Towards World War II: International Relations 1931-1939

I. Fascist Aggression in Asia, Africa and Europe II. The Policy of Appeasement III. : Europe at War (1939) Fascism and the European Balance of Power

• 1931-1939-Fascist powers expand and challenge traditional balance of world power • Fascism inherently militaristic, expansionist and imperial. • 1931- invades Manchuria. • 1935-Italy invades Ethiopia. • 1935-39-Germany expands in central Europe. • 1936-Spanish Civil War-Fascists (Nationalist) fight socialists (Republicans) in Spain. Japanese Occupation of China

Execution of Chinese soldiers and civilians Japan and World War II

• 1905 victory over Russians and part of allied victory in WWI. • Authoritarian, militaristic government in power. • Invades Manchuria and China in 1931 and occupies it until 1945. • Attacks U.S. at Pearl Harbor in 1941 due to oil embargo and U.S. naval power in Pacific. Map of China Under Japanese Occupation Anti-Fascist Propaganda During Spanish Civil War (1936) Fascist Spain Nazi Ideology and Foreign Policy

• Ideology determines foreign policy. • Ethnic Fundamentalism. • Reclaim the “German East”- (). • Ethnic Germany and Ethnic Germans living in the east. Definition: Anschluss

The conquest of German speaking territories by Nazi Germany Racial Map of Europe, 1923 Europe in 1919 The Anschluss

• March, 1936: Annexation of the Rhineland • March 1938: Annexation of Austria • September, 1938: Conference in Munich between Hitler and Allies Hitler and Chamberlain at the Munich Conference, 1938 The Policy of Appeasement

1. Many believed Hitler’s claims were justified after Versailles. 2. Europeans feared another war after WWI. 3. Capitalist nations feared that war would unleash communist revolutions. 4. Economic depression weakened people’s faith in democratic government. 5. Most European nations unprepared for war. Political Cartoon mocking the Allied policy of appeasement Hitler, Time Magazine, Man of the Century 1938 The Anschluss continued...

September, 1938-Annexation of the Sudetenland March, 1939- Czechoslovakia

Europe in 1939

Nazi-Soviet Pact, August 1939 Nazi September, 1939 World War II Map