Why World Peace Failed After WWI | Total War | Timeline

hi everybody welcome to this timeline documentary my name is dan snow and here i am in a lancaster bomber cockpit one of the few remaining lancasters from the second world war to tell you about my new history channel it's called history hit it's like netflix for history hundreds of history documentaries on there and interviews with many of the world's best historians follow the information below this film or just search online for history hit and make sure you use the code timeline to get a special introductory offer now enjoy this show total war is all-encompassing a war without boundary or limitation in the second world war massive armies advanced confronting whole populations with impossible choices [Music] the manufacturer of weapons transformed industry in the workforce area bombing campaigns reduced cities to rubble procedures doomed populations to starvation racial policies sponsored campaigns of genocide at the heart of this conflict were ordinary people who would reveal both the best and worst of humanity people whose lives were lost or mortgaged to the demands of total war [Music] [Music] [Music] in the peace that followed the first world war people across the globe raw and grieving hoped it had been the war to end all wars but a far more destructive war lay in their not too distant future in the 1920s and 30s the fragile peace began to falter the abyssinian crisis [Music] the sino-japanese war and the spanish civil war each in their own way provided glimpses of the war to come the nature of war had been shifting from limited warfare towards total war for many years military scholars and philosophers sought a way to describe this new kind of warfare in the 1820s the influential prussian general and military scholar carl von klaus fitz developed his concept of absolute war and in his mind an absolute war was a war where there was an unlimited political objective the entire destruction of the enemy state if necessary the total eradication of their independence when klaus thought absolute war was unlikely he thought the strain it would place on societies would cause them to collapse but of course he had not foreseen the development of enormous nation states by the turn of the 20th century von klasswich's theory of absolute war anticipated some of the realities of war almost 100 years after he wrote it but when the first world war introduced the world to warfare dominated by the industrial strength of the combatants it was far more destructive than anything from crossfits could have imagined the scale is like nothing we've ever seen before in war and so are the casualties that follow but it's more than just the armies it's about how economies are mobilized for the first time you have major command economies in europe where the government directs the production to support the war effort there's a huge change in how society approaches the creation of economic wealth general eric ludendorff nominally german first quartermaster general and effectively overall commander dubbed the new kind of conflict total war it was the first world war that alerted ludendorff and others to the possibilities of total war but it was the second world war that would demonstrate its catastrophic potential the second world war fits the idea of a total even more so than the first whereas in the first world war the states although well developed and able to put millions into the field lack certain features that the second world war states have in the second world war you have clearly totalitarian states nazi germany soviet russia even imperial japan who can mobilize their populations on a level never seen before total war encompassed different dimensions elements of total war were to do with the level of technology and destruction that was deployed in military action others was to do with the way in which civilians were exposed to violence and different countries engaged in different aspects of that total war to different extents exposure to the different aspects of total war would depend on time and place when the war ended the cities of the united states were intact those of germany in ruins [Music] both germany and australia were combatants but the degree to which those living in each country experienced total war varied immensely the citizens of dresden saw their city destroyed the people of melbourne were untouched the extent to which war dominated the economies of each country committed to the war effort also varied germany for example actually didn't mobilize its economy very effectively in a total way until relatively late in the war britain started that process much earlier the most complete mobilization of the home front was in the soviet union where the true nature of total war was made clear by the german invasion it was a struggle for existence and a society had to go all in right from the beginning if you endorse the notion of total war you were breaking down restrictions on the kind of means that can be used to achieve a victory i think total war has several key features it is a war that is seen as an existential struggle the nations that are involved see it as a question of survival or annihilation any methods that are needed to win that struggle are considered to be legitimate total war did not emerge spontaneously it evolved through the conflicts of the years between the wars which included and gathered together elements of total war with each conflict people across the world became accustomed to perhaps desensitized to the unrestrained violence of total war when the second world war