wwi-wwii-notes

#TODO

notes from ref_the-world_richard-haass_book on WWI and WWII [[2023-02-04]]❌

WWI

Path to WWI

Britian: strong economy, trade links, globe-spanning navy and access to raw materials through its colonies. thus: position of global primacy. lasted until the mid/late 1800s - costs mounted, germany began to emerge as a rival.

there was a sense that countries wouldn’t disrupt the mutually-enriching trade at the time and that the rough balance of power was sufficient - but rising nationalism outcompeted this balance. there was a cavalier attitude that war would be relatively painless and victory would be swift.

Germany: Otto von Bismarck created a country in the late 1800s out of hundreds of states and principalities. it was strong and ambitious, inclined to risk and aggression. it was rising.

Beginning and overview

• WWI start: summer 1914. end: fall of 1918
  • thought it would be short
  • one side: “Triple Entente”: Britain, France, Russia (later Japan)
  • other: “Triple Alliance”: Germany, Austria-Hungary, Italy (italy stayed neutral at first and subsequently joined Entente)
• america got invovled when germans decided to use unrestricted sumarine warfare, including targeting american ships carrying supplies to britain and france.
  • also: the “Zimmermann Telegram”: in 1917, Germany promised Texas and other states to Mexico if it would enter an alliance with Germany in the ocassion that the United States went in against Germany.
• deadliest and most expensive conflict to date due to:
  • modern railways
  • telegraph
  • mass conscription
  • powerful long-range weapons
  • use of airpower
  • ascendance of defense over offense (famously, trenches)
• Nine million soldiers died. 21 Million wounded. civilian deaths in the millions or tens of millions when including infectious disease.

End of the war

• Ended June 1919 with the Treaty of Versailles
  • Germany blamed for war, agreed to pay costly penalties, return territory to france, belgium and poland, forfeited colonies, accepted sharp reductions in army and navy size, agreed to french occupation, ceded economic control of coal and iron mines in Saarland to france for 15 years.
• russia, revolution and civil war
  • between militant Bolsheviks led by Lenin and moderate Mensheviks.
  • triggered by cost of russia’s participation in WWI, and russia’s economic, political and social issues
  • end of 1922, founding of the USSR - dominated by the Communist Party.
• middle east and africa
  • the majority of current middle east got its start when the region was redrawn after Ottoman’s empire collapse after the war.
    • British and French dividing up spoils - not thinking about regional stability.
    • this lack of self-determination for middle east and african countries was part of Wilson’s price paid to keep major powers in the League of Nations (by allowing them to keep their colonies)

League of Nations, US Isolationism and Wilson

• Woodrow Wilson articulated “Fourteen Points” in Congress speech 1918. Last of which was forming the League of Nations. - diplomatic agreements negotiated in the open - free navigation of sea at all times - trade barriers come down - collectively reduce armaments - colonial arrangements adjusted for self-determination - adjust borders in europe to undo past aggression
• US isolationism vs the League in 1919:
  • Wilson toured the country trying to create domestic political support for the League.
    • tried to persuade senators to vote for it
    • met resistence from isolations (don’t get involved in the world) and unilateralists (retain a free hand, free of committments)
  • Wilson died during this.
  • November 1919, senate struck down treaty that would have brought US into League as a founding member

League of Nations failures

• League of Nations problems:
  • League never recovered from the US’s disinvolvement
  • required unanimity before collective action
  • couldn’t enforce its decisions
  • most of all: US, Great Britain and France were more committed to pacifism than building an international order

WWII

^5bfa52

Lead up

• Germany:

  • established the Weimar Republic, but:
    • it had a lack of democratic experience
    • high cost of reparations
    • hyperinflation destroyed its currency and much of its middle class
    • internal stability broke down
  • people wanted order and prosperity restored, suspended basic civil liberties to get it; ended up with fascism - extreme nationalism and complete control of political and economic life by the government.
    • by 1932 the nazi party was largest in german parliament. 1933 hitler became chancellor.

