In February of 1934 the growing antagonisms between the political Left and the political Right, greatly exacerbated by the Stavisky investment fraud which implicated many Leftist cabinet members, erupted in Paris riots which many thought was the prelude to an attempt at a right-wing political coup.  Order was restored to France.  However, Left-wing suspicions of on-going Fascist plots, and similar suspicions by the Right of Communist plots to take over France, split the country into deeply hostile political groupings.

Besides the Left-Right deadlock over the basic political path the country should take, the evolution of the larger world of European politics, especially during the 1930s, made French national politics even more complex.  The French could not decide which rising power to the East, Nazi Germany or Communist Russia, posed the greater danger to Western, or at least French, civilization.  Along with this went wide disagreement on how to respond to Mussolini in Ethiopia and the civil war raging in Spain (1936-1939).

In short - France really was not able to get its act together at a time that it was supposed to be one of the two major enforcers of the Post-World-War-One international status quo (the other being England).  Indeed, by the late 1930s France found itself in hot political war way over its head - and could not swim.

But a poor economy, and Blum's decision not to support the leftist Republicanists in the Spanish Civil War, caused the defection of the Communists -- and the collapse of his government in 1937.

Baldwin's governance was characterized by a policy of peace-at-any-cost.  He understood that the English did not want ever to go to war again; that they expected him to keep them from diplomatic entanglements and any military build-up, viewed at that time as largely responsible for the 'Great War' of 1914-1918; and that his first priority as England's leader was to get England back on sound economic ground.  Thus he cut back tremendously on England's military spending and strength - at a time that Germany was rebuilding its military power (even before Hitler took charge of Germany) - in well recognized violation of the terms of the Versailles Treaty of 1919 and the Locarno Pact of 1925.

He and Winston Churchill were constantly at odds over this issue of England's pacifism in the face of German remilitarization.  Baldwin viewed Churchill as a war-monger who wanted to drag England into an arms race and thus another war with Germany.  Churchill viewed Baldwin as one who invited German military adventurism by the obvious lack of English resolve to stop Hitler before he became so strong that there would be no way to block his military ambitions

Basically Baldwin was working out of the spirit of the moment, of the times he lived in.  Churchill was working out of a longer sense of British history - and its long-standing role as balancer of power on the European continent (as for instance in the days of Napoleon in the early 1800s).  History would soon be the judge of who had it right.

Chamberlain's policy of 'appeasement'

Chamberlain became English Prime Minister in May of 1937 after Stanley Baldwin stepped down.

Whereas Baldwin was a pacifist, Chamberlain was actually rather pro-German.  As the 1930s developed, it appeared that Europe was facing a choice of which of the two growing military powers to the East, Communist Russia or Nazi Germany, was the greater threat to European peace.  Chamberlain took the view that it was the Russian Communists that posed the greater danger, and a policy of 'appeasing' Germany's Hitler (and Italy's Mussolini) would bing the nations of West and Central Europe into a broad anti-Communist / anti-Russian front.

But the logic of his appeasement policy soon developed a life of its own - especially as Churchill continued to challenge Chamberlain concerning the grave Nazi danger (Churchill, once an avid anti-Communist, took the view with Hitler's rise to power in Germany that the Nazi's were quickly becoming the greater threat to England's security). 

Promises that each of Chamberlain's many concessions to Germany would be the last were constantly broken - with each retreat by Chamberlain rationalized as necessary steps in pacifying Hitler.  Actually, each retreat only made the dictator more greedy for German expansion.  Sadly, Chamberlain (like Baldwin) talked himself into believing that what he was doing was protecting (rather than undermining) the peace of Europe.

He declared war against Germany on 3 September 1939.
He was forced to step down as Prime Minister on 10 May 1940 after Germany invaded the Netherlands, Belgium and France.  He died of cancer 6 months later.

Mussolini:  "war is to man as maternity is to woman"

Mussolini was ruling over an Italian society growing critical of his overextended political regime.  He decided that a foreign war of conquest would provide the impetus to restore support for his government - and Ethiopia seemed just the place to wage such a war.  Ethiopia had escaped the clutches of European imperialism - and its backwardness and lack of military preparedness made it an attractive target for Mussolini.

