Causes of World War II When Hitler came to power in 1933 he made several of actions that some years later lead to war. These actions were re-armament, leaving the league of nations, re-militarism of the Rhineland, the spanish civil war, the lightning war and the alliances with Italy and Japan. Hitler's aims were clear, he wanted lebensraum (living space) in order to gain self-sufficiency, wanted to abolish the treaty of Versailles and revenge for those who signed it. And some years after he seized power it was clear he wanted to dominate the whole of Europe and the rest of the world. The Second World War was caused by Fascist aggression and the failure of democratic powers to stop this …show more content…
By 1935 rearmament was well underway. This involved conscription and munitions factories. Rearmament alarmed the French who, feeling insecure, reinforced the Maginot line (built between 1929 and 1934). This was a line of steel and concrete fortifications stretching from Belgium to Switzerland, Germany would be able to avoid it and invade France via Belgium. France remained passive without Britain's support. Britain was sympathetic towards Germany and even signed an Anglo German naval Treaty (June 1935) allowing Germany's navy to be 35% of the size of the Royal Navy. Hitler used his new found arms to support Franco in the Spanish Civil War (1936-9) Hitler sent the Condor Legion of the Luftwaffe to bomb Guernica on 26th April, 1937. Guernica was razed to the ground and Franco went on to conquer the Basque areas of Spain. Hitler had used Spain as a practice ground. Having broken the Treaty of Versailles once, Hitler risked doing it a second time by marching 30,000 troops into Rhineland on 7th March 1936. France, with 250,000 troops mobilised, remained passive because Britain would not support her. To show that his remilitarization was popular, Hitler held a plebiscite, which showed that 98.8% were
At the end of WWI many countries blamed Germany for starting the war. These countries used the Treaty of Versailles to punish Germany. These punishments included loss of land and military, infeasible reparations, and complete humiliation; this is how the Treaty of Versailles directly caused WWII.
The second World War can be considered “Hitler`s war” due to Adolf Hitlers responsibility and actions that caused the war. He had an enormous impact and role on many events such as secretly increasing the size fo the army,which made World War 2 possible. On the other hand, the failure of the League of Nations and defects in the Treaty of Versailles also triggered the outbreak of the war. It gave Hitler many oppurtunities to support his ambitions and policies. Hitlers Plan that could only be followed through with the help of mistakes such as the appeasement. It can also be argued that it was rather Germany than Hitler`s war as their reaction to World War 1.Many factors affected the outbreak
The Second World War began in September of 1939 and was between the Allies and the Axis. It began with Germany’s unprovoked attack and conquest of Poland, and involved Britain and France from the beginning. Its origins lay in German resentment at the terms of the Treaty of Versailles (1919), the economic crisis of 1929-30, which favored the rise to power of Fascist dictators, the failure of the League of Nations to gain international acceptance for disarmament, and the policy of imperialism adopted by Germany, Italy and Japan as a means of acquiring raw materials and markets. As a part of the Treaty of Versailles, Germany had to accept full responsibility for the First World War, which then led up to the outbreak of the Second. The
World War I, a war that started out locally in Europe between Austria-Hungary and Serbia that later ended up including thirty two different nations. This war has been around for almost a century and yet the causes of it are still being debated. There are many different scenarios that have been considered. Some of the key reasons that were believed to have instigated WWI were nationalism, imperialism, militarism, and an arrangement of treaties. Also the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand was believed to be one of the immediate causes.
From the Treaty of Versailles, to the rise of Hitler, and the failure of the League of Nations, there were many causes that lead up to World War II. World War I left Germany with many shortfalls, thus leaving them in the hands of the Treaty of Versailles. Rather unfair of a Treaty, this left Germany once again looking for another way out. A country resented by many had no other choice but to feel optimistic toward Adolph Hitlers empty promises… making it substantially simple for him to gain power so quick. Throw in the Great Depression, and you have a vastly unstable world, which the Germans believed Hitler would lead them out of.
The path to World War II can be followed back to 1919, when the Treaty of Versailles was signed to mark the ending of the First World War. The treaty forced Germany to take responsibility for the war, forcing them into an even deeper economical depression than the rest of the world. They were no longer a world power, and this made Germany weak. Adolf Hitler, a German politician, took the weakness as his chance to spread his radical beliefs and take power. He promised to restore Germany to its former glory and honor, telling them that they were betrayed and sabotaged into losing the war. The citizens, poor and destitute, believed him, and Hitler was able to take the position of German Chancellor in 1933.
