User:Inferna
What Caused WW2
Strictly speaking, you could say that the war in Europe was caused by the German invasion of Poland and the war in Asia was triggered by the Japanese invasion of Manchuria. Searching for more root causes is more complicated and becomes intertwined with answers to "What could have prevented World War 2?" and "What chains of events led to WW2?"
Here are opinions from FAQ Farmers.
Failure of the Treaty of Versailles
The treaty signed after World War I treated Germany very harshly and was greatly resented by the German people.
Germany was not allowed to have a military.
German ships used for trading were given to the Allies.
Germany was forced to give up territories in Africa, Pacific, and Europe.
Germany was ordered to pay $33 billion in war damages.
This started a chain of events. It helped put Germany into a huge depression. Unemployment was at terrible levels. Hitler made it his responsibility to defy all of the charges made on Germany through the treaty. He re-armed his nation, re-occupied the Rhineland, threatened neighboring states, and built up a massive army. It was obvious he was preparing for war.
Appeasement, Isolationism, and the Failure of the League of Nations
The Treaty of Versailles was not as unjust as some would see it. The lands taken from Germany were lands that were conquered (Alsace-Lorraine) or partitioned (Lower Silesia, the Polish Corridor) by Germany, Russia, and Austria in the late 1700's. The treaty itself wasn't unfair, rather was seen as such in Germany. This is because of the great myth that Gerrmany was never defeated on the battlefield in WWI (propagated by Field Marshals Hindenburg and Luddendorf, even though they were the two who told the government to seek an armistice) also contributed to mightily to the treaties as been seen as unfair andf contributed greatly to revisionists such as Hitler coming to power. Yet the treaty itself is not what started WWII (though it didn't stop it from happening). Rather it was the unwillingness of Great Powers such as Great Britain, and France along with the The League of Nations, to uphold the treaty doctrine and its provisions. When Germany announced that it had an air force, that they were re-introducing military conscription, that they were re-occuping the demilitarized Rhineland, that they had reached a naval agreement with Great Britain that allowed them to build a navy thirty-five percent the size of Great Britain's (roughly the size of France's) the League of Nations only provided paper protests and the Versailles treaty became as dead as a door-nail. WWII was started not only by Hitler's aspirations, but by an enfeebled West which did not comprehend the magnitude of its inactions.
Leading up to the war, some European countries had weakened their own militaries (Denmark had basically disarmed itself, which made it the almost ideal trampoline for German forces into Norway) or had grown wary of enforcing the Treaty of Versailles despite the fact that a known madman had come to the helm in Germany.
At the end of World War I, the victorious nations formed the League of Nations for the purpose of airing international disputes, and of mobilizing its members for a collective effort to keep the peace in the event of aggression by any nation against another or of a breach of the peace treaties. The United States, imbued with isolationism, did not become a member. The League failed in its first test. In 1931, the Japanese, using as an excuse the explosion of a small bomb under a section of track of the South Manchuria Railroad (over which they had virtual control), initiated military operations designed to conquer all of Manchuria. After receiving the report of its commission of inquiry, the League adopted a resolution in 1933 calling on the Japanese to withdraw. Thereupon, Japan resigned from the League. Meanwhile, Manchuria had been overrun and transformed into a Japanese puppet state under the name of Manchukuo. Beset by friction and dissension among its members, the League took no further action. Also in 1933, Adolf Hitler came to power as dictator of Germany and began to rearm the country in contravention of the provisions of the Treaty of Versailles. He denounced the provisions of that treaty that limited German armament and in 1935 reinstituted compulsory military service. That same year the Italian dictator Benito Mussolini began his long-contemplated invasion of Ethiopia, which he desired as an economic colony. The League voted minor sanctions against Italy, but these had slight practical effect. British and French efforts to effect a compromise settlement failed, and Ethiopia was completely occupied by the Italians in 1936.
Alarmed by German rearmament, France sought an alliance with the USSR. Under the pretext that this endangered Germany, Hitler remilitarized the Rhineland in 1936. It was a dangerous venture, for Britain and France could have overwhelmed Germany, but, resolved to keep the peace, they took no action. Emboldened by this success, Hitler intensified his campaign for Lebensraum (space for living) for the German people. He forcibly annexed Austria in March 1938, and then, charging abuse of German minorities, threatened Czechoslovakia.
