Track the League of Nations' continual failure to check via diplomacy the Axis powers' pre-World War II rise
Track the League of Nations' continual failure to check via diplomacy the Axis powers' pre-World War II rise
The 1930s consisted of many individual but significant events that bound the Axis powers and culminated in a World War.
Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
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Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.The 1930s consisted of many individual but significant events that bound the Axis powers and culminated in a World War.
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Jewish Partisan Education Foundation (A Britannica Publishing Partner)An overview of the Bielski partisans, a Jewish resistance group during World War II.
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Contunico © ZDF Studios GmbH, Mainz; Thumbnail Bundesarchiv, Bild 146-1978-063-29A (CC BY-SA 3.0)As the Soviet army advances into eastern Europe, hundreds of thousands of Germans flee.
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Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.U.S. Pres. Woodrow Wilson was among the statesmen who gathered in France in June 1919 to sign the Treaty of Versailles, an agreement that did little to heal the wounds of World War I and instead set the stage for World War II. From “The Second World War: Prelude to Conflict” (1963), a documentary by Encyclopædia Britannica Educational Corporation.
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Contunico © ZDF Studios GmbH, Mainz; Thumbnail NARA/U.S. Department of DefenseNazi Germany invading the Soviet Union in Operation Barbarossa, June 22, 1941.
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Contunico © ZDF Studios GmbH, MainzOverview of the German invasion of France and the Low Countries, 1940.
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Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.The B-29 Superfortress Enola Gay took off from the Mariana Islands on August 6, 1945, bound for Hiroshima, Japan, where, by dropping an atomic bomb, it heralded a new and terrible concept of warfare. From The Second World War: Allied Victory (1963), a documentary by Encyclopædia Britannica Educational Corporation.
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Contunico © ZDF Studios GmbH, Mainz; Thumbnail Bundesarchiv, Bild 146-1972-025-10 (CC BY-SA 3.0)Learn about the July Plot of 1944, in which Claus, Count Schenk von Stauffenberg, and others tried to assassinate Hitler and overthrow the Nazi regime.
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Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.From The Second World War: Triumph of the Axis (1963).
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Transcript
[Music accent]
NARRATOR: 1931: Japan invaded Manchuria and was not resisted. Later, when her action was condemned, Japan walked out of the League of Nations.
[Music accent]
1935: Italy invaded Ethiopia and later, when her action was condemned, Italy walked out of the League of Nations.
1935: Germany announced that it was rebuilding its armed might in defiance of the Versailles Treaty. Nothing was done to stop her.
[Music accent]
1936: The Spanish Falangists set up a totalitarian dictatorship with the help of Italy and Germany.
[Music accent]
1937: Germany occupied the Rhineland.
1937: Japan invaded China.
[Music accent, music continues]
1938: Germany annexed Austria.
Hitler demanded the Sudetenland of Czechoslovakia.
To Germany went Chamberlain, head of the British government, and Daladier, head of the French government, seeking a compromise. They agreed to Hitler's demands in return for Hitler's promise of no more expansion. The high hopes of British leaders are reflected in the comment of Chamberlain, who, on returning to England from Munich, said:
CHAMBERLAIN: I bring you peace with honor. I believe it is peace in our time.
NARRATOR: But there were other voices too: Said Winston Churchill after Munich:
CHURCHILL: Britain and France had to choose between war and dishonor. They chose dishonor. They will have war!
NARRATOR: It was a war of nerves in which Hitler was always the immediate victor!
NARRATOR: 1931: Japan invaded Manchuria and was not resisted. Later, when her action was condemned, Japan walked out of the League of Nations.
[Music accent]
1935: Italy invaded Ethiopia and later, when her action was condemned, Italy walked out of the League of Nations.
1935: Germany announced that it was rebuilding its armed might in defiance of the Versailles Treaty. Nothing was done to stop her.
[Music accent]
1936: The Spanish Falangists set up a totalitarian dictatorship with the help of Italy and Germany.
[Music accent]
1937: Germany occupied the Rhineland.
1937: Japan invaded China.
[Music accent, music continues]
1938: Germany annexed Austria.
Hitler demanded the Sudetenland of Czechoslovakia.
To Germany went Chamberlain, head of the British government, and Daladier, head of the French government, seeking a compromise. They agreed to Hitler's demands in return for Hitler's promise of no more expansion. The high hopes of British leaders are reflected in the comment of Chamberlain, who, on returning to England from Munich, said:
CHAMBERLAIN: I bring you peace with honor. I believe it is peace in our time.
NARRATOR: But there were other voices too: Said Winston Churchill after Munich:
CHURCHILL: Britain and France had to choose between war and dishonor. They chose dishonor. They will have war!
NARRATOR: It was a war of nerves in which Hitler was always the immediate victor!
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