The Broken Promise That Doomed The World To War | Impossible Peace | Timeline

hi everyone welcome to this timeline documentary just before you watch i want to tell you about my new history channel it's called history hits it's like the netflix for history it's got hundreds and hundreds of his documentaries on there and interviews with some of the world's best historians we're adding new stuff all the time for example today i'm filming in this one of the few remaining lancaster bombers for a show about the dambusters raid in 1943. if you want to know more about history hit follow the information just below this video or search online for history it and make sure you use the code timeline to get a special introductory offer now enjoy this show [Music] two world wars tore the heart out of the 20th century they are a rent in the fabric of history one world before another after between these two tragedies a mere 20 years 20 years of peace that produced war peace that failed impossible peace the sad shuttle diplomacy of british prime minister neville chamberlain is often used to illustrate the age and the word appeasement to damn it [Music] when he arrives in germany when he arrives in munich on the third visit again lines and lines of crowds are there to meet him he's completely treated to these great great crowds of those who see him as as the savior of peace [Music] the british premier goes straight to the flora house where the fateful conference is to take place he walks up the steps with one ribbon truck deep in court it's two o'clock in the morning an agreement has been reached hitler's side then the signature of the prime mover in the negotiations the prime minister goes on to the document peace is saved adolf hitler had got the sudetenland and claimed it was the end of his territorial ambitions but it was not [Music] the angelus exposed czechoslovakia the occupation of czechoslovakia would outflank poland this was a plan not a random series of grand larsens and if it was a plan what must follow was blindingly obvious except to the blind [Music] appeasement is remembered as the failure of liberal democracy through the incompetence of an old man summed up in a wing collar and a windy airfield and perhaps it was all of that we regard the agreement signed last night as symbolic of the desire never to go to war with one another again the big newsreel companies were complicit with the policy of appeasement um and presented and projected chamberlain as the hero of the peace to the prime minister the agreement of munich is only a beginning our words of admiration and thanks are exhausted for the man who averted another armageddon [Music] three weeks prior to traveling to munich to meet the fuhrer neville chamberlain had written that he thought hitler was half mad so he knew alfred hitchcock made a film exactly contemporary with munich in which some see him signifying his view of appeasement the moment in in the lady vanishes where cecil parker comes out of the carriage waving his white handkerchief and then being shot by the police which was a film released bang on the time of the munich crisis and which became a moment which came to be read as a kind of appeasement [Music] many who oppose appeasement were vociferous and they were immediate in their criticism a writer named robbery dell was responsible for an article that appeared in the nation on march the 12th 1938 under the title chamberlain's treason in it del excoriated the successful bluff and blackmail of the fascist powers on the one hand and the incapacity and pultunary of the western democratic powers on the other the writing on the wall is in the wake of the munich agreement really that that's the point when hitler doesn't just take a territory that was taken from germany at the paris peace conference that in fact starts to annex things that are beyond what was agreed at the paris peace conference that's where you know that this man's shopping list just continues and you're on it the argument that chamberlain bought time is not supported by the facts [Music] britain grew stronger germany grew stronger still the french parroted chamberlain as mushy jambalan mr i love berlin but we should remember when prime minister dalladier returned from munich expecting to be booed for the sellout he was cheered to the rafters there's a famous story of him expecting to be lynched because he sold out to hitler and instead the crowds are cheering at the airport because he's brought back peace for a few more months [Music] he comes out and he says lee kong the idiots the reason was simple the world breathes again said the newspaper periswal we can all [Music] live hoping to be the strong leader that he thought the british wanted to stand up to the strong men on the continent oswald moseley inveterate party hopper led the british union of fascists mosley was a notorious philanderer it is said that his private motto combining social conscience with rampant libido had been vote labor sleep tory [Music] the peace in germany was shattered less than two months after munich when hitler disturbed perhaps by the german people's celebration of munich as a guarantee of peace [Music] unleashed a fearsome pogrom november the 10th has come to be known as crystal knight the violence should not have been revelatory but it was and some in westminster now saw that more than a power struggle was in play this