In September, as Hitler increased his demands on the Czechs and war seemed imminent, the British and French arranged a conference with Hitler and Mussolini. At the Munich Conference they agreed to German occupation of the Sudetenland, Hitler's asserted last claim, in the hope of maintaining peace. This hope was short lived, for in March 1939, Hitler took over the rest of Czechoslovakia and seized the former German port of Memel from Lithuania. There followed demands on Poland with regard to Danzig (Gdansk) and the Polish Corridor. The Poles remained adamant, and it became clear to Hitler that he could attain his objectives only by force. After surprising the world with the announcement of a nonaggression pact with his sworn foe, the Soviet Union, he sent his armies across the Polish border on Sept. 1, 1939.
When Hitler invaded Austria (what they called Anschluss, the uniting of Germany and Austria) he was violating one of the laws stated in the Treaty of Versailles, but yet the Allies did nothing. When Hitler took the Czech's main defensive wall, along with all of its factories, etc, the Allies still did nothing. For good reason, Hitler believed that France and Britain would not come to the aid of Poland.
The US policy of isolationism. Leading up to World War II, the United States of America maintained a policy of isolation. The United States focused little attention on any conflicts occurring outside of their borders.
Fascism, Nationalism, Totalitarianism, and Collectivist Ideology
Fascists fully support the military and feel war is acceptable in achieving national goals. Because of this, Italy and Germany were prepared to follow this policy and expand and form empires of their own. Germany wanted to unite the dominant Aryan (Germanic) race. This lead to the Czech crisis.
An increase in German nationalism since Bismark helped unify the country.
There was a rise in collectivist sentiments in Germany such as notions of self-sacrifice and altruism towards those with similar blood. Meanwhile, there was an extreme fear of Bolshevism.
In the opinion of some, the European war was a culmination of different branches of Marxist-inspired thought butting heads.
Expansionism
The war was caused by the expansionist desires of Hitler, Mussolini and the Japanese imperialists.
Germany, Italy and Japan wanted to conquer new territiries and enslave or exterminate the peoples living there.
Economic Depression and Instability
The Great World Depression in 1929 became a very important cause of the war. It sent the German economy into a great disaster, causing a humungous number of unemployed people. In the book "Causes and Consequences of World War Two" it states that, to the Germans, Hitler was know as a strong determined, and efficient leader who knew exactly where he was going. But did the people actually know where he was leading them? No, the people believed that Hitler was leading them out of the depression but, in actuality Hitler motives were different from what the people thought they were. He used the Great Depression to connive his way into an authority. His real motives were to abolish the Treaty of Versailles, expand German territory, and dominate Europe and the whole world. In order to achieve these goals he first wanted to conquer France, and Russia while he was still on the same side as Italy and Britain. He confidently knew that Italy and Britain would stay to his side until he began full the destruction of the Jews.
The Weimar Republic was unable to tackle important issues, form a stable government, or control runaway inflation. Germany was in total economic chaos.
If there was no Great Depression, do you think World War 2 would still have happened? The political climate created by this depression allowed dictators such as Hitler to rise to power.
One of the main reasons other countries didn't intervene earlier was because they had huge debts and couldn't afford to.
Japan was trying to gain natural resources to feed its industry. Japan has almost no natural resources itself. It attacked the US to "clear the way" for its conquest of American, Dutch, British, and Australian colonies and gain their resources.
Entangling Alliances
England and France's treaty with Poland had a great deal to do with the war in Europe. I suggest that if England and France had instead decided to not fulfill their obligations under the treaty that instead the war in Europe might very well have ended up with just a war between Germany and Russia. Communism was already being considered a major threat to Western nations and the threat of communism in Germany helped to propel Hitler to power. Only after great reluctance did the Allies accept and aid Russia in her fight with Germany and the primary reason for that was that they were very concerned that Germany would defeat Russia and then become too powerful to stop. Keep in mind that Russia also invaded Poland in 1939 as part of their treaty with Germany and later in November of 1939 Russia invaded Finland. At the outbreak of the European element of the war Russia was on the Axis side as far as the Allies were concerned. It was only Germany's alarming early success in the invasion of Russia that compelled the Allies to take Russia into the Allied fold.
