HISTORY HL

A GUIDEBOOK TO THE MOST DEMANDING SUBJECT IN THE IB DIPLOMA

Paper 1

Subject 4: Rights and Protests

Paper 2

Topic 11: Causes and Effects of 20th Century Wars

Topic 12: Cold War

Paper 3

Option 4: History of Europe

Topic 13: Europe and the First World War (1871 – 1918)
Topic 15: Versailles to Berlin – Diplomacy in Europe (1919 – 1945)
 CONTENTS

US Civil Rights Movement (1954 – 1965) ................................................................................ 3

Apartheid in South Africa (1948 – 1964) ............................................................................... 18

The Chinese Civil War (1927 – 1945) .................................................................................... 33

The Spanish Civil War (1936 – 1939) .................................................................................... 44

Europe and the First World War (1871 – 1918) .................................................................... 54

Versailles to Berlin – Diplomacy in Europe (1919 – 1945) ................................................... 76

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 PAPER 1

Subject 4: Rights and Protests

US Civil Rights Movement

(1954 – 1965)

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BACKGROUND
v The American Civil War (1861 – 1865) was fought between the Southerners
(Confederates) and the Northerners (led by Abraham Lincoln)
Ø Northerners wanted to abolish slavery whilst Southerners wanted to uphold it
Ø The Northerners won, and America entered a stage known as Reconstruction whereby
the Northerners reconstructed the South
v Following the end of the Civil War, the 13th, 14th and 15th Amendments were added to the
US Constitution
Ø 13th Amendment: abolished slavery
Ø 14th Amendment: established citizenship and forbid states from restricting the basic
rights of other persons
Ø 15th Amendment: right to vote regardless of race or colour
v The Civil Rights Act of 1866 added equal rights in contracts and employment, attempting
to provide for equality of economic opportunity, a year after the end of the Civil War
v These amendments were established with the intent of providing for the legal and
political equality of African Americans
v However, these amendments were not properly enforced, leaving African Americans in
many places in the US:
Ø Living under a legal system that supported white supremacy
Ø Under the constant threat of economic coercion
Ø Violence backed by states, individuals and mobs
v The Jim Crow Laws began in 1877
Ø Were a series of state laws predominantly in the South which segregated whites and
blacks and disfranchised African Americans in aspects of employment, voting rights,
legal representation and pay
Ø Although it holistically violates the 14th Amendment, an outcome of the Plessy v
Ferguson (1896), resulted in the supreme court upholding the Jim Crow Laws by
stating it followed a “separate but equal” doctrine
v The poor conditions that African Americans lived through, convinced them that a change
was needed, which began the fight for civil rights

NATURE AND CHARACTERISITCS OF DISCRIMINATION

v Racism and Violence against African Americans
Ø Klu Klux Klan
§ Formed in 1865, the year the Civil War ended, by Southerners refusing to accept
the new laws placed by the Northerners
§ The first Klan (1865 – 1871) was initially formed as a secret social organisation
but in a short time, evolved into a vigilante group whose principle goal was to
negate Reconstruction by overthrowing Northerners state governments in the
South
§ This was done by assaulting and murdering African Americans and white
Americans who were sympathetic to them
§ They targeted African American political leaders and office holders by torturing,
lynching, whipping and burning their churches

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 § Many white government officials and police employees were Klan members
which left African Americans in the South living in constant fear of extreme racial
violence
§ Members made their own colourful costumes, robes, masks and conical hats in
order to strike fear and hide their identities
§ It was eventually supressed in 1871 through federal law enforcements with the
passing of the Enforcement Acts of 1870 and 1871
§ The second Klan came into fruition in 1915, in light of the great wave of
immigration that began in 1890
§ Members were inspired by D.W Griffith’s 1915 silent film The Birth of a Nation
which mythologised the formation of the first Klan, which was screened in the
White House for an enthusiastic President Woodrow Wilson who backed the
organisation
§ The second Klan emerged as a patriotic, anti-Catholic, anti-Semitic and anti-
African American organisation
§ They sought to maintain white supremacy and opposed Catholics and Jews but
eventually declined in popularity in the late 1920’s and died out in 1944 when the
US became a combatant in WWIII
§ The third Klan was revived in 1946 come the end of WWII and increased in
popularity in 1954 by the Brown vs Board of Education decision
§ The third Klan focused on opposing the Civil Rights Movement and often using
violence and murder to supress activists and remains active to this date
Ø Disenfranchisement
§ Disenfranchisement is the state of being deprived of a right or privilege
§ Was a means of maintaining white control in the Jim Crow South
§ During Reconstruction, African Americans in the former states of the
Confederacy were able to vote, run for and hold office
§ After the establishment of the Jim Crow laws in 1877, white Americans reclaims
political power by disenfranchising African Americans through various methods,
including violence, intimidation, election fraud and legal barriers
§ The second stage of disenfranchisement was known as ‘redemption’
§ It involved the stuffing of ballot boxes and the disposal or failure to count African
American votes
§ Denying the Blacks with the inability to gain political positions, inhibited their
growth and decreased their influence amongst the masses
v Segregation and Education
Ø Brown versus Board of Education of Topeka (1954)
§ One of the most significant US Supreme Court decisions of the 20th century, the
Brown v Board of Education of Topeka case resulted in the justices unanimously
ruling that racial segregation of children in public schools was unconstitutional
§ It helped to establish the precedent that ‘separate by equal’ education and other
services were not, in fact, equal at all
§ In 1896, the Supreme Court ruled in Plessy v Ferguson that racially segregated
public facilities were legal, so long as the facilities for blacks and whites were
equal

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 § Thurgood Marshall, the head of the NAACP Legal defence and Educational Fund,
served as chief attorney for the plaintiff, Oliver Brown, who filed a class-action
suit against the Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas after his daughter was
denied entrance into Topeka’s all -white elementary schools
§ The final verdict was that segregated schools are “inherently unequal”
§ Impact on the Civil Rights Movement
• Though the Supreme Court’s decision in Brown v Board didn’t achieve school
desegregation on its own, the ruling and the steadfast resistance to it across the
South, fuelled the nascent civil rights movement in the Untied States
• However, there were setbacks to the decisions, as the Court approved
gradualism, imposed no deadlines for beginning or completing desegregation,
issued vague guidelines and would take extremely long as counties were not
pressured or forced to comply by the decision
• However, the decision gave momentum to important events in the fight for
racial equality
¨ A year later in 1955, Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on a
Montgomery bus in Alabama, sparking the Montgomery bus boycott after
her arrest, a movement that would eventually lead to the toppling of Jim
Crow laws across the South
¨ The Little Rock 9 incident in 1957 was as a result of the Brown v Board
decision, as the support the 9 black children received, heavily changed
perceptions on the civil rights movement
• However, the decision led to negative reactions from white communities
¨ The White Citizen’s Council demanded to continue segregation and by
1956, had 250,000 members
¨ The Southern Manifesto was a document signed by Southern congressmen
in 1956 and denounced the Brown ruling and asserted the right of southern
states to maintain segregation
¨ During the 50’s, the threat and fear of communism was high, and the term
became associated with the Brown ruling, resulting in increased animosity
against it and its supporters
Ø Little Rock (1957)
§ Although segregation of schools was ruled unconstitutional in 1954 after the
Brown v Board of Education of Topeka, many schools refused to integrate
§ The Little Rock 9 affected the civil rights movement by using emotional appeals,
the media and its national status
• Emotional appeals
¨ The nine students were verbally and physically attacked by white students
¨ They knew that if they retaliated in any shape or form, the situation would
worsen
¨ They gained sympathy from both black and white people and were
supported by many
¨ Gave confidence to adults to retaliate peacefully as if children could do it,
they could do it as well

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 •
The Media
¨ By 1957, majority of Americans own television and viewed nationwide
cable news
¨ There were daily news broadcasts which used graphical clips depicting the
injustice of the Little Rock 9
¨ White people could see the atrocities occurring with their own eyes, which
made the situation a reality to them
¨ For the first time, Americans could see the prejudice for their own eyes,
rather than hearing it from biased sources
• National status
¨ President Eisenhower sent in 300 US troops to escort the Little Rock 9 into
the school on September 25, 1957
¨ This brought the situation to a national status and brought awareness to the
injustice occurring
v Economic and Social Discrimination
Ø Legacy of the Jim Crow Laws
Ø Impact on Individuals

PROTESTS AND ACTION

v Non-Violent Protests
Ø Montgomery Bus Boycott (1955 – 1956)
§ A civil rights protest in which African Americans refused to ride city buses in
Montgomery, Alabama to protest segregated seating
§ The boycott took place from December 5, 1955 to December 20, 1956 and is
regarded as the first large-scale US demonstration against segregation
§ Four days before the boycott began on December 1, Rosa Parks, an African-
American woman, was ar rested and fined for refusing to yield her bus seat to a
white man
§ One of the leaders of the boycott, a young pastor named Martin Luther King Jr,
emerged as a prominent leader of the American civil rights movement from the
boycott
§ On December 5, approximately 40,000 African American bus riders boycotted the
system and instead chose to walk to work destinations
§ This had an impact on the economy of Montgomery as public transport was a
major source of money
§ Integration was appealed by the Supreme Court on December 20 and segregation
in buses was overturned
§ However, this decision was met with significant resistance and even violence
§ Whilst buses themselves were integrated, Montgomery maintained segregated bus
stops
§ Snipers began firing into buses and one shooter shattered both elgs of a pregnant
African-American passenger
§ The boycott was significant in that it put King in the spotlight and set the stage for
the Civil Rights Movement

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Ø Freedom Rides (1961)
§ The Freedom Rides were initiated by young activists, both black and white
§ They boarded buses heading toward segregated terminals, aiming to test the
Boynton decision
§ They hoped that where confrontations arose, media attention would be captured,
at the same time nudging Robert F. Kennedy’s new administration into action
§ The Freedom Rides of 1961 were a way of exerting pressure on governments at
all levels, predominantly the federal government, to enforce the right of African
Americans to use interstate transportation unencumbered by segregation and
segregationists
§ The Freedom Rides were designed to publicise the fact that in spite of the
different Supreme Court ruling of recent years, segregation was still legally
enforced in the Southern United States
§ The First Freedom Ride left Washington DC on May 3 1861, scheduled to arrive
in New Orleans, Louisiana
§ Consequences of the Freedom Rides
• Media coverage of the Freedom Rides achieved the desired results
¨ Millions in America and the world were shocked
¨ The Alabama governor’s unsympathetic response when interviewed
simply reinforced the perception of America’s south as being racist and
living in a social time warp
• It finally kickstarted Kennedy’s government in the field of civil rights
legislation as the violence and arrests continued to attract national and
international attention
• Achieved the specific goal of integrating interstate travel
• However, it did not achieve James Farmer’s overall objective of obtaining
over, active and continued support for civil rights from the federal government
• The Freedom Rides enabled CORE, the SCLC and the SNCC to rise to
prominence
• Accelerated a split within the civil rights movement itself
¨ Active confrontation and decentralised grassroots activism as exemplified
by the SNCC
¨ The centralised and established leadership of the NAACP and the SCLC
Ø Freedom Summer (1964)
§ Planned by the SNCC, Freedom Summer was a non-violent effort by civil rights
activists to integrate Mississippi’s segregated political system during 1964,
§ Freedom Schools to teach literacy and civics to adults and children
§ It was to be a fully integrated project, bringing in middle and upper class white
student volunteers from across the nation
§ Some African American activists were concerned by this and preferred an all
African American campaign, reasoning that well-educated and mostly wealthy
white Americans working with African Americans might further engage
segregationists and also that the students would usurp leadership positions

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 § These concerns were countered by Moses’ insistence on the “Beloved
Community” ideal
§ In addition, there was a reason that could only be shared privately among COFO
leadership
• Only if middle and upper class white Americans were threatened or became
victims of violence would the federal government provide the protection that
the White House claimed it was powerless to give
• The pressure coming from well-connected parents on their local congressmen
and senators was a means of penetrating the white power structure
• The press would give more coverage to the deaths of white Americans than to
those of African Americans
• This was based on the nationwide reaction to photos of beaten and bloodied
white Freedom Riders, James Peck and James Zwerg in 1961
§ Freedom Summer workers operated under the most difficult and dangerous
circumstances
• They were frequently impeded and bullied by whites in Mississippi
• Mississippi’s capital city of Jackson was fully equipped to meet any
disturbance
• The police force was heavily reinforced with extra shotguns and tear gas
§ Eventually, three activists, two of whom were white, were murdered by
segregationists
§ A major impact of Freedom Summer was that 41 Freedom Schools were
established
v Legislative Changes
Ø Civil Rights Act (1964)
§ The Civil Rights Act of 1964 is the most famous of all civil rights legislation and
was known as the ‘Bill of the Century’
§ The act encompassed
• Voting rights
• Public accommodations
• Desegregation of public facilities
• Limits on discrimination within federally funded programs
• Limits on employment discrimination
• Authorised higher court review of district court referrals to state courts
§ Whilst the act did not resolve many problems of racial discrimination, it was a
significant step in federal responsibility and power in the enforcement of equal
rights
§ Came about as a result of the constant and rising pressure created by a decade of
actions and events, including the bus boycotts, business boycotts, the Freedom
Rides, demonstrations and marches
§ These actions highlighted the unceasing organisational, political and violent
resistance to integration, economic opportunity and voting rights
§ The nationally televised police violence in Birmingham, Alabama in April 1963
placed pressure on President Kennedy to act

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 §However, Kennedy was focusing on foreign relations and defence due to the
ongoing Cold War with the Soviet Union, but on June 11, 1963, JFK went on
national television to propose a bill on the Civil Rights Movement
§ Further violence ensued but the appointment of Lyndon B. Johnson after the
assassination of Kennedy resulted in the signing of the Civil Rights Act in on July
2, 1964
Ø Voting Rights Act (1965)
§ Whilst the Civil Rights Act of 1964 as the most important civil rights legislation
of the 20th century, the voting rights section of the act was not up to the task of
ensuring equal voting rights and access to political participation
§ In protest, the SCLC led by King opened a voting rights campaign in Selma,
Alabama
§ The violence that ensued became known as Blood Sunday, as on March 7, 1965,
600 marchers were attacked with tear gas, billy clubs and riders on horseback with
bull whips, resulting in many casualties
§ Paired with assassination of civil rights activist Malcolm X on February 21, LBJ
was pressured into passing the Voting Rights Act of 1965 in the short time frame
of four months and was put into activity on August 6

THE ROLE AND SIGNIFICANCE OF KEY ACTORS AND GROUPS

v Key Actors
Ø Martin Luther King Jr
§ Birmingham Confrontation Campaign – ‘Letter from a Birmingham Jail’
• On 16 April 1963, King wrote his “Letter from a Birmingham Jail” in which
he responds to an editorial by eight white Alabama clergymen in which they
criticise the actions and methods of King and others for choosing to protest in
Birmingham, first because they were outsiders and also in light of the
“moderate” new city administration
• King was arrested along with hundreds of other protesters in Birmingham, but
King was placed in a solitary cell
• Without sufficient paper, he began to write his response in newspaper margins
and on the scraps of paper available
• King’s reply explained the movement’s philosophy and its choices of tactics
• His powerful words may not have convinced Birmingham’s white clergy, but
they articulated the conditions in the Jim Crow South, the ethical reasons
behind the choice made by himself, other members of the SCLC and African
Americans from other locations to protest in Birmingham, and an
integrationist, pro-American philosophy that advocated the full participation
of African Americans in every aspect of life in the US
§ March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom – “I Have a Dream”
• On 28 August 1963, more than 200,000 demonstrators participated in the
March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom
• The march aimed to encourage passage of a Civil Rights Bill and executive
action to increase black employment

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 • Initially, nether Roy Wilkins of the NAACP nor President Kennedy were
supportive
• This alarmed King, who had staked much of the success of this march; and he
feared that many blacks were becoming frustrated and embittered by the
relatively slow pace of change
• King hoped that the March on Washington would demonstrate multiracial
support and justify the effectiveness of non-violent protest
• It succussed tremendously and pressured Kennedy to initiate a strong federal
Civil Rights Bill in Congress, although historians do vary in their
interpretation over the extent of which emptions pf the day facilitated the
passage of legislation
• However, it produced an iconic moment in civil rights history when King
delivered his ‘I Have a Dream’ speech, widely considered to be one of the
most eloquent speeches of all time and King at his finest moment
• The March had an impact on Christians in Washington, as the Churches were
prominent in the event and displayed a unity that was not always inherent in
other issues with other faiths involved as well
• His ‘dream’ not only acknowledged Christian unity, but called for religious
solidarity across the spectrum
• Further significance lies in the aptness of the date as Baynard Rustin, King’s
adviser, noticed that 1963 was one hundred years since the Emancipation
Proclamation by President Abraham Lincoln
• This promised the abolition of slavery once the northern states had won the
Civil War
§ Helped Organise the Selma to Montgomery March
• Most historians now credit King with the success of the Selma to Montgomery
march and how it led to the speedy passing of the Voting Rights Act
• However, King has been criticised for secretly agreeing with the federal
government that the marchers would not confront the police but turn back at
the bridge
• Manning Marable criticises this act and speaks of King’s betrayal of his
brothers, saying that he became an “accomplice of the white power structure”
§ More on his Significance
• Undoubtedly, he brought publicity to civil rights activities as he was well-
skilled at playing to the media and bringing regional and local conflicts into a
national arena
• Provided leadership, support and guidance during the Montgomery Bus
Boycott
• Instrumental in establishing the SCLC
• Always keen to emphasise the importance of non-violent protest and
resistance and because of this, King was able to make genuine progress as a
black man dealing with the highest authority in the USA which became a
major factor in the growing respect and acknowledgement given to the Civil
Rights Movement

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 • Developed contacts and influence in both the Kennedy and Johnson
administrations
• Johnson proved to be a more forceful ally than Kennedy, though King’s
influence with Johnson lessened when the civil rights leader spoke against the
war in Vietnam
§ Historiography
• Critical of MLK
¨ Harvard Sitkoff states that “despite good intentions, he had little success in
desegregating the North, alleviating the misery of the impoverished or
promoting world peace”
¨ Clayborne Carson believes that even if MLK had never lived, the black
struggle would have still mapped out in a way similar to how it did
¨ Ella Baker was critical of the adulation MLK received at the expense of
the grass-roots efforts on thousands of civil rights workers all over
America, but conceded that his contribution to the movement was massive
• Admiration of MLK
¨ William T. Martin Riches believes that with MLK’s assassination in 1968,
“America had lost the greatest black spokesperson of the century… who
also could speak with the emotional passion of an Old Testament prophet
that would galvanise black congregations to follow the non-violent road to
justice”
¨ Anthony Badger states that King was important in providing a revolution
in southern race relations
¨ Stacey and Scott-Baumann stated that “King led by example, showing
great courage and stamina in the face of opposition, assaults and threats of
assassination… With his appeal to American values, such as the belief in
liberty, justice and democracy, he inspired millions, both black and white.
Above all, he could influence the federal government and Congress. With
his preaching background, his intellectual training and his experience of
life in the North, he was a brilliant communicator with white America.”
Ø Malcolm X
§ Malcom X was an important civil rights leader who, unlike MLK and LBJ,
focused on the deplorable conditions of African Americans living in the urban
North
§ His childhood experiences of racism, threats and violence against his family and
the placement of the children in different homes, contributed to his views on
American society
§ Malcom X was influenced by Islam, following his conversion to the Nation of
Islam (NOI) during his time in prison for armed robbery
§ Led by Elijah Muhammad, the NOI preached racial solidarity and superiority and
believed that African American’s should be more highly educated and practice
small scale community capitalism

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 § It was a message that appealed to many African Americans in the northern urban
ghettos as the Civil Rights Movement had not resulted in significant changes in
those areas
§ Articulate and witty, Malcom X appealed to the desperation of urban blacks and
as a result of his charisma and contribution, NOI membership surged upwards of
50,000, making the group a household name in the US, which was feared by many
white Americans and some middle and upper class African Americans
§ In his acclaimed speech “The Ballot or the Bullet” on 3 April 1964, Malcom X
highlighted the fact that African Americans needed to control their own education,
politics and economy and therefore if they weren’t able to vote or their votes were
rendered useless, the bullet would be the alternative
§ He further justified that African Americans were justified in using any means
necessary to defend themselves if the government was incapable of protecting
them or chose not to do so
§ The message garnered much support from urban African Americans who were not
members of the NOI
§ On 21 February 1965, Malcom X was assassinated while giving a speech in
Harlem, leaving a legacy that both united and divided the Civil Rights Movement
§ His death brought significantly greater awareness to all of the United States of the
grievances and frustrations of African Americans, in particular those outside of
the South
§ It brought a sense of pride in African identity that has lasted for decades beyond
his death
§ Impact
• The NOI was a fairly small religious sect until the charismatic Malcolm X
became the spokesman of the group
• His energy and convincing speeches helped the group expand greatly
• New religious temples were opened in many cities, particularly outside the
Baptist-dominated South and thousands of African Americans converted to
Islam
Ø Lyndon B. Johnson
§ Overview
• Lyndon B Johnson began serving as a politician in 1937 and was President of
the US from 1963 to 1969, succeeding John F Kennedy in 1963
• He served as a key factor in the fight for civil rights only after being elected as
President
• Having ignored, then opposed and weakened legislation during the 1950’s, his
conversion to the cause of equal rights came late in his political career
• Once elected in 1963, LBJ wanted to leave his own legacy, which is why he
pursued in civil rights, as a part of his vision for a “Great Society”
• During his presidency, the focus of the government was still on foreign policy,
the Cold War, thermonuclear weapons and expanding the Vietnam conflict,
which were all critical parts of LBJ’s agenda

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 •However, LBJ was still concerned with domestic issues of poverty and civil
rights
• In the opening remarks of his first State of the Union Address in 1964,
Johnson stated “Let this session of Congress be known as the session which
did more for civil rights than the alst hundred sessions combined”
• Johnson used his knowledge of Senate strategy and the political debts owed to
him by wavering senators to help the Civil Rights Act pass the US Senate in 2
July 1964
• Despite this, discrimination and unrest continued in both South and North,
with violent responses from segregationists and racial violence in Harlem,
Rochester and New York among other cities
• On 9 February 1965, Martin Luther King Jr. met with LBJ at the White House
to push for voting rights legislation, eliciting a promise that the president
would act on
• After Malcom X’s assassination on 7 March, LBJ promptly delivered a speech
at the US Congress and managed to convince the Senate to pass the Voting
Rights Act of 1965 quickly
• Further urban riots pursued and at one stage, sent troops into Detroit in 1967
to stop the rioting and proposed more legislation
• The result was the Civil Rights Act of 1968 or the Fair Housing Act, which
banned most discriminatory practices in the sale and rental of homes and
apartments and provided additional protection for civil rights workers
• The act was signed a week after Martin Luther King’s assassination
§ Criticisms
• Some of his biographers argue that his public support for civil rights was not
matched by his private racial prejudice and that he came to support civil rights
only in the last years of his three-decades long political career, in order to
make his legacy
• It can also be argued that the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and the Civil Rights
Act of 1968 were fast-tracked by LBJ solely due to its close proximity with
the assassinations of Malcom X and King, which suggests that if they had not
been killed, the laws may not have been passed that quick
v Key Groups
Ø National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People (NAACP)
§ The NAACP was instrumental in the fight for the rights of African Americans,
beginning with its founding on 12 February 1909
§ Established following a race riot in Springfield, Illinois in 1908, the NAACP was
a racial and religiously integrated organisation from the start
§ The NAACP’s purpose was to promote and uphold the 13th, 14th and 15th
amendments
§ The NAACP were involved in the following key events
• Supported the Brown v Board of Education of Topeka and played an
instrumental role in its decision due to the work of NAACP lawyer, Thurgood
Marshall

