Lesson video

Hello and welcome back to your final Oak Academy history lesson of the inquiry why did the League of Nations fail? So today's lesson we're looking at why did war break out in 1939? You need to have done lessons one to three before you go on to this lesson four.

So if you haven't done those lessons, pause the video and go back and do them.

If you have done them, for this lesson, you'll just need a pen.

So pause the video now, write the title, and play again when you're ready.

We're going to start today by looking at what is essentially a really strange image.

We can see Hitler, the leader of Germany, and Stalin, the leader of the USSR, getting married.

Now, these two men were sworn enemies.

They hated each other.

So how could it possibly have happened that in 1939 an artists would have drawn them getting married? Well, we're looking to that this lesson, but first a few things I want to pick out to you.

Stalin is the bride, Hitler is the groom.

So Hitler has more power.

Hitler is traditionally, as would have been the case in 1939, the man of this relationship who's taking, who's walking Stalin down the aisle.

We can see him holding the hand of Stalin and pulling him down the aisle.

They're walking down the aisle towards the Second World War.

The question there, I wonder how long the honeymoon will last? This artist is saying this is not set to last.

This is not going to endure.

And we can see behind them as well this cake.

Now this cake in this cartoon could represent something that Hitler and Stalin are going to take for themselves.

Perhaps a country that they've both got their eye on, that they both want to have a piece of.

So this lesson, looking at how war broke out, but we're also looking at how these two enemies managed to put aside their differences in order to effectively walk down the aisle.

Last lesson, we looked at how the failures of the League to stand up to aggressive dictators in the 1930s led to Hitler taking advantage of the League's weaknesses, rearming against the terms of the treaty of Versailles, and annexing, that means taking over, Austria and Czechoslovakia.

So when we're looking at why did the League of Nations fail, we're also looking at why did war break out in 1939? So this lesson brings everything together.

So we've got the actions of aggressive dictators in the 1930s, that was leaders of Italy, leader of Japan, and now the leader of Germany as well.

And we've also got the weak democracies of Britain and France who do not take action against these aggressive dictators, and follow a policy of appeasement.

So giving in to the demands of the dictators in order to prevent a war in the short term.

And these big causes of why the League of Nations failed were underpinned by the structure of the League of Nations that made it difficult to make decisions.

The fact that this very strong country America was not part of the League of Nations, and also the economic collapse of 1929, which meant that the democracies didn't have the money, the time, or the resources to deal with these aggressive dictators.

So let's look at what happened in 1939 to cause war to break out.

So, first of all, I'm going to introduce you in more detail to Joseph Stalin, the leader of the USSR.

Now, Stalin was a communist which meant that he believed in the state ownership of the resources in the country, and Hitler was really worried by this, and because of Russia's geographical location, which was not too far from Germany in terms of Europe, he wanted a bit of protection from that.

Now, Poland was attractive to both the USSR and to Germany.

Germany was aggressively expanding through Europe in the 1930s, so we know that Hitler had already taken over Austria and Czechoslovakia.

Poland is likely to be the next country on Hitler's list in 1939 after he's taken over Czechoslovakia because he feels that land was taken from Germany unfairly in the Treaty of Versailles where that arrow is pointing actually, and he wants it back.

Now, we learned about the outcome of the League of Nations' decisions about the land that was taken from Germany.

So for example, Upper Silesia, where the best land was given to Poland and the less useful land was given to Germany, and this had happened throughout Europe.

Hitler wanted Polish territory as Lebensraum, that's the German word for living space.

However, Germany could not risk invading Poland, unlike they had done in Austria and Czechoslovakia because of the threat posed by the USSR.

The USSR's army was very strong, and Stalin also wanted Poland as well.

Based on what we've learned there, let's have a quiz and see what we can remember.

I'm going to disappear now, but I'll read out the statements.

You pause your video and decide whether you think they're true or false, and then we will go through the answers.