Napoleon and Bismarck
Most of us are pretty familiar with the backstory of WWII growing out of WWI. But there is a substantial backstory to WWI as well. WWI grew out of a series of conflicts going back to Napoleon. This influenced the beginning of WWI and the aftermath which lead to WWII. We usually look at Europe as if it was always the way it is today. It is easy to forget, and most history books don't mention, that the Germany wasn't even a country until 1871, less than half a century before WWI. The beginnings of this state were in the conquests of Napoleon's. The northern states had been occupied by France under Napoleon, until Prussia (the most powerful German state) Austria (East of what is now Germany), Russia, and Britain united to defeat the French. This made Prussia even more powerful, and created resentment between the Germans and French, as well as giving the northern German states a taste of what it was like to be part of a larger nation, and simultaneously sparking their sense of Nationalism. Germany as we know it was built by a thoroughly ruthless and Machiavellian man named Otto von Bismarck. He wanted to create a united Germany out of what were at the time 38 separate states. Creating this united state was a challenge for several reasons. The other European powers didn't want to see another empire rising in their midst so soon after having had to put down the French. The various German states were independent and wanted to stay that way. He had to create his empire without building lasting resentments between the states he was seeking to unite and without alarming the other European powers. He did this basically by building a coalition, then provoking a state that was outside that coalition to attack it. This gave him an excuse to enlarge his military, increased the cohesiveness of the coalition he already had, and added another state to his coalition. He repeated this several times until the German states were under his control. Next he had to take on Austria, which was culturally part of Germany, but was politically separate. To do this, he offered part of Germany to France (without signing the offer) if France would remain neutral if Austria attacked him. Then he cleverly (way too involved to detail here) provoked Austria to attack. After this he appeased the Austrians. The French had demanded Southern Germany in exchange for their neutrality. He rebuffed them (he hadn't signed the offer) and used the fact of their demand as proof to his people that France was a threat. Naturally the French weren't too happy about Bismarck's deceit, and he further provoked them to attack him (it didn't take nearly as much political wrangling and backhanded diplomacy as it did with Austria!). He opposed the French claim on the Spanish crown. When the French got it they demanded that the Germans never again try to claim it. In response, he published a letter mocking France in the French newspapers. This ticked off the French people enough to declare war in 1870. The Austrians weren't all that upset with him because he'd worked hard to rebuild good relations with them, so they stayed out of it, and no one else really saw a reason to join with the French. As a result the French lost to a united Germany. Bismarck used this war to unite Germany, and build German pride and power by humiliating the French and forcing them to give Germany the territories of Alsace and Loraine, and demanding five years of reparations. It should be noted that at this time it was traditional for the winning power to demand reparations of the loser in European conflicts. In fact, the relatively light reparations Germany demanded of Austria were seen as a gesture of good will by the Austrians, and were part of Bismarck's diplomatic efforts to repair Germany's relationship with Austria after their war. However, the net effect was to build a lasting resentment against Germany in the hearts of the French. As a result, Bismarck was able to unite all of the German states except Austria into a German Empire under Keiser William I in 1871. Bismarck was Chancellor. All of the other European powers were very worried by Germany's new power. After its war on France and its subsequent unification Germany had the strongest Military of the continental powers, and was an industrial powerhouse. Its ultimate power was actually somewhat limited because unlike Britain and France, Germany was not a colonial power, so it did not have the massive resources at its disposal the other powers had in their colonies. However, by not competing with the other powers for colonial assets, Bismarck was able avoid conflict. However, eventually William I was replaced by a new Keiser, William II, who was less willing to allow Bismarck to be the power behind his throne. Bismarck eventually had to resign. William II began to compete for colonial resources, and eventually resulting in the cancellation of the nonaggression pact between Germany and Russia, and turning the other European powers even more firmly against Germany. William II's domestic policy also destabilized Germany and gave socialist movements the opportunity to expand their power bases. In short this set the stage for WWI. In addition, the French animosity against Germany which their earlier defeat had sparked drove them to seek revenge after the war. This in turn set the stage for WWII.