In the early 1900’s, the entirety of Europe was divided into various alliances and powers, most notably the Triple Alliance (Germany, Astro-Hungarian Empire, and Italy) and the Triple Entente (France, Russia, and the United Kingdom), which ultimately fell into a hellish firestorm of mustard gas and trench warfare in 1914 that left 18 million dead and Europe’s economies and production decimated manyfold (DBQ Project, Various – Document D). The destruction of the turn-of-the-century nations and Empires that slaughtered over people stems from a chronological progression of ambitious Imperialism, extreme Nationalism, and rapid Militarism.
Due to Germany taking back the colonies lost after World War I and forming an alliance with Austria, Germany’s actions against the Treaty of Versailles contributed to the cause of World War II. After Germany got slapped with a $33 Billion dollar war reparation bill and Kaiser Wilhelm was removed from power, Germany was a mess, which allowed the rise of Hitler. Hitler, being a former Iron Cross winning
The main reasons behind world war 2 World were land,fascism,and natural resources. World war 2 started off between Germany,Britain,France,Italy,and the Soviet Union later joined by America and Japan. World war 2 started September 2,1939 to September 2,1945 and was the most deadliest war in history with more than 30 countries resulting in more than 50 million military and civilian deaths. One main reason was land. After world war 1 Germany lost some of their land for war costs and it was used to make new countries. When Hitler came into office, he said he would get it back so Germany conquered Austria, Sudentanland, and started on Poland when Britain and France declared war. H-Hitler used his idea as dictator to take back land lost in world
However, British and French military intervention in the Rhineland incident, 1936 could have been an alternative to appeasement. Their reluctance to take action permitted Germany to increase her power (within 18 months Germany’s rate of rearmament surpassed that of Britain and France), whilst also contributing to the burgeoning belief that the League of Nations was ineffective. Hitler himself stated that "If France had then marched into the Rhineland; we would have had to withdraw with our tails between our legs." Indeed, many historians concur as invading the
As the lack of global cooperation brought about economic crises it also brought about the Second World War. The failure of Western powers after World War One to create a sustainable peace by means of reconciliation instead of reparations would pave the way for totalitarian regimes to consolidate power by harvesting resentment and fear. Reparations on the German economy, the belief in the failure of democracy and WWI had a heavy toll on the masses. From these ashes rose Adolf Hitler. Hitler mobilized the populace by blaming the problems of Germany on the rest of the world, which was not far off. Along with this he in sighted fear by flaming conspiracy theories that the communists and Jews started the First World War and that Germany could only succeed by means of racial imperialism to include internal cleansing and territorial expansion. Hitler’s rise was unchecked by the West. The refusal to ratify the U.S.-Great Britain-French alliance left France, its only continental neighbor, at a disadvantage. Hitler would not only push his military into the demilitarized zone, flaunting
‘From the first day that he "seized power," January 30, 1933, Hitler knew that only sudden death awaited him if he failed to restore pride and empire to post-Versailles Germany.’[1] The Second World War was the deadliest battle in History. Figures estimate that over 59 million people were killed during its conflict. German leadership was under Adolf Hitler, a ruthless dictator who was the chancellor of Germany during the majority of the conflict. It is debatable that Hitler was solely responsible for the events in which lead to and occurred during the Second World War. Hitler was responsible to a large degree, however cannot be accountable for every aspect in which the
Hitler had risen and taken over Germany using persuasion and Nazi propaganda. Very soon he took advantage of the Enabling Act of 1933 making laws without anyone else’s input. These supposed laws were supposed to be for emergency only but to Hitler anything he wanted was an emergency. He made things for the populous worse too by inciting martial law after the Reichstag was taken down. He eventually made it so anything would pass for the Nazi party and those who didn't agree were exterminated. With this ultimate power he rebuilt Germany for war immediately and made plans to unite all the German peoples, thought this was difficult to do under the Treaty of Versailles so he erased that too.The allies saw this as Germany recovering, they didn’t know what was coming and they weren’t prepared. HItler used the Enabling Act of 1933 to rearm and dissipate the Treaty of Versailles and expand freely even after the allies told him to slow down. When the war was in full swing Hitler decided to implement the Final Solution and exterminate the jews, no matter how terrible it was, he could enforce it with ruthless force. This made the Enabling Act of 1933 a very significant factor in the start of world war two. All of this could have been avoided if the
Through the Treaty of Versailles, the Great Depression of 1929, and political appointment by incompetent yet manipulative government officials, Adolf Hitler was able to silently rise to power in Germany, consequently causing the Second World War.
World War Two Was the Result of the Aggression and Ambition of Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party