went global in 1941 millions of people would become embroiled in the struggle for total victory or total defeat the origins of the commitment to total war and total defeat can be traced back to the armistice of 1918. the first world war ended on november the 11th 1918 at least in the west but in fact fighting went on longer in the east and i think that's something we should always remember what happened then is that the leaders of the victorious allies had to meet and had to decide how to deal with what was a catastrophic situation in europe [Applause] in 1919 europe was chaotic the great continental empires that had for better or for worse ruled over europe habsburg hohenzollen romanov ottoman were gone [Music] the aftermath of the great war had left parts of europe starving it had globalized and industrialized warfare on a scale never seen before and then at versailles leaders from nearly 30 nations came together to establish the terms of the peace i think the very much in their minds of those who went to the paris peace conference in 1919 was to try and avert another catastrophe like the one they'd just come through the peace at the end of the first world war was in many ways an illusion the treaty of versailles signed on the 28th of june 1919 was one of five treaties formulated in the paris peace conference the terms of the treaty were seen as unnecessarily harsh the war guilt clause which placed the blame for the war squarely at german feat had numerous toxic consequences the payment of billions in reparations the loss of territory and population loss of all her colonies and restrictions on the size of the german army and on the creation of weapons and munitions among them [Music] versailles left a legacy of resentment in germany that was to prove disastrously fertile it was surprising how many people during the making of the treaty of venezuela were looking forward and saying well the germans are going to be they're going to be vengeful there is going to be a new war in due course shocked by the severity of the terms many germans believed its punitive measures were unfair the treaty became widely known as the dictator another legacy of the loss that would have far-reaching consequences for the mobilization of the population for total war and later insistence on total unconditional surrender was the dolce legenda or stabbed in the back legend the stab in the back myth was a belief that germany had never actually been defeated in the first world war that her armies were still in the field and and hadn't been overthrown by the allied armies and that it was only those people at home the socialists the jews the you know the elements who are effectively against the state who had brought germany to a situation where they were forced to negotiate peace this was a myth but it was a very convenient myth and this played out in a very powerful way in the rise of the right in the 1920s and 30s hitler and the nazi party capitalized on rising resentment the abolition of the treaty was a key platform for the party [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Applause] hitler also vowed to create lebensraum living space for the german people land lost in the treaty would be regained and more added the ideological concept that germany needed to expand its territory to thrive was not new when hitler wrote about it in mein kampf it's actually turn of the century even late 19th century thinking about empires and this idea that the future belongs to those powers that have the great spaces the mass populations and industrial resources at hand [Applause] but hitler's belief that germany's destiny then expanding its territory to the east could only be done through conquest the implications of the treaty of versailles on germany in the 1920s and 1930s are clear but the paris peace conference also had broader global implications one of which was the formation of the league of nations the idea of collective security was thought to offer protection against war a measure of protection against the possibility of another great war the league was the brainchild of us president woodrow wilson and he petitioned for its inclusion in the treaty of versailles woodrow wilson put a great deal of faith in the league of nations he felt it would provide a way of settling disputes of nations of the world working together and also providing collective security so that an attack on one member of the league of nations would be seen as an attack on the mall and it was a very idealistic type of international institution but i think there was strong support for it at the time the league was established on the 10th of january 1920 despite popular support and president wilson's enthusiasm for the league opposition in congress from those who did not want america embroiled in another european crisis meant that the united states never joined now if the united states had joined the league of nations we'll never know but the history of the 1920s and 1930s might have been a bit different the league's ability to enforce collective security was tested repeatedly during the interwar years one of the greatest tests it faced was japan's invasion of manchuria the eurocentric view of the second world war is that it began in 1939 but war was being fought in the east long before hitler invaded poland the invasion of manchuria in 1931 was perhaps the first step on the long road to world war zara steiner the great historian at cambridge calls the period from 1929 to 1933 the hinge years these are the years that make things different the japanese military move into manchuria in 1931 in defiance