The terms are said to have been harsh and the Germans were bitter and aimed at reversing them e.g.:
• War guilt: The victorious powers forced Germany to accept the blame for the
outbreak of the war.
• Disarmament: Other countries did not disarm in 1920s. In 1932, Germany asked
for equality of arms but France said that this would be done after 8 years. As a result,
Germany walked out of the conference.
• Reparations: They were just too high hence reduced and finally cancelled in
1932.
• Loss of Germany territories: After the First World War, several new states were
created. As a result, many Germans ended up being found in other countries. This
was against Wilson's 14 points one of which was advocating for national self-
determination.
• The League is said to have failed to stop acts of aggression by its own member
states.
• It had no armed forces of its own.
• Economic sanctions were difficult to enforce.
This was a policy which was practiced first by Britain then France of avoiding war with aggressive powers by giving way to their unreasonable demands.
• By 1930, Britain had wide commitments e.g. she had to defend her interests in
India.
• She wanted to contain Hitler with understanding.
• She was busy recovering following the impact of World War I.
• The victorious powers were anti-communist so they saw the Russian threat more
dangerous than the German aggression.
• The European powers had developed an anti-war attitude.
Germany was determined to restore her military strength so Hitler embarked on building planes, tanks and training her men.
• This had been demilitarized after World war I.
• Hitler reoccupied this area to defend Germany from French attack.
• Hitler had
succeeded because there was no reaction from either France or Britain.
• Hitler therefore told his soldiers that if France reacts, they should advance.
• Hitler used his troops to threaten the Czechs on the union with Sudetenland.
• Previously, France and Russia had promised Czechoslovakia of assistance
incase of an attack. As such, the Czechs were ready to face Germany.
• However, Neville Chamberlain, the prime minister of Britain intervened and
decided to hold secret talks with Hitler (Munich Agreement) where there were
representatives from France, Germany and Italy. The Czechs were not represented.
• Italy and Germany helped General Franco but France and Britain did not stop
the dictators.
• This made Hitler to realize that France and Britain could not coordinate their
efforts in an event of war.
Britain and France protested but no further action was taken.
• After invading Czechoslovakia, Hitler went ahead demanding return of Danzig.
• He denounced the Polish non-aggression Pact of 1934 and the Anglo-Germany
Naval Agreement of 1935.
• Instead, he signed the Pact of Steel with Mussolini of Italy.
• In 1939, Hitler signed the Nazi-Soviet Pact with Stalin of Russia.
• Russia knew that Hitler hated communism therefore she sought an alliance with
Britain.
• However, Britain told Russia to wait.
• In the course of waiting, Russia signed an agreement with Germany. This
encouraged a climate of war.
• This caused massive unemployment.
• Hitler therefore embarked on arms' production to reduce unemployment.
• Eventually, Germany became heavily armed hence ready to challenge any
country.
Hitler focused his attention on the strategic point of Russia i.e. Leningrad in the North, Moscow in the centre and Ukraine in the South.
At first, their performance was not impressive because:
• They were caught by surprise.
• They took time to re-equip their army and air force.
• Most of their men were inexperienced.
However, the Germans failed to capture Leningrad and Moscow because:
• They were hampered by heavy rains of October which filled the roads with mud.
• They had no suitable clothing for winter weather of December.
• The Russians had then acquired suitable equipment.
• They made a mistake in Leningrad where instead of surrounding the city, they
decided to make a frontal attack.
NB: As a result, the Germans failed to attack the Russians.
• Relations between USA and Japan soured when USA prevented the Japanese
occupation ofIndo-China.
• When the President of Indo-China knew that his country which contained a lot of
raw materials like oil, rubber, tin and bauxite would be overthrown, he quickly sought
American intervention.
• When the Japanese prime minister, General Hideki Tojo (the razor) replaced
the peace-loving Prince Konoye, war against USA seemed inevitable.
• Negotiations which continued up to 20 November 1941, bore no fruits as Japan
demanded that America should also withdraw from their naval base, Pearl Harbour
on the Hawaii islands.
• On 7th December 1941, Japanese planes bombed Pearl Harbour.
• The man behind the whole plan was Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto.
• When the Nazi power was at its peak in Germany, many people started to flee in
fear of persecution.
• Two of them, physicists by profession, were Albert Estein and Eurico Fermi.
• They told the USA and president Harry Truman about the atomic bomb which the
Germans were preparing.
• Eurico challenged that given a chance, he could prepare a similar bomb.
• He soon started the work and carried out tests on the Pacific Ocean.
• On 6 August 1945, General M Arthur sent his troops under the command of
Colonel Paul Tibbets to Japan with a plane called Enola Gay.
• On the same day, the bomb was thrown on Hiroshima where more than 100,000
people are reported to have died instantly with thousands dying slowly of radiation
poisoning.
• On 8 August 1945, another one was thrown on Nagasaki where 80,000 people
are also reported to have died.
• On 15 August, Emperor Hirohito called on his men to surrender and this
marked the end of the Second World War.