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 • Worked with other organisations to provide bail for Freedom Riders and
working for voter rights
• NAACP member Rosa Parks began the Montgomery bus boycott
• Was the force behind the Little Rock Nine
• The primary organiser of the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom in
1963
§ Therefore, the NAACP’s advocacy was important in shaping and securing the
passages of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965
Ø Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC)
§ Formed in 1957, the SCLC led and participated in many campaigns and events
§ Was instrumental in advancing the cause of civil rights, tirelessly employing non-
violence as a tactic and assisting other civil rights groups as well
§ Was often at the forefront of protests
§ The origin of the SCLC is directly associated with the Montgomery bus boycott
§ Motivated by Christian values, SCLC membership was open to all races, religions
and backgrounds
§ Trained thousands of activists in the philosophy of Christina non-violent
resistance
Ø Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC)
§ Became the leading force for voter registration in the rural south, areas that had
not been targeted by the efforts of the other major civil rights organisations such
as the Black Belt in the Deep South (rural Mississippi, Alabama and Georgia)
§ First major action taken was to combine with CORE to organise the Freedom
Rides
§ Worked with the Council of Federated Organisations (COFO) to organise the
Freedom Summer project to register African American voters – “One Man, One
Vote” campaigns
§ Its activities prompted the establishment of the Mississippi Freedom Democratic
Party (MFDP)
§ It was a major organiser of the Selma voter registration efforts and the Selma to
Montgomery March
§ It organised the Albany Movement to end discrimination in transportation and
public facilities
§ Participated in the March on Washington
§ In the mid-1960’s, as white supremacists violence continued with many SNCC
activists becoming disillusioned, leading to division within, a notion that was
conveyed by Stokely Carmichael in the first “Black Power” speech in 1966
§ In 1966, the SNCC started excluding white Americans from some activities and
began expelling them the next year in 1967
§ By 1968, the N stood for ‘Nationalism’ and replaced ‘Non-Violent’
§ The SNCC was a major force in the Civil Rights Movement
• It foundational basis was grassroots organising
¨ Grassroots organisations use the people in a given district, region or
community as the basis for a political and economic movement

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 • “The overall significance of the SNCC was that the members were real
activists in a time of official ‘non-violence’. They knew that their job was to
move into a community, evaluate its local leadership and then teach the
community to stand up for itself. SNCC members made efforts to identify with
those who they wished to influence, so they adopted the traditional habits and
dress of wherever they were, be it among youth, shopkeepers or
sharecroppers. They aimed to leave behind self-reliant and self-governing
organisations of fellow activists who could both ‘spread the word’ and work
for their own interest in their own way” (Bottaro and Stanley, Cambridge)
§ The SNCC was involved with many major campaigns and events and its actions
resulted in changes in interstate transportation, public facilities, voting rights,
numbers of African American elected officials and major federal legislation
§ The militant stance later adopted by Carmichael and other more militant SNCC
leaders helped to fracture the coalition of cooperation among the different groups
in the Civil Rights Movement
Ø The Nation of Islam (Black Muslims)
§ The NOI was not a political organisation but a religious organisation
§ Core NOI beliefs
• The black man was the original man and that all other races were descended
from black people
• White people were created from an evil scientist named Yacub and were
devils
• There is no God but Allah and Elijah Muhammad is the Prophet
• Separation, not integration with white people was the path forward
• The race problems would be solved by divine intervention
§ NOI’s emphasis on Africanism, African identity, racial separatism, righteous
living as understood through Islam, economic self-reliance and self-governance
made the organisation an important force in the civil rights struggle, especially
during the late 1950’s and 1960’s
§ NOI’s membership grew from 1000 to between 100,000 and 300,000 by 1964,
which was catalysed by Malcolm X’s entrance into the group and his charm and
charisma
§ NOI’s teachings struck a chord in the midst of increasingly white-on-black
violence from 1954 to 1965
§ Its message that racial separatism was necessary for African Americans to gain
rights and economic status and stability differed significantly from every other
civil rights organisation at the time
§ It also advocated forceful self-defence, dismissing the concept of the Beloved
Community and non-violence
§ From 1954 to 1965, NOI also differed from mainstream civil rights organisations
in that it did not run campaigns to gain voting rights or integrate facilities
§ Instead, it focused on growth, recruitment and spreading its doctrine
§ The NOI’s message of condemning white Americans, evident in a 1959 speech,
repelled white liberals who had supported the Civil Rights Movement and was

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 widely seen as an affront to the integrated natures of the NAACP, SCLC, CORE
and SNCC, each of which had been integrated from inception
§ NOI’s message of African American separatism and nationalism became more
popular in the late 1960’s and early 1970’s
§ The assassination of MLK amid continuing violence left many questionings
whether the goal of integration was worth pursuing
§ Stokely Carmichael of the SNCC was influenced by the ides of self-defence, black
nationalism and self-reliance as expressed by NOI’s leading spokesperson,
Malcolm X
§ This was evident in his beliefs espoused by the Black Power movement and the
Black Panther Party

17
 PAPER 1

Subject 4: Rights and Protests

Apartheid in South Africa

(1948 – 1964)

18
BACKGROUND
v May 1910 saw the formation of the Union of South Africa as it became independent of
the British Empire
v The elections held in May 1948 saw the National Party (NP) led by DF Malan rise to
power and begin the Apartheid period thereby turning the existing segregation between
races into Law
v Although there was discrimination based on race in other parts of the world, Apartheid
South Africa was unique in that nowhere did a minority of the population discriminate
against the indigenous majority in such a systematic way and with such ruthless
determination
v ‘Influx control’ laws prevented the free movement of Africans between rural and urban
areas
v Even though Africans made up 80% of the population, white people were superior in
regard to economic and social background
v The primary goals of Apartheid were to:
Ø Segregate the races
Ø Priorities white interests over those of the other groups
v The aim of Apartheid
Ø Create a complete, all-encompassing system of institutionalised racism based on the
complete superiority of South Africa’s minority White population

NATURE AND CHARACTERISTICS OF DISCRIMNATION

v “Petty Apartheid” legislation
Ø Its principal purpose was to ensure the complete domination, economic and political,
of White over Black
Ø Was introduced in the late 40’s and early 50’s by DF Malan
Ø It was sometimes labelled ‘baasskap’ which literally meant “boss rule”
Ø The term “baaskap” connotes the brutal subjugation of the Black majority and the
firm and decisive manner with which the government dealt with the anti-apartheid
opposition
Ø The term “petty” is suggestive of the unnecessary and fussy nature of the apartheid
regulations
Ø Examples of Petty Apartheid
§ The Prohibition of Mixed Marriages Act
§ The Immorality Act
§ The Reservation of Separate Amenities Act
v “Grand Apartheid” legislation
Ø Its main objective was the complete territorial segregation of South Africa, leading
ultimately to the full independence of each of its component parts
Ø It was initiated by HF Verwoerd in the late 50’s
Ø This version of Apartheid was altogether more ideologically sophisticated
Ø It would enable the completely separate development of the different peoples, each
within their own national jurisdiction

19
 Ø It also aimed to establish a moral legitimacy for the apartheid system in the face of an
increasingly hostile global community
Ø The term “grand” has connotations of loftiness and nobility, which is ironic to say the
least
Ø The Promotion of Bantu Self-Government Act was an example of Grand Apartheid
v Division and “Classification”
Ø Official division and classification of different racial groups in South Africa was an
essential perquisite for the enforcement of other forms of Apartheid legislation
Ø The Population Registration Act 1950
§ Provided for the creation of a national population register
§ Each citizen was defined according to the racial group to which he or she
belonged 3 basic racial groups:
• White
• Coloured (classified further into Indian, Asian, Malay, etc)
• Bantu (Black African)
§ The following criteria were used for separating the other races from the whites
• Characteristics of the person’s hair
• Skin colour
• Facial features
• Home language
• Area of residence
• Friends and acquaintances
• Employment
• Socio-economic status
• Eating and drinking habits
§ Problems that arose from the implementation of the act
• The boundaries between these newly defined populations groups were bound
to be fluid and unclear
• Created divisions in society as there were political and economic gains in
being classified as white
• South African Indian woman Ayesha Hoorzook had one of her son’s classified
as an Indian and the other as a Malay
• Vic Wilkinson was an unfortunate man who was reclassified twice: from
Coloured to White, and then from White back to Coloured
v Segregation of Populations and Amenities
Ø The Prohibition of Mixed Marriages Act 1949
§ Signed in 1949, it was the first major law passed by the NP government
§ Designed to promote the separation of the races by outlawing sexual relations and
procreation between the different population
§ Miscegenation (sexual relation between people of different colours) was viewed
by the apartheid mentality as closely associated with racial degeneration
Ø The Immorality Act 1950
§ Signed in 1950, it supported the Prohibition of Mixed Marriages Act
§ Banned all extra-marital sexual relations between Whites and non-Whites

20
 § The law failed to cover sexual relations between people of different non-White
races, showing that it only cared about the racial purity of Whites
Ø The Bantu Building Workers Act 1951
§ Clarified existing regulations pertaining to separation of the races in employment
§ Because of the colour bar, skilled and semi-skilled jobs were reserved for Whites,
so the skilled labour required for the construction of homes, in the Black-only
townships would have to be performed by Whites
Ø The Prevention of Illegal Squatting 1951
§ Permitted the government forcibly to remove Africans who had formally settled in
urban areas that were to be designated as Whites-only under the terms of the
Group Areas Act
Ø The Pass Laws Act 1952
§ Signed in 1952, it was designed to enforce the segregation of populations
§ Permitted the authorities to enforce the segregation of the Black and White
communities more effectively through the strict regulation of the movement of
Blacks in the cities
§ Also allowed the government to extend its powers of surveillance over the Black
population which became a repressive instrument used against African politicians
(for example, night-time raids)
§ Africans had to carry comprehensive documents known as reference books that
were 96-pages long, on their person at all times
§ Africans were forced to abide by curfews
§ Impact on individuals
• Marked the first time the Bantu people chose to speak out in protest
• They used the Pass Laws Act as a means of channelling popular anger and
occasionally, as a means of actual protest
• The ANC’s Defiance Campaign of 1952 was launched in the wake of the
introduction of the new passes
• This campaign frequently involved volunteers courting police arrest by
attempting to enter a location without their reference books
• The mass action by the ANC and Pan Africanist Congress (PAC), which led to
the Sharpeville massacre, required protesters to present themselves at police
stations without their reference books
• Following the massacre, ANC leader chief Luthuli burned his reference book
in a powerful act of protest at what happened
Ø The Reservation of Separate Amenities Act 1953
§ Passed in 1953, it is often seen as the epitome of Petty Apartheid
§ It provided for the strict segregation by race of all public amenities
§ Buses, trains, toilets and hospitals had already been segregated to an extent
§ This act took it far further as separate entrances and service counters were
mandatory in buildings such as shops and post offices
§ Separate waiting rooms and stretches of platform were segregated as well
§ Signs informing the public that a facility was reserved for “Whites only’ were
soon ubiquitous
v Creation of Townships and Forced Removals

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 Ø The Group Areas Act 1950
§ DF Malan called it “the essence of apartheid”
§ Forced removals and creation of townships would not have been possible without
this legislation
§ Designed to bring about the total residential segregation of the different racial
groups in urban areas, specifically by removing non-Whites from inner city areas
that would henceforth be designated as Whites-only areas
§ Based on the premise that Africans were a rural people in their natural state, and
that permanent exposure to city life would lead to a breakdown in the social order
which formed the basis for the NP’s Sauer Report 1947
§ The Sauer Report concluded that all Africans belonged to in the native reserves,
and that their presence in and around urban areas was to be tolerated only insofar
as they remained economically useful to White people
§ The Natives Resettlement Act 1954 and the Group Areas Development Act 1955
• Issue of “Black sports”: mainly African enclaves situated in the midst of
White suburbs
• Forced removals: the authorities were not permitted to remove Blacks forcible
from the magisterial district of Johannesburg
• Case Study: Sophiatown
¨ A predominantly black neighbourhood located just to the west of the city
of Johannesburg
¨ Was surrounded by working class Afrikaner Areas
¨ Despite suffering from the typical inner-city problems of crime and
violence, the suburb was an especially vibrant place
¨ This was one of the few remaining places in which Africans could legally
own property
¨ In January 1955, the authorities initiated the Western Areas Removal
scheme and began the forced removal
v Segregation of Education
Ø The Bantu Education Act 1953
§ Made it mandatory for schools to admit children from one racial group only
§ Brought the education of Africans directly under the direct control of the Native
Affairs Department, headed by Apartheid hardliner HF Verwoerd, instead of the
Ministry of Education
§ Impact of this switch
• The new system dispensed with the idea of a single educational model for all
South African children and replaced this with a system of entirely separate
school boards for each race
• Curricular content would now be tailored to what the authorities believed was
appropriate to the intellectual capacity and practical requirements of each
racial group
§ Impact of the Bantu Education Act
• Education received by African children was grossly inferior to that enjoyed by
the Whites

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 • Virtually no academic content
• Designed to equip Africans with the rudimentary technical skills that would
allow them to perform domestic service for Whites, or sell their unskilled
labour to the mining and manufacturing industries
• It fulfilled the aim of promoting an institutional framework of White
domination over Black
• Despite this, there were independent schools funded by Churches and private
financers that allowed for Black Africans to achieve an education close to the
ones given to the Whites
¨ It was from these schools that people like Nelson Mandela and Robert
Luthuli
¨ Nigel Worden made a comment about such schools and said “previously
led the field in African education and were viewed as breeding grounds for
African independent thinking and progress”
Ø ANC’s Boycott
§ In response to the terrible syllabus, the ANC announced a permanent boycott of
the new system, even though it lacked the resources required to provide any sort
of a credible educational alternative for Black Children
§ In a small victory for the liberation movement, Verwoerd announced a new
revised syllabus in order to tone down the emphasis on tribalism
§ The ANC accepted this compromise
Ø The Extension of University Education Act 1959
§ Introduced to extent Apartheid to tertiary education
§ All universities would now be required to admit students from just a single racial
group, or in the case of African universities, a single tribe
§ This was part of Verwoerd’s wider strategy of pursuing the entirely separate
development of all population groups in South Africa
v Bantustan System
Ø The Bantu Authorities Act 1951 (DF Malan)
§ The term Bantustan meant a homeland system which was the flagship of grand
Apartheid
§ Designed to give each of the Black peoples of South Africa their own self-
governing homeland
§ Achieved by transforming the existing native reserves into a number of small,
fully independent states
§ It created a new regional authority for Africans, which were based in their
reserves
Ø The Promotion of Bantu Self-Government Act 1959 (Verwoerd)
§ Divided the African population into 8 distinct ethnic groups, later expanded to 10
§ Each group was assigned a White commissioner-general to assist them in making
the political transition to full self-government in their designated area
§ The Apartheid government could now argue that Black South Africans were no
longer its political responsibility
§ In 1970, the government decreed that all Black South Africans were citizens of
the homelands and not of the Republic of South Africa

23
 § Millions of Black South Africans who did not live in the homelands immediately
became foreigners in their own country, under constant threat of deportation and
being dumped in the Bantustans
§ The government saw the homeland system as a means of maintain white control
by creating divisions among the black majority – ‘divide and rule’
§ Another aim was to provide a cheap source of labour for the mines industries and
farms of ‘white’ South Africa
Ø Examples of Bantustans were Transkei and Ciskei
§ The homelands only became fully independent in the 1970’s
§ The Bantustans were led by corrupt and brutal oligarchies, enjoyed unconditional
political support and military assistance from the South African government
v Impact on Individuals
Ø The land assigned to the Bantustans was based on original “homelands” designated by
the 1913 Natives Land Act that allocated some of the most agriculturally
unproductive in South Africa
Ø The homelands made up 13% of the total land

PROTESTS AND ACTION

v Non-violent protests
Ø The 1950’s were marked by determined yet peaceful protest and resistance to
demonstrate the rejection of the NP’s discriminatory laws
Ø ANC’s programme of action: civil disobedience
§ The strategy of protesting against unjust laws by deliberately breaking them,
usually using non-violent means
v The Defiance Campaign 1952
Ø Officially started June 26 1952 and peeked in July and August of that year
Ø By the end of the year, more then 8,300 volunteers had been arrested
Ø Participants purposely broke the law by:
§ Refusing to carry their 96-page reference booklets as the Pass Laws Act dictated
§ Deliberately using the white-only entrances and other facilities which was
breaking The Reservation of Separate Amenities Act
§ Refused to pay bail so they would purposefully go to jail and eventually
overcrowd them
Ø Aim: To get so many people arrested that the jails would be full and the government
would have to reconsider its policies
Ø Impact
§ Success of the Defiance Campaign
• Turned the ANC into a mass-based organisation as membership rose from 700
to 100,000 paid-up members
• For the first time in its history, the ANC had managed to coordinate an
extended national campaign against Apartheid
• A broad coalition of interest groups was involved in the planning and
execution of defiance

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 • The national and global profile of the ANC grew enormously as a result of the
Defiance Campaign
• Helped create greater unity between resistance groups such as the Liberal
Party and the Congress of Democrats
• Increased political awareness inside and outside of South Africa
§ Failures of the Defiance Campaign
• The ANC failed to achieve any of its main political objectives
• The government emerged with even stronger repressive powers with the
passage of the Criminal Law Amendment Act and the Public Safety Act,
which it also introduced during the campaign
• Rural areas for the most part was hardly involved
• Very few members of the Coloured community joined the campaign
• The campaign was viewed with hostility by many in the White community
v Bus boycotts
Ø Bus boycotts had been a major form of Black protest against the South African
authorities since 1940
Ø The successes of these earlier boycotts had indicated the potential of organised
popular action as an effective means of peaceful political protest
Ø Bus boycotts also influenced the various ‘ad-hoc’ protests and “stay-at-homes”
organised by the ANC in the early years of Apartheid, as well as the Defiance
Campaign
Ø Boycotts of buses and other transport featured frequently in early years of anti-
Apartheid struggle
Ø Famous example: Alexandria bus boycott, which started in January 1957
§ Triggered by the decision of the bus company PUTCO, to increase fares from 4 to
5 pence
§ The one penny far-rise provoked an immediate response from Alexandria’s
commuters
§ The boycott only came to an end when the protesters demands were met
§ Impact of the Alexandria bus boycott
• The boycott viewed as a major threat by the apartheid government because it
had not been initiated by the ANC
• Spontaneous demonstrations involving hundreds of thousands of Africans
could seriously threaten the basis of the Apartheid regime
• Led to a sudden and unexpected outpouring of sympathy from the White
community
¨ Liberal English language newspapers carried daily reports on the marches
from the townships into the cities, as well as articles describing the penury
of Africans
¨ Large numbers of Whites from Johannesburg’s wealthy northern suburbs
drive their cars to Alexandra every morning to offer the marchers free lifts
into the city
v The Freedom Charter

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 Ø In 1953, Dr. ZK Matthews, the Cape Leader of the ANC, proposed that the ANC
arrange a national meeting (a Congress of the People) to which all resistance groups
would be invited to plan for a future democratic South Africa
Ø The Congress of the People (COP) was an alliance of anti-apartheid congress
movements, of which the ANC was the largest
Ø The COP convened in 1955 to draw up a Freedom Charter, a would-be constitution
for a democratic, post-apartheid South Africa
Ø Contributed of millions of ordinary South Africans to the drafting of this charter; the
role of ‘freedom volunteers’, Million Signatures Campaign
Ø The Freedom Charter became the iconic document of the freedom struggles and
called for:
§ An end to the Apartheid regime
§ Election of a democratic, non-racial government
§ Equitable distribution of the country’s wealth and resources
Ø Government response to the COP and the Freedom Charter:
§ In 1956, the government arrested 156 of the leaders and charged them with high
treason, a crime that carried the death penalty
§ The Treason Trial, dragged on for more than 4 years, with all of the accused
eventually found not guilty and acquitted by 1961
§ The historian interpretation is that the Treason Trial was an attempt by the
government to weaken the resistance movement by removing the most
experienced leaders at a crucial time
v Increasing violence
Ø The Sharpeville Massacre (1960) and the Decision to Adopt the Armed Struggle
§ The Sharpeville massacre occurred on 21 March 1960 when White policemen
opened fire on a crowd of demonstrations outside a police station at a township on
the outskirts of Vereeniging
§ Impact
• Caused shock around the world and within South Africa
• Fundamentally altered the course of the liberation struggle
• Led to the decision of the ANC to abandon its strategy of peaceful resistance
to Apartheid and instead adopt armed struggle
• Their symbol was the ‘Spear of the Nation”, or MK, which is translated to
“Umkhonto we Sizwe”
§ Background
• ANC had broken up into two factions
¨ Africanist minority
¨ Majority who preferred working closely with White communists and other
non-African anti-Apartheid groups through the Congress Alliance
• In 1958, the Africanists officially challenged the ANC leadership and broke
away, forming Pan Africanist Congress (PAC)
• PAC’s strategy of hijacking some of the ANC’s campaigns saw them organise
their own anti-pass protest on 21 March 1960
§ Significance

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 • Led to the ANC’s decision to adopt armed struggle
• Marked the turning point in the history of the ANC when moderate figures in
the leadership such as Chief Luthuli finally saw the Apartheid state as vicious
and unrepentant
• Non-violent strategies had not worked precisely because the government was
prepared to use all means at its disposal, including the use of armed force
against unarmed protesters
• At the same time, the ANC now had a serious Nationalist rival in PAC, who
had already formed their own armed wing, Poqo in the aftermath of the
massacre
• If the ANC failed to launch its own armed struggle, it risked losing its
supporter base to the rival party that had built a strong base of popular support
in a very short period of time
• Alternative view
¨ Even when Sharpeville occurred, there had already been an internal debate
within the ANC about the desirability of armed struggle
¨ Several younger ANC leaders with links to the SACP and regarded as
“firebrands” of the movement
¨ Nelson Mandela, Walter Sisulu, Oliver Tambo and Alfred Nzo had been
toying with the idea of creating an armed wing for some time
¨ In 1953, Mandela came up with the “M Plan” as a response in case the
ANC was banned
• Wider significance
¨ Global opinion turned decisively against South Africa after the incident
¨ The South African government was widely criticised by Western
governments and the United Nations
¨ Historian Tom Lodge stated that “while the regime was strengthened in the
short term by its crackdown on African nationalism, the Sharpeville
massacre marked the true beginning of the international campaign against
Apartheid”
¨ Economic sanctions were placed on South Africa were for the first time
¨ South Africa was forced out of the British Commonwealth in 1961
Ø The Rivonia Trial (1963 – 1964) and the Imprisonment of the ANC Leadership
§ In 1962, Nelson Mandela, the MK Chairmen and “Black Pimpernel”, had been
arrested for inciting strike action and leaving the country without permission
§ Mandela was sentenced for 5 years imprisonment in Robben Island
§ In July 1963, Liliesleaf Farm was raided by special forces following a tip-off from
a neighbour
§ The police found some of the remaining members of the MK high command
studying a document titled “Operation Mayibuye”
§ This was a detailed plan for a revolutionary guerrilla war to be waged by MK
from clandestine bases in rural parts of the country
§ Mandela was brought from Robben Island to join 11 other MK leaders who had
been arrested at Liliesleaf Farm

