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Western Ideals and World War II HIS/114 The end of World War I was essentially the starting off point for Germany, Italy and the Soviet Union to begin a path to a totalitarian regime, a form of government in which the state attempts to take control of every aspect of public and private life. Defeated by the failure of Ludendorff’s plan, and economically crushed by the costs of their involvement in the war, Germany signed the Treaty of Versailles on 28 June 1919 during the Paris Peace Conference. This treaty, written by the Allies (represented by President Woodrow Wilson of the United States, Prime Minister David Lloyd George of Great Britain, Prime Minister Georges Clemenceau of France and Prime Minister Vittorio Orlando of Italy) after almost three years of talks in Tehran (1943), Yalta (1945) and Potsdam (1945), required that Nazi Germany surrender unconditionally, and it laid the blame of the war entirely on Germany. It stated that the war was Germany’s fault and that Germany would be required to pay reparations to the Allies for all of the destruction and damage to their property. It took away their ability to form an effective military (demilitarization), under Part V, Articles 159-198 of the Treaty, and required that all Nazi war criminals be hunted down and brought to justice. (Roberts, 2007). Also, after the war was over, Germany and Berlin would be split into four separate zones. The signing of the Treaty of Versailles was not the only event that affected Germany’s status as a country. The effects of inflation became painfully apparent to Germany during this time, because Germany had begun printing money to pay off war debts during the war, rather than raising taxes. Inflation continued to rise when the currencies of neighboring countries began depreciating, leading the Great Depression. The treaty’s demand for Germany to pay reparations further devalued their currency, and inflation turned into hyperinflation in 1922, leading to the Great Depression. Prices soared, and people suffered. Even still, Germany continued to print money, believing that if they could make their currency worth less, they would make exports more attractive and increase the foreign exchange they needed to prosper (Kishlansky, Geary, & O'Brien, 2008). This plan backfired, and the German people paid the price. The cost of food to survive was more than many people could afford, and inflation was rising at such high rates that employers were paying their employees twice a day so that they could go buy food on their lunch breaks before prices rose further. Many Germans were upset with the parliamentary democracy that they felt had put them in the situation they were in, and were looking for new leadership. Adolf Hitler appealed to many Germans, as he proposed solutions to end the suffering of the people of Germany. He opposed paying reparations, and promised to help the people out of the hardships they were suffering. He believed that Germany had not lost the war, but was destroyed from within by the Weimar republic, Communists, Socialists, liberals and Jews. He demanded that the Weimar Republic be dismantled, and replaced by a Nazi (National Socialist) party. After being released from prison in 1925 (serving time for attempting to seize control of the Munich Municipal government in 1923, later known as the Beer Hall Putsch, which he failed to do) would eventually be named Chancellor of Germany on 30 January 1930. His new found power opened the doors for what many today view as the most horrific war crimes committed in all of history. He believed that Germans (not including the Jews and Romani in Germany) were a “master Aryan race”, and that the inferior people in Germany should be removed in any way possible (which included concentration camps, murders and forcing them to leave the country). Within weeks of his election, he banned all other political parties. When the Reichstag building was burned down, he established the foundation for a police state by suspending freedom of religion, freedom of the press and freedom of public assembly. He used propaganda to boost his popularity with the German people, and together with the National Socialists, convinced the German people to boycott all Jewish businesses in Germany. (Rittenmeyer & Skundrick, 2011). Italy and the Soviet Union also saw a rise of totalitarian fascist regimes. Italy was led by Benito Mussolini, a Fascist who believed in loyalty to the State, and said “...The Fascist State organizes the nation, but leaves a sufficient margin of liberty to the individual; the latter is deprived of all useless and possibly harmful freedom, but retains what is essential; the deciding power in this question cannot be the individual, but the State alone...(“ Mussolini," 1932). The Soviet Union, led by Joseph Stalin was a Communist that unified his country with the idea of a classless society, and believed that the State owned everything and controlled the economy. He, like Hitler, believed in complete control of the media, but took his control a step further and suppressed all religion. (Mussolini allowed religious freedom, but supported Catholicism as the state religion; Hitler believed in some freedom of religion, but not for Jews). During the late 1930’s and early 1940’s, Hitler’s views of the Jews in Germany became more and more twisted. Jews who were able to escape Germany before the implementation of Hitler’s vision, did so at a cost. They were forced to leave 90% of their assets behind, and many were forced to pay the next years taxes ahead of time, even though they would not be living there. This confiscated Jewish wealth would account for at least 30% of the German war effort. (Rittenmeyer & Skundrick, 2011). Hitler blamed many of the failures in Germany on the Jewish people, and believed that all Jews were enemies of the State. He had a vision of a perfect German society, with no disease, deformities, and other less desirable traits (such as homosexuality, mixed race children, the elderly and the sick). Those that were of perfect Aryan design were worth sparing. Those that were not were rated as subhuman. Slavic peoples were automatically rated subhuman, just for being Polish or Russian, and were displaced in order to gain Lebensraum (living space) for his “master race”. Nazi social policies were put into place to eliminate those who were seen as inferior. Labeled as the “Final Solution,” these policies included extermination of all Jews, by rounding them up and placing them in concentration camps. The SS, or Security Service, an elite part of the Nazi party, carried out the executions