allowing Germany to increase its navy to up to 35 per cent of the size of the British navy. -
The Second New Deal
The Second New Deal is the term used by commentators at the time and historians ever since to characterize the second stage of the New Deal programs of President Franklin D. Roosevelt. In his address to Congress in January 1935, Roosevelt called for three major goals: improved use of national resources, security against old age, unemployment and illness, and slum clearance, as well as a national welfare program (the WPA) to replace state relief efforts. -
Abyssinian crisis
The crisis in Abyssinia from 1935 to 1936 brought international tension nearer to Europe - the crisis in Abysinnia also drove Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy together for the first time. The affair once again highlighted the weakness of the League of Nations.
By 1935 Mussolini was eager to go to war. He wanted glory and now needed additional raw materials for Italian Industry. Abyssinia had Raw Materials and was conveniently located next to Eritrea, part of the Italian Empire. -
Remilitarisation of the Rhineland
In March 1936, Hitler took his first really big risk by moving troops into the Rhineland area of Germany. The Treaty of Versailles prevented Germany from having armed forces in the area of Germany between the Rhine river and France or Belgium. So he gambled if he had forced to withdraw, but he had chosen the right time.
In the same year, there were also a reintroduced conscription in Germany, showing that war was coming up. And also made an anti-Communist alliance with Italy. -
The Spanish Civil War
These early success semmed to gige Hitler confidence. In 1936 a civil war broke out in Spain between Communists, who were supported of the Republican government, and right-wing rebels under General Franco. Hitler saw this as an opportunity to fight against Communism and at the same time to try out his new armed forces. -
The Anti-Comintern Pact
The Anti-Comintern Pact was an anti-communist pact concluded between Nazi Germany and the Empire of Japan (later to be joined by other, mainly fascistic, governments) on November 25, 1936 and was directed against the Communist International (Comintern). -
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The Appeasement
Appeasement in a political context, is a diplomatic policy of making political or material concessions to a dictatorial power (or powers) in order to avoid a threatened conflict. Appeasement was used by European democracies in the 1930s who wished to avoid war with the dictatorships of Germany and Italy, bearing in mind the horrors of World War I. -
Anschluss with Austria
With recent successes to boost him Hitler turned his attention to his homeland of Austria. The Austrian people were mainly German and and in Mein Kampf Hitler had made it clear that he felt that the two states belonged together as one German nation. This political union is known as Anschluss. -
The Sudetenland
After the Austrian Anschluss Hitler was beginning to feel that he could not put a foot wrong, but his growing confidence was putting the peace of Europe in increasing danger. -
The end of Appeasement
Although the British people welcomed the Munich Agreement, thay did not trust Hitler. In an opinion poll in October 1939, 93 per cent said they did not believe him when he said he had no more territorial ambitions in Europe. In March 1939 they were proved right. On 15 March, whith Czechoslovakia in chaos, German troops took over the rest of the country. -
Invade Poland
The decision of Adolf Hitler to invade Poland was a gamble. The Wehrmacht (the German Army) was not yet at full strength and the German economy was still locked into peacetime production. As such, the invasion alarmed Hitler's generals and raised opposition to his command - and leaks of his war plans to Britain and France. -
The Second World War Begins