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 § The main charge against them was “recruiting people for training in the
preparation and use of explosives and in guerrilla warfare for the purpose of
violent revolution and committing acts of sabotage”
§ Other chargers were conspiring to aid foreign military units when they invaded
South Africa which furthered the aims of communism and receiving money for
these purposes from sympathisers abroad
§ The main law under which the defendants were charged was the Sabotage Act of
1962 which defined sabotage as a capital offence
§ Mandela and con-defendants agreed that they would freely admit the charge of
sabotage but defined that any lives had been put at risk by their campaign
§ Their strategy was to politicise the trail by arguing that their struggle was morally
legitimate, conducted on behalf of the people of South Africa for freedom and
democracy and against racial domination and oppression
§ Their contention was that the harsh response of the government had given them
little choice but to resort to armed struggle in the pursuit of their ideals
§ On 10 April 1964 from the dock of the defendant at the Rivonia Trial, Mandela
delivered one of the greatest speeches of the 20th century as considered by many
§ The speech dubbed as “I am Prepared to Die” was 3 hours long and was a key
moment in the history of South African democracy
§ Impact of Mandela’s speech
• Historians Giliomee and Mbenga (2007) wrote: “It would remain for decades
to come the definitive expression of liberal South Africa and importantly for
the ANC internationally
• It inspired anti-Apartheid activists around the world to redouble their effort to
persuade the South African government to spare the trialists lives and release
all political prisoners, but did not result in their acquittal
§ Consequences of the Rivonia Trial
• It marked the end of an era in the struggle against Apartheid
• The government had successfully broken the ANC and MK as most of the
leaders were either imprisoned or in exile, with the exception of the still
banned and physically frail Chief Luthuli
• Although Nelson Mandela became an idol for the millions of South Africans
who remained implacable opponents of the Apartheid system, he was
imprisoned once again and stayed in prison until 1990

THE ROLE AND SIGNIFICANCE OF KEY ACTORS AND GROUPS

v Key individuals
Ø Nelson Mandela
§ Mandela made an immense contribution to the ANC and the anti-Apartheid
movement
• Revitalised the ANC through his activism in the Youth League in the 1940’s
• Was a leading light of the Defiance Campaign in 1952
• Instrumental in uniting South Africans of all races in the anti-Apartheid
struggle through his advocacy of the COP

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 • His defence in the drawn-out Treason Trial (1956-1961) epitomised the
resilience of those struggling against an unjust racial system
• He led the armed campaign of MK which together with his exploits as the
“Black Pimpernel” and his defence in the Rivonia Trial (1963-1964) ensured
that international focus remained on the iniquities of Apartheid South Africa
after the Sharpeville massacre
§ Reasons as to why Mandela became such an icon of the struggle
• Mary Benson (1986) argues that he came to embody the freedom struggle
through his leadership of the Defiance Campaign
• Historian Tom Lodge argues that the Mandela legend was born after
Sharpeville when he came to be viewed by many Africans as the saviour of
the liberation struggle, due to his role as the “Black Pimpernel” and the
commander of MK
Ø Albert Luthuli
§ More a prodigious contribution to the anti-Apartheid struggle in the early 1950’s
and early 1960’s
§ Luthuli was the first global icon of the South African liberation movement
§ His acceptance of the Nobel Peace Prize in 1961 brought the cause of the ANC to
international prominence and sustained hope during the most difficult time of the
anti-Apartheid struggle
§ Despite his limited organisational involvement due to repeated government
banning orders, he played an important symbolic role for the liberation movement
throughout
§ However, some have downplayed his significance by stressing his limited
personal involvement in the various ANC campaigns after 1952
• Luthuli was arrested whenever he attempted to defy his banned orders and
typically re-banned as soon as an existing order expired
• He was increasingly sidelined by the ANC by the end of the 1950’s
• Author of Luthuli’s biography Scott Couper (2010) argues that Luthuli’s
Christian background and his upstanding of such religious values, morality an
principled opposition to any form of violence, can also be used to explain his
increasing irrelevance to the movement in the late 1950’s and early 1960’s,
when the circumstances demanded a more strident response
v Key groups
Ø The African National Congress (ANC)
§ Successes
• It completed its transformation from the moribund and largely inactive
organisation into a radical, more mass-based movement that represented the
aspirations of the majority of South Africans
• It carried the fight to the apartheid government with examples such as:
¨ The Defiance Campaign
¨ Formation of the COP
¨ Bus Boycotts
¨ May Day at-home

29
 ¨ The Decision to Embrace Armed Struggle
• It brought the injustices of the Apartheid regime to the attention of the world
and gained the moral high-ground through its early stages of non-violent
resistance
• It was successful in forging alliances with a range of other anti-Apartheid
groups through the COP, with the Freedom Charter becoming one of the
iconic documents of the 20th century struggle
§ Failures
• It failed its ultimate objective of bringing down the Apartheid system
• Attempts to maintain party unity failed with the Africanist breakaway to form
PAC in 1959
• Close relations with the SACP contributed to this breakaway and alienated
White liberals who may otherwise have supported this movement
• The decision to embrace armed struggle confirmed the suspicion of many
Whites that the ANC was at heart a terrorist organisation which played into
the hands of the government and emboldened it to extend the Apartheid
system further
• The ANC had no effective answer when the government launched its
crackdown after the Sharpeville Massacre
• The jailing of senior ANC leaders in 1964 was followed by a lengthy period of
relative quiet
Ø The South African Communist Party (SACP)
§ The SACP was a key player in moves to further integrate anti-apartheid groups
through the COP
§ The influence of the SACP was obvious in some of the strongly socialist
principals enshrined in the Freedom Charter, for example, “the mineral wealth
beneath the soil… shall be transferred to the ownership of the people as whole
and “the land [shall be] re-divided amongst those who work it”
§ After the ANC was banned, leaders of the SAACP who were also ANC members
played a key role in setting up MK and in working for it
§ After the creation of MK, a SACP delegation was sent to Moscow to serve
funding, training and other support for MK
§ Liliesleaf Farm in Rivonia was bought by the SACP to serve as the headquarters
of the national high command of the MK
§ After the Rivonia Trial, when the ANC leader Oliver Tambo had to go into exile,
the role of the SACP became even more important as the movement had little
option but to rely on the support of friendly communist governments to provide
the necessary funding, logistical support and training for the establishment of its
frontline military camps and bases
§ For example, Tambo travelled to the Soviet Union to receive guerrilla training in
1964
§ Significance of the SACP
• The SACP had a hugely important influence on development of the liberation
movement between 1948 and 1964

30
 •
The SACP helped orient the ANC towards non-racialism and in a more
militant direction, to such an extent that the ANC was eventually persuaded to
embrace armed struggle against the Apartheid regime
• The SACP played a key role in organising strike action through its union
affiliations, most notably during the miner’s strike of 1946 which as of major
significance in terms of its impact on the politics that followed
• Some historians argue that the 1946 strike marked the true beginning of the
struggle against segregation and Apartheid
• Other perspectives
¨ The degree of SACP influence had been exaggerated due to the incessant
anti-communist propaganda of the government
Ø In reality, the ANC was always by far the larger and more influential
of the two organisations
Ø Several of the ANC’s leaders were not communists, with some of them
actively hostile to communism
¨ While the role of the SACP was indeed profound, its influence was very
much to the detriment of the liberation movement
Ø The association with communism offered the government a convenient
stick with which to beat the ANC
Ø The ANC may also have won more sympathy and support from the
White population had it not been for its ties with the SACP
Ø The ANC’s proximity to the ANC alienated its Africanist wing, which
subsequently broke away and formed the PAC, thus splitting the
liberation movement
Ø Historian Stephen Ellis (2012) has argued that the SACP’s sway over
the ANC was so great that the ANC effectively allowed itself to be
overtaken by the communists after the Rivonia trial
Ø The MK (Umkhonto we Sizwe – “Spear of the Nation”)
§ MK operations
• Had two stages in which stage 1 involved the Sabotage Campaign
• Started in 1961 with incendiary bombings in Durban, Cape Town and
Johannesburg
• Over the next 18 months, MK carried out 200 attacks around the country,
targeting mailboxes and public buildings
• Despite the large number of attacks, they did not have as much impact as
hoped for because they caused “limited damage and gained little publicity”
(Maylam, 1986) and because of the “considerably more frightening activities
of Poqo” at the time (Lodge, 1983)
¨ Poqo was the armed wing of the PAC
• This stage eventually petered out towards the end of 1963 due to the typically
forceful response of the Verwoerd government, seen in the Sabotage Act of
1962 which culminated in the Rivonia Trial with the imprisonment of
Mandela and other leaders
• By the end of 1964, all armed activity in South Africa had ceased

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 • Stage 2 was supposed to be a series of guerrilla campaigns in rural areas,
however the stage was never reached
§ Failure of MK
• The creation of MK had given the government the green light to launch an all-
out assault on the liberation movement, meaning the first stage of armed
struggle only lasted 2 years
• By 1964, MK has been hunted down its organisational structure in South
Africa dismantled, with its most important leaders were arrested and
imprisoned or forced into exile
§ Alternative view
• The South African government was determined to crush the ANC at all costs
• Therefore it can be argued that the creation of MK had little bearing on the
outcome of 1964, especially since the ANC had already been banned and
driven underground before MK was even created
• MK’s success could be seen through the fact that it showed that Africans were
not afraid to take up arms against the government
• The fact that MK even existed helped to keep the spirit of resistance alive
during the dark days of the late 1960’s and early 1970’s
• It can be argued that the first stage of armed struggle served as an important
precedent and a source of inspiration for the dramatic surge in resistance in the
townships during and after the Soweto Uprising of 1976

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 PAPER 2

Topic 12: Causes and Effects of 20th Century Wars

The Chinese Civil War

(1927 – 1945)

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SYLLABUS POINTS

• Long-term and short causes of the war

• The extent of the mobilisation of human and economic resources
• The influence and/or involvement of foreign powers
• Political repercussions
• Economic, social and demographic impact
• Changes in the role and status of women

1st Phase of the Chinese Civil War: 1927 - 1937

• Interruption by the Second Sino-Japanese War: 1937-1945

2nd Phase of the Chinese Civil War War: 1946-1949

Possible essays that may show up in paper 2

• Discuss the long-term and short-term causes of one 20th century civil war.
• To what extent did foreign intervention determine the outcome of one 20th century
civil war
• Examine the role of guerrilla warfare in determining the outcome of one 20th century
civil war?
• To what extent did the Second Sino-Japanese War weaken the Nationalists and
strengthen the CCP?

OVERVIEW OF THE CHINESE CIVIL WAR

• After the fall of the Manchu dynasty in the 1911 revolution, the new Republic failed
to take hold and China was scattered as different rulers controlled different areas of
the country
• China was exploited by foreign powers as it lacked any central government
• The Chinese Civil War was an attempt by two ideologically opposed forces to gain
central control over China and unify the country
• The two forces were the Nationalists and the Communists
• The war was fought in two stages as there was an interruption by the outbreak of the
Sino-Japanese War
• The Nationalists and Communists joined forces for a brief period of time to fight the
Japanese

LONG-TERM CAUSES OF THE CHINESE CIVIL WAR

Syllabus point: Long-term and short causes of the war

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 • Socio-economic factors
o There was a massive class difference and significant inequalities in the
Chinese society in both the rural and urban areas of the country
o Historians argue that these conditions influenced the civil war
o In the rural areas, 85% of the population were peasants, most of who lived on
the edge of subsistence (produced just enough food for them to survive) and
were vulnerable to famine
o A majority of the peasants rented their land from wealthy upper class
landlords who charged up to 70% of the value of the crops produced which
resulted in impoverished peasants
o Living and working conditions of the urban workforce in China were mostly
horrific as there was a massive disparity in wealth between employers and
workers, extremely low wages, lack of social security, high unemployment
rates and a great vulnerability to death and diseases
• Political weakness and the influence of foreign powers
o The defeat of China by the hands of the British in the Opium Wars that took
place from 1839 to 1860 and the subsequent carving up of the Chinese empire
into foreign spheres of influence and substantially destabilised China
o China was forced to sign unequal treaties and gave the British powers
extraordinary controls over Chinese trade, territory and sovereignty
o This weakened the Manchu’s control of China and led to the fall of the
dynasty in October 1911 after a revolution, which marked the last empire to
control the country, and was followed by the abdication of Pu Yi, the last
emperor in 1912 and led to the collapse of central authority in China
o The death of General Yuan Shikai in 1916 created a power vacuum at the
centre of government as many vied for power and high positions
o It led to the fragmentation of political power in China through the rise of
regional warlords, influential landlords and military men who used their power
to establish themselves as independent dictators in their region

SHORT-TERM CAUSES OF THE CHINESE CIVIL WAR

Syllabus point: Long-term and short causes of the war

• Political weakness
o A key cause for the Chinese Civil war was regionalism or provincialism which
was the increasing lack of unity in the country by the 1920’s
o The abdication and death of General Yuan in 1916 had led to regionalism
whereby China broke up into multiple small provinces in which each was
controlled by a warlord and his private army
o The warlord’s extension of their power and wealth through expanding their
territories led to great suffering among the Chinese peasants
o This, coupled with their desire to get rid of foreign influence, led to an
increase in nationalism during the decade of warlord rule

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• The May Fourth Movement
o The May Fourth Movement started in 1919 was a mass demonstration against
the warlords, traditional Chinese culture and the Japanese and was dedicated
to a change and the rebirth of China
o It gave rise to the groups as the Communists were inspired by the Bolshevik
Revolution in Russia and the Nationalists under the GMD (Guomindang or the
Kuomintang aka KMT)
o Ideological differences between the Communists and Nationalists eventually
led to the outbreak of a conflict between them in 1927 and began the Chinese
Civil War
• Ideological differences
o Ideological differences between the Nationalist Party and the Chinese
Communist Party (CCP) were fundamental to the outbreak of hostilities
between them in 1927
o The political ideology of the Nationalist Party to create a modern, unified and
independent China and would follow a ‘Three Principles of the Peoples
§ The First Principle: Nationalism
§ The Second Principle: Popular sovereignty
§ The Third Principle: The ‘Principle of the people’s livelihood’ and to
relieve the conditions of the peasants
o The Nationalist Party ideology was appealing to many Chinese, especially the
growing middle class, who wanted to end the exploitation of China’s
economic assets by imperialist powers
o However, when the Nationalist Party found itself in a position of power in
China, it failed to deliver on many of these principles
o The political ideology of the CCP was vastly different from the Nationalist
Party (GREATEST DIFFERENCE) as the CCP advocated a profound
restructuring of society in accordance with Marxist principles. This meant the
elimination of the property ownership and privilege of the bourgeois classes,
achieved through class warfare in a revolution of the ordinary people
§ Espoused (adopted) nationalism
§ Property would become collectively owned (communism)
§ The CCP ultimately sought absolute power as they believed this was
the only way in which revolution could be achieved
• End of the First United Front
o Despite the GMDs and CCP’s alliance in the First United Front against the
warlords, tensions remained high due to ideological differences
o Popular support of the CCP in the successful Northern Expedition (a
movement against the warlords) convinced Jiang Jieshi, leader of the
Nationalist Party that he could no longer tolerate them in the GMD
o Jiang sanctioned an attack in Shanghai dubbed as ‘the White Terror’ on April
1927 to purge all Communists from the GMD - similar attacks in other cities
became known as the ‘purification movement’, i.e. massacre of thousands of
Communists
o CCP members field into the mountains of Jiangsi in order to survive

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 o 5000 Communists were shot dead by triads and gangsters who were hired by
the GMD
o This became known as the official beginning to the Chinese Civil War

THE COURSE OF THE CHINESE CIVIL WAR

Syllabus point: The extent of the mobilisation of human and economic purposes

• The White Terror in Shanghai, April 1927 and the subsequent Communist counter-
attacks from August to December 1927
o The Jiangxi Soviet was a territory in the Jiangxi province that the CCP had
retreated to after the White Terror
o Mao arrived to Jiangxi and organised the Jiangxi Soviet around his idea of the
central revolutionary role of the peasant
• Division within the CCP
o Both the CCP and GMD suffered from internal factionalism in the early years
of the Civil War
o Mao’s view on the revolution and how the civil war should be fought should
be fought could be summarised in three points
§ The revolution will be carried out by the peasant masses, thus the
peasants will be mobilised and politicised by the Soviet Red Army
§ The army’s tactics will be guerrilla warfare (a tactic in which small
groups of irregular soldiers ambush larger armies, loot them and scour
away; hit and run tactic)
§ Land reforms will be carried out in their areas (when land from the
upper class landlord is taken away from them and given to the
landless)
o Comintern official Li Lisan issued an instruction to all CCP members to attack
the cities in Jiangxi and Hunan, known as the ‘Li Lisan Line’
o They suffered miserably as all attacks failed and the Communist party had to
retreat
o Li Lisan was relieved of his duties in January 1931 and was replaced by the
‘28 Bolsheviks’
• Nationalist campaigns against the CCP 1930-1934
o Jiang’s main goal from 1930 to 1934 remained to eliminate the Communists
o He carried out the ‘Five Encirclement Campaigns’ aimed at destroying the
Jiangxi Soviet and the CCP
o The GMD’s strategy was to encircle the CCP and cut off their supplies and
resources
o The CCP’s strategy was to focus on survival and based themselves in the
mountains between the Hunan and Jiangxi provinces
§ The CCP allowed the GMD to advance into their territory and waited
for the GMD to separate before utilised guerrilla warfare by attacking
smaller portions of the Nationalists

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 § The CCP had the advantage as they knew the terrain
o The first three encirclement campaigns were launched between December
1930 and September 1931 and ultimately, the CCP defeated all three
o The fourth encirclement campaign used the same strategy of revolutionary
war, with similar results as the GMD was defeated in March 1933
• The Long March
o In October 1933, Jiang attempted his fifth and final campaign
o Jiang adopted a more gradual approach as 800,000 men were in with air cover
and artillery
o The Red Army no longer had the advantage of its previous strengths of higher
mobility and local support
o Outnumbered and surrounded by GD forces, the Red Army fought and lost a
final battle in Ruijin in 1934
o Facing annihilation, Mao decided that the only chance the CCP had was to to
break through the GMD’s lines and set up another base by walking to Shaanxi
o The CCP embarked on their 9600 km trek on October 19, 1934 and continued
for 368 days with deaths of more than 90% of the 90,000 Communists
o The Long March was essential to the survival of the CCP and also for making
Mao their unchallenged leader
• Mao and revolutionary warfare
o Mao’s war against the GMD is considered to be a revolutionary war because
he was trying to impose a revolutionary ideology on the Chinese people while
trying to defeat the GMD
o The Chinese people had no choice of either Maoism (total restructuring of
society economy and government) or Nationalist policy (maintaining the
status quo)
o The Stages of Mao’s revolutionary warfare:
§ Setting up base areas
§ The organisation phase
§ Defending the bases
§ The guerrilla phase
§ Protracted war
§ Seizing power
§ End of the first stage of the Chinese Civil War
• Reasons which led to the unpopularity of the Nationalist rule
o The authoritarian nature of the Nationalist regime was unpopular
§ Their methods to track and eliminate political opponents included
arrest without trial, interrogation and execution
o The authoritarian nature and corruption of the Nationalist government
undermined their support base, the well educated elites who had hopes for
greater democracy
o Another Nationalist failing in the 1930’s was the lack of attention it paid to
peasant suffering. Chiang’s regime was committed to the maintenance of the
existing social hierarchy which meant supporting landlords, and the

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 government failed to deliver the social reformed promised in the Three
Principles of the People
o The Nationalist response to the growing Japanese threat was wildly
condemned as weak
§ Rather than put up substantial military resistance to Japan, the GMD
reluctantly acknowledged the independence of Manchuko
o It could also be argued that what really damages Chiang’s prestige and
undermined his support was that simultaneous to his policy of offering
concessions to the Japanese, he pursued an actively aggressive policy towards
the CCP, many in China were opposed to his prioritisation of the pursuit of
fellow Chinese over a foreign invader
• End of the first stage of the Chinese Civil War - the second front
o The Japanese invaded China in 1931 when they conquered Manchuria
o The Japanese attacked Shanghai in 1932 and advanced to the Great Wall in
1933
o Comintern pushed the alliance between the CCP and GMD and was named the
Second United Front, formed on April 1937

THE SINO-JAPANESE WAR

Syllabus point: The influence and/or involvement of foreign powers

• The main events of the war were a result of rapid Japanese advance and occupation of
most of China including:
o Capture of Shanghai (July 1937)
o Rape of Nanjing (December 1937)
o Nationalist capital relocated to Chongquing (October 1938)
o Capture of Wuhan City (1941)
o Ichigo Offensive (1944)
o Japanese surrender after USA dropped atomic bombs on Japan (August 1945)
• Increase in CCP strength during the war
o Enlargement in size of the Communist-controlled territory in North China
o Increase in CCP membership
o Growth in size of Red Army and Communist militias
o Captured Japanese weaponry
o Strengthened Communist credentials and popularity
o Presence of Soviet troops in Manchuria potentially of assistance to the CCP
• Increase in Nationalist strength during the war:
o Increase in military strength and access to modern weaponry due to supplies
from USA
o Increase in size of the Nationalist army
• Decrease in Nationalist strength during the war:
o Reputation damaged by accusations that military incompetence failed to
prevent the Japanese advance and occupation