Number one, in the 1930s, Germany and the USSR were natural allies, friends.

By 1939, Hitler had already taken over Austria and Czechoslovakia.

In summer 1939, it was clear that taking over Poland was Hitler's next goal.

Britain and France were worried about German expansion and aggression in Europe.

So pause your video now and decide which ones you think are true and which ones you think are false.

Welcome back, so A, in the 1930s, Germany and the USSR were natural allies, friends.

That is false, they were natural enemies.

They did not get on, and they saw each other as a threat.

B, by 1939, Hitler had already taken over Austria and Czechoslovakia.

Yes, true, we know that from our previous lesson.

In summer 1939, it was clear that taking over Poland was Hitler's next goal.

Yes, we know that, he wants, Hitler wants to take that land that had been taken by the Treaty of Versailles, and was also much stronger because of having taken over Austria and Czechoslovakia.

And finally D, Britain and France were worried about German expansion and aggression in Europe.

And yes, well done.

It is true, again, they were very worried about it, particularly after the events with Austria and Czechoslovakia.

People were therefor incredibly shocked when on the 23rd of August, 1939, the USSR and Germany signed a nonaggression pact.

That was an agreement not to fight each other.

That that was the public part of the agreement, anyway.

This is an image of the agreement being signed, and you can see Stalin there in the background.

So the secret part of the agreement, because we've said the public part was this agreement not to fight each other between Germany and the USSR.

The secret parts was that they promised to split Poland between them.

Now, even though the part of the pact about splitting Poland was secret, it was clear that that was really Hitler and Stalin's plan.

Britain and France realised that they were going to need to stand up to Hitler, or he would continue to take over the rest of Europe.

Although, as we've seen from that actions in the 1920s and the 1930s, Britain and France did not want to go to war with Germany in 1939.

They would have preferred a peaceful solution.

They did try and get Poland to negotiate with Germany, but Poland, having seen what Hitler did when given a little bit of Czechoslovakia, when people tried to negotiate with him, and then he took over the whole country, decided they did not want to do that.

Additionally, once the Nazi-Soviet Pact had been signed, negotiations wouldn't have meant anything, as Germany and Russia were going to split Poland up anyway.

So Britain and France signed it Alliance with Poland on the 25th of August, 1939.

This was the agreement that if Poland was invaded, Britain and France would support them against their attackers.

If Britain and France were to back down after having signed that Alliance, they would no longer be seen as great powers.

Finally, Britain and France were ready to sign up to these aggressive dictators.

You've taken on a massive amount of information there.

So in a moment, we're going to check what you can remember.

So I'll talk you through it as it appears, but there's going to be a fill in the gaps activity.

I'll disappear for now, and you'll see the activity as it pops up.

So my question mark there is, can you fill in the gaps? Let me explain everything before you pause it because there's two different options for this activity.

So there's a passage here, which explains what I've explained in this lesson.

Now behind each of the letters is a word, and there's a choice.

So first of all, you will want to write all of the letters, A to I, down the side of the page, and if you want to have a go just on your own, based on your knowledge, you can do.

Alternatively, if you hang on for a few more seconds, a word bank will appear at the bottom of the screen, and you can of use that to help you if you wish.

So this passage is just what we've covered, just to check that you remember everything.

If you want some help with this, you could press escape on the PowerPoint and then press next, and that will take you to the worksheet, which will give you a bit more information if you need it.

So if you want to try the hard option with no word bank, pause now.

And if you want to try the easier version with a word bank, pause now.

Welcome back, let's go through the answers.

In 1939, it was clear that Hitler wanted to take over Poland.

He had already taken over Austria and Czechoslovakia, and wanted to keep making Germany bigger.

The problem was that Hitler and Stalin, leader of the USSR, were natural enemies and Stalin also wanted Poland.

To solve this problem, Hitler and Stalin made a nonaggression pact.

This meant that they agreed not to fight each other.