of orders from their own civilian government and the civilians are increasingly helpless to stop the japanese militarists japan had a presence in manchuria from the early 20th century when victory in the russo-japanese war had secured for japan control of the liadong peninsula and with it the south manchurian railway [Music] the neutrality of the area was also important to japan to serve as protection for their colonial interests in korea which japan had formally annexed in 1910 the manchurian incident began with an explosion along a section of the south manchurian railway on the night of september 18 1931 the explosion was created as a pretext for invasion by officers of the japanese quantum army acting independently from the authority of the government in tokyo it had been planned by two relatively junior officers but within the space of about five to ten days they managed to occupy large parts of a region that is about the size of france and germany combined so this was really one of the most daring military actions that has been seen really in the 20th century now many people asked why didn't the international structures why didn't the international community do more at that time why didn't the americans take action or the british or the league of nations lack of food is causing great starvation and relief agencies give aid as best they can chiang kai-shek head of the nationalist government in china offered limited resistance believing the league of nations would resolve the conflict may i for a few moments recall to your mind the history of the present crisis we do appeal to you the league investigated and labeled japan the aggressor but the international community was not inclined to become actively involved all of europe's great countries had gone through a deeply traumatic and terrifying experience with war on their doorstep the likelihood that they would threaten or go to war for a very far-off country in east asia which they didn't regard as a serious ally was something that i think at the time few politicians would have ventured japan rejected the league's censure and refused to return manchuria to china japan however find it impossible to accept the report abducted by the assembly in march 1933 japan abandoned the league clearly undermining its capacity for enforcing collective security [Music] and there is an international kind of almost applause of what japan is doing we look at international magazines both british and japanese that deal with the idea of imperial development or colonialism there's constant british discussion of the excellent impact that japan is having in east asia manchuria or manchukuo as it was renamed by the japanese who set up a puppet regime under china's last emperor remained in japanese hands until japan's defeat in 1945 [Music] the invasion of manchuria showed japan and other aggressive nations that there would be minimal consequences for violating the league's rules and that was dangerous because japan was not the only nation intent on expanding her borders in the 1930s [Applause] [Music] in october 1935 italy invades ethiopia and insists on doing it in a dramatically fascist fashion with a massive army and with the use of massively superior air force the italian invasion of ethiopia then known as abyssinia fulfilled what benito mussolini referred to as natural expansion il ducey believed italy should be an imperial power and colonisation of the independent ethiopia offered a chance to build his empire it also offered agricultural land in the country's fertile cotton growing regions it's possible i think to argue that when mussolini decided to invade abyssinia ethiopia uh and to conquer it as part of the italian empire and the other powers failed to stop him but this is a turning point that once that's happened you're on the march now to japanese aggression to german aggression and so on and you're on the march for the second world war the pretext for the invasion was an incident at vaal in december 1934 when somalis serving mussolini fired on the ethiopians the ethiopians returned fire and this was mussolini's caster's belly for mobilizing his troops standing on a roman balcony mussolini announced the invasion of ethiopia on the 2nd of october 1935. to our soldiers in east africa who are about to start fighting he sends a message and italy and the world knew that meant war [Music] in ethiopia civilians quickly became targets they were terrorized on the ground as well as from aerial bombardments which began within days of the opening of hostilities worse was to come on december 26 1935 mussolini agreed to the use of poison gas before the year was out villagers had been drenched with mustard gas women and children the frail and aged were intentionally targeted their skin burned livestock killed and water supplies poisoned mussolini denied using gas against civilians mussolini claimed that the frightful wounds that the ethiopians got from poison gas that it was just a form of leprosy and they weren't really using poison gas against the ethiopians at all the trouble was that the democracies tended to connive because they didn't want to force the issue into a a shooting war in fact we had retrieved from ethiopia a canister of poison gas marked in italian so we knew exactly what was going on and we therefore as i say in a sense colluded with uh the italian atrocities in ethiopia the more widespread use of gas against civilians in ethiopia demonstrated that the moral boundaries protecting non-combatants were being obliterated unrestrained violence against civilians was becoming normalized civilians