1 September, 9391day, Germany declared war on Poland and World War II broke out. It seems that in a blink of an eye, 60 years have passed since the victory of the world anti-fascist war. It is of great significance to look back on history and analyze how this global war with the largest scale, the heaviest casualties and the deepest destruction experienced by human society broke out. Only by earnestly drawing lessons from history can mankind really avoid falling into the abyss of war again.
The "Versailles-Washington system" has laid a curse.
1918165438+1October 1 1, Germany and allied forces signed a surrender agreement in the Compiegne forest in the northeast of Paris, France. World War I ended with the victory of the Allies. After the war, the Allies held international conferences in Paris and Washington at 19 19 and 1922 respectively to discuss the reconstruction of the post-war international order. After several bargaining, the international system in the early postwar period, namely "Versailles-Washington system", was finally established.
The core problem of "Versailles-Washington system" is to solve the German problem. Many people believe that the failure of the Allies to recognize Germany's status as a great power was the root cause of the First World War. Therefore, at that time, many European politicians naively believed that Europe could avoid another war as long as this issue could be handled well. However, the Treaty of Versailles, which was signed by Britain, France and the United States, adopted the method of "fighting violence with violence" when dealing with Germany, which made Germany lose its territory of 1/8 and its population of110, and planted the seeds of hatred in the hearts of Germans, thus deviating from the original intention of making this treaty.
Can a paper contract really solve the German problem once and for all?
In the twenty years between the two world wars, no matter how merciful the Allies were in dealing with the German issue, it was difficult to change the traditional basic understanding of the German people: war reparations were the root of poverty in Germany. No matter businessmen on the verge of bankruptcy, teachers with low incomes or unemployed workers, they all blame their poverty on war reparations. According to the Germans, under the "Versailles-Washington system", Prussia occupied Danzig (now Gdansk, Poland, under the jurisdiction of the Federation of Returned Overseas Chinese and Poland after World War I) 100 years and became a free city. The Polish Corridor separated East Prussia from Germany, and Germany lost all its colonies. All this has brought only poverty and pain to Germany. Germans believe that the fundamental way out of the predicament is to overthrow the Treaty of Versailles, and this problem is on their heads. At this point, most Germans only want revenge! Revenge! Revenge! The appearance of Hitler and the Nazi Party catered to the extreme nationalism of the Germans, so they came to power easily.
At the Paris Peace Conference, Italian Prime Minister Orlando left angrily without the privilege he wanted. The government collapsed after Orlando returned to China. 1922 In June, Mussolini established a fascist regime in Italy. Japan, another big country that launched the Second World War, has its inflation ambition related to the Washington Conference's handling of German island colonies in the Pacific and the re-division of the political structure in the Far East. Therefore, later historians said rudely that the fascist countries of Germany, Italy and Japan were themselves the products of the imperialist countries' re-division of the world after World War I and the uneven distribution of spoils, and they were deformed children bred by the Versailles-Washington system!
Appeasing traitors and fascists flooded the world.
In 1930s, Japan launched the "September 18th Incident" 193 1, Nazi Germany invaded Poland 1939, and World War II ended, with Italy intervening in Abyssinia (now Ethiopia). Japan launched a full-scale war of aggression against China, German-Italian fascists intervened in the Spanish civil war, and Nazi Germany annexed Austria and Czechoslovakia. In this decade, the world has gone from bonfire to a mass of smoke, from local wars to the abyss of world war.
After the First World War, people generally fantasized that there would be no world war in the future, and the "pacifism" thought of European countries suffering from war was excessive. Under the strong breeze, European countries carried out large-scale disarmament and neglected to guard against the possible harm caused by the Nazi party's coming to power in Germany, which formed its external conditions for growth. At the same time, Britain, France, the United States and other countries turned a blind eye to the aggression of Germany, Italy and Japan all over the world, tolerated and nurtured traitors, and made fascist cancer spread all over the world, which became a major hidden danger endangering human peace.
1933, the desire for peace inspired most British people, while the French built a Maginot line winding for hundreds of kilometers on the German-French border, forming an "allied small country" group that restricted Germany in eastern Germany, thinking that they could sit back and relax and enjoy peace forever. At the same time, after the Nazi Party came to power, Germany quietly rearmed, resumed universal compulsory military service, and secretly developed the air force and tank forces prohibited by the Treaty of Versailles. Italy and Japan, two fascist countries, are also scrambling to expand their troops and prepare for war, sharpening their swords and preparing for a big fight.
193 1 year, the Japanese created the "September 18th Incident" and occupied the northeast of China. After the September 18th Incident, Chiang Kai-shek's government, while pursuing the policy of "non-resistance", pinned its hopes on the international alliance led by Britain and France, hoping that the "League of Nations" would come forward to sanction Japan. Although the "League of Nations" controlled by Britain and France held high the banner of "morality", its aggression against Japan was resolute. On the one hand, this is because western powers want to maintain economic and trade relations with Japan. On the other hand, if we look through the history books, which one of them has never committed a similar act of aggression? At this time, the Roosevelt administration of the United States, which had high hopes from world public opinion, was immersed in the "New Deal" and refused to set foot in international affairs, which was tantamount to encouraging fascist countries to push their luck.