was a moral struggle no more munich's for me said lord halifax kristallnacht made it crystal clear that persecution of the jews was not off the cuff hooliganism it was an expression of state policy an underreported decree of august the 17th supremely characterizes both the absurdity and cruelty of the race laws from that date all jewish men were by law to call themselves israel and all jewish women to add the name sarah to their forename why would seem to be the only necessary question the newsreels did not really want controversy they did not see that as a part of their job they were covering fashion parades they were covering sporting events they were covering non-controversial issues but in the week after chris donna fox movietown news and the other newsreel companies they covered kristallnacht some in america did follow and respond to events elsewhere [Music] was it any wonder that in america the home of liberty the champions of freedom should stage one of the most sensational public protests ever witnessed in the streets of new york after crystal mac fiorella laguardia mayor of new york organized a 12-man priest detail to guard the german consulate in his city it was made up entirely of jewish officers under the command of captain max finkelstein in france the election of leon bloom's second popular front produced a government that lasted only 26 days the french need to pull together with a sort of national front government but no one wants to support him apart from the few left-wing people around him the center ignore him the right ignore him and his government is really pilloried in extreme anti-semitic terms and doesn't last very long the world was moving to the right and france moved to eduard gallagher bringing a final curtain down on the popular front revolution of june 1936 to mussolini writing in popolo d'italia bloom was one jew who did not possess the gift of prophecy mussolini's regime had never been better than half-hearted on the subject of race but as it goes it up to the right it became full-throated the regime finds that italian soldiers italian administrators actually rather like beautiful ethiopian women and are perfectly capable of having relationships with them and mussolini reacts personally actually like saying well how do i explain this to the british real imperial people don't do that sort of thing and so italy starts bringing in tougher and tougher legislation [Music] the publication manifesto of racial scientists to which el gucci himself contributed contained the statement that the people of italy are of aryan origin which must have surprised many italians mussolini grudgingly by 1938 has to accept that his best chances of success are with going along with this new force through the huge crowd mysterious in the low glare of the searchlights runs the thrill of race consciousness as the latin leader addresses them in their own time meet love freedom by the time he received the news of kristallnacht mussolini had so reinvented his racial policy that he could tell chiano he unconditionally approved of germany's policy towards the jews legislation was passed mimicking the nuremberg laws the first clause prohibited the marriage of an italian citizen of aryan race to a person belonging to another race rome is having quite a glut of weddings the latest is that of the duchess eldest son vittorio air force hero of the abyssinian war japan had withdrawn from the league of nations following her invasion of manchuria she was now embroiled in full-scale war in china she faced no sanctions continued to attend international conferences and was until 1938 contributing to league programs military expenditure accounted for 75 percent of the government's budget [Music] and japanese ambitions were not about to be curtailed on february the 18th japanese planes bombed the provincial capital to which chiang kai-shek had withdrawn his [Music] government as well as explosives the aircraft dropped propaganda leaflets including the anti-war or perhaps more accurately pro-fascist speeches of charles lindbergh thoughtfully translated into chinese in a world of evil places people ordinary people cannot be blamed if they look for escape the comic book really emerges in the united states in the middle late 1930s so we see a transformation in the content from this sort of funny humor strips to the emergence of adventure stories and particularly the superhero the first superman comics that published in 1938 by 1938 70 percent of the world's screen time was taken up with american movies in some countries as much as 95 percent and in america there was not much change from 100 [Music] movies were made in hollywood automobiles were made in detroit and that was the natural order of things [Music] the journey of jazz from fringe to center perhaps climaxed in january 1938 when benny goodman played a concert at carnegie hall trumpeter harry james said he felt like a [ __ ] in church on march the 13th 1938 the day after the anschluss cbs inaugurated world news roundup which rather than relying on the wire services featured live broadcasts from european capitals in that broadcast filing from an edgy vienna that was awaiting hitler's arrival was the soon to be legendary edward r morrow it was the real-time urgency of this pioneering reporting that orson welles would harness and mimic later in the year [Music] in 1938 southern senators philly