Exam I Essay

Question 1

Rise of Agressor Nations: Italy

Answer 1

1. didn’t receive any of former 6 colonies and felt they were treated unfairly
2. Autarky: overpopulated and weak in natural resources, needed living space, antagonize US and Brits by trying to build empire in africa
3. Mussolini is totalitarian fascist leader, pushes italy towards pro war mentality, not ready industrially, roman empire focus, national pride, liberal ideas taint country
4. BR and FR put sanctions on italy due to 2nd italo-ethiopian war, dont put sanctions on oil which would have destroyed italy (mussolini sees this as weakness)

Question 2

Rise of Agressor Nations: Japan

Answer 2

1. fascist style military dominated gov.
2. felt treaty didn’t treat them as racially equal and wanted control of German colonial possessions in china. angry and resentful
3. autarky: focused on manchuria and china for coal, iron, and space, and manchuria protected japan from soviet union, racial ideology (yamato race) encouraged domination of china
4. inspired political unrest, was struggling democracy fighting against communisim and ultranationalists
5. racial ideology: white means pure, always viewed themselves as white (race, not color), strength is national spirit

Question 3

Rise of Agressor Nations: Germany

Answer 3

1. lost territory to Belgium, Denmark, Poland, and France, had to pay reparations to victims of german aggression, stripped of military equipment, army reduced, air force eliminated, no draft (humiliated and angry)
2. stab in the back myth
3. autarky: lebestraum (living space) - expand and combine with hitler’s racial ideology, remake europe in his image, built power on anti-semitism and anti-communism
4. germany starts to rebuild airforce and strengthens military, reoccupy demiliarized rhineland, reunites with austria, occupies czechoslovakia

Question 4

Nations Hesitate: Poland

Answer 4

1. focused on potential conflict with soviets instead of hitler, lacked modern military equipment, couldn’t ramp up production and no one was selling
2. could concentrate army and respond to enemy, or could spread army across border
3. pulled men out of civilian lives to send them where they needed to be (crushes production), didn’t want to give hitler a reason to attack
4. trusted allies would aide conflict and hold off on mobilization, brit and france claim support but instruct not to mobilize
5. german army conquers poland in 35 days. mobilized quickly and didn’t attack where poland was expecting them

Question 5

Nations Hesitate: Belgium/Netherlands

Answer 5

1. france wanted to move into belgium/holland to preserve them and expected their militaries to join. both refused to speak to france in hopes germany would honor neutrality, officers who expressed pro-french positions were replaced
2. germany pushes through forest and draws french attention to belgium. netherlands fights for 5 days, belgium isn’t able to coordinate defensive action with france bc lacked communication when originally didn’t want to anger hitler.

Question 6

Nations Hesitate: Soviet Union

Answer 6

1. despite evidence of attack, stalin doesn’t want to believe it and holds out that hitler will honor pact. Soviets spread out tanks rather than combine forces, weakness due to purge, tried to defend all of frontier. once germany breaks through it would be easy for them to dominate
2. german forces sent to aid mussolini so attack delayed, leads stalin to believe no invasion, vast majority of intelligence sector was purged and/or deceived by germans, intelligence refuse to bring evidence that contrasts stalin’s beliefs, reading evidence the way stalin wants it to be seen. almost 5 months of fighting and germany seiges leningrad