The point of view that the Versailles Treaty was too onerous, and that this is the cause of World War II, is an American high school history teacher's myth. It is a point of view that can be traced to the isolationists of the 1930s, who declared that World War I had been a mistake, and resisted American preparations for and involvement in World War II right up until Pearl Harbor. German territories that were taken from Germany after World War I by treaty were the result of Prussian imperial victories in the 18th and 19th centuries: the partitions of Poland, the Franco-Prussian War, the brief war against Denmark (1864). They were ethnically mixed border regions where much of the population was not German and had resisted Germanization in the century before World War I. Although the Versailles treaty imposed monetary reparations on the Germany, Allied assistance to the Weimar Republic, both through the Dawes Plan and through investment in Germany during the 1920s, greatly exceeded the repartions taken from Germany under provisions of the Versailles Treaty. Readers would do well to revisit a forgotten treaty, the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk (March 1918), to see what peace conditions imperial Germany imposed on Russia (the Soviet Union) as the price of peace after the Russians were defeated and forced out of the war in 1917.
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Germany, Italy and Japan, each in their own way and for their own reasons, decided they had the right to conquer other nations and enslave or exterminate the peoples who lived in them. When they tried to do this, other people fought back.
Michael Montagne
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The war started because the 14 points failed. and when the nazi party had formed and started to slaughter innocent people. Also the treaty that ended world war one failed. The reason why the 14 points had fail was because Germany started to build up their military status which was against the 14 points.
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Treaty of Versailles
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The Treaty of Versailles, the Great Depression, and Communist rule all combined to make life in Germany very hard. They lost land, money and commerce opportunities. When Hitler was in a good position he promised to get Germany out from under Communist rule if he had the right support. He received that support and he modeled his rule after Mussolini. Hitler himself had a very abusive father. His father's father may have been Jewish. As I understand it Hitler's mother took the identity to her grave. That is the information that I remember. Then Hitler started invading countries which France and Britain were the first to declare war on Germany to attempt to stop him.
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September 1, 1939 is the generally accepted date - with the German invasion of Poland.
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WW2 started when geremany was attacking poland and the britsh asked if they can retreat but the germans refused so britian declared war with germany.
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unfinished business from WW 1
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The causes of World War II are naturally a debated subject, but a common view, particularly among the allies in the early post-war years, ties them to the policy of appeasement, which was directed by Britain and France after the First World War and expansionism of Germany and Japan: Germany had lost wealth, power and status following the First World War and the main purpose of the economic, military, and (eventually) territorial expansion was to give Germany a place as a world power again and, in addition, to obtain resource rich land at the expense of Poles and Ukranians.
In Germany, there was a strong national desire to escape the bonds of the World War I Treaty of Versailles, and eventually, Hitler and the Nazis assumed control of the country by calling for a heroic mass effort to restore past glory. They led Germany through a chain of events: rearmament, reoccupation of the Rhineland, a merger with Austria (Anschluss), incorporation of Czechoslovakia and finally the invasion of Poland.
In Asia, Japan's efforts to become a world power and the rise of militarist leadership (in the 1930s, the government in Japan was undermined as militarists rose to power and gained de facto totalitarian control) led to conflicts with first China and later the United States. Japan also sought to secure additional natural resources, such as oil and iron ore, due in part to the lack of natural resources on Japan's own home islands.
The League of Nations was powerless and mostly silent in the face of many major events leading to World War II such as Hitler's re-militarisation of the Rhineland, occupation of the Sudetenland and annexation of Austria. The League commissioner in Danzig was unable to deal with German claims on the city. It was a significant contributing factor in the outbreak of World War II in 1939.[3]
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Germany invading Poland. At that point, Britain and France declared war, as did Italy, Japan, and obviously Germany.
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1.germany wanted back land that they lost in wwi. 2.germans were angry in losing wwi 3.peace of wwi germany lost many territory to other nations.