The attitude of the League of Nations towards the September 18th Incident set a sad and terrible precedent. After that, the fascist countries grasped the pulse of "appeasement policy" and invaded all over the world frequently, eventually pushing the world to the abyss of war!
The appeasement policy pushed the world to war.
At the beginning of Hitler's coming to power, it coincided with Germany's economic crisis in the capitalist world. With the economic capacity of schacht (then German Minister of Economy), Germany's economic strength has almost reached its limit. However, the German army sanctioned by the Treaty of Versailles is no longer a formidable force. Even in 1939, when the great war broke out, the Germans were not fully prepared for a protracted war.
Then, what forces led the fascist countries to gamble again and again, but they kept succeeding, thus dragging the whole world into a world war that almost destroyed mankind? The answer is "appeasement policy".
What is appeasement policy? The general explanation is that in order not to let the war burn on their heads, the western powers exchanged their own peace at the expense of weak countries.
Without the "appeasement policy" pursued by major countries such as Britain and France at this time, Hitler was just an ordinary little politician and a buffoon. So, how did countries such as Britain and France "appease" Hitler?
1on March 7, 936, Hitler brazenly tore up the Treaty of Versailles, and 35,000 German troops were ordered to enter the demilitarized zone of the Rhine. At that time, there was a great gap in quantity and quality between the German and French troops stationed on the other side of the Rhine. Therefore, before the invasion, Hitler issued such an order: once the French army resisted, it would immediately retreat! However, the French government balked at Hitler's challenge, and the British government adopted a "detached" attitude, which enabled Hitler to successfully spend "the most tense moment in his life." Hitler's first step in challenging the Treaty of Versailles was successful.
At the end of the same year, Germany and Japan signed an international ban on production. In June 65438 +065438+ the following year 10, Italy announced its accession, and the "Berlin-Rome-Tokyo Axis" was formally formed.
1in March, 938, the contradiction between Austrian Prime Minister Sch? nig and domestic nationalists intensified. 1 1 At 8 pm, Nazi Seth Inquart became the Austrian Prime Minister with the support of Germany. At 9: 0010 that night, Seth Inquart sent a telegram requesting German assistance. But Hitler had ordered the Germans to March into Austria as early as 8: 45 that night. /kloc-in March, Austria was formally merged into Germany. In fact, at that time, the Germans were not prepared for the war at all before the invasion, and 70% of the vehicles broke down on the road.
Merger, or rather, the method and result of merger, made Hitler understand the card of "appeasement policy" and made him take a key step on the road of war. The whole process of Germany's invasion of Austria went so smoothly that Hitler himself was infected by this feeling of victory.
Later, it attached itself to Czechoslovakia on the grounds of improper handling of ethnic issues, forcing Czechoslovakia to give Germans "autonomy" in its Sudetenland. Czechoslovakia's army has dozens of divisions and hundreds of thousands of people. It is well-equipped and effective enough to resist the German invasion. However, under the pressure of the appeasement policy of Britain and France, this mighty division has no place at all.
1938 September 15, British Prime Minister Chamberlain traveled by plane for the first time in his life and rushed to Hitler's villa on the outskirts of Munich. According to the minutes of the meeting, Chamberlain did not ask whether Czechoslovakia's independence and territorial integrity could be maintained, nor did he ask what kind of strategic impact it would have on western powers. He even made the decision to sell Czechoslovakia to Hitler without considering territorial integrity at all. Of course, people will not forget another "appeasement policy" at the Munich Conference. At the 18 meeting in September, French Prime Minister Daladier tried to convince the British that Hitler was an honest man. After he obtained the German residency in Czechoslovakia, he would never seek other territories where non-Germans lived. Chamberlain said: "If the Czechoslovak government accepts the proposal made to them now and determines that there will be no military coup at the same time, His Majesty's government is prepared to participate in the proposed guarantee." Daladier's words pushed Britain into the world war, and Chamberlain's words plunged Czechoslovakia into the abyss of national suffering.
On September 29th, Chamberlain, Daladier, Mussolini and Hitler held a four-nation summit in Munich and formally signed the Munich Agreement. After the agreement was signed, representatives of Czechoslovakia were called to the conference hall. Chamberlain and Daladier announced the contents of the agreement to them and told them: "This is a judgment that cannot be appealed or amended."
Back in London, facing the cheering crowd at the airport, Chamberlain couldn't help shouting: This is the second time in the history of our country to bring back great peace from the European continent!
However, it didn't take long for the fascist bombs to fall on their heads. 1 September 9391day, Nazi Germany invaded Poland. On September 3rd, Britain and France declared war on Germany, and the Second World War broke out. 19411On February 7th, Japan attacked Pearl Harbor and declared war on Britain and America on the same day. This war is indeed world-scale. The bitter fruit of the "appeasement policy" finally hit the appeasers themselves.