busted for six weeks until on february the 21st the bill to which they objected was withdrawn it was an anti-lynching bill i believe in white supremacy declared louisiana senator alan j ellender and as long as i am in the senate i expect to fight for white supremacy the prospect of large numbers of jewish refugees prompted president roosevelt to call an international conference the plight of jewish children driven from germany has stirred the sympathy and conscience of the rest of the world for many of these innocents don't even know the whereabouts of their parents let alone their fate [Music] the avian conference brought 32 nations to evian laban to discuss the problem of what it called involuntary immigration basically the jewish question [Music] hitler hoped that they would be generous enough to convert this sympathy into practical aid we on our part he said are ready to put all these criminals at the disposal of these countries after a week of conversation the delegates recommended that there should meet at london an intergovernmental committee they formed a committee and that is all they did the great benefit of evier was it allowed more than 30 nations to unite in doing nothing which was so much less embarrassing than doing nothing on your own and only a few months of peace remained on the morning of january the 22nd republican general rocco told his prime minister that the barcelona front had ceased to exist prime minister negrin in response ordered all government departments to abandon the city [Music] 48 hours before the entrance of the enemy wrote general rocco barcelona was a dead city when the french government opened the border on january 28th two hundred thousand people crossed thousands of others made their unchecked escape over the pyrenees [Music] on january the 31st president roosevelt spoke to senators who were about to vote on a bill that would authorize the purchase of thousands of aircraft for the army air corps his topic was how to deal with hitler and he said there isn't any use calling him a nut because he is a power and we have to recognize that [Music] on february the 27th the british and french governments formally recognized the nationalist government in burgos on march the 6th what had been the government left spain aboard three douglas aircraft [Music] on the 26th the final nationalist advance began on march the 31st the nationalist army reached the last of its objectives when republican resistance collapsed franco's supporters in madrid came out into the open to welcome the conquerors amazing how the extended arm replaced the clenched fist overnight and pope pius xii sent a message to franco giving sincere thanks for the victory of catholic spain [Music] giano mussolini's foreign minister praised a formidable victory for fascism the greatest one so far some 10 000 people were killed executed murdered in the first five days following the nationalist entry into the capital on may the 19th a grand victory parade in madrid trooped along the castelliano renamed avenida in honor of generalissimo francisco franco ed cuadello the man h.d wells called a murderous little christian gentleman the biggest impact for britain was that hitler and mussolini's attempt to expose the limits of appeasement effectively had been successful the balance of power in europe had actually shifted against britain and france following franco's victory in the spanish civil war president roosevelt admitted to his cabinet that his spanish policy had been a mistake and arms should have been supplied to the republican government to allow spain to fight for her life and he added prophetically for the lives of some of the rest of us as well as events will like prove they did defeat not victory was shaping japanese [Music] policy the crushing loss to zhukov's red army on the mongolian border at nomahan japan lost more troops than the soviets in the ratio of five to one and the soviet german non-aggression pact signed on august 23rd hugely strengthened the hand of the strike south faction those in the military who believe that japan's territorial expansion should be south into asia pacific rather than north from china when the japanese sued the ussr for peace following their defeat stalin said they have understood my language if you look at what japanese contemporaries were already saying and writing through much of the 30s what really comes out is this sense of vulnerability now we can say that it's an imagined vulnerability it's not necessarily real vulnerability but to them it is very rare in february 1939 a new commercial treaty bound germany and italy together among its provisions was the transfer of half a million italian guest workers to the right and on may the 22nd germany and italy signed the pact of steel the italians signed on the strength of a promise by ribentrop that the fuhrer wanted peace for five years all of ribbon trucks promises were written on water [Music] to bolster sliding self-esteem italy performed the bully's trick of picking on the feebleist fellow in the room in this case albania italy always invades albania on a religious day they've invaded us on christmas day 1914 and the liberals they come back in on good friday 1939 and again establish a curious regime it always seems to me because they don't want to have a final solution to the albanian problem or something or other they don't want to murder all