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Commonly held general causes for WWII are the rise of nationalism, the rise of militarism, and the presence of unresolved territorial issues. In Germany, resentment of the harsh Treaty of Versailles, specifically article 231 (the "Guilt Clause"); the belief in the Dolchstosslegende; and the onset of the Great Depression fueled the rise to power of Adolf Hitler's militarist National Socialist German Workers Party (the Nazi Party). Meanwhile the treaty's provisions were laxly enforced, due to the fear of another war. Closely related is the failure of the British and French policy of appeasement, which sought to avoid war but actually gave Hitler time to re-arm. The League of Nations also failed in its mission of preventing war.
Japan in the 1930s was ruled by a militarist clique devoted to Japan's becoming a world power. Japan invaded China to bolster its meager stock of natural resources. This angered the United States, which reacted by making loans to China, providing covert military assistance, and instituting increasingly broad embargoes of raw materials against Japan. These embargoes would have eventually wrecked Japan's economy; Japan was faced with the choice of withdrawing from China or going to war in order to conquer the oil resources of the Dutch East Indies. It chose to go ahead with plans for the Greater East Asia War in the Pacific.
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Hitler and Germany wanted to control all of Europe. Japan and the Emperor of Japan wanted to control all of the islands in the Pacific.
Hitler killed innocent Jews and took their valuables to fund the war.
The First World War
At the end of the First World War, many of the disputes that caused it still needed to be settled. When Germany surrendered, the German people still felt a huge amount of resentment for other countries interfering in the infrastructure of Germany itself. The level of bad feeling coming from Germany and other countries was so great that they weren't even invited to participate in the peace treaties that were put in place at the end of the war. The Treaty of Versailles that dealt specifically with the future of Germany left no room for discussion on the part of the German people. The result was that Germany was left bitter and full of hatred for those who had sought to demean them as a race - hatred that Hitler would exploit in the 1930s in his rise to power.
Hitler stood under the banner of revenge against the other countries for Germany's defeat. His desire for power was justified by claims that he wanted to get rid of the government that surrendered in the First World War, and replace it with his own organisation (the National Socialist German Workers' Party, which became known as the Nazi party) so that he could have full control of the European powers that had subjugated Germany after 1918. It's fair to surmise therefore that the First World War was the main cause of the Second World War because it was the first in the chain of events that ultimately led to the declaration of war in 1939.
The Treaty of Versailles
The Treaty of Versailles angered the German people for many reasons. The first was that it was a Diktat ('Dictated Peace'): Germany had no say in the formulation of the treaty and was forced to agree to the terms of the treaty regardless of whether its people liked them or not. Over time, other European powers came to realise that the original terms had been too strict. When Hitler broke the treaty many years later, the reticence of the other powers to react immediately was taken as an indication that many of them agreed with Hitler that the treaty had been implemented wrongly anyway. In effect, the Treaty of Versailles didn't settle any disputes; it created more issues between countries already fractious and struggling to recover from the last war.
A significant sticking point was a clause in the treaty that made provisions for the Rhineland (which borders France and Belgium)to become a demilitarised zone - Germany would be prohibited from stationing any military troops in the Rhineland. Additionally, Germany was ordered to disarm, supposedly the first step towards world disarmament, but no one else was encouraged to join Germany in disarmament. Germany would technically be defenceless should France decide to invade them - which they eventually did in 1923 when Germany was unable to pay the reparations owed to France that year.
Reparations - effectively a 'fine' for the damage done by Germany in 1914-18 - was possibly the most unpopular part of the Treaty of Versailles. At the end of the war, land had been destroyed all over Europe, but especially in France. The treaty said that Germany had to make reparations by paying regular sums of money to France. What this clause failed to recognise was that the war had equally damaged Germany's economy and they simply could not afford to pay. The German solution to this was, in retrospect, foolish - they printed more money. The effect was that the German currency devalued to the point where the economy was on the verge of total collapse. This issue of reparations was eventually solved by the Dawes Plan and Germany were able to pay France again.
