Causes of World War II
When World War I came to a close and the Versailles Peace Treaty was signed, a spirit of hope and opportunity settled over the European continent. Peace was at hand and the nations of Europe could turn to the tasks of economic and political recovery. Germany elected a liberal democracy a whole slew of democracies developed in Eastern Europe. Liberalism seemed to be the order of the day.
However, economic instability in the United States led to the crash of the New York Stock Exchange, setting in motion a domino effect that left the entire international economic and financial system in shambles. American loans dried up, reparations payments stopped, German industry collapsed, and unemployment increased tenfold throughout the world. The Great Depression had arrived.
Where the Depression brought a change of governing party in the United States and Britain, the economic downturn undermined fledgling democracies throughout Europe. In Italy, Benito Mussolini led a fascist coup d’etat; in Germany, Adolf Hitler assumed emergency dictatorial powers; in France, parliamentary democracy was gone. Inspired by a demented notion of German racial superiority, Hitler embarked on an expansionist program that would take him into Eastern Europe and Russia for Lebensraum, or „living space“. The western powers, weakened by the Great Depression and unwilling to risk another war chose to follow a policy of appeasement: they generally gave in to Hitler’s demands hoping to satiate his drive for expansion. It did not work. On September 1, 1939, Hitler invaded Poland, beginning World War II.
Events of 1939
Three years of mounting international tension – encompassing the Spanish Civil War, the Anschluss (union) of Germany and Austria, Hitler’s occupation of the Sudetenland and the invasion of Czechoslovakia – culminated in the German invasion of Poland on 1 September. Britain and France declared war on Germany two days later. While the USA proclaimed neutrality, it continued to supply Britain with essential supplies, and the critical Battle of the Atlantic between German U-Boats and British naval convoys commenced.
Western Europe was eerily quiet during this ‘phoney war’. Preparations for war continued in earnest, but there were few signs of conflict, and civilians who had been evacuated from London in the first months drifted back into the city. Gas masks were distributed, and everybody waited for the proper war to begin.
In eastern Europe and Scandinavia, however, there was nothing phoney about the war. With the Ribbentrop Pact signed between the Soviet Union and Germany in late August, Russia followed Germany into Poland in September. That country was carved up between the two invaders before the end of the year, and Russia continued this aggression by going on to invade Finland.
Events of 1940
Rationing was introduced in Britain early in the New Year, but little happened in western Europe until the spring. The ‘winter war’ between Russia and Finland concluded in March, and in the following month Germany invaded Denmark and Norway.
Denmark surrendered immediately, but the Norwegians fought on – with British and French assistance – surrendering in June only once events in France meant that they were fighting alone.
On 10 May – the same day that Winston Churchill replaced Neville Chamberlain as Prime Minister of the UK – Germany invaded France, Belgium and Holland, and western Europe encountered the Blitzkrieg – or ‘lightning war’.
Germany’s combination of fast armoured tanks on land, and superiority in the air, made a unified attacking force that was both innovative and effective. Despite greater numbers of air and army personnel – and the presence of the British Expeditionary Force – the Low Countries and France proved no match for the Wehrmacht and the Luftwaffe. Holland and Belgium fell by the end of May; Paris was taken two weeks later.
British troops retreated from the invaders in haste, and some 226,000 British and 110,000 French troops were rescued from the channel port of Dunkirk only by a ragged fleet, using craft that ranged from pleasure boats to Navy destroyers.
In France an armistice was signed with Germany, with the puppet French Vichy government – under a hero of World War One, Marshall Pétain – in control in the ‘unoccupied’ part of southern and eastern France, and Germany in control in the rest of the country.
Charles de Gaulle, as the leader of the Free French, fled to England (much to Churchill’s chagrin) to continue the fight against Hitler . But it looked as if that fight might not last too long. Having conquered France, Hitler turned his attention to Britain, and began preparations for an invasion. For this to be successful, however, he needed air superiority, and he charged the Luftwaffe with destroying British air power and coastal defences.