The invasion of Poland in September 1939 surprised few people. Hitler had been threatening war for some time. The annexation of the Sudetenland had been followed by the invasion of the rest of Czechoslovakia, the Nazi–Soviet pact and finally the invasion of Poland. Britain and France now declared war on Germany. Almost 6 years of fighting followed with Allied armies finally defeating Germany, Italy and Japan. In this article we will be looking at the interpretation that this war was caused by the Versailles Peace Conference of 1919.
This cartoon was published on 17 May 1919 in the British Herald and was the work of an Australian artist called Will Dyson. The cartoon depicts the four major Allied leaders at the Versailles Peace Conference: Woodrow Wilson (the president of the USA), Georges Clemenceau (the prime minister of France), Emanuele Orlando (the prime minister of Italy) and David Lloyd George (the prime minister of Great Britain) walking past a crying child labelled ‘Class of 1940’. It can be viewed at www.tinyurl.com/2s4ez79f. How accurate was this cartoon in predicting the Second World War?
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