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 o Economic pressures, e.g. inflation and high taxes due to the war were
unpopular
• The Second Phase of the Chinese Civil War (1946-1949)
o In the wake of the Japanese surrender in August 1945, civil war broke out on a
larger scale
o The formal Japanese surrender came on 2 September 1945
§ Japan’s subsequent rapid withdrawal from China created the
opportunity for renewed conflict between the GMD and the CCP
§ Both parties raced to fill the political vacuum
o By the end of the war with Japan:
§ The CCP was significantly strengthened
§ The GMD was weakened
o The CCP was able to move from the guerrilla phase to conventional fighting
o The first stage of the Chinese Civil War was a Chinese war
o The second stage was more of an international affair due to polarisation of the
international political context through the development of the Cold War
§ The Chinese Civil War became part of the Soviet-American effort to
create a new post-war balance
o Ultimately, the Communists brought about their own victory due to:
§ It’s skilful management of the demands of the war
§ The gaining of popular support
§ Most importantly, the formulation of successful military strategies and
tactics
• The Chinese Civil War in 1945: Competition for control of Northern China
o Territorial control
§ CCP had very little presence in Southern and Eastern China, so the
Nationalists faced little resistance
§ CCP was in a stronger position in the North
o The race to control Northern China
§ The CCP aimed to expand their control of Northern China - more
successful in the countryside than in the cities - due to rapid advance of
Nationalist troops aided by US naval and air transport
§ By the end of August 1945, the Nationalists had taken control of 17
key cities, including Beijing, Tianjin and Datong, and the majority of
railways in China
§ CCP response to Nationalist control of Northern cities: mobile
defences
§ Mobile defences were a military strategy that uses the guerrilla tactics
of sabotage and ambush to weaken the enemy by disrupting supply
lines and inflicting causalities. It does not prioritise the enlargement of
territorial control
§ Mobile defences was the primary strategy between September 1945 to
late 1947
§ It arguably enabled the CCP to win the Civil War and ensured CCP’s
survival AND significantly wore down the Nationalists

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• The race to control Manchuria
o October 1945: the CCP shifted its offensive priorities to Manchuria
o Role of foreign intervention: The Soviet occupation of Manchuria did assist
the CCP, but this was limited
o The Soviets:
§ Gave CCP access to Japanese arms depots
§ Transferred 200,000 Chinese troops to the Manchukuo regime to the
CCP
§ Prevented Nationalist troops from entering some of the key cities in the
region
§ But, from 1946, Stalin instructed that the Chinese Communists must
leave the key cities in Manchuria
§ The Soviets also dismantled industrial machinery worth over $858
million from Manchuria for use in the USSR - STALIN DOGGING
THE BOYS
o Chiang deployed an increasing number of Nationalist troops to the region and
was successful in taking many of the key cities
o However, his decision to deploy significant troops to Manchuria may have
contributed to his overall defeat
§ It diverted troops from Northern China before the Nationalist had fully
secured the region, adding to the overextension of their forces, which
made them vulnerable to Communist attacks (this was USA’s criticism
of Chiang’s strategy)
• The Chinese Civil War in 1946: The failure to achieve a decisive result
o Communist advance and retreat in Manchuria (January -June 1946)
o The truce in Manchuria (June-October 1946) and the role of foreign
intervention
§ The USA arranged a ceasefire between the GMD and the CCP in June
1946
§ Impact of the truce for the CCP - Used the respite to strengthen its
forces
§ Reasons and Impact of the truce for the GMD
• The USA put enormous pressure on Chiang to agree to a truce
• Chiang’s Manchurian forces were overstretched and would
benefit from respite to reorganise
• Chiang believed that a brief truce would not affect his longer-
term chances of victory, given the hugely superior position of
the Nationalists
• However, the truce forced the Nationalists to halt what was a
successful advance in Manchuria
• Chiang later blamed the truce as the main reason to his ultimate
defeat
o Resumption of fighting in October 1946 in the city of Harbin, Manchuria
§ CCP had used the ceasefire to bolster the city’s defences

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 • The CCP was able to utilise 800,000 men in Harbin to provide
manpower, resources and funding
§ Role of foreign intervention
• CCP benefitted from crucial Soviet aid
• More than 2000 wagonloads of equipment, the majority of it
was captured Japanese weapons from WWII and came over the
border from Korea on railways which the Soviets also repaired
• The equipment included desperately need heavy artillery,
machine guns and rifles
§ The ceasefire also enabled the CCP to reorganise its guerrilla units into
larger forces to engage in conventional warfare
§ By the end of 1946, the situation in Manchuria was inconclusive
• The Chinese Civil War in 1947: the highpoint of Nationalist success
o In March 1947, the GMD captured the CCP base at Yan’an
o The GMD’s Strongpoint Offensive, launched in May 1947, led to the rapid
advances in Shandong, Shanxi and Shaanxi, but prioritised cities rather than
destruction of CCP in rural areas
o This ultimately left the Nationalists vulnerable as they were focused with
conquering cities rather than the CCP
§ Since the cities were surrounded by rural areas, the Nationalists were
vulnerable
• The Chinese Civil War in 1948: The Communist Advance
o CCP campaigns of 1948-1949 transformed its growing advantage into actual
victory
o Its urban offensives brought about an end to the war sooner than would have
occurred had the strategy of mobile defence been continued
o The Communist Manchuria Campaign Oct-Nov 1948
§ CCP’s assaults on cities finally left Manchuria firmly under its control
on 2 Nov 1948
§ The Huai-Hai Campaign Nov 1948 - Jan 1949
§ CCP’s strategic focus on cities continued as they captured city of
Xuchou by encircling it to prevent reinforcements and supplies
§ Communist propaganda encouraged defectors (those who ran and
turned side/betrayers)
§ Full use of new artillery
o The Pinjin Campaign Nov 1948-Jan1949
§ Increased use of artillery decimated Nationalists troops
§ Ensured control of Central China
§ Ran simultaneously with the Huai-Hai campaign
• The Chinese Civil War in 1949: the Communists achieve victory
o CCP now shifted focus to Southern China
o Minimal resistance from the Nationalists followed
o Chiang and the remainder of Nationalist forces fled to Taiwan, still asserting
that they represented the legitimate government of China
o Reality on Chinese mainland - the CCP ruled China

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 o Only the outlying and separatist regions of Tibet and Xinjiang were outside
their control (had never been under Nationalist control)
A COMPARISION OF GMD AND CCP
STRENGTHS
- Army larger and better equipped
than the communists army
- Had air force experienced in
conventional fighting - able to
take initiative
- Controlled most territory and
population network - outbreak of
war
- Kept a single party strength -
GMD
kept workers in check
- Recognised by other powers as a
legitimate government
- $3 billion in aid from USA
- Chiang Kaishek was
hardworking, confident,
controlled military strategy
- Early advantages Yanan taken,
March 1947
- Soviet troops in Manchuria gave
CCP forces training
- Supported by peasantry who
feared revenge
- Used propaganda to win support
- Had a good reputation at
controlling the struggle against
the Japanese
CCP
- Mao’s personality cult, inspired
confidence
- Carried out guerrilla warfare and
began conventional warfare in
1948
- Were able to capture transport
links to isolate GMD forces in
cities
WEAKNESSES
- Troops were conscripts with low morale
and poor training
- Depended on local warlords - lost
supporters of local populations
- There was corruption, inefficiency,
minimal reform, inflation and rationing
- The USA was critical of Jiang’s style
- Chiang Kaishek could be stubborn,
inflexible, not good at delegation, poor
judge of character
- Sent best troops before establishing
control
- Lost control of Manchuria in 1948
- No retreats allowed
- Generals were corrupt and incompetent
- Communication lines long
- Troops in cities supplied by air -
increasing surrenders without fighting
- Fewer troops (800,000 at the start of the
war)
- Early disadvantage - 19 bases at Yan’an
were at the outbreak of war
- Some areas where requested by Stalin to
be given to the Nationalists in November
1945
- Dealt harshly with those who didn’t
conform
- Insisted on defending a pass between
China and Manchuria which failed
- Mao was not good at dealing with foreign
powers
- Initially inferior in equipment and
numbers.
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 PAPER 2

Topic 12: Causes and Effects of 20th Century Wars

The Spanish Civil War

(1936 – 1939)

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SYLLABUS POINTS

v Long-term and short causes of the war

v The extent of the mobilisation of human and economic resources
v The influence and/or involvement of foreign powers
v Political repercussions
v Economic, social and demographic impact
v Changes in the role and status of women

BACKGROUND INFORMATION

v The Spanish Civil War began on July 17, 1936 involved a struggle between the forces of
the political left and the political right in Spain
v The forces on the left were a disparate group led by the socialist Republican government
against who a group of right-wing military rebels and their supporters launched a military
uprising in July 1936
v This developed into a civil war which, like many civil conflicts, quickly acquired an
international dimension that was to play a decisive role in the ultimate victory of the right
v The victory of the right-wing forces led to the establishment of a military dictatorship in
Spain under the leadership of General Franco, which would last until his death in 1975

LONG-TERM CAUSES OF THE SPANISH CIVIL WAR

Syllabus Point: Long-term and short causes of the war

v Economic and social problems from 1900 to 1931 led to political polarisation in Spain
Ø Rural poverty
§ Polarisation divide between landlords and landless labourers
§ The latifundia system in southern Spain kept labourers poor as labour was hired
by the day which offered no financial security
§ The highly seasonal nature of the work represented only 200 days of work for the
crops; one-crop farming = available world high seasonal and low wages
§ Left-wing unions which organised strikes and demonstrations against exploitative
landlords, appealed to the labourers
§ Particularly popular was the socialist union UGT (Union General de
Trabajadores) and the anarcho-syndicalists CNT (Confederacion Nacional del
Trabajo)
§ The CNT had over 700,000 members by 1918
§ Agricultural issues had a significant impact on national politics (45.5% of
workforce)
§ Various possible solutions caused serious divisions between left and right-wing
politicians
Ø Urban poverty
§ 25.6% of the workforce in 1930 was employed in industries
§ Dangerous working conditions, unsanitary and overcrowded living conditions in
inner-city slums

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 § Concentration of dissatisfied workers in Spain’s units meant a rise in trade unions
and strikes
§ The privileged class interpreted increase in unrest as evidence of growing threat of
social revolution (similar to the Bolshevik Revolutions)
§ Urban and agricultural issues led to political polarisation in Spain
§ By 1930, 42% of Spain’s population lived in towns of over 10,000 inhabitants
§ Spain’s main industrial regions were
• The Basque Country, for iron and steel
• The Asturias, for coal mining
• Catalonia, for textile industries
§ Industrial workers were frequently housed in inner-city slums where rents were
high and living conditions overcrowded and insanitary
§ There was no social legislation, so no minimum wage, no maximum working
hours and no protection from dangerous working conditions
§ The concentration of dissatisfied workers in Spain’s cities led to the growth of
trade unions and strikes
§ For the more privileged, the increase in unrest was frequently seen as evidence of
the growing threat of social revolution following the successful Bolshevik
Revolution in Russia
§ Urban issues as with agrarian problems, therefore contributed to political
polarisation in Spain
v Political instability
Ø Separatism in Spain (1900 - 1931)
§ Spain was a unified country but there was a strong tradition of separatism in
Catalonia and the Basque country
§ Both regions prized their distinctive culture, language and history and sought a
significant degree of political autonomy (a self-governing region)
§ Centuries-old separatism in both regions become more popular with the growth of
their economic importance
§ The separatist agenda of separatist parties (e.g. PNV) was another divisive issue in
Spanish politics - leftists groups were prepared to concede some degree of
autonomy, while rightists were determined to preserve Spain’s unity
Ø The Collapse of the Monarchy, April 1931
§ Instability characterised Spanish politics in the early 20th century
§ Until 1923, Spain was governed by a constitutional monarchy, although matters of
government were largely carried out by the elected cortes (parliament)
§ Despite the operation of universal male suffrage (male voting), the system was not
really democratic since elections were strongly influenced by local caciques
§ This political system was unpopular with ordinary people, not at least because it
failed to introduce reforms to improve their lives
§ As protests increased, those on the political left, alarmed by the prospect of left-
wing government, turned to Miguel Primo de Rivera, a military official who
promised to end the unrest in Spain
§ Primo de Rivera came to power as a result of military coup in September 1923
and established himself as a dictator until January 1930

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 § Rivera was unable to heal the deep division in Spanish society despite introducing
a number of reforms
§ In fact, the reforms themselves proved divisive as they were simultaneously too
much for the right and too little for the left
§ Historians depict him as an inept dictator who lacked clear ideas and political
acumen
§ These reforms included
• Arbitration committees to manage disputes between industrial workers and
their employers
• Proposals to reform the army and a reduction of the army budget
• Government investment in a program of public works to increase job
opportunity. which included the construction of the first trans-Pyrenees rail
link between Spain and France
• In order to pay for the public works, he increased taxes on the rich, which
diffused his support from the right
• After complaints, he changed his policies and attempt to instead raise money
from public loans
• This caused rapid inflation and had a detrimental effect on the Spanish
economy
• He then lost support from King Alfonso XII and the army, thus resulting in
Primo De Rivera being forced to resign

SHORT-TERM CAUSES OF THE SPANISH CIVIL WAR

Syllabus Point: Long-term and short causes of the war

v Failure of successive governments to provide a satisfactory solution to a number of

serious social, economic and political problems led to the outbreak of civil war in 1936
Ø The Left Republic (April 1931 - November 1933)
§ Reforms of the left-wing government
• Agrarian reforms
¨ Prohibited employers from bringing in workers from outside a given
region until all those within locality had jobs, preventing landlords from
breaking strikes
¨ Aimed to increase employment by forcing landlords to farm their lands
and employ more workers
¨ Eight-hour work days only
• Anti-clerical reforms
¨ Make Spain a secular state
¨ Legalisation of divorce and marriage
¨ Dismantled latifundia
• Urban worker reforms
¨ Eight-hour working days

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 ¨ Seven days paid leave per annum
¨ Freedom to strike without fear of dismissal
• Military reforms
¨ Army officer numbers were reduced
¨ Officers were required to swear an oath of loyalty to Republic
• Separatist reforms
¨ Limited autonomy was given to Catalonia
§ Limitations of the reforms
• Although the reforms achieved much, they fell short of solving many of the
problems they set out to address
• Unemployment remained a substantial problem in urban areas and rural
labourers continued to suffer considerable hardship
§ Political reactions to the reforms
• Opposition from the extreme left
v Extreme left believed the governments 1936
v Reforms of the right-wing government
Ø Repeal of the Law of Municipal Boundaries in May 1934
Ø Refusal to enforce most of the agrarian and industrial reforms
Ø Police searches of trade union premises
Ø Authorisation of force to break up strikes
Ø Refusal to enforce laws to have a secular state
v Opposition to the reforms: the Asturias Uprising (October 1934)
Ø Left-wing enthusiasts protested to remove the government and create a secular state
¨ in the Asturias, a mining region which had suffered greatly from the
effects of the Great Depression, resulting in high unemployment and gave
the men significant appeal to side with the leftists
Ø The right-wing government’s reaction was brutal resulting in 1335 deaths and almost
3000 wounds which left them surrendering after two weeks of protest
v The Popular Front Government (February 1936 - July 1936)
v Reforms of the Popular Front government
v Restoration of Catalan autonomy
v Discussion of granting autonomy to the Basque Country
v Resumption of agrarian and military reforms
v Opposition from the conservative right
Ø Led to an immediate escalation in right-wing inspired violent protest
Ø The conservative right expressed frustration with the democratic system and began to
advocate a more militant approach to gaining power
Ø Led to a significant increase in membership to the explicitly anti-democratic and
fascist Falange Party from 1936
Ø Right-wing militants provoked left-wing groups to violence to justify clams that they
were needed to prevent lawlessness
v Opposition from the extreme left

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 Ø Was motivated by what extreme left saw as an opportunity to exact vengeance on
landlords and employers who had used the previous two years of right-wing
government to exploit workers and peasants
Ø Extreme left-wing unions encouraged labourers who had been victims of eviction to
undertake illegal occupations to reclaim land, resulting in mass land seizures which
were later made legal by the government
v The Military Uprising (July 1936)
Ø The intervention of the Spanish Army in politics led to the outbreak of the Spanish
Civil War
Ø The conservative right decisively abandoned the path of legality when members of the
military launched an uprising against the Popular Front in July 1936
Ø The revolt was planned mainly by General Emilio Mola and had the support of most
colonels and middle-ranking officers who brought their garrisons with them
Ø The Spanish Military Union (UME) was a secretive organisation of over 3500 offices,
played a key role in the establishment of cells of conspirators throughout the country
Ø Mola had also established links with monarchists and CEDA to ensure their
participation
Ø The revolt began with troops in Morocco on July 17, 1936, and soon spread to
military units throughout Spain
Ø This action met with armed resistance from left-wing unions, especially in the rural
south and the key cities of Barcelona and Madrid
Ø These unions quickly mobilised civilians into military units and joined with troops
loyal to the Republic
Ø Therefore, the rebellious garrisons (the right) were only able to take control of parts of
Spain and the civil war had officially begun

HISTORIOGRAPHY

v Nationalist interpretations
Ø Emphasised left-wing lawlessness such as the Asturias Uprising and growth of
militant unionism, which forced the right to take decisive action to safeguard order,
property, law and religion against the spectre of social revolution
Ø Nationalist historian Joaquin Arraras particularly emphasised the importance of the
anti- Church reforms of the left-wing Republic in leading to civil war
Ø Arraras’s academic papers and Nationalist wartime propaganda presented the civil
war as a crusade in which the conservative right fought to preserve traditional
Christian values against a godless left-wing Republic
Ø Although religion had the power to mobilise and inflame opinion, its important may
have been exaggerated by the conservative right, who wanted to present the civil war
as a religious crusade instead of a battle to preserve wealth and privilege
Ø Overall, religion contributed minimally to the outbreak of civil war
v Republican interpretations
Ø Stressed that it’s as the extreme right who decisively went against the democratic
system in launching the military uprising in 1936

49
 Ø Questioned the extent to which the conservative right had ever really supported the
democratic Republic
Ø Presented examples of the Falange and the autocratic CEDA< whose commitment to
democracy has always been doubled by their opponents
v Other interpretations
Ø Accounts written by less politically involved historians have tended to emphasise the
socioeconomic roots of the conflict
Ø They highlight the difficulties caused by the long-term agrarian problems
Ø This was evidenced by historians Gerald Brennan and Paul Preston as they saw
agrarian issues as at the root of much of the conflict
Ø Agrarian problems increased the growth of left-wing strikes and militancy and
influenced the social reform programme of the left-wing governments, both of which
antagonised the conservative right and played a key role in causing fractures int he
left-wing coalitions
Ø Ultimately, if the war was most profoundly rooted in social and political divisions
caused by agrarian problems, it was also a war of multiple conflicts, with separatism,
religion and political factors all playing a role

COURSE OF THE CIVIL WAR

v Republican and Nationalist Spain (July 1936)

Ø Role of foreign intervention
§ Italian and German support for the Nationalist Army of Africa
Ø Areas under Nationalist control
Ø Areas under Republican control
v The Nationalist advance to Madrid (1936)
Ø The Nationalist advance on Madrid (August 1936 - October 1936)
v Fortress of Alcazar (September 1936)
v Battle for Madrid (October 1936 - December 1936)
Ø In October 1936, Nationalists began a heavy artillery bombardment on Republican
occupied Madrid, which led to the right-wing government to flee to Valencia.
Ø Both Nationalists and Republicans fought for two months and by the end of
November, stalemate had set in to the west of Madrid
Ø Role of foreign intervention
§ The Nationalists heavy artillery bombardment of Madrid was supplemented by
German aircraft
§ Republican fighters in Madrid were helped by the arrival of weapons from the
USSR and Mexico on October 4 along with Soviet tanks and aircraft which
proved superior to the German and Italian aircraft that the Nationalists were aided
with
§ Republicans had the advantage in manpower with regular troops, militiamen and
the non-Spanish International Brigades (military units composed of volunteers
from a range of countries) who arrived on November 8, providing an addition
3500 men for the defence of Madrid

50
 § Close to 32,000 foreigners fought in the International Brigades, with individuals
from countries such as
• France
• Germany
• Austria
• Italy
• Poland
• United States
• United Kingdom
• Over 50 other countries
Ø Technology of the war: aircraft
§ Aircraft played a crucial role in the Spanish Civil War and were used in a wide
variety of capacities including reconnaissance, ground attack and strategic
bombing
§ Foreign-supplied aircraft played the most significant role with Germany and Italy
providing the Nationalists with a combined 1,253 aircrafts whereas the USSR
supplied the Republicans with 648 aircrafts
§ Soviet supplied aircraft were superior to the aircraft used by the Nationalists in the
first year of the war as the Republicans achieved aerial supremacy in the war’s
earlier months however, the arrival of more advanced German aircrafts shifted the
tides and gave the Nationalists an advantage
v Madrid and Northern Spain (1937)
v The Nationalist advance into Catalonia (1938)
v The Fall of Barcelona and Madrid 1939
Ø What was the state of the war by the beginning of 1939?
Ø By the beginning of 1939 the war was effectively won by the Nationalists, despite the
key cities of Barcelona and Madrid remaining Republican
Ø These cities soon fell to the Nationalists
Ø Barcelona, February 1939
§ Nationalists encountered relatively little resistance in their assault on Barcelona
§ Two million people in the city were cut off from what remained of Republican
Spain and demoralized by food shortages and relentless aerial bombardment
§ Nationalists occupied the city on January 26 almost without a fight
§ “It is no exaggeration to say that Barcelona was lost simply because there was no
will to resist” - Historian, V. Rojo
Ø Madrid, February to March 1939
§ After the fall of Barcelona, Republican resistance rapidly dissipated
§ The president resigned and went into exile on February 6
§ British and French governments recognised Franco as the legitimate head of the
Spanish government on February 27
§ Negrín, leader of the Republicans, strategy of prolonging the war proved futile
with only 500,000 Republican troops within Republican zone

51
 Ø Those who opposed Negrin’s strategy rebelled and established an anti-communist
junta (the National Defence Council) which tried to open negotiations with Franco for
a conditional surrender
Ø Another internal civil conflict broke out within the Republican zone, leaving nearly
230 dead and almost 600 wounded
Ø Negrín fled to France
Ø Franco was not interested in overtures for conditional surrender and occupied Madrid
on March 27
Ø Spain was finally fully under Nationalist control and marked the end of the civil war
Ø Management of the war
§ Involved maintaining sufficient supply of manpower, weapons and food

FOREIGN INTERVENTION

v Foreign intervention was driven by ideology and self interest

v There were two main effects it had on the civil war
Ø Lengthened and intensified the war
Ø Meant that Spanish issues that caused the war were overtaken and submerged by the
wider ideological battles taking place in Europe
v Britain
Ø Leading role in the Non-Intervention Committee
Ø Feared the war would spread into a general European conflict
Ø Britain wanted to avoid a general war at all costs and did not want the civil war to
damage its relations with Italy and Portugal
Ø Therefore, Spain was sacrificed to the policy of appeasement in the same way as
Czechoslovakia
Ø Britain’s non-intervention policies were limited and tended to favour the Nationalists
§ Prevented aid going to Republicans
§ Allowed Nationalists but not Republicans to use Gilbralatar as a communications
base
§ Signed trading agreement with Nationalists in 1936, permitting British companies
to trade with rebel forces
v France
Ø Inconsistent support for the Republic
§ Did not want a right-wing regime (Nationalists) on its border
§ Reliant on Britain (anti-Republic) for its foreign policy options
§ Restricted itself to humanitarian assistance
§ France became the manic entre for the coordination of Soviet aid to the
Republicans
v United States
Ø Generally, supported the NIC
Ø Pursued its isolationist policy so did not interfere
Ø However, US companies continued to supply Nationalists with key war supplies
v USSR
Ø Motivated by self-interest and ideological reasons

