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Causes of WORLD WAR II [AP World History] Unit 7 Topic 6 (7.6)
Causes of WORLD WAR II [AP World History] Unit 7 Topic 6 (7.6)
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In this video Heimler explains the causes of World War II which aligns with Unit 7 Topic 6 of AP World History.
Content
0.12 -> Hi and welcome back to Heimler’s History.
1.65 -> Now we’ve been going through Unit 7 of AP
World History and we’ve just got out of
5.86 -> World War I.
6.86 -> Now I went ahead and spoiled it in another
video, but there is in fact a World War II.
10.11 -> And that’s crazy because the people who
fought in the Great War, which is what World
13.419 -> War I was known as before there was a World
War II, they said this was the war to end
18.1 -> all wars.
19.1 -> And yet twenty years after the ink was dry
on the Treaty of Versailles, there was another
23.45 -> global war.
24.45 -> So the purpose of this video is to talk about
the causes of World War II.
27.13 -> In the next one we’re going to talk about
how the war was actually carried on, but this
30.21 -> one, just the causes.
31.29 -> So let’s get to it.
32.38 -> Now if we ask the historical record, “what
caused World War II?” then we’re given
35.77 -> answers that have to do with, number one,
an unsustainable peace treaty in the Treaty
39.45 -> of Versailles and the rise of the Nazi party
in Germany.
42.51 -> Now to be fair, Japan was also doing its part
to start the war, but we’ll get to them
45.879 -> near the end.
46.879 -> But for now, let’s consider why the Treaty
of Versailles, which was the treaty that ended
50.239 -> World War I, was an unsustainable peace agreement.
53.12 -> Now it’s kind of astonishing is that it’s
not just historians who live now, who have
56.17 -> the benefit of hindsight, who say “yeah,
that was unsustainable.”
59.109 -> It’s people who were living in that time
who saw the provisions of peace with their
62.93 -> own eyes who said, “yeah this is going to
lead us to another war.”
65.69 -> One such person was a French General named
Ferdinand Foch.
68.26 -> Upon the signing of the treaty, he was reported
to have said, “This is not peace; it is
73.29 -> an armistice for twenty years.”
75.39 -> What’s crazy is that World War I ended in
1918 and World War II began in 1939, which
80.33 -> is to say twenty one years.
82.08 -> So, he was off by a year, but man, he nailed
it.
84.21 -> So what was it that people like Foch could
see in that treaty that so plainly announced,
88.15 -> there’s some flaws here?
89.28 -> First, the treaty demanded that the Germans
pay reparations to the tune of billions of
93.25 -> dollars to repair the damage done by the war.
95.51 -> And you didn’t have to be a genius to realize
that such a provision was going to ruin the
99.29 -> German economy.
100.34 -> And it did.
101.34 -> And then if you add a worldwide Great Depression
and a profound level of hyperinflation, the
105.51 -> German economy would be on the brink of utter
collapse.
107.85 -> Second, the German treaty mandated that the
Allied forces occupy the Rhineland, which
111.53 -> was a strip of German land between the French
and German border.
114.59 -> And as you have probably might have guessed
from our study of world history up to this
116.89 -> point, ain’t nobody like to be occupied
by nobody.
119.37 -> Third, the war guilt clause of the treaty.
121.38 -> And this was a clause in which Germans were
made to accept full responsibility for the
125.14 -> war and all the destruction caused by it.
127.52 -> So put all these things together during the
interwar period and not only are the Germans
131.11 -> suffering profoundly in economic terms, but
they are also being humiliated on the world
135.61 -> stage.
136.61 -> And as my grandpappy used to say, “If you
humiliate a nation on a world stage in a peace
140.44 -> treaty, be careful that you don’t get the
Nazis.”
142.829 -> Well thank you, grandpappy, that is a remarkably
prescient statement.
145.959 -> So all that to say, we can pin this cause
of the war squarely on the Allied powers,
150.45 -> specifically Britain and France, and even
more specifically France, for codifying in
155.25 -> the Treaty their desire to punish Germany.
