What was nationalism in ww2

This photograph was taken shortly after he finished dictating "Mein Kampf" to deputy Rudolf Hess. Eight years later, Hitler would be sworn in as Chancellor of Germany, in The Empire of Japan and the Republic of China had been at war intermittently since , but the conflict escalated in Japanese aircraft carry out a bombing run over targets in China in Japanese soldiers involved in street fighting in Shanghai, China in The battle of Shanghai lasted from August through November of , eventually involving nearly one million troops.

In the end, Shanghai fell to the Japanese, after over , casualties combined. Under the banner of the rising sun, Japanese troops are shown passing from the Chinese City of Peiping into the Tartar City through Chen-men, the main gate leading onward to the palaces in the Forbidden City. Just a stone's throw away is the American Embassy, where American residents of Peiping flocked when Sino-Japanese hostilities were at their worst.

This image may contain graphic or objectionable content. Japanese soldiers execute captured Chinese soldiers with bayonets in a trench as other Japanese soldiers watch from rim. On February 5, , A Chinese woman surveys the remains of her family, all of whom met death during Japanese occupation of Nanking, allegedly victims of atrocities at the hands of Japanese soldiers.

Buddhist priests of the Big Asakusa Temple prepare for the Second Sino-Japanese War as they wear gas masks during training against future aerial attacks in Tokyo, Japan, on May 30, This march was an act of intimidation, where thousands of fascist blackshirts occupied strategic positions throughout much of Italy. Following the march, King Emanuelle III asked Mussolini to form a new government, clearing the way towards a dictatorship. Italian forces under Mussolini invaded and annexed Ethiopia, folding it into a colony named Italian East Africa along with Eritrea.

Italian troops raise the Italian flag over Macalle, Ethiopia in Emperor Haile Selassie's appeals the the League of Nations for help went unanswered, and Italy was largely given a free hand to do as it pleased in East Africa. In Spain, loyalist soldiers teach target practice to women who are learning to defend the city of Barcelona against fascist rebel troops of general Francisco Franco during the Spanish Civil War, on June 2, Three hundred fascist insurgents were killed in this explosion in Madrid, Spain, under the five-story Casa Blanca building, on March 19, Government loyalists tunneled yards over a six-month period to lay the land mine that caused the explosion.

An insurgent fighter tosses a hand grenade over a barbed wire fence and into loyalist soldiers with machine guns blazing in Burgos, Spain, on Sept. Scores of families are seen taking refuge underground on a Madrid subway platform, on December 9, , as bombs are dropped by Franco's rebel aircraft overhead.

The Spanish Civil War saw some of the earliest extensive use of aerial bombardment of civilian targets, and the development of new terror bombing techniques. Following an aerial attack on Madrid from 16 rebel planes from Tetuan, Spanish Morocco, relatives of those trapped in ruined houses appeal for news of their loved ones, January 8, The faces of these women reflect the horror non-combatants are suffering in the civil struggle. A Spanish rebel who surrendered is led to a summary court martial, as popular front volunteers and civil guards jeer, July 27, , in Madrid, Spain.

A fascist machine gun squad, backed up by expert riflemen, hold a position along the rugged Huesca front in northern Spain, December 30, Solemnly promising the nation his utmost effort to keep the country neutral, U. President Franklin D. Roosevelt is shown as he addressed the nation by radio from the White House in Washington, Sept. In the years leading up to the war, the U.

Congress passed several Neutrality Acts, pledging to stay officially out of the conflict. Riette Kahn is shown at the wheel of an ambulance donated by the American movie industry to the Spanish government in Los Angeles, California, on Sept. The Hollywood Caravan to Spain will first tour the U. Structural concepts are concerned with the physical distinctions and divisions influencing the likelihood of nationalist sentiments and divisions forming within a given region. However, this is disputed by academics such as Gagnon, who argue that it is wrong to assume a mixing of nationalities increased the likelihood of conflict, citing the Yugoslav conflict as an example [15] — there was a significantly high inter-ethnic marriage rate prior to the outbreak of conflict, as well as widespread healthy social interactions between ethnic and national groups.

Therefore is it wrong to assume that mixed nationality-communities are more inclined to break into violence than homogenous communities. However, it is correct as Van Evera argues that when state borders follow ethnic or nationality divisions, the likelihood of internal conflict between opposing nationalist groups decreases, although this may not always be the case one state may feel aggrieved by their perceived lack of territory, or another such basis for conflict.

Hence, the legitimacy and defensibility of state borders is a crucial factor in whether a nationalist group or state will use force against another. If they are too one-sided i. Several perceptual factors, entwined with political factors can also be regarded as indirect causes, in certain cases creating the conditions within communities that can lead to an increased likelihood of conflict. Cultural identity is crucial in forming a coherent nationalist grouping — the greater divide between cultural groups the greater the likelihood of war.

Nationalist sentiments may be instilled in a population through nationalist symbols, propaganda, emphasis on national history, language and other methods. Historical conflict and disagreements between national or ethnic groups may increase the likelihood of war — the disagreement over mutual history between the two groups may lead to a victim mentality, with both sides feeling aggrieved and wronged by the other.