were fair game as part of military tactics and is the capital for callus retribution and so in a way it's the ethiopian war i think that turns mussolini into a bad dictator when lots of people in 1932 would have still thought oh well for italians at least he's a rather good dictator in adisa baba in february 1937 italian army and fascist paramilitary forces rampaged through the city in retribution for an attempt on the life of the fascist governor general rodolfo graziani which then produces a typical assault on the main sort of repository of ethiopian history at a monastery called deborah labanos where the italians destroy the monastery kill the monks and burn the history it's a classic example of europeans saying well blacks can't have history only europeans have history so bad luck at home mussolini worked to mobilize the italian economy for his war of civilization and liberation one campaign called for wives to donate their wedding rings to the war effort many enthusiastically did queen elena made a ceremony of donating her ring queen eleanor inaugurates italy's wedding ring day and exhorts the women of italy to sacrifice their rings for the fatherland mussolini recognized that the need to mobilize the economy and win the support of the population at home were key elements of modern war but italy was far from being an industrial power of the first rank and the mobilization of resources for the abyssinian adventure and for involvement in the spanish civil war fatally undermined mussolini's capacity to fight a total war in alliance with hitler's reich the league of nations condemned the italian invasion but sanctions failed to make any real difference the import of mules and camels was banned but not cars and lorries france and britain tried to negotiate a plan with ethiopia and italy that would cede two-thirds of ethiopia to italy but both parties rejected it i think we need to remember that the great powers in this case britain and france were imperial powers too and it was quite hard for them to say to mussolini hang on we've got big empires but actually you can't have one and they tried to stitch a deal with him so that he would have influence in abyssinian bits of territory and so on because they were quite used to carving out parts of africa in their own interest [Music] the abyssinia crisis following japan's invasion of manchuria further undermined collective security and the credibility of the league when the emperor haile selassie abandoned ethiopia he sought and was reluctantly granted asylum in london [Music] he made an appearance at the league of nations and was greeted by jeering italian press and others who turned their backs in protest at his appearance finally when the scene settled he told those assembled you abandoned us to italy this he asserted was a terrible precedent of bowing before force and a foreshadowing of things to come it is us today he told the league it will be you tomorrow i think we're so focused on hitler and 1930s the impact he had on other politicians that we forget i think that mussolini was for many years a much more important figure he was a fascist dictator for 11 years before hitler came to power he was generally viewed in 1920s 1930s as a serious politician also a serious threat in some way in may 1936 mussolini announced victory to jubilant italian crowds [Music] italy had destroyed primitive villages and intentionally targeted civilians with bombs and gas it used war to expand its territory draw on the agricultural resources of occupied land and mobilize its own economy to support the war effort europe watched [Music] as mussolini was declaring victory in abyssinia spain was falling into a brutal civil war that would profoundly affect the lives of civilians and prepare the path towards total war the conflict which grew from a failed military coup was a complex struggle for between centralism and regionalism nationalism and republicanism left and right authoritarian and libertarian viewpoints it tore the country apart what we can say in terms of the spanish war and the international context is the spanish civil war was absolutely in its origins a spanish war a narrow domestic conflict and that held good both for the origins and for maybe the first two weeks of the civil war and thereafter spain became a battlefield in an international war italy and germany supported the nationalists the republicans found support in the soviet union and both sides attracted adventurers idealists and fanatics from all over the world most famously on the republican side in the form of the international brigades now in terms of both hitler and mussolini it's often said you know that what they did was ideological you know supporting another fascist that it was also about experimenting with new military equipment which to an extent it was but the key thing that was behind the thinking of both of them was to undermine britain and france there were no simple alliances in this war and everyone including civilians were both targets and potential enemies one of the most terrible aspects of the civil war is the arming of youth at a school age the youngest rebel in arms is normalized by his fellows when he leaves hospital at vergara the crowd stands to attention with the fascist salute as the 14 year old veteran healed of his wounds comes out to report for duty [Music] the concept of a fifth column emerged in this war nationalist general emilio mola vidal moving on madrid with his four column army described a fifth column of supporters already in madrid undermining his opposition the idea of fifth columnists later fueled