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Lecture 6

The document provides an overview of key events leading up to World War 2, including the rise of fascism in Germany and Italy, Japanese expansionism in Asia, and appeasement in Europe. It discusses nationalism, remapping of boundaries after WWI, the Great Depression, Nazi party rise in Germany, Manchurian Crisis of 1931, Japanese colonialism of Korea, and German remilitarization of the Rhineland. It also covers the Nazi-Soviet non-aggression pact of 1939 and reasons for both Hitler and Stalin signing it.

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19 views

Lecture 6

The document provides an overview of key events leading up to World War 2, including the rise of fascism in Germany and Italy, Japanese expansionism in Asia, and appeasement in Europe. It discusses nationalism, remapping of boundaries after WWI, the Great Depression, Nazi party rise in Germany, Manchurian Crisis of 1931, Japanese colonialism of Korea, and German remilitarization of the Rhineland. It also covers the Nazi-Soviet non-aggression pact of 1939 and reasons for both Hitler and Stalin signing it.

Uploaded by

Mishaal
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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COLD WAR

LECTURE 6

- Bifurcation of the world into 2 poles problematic


As in china, there’s a legal regime (sovereign)
- Inter-war years (b/w end of ww1 and start of ww2) → clear ideological positions
not identified
- Called ‘leadup’ to ww2

➢ Maps
● Europe 1914
● Postwar Europe (redrawing of state boundaries within Europe due to
nation state engineering i.e. shift from empire to nation state)
→ Ideas of nationalism coming about through the course of 18th c. due to:
(i) rise of national school curriculum (ii) political processes → leading to identity
formation
→ This idea of ‘nation’ and ‘nationalism’ maybe organic but is placed above in
other countries
● Division of Middle East
→ redrawing of boundaries in many parts of the world
→ has implications that play about decades later
● Japanese in Manchuria
→ behind redrawing of boundaries, idea of what it means to belong to a particular
state
● War in Asia

➢ Other implications:
Germany needs to pay reparations, which is important because:
(i) Germany made to bear the guilt for WW1
(ii) led to the rise of the Nazi party

Nazism
- Initially, the popularity of the nazi party wasnt so much, but later, gained
popularity as the great depression hits the US and generates economic
vulnerability
- This leads people to gravitate towards ‘nazism’
- By 1933, rise of nazi party in Germany which is compounded by the fact
that germany is supposed to pay reparations and has to bear the blame for
WW1

Fascism
- Were ‘pockets of fascism’ in the world
- Fascist parties in interwar europe
- Anticommunist nature of the fascist party
- What is ‘fascism’ as an ideology?
(i) use of violence
(ii) far right; nationalist
(iii) centralisation of power
(iv) suppression of opposite view
(v) hinges on the idea of ‘otherisation’
(vi) idea of ‘master race’ (racialized politics)
- To some extent, Germany could be called ‘fascism’ however, to a large
extent, called ‘militarism’ or ‘nationalism’
- In german fascism, there is a strong opposition towards the USSR
– part of it has to do with (i) property (ii) fascist party - bureau, tapping into
antisemitism,
So Nazism feels itself opposed to soviet-style socialism

● Germany, Italy, Japan = Axis powers (‘Anti Comintern Pact’)

How, in their representation, you find similarity and difference b/w soviet
style socialism and fascism?

Difference: public/private ownership of property

Similarity: violence, popularity

Manchurian Crisis:
1) 1931 - Mukden Incident, formation of Manchukuo state (not independent
country, rich in natural/mineral resources)
2) Prior to it, japan extends in korean peninsula and eyes the natural
resources there
3) Installs a puppet ruler in manchukuo

4) Japan suffers economically; economy in downward spiral (japanese


military modeled on prussian military); military gaining power over political
system
5) Military in control, Emperor Hirohito (due to imperial system of Japan)
With the rise of nationalists (factions within the Japanese imperial army
who want to expand), the emperor was overruled but wasn't dethroned.
6) The emperor escaped although expansion was taking place

7) Republican china unable to push back the japanese


8) Alliance b/w Guomindang and CCP → Guomindang headed by Chiang kai shek,
CCP headed by Mao Zedong
To push back against the japanese presence in china
Despite the ideological differences, both of them decided to fight against
japan as both belonged to 1 country (china)
9) Skirmishes taking place b/w USSR and Japan at Siberia:
Symbolizes that Japan can defeat the USSR

Russo-Japanese War (1904)


1) Showed how weak the Russian military was, the Russian navy had sailed
around the world to reach the Pacific `
2) 1904: low point in Japan’s military prowess

Japanese colonialism in Korea


1) 1 model of colonialism: in india, had 1 colonial official for 250 indian
people, colonial rulers did not try to transform people’s value systems
2) However, in korea, there was sort of cultural imperialism as:
(i) forced them (koreans) to go to shinto temples
(ii) colonized people asked to adopt japanese names
Is particularly violent form of colonialism (erase people’s culture and force
their own culture)
3) Key form of resistance against the japanese: guerilla movement in
northern part of peninsula led by Kim Il Sung
4) Korean communists were in touch with the chinese communists
5) Calling them korean communists takes away from the fact that they were
primarily ‘imperialist’
6) Koreans seen as culturally and racially inferior – people killed by biological
experimentation; korean women seen as ‘comfort women’; people of korea
and japan considered to be inferior to china (particularly pervasive racial
basis that justifies violence against them)
7) Japan looks at the bias for Korea as ‘legitimate’ as it feels it has a role to
lift up other countries. The ‘Greater East Asian Co-Prosperity Sphere’ and
‘Kyoto School of buddhism’ (popular in late 1930s and early 40s, using
buddhism as a tool to depict japan as superior to other countries, Japan’s
racialized violence, intellectual activity going on where Japan feels that
needs to uplift other Asian people to resist against Western imperialism)
8) Status quo holds until the summer of 1937:
(i) Bridge - 1 japanese soldier missing → becomes a flashpoint of conflict
(ii) war breaks out in N. China
(iii) by August, Japanese troops landed in Shanghai, then arrived in
Nanking
(iv) massacre of Nanking: 200, 000 non-armed individuals killed, sexual
violence against women, main event in terms of which japanese atrocities
committed.
Chinese position: japan has not atoned, 1 of the greatest war crimes
against civilians

1935 onwards
1) Conscription begins in Germany, so she is building up armed forces
2) Militarization of Rhineland
3) March 1938: annexation of Austria
(justified by Nazis on the pretext that they want space)
4) Expansion of Germany in Czechoslovakia
5) US following policy of ‘isolationism’ → US parties believed that it shouldn't get
involved in international affairs → US constrained by policy makers
CMAEI

Appeasement
1) Munich Conference (Sept 1938):
→ british takeaway = hitler wouldnt expand beyond what he has already attained
→ if we let hitler capture it, he will not conquer the rest of the areas
→ 1939, germany given ultimatum by britain and france
→ germany attacks poland
→ britain and france declare war on germany

Nazi Soviet Pact


1) Non aggression pact
2) Enemies are wary of expansionist design from the other country
3) Dividing up different parts of europe into spheres of influence
4) Baltic states (bolshevik forces capture them), Georgia recaptured
5) As hitler has designs of eastern europe, stalin has designs of baltic states

Why is Hitler signing this Pact?


Why is Stalin signing this Pact?

French colonialism in Algeria: french wanted to make Algerians ‘culturally


French’

1922: Treaty of Washington (attempt to regulate the number of naval


vessels at sea)

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