Zdeněk Kříž



1.Causes of WWII
2.
2.General overview of the War
3.
3.The Soviet role in the War
4.
4.Correlation of Forces
5.
5.Milestones of diplomatic history of WWII
6.
6.WWII effects
7.
7.

}International system
}1. Carthaginian peace set up in Versailles Treaty leading German revanchist policy.
}2. The distribution of power did not correspond the distribution of obligations.
}3. League of Nations was not able to fulfill its tasks and prevent wars.
}4. The 1929 Great Depression.
}
}State level
} 5. Three totalitarian states, the USSR, Italy and Germany among the Great Powers - able to
mobilize resources in favor of war and build huge militaries.
}6. Instability in French internal affairs.
}7. Polish – Czechoslovak antagonism in Central Europe.
}
}Individual level
}8. Western politicians’ wrong assessment of Hitler's final goals.
}9. Miscalculation of Adolf Hitler's regarding the Western security guaranties to Poland.

}1. The punitive Treaty of Versailles and the German desire for revenge
}
}1919 - John Maynard Keynes - The Economic Consequences of the Peace.
}
}1961 – A. J. P. Taylor - The Origins of the Second World War.
}
}
}2. The distribution of power did not correspond the distribution of obligations.
}
}
}3. League of Nations was not able to fulfill its tasks and prevent wars.
}
}
}4. The 1929 Great Depression.
}
Germany after WWI. #Germany #Map # WWI | German history, Germany, German map

}4. Three totalitarian states among the Great Powers
}
}the USSR – industrialization, militarization and dream about worldwide communist revolutions
}
}First Five Year Plan (1928–1932) – heavy and arms industry – Western assistance.
}
}Italy – dissatisfaction with territorial gains in WW I
}
}Germany – revisionism and expansionism.
}
}They were able to mobilize resources in favor of war and build huge militaries.
}
}5. Instability in French internal affairs.
}
}Division on the axis far left-far right
}
}6. Polish – Czechoslovak antagonism in Central Europe.
}
}Territorial disputes – Cieszyn, Silesia, Orava Territory and Spiš.
}
}Disagreement about cooperation with USSR.
}
}
}

}Individual miscalculations
}
}Appeasement - symbol - British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain
}
}Appeasement - seeking to compromise on German territorial demands so as avoid conflict.
}
1.Not to sacrifice another generations of Western menhood because of disputes in Central and
Eastern Europe
2.
2.Not to start a war, which would only serve the Stalin’s policy of expanding the Soviet empire.
}
}Adolf Hitler
}
}Convinced that the British and French would not seriously start war in order to defend  Poland.
}
}
}

}Second World War - a global war 1939 to 1945.
}
}1937 – Japan invaded China.
}
}The Allies (France in fact till 1940, UK, USA and China, versus the Axis (Germany, Italy, Japan).
}
}The USSR supported the Axis till 1941, then alliance with the UK and USA (1942).
}
}Involved more than 100 million people from over 30 countries.
}
}A total war -  fought to final victory or defeat and used almost all military means including
nuclear weapons.
}
}In absolute numbers with its 50-60 million fatalities it was the deadliest conflict in human
history.
}
}In relative numbers - the 9th most deadliest war in human history.
}
}Steven Pinker: The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined?
}
}

}WW II -  the most complex War in Human history.
}
}Three continents – Europe, Africa, Asia.
}
}1939 – German and Soviet invasion of Poland.
}
}Spring and Summer 1940 – Germany defeated France and the UK in the North and the West.
}
}Spring 1941 – Germany invasion of Balkan
}
}Summer 1941 – invasion of USSR
}
}Winter 1941 - the USA entry to War after Pearl Harbor.
}
}The end of European war.
}
}Turning point – 1942 - Germany suffered defeat at Stalingrad and El Alamein.
}
}1943 – invasion of Italy – capitulation.
}
}1944 - the Western Allies invaded German-occupied France.
}
}1945 – USSR captured Berlin.
}
}September 1945 – Hiroshima, Nagasaki and the Soviet invasion of Manchuria.
}
}
}
}
}
}
}
}

}The correlation of forces between Axis power and Allied was unequal -  was in favor of Allied
powers.
}
}The Axis population in 1938 was 259 million,
}
}The Allied population – much higher!
}The United Kingdom (excluding its colonies) had a population of 47.5 million and France (excluding
its colonies) 42 million.
}USSR population was around 180 mil in 1941 (included occupied territories).
}USA –population was around 134 mil
}
}Italy and Japan lacked industrial capacity; their economies were small, dependent on international
trade, external sources of fuel and other industrial resources.
}
}All Axis powers did not have enough strategic resources necessary for conducting modern war,
especially oil.
}
}The USA was the leading world industrial power capable of producing modern arms in huge numbers.
}
}The USSR invested enormous resources in a very rapid industrialization and militarization in the
1930s .
}
}In 1939  it produced 40%-50% of the worlds production of weapons.
}
}
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}Spring 1938 – Anschluss of Austria – weak Stresa Front protests (Italy, France, Britain).
}
}Autumn 1938 - Munich Agreement - annexation of the "Sudetenland", a region of western
Czechoslovakia inhabited by 1 mil people, mainly German speakers.
}
}Top leaders of Germany, France, Great Britain, and Italy – USSR and Czechoslovakia were not
invited.
}
}Followed by the First Vienna Award (November 2, 1938) - new border between Czechoslovakia and
Hungary, while Poland also annexed territories from Czechoslovakia.
}
}March 1939 - Czechoslovakia disappeared.
}
}The creation of the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia
}
}Result: Germany took full control of the Czech parts.
}
}West came to the conclusion that appeasement is not working.
}