52
 Ø Their dilemma:
§ Another Fascist state (Nationalist victory) would strengthen Hitler’s position in
Europe which would be bad for the Soviets
§ A Republican victory could panic Britain and France into an alliance with Hitler
against the threat of Communism
§ This would ruin Stalin’s policy of bringing Britain and France into an alliance
with the USSR to contain Hitler
§ Upon seeing Germany and Italy ignore the NIC, Stalin, through Comintern,
organised the transport of international volunteers to Spain and also weapons from
the USSR
Ø Some historians argue that Stalin had a motive for dragging the fighting out as it
would presumably drain Germany’s resources and more likely the war would develop
into a general war that would be fought far from USSR borders
Ø Stand reduced Soviet support from 1938 which meant that Republicans were losing
and Czechoslovakia was abandoned by Britain and France in Munich Agreement in
1938, which meant Stalin aim’s to create a bloc to resist Hitler ended
v Germany
Ø Wanted another fascist state, so they could be allies
Ø Wanted to stop spread of communism
Ø Wanted to test out the Luftwaffe
v Italy
Ø Wanted another fascist state, so they could be allies
Ø Wanted to stop spread of communism``

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 PAPER 3

Option 4: History of Europe

Europe and the First World

War (1871 – 1918)

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European diplomacy and the changing balance of power after 1871; imperial expansion
in Africa and Asia, and its impact on European diplomacy; the Congress of Berlin and
European Alliance system

P1: The Scramble for Africa

• Imperialism is a system where a powerful nation seizes or controls territories outside
its own borders and are claimed as colonies
• During the 19th century, the British Empire ruled the seas with the strongest naval
army, dominated with the East India Trading Company, held privileges in China, and
spanned over 35.5 million km2 in land area
• The pre-war period saw European powers scramble to acquire new colonial
possessions
• Majority of this imperialism was known as the Scramble for Africa
• Industrialisation was the main motivation for acquiring colonies
• Nationalism also played a part as the Europeans each wanted to one-up each other
• Europeans wanted colonies to secure sources of raw materials such as cotton, copper,
iron, rubber, gold and diamonds, all of which were used to fuel their growing
industrial economies
• Impact of the Scramble for Africa
o The French, Italians, British and Germans all increased their power and
influence among other European nations
o Caused competition for colonies in Africa between various European
countries, thus fuelling rivalries
o Created tensions as countries wanted economical gains and international
prestige with an expanded empire

P2: The Rise of Germany

• The pre-war years of 1871 to 1914 resulted in a significant change in the balance of
power due to the rise and fall of empires
• The rise of Germany can be credited to Otto von Bismarck’s leadership and his
Realpolitik policies
• German victory in the Franco-Prussian War in 1871 resulted in Bismarck becoming
the German Chancellor
• Bismarck completed the unification of Germany by bringing together the 39
Germanic states
• This resulted in great strength as the sudden appearance of world power threatened
other powers, Britain and France
• Bismarck implemented Realpolitik, in which diplomacy was based on considerations
of given circumstances and factors, rather than explicit ideological notions or moral
and ethical premises
• Bismarck’s political approach was known as pragmatism (rather than fascism,
socialism, communism, etc)

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• In 1871, Bismarck implemented a policy of consolidation of national unity, and the
centralisation of administration which united Germany as one nation
• Examples of his changes included:
o One national currency that was introduced throughout the Germanic states
o All internal tariffs between states were abolished
o A central Reichbank was formed that would span the country and would
stabilise the economy
o A national legal system was established
o Creation of a ‘common German market’
• Bismarck introduced other laws in 1883, referred to as ‘state socialism’, as he
introduced
o Medical insurance
o Sick pay
o Insurance of industrial injuries
o Old age pension
• The Treaty of Versailles of 1871, was the peace made after Germany’s victory in the
Franco-Prussian War
• The treaty included clauses that increased nationalistic pride and unity, as France
were subjected to
o An indemnity of 5 billion francs over a period of 3 years
o German military occupation in parts of France until the indemnity was paid
o The annexation of the coal rich region Alsace-Lorraine into Germany, forming
the western part of the new German empire
• Bismarck created alliances with Russia and other nations with the purpose of isolating
France, maintain the French as their arch-nemesis, and preventing the possibility of a
two-front war
• Bismarck also heavily increased the economic development of Germany
o Population
§ 1870: 40 million
§ 1890: 50 million
o Coal
§ 1870: 40 million tons
§ 1890: 90 million tons
o Steel
§ 1870: 300 thousand tons
§ 1890: 2 million tons
o Iron ore
§ 1870: 3 million tons
§ 1890: 8 million tons
• There were three wars Germany participated in from 1864 to 1871, so the fact that
there were no wars from 1871 to 1890, meant that Germany enjoyed peace which
allowed them to grow economically and socially

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 • It can be argued that Bismarck’s foreign policy is part of the explanation to this, as he
was satisfied with the unification of Germany, had no interest in colonial conquests
and formed alliances with others, which avoided a war
• Bismarck also created his Web of Alliances which strengthened Germany’s influence
around the world
o The Drekaiserbund (1873)
§ Germany allied itself with Austria-Hungary and Russia
§ AKA The Three Emperor’s League
§ Stated that they had to assist each other in the breakout of war
§ Eventually collapsed over issues in the Balkans 5 years later in 1878
o The Dual Alliance (1879)
§ Germany allied itself with Austria-Hungary
§ Mended their relationship after issues in the Balkans
§ Intended to assist each other if Russia attacked either one of them
§ Would remain neutral in the event of one of the members being
attacked by another European nation
o Revival of the Drekaiserbund (1881)
§ Germany allied itself with Austria-Hungary and Russia again
§ Russia came back to Germany after being isolated in Europe and
joined the Dual Alliance
§ If one of the members entered a war, the other two would remain
neutral
§ Collapsed in 1885 due to Balkan issues between Austria-Hungary and
Russia
o The Triple Alliance (1882)
§ Germany allied itself with Austria-Hungary and Italy
§ Italy was angered after France seized Tunisia in 1882
§ Italy saw Tunisia as a potential colony and thus joined Germany and
Austria-Hungary due to their mutual enemy
o The Reinsurance Treaty (1887)
§ Germany allied itself with Russia
§ Germany drew up a separate treaty with Russia to stay friendly with
each other
§ Bismarck did not want the possibility of a two-front war

P3: The Fall of the Ottoman Empire

• The Ottomans had controlled the Balkans for centuries but in the late 19th and the
early 20th century, their power was in decline
• Their empire was referred to as “the sick man of Europe”
• This created a power vacuum in the Balkans which left other superpowers such as
Russia and Austria-Hungary to exploit it
• The Russians were victorious in the Russo-Turkish War (1877-1878) which further
weakened the Ottomans
• German Chancellor Otto von Bismarck called for the Congress of Berlin in June 1878
in which the following nations were present

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 o The six great powers: Germany, Great Britain, Russia, Italy, France and
Austria-Hungary
o The Ottoman Empire and the four Balkan states: Greece, Serbia, Romania and
Montenegro
• Aimed at determining the territories of the states in the Balkan peninsula following
the Russo-Turkish War (1877-1878)
• Bismarck attempted to stabilise the Balkans, recognise the reduced power of the
Ottoman Empire and balance the distinct interests of Britain, Russia and Austria-
Hungary while at the same time attempting to undermine Russian territorial gains in
the Balkans
• Bismarck successfully managed to make as much countries as he could happy and the
congress was hailed as a great achievement in peacemaking and stabilisation
• However, the Balkan countries were not fully satisfied and resulted in the First and
Second Balkan Wars (1912-1913) and contributed to the beginning of World War I in
1914
• The Ottomans and Russians were weakened as a result of the congress and Austria-
Hungary, Serbia, Bulgaria and Greece were strengthened, resulting in alliances with
Bismarck
• Thus, the changing balance of power in Europe as the Ottomans were heavily
weakened whilst the Germans increased in power
• The British and French remained strong but were to be threatened by the rise of
Germany, as it filled the void left by the fall of the Ottomans

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 Foreign policy of Kaiser Wilhelm II: domestic conditions that impacted on German
foreign policy; its impact/influence on other countries, including Britain, France, Russia
and Austria-Hungary

Introduction
• In 1888, the young and ambitious Kaiser Wilhelm II came into power and took
German foreign policies on a ‘new course’ that would undermine Bismarck’s
carefully nurtured systems of alliances
• Wilhelm arrogantly declared that “nothing must henceforth be settled in the world
without the intervention of Germany and the German Emperor”
• Wilhelm introduced Weltpolitik in 1890
o An imperialist foreign policy adopted by the German Empire
o Aimed to transform Germany into a global power and extend its influence
through aggressive diplomacy, the acquisition of overseas colonies and the
development of a large navy
o It marked a decisive break from the defensive Realpolitik of the Bismarck era
• Historian Fritz Fischer argues that the German government had an expansionist
foreign policy and had started a war of aggression in 1914

P1: The German Fleet and the Naval Arms Race

• Weltpolitik brought Germany into direct confrontation with the leading naval and
imperial power of the time, Britain
• In 1897, Wilhelm began a programme of upgrading the nation’s navy to level the
British
• Britain in turn, built hostility and tension towards the Germans
• In 1906, Britain launched the first HMS Dreadnought that was significantly more
advanced and powerful than any other ship before it
• In 1907, Britain launched another three Dreadnoughts, thus asserting their dominance
over the seas
• However, in 1908, Germany responded by launching four, equalising the field and
beginning a naval arms race that would continue till the beginning of the war
• By 1914, the British had a total of 38 Dreadnoughts whilst the Germans had 24
• The French were also threatened by Germany’s increasing naval strength
• The French were the second most dominant navy force before Britain come the
beginning of the 20th century
• This also damaged German-French relations

P2: The Kruger Telegram

• A message that was sent by Kaiser Wilhelm II, to President Paul Kruger of South
Africa on 3 January 1896
• Wilhelm congratulated the president on repelling the Jameson Raid, an ambush by
600 British irregulars that kwere attempting to trigger an anti-government uprising
• 65 British men were killed, and the rest surrendered

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 • Wilhelm congratulated Kruger as he did not want his rival, the UK to have influence
over South Africa
• The telegram caused a huge indignation in the UK and led to a further inflammation
of tensions between Britain and Germany

P3: Colonisation
• Bismarck throughout his reign was known to be disinterested in colonies and the
Scramble for Africa, however when Kaiser Wilhelm was appointed, colonisation was
a priority
• Despite the fact that Germany were late in the game, the Kaiser colonised 995,000
km2 of land, which became known as German East Africa in 1891
• German East Africa consisted of modern-day Kenya, Rwanda, Uganda,
Mozambique, Tanzania and Burundi
• This threatened the British and the French as they too were an expansive power with
imperialistic ambitions, thus increasing tensions

P4: The Building of the Baghdad-Gulf Railway

• Was built from 1903 to 1940 to connect Berlin with the (then) Ottoman Empire city
of Baghdad, from where the Germans wanted to establish a port in the Persian Gulf
• The line was meant to span 1000 miles through modern-day Turkey, Syria, Iraq and
linked to Europe by a bridge crossing the Bosphorous
• Completion of the project took several decades and by the outbreak of WWI, only
400 miles had been completed, which only delayed it
• Had it been completed earlier, the railway would have enabled transport and trade
from Germany directly through a port on the Persian Gulf, from which trade goods
and supplies could be exchanged directly with the farthest of the German colonies,
and the world
• The journey home would have given German industry direct supply of oil
• This access to resources, with trade less affected by British control of shipping,
would have been beneficial to German economic interests in industry and trade, and
threatening to British economic dominance in colonial trade
• The railway also threatened Russia, since it was accepted as axiomatic that political
influence followed economic, and the railway was expected to extent Germany’s
economic influence towards the Caucasian frontier and into North Persia where
Russia had a dominant share of the market
• The Berlin-Baghdad railway was also extremely significant as it was the answer to
the Suez Canal
• The Suez Canal is the shortest link between the east and west and allowed for easy
transportation of goods and trades
• The Canal was controlled by the Anglo-French alliance, and by using the railway,
Germany had found an alternative that they could dominate

P5: The Moroccan Crisis

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 • Morocco, situated in North Africa, was considered primarily a French sphere of
interest
• When France attempted to establish more control over Morocco in 1905, Germany
objected, claiming that it had to be consulted, as per Weltpolitik
• When France ignored German demands, the German military threatened to attack
France if its foreign minister was not replaced and if France refused to attend an
international conference to resolve the matter
• France complied and during the Algericas Conference held in Spain in 1906, Britain
firmly supported its entente partner, forcing Germany to agree to allow France to
extend further control over Morocco under certain minor conditions
• The British were infuriated by the fact that the Kaiser wanted to undermine British
friendship with France in the Moroccan Crisis of 1905
• In 1911, the Agadir Crisis occurred as France sent troops to Morocco, causing
Germany to proclaim the right to do the same in Southern Morocco
• Again, Britain and France resisted German moves and demands, forcing Germany to
accept 275,000 km2 of French Congo instead
• The German government felt that it had been defeated and humiliated
• This in-turn severely fractured German-French relations

P6: The Support of Austria

• Was Germany’s only true ally in the years leading up to WWI
• Germany’s foreign policy aided the nation as Wilhelm was motivated by the great
desire to keep Austria-Hungary a great power
• Kaiser Wilhelm was against Russia and did not want its empire to grow
• Did not want Russian influence to sweep over the Balkans which is why Germany got
involved in helping Austria-Hungary’s sphere of influence in the Balkan region
• Germany were deep in Balkan affairs and wanted to maintain its dominance in the
internal affairs of the declining Ottoman Empire
• The Franco-Russian Alliance of 1891 increased tensions between Germany and
Russia, as Germany and France were rivals
• This, coupled with Russia’s support for nationalistic movement of Pan-Slavism,
meant that Russia was attempting to use the power vacuum in the Balkans for their
own advantage
• In defence of Fischer’s thesis, historian Gerhard Ritter contends that Germany’s
principal goal in 1914 was to maintain Austria-Hungary as a great power, and thus
German foreign policy was largely defensive

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 Causes of the First World War: short- and long-term causes; relative importance of
causes; the Alliance system; the decline of the Ottoman Empire; German foreign policy;
Austria-Hungary, Russia and Balkan nationalism; the arms race and diplomatic crises;
the July Crisis of 1914

P1: Imperialism
• Imperialism and imperial rivalry provided both a cause and context for World War I
• Imperialism was driven by economic benefits, military interests and overall prestige
• Generated rivalries and stimulated the rise of nationalism
• Germany’s desire for an empire in accordance with Weltpolitik, caused conflict with
established colonial powers
• The British Empire
o Was the world’s largest, richest and most dominant imperial power
o Controlled 20% of the world’s territory by 1900 and ruled the trading system
with the East India Trading Company India, South Africa, Australia and parts
of North Africa among others
• France
o A significant imperial power was the French
o Held Indochina, some Pacific island and several colonies in Africa
• Russia
o Ruled many countries in Eastern Europe and had colonial interests in East
Asia
o Was the most powerful Slavic nation and was promoted as the defender of the
Slavics
o Thus, it defended Serbia and wanted to increase its influence in the Balkans
for prestige and power
• Germany
o Unified in 1871, however Bismarck was not interested in colonies
o When Kaiser Wilhelm II came into power, he colonised 995,000 km2 of land,
which became known as German East Africa in 1891
o His foreign policy, Weltpolitik, meant that Germany would attempt to extend
its influence in the world via the acquisition of colonies and a large navy
o This threatened British and French imperial interests
• The Scramble for Africa began during the 19th century as the European nations
wanted colonies to secure sources of raw materials such as cotton, copper, iron,
rubber, gold and diamonds, all of which were used to fuel their growing industrial
economies
• Impact of the Scramble for Africa
o The French, Italians, British and Germans all increased their power and
influence among other European nations
o Caused competition for colonies in Africa between various European
countries, thus fuelling rivalries
o Created tensions as countries wanted economical gains and international
prestige with an expanded empire
o The Moroccan Crisis (1905) and the Agadir Crisis (1911)

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 § Morocco, situated in North Africa, was considered primarily a French
sphere of interest
§ When France attempted to establish more control over Morocco in
1905, Germany objected, claiming that it had to be consulted, as per
Weltpolitik
§ When France ignored German demands, the German military
threatened to attack France if its foreign minister was not replaced and
if France refused to attend an international conference to resolve the
matter
§ France complied and during the Algericas Conference held in Spain in
1906, Britain firmly supported its entente partner, forcing Germany to
agree to allow France to extend further control over Morocco under
certain minor conditions
§ The British were infuriated by the fact that the Kaiser wanted to
undermine British friendship with France in the Moroccan Crisis of
1905
§ In 1911, the Agadir Crisis occurred as France sent troops to Morocco,
causing Germany to proclaim the right to do the same in Southern
Morocco
§ Again, Britain and France resisted German moves and demands,
forcing Germany to accept 275,000 km2 of French Congo instead
§ The German government felt that it had been defeated and humiliated
§ This in-turn severely fractured German-French relations

P2: Alliances
• An alliance is a formal political, military or economic agreement between two or
more nations
• Military alliances usually contain promises that in the event of war or aggression, one
signatory nation will support the others
• During the 19th and early 20th centuries European nations formed, annulled and
restructured alliances on a regular basis
• By 1914, the Great Powers of Europe had shuffled themselves into two alliance blocs
• The existence of these two opposing blocs meant that war between two nations might
mean war between them all
• Three Emperors League
o This league was a three way alliance between the ruling monarchs of
Germany, Austria-Hungary and Russia
o The Three Emperors’ League was engineered and dominated by the Prussian
statesman Otto von Bismarck, who saw it as a means of securing the balance
of power in Europe
o Disorder in the Balkans undermined Russia’s commitment to the league,
which collapsed in 1878
o The Three Emperors’ League, without Russia, formed the basis of the Triple
Alliance
• The Dual Alliance (1879)

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 o This was a binding military alliance between Germany and Austria-Hungary,
that required each signatory to support the other if one was attacked by Russia
o It was signed after the collapse of the Three Emperors’ League and during a
period of Austro-Russian tension in the Balkans
o The alliance was welcomed by nationalists in Germany, who believed that
German-speaking Austria should be absorbed into greater Germany
• The Triple Alliance (1882)
o This complex three way alliance between Germany, Austria-Hungary and
Italy was driven by anti-French and anti-Russian sentiment
o Each of the three signatories was committed to provide military support to the
others, if one was attacked by two other powers – or if Germany and Italy
were attacked by France
o Italy, being newly formed and militarily weak, was viewed as a minor partner
in this alliance
• The Franco-Russian Alliance (1894)
o This military alliance between France and Russia restored cordial relations
between the two imperial powers
o The Franco-Russian Alliance was in effect a response to the Triple Alliance,
which had isolated France
o The signing of the Franco-Russian Alliance was an unexpected development
that thwarted German plans for mainland Europe and angered Berlin
o It also provided economic benefits to both signatory nations, allowing Russia
access to French loans and providing French capitalists with access to Russian
mining, industry and raw materials
• The Entente Cordiale (1904)
o Meaning ‘friendly agreement’, the Entente Cordiale was a series of
agreements between Britain and France
o The Entente ended a century of hostility between the two cross-channel
neighbours
o It also resolved some colonial disagreements and other minor but lingering
disputes
o The Entente was not a military alliance; neither signatory was obliged to
provide military support for the other
o Nevertheless, it was seen as the first step towards an Anglo-French military
alliance.
• The Anglo-Russian Entente (1907)
o This agreement between Britain and Russia eased tensions and restored good
relations between the two nations
o Britain and Russia had spent much of the 19th century as antagonists, going to
war in the Crimea (1853-56) and later reaching the verge of war twice
o The Anglo-Russian Entente resolved several points of disagreement, including
the status of colonial possessions in the Middle East and Asia
o It did not involve any military commitment or support.
• The Triple Entente (1907)

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 o This treaty consolidated the Entente Cordiale and the Anglo-
Russian Entente into a three-way agreement between Britain, France and
Russia
o Again, it was not a military alliance – however the three Ententes of 1904-7
were important because they marked the end of British neutrality and
isolationism.
• The impact of the alliance system as a cause of war is often overstated
• Alliances did not, as is often suggested, make war inevitable
• Alliances did not disempower governments or lead to automatic declarations of war;
the authority and final decision to mobilise or declare war still rested with national
leaders
• It was their moral commitment to these alliances that was the telling factor.

