Quick questions on Collapse of collective security and the path to WWII 1931-1939 (VCE Modern History Unit 1)

The Japanese Kwantung Army staged the Mukden Incident on 18 September 1931, blaming Chinese forces for a bombing of the South Manchuria Railway and seizing Manchurian cities in response. By February 1932, Japan had established the puppet state of Manchukuo under the last Qing emperor Puyi.

The Treaty of Versailles (1919) and the Treaty of Locarno (1925) had demilitarised the Rhineland. On 7 March 1936, German troops crossed the bridges into the demilitarised zone. The force was small (around 22,000 troops with limited equipment) and would have retreated if challenged.

The Nationalist generals' rising against the Spanish Republican government began on 17 July 1936. The Non-Intervention Committee (August 1936), endorsed by Britain, France, Germany, Italy and the USSR, was meant to seal off the war from the great powers.

The Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, signed in Moscow on 23 August 1939, was a non-aggression treaty between Nazi Germany and the USSR. A secret protocol divided Eastern Europe into spheres of influence: Germany would take western Poland; the USSR would take eastern Poland, the Baltic states, and Bessarabia.

Germany invaded Poland on 1 September 1939 without a declaration of war, using the staged Gleiwitz Incident (a fake Polish attack on a German radio station, 31 August 1939) as pretext. Britain and France declared war on Germany on 3 September 1939. The USSR invaded eastern Poland on 17 September 1939. Polish resistance ended by 6 October 1939.

Account for the collapse of collective security between 1931 and 1939. [10 marks]

Explain the significance of the Munich Agreement (September 1938). [4 marks]

Analyse the role of the Nazi-Soviet Pact (August 1939) in the outbreak of war. [6 marks]