Question Answer

What was the • It was the first decisive step to WWI

response to the • Henry Stimson announced that USA wouldn’t recognize gains
Japanese seizure of made by armed force
Manchuria in 1931? • USA hoped that their lead would be followed, but it wasn’t –
force wasn’t met with force
• League of Nations sent Lytton Report of 1932 condemning
Japanese act as aggression
• Japan withdrew from the League of Nations in 1933 – first
formal breach
What happened • 1933: Hitler withdrew from League of Nations
during German • 1935: denounced limits of Treaty of Versailles; began
Rearmament (1935- rebuilding German armed forces
1936)? • April 1935: League of Nations condemned Germany’s
repudiation; May 1935: France and Soviet Union concluded
their treaty of alliance against German aggression; June 1935:
British signed agreement limiting German navy
• Hitler “reoccupied” Rhineland in 1936, but France and Britain
did nothing
What was the • Ethiopia had been independent – Britain, France, and Italy
Italian-Ethiopian wouldn’t divide it or let one of the three take it whole
War (1935)? • Italians humiliated by losing battle of Adowa to Ethiopians in
1896 – wanted to show they could be a revived Roman
Empire
• 1934: frontier incident in Ethiopia
• 1935: Mussolini invaded Ethiopia with good weapons and
poison gas – won the war by 1936
How did Britain, • Ready to appease Italy – wanted Mussolini to fight against
France, and the Hitler with them
League of Nations • Haile Selassie protested, but they offered Mussolini economic
react to Italy’s concessions in Ethiopia
actions? • Ethiopia belonged to League of Nations – its formal
independence had to be observed
• League of Nations had condemned Japanese aggression in
Manchuria and German rearmament
• 1935: League of Nations declared that Italy had violated
obligations under Covenant of the League
• Urged to move from words to deeds by British, French, Haile
Selasse
• Economic sanctions imposed against Italy for resorting to war
and disregarding the covenant in 1935
What were the • Loopholes – for example, oil wasn’t included
sanctions? What
were their effects? • Mussolini stated that more drastic sanctions (including oil) 
wider war
• France was too divided to fight; Britain wasn’t prepared for a
war – would have acted jointly with France, but French
premier was willing to give up Ethiopia to Italy and persuaded
Britain to join in that proposal
• Recrimination in League of Nations over what should be on
prohibition list + failure of Britain and France to watch Italian
movement through Suez Canal
• There were no rigorous sanctions – effectiveness not tested
• Italy withdrew from League of Nations in 1937
What was the • Emotional catalyst pitting fascists/monarchists/conservatives
Spanish Civil War against socialists/communists/anarchists – no center
(1936-1939)? • Quasi-religious, war of principle
• Engaged West – foreign enlistments, covert interventions
• Rehearsal for WWII – fascists tested their weapons
• 1937: German planes devastated Guernica
• Italy and German intervened effectively; Russia intervened
less effectively; Britain and France were feeble
• 1939: fall of Barcelona, Civil War over, fascists had won
What were • 1936: established Rome-Berlin Axis between fascist Italy and
Mussolini’s further Nazi Germany
actions? • 1938: orchestrated public outcry in Italy for France to hand
over Nice, Savoy, Corsica, Tunisia – came to nothing
• 1939: Mussolini attacked and subjugated Albania
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