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Mountain River Anglican Church School
Modern History Test, Term 2, Semester 1
1. The main cause of Scandinavian Revanchism aimed at Germany during the Pre - War years was?
There are several reasons as to why the Christian Peoples Republic of Scandinavia sought to regain large parts of Northern Germany in the early 1930's. The obvious reason would seem to be to avenge the humiliating defeats imposed on them by Germany in the great war of 1890 which led to the control of much former southern Denmark and the effective demilitarisation of the north in the aftermath of the Baltic war. However relations were if anything improving between the two nations, it seemed that by good diplomacy the Scandinavians may have even been able to relax the strict controls on Denmark and maybe even negotiate a gradual handover or at least Danish autonomy within the Reichstag. This could be best shown by Scandinavias refusal to join the Russo-Prussian War of 1901-1905 despite the relative weakness of Germany's northern coast and the strong Scandinavian Army and Navy.
The reason for renewed hostility would instead appear to lie in the massive political changes that Germany went through in the aftermath of the war. After their catastrophic defeat at the hands of Tsarist forces at the Battle of Warsaw, they were forced into a humiliating peace treaty which imposed massive reparations on Germany as well as fixed exchange rates between the mark and the Ruble and the ceding of all territory east of the Oder. Out of this chaos the Rasbo dictatorship was born.
The new Racialist - Bolshevik regime was born out of political speeches of people such as Walther Student and Ernst Koller and quickly harneesed mainstream support, culminating in the military coup of 1926. Within months of their seizure of power the Rasbos had abolished all religions as well as nationalising all industry and were beginning to enact their plans to deport all non-Germans. Soon refuggees were being forced into the Baltic sea for "Voluntary Re-patriation", this effectively severed all relations between Germany and it's neighbours.
However the real delivering blow was still to come. Two years into their regime and already rumours were circulating of extermination of religious worshippers and land owners, mainly from Scandinavian refugees who had been forced into slave labour before their deportation. It was this that finally inspired the advocacy of a war aggressive policy and the spark that arguably finally ignited the First Eurasian War.
Thus in conclusion the root of Scandinavias abrupt change in policy was due to the present as much as it was due to the past.
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Bear Lake University
Modern History Degree, Final Paper,
To what extent was Soviet neutrality in WW2 the most important factor in the eventual peace between the Allies and Nazi Germany?