using many different methods to kill as many Jews as they could between 1941 and 1945. Another one of Hitler’s organizing goals was rearmament. He secretly began rebuilding Germany’s army, violating the Treaty of Versailles, which he adamantly despised. He knew that by expanding his forces and instituting autarky (economic self-sufficiency), he could amass large amounts of weapons in order to fight the war and not repeat the mistakes of World War I. His efforts to expand territorially would help him to gain the materials he needed to be able to strengthen his country economically and build the weapons he needed to enter into war. Hitler’s primary goal to expand his “master Aryan race”, or Lebensraum (living space) was to take control of neighboring countries in order to give Germans more room to flourish. He had already laid out his plans in his autobiography, “Mein Kampf”, which he had written during his incarceration. He utilized art as propaganda to spread his belief that Germany could one day become a perfect Aryan superpower. He knew that he could not afford to fight on two fronts, as Germany had done in World War I, so he planned to invade Poland only, and leave Great Britain alone. He believed that if he did not invade Great Britain, then they would not invade Germany. Britain, France and Russia did not want to enter into war and their collective diplomatic stance was to pacify Germany. Without engaging in war, Germany was able to annex neighboring Austria and carve up Czechoslovakia. (Florida Center for Instructional Technology, College of Education, University of South Florida, 2005). It was at this point that Britain and France threatened war if Germany went after Poland or Romania. At the same time, Mussolini was invading Ethiopia in 1935. He too was looking to expand Italy’s presence in the world, but when Great Britain and France disapproved of his invasion plans, he turned to Germany for support. The result was an agreement signed by both parties, known as the Pact of Steel in 1939, which bound Italy and Germany militarily. On September 1, 1939, Germany invaded Poland. The invasion utilized blitzkrieg, or lightning war, in which rapid tank movement and air attacks were used for the first time to quickly take Poland. This was not what The British and French had expected, since they believed that the hilly terrains around their country protected them. However, the use of Panzer tanks eliminated any obstructions in their path. Britain and France held to their promise and declared war on Germany, which started World War II. This eventually became a global conflict that would pit Germany (Hitler), Italy (Mussolini) and Japan (Hirohito), also known as the Axis Powers, again the British Empire (Churchill), the United States (Roosevelt) and the Soviet Union (Stalin), known as the Allied Powers. The use of new technologies such as single-wind aircraft, flamethrowers, missiles, aircraft carriers, Molotov cocktails and atomic weapons were introduced during the war, and would change the way the war was fought compared to previous wars. Japan had an interest in imperial expansion in the late 1930s, and was determined to expand its control over China and Southeast Asia. However, with the Soviet Union pressing eastward across Asia, and with the colonial presence in Asia by Great Britain, the United States and France, Japan felt they were being limited in their goals to expand and secure their security. When Japan invaded southern Indochina in 1941, the United States insisted that they vacate China and Indochina. However, President Roosevelt and the United States knew that an attack on the U.S. was looming. They were unsure about when and where it would eventually take place. On 7 December 1941, Japan attacked Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. The attack caught the American Pacific Fleet off-guard, killing 2300 people and sinking eight battleships and many other destroyers. The United States immediately declared war against Japan. Four days later on 11 December 1941, Hitler declared war on the United States. As a result, the rest of the Allies and Axis Powers that were not already involved in the war were drawn in by Germany, Japan and the United states through their alliances. Hitler did not want war overseas however, because he knew that he could not win. Germany was incapable to defending itself against the three powers with inexhaustible resources: the British Empire, the Soviet Union, and the United States (Kishlansky, Geary, & O'Brien, 2008). After failed attempts to invade the Soviet Union, and take the city of Stalingrad, Hitler’s army had suffered a staggering loss of almost one million troops between 1941-1943. The Soviet Union’s victories were credited to the United States and to Great Britain for rushing in supplies and fresh troops to defend the country. While Germany continued to fight in Italy (even though the Italian government had already withdrawn from the war) President Roosevelt, Winston Churchill and Josef Stalin (the Big Three) met for the first time in Tehran, Iran in 1943. At this meeting, Roosevelt and Churchill promised Stalin that they would open a second front in France within six months in order to attack Germany. Stalin promised to attack Japan once Germany had been defeated in order to help the United States. The second conference occurred in Yalta in the Crimea in February 1945 with a goal to plan out the future after the end of the war. Stalin, Roosevelt and Churchill attended this meeting as well. It was at this meeting that the Big Three made a decision to divide Germany and Berlin into separate zones and they created the United Nations Organization, which the United States did not join. Roosevelt died two months later. The United States military marched into Germany in March 1945. Hitler refused to surrender, and on April 30, 1945, committed suicide in an underground bunker. The war was over. The third and final conference occurred in Potsdam between July and August 1945. The Big Three were present again, with President Harry S. Truman as Roosevelt’s successor, and agreements were reached that would force Germany to be divided up into four zones run by four military commanders, that Germany would pay reparations, and that Nazi leaders would be put on trial for war crimes committed during Hitler’s reign. President Truman also told Stalin of the new weapon he wanted to use on Japan, but Stalin was unimpressed (Kishlansky, Geary, & O'Brien, 2008). A few days after the conference ended, two atomic bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan. The war between the United States and Japan ended on August 10, 1945.