Ethiopia had sustained its independence this long because France and England had found it advantageous to support Ethiopia over the years (against Italian imperial designs even back in the late 1800s).  But as Hitler's power grew in Germany France and England were looking around for European allies - and Mussolini knew that the French and English were hoping to woo him into their camp and thus would likely offer littler resistance to his program in Ethiopia.  Thus by mid 1935 he began the build-up of some 300,000 troops in neighboring Italian Somaliland, just across the border from Ethiopia.  Mussolini was waiting for the end of the June-September rains to make a move on Ethiopia.

Watching all this, and understanding what it meant, the young Emperor Haile Selassie took the issue to the League of Nations - which seemed to side with him. 

But despite British bluster at the League in mid-September of 1935, Mussolini knew that it was all very hollow.  He calculated that the League would do nothing.  Mussolini responded with an ultimatum to the Emperor which the Emperor rejected.

On October 3, 1935 the Italians attacked Ethiopia from Eritrea and Somaliland and quickly overran the larger, but poorly equipped Ethiopian forces.  They attacked using airplane strafing and bombing - and gas (which was in violation of the Geneva Convention which Italy had signed). 

The League actually did respond - and fairly quickly - placing boycott sanctions on Italy for its aggression.  However measures that would have truly hurt Italy, such as closing the Suez canal to the Italians, or placing truly strategic goods such as coal, steel and oil on the embargo list, would have been more effective if they had been seriously undertaken.  But it was not to be.  The members of the League could not see any reason to anger the Italians - or lose (oil) business to the Americans, who were not League members and thus part of the sanctions.

The embargo merely excited the Italians - and rallied them more closely behind the Duce.

The Ethiopians fought guerrilla style and gave good account of themselves as warriors.  But loyalty of many of the tribes was questionable.  The Eritreans in fact gladly joined the Italians against their cousins, the Ethiopians. 

But in December a rather bizarre event developed back in the diplomatic circles of Europe.  British Foreign Minister Hoare and French Foreign Minister Laval offered Italy a secret agreement to "solve" the crisis by awarding Mussolini most of Ethiopia and leaving a small portion to Haile Selassie in concession.  But the secret agreement was leaked to the press - and quickly the Hoare-Laval plan became a huge source of embarrassment to England and France; both ministers were forced to resign by outraged citizens.  But the damage was done.  It made the democracies look weak or irresolute and even hypocritical (especially after Hoare's well-received speech in September boasting of England's commitment to the protection of Ethiopia) - and it undermined seriously the League's appearance as guarantor of the world's peace.  Not only had the League finally been proved to have no teeth - but ultimately it succeeded in driving Italy from its membership - the beginning of a flood of European departures from League membership.

Within seven months the Italians had worn the Ethiopians down.  On May 5, 1936 the Italians entered the capital, Addis Ababa - and Italy declared itself victor.

The League of Nations was moving toward recognized Italy's acquisition of Ethiopia - causing Haile Selassie to go directly to Geneva to protest.  But he received no help from the League. He warned them of the dangers of failure to act against such aggression.  But instead, the League called off the sanctions against Italy two weeks later.

Actually the Ethiopian guerrilla fighting never really ceased over the next five years, taking toll in Italian lives larger than the war itself.

The Axis Pact -October 1936

As a result of the League's clumsy handling of Italy's invasion of Ethiopia (angering Italy for the League's condemnation, but doing little to actually stop Italy) Italy and Germany signed a treaty of friendship on October 25, 1936.  Mussolini commented that the two countries had created a Rome-Berlin axis around which all European nations would eventually revolve. Thus the term 'Axis Powers' came into usage.

The Anti-Comintern Pact, entered into by Germany and Japan on November 25, 1936 -- was directed against Communist expansion fostered by Soviet Russia (promising mutual isolation of Russia -- and recognizing Japan's dominion over Manchukuo).   On November 6, 1937 Italy joined the Pact.

The elections of 1936 brought in a "Popular Front" government made up of parties of the Left -- including the Communists (who, under the direction of Stalin, were cooperating with the other leftist and centrist secular parties across Europe.)   Immediately political conditions in Spain deteriorated -- with on-going street battles running between the Falangists and the equally tough Republican police, the Asaltos.  Terror and assassinations became increasingly the order of the day for Spanish politics.

