- when Germany failed to make reparation payments, France took over the Rhine river industrial area (1925)
- a number of new countries were formed as a result of the principle of self-determination being applied in the Treaty of Versailles (compare map on p.37 in your textbook with the "new frontiers" map)
Note: self-determination: the right of a people to determine the way in which they shall be governed and whether they shall be self-governed or governed by another power.
- it was difficult to apply this principle as areas where minorities lived were not always divided by natural boundaries. As a result, the new countries formed still had ethnic divisions and tensions
2) Weimar Republic: democratic form of government forced on Germany.
- it was hated by many Germans as it was viewed as weak
3) The Great Depression: Germany was hit extremely hard with high unemployment
4) Rise of Adolf Hitler
Major Beliefs:
- anti-Semitic (i.e. anti-Jewish)
- anti-communist
- lebensraum: "living space" for the German people whom he considered a "master race".
- anti-West: (i.e. the West had imposed the Treaty of Versailles and Weimar Republic on Germany)
Hitler in Power
1933: elected by approx. 40% of German people
1935: takes away the Rhineland from France
1939: takes away the Sudetenland from Czechoslovakia and later invades Poland. Britain declares war on Germany after the invasion of Poland.
