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[music]
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1931, the world's leading powers are reeling from the impact of the Great Depression. [music] Global trade has collapsed by 2/3. Unemployment is soaring. Economies around the world are in turmoil. In the United States, the world's largest [music] economy, President Herbert Hoover, struggles to provide an effective response. [music] Great Britain, ruling the world's largest empire, is in financial and political crisis. [music] France, ruling the second largest empire, is slightly better
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protected, but will soon face economic challenges of her own. [music] The Soviet Union, the world's only major socialist state, remains an international pariah. It is therefore largely insulated from the global crisis and is about to complete Stalin's first 5-year plan, a program intended to [music] rapidly boost Soviet industrial and agricultural output. In Asia, China escapes [music] the worst of the depression, but faces crises of its own. That year, devastating floods
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claim an estimated [music] 2 million lives. while Chiang Kaishek's nationalist government fights a brutal civil war against Chinese communist rebels. In 10 years, these five states, the USA, Britain, [music] France, the Soviet Union, and China will [music] constitute the major allied powers in the largest conflict in human history, World War II. [music] However, in 1931, there is little to indicate that such a catastrophe is looming or inevitable. But that year, these same world events
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are shaping the paths of three other nations. [music] Germany, humbled and humiliated by defeat in World [music] War I, is now a fragile democratic republic. No nation is hit harder by the Great Depression than Germany thanks to its reliance [music] on US loans which have now ended abruptly. [music] Banks and businesses collapse. Unemployment leaps to 24% and will peak the following year at 40%. [music] In July, President Hoover offers some relief. Germany's war reparations, the money she
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must pay to the victors of [music] World War I, will be suspended. But the hardship experienced by ordinary Germans is reshaping German politics as support drifts to the far left and far right. Italy is now a one party fascist state ruled by dictator Benito Mussolini who's held power since 1922.
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Italy is also hit hard by the depression though massive state intervention alleviates some of the pain.
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and in East Asia, the Empire of Japan. Here the impact of the depression is not as [music] severe, but within this mixed democracy, there are alarming signs of political extremism and militarism. [music]
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In 9 years, these three states, Germany, Italy, and Japan, will form a military alliance commonly known as the Axis. All have something in common. Germany unified in 1871. Italy unified in 1861. Japan, an ancient state reinvented by the Maji restoration of 1868. [music] In historic terms, all are young nations, and all feel unjustly treated by the World War I peace [music] settlement. In all, there are now growing demands for what older established powers already have and what they have been
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denied, empire. It is empire that is seen to confer status, security and prosperity. A panacea to troubles at home. A fulfillment of destiny abroad. The 1930s, a decade of economic turmoil and failing international cooperation, will offer a window of opportunity to these three powers. An opportunity to avenge past humiliations and seize the empires they believe are rightfully theirs. It is a path that will put Germany, Italy, and Japan on a collision course with the established great powers
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[music] with disastrous consequences for the world.
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[music] This video is sponsored by Hearts of Iron 4, the game that gives you the chance to lead your chosen nation through [music] the 1930s and into the great conflict that awaits. What decisions [music] would you make? Aggressive imperial expansion, building an industrial powerhouse, or developing [music] strategic global alliances. With Hearts of Iron 4, you can take the helm of any country [music] and refight World War II your way with control over economic planning, diplomacy, the
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organization of your armed forces, and of course, [music] military strategy. Far from just simulating history, [music] Hearts of Iron 4 lets you rewrite the script with every decision, opening up new historical paths. and Paradox. The creators of Hearts of Iron are constantly adding new themes and features. The new expansion pack, No Compromise, No Surrender, brings even greater historical [music] depth to the East Asian theater. It's a crucial Second World War front
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[music] with China's struggle particularly overlooked in the West, but one which we'll be covering [music] in full in our own series. If you want to try Hearts of Iron 4 for free, don't miss the [music] free-to-play weekend on Steam from the 20th to the 24th of November. Just click the link in our video description.