}Mid-March 1939, the Soviet Union, Britain and France negotiations of a potential political and
military agreement.
}
}April 17, 1939 -  the Soviet outline of a French–British–Soviet mutual assistance pact for 5 to 10
years.
}
}Negotiations failed
}
}The Soviet explanations – West wanted to pave the way for German – Soviet war.
}
}The ongoing explanation based on archive materials (Western):
}1. Britain and France would not agree on a key Soviet demand, namely that Soviet troops be allowed
free passage across Poland and stationing troops in Poland.
}
}2. Britain and France did not believe that the USSR military can provide a significant
contribution to the war against Hitler after huge purges in the Soviet military.
}
}Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact on August 23, 1939.
}
}Public and secret parts.
}
}

}1. The Soviet traditional explanation of the M-R pact (supported by many West liberal
intellectuals)
}
}Allowed the USSR to delay the onset of war with Nazi Germany.
}
}Allowed the Soviet border to be moved 200km or more to the west.
}
}Allowed the USSR to take under its defense the "blood-brother peoples" - the Ukrainians and
Belarussians.
}
}Prevented an "anti-Soviet alliance" between the West and Nazi Germany.
}
}2. The Icebreaker explanation – Victor Suvorov.
}
}Stalin wanted to set the scene for European war in order to create conditions for Marxist
revolution in the West.
}
}Politburo meeting held on 19 August 1939 - war with Germany could be avoided, should the USSR form
an anti-Nazi alliance with Britain and France but the subsequent development of events after that
would be unfavorable to the Soviet Union!
}“Special Archive of the USSR”, Folder 7, Set 1, Doc. 1223.  It is also reproduced from Dimitrov`s
diary in T.S. Bushuyev`s “Proklinaya – Probuite Ponyat” (“Curse It but Try to Understand”), “Novyi
Mir”, no. 12, 1994; pp. 232-233.
}
}
}
}
German Lieutenant Colonel Gustav-Adolf Riebel shakes hands with Brigadier Semyon Krivoshein during
the joint Nazi-Soviet victory parade in Brest. A British perspective on the nonaggression pact in a
cartoon by David Low, published in the "Evening Standard" on September 20, 1939

}The Soviet role in WWII is complex.
}
} In the 1930 the USSR rhetoric was typical of a very strong anti-German and anti-Nazi attitude.
}
}1934 – the League of Nations Member.
}
}Huge Soviet military build-up in the 1930s – USSR the World leading military power in late 1930s.
}
}In August 1939- Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact - with a secret protocol – division of Europe.
}
}The German–Soviet Treaty of Friendship, Cooperation and Demarcation in 1939 – USSR - the German
strategic resources supplier.
}
}1939-1940 – Winter War against Finland. The USSR was expelled from the LoN.
}
}1940 – annexation  of Baltic  States.
}
}June 22, 1941 -  by the German invasion, the USSR was put in the anti-Nazi camp again.
}
}1942 - USSR forged Alliance with Anglo-Saxon powers.
}
}June 1941 – May 1945 – decisive role in German military defeat and recipient of very significant
Western economic assistance.
}
}
}
}
}
}

}1939-1941 – there was widespread opposition to American military intervention in European affairs
in the USA.
}
}1939 - "cash and carry" legislation - paved the way for Lend-Lease.
}
}March 11, 1941 - American program to defeat Germany, Japan and Italy by distributing food, oil,
and materiel between 1941 and August 1945.
}
}The aid went to the United Kingdom, China, and later the Soviet Union, Free France, and other
Allied nations – in fact the End of the U.S. neutrality.
}
}August 1941 - Atlantic Charter – the USA and the UK
}
}no territorial gains were to be sought by the United States or the United Kingdom;
}territorial adjustments must be in accord with the wishes of the peoples concerned;
}all people had a right to self-determination;
}trade barriers were to be lowered;
}there was to be global economic cooperation and advancement of social welfare;
}the participants would work for a world free of want and fear;
}the participants would work for freedom of the seas;
}there was to be disarmament of aggressor nations, and a common disarmament after the war.
}

}Tehran Conference in Iran from 28 November to 1 December 1943
-an invasion of France in 1944
-way of dealing with Turkey, Iran, Yugoslavia
-the war against Japan
-the post-war settlement
-
}The Yalta Conference, the Crimea, February 4–11, 1945 - Declaration of Liberated Europe.
-promise that allowed the people of Europe "to create democratic institutions of their own choice"
-unconditional surrender of Nazi Germany
-postwar plans for European boundaries
-the Polish destiny - agreed to reorganize the pro-soviet communist Provisional Government of the
Republic of Poland and incorporate members from the Polish government in the UK – free elections in
Poland
-Stalin agreed to enter the war against Japan three months after the defeat of Germany
-the USSR would be a member of the United Nations Security Council, with a veto right
-4 Occupation zones in Germany
}
}The Potsdam Conference, July 17-Aug. 2, 1945
}- demanded "unconditional surrender" from Japan.
}- finalized arrangements for Germany to be occupied and controlled by the Allied Control
Commission.

}50 - 60 million of people were dead and millions homeless. Millions of people were expelled from
their homes.
}
}The European economy had collapsed, and much of the European industrial infrastructure had been
destroyed.
}
}The Soviet Union, Germany and Poland had been the most affected countries.
}
}WWII  - the power bipolarity – USA and USSR.
}
}The British empire, one of the winner of the war, was economically exhausted: 1946 -
Anglo-American Loan Agreement .
}
}Absolute defeat of Germany and Japan
}
}WWII was the end of the period of European dominance in world politics.
}
}United Nations