157.43 -> And that brings us to the second major cause
of World War II and that is the rise of the
161.33 -> Nazi party, and this one we’re going to
go ahead and pin squarely on the Germans.
164.29 -> So I already mentioned all the suffering and
humiliation that Germans were made to bear
167.379 -> after World War I.
168.579 -> And out of this mess a man rose through the
ranks of German politics with a plan to fix
173.249 -> it, and his name was Adolf Hitler.
175.48 -> Now after World War I ended, the German kaiser
was replaced with a parliamentary style government
179.879 -> namely the Weimar Republic.
181.59 -> Now because the policies of the Weimar Republic
didn’t do much to stem the tide of economic
185.709 -> collapse and suffering of the German people,
they saw this government as pretty weak and
189.51 -> so they longed for a stronger central government
that could actually solve their problems.
193.569 -> And it’s here where I need to introduce
you to a political party called the National
196.65 -> Socialist German Workers’ Party, or if you’re
not into saying all that, the Nazi Party.
200.84 -> Now the Nazis took power in the German parliament
in 1932.
203.599 -> And we need to stop for a second.
205.79 -> Because that thing that I just said about
them taking power, because we have certain
209.209 -> ideas in our heads when we say the word Nazi,
that can be misinterpreted.
212.34 -> I said they took power in parliament.
214.249 -> And you might be tempted to think they rolled
in with tanks and guns and took over power
218.139 -> in a military coup.
219.319 -> But no, the Nazis were, wait for it, elected
to their position.
223.499 -> It was totally democratic and legit.
225.5 -> The people actually liked the Nazi plaform
and put them in power.
229.48 -> And so what was it about their platform that
actually appealed to the people?
232.12 -> Well, among other things, they advocated for
the nullification of the Treaty of Versailles,
235.799 -> for the purification of the German population,
and for a stronger central authority who could
240.309 -> fix the problems of the German people.
242.209 -> Now, by 1933 Adolf Hitler is appointed chancellor
of the German government.
245.76 -> And by 1934, after the death of the German
president Paul von Hindenburg, Hitler declared
250.739 -> himself president and began enacting policies
close to his heart.
254.26 -> These included a powerful and militaristic
German nationalism.
257.799 -> Also there was what’s called scientific
racism which is the claim that certain races
261.84 -> were genetically superior to others.
264.139 -> Related to that was Hitler’s deep and abiding
anti-semitism by which he claimed that Jews
269.21 -> were responsible for all the nation’s woes.
271.25 -> And as a result, Germany could only be great
if purged of the corrupting influence of the
275.97 -> Jews.
276.97 -> Now the first major legislative push against
the Jews of Germany was in the Nuremberg Laws.
280.82 -> These were a set of discriminatory laws that
essentially pushed Jews to the margins of
284.8 -> society.
285.8 -> And to add fuel to this fire, in 1938 a German
diplomat was assassinated by a Jewish teenager.
289.98 -> And this event led to what’s called in German,
Kristallnacht, which when being translated
293.91 -> means “night of broken glass.”
295.63 -> It was a series of anti-Jewish riots in which
Germans ended up killing 90 Jews and destroying
300.64 -> nearly every Jewish synagogue in the city.
302.881 -> In addition, over 30,000 Jews were arrested
and sent to concentration camps.
307.4 -> Now, most of these would be released from
the camps and deported, but later prisoners
311.12 -> would not get such treatment.
312.43 -> Now something else that loomed large in Hitler’s
imagination was the German need for what he
316.889 -> called lebensraum, or living space.
319.83 -> And how much lebensraum would Hitler need
for his purified German people?
323.98 -> Oh I don’t know, how about the whole dang
European continent?
326.639 -> Now, if you’re all the other nations on
the European continent, at this point you’re
329.93 -> getting a little twitchy because those are
clearly fighting words.
332.77 -> And in that vein, Hitler went ahead and made
a military alliance with Italy in 1936 called
336.94 -> the Rome-Berlin Axis.
338.78 -> Also Germany allied themselves with Japan
in the Anti-Comintern Pact.
