now I haven't mentioned in my previous videos but World War one was first known as the Great War or the war to end all war but the fact that we know it as World War one makes the spoiler pretty obvious there was in fact a World War II now we're going to deal with that war in the next video but in this one let's look at the factors that made the war to end all wars just an appetizer to the next great one so if you're ready to get them brain cows milked appeasement style then let's get to so coming out of World War One there were a lot of complex factors that allowed fascist States both to re-arm themselves and expand their Terror now remember Germany was on the losing side of world war one and part of the Treaty of Versailles mandated that Germany demilitarized and another part shrank their territory so reversing either of those realities was a violation of the treaty and if Germany violated that treaty it would likely lead to another war and yet under the leadership of Adolf Hitler Germany significantly rearmed itself and began conquering territory like a madman so how did he do it the first reason this could happen was because of the policy of appeasement towards Germany and Britain and France were the main appeasers as I mentioned in the video on World War One the human and capital cost of that war was staggering to all involved so when Hitler began publicly re-arming Germany in 1935 and taking territory thereafter Britain and France were not too eager to start another War to stop so the policy of appeasement essentially became let Hitler do whatever he wants because we're not destroying ourselves in another cataclysmic battle yet again in other words Hitler faced no consequences for breaking the provisions in the Treaty of Versailles that kept Germany powerless in the interwar period now the second reason Germany was able to re-arm and start expanding was because of the growing antagonism and distrust between the Soviet Union and the Western European state slash the United States recall that the Soviet Union was an authoritarian communist state and that was diametrically opposed to the U.S and Western Europe which represented capitalist democracy we'll get more into that antagonism and distrust in unit 9 during the Cold War but for now all you have to know is that these two entities were so opposed to one another that they could not work together to present a united front against expanding fascist States and I say States plural because even though I've only been referring to Germany fascist Italy was expanding two and you know let's talk about that okay and here we need to talk about this specific actions that led to World War II first let's get specific with territorial expansion in 1935 Italy invaded Ethiopia which happened to be only one of two African States that had never been colonized by European if you've been around since we talked about the Scramble for Africa then you know that is a big deal anyway Italy was ultimately successful in conquering Ethiopia and that Victory made Britain a little sweaty because it threatened their control of the Suez Canal in Egypt and remember nobody wants to start another war and so the only reprisal Mussolini face for this attack was a few lame economic sanctions imposed by the League of Nations but Germany's territorial expansion made Italy's efforts look like Hitler began by re-militarizing the Rhineland which is this little strip of land right here this act was kind of like an experiment for Hitler like the Treaty of Versailles specifically prohibited German Armament of this territory so Hitler wanted to see if Britain and France were up for fighting so in 1936 Hitler sent troops to occupy the Ryan land and because of the policy of appeasement that I mentioned earlier all he heard from Britain and France was Hitler stop as I was seeing that Britain and France would do nothing to enforce the treaty Hitler was like oh it's all so next in 1938 Hitler annexed Austria a move known as onschluz on account of all the Germans living in Austria and once German troops came into Austria they decided to hold a little vote to hear from the austrians whether or not they wanted to be absorbed into the German right and when you know it like 99 of austrians voted yes to the annexation hold on you're trying to tell me that an independent nation in the age of self-determination decided by a margin of 99 that they wanted to be taken over does that spell funky to anybody else I mean think about it when have you ever heard of 99 of people in any country in any age in any part of the world agreeing on something that does not happen so that vote did indeed smell funky and here's why first of all look at this ballot you don't even have to speak German to know that the yah circle is a little out of proportion to the nine Circle second this was not a secret battle in order to vote you had to hand it to a German military officer who would then place it in the box so it was a rigged vote without a doubt but Hitler was successful nonetheless and then he went on to take over the sudeten land and a few States in Czechoslovakia as well and in all of this Britain and France essentially did nothing to stop it but what they did is to gather at a meeting and create the Munich agreement in which Britain and France agreed to all of Hitler's territorial demands but made him promise that he would take no more and Hillary was like yeah additionally Hitler made peace with the Soviet Union in something called the Nazi Soviet non-aggression pact in which they agreed to choose stipulation first neither would attack the other for a decade following the agreement second they agreed to split Poland between the two powers and that second stipulation gave Hitler the confidence to invade Poland knowing that the Soviet Union would not oppose him in 1939 that is exactly what Hitler did and why wouldn't even though he committed in the Munich agreement that he would not seek any more territory he had been taking territory all over Europe and no one was stopping him so why would it be any different in Poland but here's where I tell you that it was different in Poland because that invasion was the last draw for Britain and France so as a result of that Invasion Britain and France declared war on Germany and that is how you get World War II Okay click here to keep reviewing for unitative AP Europe and click here to grab my AP Euro review pack which is going to help you get an A in your class and a five on your examine I'll catch you on the flip-flop I'm Laurent