When, in July of 1936, the Asaltos murdered a prominent Fascist politician, all hell broke loose.  Soldiers in Morocco loyal to the monarchy, "Nationalists" as they called themselves, revolted against the Republican government in Madrid.  This was the signal in Spain itself for the Catholic monarchists in the military to rise up in revolt against the Republican government -- in accordance with a plan carefully worked out beforehand by a young general, Francisco Franco Bahamonde.

Seeing a fellow Popular Front Government in Spain under threat by Rightist forces, Leon Blum's Leftist Popular Front government in France quickly sent 30 French planes and pilots to help the Republican government crush the rebels.  But in turn, Franco called upon the Nazis of Germany and the Fascists of Italy to come to the aid of the Nationalists' cause.   By the end of July German and Italian planes were arriving in Morocco to assist Franco in his revolt against the Republican government of Spain.  Thus the Spanish civil became from the very outset an international issue.

The Spanish Civil War became an international issue not just because foreign countries wanted to help out one side or the other in the struggle -- but because the war in Spain gave a number of countries the opportunity to develop and test larger political, military and diplomatic strategies of their own.

Mussolini's Italians and Franco's Nationalists combined forces to attack Madrid from Guadalajara.  Vastly outnumbering the Republican forces, the Italians and Nationalists were at first successful in taking one small town after another.  But bad weather -- and the arrival of the International Brigade stiffened the Republican defense (though they were still outnumbered 2 to 1).  The Republican air force was also operating from concrete runways -- whereas their opponents were grounded with an airstrip of mud.  Gradually the Republicans began to push the Italians and Nationalists into full retreat.  The Italians lost some 6,000 men in the action -- and Mussolini lost a huge amount of prestige, for he had personally organized the Italian effort in order to gain the prestige of what he originally thought was going to be a grand victory.

The bombing of Guernica was an aerial attack by the German Luftwaffe squadron known as the Condor Legion against the Basque city of Gernika (Spanish: Guernica).

The battle of Teruel

The battle of Teruel was fought in and around the city of Teruel in the Spanish Civil War in December 1937-February 1938. It was one of the bloodiest actions of the war. The city changed hands several times, first falling to the Republicans and eventually being re-taken by the Nationalists. In the course of the fighting, Teruel was subjected to heavy artillery and aerial bombardment. The two sides suffered up to 100,000 casualties between them in the three month battle.

The following year, 1934, Dollfuss was assassinated in an attempted German Nazi takeover of Austria, the "July Putsch."  His assassins were arrested and the coup was thus thwarted.

But a bigger problem developed for Austria as Hitler became more intent on making Austria a satellite nation to Germany.  In January of 1938 Hitler removed members of the German military who were opposed to a military takeover of Austria - and made himself supreme military commander of Germany.  He also made changes in his cabinet to bring it under greater compliance with his ambitions.  Notably he replaced his foreign minister Constantin von Neurath with a more compliant Joachim von Ribbentrop. Now he was ready to act.

The next month, February, Hitler invites Austrian Chancellor von Schuschnigg to Berchtesgaden where he threatens disaster if the Chancellor does not place Nazis in his cabinet.  In particular, Hitler forced Schuschnigg to accept Arthur Syess-Inquart as Minister of the Interior (in charge of the national police).  This greatly crippled Schuschnigg's ability to control Nazi street agitators - who now increased their activity.

Hitler then moved to come up with an excuse for taking over Austria.  He demanded the freeing of all Nazis that had been previously arrested by the Austrian authorities.  And he began to demand that Schuschnigg offer better protection over Germans living in Austria - or he would himself take over that responsibility.

Meanwhile the international community was attempting to get some kind of lineup on this growing issue.  Hitler let it be known to the English that if they wanted continuing good relations with Germany they were going to have to back down on their opposition to the idea of an "Anschluss" (absorption) of Austria under the "New Order."  Prime Minister Chamberlain seemed unable to take a firm stand against Hitler - which finally brought the resignation of Anthony Eden, Britain's Foreign Minister, who was adamantly opposed to any further English "appeasement" of Hitler.