341.84 -> And these three nations together would become
known as the Axis Powers in the war.
346.49 -> A further cause of the war was Germany’s
aggressive militarism.
349.949 -> Now, the Treaty of Versailles had a provision
for the significant demilitarization of Germany.
354.86 -> But the problem with that is, when your sights
are set on getting all that lebensraum, you
358.689 -> gotta have a lot of pew pew in order to get
the people out of it.
361.419 -> So in March of 1935 Hitler broke the treaty
and began to build up the German military.
366.229 -> And he further broke the treaty by sending
troops into the Rhineland in 1936.
370.09 -> Now at this move Britain and France wagged
their finger at Hitler and said, stop it.
374.72 -> But that’s basically all they did.
376.52 -> For them, the policy of appeasement seemed
the best way to keep from starting another
380.94 -> world war.
381.94 -> So Hitler decided to go ahead and take some
more land.
383.789 -> Next up was Austria, which happened to be
the place of Hitler’s birth.
386.53 -> And he threatened to invade, and used the
weight of that threat to pressure the Austrian
390.58 -> chancellor to give more power to the Nazi
party in Austria.
393.86 -> Well that happened, and then the Austrian
Nazis basically welcomed Hitler to occupy
398.33 -> Austria in 1938.
400.129 -> And then came Czechoslovakia.
401.16 -> There was a little strip of land called the
Sudetenland that bordered Germany.
405.319 -> And because most of the population there were
German-speaking folks, Hitler demanded that
408.96 -> the Sudetenland be ceded to Germany.
411.18 -> And at this point Hitler met with the leaders
of Britain, France, and Italy to discuss this
414.96 -> seizure of land.
416.069 -> Here, British prime minister Neville Chamberlain
was convinced that appeasement of Hitler’s
421.02 -> desires was the best way to satisfy him and
keep the peace.
424.15 -> And so in the Munich Agreement everyone agreed
that Hitler could have the Sudetenland but
429.439 -> no more.
430.439 -> Now, look, that’s it, you understand that
right?
433.97 -> Ya.
434.97 -> I mean, you occupied the Rhineland and we
did nothing.
436.99 -> Ya.
437.99 -> You took Austria and we didn’t retaliate.
439.34 -> Ya.
440.34 -> And now the Sudetenland is yours and you don’t
want anything else, right?
446.16 -> Ya (fingers crossed).
449.37 -> And so as it happened the Munich Agreement
had the exact reverse effect.
453.349 -> Hitler could see now, clearly, that whatever
he did, Britain and France were not going
458.21 -> to oppose him.
459.21 -> And so with the Sudetenland in his possession,
he went ahead and invaded Czechoslovakia in
463.07 -> 1939, and baby, now we’re starting to get
some lebensraum and let’s just keep invading.
467.539 -> Next up, Poland.
468.539 -> Hitler set his sights now on the Port of Danzig.
471.05 -> And once this became known, Britain’s policy
of appeasement officially reached its end.
475.91 -> Britain agreed to defend Poland in the case
of a German invasion and then they went ahead
479.26 -> and allied themselves with Russia and France
to this end.
481.831 -> And you see where this is going on September
1st, 1939 Hitler invaded Poland.
486.219 -> And at that, the Allied Powers declared war
on Germany, and that’s how you get a second
491.06 -> world war.
492.06 -> Now that’s the crescendo of that story,
but earlier I said I’d mention Japan and,
494.24 -> so real quick, here’s Japan.
495.24 -> By the time all this was going on in Europe,
Japan had been encroaching on China and Korea
498.979 -> for about half a century.
501.479 -> And in 1937 fighting blew up between the Japanese
and Chinese troops, and that battle marked
505.759 -> the official beginning of the war in the Pacific
theater.
508.21 -> Alright, that’s what you need to know about
Unit 7 topic 6 of AP World History.
514.032 -> five on your exam in May.
515.032 -> And if you want me to keep making videos for
you then subscribe and join the Heimler family.
518.842 -> Heimler out.
Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oZXmTsPLQ20