P3: Militarism
• Militarism is a philosophy or system that places great importance on military power
• Militarism was a significant force in several European nations in the years prior to
World War I
• Militarism alone did not start World War I – that first required a flashpoint and a
political crisis – but it created an environment where war, rather than negotiation or
diplomacy, was considered the best way of resolving international disputes
• Soldiers
o There was an increase in defence expenditure in all major European powers
especially after 1905, when a World War was looming
o Between 1870 and 1914, military spending by European powers increased by
300% and conscription was adopted by all continental powers
o By 1914, more than 12 million men could be called upon in the event of war
o Substantial investment in increasing troop numbers in standing army
o Triple Entente had a major advantage as it outnumbered the combined troops
of the Dual Alliance by 1.5 million
o Rate of increase standing armies of Entente nations were higher than Axis
nations
o Number of troops in standing army in 1914
§ Britain: 700,000
§ France: 1.1 million
§ Russia: 1.3 million
§ Germany: 800,000
§ Austria-Hungary: 800,000
• Naval Arms Race
o Decade before 1914, Germany aimed to build a navy which can challenge
British naval supremacy
o Britain seeks to retain their lead in naval supremacy and in 1906, launch a new
class of battleships known as the HMS Dreadnought
o This was a new standard of the modern battleship as it was fitted with large
guns capable of destroying enemies from large distances

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 o In 1908, Germany launched their own Dreadnoughts and thus began the naval
arms race
o By 1914, Britain had 29 Dreadnoughts and Germany had 17

P4: Nationalism
• Nationalism is an intense form of patriotism in which individuals with nationalistic
tendencies celebrated the culture and achievements of their own country and placed
its interests above other nations
• Nationalism gave citizens an inflated confidence in their nation, government and
military strength
• It convinced them that their country was fair, righteous and without blame
• Nationalist ideas demonised rival nations, caricaturing them as aggressive, scheming,
deceitful, backward or uncivilised
• It contributed to a continental delusion that suggested that a European war was both
necessary and winnable
• German Nationalism
o The Franco-Prussian War that went from 1870 to 1871, resulted in German
victory and French embarrassment
o The 39 Germanic states were unified under the rule of Chancellor Otto von
Bismarck, and a new superpower was born
o The French were forced to sign the Treaties of Versailles and Frankfurt in
1871, which asked them to pay an indemnity of 5 billion marks and had to
give the iron-rich territory of Alscace-Lorraine
o There was a Prussian victory march through the streets of Paris, which added
further humiliation to the French as the King of Prussia was proclaimed
German Emperor in the Palace of Versailles, which marked the beginning of
an era of German unification
o This increased German pride and resulted in nationalistic feelings among the
Germanic people
o Political and socio-economic problems followed the defeat in France and a
desire for revenge manifested among the people
o Kaiser Wilhelm II coming into power in 1888 and his introduction of
Weltpolitik catalysed the war, as the German people became fascinated with
German imperial expansion in order to secure their ‘place in the sun’
o Thus, it can be argued that nationalistic emotions reinforced the main rivalry
of World War 1 between Germany and France
• British Nationalism
o Fuelled by a century of comparative peace and prosperity, British nationalism
was at an all-time high as they had control over the largest empire and naval
army
o England’s ‘penny press’ was a collective term for cheap serialised novels,
o It fuelled foreign rivalries by publishing incredible fictions about foreign
intrigues, espionage, future war and invasion

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 o ‘Invasion literature’ was an example of propagating nationalism, as novels
featured British soldiers overcoming the Germans and placing them at a much
higher standard than the Russians and French, which increased nationalism
• Balkan Nationalism
o No nationalist movement had a greater impact on the outbreak of war than the
Slavic groups in the Balkans
o Pan-Slavism, was the belief that the Slavic peoples of Eastern Europe should
have their own nation, was a powerful force in the region
o Sought to establish the principle of self-determination
o Slavic nationalism was strongest in Serbia where it had risen significantly in
the late 19th and early 20th centuries
o Austria Hungary wanted to extend its control in the region and thus annexed
Bosnia-Herzegovina in 1908 as it feared revolts from the Slavic people and
attempted to quiet them down
o Russia also wanted to increase its influence in the Balkans as it had an
ideological commitment as it was the most powerful Slavic nation and thus
promoted its image as the defender of all Slavic people
o This increased Russian prestige and power and would limit the territorial
expansion of its main rival, Austria-Hungary
o The Ottomans had controlled the Balkans for centuries but in the late 19th and
early 20th century, their power was in decline was colloquially known as ‘the
sick man of Europe’
o This created a power vacuum in the Balkans which left other superpowers
such as Russia and Austria-Hungary to exploit it, while also increasing the
confidence of the Slavic’s and other nationalities
o The Italians launched an attack on Libya (part of the Ottoman Empire) in 1911
and defeated the Ottomans, which accentuated the weakness of the Empire to
other countries and led to the Balkan Wars in 1912 and 1913
o The instability in the region led to the first Balkan War in October 1912 as
Serbia, Greece, Montenegro and Bulgaria gained independence from the
Ottomans and formed the Balkan League
o The Serbs, Greeks, Montenegrins and Bulgarians were all a product of
nationalism as they advocated for their independence through the policy of
national self-determination
o Supported by the Russian empire, the league attacked Turkey and gained land
gained land, with Serbia doubling its land size, but not gaining Albania, which
was an outlet to the sea (Serbia remained landlocked)
o Austria-Hungary supported the Ottomans as they were rivals with both Russia
and Serbia
o The Second Balkan War broke out in June 1913 when Bulgaria attacked its
former allies Serbia and Greece as it was dissatisfied with its share of the
spoils from the First Balkan Wars
o Bulgaria was quickly dispatched by Serbia and co. and further strengthened
Serbia into a force that was to be reckoned with, as it increased its overall
territory by 80%

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 o Austria-Hungary, allied with Germany and the Ottomans, sought to establish
influence in the Balkans which is why it was rivals with Serbia
o The strength of Serbia led to an increase in patriotism and nationalism among
the Serbs, which resulted in a nationalistic Serbian group known as the Black
Hand to murder the Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria-Hungary
o Already looking for a reason to go to conflict, Austria-Hungary declared war
on Serbia and due to their alliance systems, Germany came involved as well
o Russia was then pressured into joining the war to support Serbia, and the other
superpowers followed suit
o It can be argued that the alliance systems was one of the major causes of First
World War, but nations did not really have to abide by them, as exemplified
by the fact that even though Italy was part of the Triple Alliance with
Germany and Austria-Hungary, they joined the Allies
o Thus, it can be stated that the superpowers simply wanted to avoid a war on
their own front and did not want to deal with the damages and repercussions
that would arise from that
P5: The July Crisis
• The July Crisis was a series of events in 1914 which ultimately led to the declarations
of war by European Superpowers
• Archduke Franz Ferdinand assassinated by Serbian nationalists on 28 June, 1914
• The month-long period following the assassination became known as the ‘July Crisis’
• Flurry of meetings between Austro-Hungarian and German diplomats as they debated
how to proceed and what might happen with regard to Russia if Austria declared war
on Serbia
• On July 5, Kaiser Wilhelm II issued his famous ‘Blank Cheque’ to the Austro-
Hungarians: they could proceed as they saw fit, and Germany would back them if
Russia intervened
• The Kaiser believed Germany was more equipped and would be able to mobilise its
forces much faster than Russia and France if they intervened and wanted to be able to
crush their opponents before they had a chance to put up substantial resistance
• The Kaiser urged his Austrian allies to deal with Serbia promptly and ruthlessly
• On July 23, the Serbian government received an ultimatum from Austria-Hungary
• In it was a set of ten demands, plus a requirement for the Serbs to respond in
agreement within 48 hours
• The term of the ultimatum was impossible to agree to and so Serbia immediately
sought the counsel of the Russians
• Tsar Nicholas II and his ministers offered to publicly condemn the ultimatum, but
they were also aware that Russia’s military readiness lagged behind Germany’s, so
refused to offer any military guarantees
• The British foreign minister tried averting war by organising a mediation conference
between all nations with a stake in the crisis, however this was rejected by both
Germany and Austria.
• Serbia responded to the Austrian ultimatum just before the expiration of the deadline
• It submitted to most of the demands but rejected the Austrian-led inquiry demanded
by point six, which it considered a breach of Serbian sovereignty

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• Thus, Austro-Hungarian emperor Franz Josef declared war on Serbia on July 28th
• Russia, a long-time protector of Serbia, responded by mobilising its forces against
Austria-Hungary
• Germany’s rulers declared war on Russia on August 1 and lit the fuse for their much-
anticipated Schlieffen Plan, a scheme to invade France
• On August 3, Germany declares war on France and invades Belgium as per the
Schlieffen Plan
• On August 4, Britain declares war on Germany and World War I officially begins
• Germany’s invasion of neutral Belgium triggered Britain’s involvement, which in turn
dragged British dominions – Australia, New Zealand, Canada, India and South Africa
– to declare war on Germany
• Thus, the July Crisis and the failure of diplomacy was a direct short-term cause and
was a catalyst the resulted in the outbreak of war

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Impact of the First World War on civilian populations of two countries from the region
between 1914 and 1918

P1: Social Impact on British and German civilians

• World War I resulted in the deaths of 900,000 British soldiers, which represented
10% of the British men who served
• An additional 2 million British men were wounded during the war
• The rise in overall female employment went from 24% in 1914 to 37% in 1918
• Women were given the vote for the first time after the war in 1918 in Britain and in
1919 in Germany, in tacit acknowledgement of their contributions during the war
• In both countries, there was a rapid growth in industry in all countries to keep up with
the demands of total war
• Due to the fact that both countries introduced conscription, it was up to the children
and women to fill in the gap left by labour shortage
• By 1917, one in four workers were female
• Women faced discrimination, lower wages, longer working hours and no job security
• Work in munitions was very dangerous, as there was a risk of TNT poisoning and
accidental explosions
• The war also impacted children, as parents were either working or fighting in the war
• Teachers were conscripted, thus the quality of education declined
• Children gained independence as they began to earn money by working, albeit the
bare minimum
• To keep up morale, governments spent a great deal of energy on wartime propaganda
which portrayed the enemy as inhumane forces that must be defeated at all costs,
which was to justify the length of the war, and to motivate the civilians

P2: Impact of German bombing on British civilians

• The German strategic bombing campaign during World War I began in 1915 with the
use of Zeppelins, a rigid bomber airship
• The Germans mounted over 50 bombing raids on Britain and were generally referred
to as Zeppelin raids
• These raids killed a combined total of 557 and injured another 1,358 British civilians
• More than 5,000 bombs were dropped, causing 1.5 million in damages
• The Zeppelin ships were later replaced by aeroplanes, which carried out another 27
raids, killed 835 British civilians, injured 1,972 and caused 1.4 million in damages
• In the autumn of 1917, over 300,000 Londoners had to take shelter from the
bombings and industrial production was affected

P3: British Government Legislations

• Defence of the Realm Act (DORA) 1914
o The British government had the right to confiscate anything for the sake of the
war effort
§ Took control of coal mines

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 § Introduced censorship
§ Control of wages
§ Control over media
§ Allowed them to spread propaganda
o It allowed the government to impound building, land and industries
o The government was in control of what the public can know about the truth of
the horrors of war
o Thus, they controlled public opinion of the civilians
o The government also created films such as ‘The Battle of Somme’ depicting
and glorifying battles in which acts were staged instead of showing reality
o The government also watered down the spread and production of liquor to
ensure workers remained focused
• The Military Service Act 1916
o This act was introduced by Prime Minister H. Asquith’s administration
o It was passed by parliament and came into force in March 1916
o Before this act, the government relied on voluntary enlistment and moral
conscription
o However, when this did not meet the demand of soldiers, the bill was
introduced and passed
o According to the MSA of 1916, men between 18 and 41 were liable to be
called for service in the army
o Those who were exempt included married men, those widowed with children
and ministers of religion
o Later, a new act was passed to include married men and a raise to the upper
age limit to 51
o There was objection to conscription who were called ‘conchies’, conscientious
objectors, who objected on political or religious grounds

P4: Blockade of Germany

• The British Blockade of Germany was a prolonged naval operation conducted by the
Allied Powers from 1914 to 1919
• It was an effort to restrict the maritime supply of goods to Germany and the other
Central Powers
• Germany heavily relied on imports to feed its population and thus the blockade
resulted in the deaths of 763,000 German civilians from starvation and disease
• Germany’s imports had fallen by 55% and exports by 53% which led to a great drop
in the German economy
• This led to staples such as grain, potatoes, meat and dairy products to becoming
extremely scarce by 1916
• There was heavy dependence on good harvest but the weather conditions in 1915
destroyed all crops
• During the winter of 1916 to 1917, there was a failure of the potato crop, which
resulted in the urban population having to subsist largely on ‘flocken’, the peelings of
a potato

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 • A rationing system was introduced in 1915, with individuals being limited to 1,000
calories per day
• This malnutrition led to widespread diseases such as scurvy, tuberculosis and
dysentery by 1917
• The spread of influenza contributed to the deaths of another 200,000 Germans
• There was heavy dependence on good

P5: The German Revolution

• The German Revolution was a civil conflict in the German Empire that began in
October 1918
• It resulted in the replacement of the German federal constitutional monarchy with a
democratic parliamentary republic that later became known as the Weimar Republic
• The causes of the revolution were
o The extreme burdens suffered by the population during the four years of war
o The strong impact of the defeat on the German empire
o The social tensions between the general population and the elite of aristocrats
and bourgeoisie who held power and had just lost the war
• Many German civilians wanted an end to the war, which resulted in an increasing
number of Germans associating with the political left, which were demanding the end
of WWI
• The movement really started to gain traction once the United States joined the war in
April 1917, as it became apparent that the Germans were just delaying their inevitable
loss
• In Kiel, in northern Germany, civilian dock workers lead a revolt and convinced many
sailors to join them
• The revolt quickly spread to other cities and a full-fledged revolution had begun
• Thus, an impact of the issues that the First World War propagated, was that it
convinced the German civilians of the weakness of the Kaiser monarchy which led to
their revolution and the introduction of a republic

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 Factors leading to the defeat of Germany and the other Central Powers, and to the
victory of the Entente Powers: strategic errors; economic factors; entry and role of the
US; domestic instability in the Central Powers

P1: Lacklustre Management

• The lacklustre management of the Axis military, weapons and resources left Hitler
and Mussolini’s forces with the inability to continue their prolonged war effort.
• Hitler’s personal conduct of military operations was disastrous as evidenced in the
Battle of Stalingrad in which he did not prepare his soldiers for a winter campaign and
did not allow the forced at Stalingrad to retreat or breakout from the Russian trap,
with the result that it had to surrender in January 1943
• Hitler also chose to concentrate on producing V-rockets for Germany as opposed to
developing jet aircraft, which would have restored German aircraft superiority and
weakened the Allied bombing campaign of 1944 to 1945
• Hitler’s mistakes in the conduct of the war ensured that it went on much longer than
he had expected
• Germany suffered from material shortages as the war continued, particularly in
rubber, cotton, nickel and after mid-1944, oil
• German and Japanese military resented and rejected interference and direction from
civilians, which prevented any useful collaboration between civilian and military
experts

P2: Unnecessary Invasions

• The unnecessary invasions of the Soviet Union and Greece by Hitler and Mussolini
exhausted their military forces, weakened their nation’s influence and left them with
more enemies.
• On 22 June 1942, Nazi troops began Operation Barbarossa in which they attempted to
conquer Moscow
• The campaign ended disastrously in December of that year with Soviet resistance
fiercely defending their nation
• Hitler had intended to swiftly defeat the Soviets in order to re-shift his focus to the
Western Allies but the campaign’s failure meant that Germany was now facing a two-
front war
• The campaign undid all the gains made by the Nazi-Soviet Pact
• Historian Stephen Lee states that “the major military setbacks experienced by the
Wehrmacht occurred in Russia… (which) took the pressure off Britain and greatly
assisted... (their) war effort in the Mediterranean and North Africa”
• Another unnecessary invasion by the Axis powers was when Mussolini invaded
Greece on 28 October 1940 in order to prove to Hitler the strength of the Italian army
• The campaign faced great opposition from Greek resistance to which Hitler needed to
step in and help Italy to complete the invasion, finally doing so in 23 April 1941
• Germany thus had to delay the advance into the Soviet Union as it had dedicated
military and

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P3: Declaring War on the US
• The declaration of war on the US by the Axis powers showed serious lack of
judgement on Hitler’s part as the superpower joined forces with the Allies and proved
to tip the scales of war in their favour.
• The declaration of war against USA on 11 September 1941 by Hitler was a major
error
• He was too dismissive of America’s capabilities and believed that the USA would
remain in the Pacific fighting the Japanese
• However, President Roosevelt made the defeat of Hitler his top priority, and US and
British forces worked together to achieve this task
• The USA’s entry into the war allowed the Allies to invade Italy, carry out devastating
bombing raids on Germany and open up the Second Front in 1944
• Meanwhile, Hitler was unable to attack the US directly and also did not face the same
unity with his allies
• Mussolini in fact was a constant drain on Hitler’s resources

P4: Economic Superiority of the Allies

• Although Hitler and Mussolini’s poor leadership weakened the Axis powers, the
economic superiority of the combined Allied powers was too much for the Germans
and Italians to handle.
• As Hitler faced increasing economic difficulties after 1942, the resources of the Allies
grew stronger
• The USSR’s economy rapidly transformed to wartime economy and was producing
more armaments of better quality than Germany by 1943
• Once the American economy geared up for wartime production, it also overtook the
Axis powers in production of weapons and began producing over 70,000 tanks and
12,000 aircraft a year
• Historian Richard Overy points out that the Allies’ improvement of the quality and
quantity of military forces and technology, ensuring reserves and setting up a large
civilian apparatus to support the Allied forces
• Overy goes on to point out that American forces generally backed up their active
personnel with a greater ratio of support personnel than the Germans, with a
substantial 18:1 ratio
• This contrasts with the German approach which saw bright minds being employed in
active service rather than civilian planning
• The Allied Powers set up a profound civilian apparatus that supported the war effort
facilitating the mobilisation of economic, intellectual, and organisational strength.

P5: Allied Strategies

• Another Allied strength that tipped the scales in their favour was their strategic
decisions to defeat the Axis, in contrast to Hitler and Mussolini’s poor military
judgement.
• The Allies made the decision to concentrate the mass of their attack on Germany as
they realized that the defeat of this formidable military opponent was central to
success

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• 85% of USA’s war effort was devoted to defeating Germany and only 15% to the war
with Japan
• The Allies poured massive amounts of money and effort into the strategic bombing
campaign, and this had a serious effect on Germany’s capacity to fight effectively at
the front
• Germany had to curtail its own bombing offensives and divert funds into an anti-
aircraft strategy
• The Allies had a tremendous will to win as most people on the Allied side believed
that this contest did not just involve the military forces but concerned issues of life
and death for whole communities and that it was ‘just’ war worth fighting,
considering the horrors that the Nazi’s were inflicting onto the Jews

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 PAPER 3

Option 4: History of Europe

Versailles to Berlin –
Diplomacy in Europe
(1919 – 1945)

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 Peace settlements (1919–1923): Versailles; Neuilly; Trianon; St Germain; and
Sèvres/Lausanne—aims, issues and responses

Introduction
• The Paris Peace Settlements have been heavily criticised, however the difficulties
facing the peacemakers must be understood
• After the end of the First World War, four empires had fallen, Russia, Germany,
Austria-Hungary and the Ottomans
o In these territories, there was a strong desire for national self-determination, in
which every nationality deserves their own territory and autonomy
o It was impossible to satisfy all the demands as for example, Austria-Hungary
had at least 13 different nationalities all demanding for their right to territory
and autonomy
o For logistic and practical reasons, it was impossible to give each nationality a
territory and recognise it as a state
• Additionally, the victors all had very different experiences from the war and were
consequently very divided in their intentions
• Europe had suffered enormously from the war with over 16 million deaths
o At the end of the war, influenza was a widespread epidemic and had killed
additional millions
o Much of Europe was in ruins and peace would bring economic hardship, thus
there was no time for endless discussions
• The rise of the ‘disease’ known as communism from the East scared many in the West
o The Communist Revolution in Russia in 1917, followed by a Civil War in
1918
o German communists revolted in the Spartacist Uprising in 1919

P1: Treaty of Versailles 1919 (Germany)

• The choice of the Versailles palace was symbolic as it was the same palace in which
the Treaty of Versailles of 1871 was signed after French defeat at the hands of the
Germans in the Franco-Prussian War, as well as being the crowning place of the
Kaiser of Germany
• The treaty had notoriously included many harsh clauses that would have to dire
consequences in the next decades
o In Article 231, known as the War Guilt Clause stated that “Germany accepts
the responsibility of Germany and her allies in causing all… the damage…
and the war”
o An indemnity of $33 billion
o Limited army to 100,000 men without conscription, and would be required to
serve for 12 years, thus preventing a build-up of a trained reserve
o Size of naval fleet limited to 6 battleships
o No submarines, air force, armoured cars or tanks

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 o The Rhineland to be demilitarised
o Alsace-Lorraine given back to France
o Loss of all colonies in German East Africa consisted of modern-day Kenya,
Rwanda, Uganda, Mozambique, Tanzania and Burundi, as well as well as
Shandong in China
o Refused membership into the League of Nations
o Overall, Germany lost 13% of its territory, 12% of its population and 48% of
its iron deposits
• Response to the Treaty of Versailles
o The War Guilt Clause was particularly hated by the Germans, who felt that all
countries should bear responsibility for the outbreak of war
§ This clause later helped Hitler to gain support, as he was able to play
on the resentment and anger felt by the German population towards the
War Guilt Clause
§ Thus indirectly, the Treaty of Versailles brought about the rise of the
Nazi Party
o The disarmament clauses were hard for the Germans to accept, as an army of
100,000 was too small for a country of Germany’s size
o Contemporary economist JM Keynes led the criticism of the treaty in the area
of the reparations
§ He argued that “by aiming at the destruction of the economic life in
Germany, it threatens the health and prosperity of the Allies
themselves”
§ He argued that the real problem was the questions of food, coal and
commerce for the German people
§ His predictions proved to be correct, as Germany went into
hyperinflation in the early 1920’s as they tried to pay the reparation
o The failure of peacemakers to invite Germany to join the League of Nations
§ This insulted Germany and added a sense of grievance
§ It made it less likely that the League could be effective in promoting
international cooperation
§ It was a peacekeeping organisation, but did not accept the country that
was most likely to threaten peace, which did not logically make sense
o Historian Niall Ferguson argues that the Treaty was “relatively lenient”
§ This is supported by the fact that the indemnity and loss of population
did not prevent a German recovery as by 1927, Germany’s industrial
production was back on the pre-war level
§ This supports the claim that terms were not too harsh
§ However, Germany was able to do so due the Dawes Plan, which
resulted in US short-term loans being pumped into Germany from
1924
o Furthermore, Germany was not one to be fair in peace treaties
§ Germany had forced France to pay an indemnity of 200 million francs
after the Franco-Prussian War in 1871

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 §Germany also annexed the French land, Alsace-Lorraine as part of the
Treaty of Versailles in 1871
§ Additionally, Germany forced Russia to sign the Treaty of Brest-
Litovsk in 1918
§ This term offered to Russia were far worse than what the Allies
offered, as Russia lost 90% of its coal mines, and a third of its
population and farming land
§ If Germany was so harsh on other nations, there was some justification
in the harshness of the Versailles Treaty
§ However, in rebuttal, it was not the new Weimar Republic in Germany
that had put forth these clauses for the French and Russians, and was in
fact the previous rulers, Bismarck and Kaiser Wilhelm, respectively
§ Thus, it was unfair to punish and judge the new democratic Germany
for what previous rulers did
o Moreover, the north of France was in ruins after the war
§ The war had not been fought in Germany, and thus did not have to pay
for damages
§ The Germans thus should naturally also make a contribution to the
rebuilding of France
§ If Germany didn’t pay, it would be unfair to French taxpayers who
would have to bear the full cost
§ No French politician would have survived an election, if it was
accepted that Germany should not pay, thus making the indemnity
justified

P2: Treaty of Neuilly 1919 (Bulgaria)

• Bulgaria was forced to give territories to Romania and Yugoslavia
• It was required to pay an indemnity and had its army limited to 20,000 men
• The Aegean coastline was also given to Greece which meant that Bulgaria was
landlocked and lost its outlet to the sea
• Bulgaria was also forced to recognise the nationalities of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes

P3: Treaty of Saint-Germain 1919 (Austria)

• In 1918, different national minorities in the Austrian-Hungarian empire declared
themselves independent
• Austria was separated from Hungary and reduced to a small landlocked state
consisting of only 25% of its pre-war area and 20% of its pre-war population
• Austria lost considerable territories and were handed over to Poland, Czechoslovakia,
Romania, Yugoslavia and Italy
• Austria was also forbidden from pursing a union with Germany
• Austrian armed forces were reduced to 30,000 men
• Austria also had to pay reparations to the Allies and by 1922, it was virtually bankrupt
and the League of Nations took over its financial affairs

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P4: Treaty of Trianon 1920 (Hungary)
• Hungary was seen as the successor to the Austro-Hungarian Empire
• Consequently, it had to pay an indemnity and limit its army to 35,000 men
• It had to give up 75% of its territory and lost 66% of its population
• Its land was given to Yugoslavia, Czechoslovakia and Romania
• The country complained bitterly that the newly formed Hungarian nation was much
smaller and weaker than the Kingdom of Hungary that had been part of the Austro-
Hungarian Empire

P5: The Treaty of Sevres-Lausanne 1920-1923 (Ottoman Empire)

