Europe in the 1930s: the decade of dictators

There were many changes in Europe during the 1930s. For one thing, in 1929 a depression struck the world and its effects - bankruptcies, unemployment, homelessness and despair - were felt particularly strongly in Germany. Germans lost patience with their democratic government which had failed to bring them prosperity and turned to the government offered by Hitler, which became a dictatorship. His promise to tear up the terms of the Treaty of Versailles and establish Germany once again as the dominant power on the continent of Europe had tremendous appeal. Hitler came to power in 1933, just as the Depression was coming to an end. Hitler's economic policies helped to speed up the return to prosperity.

By 1933 two other powers, Italy and Japan, also had reasons to challenge the balance of power and the League of Nations. They formed an alliance with Germany. Japan had ambitions to dominate the Pacific, and Italy wanted an empire in Africa. Germany planned an empire in the heart of Europe. As in 1914, Britain and France were again faced with the problem of halting the expansion of Germany and they made the same decision. On 3 September 1939 Britain and France declared war on Germany after Hitler's invasion of Poland. This time, though, the people of Britain, France and Germany remembered all too clearly the suffering of the First World War and there were no scenes of enthusiasm for war - just acceptance.

Neil Demarco: The era of the Second World War; Oxford University Press, 1993/2000, page 13