Lesson 11 - Interwar Years: Preparing for the Next War

INTA 4803 TP WAR IN THE 20th CENTURY

The Interwar Years:
Preparing for the Next War

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"Concrete is better ... and is cheaper than a wall of chests..."

André Maginot (1877-1932)
French Minister of War
(1922-1924, 1929-1930, 1931-1932)
To the French Parliament, 1929

"The war with Japan had been reenacted in the game rooms at the Naval War College by so many people and in so many different ways, that nothing that happened during the war was a surprise . . . absolutely nothing except the kamikaze tactics toward the end of the war; we had not visualized these."

Fleet Admiral Chester Nimitz (1885-1966)
US Pacific commander, WW II
Quoted by: Matthew Caffrey
"History of Wargames: Toward a History Based Doctrine for Wargaming"
Aerospace Power Journal, Fall 2000

Lesson Objectives

• Understand the major military lessons that each of the major combatants (Britain, France, US, Germany and Russia) took from World War I.

• Be able to describe and discuss the steps that each major combatant took to "prepare for the next war."

• Understand the military revolution that occurred during the interwar years.

• Be able to recount the major events in the 1930's that lead to war in Europe and the Pacific.

Study Guides

• List the major causes of World War II.

• Describe the strategies developed during the interwar years by the major combatants of World War I (Britain, France, US, Germany and Russia) to fight "the next war."

• What innovations were developed or refined during the interwar years to constitute a military revolution?

Assignment

Readings:

Causes of World War II
Wikipedia

In addition to the three openng paragraphs,
READ:
• Ideologies, doctrines, and philosophies and
• Interrelations and economics down to, but not including, "Issues after the dissolution of Austria Hungary"

World War I Reparations
Wikipedia
READ: Through the first three paragraphs of "Impact on the German Economy," ending at "... the UK General Strike of 1926."

The Maginot Line
Wikipedia

The World At War, History of WW 1939-1945
Wilfried Braakhuis

This is a superb chronological account of the Second World War with excellent links to supporting information. This will be a standard resource throughout the block on World War II.
FOR THIS LESSON: Read "1932-1939".

Supplemental Resources:

"Intervention and Civil War, 1918-1920
Lawrence C. Jorgensen and Kirt Sechooler
The Millenial Files (cached)

This reading provides insight into the U.S. policy impllications of sending troops to Russin in 1918-1920.

"The Versailles Treaty - Going Too Far" (short commentary)
Stephane Audoin-Rouzeau (French WW I Historian)
"Historian Commentaries"
The Great War and the Shaping of the 20th Century
PBS

"Germany ends World War One reparations after 92 years" (Sep 2010!) • More
Allan Hall, Daily Mail (UK), 28 Sep 2010

The reparations demanded of Germany by the Treaty of Versailles (1919) finally have been paid!

"Between the World Wars"
American Military History, Chapter 19
Maurice Matloff (ed)
Washington: US Army Center of Military History, 1989
• READ pp. 405-417, down to (but not including) "The Beginnings of World War II".

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