The rise and consolidation of authoritarian regimes in the 1930s (Nazi Germany from 1933, Stalinist USSR, militarist Japan), aggressive foreign policy, the failure of collective security, and the path to WWII

What this dot point is asking

VCAA wants you to explain the rise of authoritarian regimes in the 1930s and the collapse of the post-Versailles collective security system that led to WWII. The dot point covers the second half of the interwar period.

Nazi consolidation in Germany (1933-1939)

Coming to power (January 1933)

Hitler appointed Chancellor by President Hindenburg on 30 January 1933. The Nazis held only 3 of 11 cabinet positions; conservatives expected to "tame" him.

Reichstag Fire (27 February 1933)

The fire was blamed on communists. Hindenburg signed the Reichstag Fire Decree suspending civil liberties.

Enabling Act (24 March 1933)

Passed with 444 to 94 vote (Communists already arrested; some Catholic Centre support). Gave Hitler dictatorial powers to legislate without the Reichstag.

Gleichschaltung (coordination)

Trade unions abolished (May 1933). All political parties banned except NSDAP (July 1933). Civil service, professions, education, civil society all coordinated.

Night of the Long Knives (30 June 1934)

SA leadership (Ernst Rohm and others) killed. Hitler eliminated the SA as a power centre and reassured the army.

Hindenburg's death (2 August 1934)

Hitler combined Chancellor and President as "Führer". Army swore personal loyalty oath to Hitler.

Domestic policies.

• Anti-Jewish legislation: Nuremberg Laws (September 1935) defined "Jewishness" and stripped Jews of citizenship. Kristallnacht (9-10 November 1938) was state-organised violence against Jewish people, property and synagogues.
• Economic recovery: rearmament-driven (autobahns, public works). Unemployment fell from 6 million (1933) to under 1 million (1937).
• Cult of the leader, mass rallies (Nuremberg), control of media (Goebbels' Ministry of Propaganda).

Stalin's USSR (1928-1939)

Five-Year Plans

Stalin launched rapid industrialisation in 1928. Production targets set centrally; coal, steel, machinery prioritised.

Collectivisation (1928 onwards)

Peasant farms merged into collective farms (kolkhozes). Resistance was crushed. The "kulak" class was destroyed (dekulakisation). Famine in Ukraine (Holodomor, 1932-1933) killed 3 to 5 million.

Great Terror (1936-1938)

Show trials of Old Bolsheviks (Zinoviev, Kamenev, Bukharin). Mass executions and deportations to the Gulag. NKVD (secret police) under Yezhov. Around 750,000 executed in 1937-38; millions imprisoned. The terror struck the army (purge of generals 1937), creating military weakness exposed in 1939-1941.

Militarist Japan

Background

Japan had modernised rapidly after Meiji Restoration (1868). After WWI, Japan was a major power but felt slighted by Versailles.

Manchuria (September 1931)

The Mukden Incident, a Japanese-staged provocation, was used as pretext to invade Manchuria. Japan installed the puppet state of Manchukuo (1932). The League of Nations Lytton Report (1933) condemned Japan; Japan withdrew from the League.

Sino-Japanese War (July 1937)

Full-scale invasion of China beginning with the Marco Polo Bridge Incident. Nanking Massacre (December 1937 to January 1938): around 200,000-300,000 Chinese civilians and POWs killed.

Pact with Germany (1936) and Italy (1937)

Anti-Comintern Pact aligned the three revisionist powers.

Aggressive expansion in Europe

Italy in Abyssinia (Ethiopia, October 1935 to May 1936)

Mussolini invaded; League imposed limited sanctions; the Hoare-Laval Pact (December 1935, leaked) would have given Italy most of Abyssinia. The League's prestige collapsed.

Rhineland (March 1936)

Hitler remilitarised the Rhineland in violation of Versailles and Locarno. France and Britain did not respond.

Spanish Civil War (1936-1939)

Nationalists (Franco) backed by Germany and Italy; Republicans backed by USSR and International Brigades. Franco won; another fascist state in Europe.