the albanians they rather want to turn the albanians into an albanian fascist movement an italian destroyer arrives at duratzo escorting troop ships taking part in the invasion of albania these are the first authentic pictures of this world shaking event they depict the scene much as we had imagined it columns penetrating the country from several landing points it was cowardly meaningless and its clumsiness exposed italian military might as being in the words of foreign minister chiano a tragic bluff looks as if he's halted the entire column no it's a native giving eggs away that's causing the delay and this is how italy is gobbling up albania it was the cost of italy's spanish entanglement an unaffordable eight and a half billion lira twelve 000 wounded 157 destroyed tanks and 3 819 dead that was bleeding out the country large amounts of equipment were left behind when the italians left spain and it has been calculated by military experts that if italy had had that equipment when it was at war with the british in north africa that italy might well have won [Music] on march the 3rd hitler announced that german forces would move to occupy prague and eliminate the czech state in five days when a fearfully browbeaten czech president ordered czech troops not to resist the german invaders failure to do so gerding had told him would mean bombs falling on his historic capital hitler announced to his secretaries i will go down as the greatest german in history the fuhrer shouts for joy noted gurgles but mussolini complained the italians will laugh at me every time hitler takes the country he sends me a message he found consolation with his much younger mistress claretta patacci mussolini finds time to ring claretta a dozen times a day his record is something like 21. and i do wonder how many other ceos manage lives like that [Applause] [Music] the spanish civil war ended in march 1939 and so did czechoslovakia the one with the fall of madrid the other with the predictable german contempt for a small piece of paper [Music] hardly anyone watched hitler's entry into prague but thousands cheered his return to berlin [Applause] with the occupation of the whole of czechoslovakia germany acquired a shield and a launching pad which the germans hoped would put pressure on the still unyielding poles in the matara danzig and the polish corridor one of the more inept lines scratched on the map of europe at versailles the invasion of the whole of czechoslovakia demolished the policy of appeasement and united a country of previously divided opinion the fate of czechoslovakia inspires concern among peoples as well as governments and the crowds proceed to the czech legation to express their sentiments the british people and their politicians at last understood what they were facing on march the 18th the british cabinet formally endorsed the change of policy on march the 20th according to the minutes neville chamberlain told cabinet that the government must be prepared to act not in order to save a particular victim but to pull down the bully and on march the 31st chamberlain rose in the house to pledge to poland all support in britain's power it was recognized at the time as a significant statement it was as it turned out momentous march 1939 that's when the last radar poll goes up and therefore britain they hope will at least have an advanced notice if anything happens they now have some protection [Music] why did chamberlain abandon czechoslovakia and six months later make a pledge to poland because in those six months hitler had broken his promise he'd occupied prague in march and shown himself to be no gentleman in this climate of fevered uncertainty many nostrums were proposed if only hitler and mussolini could have a good game of bowls once a week in geneva claimed captain rg bristow member of parliament i feel that europe would not be as troubled as it is [Music] the pledge to defend poland was made in the full knowledge that a parliamentary subcommittee had advised that great britain and france could afford them no direct support by sea on land or in the air neither it continued could great britain nor france supply any armaments to poland so what would the treaty obligations mean the problem was now the soviet union felt isolated and threatened and stalin started to think about the possibility that maybe the main reason behind this appeasement policy actually is to direct hitler against the soviet union for those who could read the clues it had been predictable but london and paris missed the clues found in stalin's speech to the party congress and the replacement in may of maxim litvinov as commissioner for foreign affairs litvinov was jewish his successor was vyatislav molotov whose real name wasn't molotov which means hammer if the soviet union could be brought into an agreement something meaningful might be accomplished but the british were wary and before their mission headed by the impressively named admiral sir reginald aylmer ran furley plunkett ernal earl drax made any sort of progress the rug was comprehensively pulled from under them by the nazi soviet non-aggression pact the delegation seemed to the russians to advertise the british lack of sincerity [Music] chamberlain and dalladier had gone to munich but ask molotov who do we get here and he answered admiral nobody [Music] leaving berlin for moscow ushers in a new incomprehensible