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>> [music]
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>> The first major international crisis of the 1930s is in Manuria, northeastern China. Japanese nationalists see China as the natural arena for their imperial expansion and Japan has been extending its influence here over many years. There is already a large Japanese military force based in Dalian known as the Quanong army. Now nationalist officers from this army decide to force the hand of their own government acting on their own initiative. They blow up a section of Japanese-owned railway,
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a false flag operation that becomes known as the Makden incident. The Guantan army uses it as a pretext to invade Manuria. Local Chinese troops are no match for modernized Japanese armed forces. and Chinese President Chiang Kai-shek is more focused on fighting his internal communist enemies in the south. In three months, the Japanese overrun most of Manuria and turn it into their own puppet state, Manjo. The Japanese people are jubilant. The country has been gripped by war fever,
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but Western powers are outraged. Japan's attack is a flagrant breach of the Kellogg Bion pact. This treaty, just 3 years old, committed all signitaries, including Japan, to giving up war as a tool of national policy. [music] The League of Nations, the international organization that is [music] supposed to safeguard world peace, meets urgently in Geneva. But Japan is one of the League Council's four permanent members. And rather than condemn the attack, the League decides
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to send a commission to investigate. A few weeks later, further fighting breaks out in Shanghai.
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But it is clear that Western powers distracted by the economic crisis will not go to war for the sake of China. Their inaction is noted by observers across the world.
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1932 begins with an Italian victory in Libya where General Badullio declares the end of a 9-year campaign to crush local resistance to Italian rule. Italy's armed forces have used chemical weapons, concentration camps, and mass executions against the Libyan people. Their successful pacification allows Mussolini to plan fresh conquests as he dreams of a new Roman Empire. In Western Europe, the site of bloody trench warfare just 14 years earlier. Hopes for a lasting peace are based on
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the 1925 Lano Pact. This guarantees Germany's western borders and requires Germany and its neighbors to submit all disputes to the League of Nations for mediation. There is a mood of optimism among European diplomats known as the spirit of Lano. a hope that war in Europe may have been consigned to the past. In February, a world disarmament conference opens in Geneva, attended by 61 states. In June, the Loausanne conference cuts German war reparations by 90%. But it will prove a false dawn.
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In Germany that year, federal elections are dominated by Adolf Hitler's Nazi party. His attitude to disarmament will soon become very clear. Meanwhile, in the Soviet Union, dictator Joseph Stalin continues his drive to make the state more resilient against external and internal enemies. His first 5-year plan focuses on expanding heavy industry, almost doubling the Soviet industrial workforce, and dramatically increasing output of steel, iron, and coal. It's impossible to be
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sure by how much, as official figures are constantly manipulated and inflated by communist officials. It's clear, however, that tank and aircraft production are expanding massively. While in Ukraine, the completion of the Nepra Dam, the largest in Europe, gives a major boost to Soviet electricity generation.
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But in the countryside, the policy of forcing peasants into large state controlled farms, collectivization has proved disastrous. A catastrophic collapse in the harvest has resulted in famine on a terrifying scale. The total death toll over 4 years is estimated at between 6 and 9 million. Around half these deaths are in Ukraine where the disaster will be remembered as the holomore.
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Kazakhstan is also hard hit.
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Soviet authorities do everything they can to cover up the horrifying truth of what's happening [music] in Spain where a new republic has been proclaimed the previous year. Prime Minister Manuel Azana enacts sweeping reforms aiming to modernize the country and curtail the influence of the Catholic Church. Such moves are bitterly opposed by conservatives. In neighboring Portugal that summer, Antonio Salazar is appointed prime minister. He goes on to establish an
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authoritarian regime, Estadon Novo, that he will lead until 1968.
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In the Middle East, the Kingdom of Iraq gains full independence from British rule and is admitted to the League of Nations.