fear and the persecution of enemy aliens in the second world war in spain savage reprisals against opponents and suspected opponents were carried out by both sides campaigns of fear and terror were intentionally employed threats of rape were broadcast over the radio and those whose families had fled were killed as nationalist forces moved through an area anyone perceived as having shown loyalty to the popular front government was in danger left-wing parties in madrid set up checkers revolutionary tribunals that held trials of assault and shot those they convicted hanging their bodies in the street while on the right nationalist purge committees executed those with liberal sensibilities the war not only endangered the lives of civilians it mobilized their labor and their homes the defense of madrid involved large-scale civilian mobilization anticipating that which would be enacted in leningrad and other cities during the second world war the community prepared for war women and children created barricades from rocks and stones buildings were requisitioned unions formed battalions outside the city the government army digs itself in and prepares for the assault of the rebels when the battle for the city turned to stalemate the nationalists resorted to aerial bombardments almost all of the residential areas were bombed it was an ultimately fruitless attempt to break morale but a very instructive rehearsal for future action as far as hitler was concerned his participation in the spanish civil war had been immensely beneficial they'd managed to trial a number of military tactics which would be used in the blitzkrieg in poland first and then in france that had actually been used i mean the culmination if you like was guernica that's when it's all been trialled the bombing of guernica began with a single bomber on the afternoon of monday the 26th of april 1937 the main church bell rang out in warning of the air attack refugees troops in the town's civilian population made their way to the refuges the german condor legion had more firepower than all the air forces of the first world war combined and one bomber from its experimental squadron wreaked havoc on the centre of town once it had passed people emerged from the shelters to help the wounded and were surprised when 15 minutes later the full experimental squadron flew over dropping its bombs then at 5 15 the town was carpet bombed by three squadrons operating in 20-minute relays for two and a half hours incendiaries blanketed the city in flames as in the skies above the precursor to the luftwaffe rehearsed destruction for the war to come a lot of military equipment high-tech military equipment had been tested in spain so for hitler the consequences were positive as far as mussolini was concerned it was a much more complicated issue at one level he'd gained you know the foreign policy and the propaganda triumphs but at a huge cost italy had sent maybe 80 000 troops a high number of casualties that had used about half of its naval fleet and almost all of its better force large amounts of equipment were left behind when the italians left spain for the rest of the world spain offered a glimpse of the total war to come it was a war fought with the labor of the people marked by destruction they did not discriminate between combatant and non-combatant battlefield and suburban street the consequences of total war were also becoming clear the situation for the hundreds of thousands of refugees who fled spain was dire france offered some asylum but conditions in the hastily assembled camps were terrible no running water or the trees in some camps refugees dug holes in the ground for shelter the cost of supporting refugees was in the millions of francs per day and the french government faced opposition from those opposed to admitting refugees france faced a foreshadowing of the crisis that would overrun europe at the end of the second world war in the pacific two a humanitarian crisis was unfolding japan's war against china paused following the annexation of manchuria in 1937 it flared catastrophically when japan launched a full-scale invasion [Music] world war ii broke out on the 7th of july 1937. this is not a date that european historians generally attribute to this event but i think there is a very strong case that actually the second world war began in asia and particularly with shooting between locally garrisoned chinese and japanese troops at a bridge called lugochao known in the west as the marco polo bridge when ceasefire discussions failed china mobilized for war against japan a war that would temporarily hold the civil war being fought between chinese nationalists and communists who came together to form a united front against invasion i think it's fair to say that chiang kai-shek and the nationalists were well aware that an invasion was very likely and increasingly in the mid-1930s they had made preparations however they were significantly outnumbered and outgunned by the japanese the japanese had a huge advantage in terms of mechanized divisions in terms of artillery and particularly in terms of air power japan hoped to move quickly to neutralize and contain the conflict in northern china this worked initially beiping as beijing was then called and tianjin fell quickly after intense aerial bombardments they expected it to be a quick lightning war that would probably end either with a collaborationist chinese regime doing their will or even a full-scale invasion and occupation of china so they were greatly surprised and angered when the initial phase of fighting took rather longer than they