The Dawes Plan
The Dawes Plan was created so that Germany could afford their reparations to France, but it also seemed to solve many of the world's money problems. America loaned money to Germany, Germany used it to pay for the reparations, France used it to pay Britain the money they owed, and Britain used it to pay America the money they owed. This seemed to be the perfect solution to everybody's problems, and countries started getting along with each other again. However, it had one major flaw - if anything went wrong, and one of the countries was no longer able to pay another, then conflict would ensue and the economic and diplomatic situation could be worse than it was before. This happened in 1929 with the Great Depression.
The Great Depression
The stock market crash in America caused economic strife throughout the world. America could no longer loan Germany money for reparations, and they even wanted the money back. The result was that America went into isolation with the intent of nursing their own economy and avoiding being dragged into another costly European war. Countries all over the world were facing economic crises, and distrust started to form again between countries. Unemployment was high all over the world, and countries solved this problem by creating large armies. The global depression was therefore a contributing cause of the Second World War as it gave Germany an excuse to break the Treaty of Versailles and establish larger armed forces on their own turf.
The Japanese Invasion of Manchuria
The economic depression even affected Japan; the people of Japan were suffering from starvation, unemployment and a general lack of resources. To solve these problems, Japan invaded Manchuria, the first of a number of steps that made their involvement in a World War more inevitable. Cause One Japan was a poor and starving country. It wanted more and so it invaded China. Cause Two Trade barriers between China, the USA and Japan meant that Japan's economy faltered so they decided to build an empire of their own through force. Cause Three Japan had no raw materials such as coal or iron. These were traditionally imported from China. The Event In 1931, Japan claimed that China had sabotaged the Manchurian Railway and invaded Manchuria and threw out the Chinese forces there. In 1932, they set up a 'puppet government' in Manchuria (or Manchukuo as it was called), which answered to the Japanese army. They then bombed Shanghai. The government in Japan ordered the army in Manchuria to leave, but they were ignored. China appealed to the League of Nations, but because Japan had such a stronghold in the League no decision was reached. What the League Did The League did nothing until September 1932. Then they made a report on the Manchurian Crisis, saying Japan had acted unlawfully and Manchuria must be returned to the Chinese. In 1933, Japan invaded China again. Japan then resigned from the League. The League became powerless. It was interested in keeping up good relationships with Japan rather than giving sanctions. Consequence One The League appeared to be weak and ineffective as it offered lame excuses and the idea that one country would have protection from all the others was completely shattered. China received little help from the League. Consequence Two As the USA and USSR were not members of the League, their capability of removing the Japanese from Manchuria was lost and Japan continued their occupation. Consequence Three Both Mussolini and Hitler, when they saw how the League of Nations reacted to this invasion, followed Japan's example (Abyssinia and Czechoslovakia - see below) and six years later the world erupted into full-blown war.
The Italian Invasion of Abyssinia Cause One In 1896 Italian troops tried to invade Abyssinia (now Ethiopia), but were defeated by a poorly equipped army of tribesmen. Mussolini wanted revenge for this humiliating defeat. Cause Two Mussolini wanted the fertile land and mineral wealth of Abyssinia. Cause Three Mussolini wanted glory and conquest. He wanted to restore the glory of the Roman Empire. The Event In October 1935, Mussolini's army launched a full scale invasion of Abyssinia. The Abyssinians were no match for the modern Italian army, who were equipped with tanks, aeroplanes and poison gas. What the League Did In the months leading up to this, the League were supposedly negotiating with Mussolini. There was much talk but nothing happened. In the end the League put forward a plan that would give some of Abyssinia to Mussolini. He rejected it. After Italy invaded Abyssinia, a committee was set up to impose sanctions. Each week a decision was delayed, Mussolini would be able to build up his stockpile of raw materials. The League banned arms sales, loans and exports of rubber, tin and metals to Italy, and imports from Italy. However, it took two months for them to decide to block oil exports to Italy. Consequence One In Britain, about 30,000 coal miners were in danger of losing their jobs because of the ban on coal exports to Italy. Consequence Two The League of Nations didn't do much to stop Italy, and other countries like Germany thought they could invade other countries as Italy did.
