In History, we’re going into what is known as the ‘Cold War’. 

Here’s a Slideshare showing a bit of the general information about the war.

In History, our first topic for this year will be The Manchurian Crisis. Our teacher, Lenny Ambrosini gave us a video to watch and then answer questions on it:

1. How does the video open? What might the connection between the League and the opening scenes in Poland be?

The very first scenes in the video show some of the violence at the beginning of World War II. From what our teacher has told us, apparently the League didn’t do so well in the 1930s. The aim of this whole League was to maintain peace all over the world. So maybe due to their failure to keep everything in perfect harmony, everything kind of went out of hand.

2. What problems did Japan face? (Mention ALL of them)

Japan was heavily populated, many many mouths to feed each year… Their geographic location hadn’t played in their favor either because they were incredibly isolated from the rest of the continent which is Asia. They had basically no natural resources and relied almost completely on importing everything. Japan had also been affected a lot from the Wall Street Crash and had a very high unemployment rate.

3. What was the role of the army in Japan?

The army had a very strong influence on the Japanese. They controlled the education system and people would practice Martial Arts from a very young age.

4. What did army leaders believe Japan needed?

Army leaders believed “territorial expansion” would be a good next step for Japan.

5. What was the value of Manchuria?

Manchuria was a great opportunity for Japan because of it’s richness in natural resources which they lacked on having. This would help them with their economy.

6. What happened at Mudken?

The Japanese army bombed the Manchurian railroad.

7. What did the League do about it?

The League met with the Japanese ambassador and told them they would withdraw. The army had other plans and took nearly the whole of Manchuria. In the end, the League decided the Japanese should leave and that Manchuria become a semi-independant nation free from both countries in feud.

8. What was Japan’s reaction to the decision of the League?

Even though, Japan left… she quickly came back unhappy with the League’s decision. They took Manchuria again and then withdrew from the League of Nations. This wasn’t good at all for the League as they lost a very important member from the oriental hemisphere. No one wanted to physically intervene because they knew of the army’s strength. This undervalued the League and from here on out, no one could take them seriously anymore. This is when things started getting a bit uncontrollable.

In History, our teacher paired us up with students from Senior 3. Each group had different types of topics. Me and Camila Carnemolla’s was Rearmament:

After WWI, The Treaty of Versailles was put into agreement. One of the terms was for Germany to disarm almost completely. The exact term was:

• The army was limited to 100,000 men, soldiers had to be volunteers.
• GR was not allowed submarines or aircrafts.
• The navy could only have 6 battleships.
• Rhineland (border between GR and FR) became a demilitarized zone (no German troops allowed here).

In 1933, Hitler came to power in Germany. One of his aims, among many others, was to abolish the Treaty of Versailles, so he started with the term where Germany had to limit their army drastically. A great technique he used was to take the unemployed workers into his army, this then would help reduce unemployment rate. Rearmament was kept a secret at first until he held a massive military rally celebrating Germany’s armed forces:

After showing the world his “great and powerful army”, he then took the risk of bringing his troops into the Rhineland. When France found out, she was unhappy. Hitler’s excuse though, was that he felt threatened by how he was being encircled. France and The USSR had signed an agreement to protect each other from German attacks. Great Britain, one of the great members of The League of Nations, was busy with the Abyssinian Crisis at the time so she paid no attention to it. France, although she had an army that could defeat Hitler’s in days, did nothing because she didn’t know how small and undeveloped the German army really was at the time. Hitler got away with it and it gave him confidence to move on to other attempts to breaking the terms of the Treaty.

These are some of them that my classmates explained…

• The Rhineland
• Sudetenland
• Anschluss
• The Nazi-Soviet Pact

SOME INTERESTING SOURCES & CARTOONS

The goose being Germany having all the weapons and strategies to take over the world.

Hitler is the man making fun and stepping on the rest of Europe. He’s provoking them and showing how he doesn’t care about the Treaty of Versailles and he’s on his way up to success.

Germany, on the military truck, not caring about the risks she is taking on destroying every prohibition there was ever made against her.

A chart showing the events carrying out Hitler’s rise to power.

Our class also has a Diigo group where we share sources on the causes of WW2 that we find interesting or helpful with another school!