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[music] In Japan, the nationalist militarist assault on the country's democracy steps up a gear. In February, a conspiracy to wipe out the country's leading liberal figures fails. But in May, a group of young naval officers shoot dead Prime Minister Inuket Sioshi. [music] In the United States of America, the 1932 presidential election is won by Franklin D. Roosevelt [music] of the Democratic Party. To combat the effects of the Great Depression, he [music] promises a new deal for the American
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people. Only a foolish optimist [music] can deny the dark realities of the moment. He will declare at his inauguration. This nation asks for action and action now.
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[music]
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Germany is in political deadlock. The previous year, federal elections had filled the Reich with Nazis, Social Democrats, and [music] Communists, all of whom detest each other. In January, to break [music] the impass, President Hindenburg appoints a new chancellor of Germany, the leader of the Nazi party, Adolf Hitler. It's predicted that more moderate and experienced politicians will be able to curb Hitler's more extreme views, of which there are many. Adolf Hitler, born in Austria, had
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served as a senior private in the German army in World War I. After the war, he became leader of a fringe nationalist party based in Munich, the German Workers Party. He renames it the National Socialist German Workers Party, Nazi Party for short. Its policies combine extreme ethnationalism with total rejection of the Versailles peace settlement, hostility to capitalism and big business, and a rabid hatred of Jews who are blamed for all Germany's wos. Above all, its stab in
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the back defeat in World War I, which is itself a nationalist myth. Many of Hitler's own deepest beliefs on Germany's need for an empire and living space at the expense of lesser [music] races in the east are available for anyone to read in volume two of his political [music] manifesto mine camp published in 1926. Many Germans are disillusioned with centrist politicians and their failure to tackle the [music] economic crisis. Hitler's powerful oratory and promise of
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radical solutions has strong appeal. Many middleclass Germans see the Nazis as the best way to keep the communists out of power. Now with Hitler in charge, events begin to move quickly. In February 1933, a Dutch communist, Marinus Vanderuba, sets fire to the Reichag building [music] in Berlin. He is acting alone, but the Nazis accused the German Communist [music] Party of attempting a coup.
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Civil and political rights are quickly suspended by emergency [music] decree. Communists are jailed, their newspapers shut down. In March, Germany holds new elections during which the Nazis political [music] rivals are harassed and terrorized by their paramilitary thugs, the SA and SS. [music] The Nazi party wins 44% of the vote and takes effective control of the Reichag. [music] At the end of the month, it passes the enabling act. This frees Hitler from all
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constitutional checks and balances. He can now pass new laws without consulting [music] the Reichag or President Hindenburg. On the 1st of April, the Nazis organize a one-day nationwide boycott of all Jewish businesses. By the end of the summer, Nazi concentration camps have opened at Oranberg and Dhau, and all political parties in Germany have been banned except the Nazi party. [music] Hitler's next target is the despised Versailles treaty that ended World War I.
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publicly. He rejects its war reparations and the so-called war guilt clause that blamed Germany for starting the war. In secret, he orders largecale German rearmament in defiance of Versailles restrictions on the size of German armed forces. The existence of an illegal German air force is already widely known and it's growing by 60 aircraft a month. The dramatic revival of nationalism and militarism in Germany is plain for all to see. At the Geneva Disarmament Conference, Germany demands parity
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between its armed forces and those of France. When this is rejected, Germany quits the conference. The same month, Hitler withdraws Germany from the League of Nations. It is the League's second major [music] blow of the year. In February, the League report on Japan's invasion of Manuria had finally been presented to the General Assembly. It had called on Japan to withdraw from Manuria. >> Japan responds by quitting the League of Nations accepted by the assembly. The
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international institutions designed to maintain peace are flailing. >> Japan subsequently withdrew from the League of Nations. >> That body proved itself incapable of stemming the tide of aggression either in Europe or in Asia.
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>> A few foreign diplomats take the time to read Hitler's political manifesto mine camp. Some dismiss it as incoherent rambling, but others feel a deep sense of alarm. In Britain, Conservative member of Parliament Winston Churchill warns of Germany's grim dictatorship and the return of [music] its militaristic spirit. But in the early 1930s, there is little appetite in Britain or France to confront Germany. The trauma of World War I is too fresh. The [music] public mood is one of pacifism.