This is especially true in the case of war crimes and other such results of conflicts — the more a group can attach blame to another group, the higher the likelihood of war between the two opposing sides. A nationalist government may invoke such feelings of division in order to appeal to popular opinion; hence the less legitimate a government, the more likely such nationalist divisions can lead to war.

National minorities may be targeted by such political scape-goat policies, where ethnic or racial stereotyping can be employed to bolster a sense of nationalism in the face of a perceived internal threat. The weaker the influence of independent institutions on both the leaders and population of nationalist states or groups, the more inclined the public is to believe nationalist propaganda and act upon it.

Hence, perception of both the internal nationalist identity and the perceived threat to such an identity in a nationalist state or group can lead to an increased aggressiveness towards either a different national group or a national minority group, in both cases increasing the likelihood of war.

Nationalism has the potential to be either a direct or indirect cause of war. The likelihood that war will occur as a result of nationalist confrontations is dependent on several factors; the nature of the nationalist group or state in question their likelihood to resort to force over diplomacy, for example , the galvanising effect of nationalism in the face of a perceived external threat or indeed conflict within a state either due to the suppression of national minorities whose national identity is under threat or the use of violence as a political tool by secessionist nationalist groups within the state.

An example of the latter is the Nazi-Germany of the s who would be responsible for the most devastating war in human history. Hence, nationalism holds the potential to ignite entire populations, as in many cases they feel it is their very identity that is under threat, however it is incorrect to assume a nationalist state or group is more inclined to turn to violent methods than a different politically-orientated entity. The rise in nationalism intensified the rise in antisemitism, which had also been growing since the Enlightenment.

The First World War strengthened these feelings of nationalism across Europe, as nations were pitted against each other. In , Germany lost the First World War. Many people within Germany, including Adolf Hitler, found this loss very difficult and humiliating to process. Instead, many looked for scapegoats to blame. This led to the Stab-in-the-Back Myth. The Stab-in-the-Back Myth was the belief that the German Army did not lose the First World War on the battlefield, but was instead betrayed by communists , socialists and Jews on the home front.

This myth fostered the growth of extreme antisemitism , nationalism and anti-communism. These feelings were exacerbated further by the Treaty of Versailles in The Treaty of Versailles forced Germany to admit complete responsibility for the war; pay large amounts of reparations which undermined the Germany post-war economy ; give up significant proportions of land, and limited the size of its army. The Treaty was extremely unpopular in Germany, where the public regarded it as a diktat dictated peace.

This led to a lack of faith in the Weimar Republic , the newly established regime of rule in Germany. Nationalism was a key factor in the rise in popularity of nationalist political parties such as the Nazis, and, in turn, ideas such as antisemitism.

An Ahnenpass or ancestry pass belonging to Rita Jarmes. Ancestry passes were used to demonstrate Aryan heritage in Nazi Germany. The Nazis often requested Ahnenpasses as proof for of eligibility for certain professions, or citizenship after His ideas influenced Adolf Hitler and were used by the Nazis as justification for their racial policies.

Here, Ritter [right] is pictured doing research in Once in power, the Nazis initiated extensive antisemitic legislation. A photograph showing an antisemitic street sign in Mainbernheim, central Germany, taken in September In addition to the rise in nationalism, the modern age saw the rise of racist ideas such eugenics and antisemitism. Both of these ideas lay at the heart of Nazi ideology, and eventually informed their persecutory and genocidal policies.

Eugenics is the science of regulating a population through controlled breeding. This idea was dangerous as it suggested that certain groups were superior to others. Eugenics quickly became misused by far-right groups. The rise of antisemitism over the course of the early twentieth century was extremely dangerous. It allowed an overtly antisemitic party such as the Nazis to come to power in Hitler and the Nazis considered Jews to be an inferior race of people, who set out to weaken other races and take over the world.

Hitler lost the election, with Despite losing, the election put Hitler on the map as a credible politician. The Nazis initiated, organised and directed the genocide and their racist ideology underpinned it. These ideas were popular in Germany in the s and early s, as the economic and political situation fluctuated and then, following the Wall Street Crash in , quickly deteriorated.

In these uncertain times, the Nazi Party appeared to offer hope, political stability and prosperity. In , the Nazis became the biggest party in the Reichstag , with Shortly afterwards, on 30 January , Hitler was appointed Chancellor.

The Nazis quickly consolidated their power, taking advantage of the Reichstag Fire of February to begin their reign of terror. Whilst primarily aimed at political enemies, the infrastructure of camps and institutionalised torture used in these initial months provided the groundwork for the camp system which later facilitated mass murder.

Although not the subject of mass arrests in the same way that many political prisoners were initially, Jews were quickly targeted by the Nazi regime.

As their power became more secure, the Nazis quickly escalated to more direct persecution, such as the Nuremberg Laws of which stripped Jews of their citizenship and Kristallnacht an antisemitic pogrom in This escalation of oppression continued to intensify and radicalise until the outbreak of war, where it quickly became more lethal, and, eventually, genocidal.

As leader of the Nazi Party, Adolf Hitler played a key role in the ideas behind, the events leading up to, and the unfolding of, the Holocaust. Prior to their election, the Nazis shaped their propaganda to present Hitler as a strong leader that could return Germany from the uncertain circumstances of the time to its former glory.