From World War I to World War II
author:
Xinyang?? Editor: Thomas
On November 11, 1918, with the signing of the armistice agreement, World War I came to an end, and the Allied powers dominated by the Second German Empire, Austria-Hungary, and Tsarist Russia were defeated. Subsequently, the post-war economic boom came,
Nations embraced the Golden Age and licked the wounds of war.
Appeased by wealth and peace, the people of the 20s did not expect that in the next decade, after a desperate economic crisis,
The whole world will face another brutal battle.
Even the shadow of war, deep in the flesh and blood of people, cannot prevent it from happening.
And the initiator of this great war was Germany, the loser of the first world war.
At this time, however, Germany was no longer the German Empire under Wilhelm II. Despite the painstaking reforms of the Weimar Republic,
It was unfortunate to become a war state under the far-right Nazi Party.
How did Germany go from being a weak and turbulent defeated country to a fanatical country that provoked war in just a dozen years? How did it go to war so smoothly?
First, the dilemma, sowing the seeds of hatred
The dust settled in World War I, and the Allied camp was defeated.
The defeated Germany not only suffered the heavy blows of the war itself, but also faced severe sanctions from the Allies.
In the course of the post-war negotiating conference,
Because of its "feud", France has the most harsh attitude towards Germany
In addition to reparations, it even demanded the execution of the Kaiser and blockaded Germany's coastline to tightly control Germany's import and export trade.
whereas
Britain and the United States hoped to solve the problem in a slightly gentler way
It is enough to demand compensation and appropriately reduce German territory and troops.
Although the victorious side disagreed on the disposition of Germany, however
Inevitably, out of consideration for their own interests, they tend to weaken Germany and leave it on the margins of the future system of international interests.
The final consensus was reached in the Treaty of Versailles, under which Germany ceded one-seventh of its territory to Belgium, Denmark and Poland, respectively. Germany's overseas colonies were also almost completely divided up through "mandated" treaties.
▲ Loss of German territory under the terms of the Treaty of Versailles
By sending French troops into the so-called "Rhine Demilitarized Zone", the Allies achieved control over the area. German merchant ships and even railways were confiscated.
This has created a serious obstacle to the recovery of the German economy.
The peace treaty also demanded that Germany must repay 132 billion gold marks of war reparations,
This left Germany in debt for a long time.
Germany's military power was also weakened.
The peace treaty severely limited the number of German troops and naval specifications, and strictly banned the production of some weapons.
In addition, Germany was forced to accept the "War Crimes Clause", which meant that it became the main party responsible for the crimes of the First World War.
The identity of the criminal made the exclusion more logical and had a good effect on isolating Germany.
The Treaty of Versailles became a shackle on his feet and dirty water on his head, and the land was already at war and in ruins.
At this time, Germany can be said to be in internal and external difficulties, and the road is difficult.
The "hyperinflation" of 1923 revealed Germany's post-war predicament: the shortage of wealth and resources.
Faced with the needs of the distribution of different groups in society, Germany can only use the means of additional paper money to create the illusion of sufficient equality and push itself into a runaway situation of hyperinflation.
The economic loss of control soon led to riots, and various forces dissatisfied with the Weimar German regime rose up, the most famous of which must have been Hitler's "beer hall riots".
During inflation, German children play games with banknotes
This chaos was only truly alleviated with the implementation of the Dawes Plan in the United States. The United States introduced a series of private capitals, giving German society enough room for distribution to meet the needs of all parties.
After the inflation crisis,
Germany gradually realized the importance of friendship with the international community and expanded its economic contacts with various countries, especially the United States.
However, Germany's most fundamental development problems remain unresolved.
In the scarcity that began after the war, it is difficult for it to really become rich without foreign assistance. At this time, it was overly dependent on the prosperity of the international economy, but even under such good conditions, its development still seemed to be somewhat laborious.
It was not until 1927 that Industrial production in Germany returned to pre-war levels in 1913.
When ridding away from the hindsight of history,
It is inconceivable that, some decade later, Germany would have the courage to sever its friendship with the international community and use its army, industry and money to open the door to another world war.
Second, the dark tide is surging
From the moment of defeat, German politics also entered a new stage of development
。 After the abdication of Wilhelm II, the working-class party "Social-Democracy" chose to work with the conservative elite who controlled the former imperial army to establish a socialist republic with parliamentary democracy in 1918, which later generations called the "Weimar Republic".
Flag of the Weimar Republic
From the very beginning of the establishment of the new regime, it faced enormous challenges.
And its response has more or less become its "original sin", triggering the undercurrent of social resistance.