Secretly, they also agreed to split to Poland between them.

This meant that they could both invade and take the land that they wanted.

Even though the part of the agreement about splitting Poland was secret, Britain and France knew that Hitler wanted to invade.

This made them very worried.

On the 25th of August, 1939, Britain signed an agreement to say that they would protect Poland in the event of an invasion.

So well done, I hope you've got a few of those.

So this image you might recognise.

This is an image from the first lesson in this inquiry, and it's an image from the 1st of September, 1939, and it's German soldiers breaking down the Gates in the Polish town of Sopot.

After Hitler invaded, Britain having signed this Alliance with Poland, issued an ultimatum him to Hitler.

So that meant they gave him an option, or something bad was going to happen.

Call off the attack of Poland, or they would declare war.

And this is the statement that was made to the British people.

"Unless not later than 11:00 a.

m.

"British summer time today, September the 3rd, "satisfactory assurances have been given "by the German government "and have reached his Majesty's government in London, "a state of war will exist "between the two countries from that hour." Hitler ignored the ultimatum.

He carried on his invasion, and on the 3rd of September, 1939, Britain and France declared war.

Now Britain and France went to war because they were forced to, Hitler had finally pushed them to the point at which they've had to stop him.

If they didn't, they would have to be humiliated and would have to accept Germany taking over Europe.

Again, a lot of information to take in.

So to check we understand the order, the chronology of these events, we're going to practise that.

So in a moment, six boxes will pop up.

These boxes contain statements on the events that happened in the lead up to the outbreak of the Second World War.

What I would like you to do in a moment is to pause the video, read the statements, and write the numbers out.

What I would like you to do in a moment is pause the video, read the statements, and write the letters out in the correct order.

Then I'll come back and go through the answers.

Pause your video now and write the letters out in the correct order.

Welcome back, right, so we'll go through the answers.

And of course, F is first.

Hitler had already taken over Czechoslovakia and Austria, and he wanted Poland next.

D, Hitler and Stalin signed a nonaggression pact and secretly agreed to split Poland between them.

A, Britain made an Alliance with Poland and agreed to protect her if Germany invaded.

B, Germany invaded Poland.

C, Britain issued an ultimatum Hitler, saying that if he did not leave Poland, they would declare war.

E, Hitler did not leave Poland, so Britain and France declared war on Germany.

So why did the League of Nations fail? Why did this war break out? We cannot separate these factors, the aggressive dictators and the weak democracies failing to act against them and following a policy of appeasement, all of which was made worse by the structure of the League of Nations and the economic collapse of 1929.

We can see how Hitler, as an aggressive dictator, followed the example of Mussolini for example, and took more and more land, knowing that the weak democracies were following a policy of appeasement, so weren't going to stop him.

That the League of Nations was too weak to do anything, and that actually, no one because of the economic collapse of 1929, had any money to do anything about it.

We can't separate these causes of the failure of the League of Nations and the outbreak of war, but what we can do and what we have done throughout this inquiry is looked at the links between these different causes, and how one caused the other, so for example, that the weak democracies and the structure of the League of Nations allowed the aggressive dictators to take that power.

And it's now up to you as a historian to think about how much weight you would give to each of these different causes.

Do you think actually that had the democracies been strong and had the structure of the League of Nations been solid, that actually the aggressive dictators wouldn't have had the opportunity to rise to power in the way that they did.

And even if there had still been an economic collapse in 1929, that strong structure that could have been in place with the League of Nations, and that's strong attitude from the democracies against the dictators could have stopped the Second World War.

We can't put the outbreak of the Second World War down solely to Hitler, which is what lots of people have done in the past.

It's a lot more complicated than that.

And this unit, this inquiry should have uncovered that for you.

Now, pause the video, read the slides on the next page, and then we'll go through the comprehension questions together.

Well done for making it this far through this unit.

This is really complex stuff.

You're doing a great job.

Here's your comprehension questions.