had thought chiang kai-shek the leader of the chinese government had never believed that a war with japan would be quick or easy and he had made plans for an extended protracted war that would probably involve withdrawal into the interior of china for quite a long period of time until international assistance could be persuaded to come china's way chiang kai-shek chose shanghai as the place where he would make a stand against the japanese once a small fishing village by 1937 shanghai had become a vibrant international center for commercial affairs it was home to universities european banks and foreign owned factories on the 14th of august black saturday bombers of the chinese air force set out to target japanese naval assets including the japanese ship izumo but two pilots inadvertently dropped their bombs on the wrong targets hitting one of the busiest civilian areas of the city the palace hotel and the shopping district avenue edward vii were hit the international settlement thought to be safe was a scene of destruction soon enough japanese aerial bombardment also began with attempts to capture the city leading to fighting on the streets on the 20th of october the international settlement suffered again when a japanese bomb hit a tram car the fighting in shanghai demonstrated to the international community the indiscriminate nature of aerial warfare international concession areas were not specifically targeted but nonetheless suffered casualties after further fighting around suture creek and following the landing of a japanese amphibious force at hangzhou bay ching realized his troops could not hold the city the fighting in shanghai was terribly brutal japanese losses were about 40 000 uh soldiers and chinese losses were probably around the 200 000 but when the japanese landed in hangzhou just south of shanghai they broke through the lines and advanced very very quickly towards nanjing namjin also known as nan king was a culturally significant city for china renowned for its architecture it had been china's capital under numerous empires and in 1937 was the nationalist capital under the leadership of chiang kai-shek but cultural significance would offer no protection in total war an awful lot has been written by chinese japanese and western scholars about the nanjing mascara it really stands out as the most egregious example of japanese atrocities in china of which there are many on the 7th of december chang recognizing the inevitability of losing the city left for the country's interior in the days leading to its fall panic in gulf nanjing residents fled to the public buildings and colleges in the designated safety zone in anticipation of the japanese advance the 12th of december was a clear and relatively peaceful day artillery was firing but there were no air raids but by nightfall the city was in flames the chinese defense had buckled and the defending troops had been given orders to abandon the city before leaving the troops set many buildings alight a common practice in total war by the time the japanese army entered the capital it was already burning [Music] when japanese troops arrived a new level of brutality and violence erupted getting from shanghai to nanjing was not particularly pleasant so there is an argument that the brutality of war breeds further brutality and makes these actions more likely i think it's fair to say that there was probably a breakdown in certain areas of japanese come on during the period from the first hours until the middle of january 1938 the people of nanjing endured unrestrained violence homes were repeatedly invaded women raped men suspected of being soldiers mutilated and killed corpses lined the streets few in the city were safe one witness wrote that up to 1 000 women and girls were assaulted in one night i think where we are with the manchester as i think where we are with many other similar events around the world is not perhaps to look at the massacre as a whole but to think about why would a soldier or group of soldiers commit certain actions because it's one thing to execute several thousand prisoners of war because you've been told to do so it's another thing to go around raping women and killing children [Music] in the japanese case i think there's an intersection of both ideology and a certain kind of military governance the japanese military were immensely powerful and had incredibly racist denigratory attitudes towards the peoples of east asia over which they were gradually annexing territory nanjing was a foretaste of the impact japan's imperial ambitions would have on civilians in occupied territory as the war continued it also demonstrated the influence the military had achieved over japan's governing structures by 1937 it's important to remember japan's wars were part of a long run expansion of japanese influence throughout the east asian region but over the course of the interwar period as military control over japan was increased and became more radicalized and the willingness to give a military essentially abusive free reign over a civilian population did not seem problematic and it didn't seem that it would threaten japan's reputation in a modern wartime environment in a world in which all the powers seemed willing to see wars encompassing these kind of strategies there are no definitive casualty figures for the number of people who died in nanjing the scale of slaughter can only be tallied in estimates most scholars now would accept that between 200 and 300 000 people died the fact is we will we will never know we simply don't have accurate records 200 to 300 000 is the