The Weimar government's mission came to the negotiating table of the Treaty of Versailles, but in the end what brought to the people was the punishment clause of "losing power and humiliating the country".
Germany has never had such a low international standing, which obviously hit the national pride of the Germans. The poverty and suffering that Germany suffered as a result also sowed the seeds of hatred in society.
After the inflation crisis of the 1920s, the rational government chose to rely on foreign investment for development and, in the process, reconciled with the international community. This will not attract much criticism in the era of economic prosperity.
But after the Outbreak of the Great Depression in 1929, the situation took a sharp turn for the worse.
The people have been brewing since the Treaty of Versailles, and the fermentation of xenophobia and extreme disappointment in the future are mixed with each other.
This translates into a deep rejection of the existing development framework and a strong desire to quickly wash away Germany's stigma.
The remarks of the scholarly community during this period are very telling. If cultural pessimists are merely describing the dark and helpless real world, then neoconservatives are moving forward on this path.
It demanded a radical and romantic revolution to create a bright future for Germany, a future full of engraved images of pre-modern Germany, with strong imperial overtones.
Although academia has always maintained a distance from politics, it has not been able to avoid the flow of its own ideas into society.
The people's frenzy was launched.
Ernst Junger, a neoconservative writer, is known for his work depicting heroism in war
The intensifying mood of society was clearly supporting the rising heat of the Nazi Party.
The Nazi Party, adhering to a simple language of German national superiority combined with German revenge and expansionism, was good at providing romantic imaginations of the future and fiery propaganda speeches, and soon attracted a large number of believers.
In the 1931 parliamentary elections, the Nazi Party received 18.3 percent of the total number of votes, a fivefold increase from 1928.
It thus became the largest party in Parliament.
▲ Street activities of The Nazis
In contrast, in the Weimar government, in the midst of continued opposition, the right-wing elite abandoned the Social Democratic Party. Their vision of a conservative German turn had not yet been extinguished, and they began to erode the original structure of the Weimar government from within, from Brunin to Schleicher, three consecutive prime ministers of the republic, all produced in the "king-approval" of President Paul von Hindenburg, but they could not resist the danger of the situation and stepped down.
After confidently declaring that he would "turn poachers into foresters", Hindenburg decided to trust Hitler.
He was made Prime Minister of the Weimar government.
But from the moment Hitler officially became Chancellor on January 30, 1933,
He and the Nazi Party began to exert all their might to pull Germany into the orbit they had predetermined.
The undercurrent has erupted.
In May 1933, the crowd paid tribute to Hitler
Third, toward war
In the dream of bringing glory to the German Aryan race, the entire nation cheered for Hitler's policy of expansion of each rebel order.
In 1934, Germany withdrew from the League of Nations. In 1935,
Germany broke the rules of the Treaty of Versailles
Began to build warships and submarines to expand the naval force. In 1936, Germany announced the promotion of universal compulsory military service and the open expansion of armaments.
In the face of such blatant and dangerous moves, the rest of the countries have reacted little, or are reluctant to do so.
At this time, it is not as good as in the past, under the impact of the Great Depression,
European and American countries tend to adopt a self-preservation strategy
。 Instead of risking intervention in Germany at the risk of triggering a war, it was better to act peacefully.
You can say so
A reckless line of peace
it is the consequence of the trauma of the First World War,
At this juncture of economic recovery, no country is willing to relive the nightmare of two decades ago.
Throughout the 1930s, pacifism and appeasement dominated British, French, and American diplomacy.
However, pacifism that avoids the status quo does not bring real peace to the world.
The widespread avoidance of war provided space for Nazi Germany to gallop unbridled.
▲ Caricatures about appeasement
When the expansion of the Nazi dream of the "Greater German Empire" was still in its infancy, in 1938 when Germany invaded Austria and looked at Czechoslovakia,
Countries turn a blind eye and a blind eye to Germany's actions.
In 1939, when Germany intended to divide Czechoslovakia,
Britain and France, in defiance of the latter's extremely opposed attitude, secretly reached the infamous "Munich Agreement" with Germany.
After the signing of the agreement, he also rejoiced and celebrated that he had maintained "peace" at the expense of the interests of other countries.
The territorial destination of Czechoslovakia after the Munich Agreement
Finally, until Germany explicitly put the war on the agenda and in September 1939 the lightning struck the western borders of Poland,
Britain and France were forced to declare war on Germany, and the illusion of "peace" was shattered.
World War II broke out less than two decades after the end of world war I. The reason why Germany provoked this war,
It is the national arrogance caused by shame
。 And the reason why it can provoke war,
It was due to Hitler's careful military training and the special situation of the thirties.
(Don)