The League of Nations
The League of Nations was an organisation created by the Treaty of Versailles. The idea was that the League would become the world's 'police' and enforce peace in Europe. The idea was that when one country attacked another, the aggressor would have sanctions imposed against it. First there would be material sanctions, with trading with that country being stopped, and this would be followed by military sanctions. This process is called collective security, as all the other countries were supposed to support the league and contribute to stopping the aggressive country. The League failed in 1931 when Japan invaded Manchuria. Japan was one of the main countries in the League, and Britain and France did not want to have bad relations with them. Italy saw how the League appeased Japan, and in 1935 Italy invaded Abyssinia. All the League did was talk with Italy, and they never got anything done. They only really cared about their own problems, and they did not want to get involved in other countries' problems. Once again, the League of Nations appeased Italy, just as they had done with Japan, and let them have what they want. Now nobody trusted the League to protect them, and it wasn't long until Germany, under Hitler's rule, followed Japan and Italy's example.
The weakness of the League of Nations was a major cause of the Second World War because if it had worked, then there would have been peace within Europe, and there wouldn't have been a Second World War. However, because it failed to fulfil its promise to protect member states, countries broke the rules to get what they wanted.
Hitler's Foreign Policy
Germany was, as already stated, still reeling from their defeat in the First World War. The nation's desire for 'revenge' for how they had been treated over the previous two decades influenced Hitler' foreign policy:
To go back on the terms of the Treaty of Versailles - Hitler acknowledged his country's hatred of the Treaty of Versailles. He was also aware that a majority of Europeans agreed with him that the treaty was harshly implemented. So when Hitler began to break the terms of the treaty, he was allowed to do so by the League of Nations, who were effectively paralysed with guilt over the handling of Germany's situation. However, if Hitler was going to re-gain everything that Germany had lost because of the Treaty of Versailles, then he was going to have to invade other countries.
To re-arm - Hitler wanted Germany to be a dominant power in Europe again, and to do this he needed to re-arm. He was given an excuse he needed in the early 1930s when there was high unemployment in Germany. Providing the nation's youth with military training would reduce unemployment and provide the country with pride in itself - the perfect solution to their problems.
To unite all German-speaking people in one country (GrossDeutschland) - The Treaty of Versailles had given each nation their own country, but of course an after-effect of the now-defunct Prussian Empire was that German speakers existed all over Europe. Ownership of territories such as Alsace-Lorraine had historically been the cause of debate between France and Germany, so if Hitler were to reclaim all former German territories and unite them all as one country, it would restore his nation's pride. To do this, he would have to invade those countries that had been divided among the other powers after 1918 and take over any country that could pose a challenge to a new German Empire.
To win living space (Lebensraum) for Germany - The only way that Hitler could do this was to take control of the countries around Germany, even if such a move could lead to war.
To racially cleanse the Reich - Again, to engender German pride, Hitler promoted the notion that the German race was the most pure and perfect, and that other races were below it. If Hitler were to cleanse the Reich, then he would have to remove elements that would sully his racial vision - in effect, he was declaring his willingness to commit genocide in Germany and the surrounding countries for the survival of the Germanic race.
To destroy Communism - To do this, Hitler would have to wage war with the USSR. To get to the USSR, they would have to go through Poland - most likely resulting in a war. However, Britain and France had also shown opposition to the ideals of Communism, which could potentially mean they'd support Germany taking a stance against the USSR. Though the USSR became part of the League of Nations in 1934, they left in 1939 when they realised that the League would not protect them from a German attack.