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In Britain, some even wonder if the Versailles treaty had been too harsh on Germany. Perhaps some of Hitler's demands are not so unreasonable. Besides [music] which, the Great Depression has led to severe cuts in military spending, meaning neither Britain nor France is in any state to fight a European war. [music] France is in the middle of a full-blown political and economic crisis. There have been 10 governments in the last 3 years. National income has fallen by 30%.
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Defense spending has fallen by 25%. But the French are working on a major military project which they [music] believe will ensure national security for years to come. [music] In the US, meanwhile, there is strong support for isolationism and a desire to avoid all overseas entanglements. The US is not a member of the League of Nations and facing 25% unemployment, Roosevelt is fully preoccupied with domestic politics.
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In June, Hitler orders a ruthless purge of the Nazi party's paramilitary wing, the SA or brown shirts. Brownshard violence and intimidation [music] have been a crucial part of Hitler's rise to power, but they have served their purpose and are despised by the German army, whose loyalty Hitler now values more. In the so-called Knight of the Long Knives, prominent SA leaders are rounded up and shot without trial.
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Since 1932, Austria has been a right-wing one party state led by Chancellor Engelbert Dulus. He regards the Nazis as dangerous rivals and has banned the party in Austria. In July 1934, Austrian Nazis assassinate Dolphus, part of an attempted coup that is to pave the way to unification with Germany. known as Anstus. They expect support from Hitler. But Mussolini has other ideas. He regards Austria as an important buffer state between Italy and Hitler's resurgent Germany. So he sends Italian
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troops to the Brener Pass on the Austrian border, threatening to intervene if Hitler attempts to annex Austria. Germany's armed forces are still very weak. Hitler is forced to back down. The Nazi plot in Austria fails. [music] In August 1934, 86-year-old German President Hindenburg dies in office. As a war hero and statesman, he receives a lavish state funeral. [music] Hindenburg's authority and conservatism has acted as a limited check on Hitler's actions. [music] No longer
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Hitler swiftly abolishes the office of president. He will now wield its powers in his new role as furer of the German state and people. On the 20th of August, a new law requires all German military officers and civil servants to swear an oath of personal loyalty to Hitler. That October, King Alexander of Yugoslavia makes a state [music] visit to France. Alexander is regarded as a crucial unifying figure for the young Yugoslav state. But on his arrival in Marseilles,
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he is assassinated by a Bulgarian nationalist.
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French foreign minister Louis Bartu is also killed in the crossfire.
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That autumn, Britain learns that the German army is now [music] 300,000 strong, three times what is permitted under the Versailles Treaty. Germany [music] has further plans for expansion and mechanization. [music] Tentative British steps towards rearmorament begin with a commitment to expand the Royal Air Force by 40 squadrons in 4 years. >> [music] >> In December, there's a further blow to attempts to [music] limit global rearmament when Japan announces it will not renew
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the Washington Naval Treaty [music] signed in 1922. The treaty had fixed the size of British, American, and Japanese fleets in the ratio 553. [music] This is now seen as an insult to Japan's status as [music] a major power. Though one Japanese naval officer has pointed out that the treaty may have been to Japan's advantage given the US's far greater industrial capacity. [music] He is Rear Admiral Yamamoto, the architect of the Pearl Harbor attack.
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Thank you to Hearts of Iron 4 for sponsoring [music] this video. Don't forget, you can try out the ultimate World War II strategy game for free on Steam from the 20th to the 24th of November. Just click the link in [music] the video description. Thank you to our series consultant, World War II historian, Professor Richard Overy of the University of Exit. [music] And thanks as always to the Patreon supporters who helped to make this channel possible. From builders such as Keith Herbert,
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Drunk Crow, and John Jonah Jameson to citizens [music] like the CIA, Olaf Ga, and Marcos, and heroes like Michael Smith. And now you can also support the channel by joining the ranks of the Grunyards, our valued YouTube members who gain access to loyalty badges, custom emojis, and merch discounts. Click the membership link on our channel page to sign up now. [music]
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