Anschluss with Austria (March 1938)

Hitler annexed Austria.

Sudetenland (September 1938)

Hitler demanded the German-majority Sudetenland of Czechoslovakia. Munich Agreement (29-30 September 1938) between Hitler, Mussolini, Chamberlain and Daladier conceded the Sudetenland in exchange for promises of no further demands. Czechoslovakia not consulted. Chamberlain announced "peace for our time".

Rest of Czechoslovakia (March 1939)

Hitler took the remaining Czech lands. Slovakia became a German puppet. The Munich promises were broken.

Pact with Stalin (23 August 1939)

Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact: non-aggression between Germany and USSR, with secret protocol dividing Eastern Europe. Stalin gained time to prepare; Hitler gained safe eastern front.

Invasion of Poland (1 September 1939)

Britain and France declared war on Germany (3 September 1939). WWII began.

Why appeasement?

Reasons democratic powers appeased:

1. War weariness. Memory of WWI casualties (Britain 700,000+, France 1.4 million+).
2. Economic crisis. The Depression constrained military spending.
3. Misjudgement of Hitler. Many believed his demands were limited to revising Versailles.
4. Reluctance to ally with the USSR. Anti-communism made Western statesmen wary of joint action with Stalin.
5. Public opinion. Pacifism strong in Britain (the Oxford Union 1933 "King and Country" debate).
6. Time to rearm. Britain rearmed substantially after 1936; appeasement bought time.

Appeasement is sometimes defended as buying time for rearmament; more often criticised as encouraging Hitler.

Collapse of collective security

The League of Nations failed in successive crises: Manchuria (1931), Abyssinia (1935), Rhineland (1936), Czechoslovakia (1938). By 1939, collective security through the League was dead. Only direct alliances and rearmament remained as deterrents, and they came too late.

Examples in context

Example 1. The Abyssinian crisis (1935-1936) as a worked illustration of how collective security failed. Read Italy's invasion as the test case that exposed the League's structural weaknesses. The League imposed only limited sanctions, and the leaked Hoare-Laval Pact (December 1935) revealed Britain and France willing to hand Italy most of Abyssinia. The example connects cause (a revisionist power's aggression) to mechanism (member states placing national interest above collective action) and consequence (the League's prestige collapsed), illustrating the dot point's claim that collective security depended on a collective will that was absent.

Example 2. Munich (September 1938) as a study in appeasement as misjudgement. Chamberlain and Daladier conceded the Sudetenland to Hitler in exchange for promises of no further demands, and Czechoslovakia was not consulted. The "peace for our time" claim lasted less than a year before Hitler took the rest of Czechoslovakia (March 1939). Reframed as a worked illustration, Munich shows the dot point's appeasement-misjudgement thesis: the policy rested on the false belief that Hitler's aims were limited to revising Versailles.

Try this

Q1. "The collapse of collective security was caused more by Western appeasement than by the structural weakness of the League." To what extent do you agree? [10 marks]

• Cue. Thesis: both mattered, but structural flaws made appeasement attractive. Evidence: the League's lack of military power and US non-membership (structure); Manchuria 1931 and Abyssinia 1935 failures; Munich (September 1938) and the broken promises of March 1939 (appeasement).

Q2. Explain why democratic powers pursued appeasement in the 1930s. [6 marks]

• Cue. War weariness after WWI casualties; the Depression's constraint on military spending; misjudgement of Hitler's limited aims; reluctance to ally with the USSR; pacifist public opinion; and the argument that appeasement bought time to rearm after 1936.

Q3. Compare the methods of consolidation used by Nazi Germany and Stalin's USSR. [6 marks]

• Cue. Germany: Reichstag Fire Decree, Enabling Act, Gleichschaltung, Night of the Long Knives. USSR: Five-Year Plans, collectivisation and the Holodomor, the Great Terror and NKVD show trials; both used a one-party state, cult of the leader and terror.