Tag Archives: Origins of the Second World War

British Disarmament in the Nineteen Twenties.

Posted on by
Reply

            Britain’s military spending had soared during the First World War.  It remained high in the immediate aftermath of the war: £766 million in 1919–20.  Then, in August 1919, led by the Secretary of State for War and Air,[1] the Cabinet’s Committee of Imperial Defence adopted the “Ten Year Rule”: the government would base its defense budgets “on the assumption that the British Empire would not be engaged in any great war during the next ten years.” 

            From January 1920 to July 1921, Britain suffered a severe recession.  In 1921, the media titan Lord Rothermere founded the “Anti-Waste League” to pressure the government.[2]  It worked: the government appointed a budget-cutting Committee on National Expenditure with Sir Eric Geddes as chairman.  What followed became known as the “Geddes Axe.”[3]  In the end, total defense spending fell from £189.5 million (1921–22) to £111 million (1922–23), before rebounding to £114.7 million in 1924–25.[4] 

            Then a series of international agreements altered the context.  The Washington Naval Conference (1921-22) prevented a naval arms race between Britain, the United States, and Japan.  The Dawes Plan (1924) conceded to German objections on reparations.  The Locarno Pact (1925) stabilized relations in Western Europe between Germany and its former opponents.  In 1925, the new—and very popular in Britain–League of Nations began pushing for a World Disarmament Conference that would reduce “offensive” weapons almost out of existence.  The Versailles treaty had substantially disarmed Germany; now it was time for the other powers to follow suit.  A reduced chance of war would justify deep cuts in military budgets.  In 1928, in light of all these developments, the Chancellor of the Exchequer[5] persuaded the Cabinet to make the “Ten Year Rule” permanent unless specifically changed by the government.   

In the early Thirties, the Great Depression forced still more economies: defense spending fell to £102 million in 1932.  In April 1931, the First Sea Lord told the Committee of Imperial Defense that “owing to the operation of the ‘ten-year-decision’ and the clamant need for economy, our absolute [naval] strength also has … been so diminished as to render the fleet incapable, in the event of war, of efficiently affording protection to our trade.”  Moreover, if the Navy had to move the bulk of its strength to the Far East to deal with Japan, it would have the means to defend neither Britain’s overseas trade nor Britain itself. 

            In September 1931, Japan seized the Chinese outlying province of Manchuria.  On 23 March 1932, the Cabinet formally abandoned the “Ten Year Rule.”  However, it stipulated that “this [change] must not be taken to justify an expanding expenditure by the Defence Services without regard to the very serious financial and economic situation” of Britain. 

Then, in January 1933, Adolf Hitler came to power in Germany.  War was less than seven years, not ten, away.  Much rearmament would have to be done in great haste. 

[1] Winston Churchill. 

[2] See: Anti-Waste League – Wikipedia and Harold Harmsworth, 1st Viscount Rothermere – Wikipedia  Comic in light of current events.  However, it was his rival, Lord Beaverbrook, who was the immigrant. 

[3] On Geddes, see: Eric Geddes – Wikipedia   On the Committee on National Expenditure, see: Geddes Axe – Wikipedia 

[4] For its part, social spending (education, health, housing, pensions, unemployment) fell from £205.8 million (1920–21) to £182.1 million (1922–23) to £175.5 million (1923–24), before rising to £177.4 million (1924–25). 

[5] Winston Churchill. 

The Thirties Made Simple.

Posted on by
Reply

The economic crisis. 

            The Americans built more than they could sell and loaned more than they could afford to lose.  When the American economy tanked in 1929-1930, American banks called in the loans they had made to German banks; the German banks called in the loans they had made all through Eastern Europe; countries started going bankrupt; and nobody bought American stuff, so…well, you get the picture. 

            Germany stopped paying reparations to France and Britain; France and Britain stopped paying their war debts to the United States; the United States stopped lending money to Germany; Germany…well you get the picture. 

            Companies went bankrupt; unemployment soared (to 25 percent in the United States); governments balanced their budgets by raising taxes and cutting spending; companies went…well, you get the picture. 

The political crisis caused by the economic crisis. 

            Democracy is good at handing out pleasure; it isn’t so good at handing out pain.  (See: health care reform, Social Security reform, cutting the US deficit.)  Fighting over who suffered from the Depression paralyzed democracy in France and Britain, almost brought down democracy in the United States, and destroyed democracy in Germany. 

            Where democracy survived, it had to adapt (see: New Deal in USA) and it focused like a hawk on internal issues.  Not everyone liked the changes. 

            Where democracy did not survive (or never existed) radical governments brought their countries out of the Depression faster and better than anywhere else.  Nazi Germany and Communist Russia were the great success stories.  Lots of people thought “If democracy is just the freedom to starve; maybe we should give dictatorship a try.” 

The international crisis caused by the economic crisis and the political crisis. 

            Adolf Hitler wanted to smash France, take over all of Eastern Europe as far as the Ural Mountains, starve most Poles and Russians to death, get rid of Europe’s Jews in some way, re-build Berlin to look like Rome on steroids (see: Washington, DC), and then retire to the Alps to paint. 

            Germany broke the Versailles treaty by rearming (1934); by re-occupying the de-militarized Rhineland (1936); by taking over Austria (1938); and by threatening war to get a big chunk of Czechoslovakia (1938).  On top of that, Germany helped the anti-government rebels in Spain (1936-1938), and stirred-up the German minorities scattered across Eastern Europe (and Argentina and Pennsylvania). 

Italy and Japan piled on.  Italy conquered Ethiopia and took over Albania.  Japan invaded China, telling the Americans to mind their own business. 

The democracies hoped that these nasty men would just go away.  Perhaps giving them something would make them nicer.  (See: appeasement.) 

Then Hitler took over what was left of Czechoslovakia (March 1939) and started in on Poland (Spring 1939).  The British and French decided to fight the next time. 

Josef Stalin thought that the western democracies wanted to push Hitler east so that he wouldn’t bother them.  Two can play at that game.  He did a deal with Hitler. 

Germany attacked Poland.  War came on 1 September 1939.