As Hitler tried to achieve his aims, Britain and France appeased him, and thus allowed Germany to become more powerful. Hitler's foreign policy aims, which were made public, were a major factor in the build-up to the Second World War, as they showed that, as the representative of an 'oppressed nation', Hitler was prepared to fight countries for what he wanted. It was obvious from the very beginning, that the only way to stop Hitler would be through war. The table below shows in basic form how Hitler went about achieving his foreign policy Aims and going against the Treaty of Versailles. Terms of the Treaty of Versailles What Hitler Did and When The Reasons he Gave for his Actions The Response from Britain and France Germany's armed forces to be severely limited In 1933, Hitler increased Germany's armed forces. In 1935, he made an agreement with Britain to increase naval forces, and he introduced conscription in 1936. He needed larger armies to protect Germany, and large armies also provided jobs and solved unemployment problems caused by the Great Depression. Britain sympathised with Germany, agreeing that the Treaty of Versailles had been too unfair. The French were angry with Britain, but there was little they could do. The Rhineland to be a demilitarised zone In March 1936, Hitler moved troops into the Rhineland, going against the Treaty of Versailles. France and Russia had made a treaty to protect each other from Germany. Hitler said that he should be allowed to place troops on his own frontier. Many British people felt that Hitler had a right to have troops in the Rhineland, and France wouldn't do anything without Britain's help, so nothing was done. Germany forbidden to unite with Austria The Nazi party stirred up trouble in Austria. In 1928, Austrians has a vote to decide whether they would unite with Germany. Germany sent troops into Austria to make sure the vote was fair. A total of 99.75% of Austrians voted to unite with Germany. There were lots of German people living in Austria and Hitler said the people of Austria wanted to unite with Germany. Austria was economically weak and Hitler promised to solve the problem. France and Britain refused to help Austria. The British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain felt the Treaty of Versailles was wrong and that Austria and Germany should be united. The Sudetenland taken into the new state of Czechoslovakia In 1938, Hitler said that he was ready to fight Czechoslovakia. After meeting with Britain, France and Italy, Hitler was given the Sudetenland. There were lots of Germans living in the Sudetenland and Hitler wanted to unite them. He also claimed the Czech government were mistreating the Germans. On 29 September, after numerous meetings, Britain and France made an agreement to give Hitler the Sudetenland. However, Britain and France also said that if Hitler invaded any other country, then they would declare war on Germany1. The Polish Corridor given to Poland On 1 September, 1939, Germany invaded Poland from the west. On 17 September, Soviet forces invaded Poland from the east. They split Poland between them. There were Germans living in Poland, and Hitler wanted them to be united with Germany. Hitler also wanted more living space, as this was one of his foreign policy aims. On 2 September, 1939, Britain and France declared war on Germany. Germany did not expect this, as Britain and France had appeased Hitler before and had not acted on their threats.
Appeasement
When Hitler began to break the Treaty of Versailles, the League of Nations (that was mainly just Britain and France) appeased him, just as they had done with Japan and Italy. As Hitler broke more and more rules, Germany became more powerful, but Hitler was still appeased. In the end, there came a point where Britain and France realised that if they didn't attack now, Germany would be come too powerful for them to defeat, however, by this time, Germany had gained lots of land, soldiers and technology and were a powerful force in Europe. If Britain and France had attacked Germany in the beginning when they began to break the Treaty of Versailles, when Hitler sent German troops in the Rhineland, then, as Hitler himself said, the war might only have lasted six weeks, instead of six years. Appeasement was a large cause of the war as it allowed countries to get what they wanted, and in the end, allowed Germany to become such a powerful force in Europe. It was through appeasement that Germany got what they wanted, and it was only when appeasement failed, that the most devastating war in history began.
How the Causes are Linked
There were many different factors that caused the Second World War. The main cause of the Second World War was the First World War. From the time the First World War ended, with Germany being forced to surrender when they wanted to carry on fighting, another war was inevitable. From the distrust countries had for Germany, the Treaty of Versailles was created. This led on to the Dawes Plan, which caused problems throughout Europe when the Great Depression came. The Treaty of Versailles also created the League of Nations, which ended up failing countries when it should have protected them. The appeasement of the League led to Japan and Italy invading other countries, but still being appeased. This caused Germany, with Hitler's foreign policy, to follow their example.
In the end there came a point when the League of Nations had to stop appeasing Hitler - reluctantly, Britain and France declared war on Germany. However, by this time, Germany had become powerful, and the war was the most devastating in history. Though there were many different causes to the Second World War, almost all of them originated from the embers of the First World War, 'the war to end all wars' that did anything but. The Second World War was therefore necessary to solve these problems. Hitler's Germany wasn't solely to blame for the outbreak of war in 1939; almost every country played their part, whether actively like Britain and France did when they appeased Hitler for so long, or by not doing anything, as with America, whose isolationist stance lasted until 1940.