• The disintegration of the Ottoman Empire had been long expected and both Britain
and France hoped to make some gains in the region
• The Treaty of Sevres in 1920 stated that Germany would have to give up all claims of
non-Turkish territory, thus it lost all of the Middle East and lost sovereignty of the
Straits, which was an outlet to the Black Sea
• The Straits was to be a demilitarised zone administered by the League of Nations,
with Britain, France and Italy keeping troops there
• The treaty was accepted by the Ottoman Sultan, but there was fierce resentment by
nationalist leader Mustapha Kemal who led a National Assembly at Ankara to pledge
the unification of the Muslim Turks and the rejection of Sevres
• Meanwhile, Greece, ambitious for more land, attempted to take advantage of this
internal disorder and declared war, but Kemal smashed the Greek advance
• Kemal almost attacked British soldiers, but compromised with them, resulting the
Treaty of Sevres being revised at Lausanne in Switzerland
• In the Treaty of Lausanne signed in 1923 gave some territory back to Turkey and
were given back sovereignty of the Straits, but it was to remain a demilitarised zone
• Additionally, Turkey no longer was to pay reparations or have its army reduced

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 The League of Nations and Europe: successes and failures; the search for collective
security; developments in the successor states of central and eastern Europe

P1: Success in Resolving Issues over Territorial Changes

• Aaland Islands (1920)
o Mostly populated by Swedes following the collapse of the Russian Empire
o Finland however had claimed sovereignty over the islands
o The League resolved this conflict when they decided that the islands would be
given to Finland, to which Sweden accepted
• Upper Silesia (1921)
o Germany and newly formed Poland both wanted control of the important
industrial area
o The League resolved this issue by deciding to split the area between the two
• Bulgaria (1925)
o Following a Greek invasion of Bulgaria, the League ordered both armies to
stop fighting
o An investigation by the League blamed Greece for starting the dispute and
ordered it to pay damages
o The League resolved this conflict by giving Greece an ultimatum of paying
compensation, to which they accepted
• P.M.H Bell argues that even though the League did not solve all disputes
successfully, it had “settled down as a valuable forum for the conduct of international
affairs” thus giving Europe its “workable successor to the pre-1914 state system”

P2: Successes in Humanitarian Work

• Liberated an estimated 427,000 WWI prisoners of war from 26 countries and took
them back to their homes in 1920
• Set up camps and fed Turkish refugees fleeing from the Greco-Turkish War in 1922
• Approved the Slavery Convention which freed an estimated 200,000 slaves
• 26 of the countries in the League signed The Convention for the Suppression of the
Illicit Traffic in Dangerous Drugs that would combat the drugs trade and still does to
this day
• Set up the International Labour Organisation designed to improve workers rights and
working conditions across the world, while also limiting child labour in some
countries
• Worked together to prevent tropical diseases throughout the 1920’s such as malaria,
leprosy and yellow fever
• Stabilised Austria and Hungary’s economy in the 1920’s and helped raise loans in
order to save Austria from bankruptcy
• Thus, the League of Nations had successes in other domains as they were able to do
their best to try and make the world a little better for some individuals
P3: Manchurian Affair

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 • Japan’s power had grown exponentially during WWI as it had captured Germany’s
Far Eastern possessions and extensively worked their industries to produce ships and
munitions
• After the war, the Japanese fleet was the strongest in the Pacific, however, the Great
Depression resulted in the economy destabilising
• Their answer to their issue – an invasion of Chinese land Manchuria in 1931
• The atrocities inflicted onto the Chinese were abhorrent and led to the League
condemning the occupation
• Due to the ability of any nation to veto any decision, Japan denied a response by the
League and simply left the League in 1933 and carried out its conquest in China
• The Affair brought about important results
o The League showed its incapability of enforcing world peace
o The Affair encouraged the European dictators to try the same tactics in Africa
and Europe by simply just invading other nations without consequence
o Japan continued in its violent policy and launched a full-scale attack in 1937
o It undermined the credibility of the League and its will to follow through with
its philosophy of collective security

P4: Abyssinian Crisis

• Benito Mussolini, the Fascist dictator of Italy, dreamed of building a new Roman
Empire which meant that he wanted to fight a war
• He believed this would help Italians forget their problems at home and that it would
win the coal, iron and oil Italy lacked
• Mussolini wanted to add Abyssinia (Ethiopia today) to the Italian Empire
• Abyssinia was sandwiched between the Italian colonies of Eritrea and Somaliland
• The country was a member of the League, but the Italians invaded regardless in 1935
• Italian soldiers used tanks, poison gas, bombs and flame-throwers against Abyssinian
troops armed with spears and outdated rifles
• Abyssinian Emperor Selassie appealed to the League for help
• Britain and France, two leading members of the League, could have stopped Italy by
closing the Suez Canal to Italian ships and thus cutting the Italian supply route to
Abyssinia
• Instead they agreed with the rest of the League to impose certain economic sanctions
on Italy
• These measures had little effect, because they did not include steel, oil and coal,
which were vital to the Italian war effort
• In May 1936 the Italian captured the capital of Abyssinia, Addis Ababa
• The Abyssinian crisis dealt a death blow to the League of Nations which was now
ignored as a peace-keeping body.
• It is often cited as a failure of collective security
• The Abyssinian crisis was a fatal blow to the League as historian A.J.P Taylor
explains: “The real death of the League was in 1935. One day it was a powerful body
imposing sanctions the next day it was an empty sham, everyone scuttling from it as
quickly as possible.”

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• Mussolini later went on to state that “the League is very well when sparrows shout,
but no good at all when eagles fall out”

Italian and German foreign policies (1919–1941): aims, issues and extent of success

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P1: Italian Foreign Policy of Opportunism
• Benito Mussolini was named Prime Minister of Italy in 1922 and ruled the country as
a dictator until 1943
• Mussolini’s Fascist Party and its programme called for glory, war and empire, as it
wanted to rebuild the Roman Empire
• In terms of foreign policy, Mussolini’s fascist ideals advocated war and imperialism
• Essentially, fascism held that the country should be prepared for war so that it could
expand
• Only through warfare could it become the great nation for which is was supposedly
destined
• Although, Italy had been one of the victors of the First World War, it was still weak,
having struggled during the war
• Italy was not granted territories it had been promised in the Treaty of London in 1915,
which brought Italy into the war against the Central Powers
• Additionally, post-WWI, Italy was economically weak and therefore militarily weak
• Italy’s economy was dependent on Britain, France and the USA in the 1920’s
• Whilst fascism advocated war and empire, there was clearly limits on what could be
achieved without putting the country at financial risk, as it would face trade
embargoes and restrictions, which Italy could not afford at that moment
• Thus, Italy’s foreign policy in the 1920’s was primarily opportunist as it was both
aggression and cooperation, taking advantage of small incidents to gain politically
o Corfu Crisis (1922)
§ Italy responded to the assassination of military officers who were
ostensibly mapping Albania’s borders by shelling Greece’s island of
Corfu
§ Greece, being far weaker than Italy, was coerced into offering an
indemnity which Italy accepted
o Dispute over Fiume (1924)
§ Yugoslavia was involved in a dispute with Italy over the city of Fiume
§ Yugoslavia was also weak, and thus simply handed the city over to
Italy after Mussolini threatened to attack
o Locarno Pact (1925)
§ The Locarno Pact sought to secure the post-war territorial settlement
§ Italy signed the pact when Germany accepted her western borders
§ Thus, Italy increased their relations with Germany
o Kellogg-Briand Pact (1928)
§ Signed the Kellogg-Briand pact along with Germany, Britain, USA
and 60 other states
§ Italy renounced the instrument of war for settling disputes
§ Thus, Italy was cooperating with the European powers and gaining
trust
o Dolfuss Affair (1934)
§ Engelbert Dollfuss was the Chancellor of Austria who had assumed a
dictatorial role

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 § Austria was witnessing outbreaks of violent protest across the country,
but Dollfuss continued on with his dictatorial regime
§ Austrian Nazi’s then assassinated Dollfuss and it was at this point that
Hitler thought of invading Austria to support his fellow Nazis
§ However, Italy mobilised its forces and threatened war with Germany
if it invaded Austria
§ Hitler backed off as he was not ready for a war with another strong
nation
o Stressa Front (1935)
§ In 1935, Hitler declared that he would no longer observe the Treaty of
Versailles
§ Thus, Italy signed the Stressa Front along with Britain and France,
which dictated that the three nations would safeguard the Treaty of
Versailles and its clauses

P2: Italian Foreign Policy of Imperialism

• In 1935, Britain signed the Anglo-Germany Naval Agreement with Germany,
allowing Hitler to expand his navy but with a limit of 35% of the British navy, which
was a direct violation of the Treaty of Versailles and the Stressa Front
• This was part of the British attempt at appeasement, but was done without counselling
its Stressa Front allies, Italy and France
• This, along with the fact that Britain and France were concerned with appeasing with
Hitler, convinced Mussolini to revisit his fascist ambitions and have a change in
foreign policy
• In October 1935, Italy invaded Abyssinia in order to add it to the revitalised Roman
Empire and was part of Mussoloini’s foreign policy of spazio vitale (living space)
• Abyssinia was a member of the League of Nations and Italy was a founding member
and a permanent member, which led to the significance of the event
• Britain and France thus had to support sanctions against Italy, which led to Italy
forming an alliance with Germany
• During the Spanish Civil War in 1936, Italy declined to join the non-intervention
committee, as it supported the fascist Nationalists led by Francesco Franco, along
with Germany
• Mussolini slowly turned to Hitler as they became allies
o This occurred because Mussolini felt betrayed by the Western powers with the
trade embargoes
o By being involved in both Abyssinia and Spain, Italy needed to resolve its
problems with Germany in the north after the Dolfuss Affair
o Germany chose to ignore the sanctions and became a trading partner with Italy
o In 1937, Italy signed the anti-Comintern pact with Germany and Japan
• In the lead up to World War II and during the war years, Mussolini showed his
imperialistic ambitions and his foreign policy
o In April 1939, Mussolini invaded Albania

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 o In May 1939, Mussolini signed The Pact of Steel with Germany, which was a
full military alliance
o In 1940, Italy declared war on France, two weeks before it surrendered
o In 1940, Italy invaded Greece, but was a military disaster which resulted in
Germany having to support Italy
o In 1940, Italian troops invaded Egypt but were driven out by Britain
o In 1942, German-Italian troops were defeated at El Alamein in North Africa
• As can be seen, Italian power and influence began to drain significantly as the war
continued
o This was shown by the fact that Mussolini was hesitant to declare war on
France and only did so once he was certain Hitler had dealt with them
sufficiently
o His losses in Greece, Egypt and El Alamein showed Italian weaknesses
o In 1943, the Allies invaded Sicily, Italy, which was the beginning for the end
of Mussolini
o He was deposed in 1943 and after returning to power with the support of
Germany, was captured and executed in 1945
• There are two major schools of interpretation concerning Mussolini’s foreign policy
o The Internationalist School
§ Believes that Mussolini planned his aggression as part of an intended
plan to ‘make Italy great again’
§ His cautious policy in the 1920’s and his cooperation with the Western
powers in the 1930’s was a result of temporary measures
§ His ultimate aim was always to conquer land and to expand Italy
o The Structuralist School
§ Believes that Mussolini had no master plan for war nor an ideological
view guiding him to expand, and that he just seized opportunities due
to changing international circumstances
o It is a parallel to WWII and Hitler where AJP Taylor argued that Hitler had no
masterplan for the Second World War, and only seized opportunities
o AJP Taylor writes about Mussolini that he was “without either ideas or plans”

P3: Foreign Policy of the Weimar Republic

• After World War I, Germany became a de facto republic when Kaiser Wilhelm II
abdicated from the throne
• A new constitution was written and adopted by the Weimar Republic, which became
the designation of the German state from 1918 to 1933
• Gustav Stresemann served as the Foreign Minister of the Weimar Republic and
continued the foreign policy of erfullungspolitik (fulfilment) in 1924
o Stresemann wanted to comply with the terms of the Treaty of Versailles in
order to improve relations with the Allied countries and negotiate
improvements
o Stresemann had come to believe that Germany had no more to gain from
negotiation than threats

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 o He felt this because Germany could not challenge the Allies
o In addition, he felt that an economically strong Germany was of benefit to all
of Europe, and could also attract US investment too
• There were six key actions that Stresemann followed that were in line with
erfullungspolitik
o Reparation changes
§ Stresemann had discussions with US Vice-President Charles Dawes
and organised the Dawes Plan
§ As a result of this, Germany reorganised reparation payments and was
able to secure an 800 million marks loan from the US as per the Dawes
Plan
§ The Young Plan organised by American industrialist Owen Young
drew up another reparations draft which reduced Germany’s indemnity
fee from 132 billion marks to 50 billion marks
o Locarno Treaties
§ In October 1925, the major European powers met in the Swiss town of
Locarno to discuss borders in Europe
§ The aims were to agree the borders of new states in Central and
Eastern Europe and to improve relations with Germany
§ In Western Europe, all signatories said they would respect all borders
§ It was also agreed that any country breaking the agreement could be
attacked by others
§ In diplomatic terms, Locarno was seen as beneficial to Germany as
only the Western borders were discussed, which allowed for Germany
to gain back land in the East
§ Poland in particular were furious and felt that France and Britain had
‘abandoned the East to keep peace in the West’
o League of Nations
§ Due to erfullungspolitik, Stresemann’s actions allowed for the League
to accept Germany as a member in 1926 after its formation in 1920
§ Germany was given the Great Power status on the League Council,
including the right to veto any decision
§ As part of the joining agreement, Germany was not permitted to take
part in collective military action, because of the Versailles’s military
restrictions
§ Stresemann used Germany’s membership to raise German issues of
concern to the other powers
o Treaty of Berlin 1926
§ Germany sought to build better links with the Soviet Union
§ The treaty included public and secret deals
§ It was partly designed to gain better links with European powers
worried about a German-Soviet Pact
§ Public deals in the treaty included the commitment that neither side
would attack the other for five years, and that German banks agreed to
give credit to Soviet businesses

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 § Secretly, German troops began training in the USSR as a way to
bypass the Versailles Treaty clauses while still continuing
erfullungspolitik
o Allied occupation
§ Germany wanted an end to Allied occupation of parts of their country
for reasons of security and national pride
§ As part of the Dawes Plan and Stresemann ending passive resistance,
French troops left the Ruhr during 1924 and 1925
§ After the Locarno Pact, Allied troops left Cologne
§ By 1930, all Allied troops had been entirely withdrawn from Germany
o Disarmament
§ Additionally, in 1926, Stresemann managed to have the Inter-Allied
Military Commission, which monitored Germany’s military in terms of
the Versailles agreements, leave Germany
§ This allowed Germany to secretly break the treaty’s military
commitments
• Thus, Stresemann had many achievements and was even awarded the Nobel Peace
Prize in 1926 for his work on the Locarno Pact
• He gave Germany a stronger global influence, reduced reparations and also achieved
Allied withdrawal in 1930, albeit after his death in 1929
• Stresemann also faced some criticism, especially by right-wingers and nationalists
who were angry at his acceptance of the Treaty of Versailles
• Whilst there was undeniable progress done by Stresemann, the fact that it was often
subtle as part of a conciliatory approach, meant that it was easy to believe that little
had been achieved, which led to some civilians seeing him in a negative light
• Historian Sally Marks states that Stresemann’s actions only benefitted Germany,
whilst Richard J Evans states that Stresemann was an extremely skilled politician
whose actions were based on realism, as he understood German weaknesses

P4: Foreign Policy of Adolf Hitler

• Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party had three main aims in his foreign policy when he
came into power in 1933
o Revise the Treaty of Versailles (anti-erfullungspolitik)
o Unite all the German-speaking people into one Reich (Volksdeutsche)
o Acquire a vast new empire of living space (Lebensraum)
• Stresemann’s foreign policy of compliance had lowered tensions between Germany
and the Allies, whilst the policy of appeasement allowed Hitler to continuously
violate clauses from the Treaty of Versailles
o In March 1935, Hitler began rearmament by introducing conscription,
increasing the Wehrmacht to 600,000 soldiers and the building up of the
Luftwaffe and Kriegsmarine
o In March 1936, Hitler and 22,000 German troops remilitarised the Rhineland
by marching right in

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 o Hitler also sent troops to Spain to support Fascist General Franco during the
Spanish Civil War (1936 – 1939) in order for the formation of another Fascist
state in Europe
o Despite the reduction in war reparations thanks to the Dawes Plan and Young
Plan, Hitler stopped paying the reparations and invested the money into arms
and the German economy instead
o Germany reignited its alliance with Austria and annexed the nation in March
1938, heavily increasing German power
o On October 1938, Hitler annexed the largely German-speaking area within
Czechoslovakia, the Sudetenland into Germany as part of Volksduetsche, and
subsequently occupied the rest of the country
o The annexation of Austria and Czechoslovakia added 7 million people,
100,000 more soldiers, resourceful land rich in steel and iron, influence in the
Balkans and the balance of power in Eastern Europe shifted in favour of
Germany
o In August 1939, Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union signed a non-aggression
pact known as the Nazi-Soviet Pact, which was a masterstroke move from
Hitler as it left Poland isolated, destroyed attempts by the West to bring the
Soviet Union into an alliance against Germany and avoided the possibility of a
two-front war
o In September 1, 1939, Hitler and Stalin invaded Poland from either side,
which represented the last straw, the failure of appeasement and the
declaration of war
• Historian Andreas Hillgruber states that Hitler had a carefully premediated Stufenplan
(step-by-step) for Lebensraum and that he intended intercontinental conquest
afterwards
• From analysing Hitler’s autobiography Mein Kampf and the Hitler’s thoughts on
foreign policy transcript Zweites Buch, Hillgruber believed Hitler’s Stufenplan had a
five-stage plan
o 1. Rearmament and the remilitarisation of the Rhineland (defying the clauses
of the Treaty of Versailles)
o 2. The annexation of Poland, Austria and Czechoslovakia to become German
satellite states
o 3. The defeat of France or neutralisation through a British alliance
o 4. Lebensraum in Russia
o 5. World domination
• In contrast, AJP Taylor disagrees, stating that Hitler had no masterplan for the Second
World War and was just seizing any opportunity he got
• This is exemplified by the timing of the demilitarisation of the Rhineland, as at the
exact same time, the League of Nations was focused on placing sanctions on Italy
after its invasion of Abyssinia
• Hitler started slow with his defiance of the Versailles clauses, and would increase his
negligence with every step

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 Collective security and appeasement (1919–1941): aims, issues and extent of success;
role of British, French and Russian/Soviet foreign policies (1919–1941); Chamberlain
and the Munich Crisis

P1: Collective Security

• Collective security can be understood as a security arrangement in which each state in
the system accepts that the security of one is the concern of all, and therefore commits
to a collective response to threats to, and breaches to peace
• Collective security is more ambitious than alliance systems or collective defences in
that it seeks to encompass the totality of states globally, and to address a wide range
of possible threats
• After WWI, the first large scale attempt to provide collective security in modern times
was the establishment of the League of Nations in 1919 and 1920
• The League of Nations did have some strengths
o It held a strong global presence
§ 42 countries joined the League at the beginning and by the 1930’s, 60
countries had joined
§ World powers such as Britain, France, Italy and Japan were on the
council and met 4-5 times a year to solve disputes
o Moral condemnation
§ The League would declare in public that a country was wrong, and
public opinion would force it to stop
§ The League called this the ‘Community of Power’ and it worked
§ For example, the Greeks stopped their invasion of Bulgaria when the
League condemned them
o Arbitration
§ The League could act as a mediator between quarrelling nations
§ For example, it did so between Sweden and Finland over the Aaland
Islands in 1921
o Trading Sanctions
§ The League had the ability to apply trading sanctions on countries
acting out of line
§ For example, it did so to Japan and Italy when they invaded Manchuria
and Abyssinia in the 1930’s, respectively
• However, the League of Nations failed due to its inherent weaknesses
o Did not have any military and thus did not represent a threat if a country
declined to follow by its mandates
o Any bills or treaties required a unanimous vote to be passed
§ Any country had the right to veto a decision
§ This was done in order to enable smaller countries to have a greater
say in world affairs and prevented the largest empires from gaining too
much
§ However, this made the passing of bills a slow process

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 § It encouraged unnecessary debates between powers, as there were
always differing perspectives
§ For example, Japan did so when the League was contemplating on
taking action in the Manchuria
o Three of the most powerful countries in the world were not members
§ The USA did not want to join as they were following their isolationist
policy
§ The Soviet Union refused to join as they were Communist and hated
Britain and France
§ Germany was not allowed to join until 1925 due to the Versailles
Treaty clauses
o Set up by the Treaty of Versailles
§ The League’s greatest weakness came from the fact that it was set up
by the Treaty of Versailles
§ The Treaty was intrinsically flawed, but the League was supposed to
enforce it
§ For example, the war reparations that Germany had to pay were
calculated to be too much by JM Keynes, but the League had to
continue on with it
• The failure of League of Nations to manage the Manchurian Affair of 1931 and the
Abyssinian Crisis of 1935 showed to the world, the failure of collective security

P2: Appeasement
• Appeasement was the policy followed primarily by Britain in the 1930’s in attempting
to settle international disputes by satisfying grievances through compromise and
negotiation
• It has been argued that by pursuing such a policy, Britain and France encouraged
Hitler’s aggression
• In consistently and continually giving in to Hitler’s demands, the Western
democracies also further alienated the USSR and led Stalin to believe that the policy
was designed to allow for German expansion in the East and to promote a conflict
between the Nazis and the Soviet communists
• In addition, Appeasement also meant that Hitler gambled on that policy continuing in
the case of Poland, and thus brought about a general European war when Britain and
France changed their stance in 1939
• AJP Taylor disagreed with the view that World War II was Hitler’s war, as he
suggests that it was at least as much due to the failures of the European statesmen
• Taylor argues that although there is evidence of expansionist aims in Hitler’s
speeches and writing in the 1920’s, this does not mean that he had a ‘blueprint’ plan
of what he would do once in power in the 1930’s
• He argues that Hitler was not ‘acting’ to shape, but rather ‘reacting’ to, the actions of
other European leaders
• This is in contrast to Andreas Hillgruber who suggests that Hitler had his Stufenplan I
in which he had meticulously planned every step in his path to world domination