chapter in german diplomacy what can russia have in common with germany to throw over the peace front if she has finally the day came [Music] molotov and von riben trope got together and the nazis and communists signed a pact it was a betrayal by the communists [Music] at this moment the cost of global entanglement arising from imperial reach again distracted london although history has all but forgotten the jensen incident in which a japanese blockade of british interests in northern china exposed the weakness of over-extension unable to force a back down the british negotiated compromise skewed in japan's favor that this could have serious consequences was not imagined by the arch imperialist winston churchill it is inconceivable in our lifetime and in that of our children that japan could pose a threat to the security of the british empire in the east he had stated in 1925 [Music] in 1939 facing japan's possible designs on singapore he added with similar reassurance there will be no attack in any period which our foresight can measure churchill's error did not arise from strategic ignorance or political naivety it came as did his relentless opposition to granting india dominion status from racial prejudice neville chamberlain said that debating churchill was like arguing with a brass band [Music] wars will wash over us said greta garbo in 1939's ninochka [Music] bombs will fall but not yet let us be happy she said give us our moment it's very very funny film there's a line where they're talking about when garbo was the commissioner arrives in paris for the first time the three commissars meet her how are things in moscow very good the last mass trials were a great success there are going to be fewer but better russians which is a terrific line but actually you know if you know what happened in the show trials which they didn't to be fair in in hollywood in 1939 it's not at all funny what was motivating the terror in the soviet union is more difficult to classify at the beginning of 1939 the soviet census bureau reported that 17 million people were missing then the census takers were shot by 1939 the gulag was the largest employer in europe and contained up to 10 of the soviet population they had an average life expectancy of one winter [Music] when stalin treated with the enemy he explained the non-aggression pact to the army in a document headed what has comrade stalin done the reason was illustrated by drawings of two triangles in one the bases were labeled berlin and moscow in the other berlin and london what comrade stalin sophistry had done was elevate moscow above the coming battle the opportunity had existed to encircle germany but it had been fatally missed on september the 7th darling said he would have preferred an agreement with the so-called democratic countries but instead he signed the non-aggression pact with the rush [Music] the normally abstinence hitler when he received confirmation of the signing allowed himself a glass of champagne and now europe is mine he said the others can have asia british outrage over the non-aggression pact conveniently forgot that to stalin chamberlain's munich piece of paper was a non-aggression pact seeming to license germany to go east [Music] article 1 of the german soviet non-aggression pact reads both high contracting parties obligate themselves to desist from any act of violence any aggressive action and any attack on each other [Music] article two of the secret additional protocol added agreement on what would happen in the event of a territorial and political rearrangement of the areas belonging to the polish state and then on september the first having fabricated a farcical pretext one and a half million german soldiers in 67 divisions with air and naval support invaded poland [Music] destruction from the sky hit far and wide railroad centers bombed like that one polish communications were swiftly disrupted by the air ready [Music] german troops had occupied the rhineland forced the incorporation of austria into the right and invaded czechoslovakia but not until they invaded poland where they required to fire a shot on the 17th as foreshadowed in the secret protocols soviet troops invaded from the east and poland was in michael burley's phrase crucified between two thieves [Music] at the front germans and russians meet poland defeated the soviets push in to seize a share and there's a proclamation the nazi communist arrangement of such fateful meaning the existence of a nation signed away and so it was that adolf hitler the political genius led his country into a war years earlier than he intended against the vast british empire that he had tried so hard to befriend and an alliance with the soviet union which he had for years demonized as the great threat to civilization a flawed genius then [Music] the crisis moves on to its climax germany has attacked poland and parliament meets again if german troops are not withdrawn from poland britain goes to harade with all the resources at her command ultimatums following germany's move were issued and ignored [Music] on the third the war in a strange way to the relief of many who could now exhale was declared [Music] and unlike the first world war no one thought it would be over by christmas [Music] war then and at that moment the day-to-day reality of 500 million people was irreversibly altered it's tempting to say where did