• Soviet Union:

  • late 1920s and early 1930s, was being transformed into a fully Communist country with total centralized government control.
  • Stalin succeeded Lenin in 1924, instituted:
    • peasant work conscription (free markets abolished)
    • millions imprisioned, many executed
    • millions died of hunger resulting from terrible policies

• China:

  • Qing dynasty failed to modernize or push back foreign encroachment - protests led to its toppling in 1912.
  • In early 1930s, Japan (led by extreme right-wing nationalists) attacked and controlled parts of China.
    • Puppet state in Manchuria
    • Seized Shanghai in 1937

• Great Depression began in 1929 and effected politics everywhere

  • businesses and individuals were unable to pay their debts
  • America:
    • GDP fell sharply, unemployment shot up, banks failed
    • Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act imposed tariffs to discourage imports - which triggered other countries to do the same. reduction in international trade deepened the depression everywhere. Economic Interdependence
  • Germany:
    • Needed loans to pay its reparations. Funding sources dried up and germany printed money to keep up - hyperinflating and destroying its currency.

• Early hostilities and League appeasement

  • in 1935, fascist Mussolini invaded Ethiopia.
    • Emperor appealed to the League for help, but it proved useless (weak economic sanctions that were rolled back a year later)
  • Demonstrated to other nations that aggression would not yield a penalty.
    • become known as “Appeasement”.
      • reached its worst in late 1930s. adopted by League members with respect to Germany. British fully misread Hitler’s threat.

Beginnings and Overview

Beginning

• Hitler wanted “living space” (lebensraum) for Aryans.

  • 1933: Germany withdrew from League of Nations
  • 1935: took back the Saarland (wasn’t the agreement for 15 years? yes - this was less of a violent action than it sounds here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Territory_of_the_Saar_Basin . the League approved of this change)
  • 1936: entered Rhineland (demilitarized) and began alliances with Japan and Italy
  • 1938: annexed Austria
  • 1938: demanded Sudentenland (home to ethnic Germans in Czechoslovakia). Appeasing french/british gave it to him in exchange for a pledge that he would leave Czechoslovakia alone)
  • 1939: Invaded Czechoslovakia. lol
    • Britain and France then began extending military commitments to some independent European countries, including Poland.
  • 1939, September 1: Hitler invades Poland, war is under way.

• Keynes made the case that the Treaty of Versailles was too punitive of Germany and rather than helping it recover, penalized it and sowed the seeds for WWII.

  • the resentment among the german people helped fuel nationlist sentiment and was the engine Hitler rode in his rise to power.

• US

  • tried to stay aloof from the fighting but inclined towards Allies / against Germany
    • 1940: “lend-lease” program started which made war materials available to Allies.
    • Franklin Delano Roosevelt tried to middle-course it: keep Britain in the way, but not meet too much resistance from at-home isolationists.
    • selective embargo against Japan.
  • Isolationist movement known as “America First”.
    • The at-home, political opposition to Roosevelt signaled to Germany and Japan that they could invade others with impunity. Balance of Power
  • Japenese attacked Pearl Harbor December 7th 1941 - this finally brought the US into the war. it was a declaration of war against Japan, but that quickly turned into a mutual declaration against Germany and Italy due to their alliances.

• Russia

  • mostly stayed on its own path ealy on.
  • 1939: nonaggression pact with germany, giving soviets parts of Poland and Baltics, buying it time for Stalin to prepare for inevitable war with Hitler.
    • Hitler did this to also buy time - avoid fighting a two-front war.
    • But when Hitler finished up in the West in June 1941, he invaded the soviet union.

End

• US got involved in 1941 when Germany was in control of most of continental Europe.

• took more than three years, but the full participation of the US + Britain, Russia and other Europeans was decisive.

• Spring of 1945: victory in Europe for the Allies.

• But Japan had not been defeated yet.

  • choice was: invade japanese home islands (very difficult and costly) or use a new weapon.
  • Summer 1945: atomic weapons dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Japan surrendered within days. with the Pacific war over, WWII was over.

• More than 15 million soldiers were killed, a far larger number of civilians.

  • Germany lost 7 million
  • Soviet Union lost 24 million
  • China lost 15 million - most were civilians

• Germany and Japan were definitively defeated, but this time they were treated with respect.

  • transformed into robust democracies through mostly benign occupations
  • integrated into regional and global economic, political and security arrangements

Other

• nationalism
  • often gains momentum when people are ruled by “outsiders”.
  • typical in colonies or where religious freedom or native language is desired