At first Schuschnigg seemed ready to back down before Hitler's pressures to literally turn Austria over to the Nazi party - but then announced a decision of a national plebiscite to let the Austrians themselves decide on this matter.  But Hitler would not be outplayed.  Two days before the scheduled plebiscite he gave the Austrians an ultimatum demanding, among other things, the resignation of Schuschnigg.  This Schuschnigg did, stating as a cause his inability to rule in the face of such Nazi opposition both from Germany and from within the country.

Hitler immediately headed for Austria, his homeland, where to his great delight crowds of Austrians came out to cheer him (many, of course stayed home).  He was so delighted by the reception that he decided that instead of making Austria a satellite nation, he would simply incorporate it into Germany itself.

Meanwhile, the international reaction was tepid.  England was upset, but did nothing.  Chamberlain, sensing the danger the Anschluss posed to Czechoslovakia (the borders of the Western half of the country surrounded by the enlarged Germany), promised to support Czechoslovakia against further German expansion (offering Chamberlain that same fall yet another opportunity to back down in the face of Hitler's ambitions).

Hitler's siezing of the Czech Sudetenland

Having siezed Austria, Hitler now turned his attentions to Czechoslovakia, in particular to the Sudetenland, the mountainous borderlands of Czechoslovakia where a large German-speaking population lived, but also where all of Czechoslovakia’s national defenses (aimed at Germany) were located.  Hitler engineered a mounting protest by Germans living in the Sudetenland (his so-called 'Fifth Column' of support), fabricating complaints about their terrible treatment as a German minority by the Czech government.  This bold lie gave Hitler the pretext he felt he needed to take over the Czech Sudetenland. 

September – Sensing a looming catastrophe, British Prime Minister Chamberlain flew to Munich to meet with Hitler and other European leaders – to try to work out a 'peaceful' settlement to the growing 'crisis' (which was completely a fabrication of Hitler's).  Ultimately Chamberlain signed an agreement in which Hitler promised that he had no more territorial ambitions towards Czechoslovakia beyond the Sudetenland (a complete lie), and in which Chamberlain promised that he would lean on the Czech president Beneš to peacefully deliver the Sudetenland to Germany. 

Chamberlain congratulated himself on this supposedly brilliant piece of statesmanship because he understood that through this agreement between Hitler and himself he had saved Europe from falling into another horrible shooting match and indeed had secured “peace in our time.”

However, by agreeing to Hitler’s demands for the German absorption into Hitler’s Reich of the Czech Sudetenland, Chamberlain inadvertently undermined a plan for a coup against Hitler by a number of German generals who were positive that Hitler was going to lead Germany into a suicidal war.  Tragically, the cost-free granting to Germany of Sudetenland by Chamberlain made Hitler all the more a hero to the average German.  Had the generals moved as planned against Hitler at this point in his apparent 'success' it would have made their actions appear totally treasonous in the eyes of the German nation.  So their plot was put aside. 

Thus Chamberlain foolishly not only undercut what would have probably been a stiff and embarrassing Czech resistance to Hitler’s ambitions (the Czechs were ready to resist Hitler with some forty well armed divisions – which Chamberlain forced the Czech to promise not to use – so as to avoid ‘war’) but he also undercut what would have been an heroic move by true German patriots to remove this madman from power.  How ironic Chamberlain’s desire for peace – peace at all costs – would end up having just the opposite effect on Europe ... ironic, but unfortunately all too common a development in human history. 

At war's end in 1945 he returned to Czechoslovakia as the nation's President - but resigned again in June of 1948 in protest against the Communist maneuverings to take over the country.  He died three months later.

March 1939

In all of this appeasement diplomacy of Chamberlain's, Hitler had no serious intentions of limiting to the Sudetenland his grab of Czechoslovak lands.  He intrigued with Slovak politicians – who deeply resented the fact that the Czechs, their fellow Czechoslovakians, tended to look down upon their Slovakian brothers as rather backwards in cultural development.  Hitler encouraged the Slovaks to call for the ethnic separation of Slovakia from the Czech portion of the country.  Thus claiming merely to be putting into practice the old Wilsonian principle of 'the rights of national self-determination,' on March 14th German, Hungarian and Polish troops invaded the disintegrating country.  On the 15th the Germans marched unopposed into Prague, and then declared the whole region of Czechoslovakia as a 'protectorate' within the German Reich.  A shocked England and France look on in dismay.