it go wrong could democracy have survived i think under the conditions in which they were operating persistent economic crisis and poverty um constant threats of one kind of mother external sets of one kind or another deep political and ideological divisions within those countries it's very difficult to see how you could have produced a functioning democratic continent in the 1920s and 30s everything i have worked for everything i have hoped for everything that i have believed in during my public life has crashed in ruins neville james told the house of commons millions of others like me said the narrator of george orwell's 1939 novel coming up for air have got a feeling that the world's gone wrong the europe that took up arms was a very different place to the europe of 20 years earlier by 1939 11 european countries from iceland through to scandinavia to britain and france were democracies 16 were under some form of repressive authoritarian rule [Music] the league of nations remained in existence throughout but its fate in memory was sealed as the talking shop that had failed to prevent war the league in the first 10 years of its life up to 1930 up to the early 1930s was a hugely successful organization it promotes ideas of international labour cooperation it promotes the idea that women have rights independent of a nation-state they also promote the idea that children have rights it settled 60 disputes on two occasions when states had gone to war it was enough for the league to tell states to stop fighting you've got free trade you've got democratic elections spreading across large parts of the world you've got the league of nations which yes we know the script it was a big failure well it didn't look like this in the 1920s it was an extraordinary experiment and people had invested a lot of hopes into it the legal nations is really the world's first intergovernmental financial and economic arrangement the league has been unfairly tainted because it's associated with the failure of its member states what the league could do depended on its member states [Music] so i think it was a very remarkable organization a great experiment [Music] talk had failed goodwill had failed political will had failed the peace was lost and a world of dislocation dictatorship and genocide was born observers have ransacked the 1930s for lessons about statecraft ever since it had been according to the surrealist poet david gascoigne writing on new year's eve 1939 a decade of free flags flagrantly torn down by order of macabre puppet orators the blind leading the blindfolded in the devil's den [Music] strangely sadly and rather foolishly wrote journalist malcolm muggeridge the 30s drew to a close there is a word for the overlapping of things the tiles on a roof the scales on a fish the word is imbrication this has been a story about imbrication the overlapping of things political social economic military cultural casual serious and profane at the heart of the story but not all of the story is what the poet t.s eliot called the immense panorama of futility and anarchy that is contemporary history the twenties went sour when in a flurry they broke every promise and smashed every dream new promises and new dreams were supplied but in 1939 the clever hopes expire wrote w.a jordan of a low dishonest decade at versailles woodrow wilson had defined the intent of the peacemakers as being to make the world safe for democracy a decade later facing the rise of dictators and the success of demigods british prime minister stanley baldwin wondered whether the task might not be to make democracy safe for the world the obvious effect of propaganda and big parades prompted his fellow tory r.a butler then a junior minister to say that good government flourishes in the dark but those days had gone the second world war was not a continuation of the first in the sense of aims objectives alliances or cheerleaders wilhelmine germany was not the third reich the ussr was not czarist russia both italy and japan had changed sides where the ones hired the other was in the empty vaults of national treasuries the prospects of peace wear throughout the 20s and 30s persistently undercut by the cost of the great wall by debt deflation and inflation that tried to pay the debt max warburg a director of the reich bank and so one responsible for the reckless printing of money was among those who saw the choice as being whether one wished to stop the inflation and trigger the revolution he and his colleagues decided that inflation was the lesser evil but it was not the chance to make a decent place out of the great war's bloody mess had come and it had gone and soon the chance would come again to build up out of an even bigger mess but that's not this story this story about a piece that proved impossible began when the guns fell silent it ends as they roar back into life not a happy ending

Channel: Timeline - World History Documentaries

Views: 864,193

Keywords: History, Full Documentary, Documentaries, Full length Documentaries, Documentary, TV Shows - Topic, Documentary Movies - Topic, 2017 documentary, BBC documentary, Channel 4 documentary, history documentary, documentary history, churchill, outbreak of ww2, how did ww2 start, after ww1, post war documentary, world war 2 documentary, ww2, world war one

Id: KQ_n8xyT2LU

Length: 49min 35sec (2975 seconds)

Published: Thu Aug 20 2020