GO131:International Relations

Professor Walter HatchColby College

World War II

The Promise of Collective SecurityA general association of nations must be formed under specific covenants for the purpose of affording mutual guarantees of political independence and territorial integrity to great and small states alike.

Woodrow WilsonThe Fourteen Points, 8 January, 1918

The Failure of Collective Security

World War Two: Basic FactsUp to 50 million killedTwo wars

EuropeThe Pacific

“Total War” (industry, military, media)State-sponsored terrorismLed to new, American-dominated order

Treaty of Versailles (1919)

Lloyd George, Orlando, Clemenceau, Wilson

Germany’s War Bill

$33 billion in reparationsLost its overseas coloniesLost territory to PolandLost its air forceLost all but 100,000 of its army troops

The New Shape of Europe

The View from Germany

The View from Germany

Background

Wilson’s liberal visionReplace “balance of power” politics with “Collective Security”

Basic Principles re: aggressionOutlaw itDeter it by forming a coalition of non-aggressive statesPunish it collectively

The League of Nations

Was not a “world government”Relied on voluntary compliance with “international law”Operated without the participation of its creator

League Successes

Brokered agreement between Greece and Bulgaria, avoiding warSupervised peace and disarmament negotiations

1921 Washington Treaty Conference1928 Kellogg-Briand Pact

League Failures

France continues to balance against GermanyAlliances with reconfigured states of Poland and RomaniaAlliances with new states of Yugoslavia and Czechoslovakia

Germany claims a “soft” border on its eastJapan insists on its claim in ManchuriaItaly invades Ethiopia

The 1930s

Global DepressionRise of militarism in JapanRise of fascism in Europe

Mussolini already in power in 1922Hitler followed in 1933

Building to War in Europe

1920s: hyperinflation under Weimar Republic1930s: economic crisis deepens1933: Adolph Hitler and his National Socialist Party win election

Ultra-nationalism

Sequence of EventsOctober 1933: Germany leaves League of NationsMarch 1935: Hitler renounces Treaty of Versailles, announces military build-upMarch 1938: Germany invades AustriaSeptember 1938: Hitler and Chamberlain agree to partition of CzechoslovakiaMarch 1939: Germany rolls across the rest of Czechoslovakia

“The democracies have called on their most loyal troops to encircle Germany.” (Simplicissimus, 9 April 1939)

“The Campaign of Lies”

Sequence of Events (cont.)August 1939: Hitler signs non-aggression pact with StalinSeptember 1939: Germany invades PolandApril 1940: Germany invades NorwayMay 1940: Hitlers launches blitzkrieg into Holland, Belgium, France.July 1940: German bombers turned away by RAF aviators in “Battle of Britain”September 1940: Germany, Italy and Japan ally as “Axis Powers”June 1941: Germany invades its “ally,” the Soviet Union

1942: A World Divided

Building to War in the Pacific

1920s: Chafing under new rules of international system1930s: Economic crisis deepens1932: “Government by assassination” (and by the military) begins in Tokyo

Ultra-nationalism

Sequence of Events1931: Japan establishes puppet state of “Manchukuo” in northeast China1933: Japan leaves League of Nations in protest over Lytton Committee report1937: Japan declares all-out war on China1940: U.S. imposes embargo on oil and steel exports to Japan1940: Japan seized French colonies in Indochina1941: Japan attacks Pearl Harbor, bringing U.S. into war1942: Japan grabs Singapore, Malaysian Peninsula, Philippines, Indonesia

“The Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere”

1944: The Beginning of the End

1945: The End

Realism

Collective Security doesn’t workPower vacuum

U.S. remained isolationistSoviet Union was isolationistU.K. used appeasement

Liberalism

Fascism, militarism and landClass divisions in Europe

French conservatives: “Better Hitler than Blum”British Tories and negotiations with Soviet Union

Economic collapse

Constructivism

Perverse NationalismConstructing “The Other” as subhumanAnd then killing it

“Let the punishment fit the crime”