accepted figure in nanjing the line between combatant and non-combatant was erased violence was used as a deliberate weapon of war against the civilian population an element of total war that would soon be employed elsewhere in the asia pacific region and in europe after the fall of nanjing the chinese nationalists moved to wuhan the japanese advanced through china continued and by june 1938 the position at wuhan was under threat considering his options for defense of the temporary capital chiang kai-shek made a decision that profoundly affected the people of hunan anway and jiangsu provinces [Music] he ordered the chinese nationalist armies to breach the dikes of the yellow river they would use water instead of soldiers to defend the city the floods that followed have been described as perhaps the single most environmentally damaging act of warfare in world history it wasn't possible to warn the chinese population in advance chiang kai-shek was concerned that there were japanese spies across the countryside the flood eventually affected something like square kilometers it killed up to half a million people with four to five million refugees created by this flood the diversion of the river delayed the japanese advance but it did not defeat it the chinese defense is resolute this impedes but doesn't stop the japanese who cross the stream tanks and all they bought the nationalist government time to withdraw and relocate its capital to southwest china in the city of chongqing wuhan fell in october 1938 the flooding of the yellow river shows the extent to which strategy can ignore the fate of civilians the sino-japanese war previewed numerous aspects of the total war that europe would experience another example is the bombing of chongqing as the japanese advanced people fled their homes in search of safety many fled to chongqing remote enough for chang to have made it his capital remote but not safe if we want to see a place that best represents total war in china chongqing is is probably that place at the beginning of the war the japanese targeted factories munitions infrastructure they were interested primarily in weakening the ability of the chinese to respond to their attacks when it became apparent that china was not going to surrender that chiang kai-shek was not going to come to the negotiating table and the war became more protracted japanese tactics changed and they embarked on the type of terror bombing that we see slightly later on in the war the attacks on the 3rd and 4th of may 1939 marked the beginning of a campaign of terror from the air the estimates are throughout the whole period that chongqing was under attack something like 9500 aircraft dropped over 20 000 bombs on the city and something like 15 000 people were killed the japanese refined the strategy of guernica in their strategic bombing raids but where the bombing of guernica lasted a day chongqing endured repeated attacks over a period of two years fear was amplified by incendiary bombs and delayed fuses and it spread to europe in 1932 british prime minister stanley baldwin had spoken of the fear of the air the direct threat to civilians that bombers posed the bomber he had famously said will always get through and it seemed that the experience of madrid of guernica shanghai and john q proved bored when right when people look today at newsreel footage or photographs of the war in china in its first two or three years 1937-39 i think what might strike them is not so much its strangeness but its familiarity the city of chongqing the temporary capital of china being bombed the digging of trenches in the streets of shanghai during the desperate battle for that city the sending of refugees from the vulnerable cities to the interior the eerie thing is these things were happening in china before they happened in the west and therefore when we think about the experience that we associate with the war in the west even something as iconic as the blitz in london we should remember that those experiences are not just shared in china but often the chinese were there first when the second world war broke out in europe many aspects of total war were already familiar the abyssinia crisis the spanish civil war and the sino-japanese war had each acted as importance of the total war to come the world had borne witness to terror-bombing campaigns unrestrained violence against civilians to incalculable numbers of refugees displaced by war born witness and if it had not exactly shrugged its shoulders it had resigned itself to one fact this is what war now meant as the 1930s wore on and the inability of the league of nations to maintain collective security became clear hopes for a lasting peace disintegrated mussolini took power stalin took power spain erupted hitler and the nazi party rose to power and japan's imperial intentions became increasingly clear economies and populations across the globe began to mobilize for a war that the years between the wars had shown would be decided on the battlefield and at sea and in the cities and in the factories and down the mines and in the homes and classrooms and on the streets and on the farms it would be total war

Channel: Timeline - World History Documentaries

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Rating: 4.8206835 out of 5

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, total war, ww2, treaty of versailles, what caused ww2, why did ww2 start, global war, hitler, woodrow wilson, league of nations, the great war, world war one, war reparations

Id: bd8bS6yGOXI

Length: 52min 3sec (3123 seconds)

Published: Sun Feb 28 2021