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• Taylor goes on to argue that Hitler’s successful dismantling of the Treaty of
Versailles as the fault of the other European leaders who failed to contain German
• It was too late to stop Germany over Poland, and Hitler was not convicted that Britain
and France would go to war, as this would go against their typical policy of
appeasement
• Ultimately, Taylor suggests that Hitler was not so different from previous German
leaders
• There would seem to be a strong case against Britain’s policy of appeasement
• Appeasement had encouraged Hitler to be increasingly aggressive, and each victory
had given him confidence and increased power
• With each territorial acquisition, Hitler’s Germany was better defended and had more
soldiers, workers, raw materials, weapons and industries
• Many saw the betrayal of Czechoslovakia at Munich as one of the most dishonourable
acts Britain had ever committed
• Furthermore, this act was all for nothing, as Britain had not rearmed sufficiently to
take on Germany in 1939
• Appeasement had also led to the USSR signing an agreement with Hitler, thus
unleashing World War II
• The Nazi-Soviet Pact meant that Hitler did not have to fear a two-front war and could
continue to provoke the West over his claims to Polish territory
• Indeed, Hitler’s continued expansion would now only mean war to the West, as he
had secured his Eastern border
• Justification for Appeasement
o Appeasement was viewed by many in the 1940’s and is seen by many today,
as a cowardly policy that facilitated the aggression of expansionist states
o Much of the justification for hard-line foreign policy initiatives since World
War II has been based on the perceived damage caused by appeasing states
that should have been resisted by force
o When British Cabinet minutes and government papers became available
decades after the end of World War II, it become increasingly clear that the
situation facing British PM Neville Chamberlain was complex
o The reality of the British economy at the time meant that rearmament and the
cost of then waging a drawn-out war with Germany would be very difficult
o The memory of the horrors of World War I still haunted most Europeans, and
there was little popular support for engagement in another conflict of this scale
o In a democracy, the people had to want war, or at least feel that war was
literally unavoidable
o This was also true of Britain’s empire, as in order to get the necessary material
and human resources to fight a general war, Britain needed to convince its
imperial domains of the ‘just’ and inescapable nature of war with Germany
o Most of Hitler’s demands, at least initially, were seen in the context of
‘revising the Treaty of Versailles’, a treaty that many British people saw as
harsh anyway

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 o It was believed that once the unfairness of the treaty had been redressed, Hitler
might be content
o When Hitler broke the Munich Agreement, this showed the British public
there could be no negotiated place with the regime in Germany

P3: The Munich Agreement

• On 29 September 1938, Britain, France, Italy and Germany met and agreed to hand
over the Sudetenland to Germany
• This became known as the climax of Appeasement
• Neither Czechoslovakia nor the USSR were invited
• Effects of the Munich Agreement
o France, with treaty obligation to Czechoslovakia had betrayed her, which
resulted in the destruction of the French alliance system, the Little Entente, in
the East
o Czechoslovakia as a state was doomed after Munich as it had lost 70% of its
steel and iron resources and a defensible frontier against Germany
o Suspicion on the Soviet side that the West believed “Hitlerism was better than
Stalinism” was confirmed
o To Hitler, it was another success
• In consistently and continually giving in to Hitler’s demands, the Western
democracies also further alienated the USSR and led Stalin to believe that the policy
was designed to allow for German expansion in the East and to promote a conflict
between the Nazis and the Soviet communists
• Hitler then proceeded to break the Munich Agreement in March 1939, when he
annexed almost all of Czechoslovakia
• This made Chamberlain realise that Hitler could no longer be trusted and thus ended
the policy of appeasement

P4: British Foreign Policy

• Neville Chamberlain’s policy was grounded in the idea that Germany had three key
issues that needed to be resolves
o Territorial grievances
o Economic problems
o Absence of raw materials
• His solutions were to give territorial concessions, economic credits and colonial
concessions
• Appeasement would then lead to the strengthening of the more moderate groups in
Germany and a move away from the pursuit of the policy of autarky (self-sufficiency)
• Britain would then benefit by being able to reduce arms spending, plus international
markets would improve, and manufactures could sell to Germany
• Chamberlain summed up his policy on October 1938 by stating that “our foreign
policy is one of appeasement – we must aim at establishing relations with the dictator
powers which will lead to settlement in Europe”

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 • Chamberlain himself did not believe in peace at any price, and it has been argued that
appeasement was buying time for Britain to rearm
• After World War One, Britain had reduced its fighting forces and was thus militarily
unable to oppose Hitler in the mid-1930’s
• In 1936, the British government launched a Four-Year Plan for rearmament
• Between 1934 and 1939, the defence budget increased fourfold
• During the crisis over Czechoslovakia, the British government ordered the diffing of
air raid shelters and distributed gas marks
• Richard Overy argues that appeasement was pragmatic until 1939, when Britain’s
rearmament was at a stage that the nation could resist, if not defeat, Hitler
• Historiographical interpretations concerning Appeasement
o Orthodox view
§ Chamberlain was naïve and fooled by Hitler
§ He made a major mistake in believing in agreements with a dictator
like Hitler
§ Churchill once said that “there has never been a war more easy to stop”
§ If Britain and France had reacted in 1936 after Hitler entered the
Rhineland, war could have been avoided
o Revisionist view
§ Chamberlain was aware of Britain’s military weakness and
commitments to other parts of her colonial empire
§ By appeasement, Britain gained time
§ The years of 1938 and 1939 were used for military preparations, which
saved Britain

P5: French Foreign Policy

• The French also followed a policy of appeasement, although it can be argued that this
was because they had little choice
• The French could not act independently, so they took their lead from Britain
• However, their situation was quite complex as the remilitarisation of the Rhineland
threatened and provoked the French
• The French government believed that the German army might have forcibly resisted
any French counterforce and they might have received support from the population, as
they had done in the Ruhr in 1923
• The French military were not ready for this kind of campaign and the government in
control was weak due to internal divisions
• Additionally, the French committed itself to supporting Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia
and Romania in accordance with their alliance, the Little Entente
• However, the French did not follow up with military preparations to support them
• They failed to support Czechoslovakia, which led to them feeling betrayed as the
French did nothing to stop the Munich Agreement

P6: Russian Foreign Policy

• During the interwar years, the USSR had no real strong ally

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• Stalin was aware that lebensraum was Russian territories and that Hitler wanted to
invade
• During the 1930’s, Stalin had purged his own armies and was military weakened
• Thus, it was in the Soviet interest to work for a delay in a war with Germany
• Stalin believed that the Western power’s policy of appeasement was predominantly
anti-Communist
• In consistently and continually giving in to Hitler’s demands, the Western
democracies also further alienated the USSR and led Stalin to believe that the policy
was designed to allow for German expansion in the East and to promote a conflict
between the Nazis and the Soviet communists
• Stalin was further convinced when he was not invited to the Munich Conference and
attempted to find an agreement in 1939 by Britain and France appeared half-hearted
• Stalin saw that his interests were best served by an agreement with Germany
• The Nazi-Soviet Pact unleashed World War II as both invaded Poland from either
side
• The secret clauses in the agreement were cynical and expansionist, as it allowed
Stalin to recoup Russian territories lost after World War I

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 Causes of the Second World War and the development of European conflict (1939–
1941); the wartime alliance (1941–1945); reasons for Axis defeat in 1945 and for Allied
victory; role of economic, strategic and other factors

P1: Failure of Collective Security (LTC)

• Collective security is the notion that peace could be preserved by countries acting
collectively to prevent a country from attacking another
• After WWI, the first large scale attempt to provide collective security in modern times
was the establishment of the League of Nations in 1919 and 1920
• The purpose of the League of Nations was to prevent another World War but
ultimately failed
• The League of Nations failed due to its inherent weaknesses
• Did not have any military and thus did not represent a threat if a country declined to
follow by its mandates
• Any bills or treaties required a unanimous vote to be passed
o Any country had the right to veto a decision
o This was done in order to enable smaller countries to have a greater say in
world affairs and prevented the largest empires from gaining too much
o However, this made the passing of bills a slow process
o It encouraged unnecessary debates between powers, as there were always
differing perspectives
o For example, Japan did so when the League was contemplating on taking
action in the Manchuria
• Three of the most powerful countries in the world were not members
o The USA did not want to join as they were following their isolationist policy
o The Soviet Union refused to join as they were Communist and hated Britain
and France
o Germany was not allowed to join until 1925 due to the Versailles Treaty
clauses
• Set up by the Treaty of Versailles
o The League’s greatest weakness came from the fact that it was set up by the
Treaty of Versailles
o The Treaty was intrinsically flawed, but the League was supposed to enforce it
o For example, the war reparations that Germany had to pay were calculated to
be too much by JM Keynes, but the League had to continue on with it
• The failure of League of Nations to manage the Manchurian Affair of 1931 and the
Abyssinian Crisis of 1935 showed to the world, the failure of collective security
• It convinced powers like Japan, Italy and Germany that there would be no
repercussions for their actions, which encouraged them to continue on with their
imperialistic and expansive goals
• Thus, the failure of the League of Nations can be considered as a long-term cause, as
it failed to establish its authority when it was first incepted
P2: Great Depression (LTC)

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 • The US was the world’s leading economy and thus when it experienced a significant
recession in 1929, it affected the rest of the world
• It had a great impact on the economic, social and political landscape of the world
• In Britain, iron and steel production dropped by 50% and the political support shifted
to the right-wing
• Germany had borrowed 9 billion pounds between 1924 and 1929 to pay for its
indemnity, and when the Great Depression began, the German economy collapsed,
leading to the breakdown of the Weimar Republic
• In Japan, 50% of factories closed down and silk prices fell by two-thirds, which
resulted in a radical shit to the political right
• The Great Depression also heightened fears of the USSR’s capacity for fostering the
spread of communist revolution as Soviet propaganda depicted the depression as the
inherent flaw of capitalism and that it must be replaced with communism
• Unemployment and poverty caused by the Great Depression, led the cause for the
development of dictatorial regimes across Europe, who rationalised the idea to take
anything by force, which led to more aggressive and nationalist foreign policies
• Countries attempted to protect their own trading interests, and thus became
uninterested in supporting the League’s economic sanctions on other nations
• It led to the US once again adopting an isolationist foreign policy
• The lack of support from the US and the all-round economical losses were one of the
main reasons that the British and French chose to follow the policy of appeasement
• Furthermore, it can be stated that the Great Depression is responsible for the rise of
the Hitler and his Nazi Party, as that arose from the collapse of the Weimar Republic,
which occurred mainly due to the Great Depression
• Moreover, in the atmosphere of cut-throat economic trade during the Great
Depression, the answer of countries like Japan and Italy was to build an empire,
which would secure their supplies of raw materials and natural resources
• Thus, the Great Depression led to countries like Japan, Italy and Germany therefore
set about building an empire by invading Manchuria, Abyssinia and Eastern Europe,
respectively

P3: The Treaty of Versailles (LTC)

• The Treaty of Versailles had notoriously included many harsh clauses on Germany
that would have to dire consequences in the next decades
o In Article 231, known as the War Guilt Clause stated that “Germany accepts
the responsibility of Germany and her allies in causing all… the damage…
and the war”
o An indemnity of $33 billion
o Limited army to 100,000 men without conscription, and would be required to
serve for 12 years, thus preventing a build-up of a trained reserve
o Size of naval fleet limited to 6 battleships
o No submarines, air force, armoured cars or tanks
o The Rhineland to be demilitarised
o Alsace-Lorraine given back to France

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 o Loss of all colonies in German East Africa consisted of modern-day Kenya,
Rwanda, Uganda, Mozambique, Tanzania and Burundi, as well as well as
Shandong in China
o Refused membership into the League of Nations
o Overall, Germany lost 13% of its territory, 12% of its population and 48% of
its iron deposits
• Response to the Treaty of Versailles
o The War Guilt Clause was particularly hated by the Germans, who felt that all
countries should bear responsibility for the outbreak of war
§ This clause later helped Hitler to gain support, as he was able to play
on the resentment and anger felt by the German population towards the
War Guilt Clause
§ Thus indirectly, the Treaty of Versailles brought about the rise of the
Nazi Party
o The disarmament clauses were hard for the Germans to accept, as an army of
100,000 was too small for a country of Germany’s size
o Contemporary economist JM Keynes led the criticism of the treaty in the area
of the reparations
§ He argued that “by aiming at the destruction of the economic life in
Germany, it threatens the health and prosperity of the Allies
themselves”
§ He argued that the real problem was the questions of food, coal and
commerce for the German people
§ His predictions proved to be correct, as Germany went into
hyperinflation in the early 1920’s as they tried to pay the reparation
o The failure of peacemakers to invite Germany to join the League of Nations
§ This insulted Germany and added a sense of grievance
§ It made it less likely that the League could be effective in promoting
international cooperation
§ It was a peacekeeping organisation, but did not accept the country that
was most likely to threaten peace, which did not logically make sense
• Thus, the harshness of the Treaty led to anger and resentment in Germany
• This created an environment for Adolf Hitler to rise and channel this anger into hate
for the Jews and motivated them to launch the Second World War
• Thus, the Treaty of Versailles directly caused the rise of Hitler and the Nazi party as
they waged war out of revenge

P4: Appeasement (STC)

• Appeasement was the policy followed primarily by Britain in the 1930’s in attempting
to settle international disputes by satisfying grievances through compromise and
negotiation
• It has been argued that by pursuing such a policy, Britain and France encouraged
Hitler’s aggression
• In consistently and continually giving in to Hitler’s demands, the Western
democracies also further alienated the USSR and led Stalin to believe that the policy

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 was designed to allow for German expansion in the East and to promote a conflict
between the Nazis and the Soviet communists
• In addition, Appeasement also meant that Hitler gambled on that policy continuing in
the case of Poland, and thus brought about a general European war when Britain and
France changed their stance in 1939
• AJP Taylor disagreed with the view that World War II was Hitler’s war, as he
suggests that it was at least as much due to the failures of the European statesmen
• Taylor argues that although there is evidence of expansionist aims in Hitler’s
speeches and writing in the 1920’s, this does not mean that he had a ‘blueprint’ plan
of what he would do once in power in the 1930’s
• He argues that Hitler was not ‘acting’ to shape, but rather ‘reacting’ to, the actions of
other European leaders
• This is in contrast to Andreas Hillgruber who suggests that Hitler had his Stufenplan I
in which he had meticulously planned every step in his path to world domination
• Taylor goes on to argue that Hitler’s successful dismantling of the Treaty of
Versailles as the fault of the other European leaders who failed to contain German
• It was too late to stop Germany over Poland, and Hitler was not convicted that Britain
and France would go to war, as this would go against their typical policy of
appeasement
• Ultimately, Taylor suggests that Hitler was not so different from previous German
leaders
• There would seem to be a strong case against Britain’s policy of appeasement
• Appeasement had encouraged Hitler to be increasingly aggressive, and each victory
had given him confidence and increased power
• With each territorial acquisition, Hitler’s Germany was better defended and had more
soldiers, workers, raw materials, weapons and industries
• Many saw the betrayal of Czechoslovakia at Munich as one of the most dishonourable
acts Britain had ever committed
• Furthermore, this act was all for nothing, as Britain had not rearmed sufficiently to
take on Germany in 1939
• Appeasement had also led to the USSR signing an agreement with Hitler, thus
unleashing World War II
• The Nazi-Soviet Pact meant that Hitler did not have to fear a two-front war and could
continue to provoke the West over his claims to Polish territory
• On 29 September 1938, Britain, France, Italy and Germany met and agreed to hand
over the Sudetenland to Germany
• This became known as the climax of Appeasement
• Neither Czechoslovakia nor the USSR were invited
• Effects of the Munich Agreement
o France, with treaty obligation to Czechoslovakia had betrayed her, which
resulted in the destruction of the French alliance system, the Little Entente, in
the East
o Czechoslovakia as a state was doomed after Munich as it had lost 70% of its
steel and iron resources and a defensible frontier against Germany

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 o Suspicion on the Soviet side that the West believed “Hitlerism was better than
Stalinism” was confirmed
o To Hitler, it was another success
• In consistently and continually giving in to Hitler’s demands, the Western
democracies also further alienated the USSR and led Stalin to believe that the policy
was designed to allow for German expansion in the East and to promote a conflict
between the Nazis and the Soviet communists
• Hitler then proceeded to break the Munich Agreement in March 1939, when he
annexed almost all of Czechoslovakia
• This made Chamberlain realise that Hitler could no longer be trusted and thus ended
the policy of appeasement
• The further annexation of Czechoslovakia convinced Hitler that he had pulled the last
string and thus decided that it was time to declare war on the Allied powers
• On 3 March 1939, Chamberlain announced that Britain and France would guarantee
the independence of Poland
• As per the Nazi-Soviet Pact signed in 1939, Hitler and Stalin invaded Poland on 1
September from either side and ignored the Anglo-French threat
• On 3 September, the Allies declared war on Germany

P5: Attack on Pearl Harbour (STC)

• During the Sino-Japanese War that began in 1937, the American-supported Chinese
Nationalist government was receiving most of its supplies through the French
Indochina
• France had been defeated by Germany in 1940, therefore its colonies were vulnerable
• By July 1941, Japan had cut all the supply lines to China and had occupied the rest of
French Indochina
• The USA froze all Japanese assets in the US and its territories, banned the sale of oil
to Japan and demanded the Japanese to withdraw from China
• The oil embargo had a significant impact on Japan and its foreign policies and the
only other suitable oil supplier to Japan would be the Dutch East Indies (Indonesia)
• The Japanese were aware that they would have to annex the Dutch East Indies if they
wanted the oil they needed, but that would provoke the US and cause a war with an
extremely strong America
• Japan decided that the best course of action would be to bomb attack the naval base of
the US, which would delay any military pressure on Japan by a year, and give the
Japanese time to defeat China and prepare for a war against America
• Thus, on 7 December 1941, Japan unleashed a two-hour attack on the American
Pacific naval base at Pearl Harbour
• The Japanese sunk or disabled 19 ships, destroyed 150 planes and killed 2400
Americans
• Simultaneous attacks were made on the Philippines, Guam, Hong Kong and the
Malay Peninsula
• The next day on 8 December, the US declared war on Japan, with Britain following
suit

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• On 11 December, Germany declared war on the US, thus launching a true global war

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Impact of the Second World War on civilian populations in any two countries between
1939–1945

P1: Civilians impacted by the mobilisation of the workforce, increased government

intervention in economic activity and the direction of labour into key industries
• Britain
o Military conscription was introduced from the beginning of the war but was
carefully controlled so that workers in vital industries were left in their jobs,
such as coal mining
o Industrial conscription was also introduced for women, and they worked in
areas such as agriculture and administration.
o Winston Churchill formed a coalition government and exercised supreme
political and military power
o Mines, railways and shipping came under state control
o Politician Ernest Bevin intervened and made sure that workers in factories and
industries were kept healthy, and one of his rules was making sure that all
factories employing more than 250 people had a canteen and a welfare officer
o Bevin also created special food rations and vitamin supplements for young
mothers and their children and ensured that public transport became a public
service
• Germany
o Wartime production put little pressure on the civilian population of Germany,
as Hitler believed and insisted that consumer goods production remain a
priority, so workers in non-essential industries could not be transferred
o Regional and police authorities were reluctant to accept national schemes that
affected their regions
o Whilst Hitler believed that consumer goods production was priority, after
early 1943, Germany gradually shifted into full military production, and fewer
consumer goods were available
o By 1944 the German economy was in a state of collapse, as the transportation
system was heavily bombed and fuel supplies for industrial production were
destroyed, or no longer available
o During the first few years of the war, Germany production was unorganized,
with private industries competing with each other for contracts and raw
materials
o In 1942 this was changed, and the industry was reorganised, and this led to the
German government directing all production
o By 1943, the German Government realized they were in a war, and decided to
place a war footing for the first time
o This led to a severe reduction in non-war production

P2: Civilians impacted by the mobilisation of women into the workforce

• Britain
o Industrial conscription was introduced for women in 1941

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 o As a result, women played an even bigger role in the British industry,
agriculture, and administration in World War Two than in World War One
o There were over 640,000 women in the armed forces, including The Women’s
Royal Naval Service (WRNS), the Women’s Auxiliary Air Force (WAAF)
and the Auxiliary Territorial Service (ATS), plus many more who flew
unarmed aircraft, drove ambulances, served as nurses and worked behind
enemy lines in the European resistance in the Special Operations Executive
o From early 1941, it became compulsory for women aged between 18 and 60 to
register for war work. Conscription of women began in December
o Unmarried 'mobile' women between the ages of 20 and 30 were called up and
given a choice between joining the services or working in industry
o The term ‘home front’ demonstrates the ways that the war was fought in ways
other than military combat, such as arms production
o The jobs women did were essential to the war effort
o The call-up of working age men for active service meant that many previously
male dominated jobs began to recruit more women during the war
o Women were usually paid less than men for these jobs and were expected to
relinquish them when the war was over and men came back
o However, though women’s employment was meant to be temporary, it
sparked a desire within the women of Britain for female employment to
become permanent
• Germany
o Having women in the workforce went against Hitler’s idea that women should
focus on kinder, kirche and kuche (children, church and kitchen)
o Impact of not having women in workforce meant that labour workers from
countries that Germany had occupied would be forcible brought to Germany
§ September 1944 there were 7,487,000 foreigners in Germany
§ 21% of the workforce were foreign workers
o Women were never asked to serve in the armed forces even when the end of
the war was approaching
o Hitler wanted a high birth rate so that the population would grow, girls kept fit
in the BDM (Bund Deutscher Madel, a Nazi group for girls above 14) to make
themselves healthy for childbirth

P3: Impact in terms of civilian casualties from invasion or bombing raids

• Britain
o An estimated 80,000 British civilians were killed throughout the war
o These deaths mainly came from the German bombing raids known as the Blitz
o After the Battle of France in 1940, the German Luftwaffe launched the Battle
of Britain in an attempt to weaken the British RAF (Royal Air Force) in order
for the German Kriegsmarine to launch an invasion of the British Isles (known
as Hitler’s Operation Sea Lion)
o The RAF was too strong for the Germans so whilst it existed, the invasion
would not be successful

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 o The Germans eventually lost the Battle of Britain so they decided that instead
of destroying the air force, they would try to demoralise the British people by
bombing the civilian populace, thus beginning the Blitz
o Lasting from 7 September 1940 till 11 May 1941, major British cities such as
London, Manchester, Liverpool and Coventry were bombed as the Germans
attempted to not only demoralise the civilians but also destroy armaments
factories that were contributing to the war effort
o 32,000 civilians were killed and 87,000 injured in these bombings, with the
destruction of over 2 million houses, 60% of which were in London
o One night in 14 November 1940 in Coventry, 500 German bombed dropped
500 tons of explosives and close to 900 incendiary bombs on the city in ten
hours or unrelenting bombardment
o Additionally, the Baedeker raids by the Luftwaffe on British cities went from
April to May of 1942
o The raids were planned in response to a devastating increase in the
effectiveness of the RAF’s bombing offensive on German land as they
achieved revenge for the Blitz attacks
o The Germans aimed to force the RAF to reduce their actions and did so by
targeting the civilians once again
o Targets were chosen for their cultural and historical significance rather than
for any military value
• Germany
o An estimated 700,000 German civilians were killed throughout the war
o Many Germans were forced to move from their homes once the war was over
as many of them who originally lived in German-speaking areas in Hungary,
Romania and Poland, were forced to move back to the mainland
o After the war, approximately 16 million Germans were expelled from other
European nations and many died as a result of this flight to the mainland
o The British RAF bombers and American AAF attacked at night and day
respectively and destroyed more than 50% of 18 different cities, with
Hamburg, Bochum and Mainz with over 75%

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Compiled by:

M. Khan
T. Rahman
Y. Eleissy
H. Sheikh
A. Hussain
Z. Sahin
R. Ali

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