Finally awakening to Hitler's real intentions of continuing expansion of Germany through its conquest of neighboring territories, on the 31st Chamberlain announced to Parliament a guarantee of full aid to Poland if Hitler should also attack that country.  This was in essence a promise of war. 

But by this point such a threat seemed hardly credible in the eyes of Hitler.  The British had always backed down when pushed.  And there really was no effective way for the British to bring aid to Poland if attacked by Germany anway, since Germany stood right in the middle of any line of English military supply to Poland.  Poland was isolated.  Thus Chamberlain's threat seemed to Hitler to be simply an empty boast of a feeble British Primie Minister attempting to look stronger than he really was.

Kristallnacht

November 7, 1938 - Herschel Grynszpan (inset), a young Polish Jew in Paris, shot and killed the German 3rd secretary in the embassy there, providing the Nazi government the excuse to retaliate 3 days later against Jews everywhere in a night of terror known as Kristallnacht - for all the glass windows of Jewish stores destroyed.  Synagogues were burned, 7,500 shops were wrecked, 35 Jews were killed, thousands were arrested and fines totaling a billion marks were levied on the Jews.  Also all the insurance money paid the Jews for the damage of the Kristallnacht (5 million marks) was confiscated by the government.

Roosevelt’s Turn Toward Foreign Affairs

With the slowing down of his New Deal programming in the latter part of the 1930s,  Roosevelt had already begun to turn his attentions increasingly to foreign events in Europe and Asia.  He found himself deeply concerned about the disturbing news related to the behavior of Germany in Europe and Japan in Asia.  Dark war clouds were gathering.

But in America it seemed that the only person concerned about this was Roosevelt.  Congress was suspicious of the dominating will of Roosevelt – especially as it seemed that he wanted America to join him in addressing the growing war problems in Europe and Asia.  That simply was not going to happen.  Americans were still bitter about their unnecessary and costly involvement in the Great War.   An extensive Congressional investigation by the Nye Committee had just concluded that the only reason why America had become involved in the Great War in 1917 was to enrich the capitalist owners of industries manufacturing war goods, ‘Daddy Warbucks’ as one cartoon characterization of such a capitalist was called. Americans were not about to be dragged into another war – just to benefit a small group of war profiteers at the cost of the lives of young American soldiers.  Congressmen made that point very clear.  Congress repeatedly passed Neutrality Acts (1935, 1936, 1937 and 1939), all designed to ensure that Roosevelt understood Congress on this matter.  Roosevelt’s hands were thus tied.  There was very little he could do to ready America for what most assuredly lay ahead for the nation.

The increasingly shrill anti-Jewish ranting of Hitler disturbed many thoughtful Americans, though there was always an undercurrent of anti-Jewish sentiment that ran through America at this time.  Thus many Americans felt inclined to look the other way when it came to what Hitler was doing to the Jews in Germany during the 1930s:  he had removed them from all positions of importance in German society and treated them – even the highly educated, even the highly decorated for their service to Germany in the Great War – as the vilest of Untermenschen (inferior people) unworthy of any sentimental concern on the part of a true Aryan German.

Hitler was a despiser of democracy – considering it simply a system by which the weak held back the natural drive of the strong toward greatness.  He was very Darwinian in his understanding that nothing should stand in the way of the strong taking control of history – to promote the rising greatness of the superior people (the Aryan Germans).  He also disliked Christianity for much the same reason: it focused too much on the problems of the poor and weak.  It was a religion fit only for the poor and weak, not the strong.

And in the 1930s he set out to demonstrate the power of Nazi ideology.  He rebuilt the German state (around his own personal will), rearmed Germany militarily, and began to bully his neighbors in order to make way for German expansion or Lebensraum (living space or living room).  All of this ideological expansiveness was accompanied by grandiose ritual, with massive gatherings of boot-stomping and singing soldiers on parade, torch lit assemblies with Nazi banners everywhere and searchlights piercing the infinity of the night sky, and most important Hitler from his podium haranguing the masses with his boasting of German greatness. 

