Transcription
Fun fact: the people who lived through World War I called it the "war to end all wars." But, like the first Terminator movie, it turned out to be only a prequel to the much more explosive sequel, namely World War II.
I'll be back, so I reckon we ought to talk about the causes of World War II. If you're ready to get those brain cows milked, let's get to it.
As you may recall from the video on 7.3, World War I was officially ended by the Treaty of Versailles. That treaty was the diplomatic equivalent of a turd sandwich. The victorious powers, especially Britain and France, were real saucy about the war and wrote the terms with vengeance in their hearts. This turned out to be really upsetting to both Italy and Germany.
Let's look at both. Italy was bitter after the war because they didn't receive the land they were promised in Austria and the Ottoman Empire. You see, before the war broke out, Italy was allied with Germany. But when the Allied Powers promised these land grants if Italy would join their side, they broke the alliance and fought against Germany.
As it turns out, the Allied Powers almost immediately regretted this offer because Italy turned out to be about as useful as an inflatable dartboard. They were always asking for more resources and botched some of their most crucial engagements. Therefore, in the peace settlements, Britain and France decided to withhold all the land that was promised to Italy before the war. That's going to make at least one Italian real sassy.
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Anyway, let's move on to Germany and see how the peace agreement sat with them. Spoiler alert: it was not good. There were three stipulations in particular that left Germany deeply disaffected.
First, the treaty required Germany to pay reparations to the victorious powers. If you remember from the last video, that played a significant role in plunging Germany into hyperinflation and general economic disaster.
Second, the treaty mandated the demilitarization of Germany, which left them unable to defend themselves against other militarized powers.
Third, and sauciest of them all, was the war guilt clause, which placed the entire blame for the war on Germany alone. That clause was engineered by the British and the French and really served only one purpose: to humiliate Germany on the world stage. That's going to make at least one German real angry.
Now, the second cause of World War II is rooted in continued imperialist aspirations around the world. For example, Japan put on its big boy pants and started expanding into China and various islands in the Pacific. That got the League of Nations all pouty, but they really had no power to stop them.
Then, Italy, having been denied any territorial gains after World War I, went ahead and started expanding its empire on its own. To that end, Italy invaded Ethiopia, conquered it, and consolidated all its other colonial holdings on the African continent into a formal Italian Empire.
Then Germany, under the leadership of Adolf Hitler, decided they were going to start expanding as well. First, they claimed lands taken from them in the Treaty of Versailles. Germany took back the Rhineland, which the treaty set up as a buffer zone between them and France. Then they expanded into Czechoslovakia and Austria, all in the name of getting a little Lebensraum, which translates to "living space."
As Hitler took over the whole dang European continent with his aggressive militarism, Britain and France weren't doing anything to stop him. I guess it's kind of understandable because they didn't want to start another stinking World War. But this policy of appeasement just proved to Hitler that he could do anything he wanted without any consequences from Western powers.
The third cause of World War II was the profound economic crisis during the interwar period. I already covered all that in detail in the video on 7.4, so here I'll just rehash the basics. The Great Depression, which started in the United States and then spread to much of the world, meant that the populations in many countries were unemployed and hungry.
When people are in that sorry state, they are ripe to be swept away by authoritarian strongmen who make promises to make everything better. That leads us nicely to our fourth cause of World War II, namely the rise of fascists and totalitarian regimes.
For this, we'll take a little tour around the world. Our first stop is in the Soviet Union. Remember that in 1917, the Russian Revolution successfully transformed Russia into a communist state, namely the Soviet Union. After Vladimir Lenin died, a brutal dictator named Joseph Stalin rose to power.
I already talked about Stalin's grade A turdness in a previous video, but here you just need to understand why Stalin worried Western powers. It really came down to this: like Lenin before him, Stalin's rhetoric and actions proclaimed that he wasn't satisfied with communism remaining a Soviet reality. No, Stalin would not rest until the entire world was made in the image of communism. That made Western powers more than a little twitchy.
Then came the birth of fascism in Italy. By definition, fascism is a political philosophy characterized by extreme nationalism, authoritarian leadership, and militaristic means to achieve its goals. As a result of their disaffection after World War I and their profound suffering during the Great Depression, Benito Mussolini rose to power and established a fascist state in Italy.
He organized all of Italy to serve his own vision for the state. While his policies did lower standards of living for many people, he provided state-funded social security and many public services. To people suffering the devastating effects of the depression, this was a welcome relief.
Additionally, Mussolini used his oratorical skills to deliver rousing nationalistic speeches glorifying the Italian people and culture. He organized massive nationalistic parades and used mass communication technologies to effectively rally public support for his policies and make Italy great on the world stage.
Now, let's visit Germany, the most fascist and cruel of them all. Fascism took hold there under the influence of the Nazi Party, led by Adolf Hitler. Like Mussolini, Hitler was a spellbinding orator and used mass communication technologies to spread his ultra-nationalistic messages of German greatness.
In these speeches, Hitler defined for the German people a common enemy that was the root of all their problems, namely socialists, communists, and perhaps most notably, Jews.
Look, before the Nazi Party became a synonym for pure evil, their policies did improve standards of living for many Germans suffering the effects of unemployment and hunger. It was precisely Hitler's ability to articulate Germany's humiliation and suffering that made his cure so compelling.
It essentially had four parts. First, Germany would cancel its reparations payments since that had sunk them into economic hardship. Second, Hitler made plans to remilitarize Germany in violation of the Treaty of Versailles. Not only would this allow Germany to project strength again, but it would solve their economic problems by focusing on war production.
Third, as I mentioned earlier, Hitler aimed to get that sweet Lebensraum for the German people. Then fourth, and darkest of them all, Hitler made plans to eliminate all races and all people deemed impure according to his racialist ideology. The group that suffered the worst under this effort was the Jews.
All of that combined led us straight into World War II, and I'll tell you about how that worked out in the next video.
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I'll catch you on the flip-flop. I'm L out.