We'll go through them together, and for question five, I'll provide a bit more guidance on the structure.

So question one.

Why did Hitler want to take over Poland? An acceptable answer would be that he wanted more living space for Germans, and an alternative acceptable answer would be that the Treaty of Versailles, he felt it was too harsh, so therefore he wants to take land back.

This good answer links all of that together.

So Hitler felt that Germany had been treated too harshly in the Treaty of Versailles, and he felt that much of the land in Poland should belong to Germany.

He also believed that the Germans deserve more living space, and therefore should be allowed to take over whichever countries in Europe he wanted.

So you can see there, a bit more explanation, and a bit more detail as well.

What was the Nazi-Soviet pact? So an acceptable answer, an agreement between Germany and the USSR not to fight each other and to split Poland between them.

That does sum it up.

We don't have that secret bit in that we know was the cause of the outbreak of war, or a big contributing factor, I should say.

Let's have a look at this good answer.

So, on the 23rd of August, 1939, the Nazi-Soviet pact was signed.

Publicly, this was an agreement that Germany and the USSR would not go to war.

Secretly, it was an agreement to split Poland between them.

So that answer's better because it defines between the public bit and the secret bit as well.

Three, why was Poland unwilling to negotiate with Germany? And remember negotiate means to talk about problems, to come to an agreement.

Acceptable answer, I think it was because they didn't think it would stop the Germans from invading.

That is why the Polish didn't want to negotiate.

A good answer would be Poland did not want to negotiate with Germany because they had seen what had happened to Czechoslovakia.

And then this answers then goes into the example.

Some of Czechoslovakia's land had been given to Germany to stop Hitler from invading, and he invaded and took over the whole country anyway.

Poland was worried that this would happen to them too.

Also, after Nazi-Soviet pact, it would have been pointless as Russia and Germany had already agreed to which parts of Poland they would take.

That answer's so much better, not just because it's longer, but because it really explains in detail why Poland didn't want to negotiate with Germany.

And as a historian, we have to use our knowledge to explain.

Right, what agreement did Britain make with Poland in 1939? They agreed to protect Poland.

Good, that's true, but we can give more detail than that.

Britain was worried that Germany was going to invade Poland.

On the 25th of August, 1939, in order to make a stand against Germany, Britain signed an Alliance with Poland.

This meant that they would need to protect Poland if she was invaded.

And this answer is better because it gives us specific dates and explains exactly that Britain signed an Alliance that that means that that's what this means.

It's just more specific.

And finally, question five, explain why the Nazi-Soviet pact contributed to the outbreak of war in 1939.

Use the sentence starters and the keywords to help you.

So as usual, I've put in some sentence starters and some key words there, but I thought I'd give you some guidance into what you could put into your paragraphs, what content you could use.

So for example, these sentence starters.

One reason why the Nazi-Soviet pact contributed to outbreak in war in 1939 was.

and you might wish to talk about the fact that the German invasion of Poland was now possible and why it was now possible, so the idea that Hitler wasn't worried about Stalin attacking back.

Another reason why the Nazi-Soviet pact contributed to the outbreak of war in 1939 was.

and then I've got two ideas for you here.

There was a British Alliance with Poland now, and also it led to the actual invasion with Poland.

And you could explain how the British Alliance with Poland meant that Britain was obliged to then declare war on Germany when Germany invaded, and then there was the actual invasion of Poland, which was brought about by the fact that the Nazi-Soviet pact was signed.

So good luck with that.

That's quite a challenging question, but I hope that extra help will provide some support.

Well done for making it to the end of our inquiry, why did the League of Nations fail? And then looking into why war broke out in 1939.

We'd love to see any work that you've completed, so if you'd like to, please ask your parent or carer to share your work on Instagram, Facebook, or Twitter, tagging @OakNational and hashtag #LearnwithOak.

It's been a pleasure to spend this time with you.

Have a brilliant rest of your day.