Evidence file: a world under pressure

Treaty of Versailles (1919): After World War I, Germany lost territory, had to reduce its armed forces, accept responsibility for the war, and pay reparations. Many Germans regarded the settlement as humiliating. The treaty did not make another war inevitable, but resentment weakened support for the post-war settlement. Great Depression (from 1929): A financial crisis spread internationally. Businesses closed, trade fell and unemployment rose. New Zealand was hit by falling export prices and severe unemployment. Hardship made promises of radical change more attractive to some voters. Dictators and expansion: Adolf Hitler became Germany’s leader in 1933. His Nazi government dismantled democratic freedoms, expanded its armed forces and sought to gain control of additional land. In Italy, Benito Mussolini’s fascist government invaded Ethiopia in 1935. Japan’s military expansion in Asia was another challenge to international peace. Appeasement and collective security: Britain and France sometimes accepted demands from aggressive states in the hope of avoiding war. In 1938, they agreed that Germany could take the Sudetenland, part of Czechoslovakia, through the Munich Agreement. The League of Nations, set up to encourage countries to settle disputes peacefully, could not prevent aggression. In September 1939, Germany invaded Poland; Britain and France then declared war on Germany.