While America seemed to be falling apart in a desperate scramble simply to find work, feed a family and stay alive, Germany clearly had its act together.  The contrast between the precise order of Germany and the listless wandering of America was quite upsetting to many Americans. 

Thus it seemed to be even in America a very bad time for ‘democracy’ – and for its cousin, free-market economics or ‘capitalism.’  State-managed (even dictated) life seemed to work better in providing the people prosperity than a free-market capitalist economic system and a democratic government representing directly the clear voice and will of the people themselves.  Strong 'leaders' (such as the German Führer, Hitler; the Italian Duce, Mussolini; the Soviet 1st Secretary, Stalin; etc.) seemed to know better what would work best for the people than the people themselves.  Political elitism seemed to be the better way to embrace the future.

The German-Italian "Pact of Steel" - May 22, 1939

A 'Pact of Steel' (or more formally:  "Pact of Friendship and Alliance between Germany and Italy") was signed between the two countries on May 22, 1939 - with provisions for mutual support in any future conflict or war (Article III). 

A desperate attempt to forge an anti-Hitler alliance between England, France and Russia

As distasteful as the idea was to him, Churchill in April of 1939 advised Parliament that the only hope Europe had at that point was the formation of some kind of alliance with Soviet Russia.  To some extent this was in response to feelers put out by the Soviets - probably inspired by the Soviet Foreign Minister Litvinov who still held out hope for a working relationship with the English (and French). 

But Chamberlain was appalled at the idea - and did his best to head it off, even though it was beginning to make sense to more and more English, including Chamberlain's military advisors. 

In early May Litvinov was relieved by Stalin of his duties as Foreign Minister (after 9 years of service). He was replaced by Vyacheslav Molotov, someone who had come to the conclusion that some kind of arrangement with Hitler was Russia's only hope of security at this point.  The English and French were proving themselves to be rather worthless allies.  Molotov felt that the time had come to deal directly with Hitler – to buy time and space in order to protect Russia from the threat of war growing in the West 

Molotov's appointment was not a complete reversal of Stalin's thinking in Soviet foreign policy - not yet anyway.

The Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact - August 23, 1939

As the summer progressed, the Molotov viewpoint began to gather strength in Stalin's thinking. 

In late August Stalin  turned to Hitler to see what kind of favorable terms could be worked out with him. Much to the surprise of the world, on August 23rd a “non-aggression” pact between Germany and Russia was announced.  What the world did not know was that as part of this pact Hitler and Stalin had secretly agreed on respective spheres of German and Russian control in Eastern Europe, and in particular had agreed to divide up a conquered Poland between them.

Stalin saw this act as creating something of additional land buffer between Russia and Germany.  He hoped that this would satisfy Hitler’s land lust in the East and give Hitler the opportunity to turn his attentions to the West, to France (and even England).  Stalin presumed that with the outbreak of war in the West the French and English would have to come to their senses and stand up to Hitler.  He was hoping that this would lock Germany in a long, protracted war in the West that would take the German pressure off Russia for a very long time.  And if he were very lucky, the Germans, French and English would all destroy each other again, like they had in the First World War.

With the signing of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Treaty Hitler felt he had the one last concern, opposition from the Russians, removed.  Hitler was now ready to seize the German-Polish lands to the East that had been assigned to Poland in its re-establishment as a nation.  These lands would be united to a Greater Germany (and the Poles living on these lands dealt with as the need arose).  Nothing, least of all Chamberlain’s idle threat of war, now stood in the way of Hitler achieving this great victory for the German Volk (people). 

The decision was quickly made: Poland would be invaded on September 1st by a huge array  of German divebombers, tanks, and mobile troops.  Blitzkrieg was about to get underway.

[When Germany signed the Molotov-Ribbentrop Treaty this seemed to overturn the provisions of the Anti-Comintern Pact.  Hitler resolved this issue a year later with a new Tripartite or "Axis" Pact signed in Berlin on September 27, 1940, by Germany, Italy and Japan.]