Why Did War Break Out in Europe in 1939?

Lastly the Treaty humiliated Germany because they had no say in it. Document D states, “What they knew of the treaty was etched indelibly in their minds [...] humiliation” The Treaty of Versailles undermined Germany’s sense of worth and made them feel like outcasts. Therefore this degradation only fueled the German’s enthusiasm from the Nazi regime when Hitler forced the world to look at Germany anew.

Germany and the Soviet Union had signed what is known as “Nazi-Soviet Non-Aggression Pact” of 1939 in order to acquire Poland’s land together. Although Hitler and Stalin did not like one another, they decided to put their differences aside for the moment in order to seize the opportunity. Hitler was interested in what was known as the Polish Corridor which had separated Germany from another piece of its property due to the Treaty of Versailles. Stalin was simply interested in expansion of Russia, and had plans to attack Germany once taking over Poland was successful. Germany took part in what was known as the

Hitler, used to the fact that the Allies supported his decisions due to their appeasement policy, demanded the port of Danzig from Poland. However, to his disbelief, Britain refused, followed by France. Poland, Greece, Romania and Turkey were extended protection on 31 March 1939 by the Allies. Hitler realized that if he attacked Poland it would result in war with the Anglo-French. To get more support on his side, Hitler signed the Nazi-Soviet Pact on 23 August 1939 with the Soviet Union, a powerful state at that point of time. Hitler felt that the Anglo-French may change their minds about Poland by seeing the Pact. This never happened. Thus, on September 1st, 1939, Hitler sent 1.5 million German troops to invade Poland. Britain and France declared war on Germany on 3rd September. The Second World War had begun.

<br>As the war progressed, Hitler became more risky in his decision making, and made the crucial error of invading Russia in June 1941. This opened Germany up to communist attack by breaking the Soviet-German non-agression pact of August 1939, and also a two front war, and Hitler was forced to divert forces to Russia, which could have been spent on defeating Britain. Hitler's aim of invading Russia had been postponed due to the distractions in both North Africa, and also south eastern Europe. Hitler felt an urgency to begin the move to the east, even though the British remained undefeated in the west. The invasion of Russia was the largest military campaign of the war.

The Treaty of Versailles formed after World War I forced Germany to pay great amounts in reparation payments, which was severely damaging to their economy and to their collective national ego. In addition, they were forced to greatly weaken their army by demobilizing, abolishing universal compulsory military service, and by having their army be comprised by no more than seven divisions of infantry and three divisions of cavalry. Furthermore, the country was also forced to return lands which they had viewed as 'Germanic' and had laid claim to, as well as overseas colonies, back to various other countries.

In 1919, Treaty of Versailles was made after the World War I. Germany and Austria-Hungary was blamed for the Great War and was imposed financial debts and territorial dismemberment on them. Germans could not afford the huge debts and during the 1920s the Great Depression which started in the USA impacted the economies of the whole world. There was high unemployment and the prices of daily necessities were high. The German government was distrusted. People chose to believe a man Adolf Hitler with his extreme ideas, and Racism that promised to make Germany stand up again. After Adolf Hitler became Chancellor of Germany in January 1933, he had secretly built up a military and

Munich Conference-1938 - Hitler wanted to annex the Sudetenland, a portion of Czechoslovakia whose inhabitants were mostly German-speaking. On Sept. 29, Germany, Italy, France, and Great Britain signed the Munich Pact, which gave Germany the Sudetenland. British Prime Minister Chamberlain justified the pact with the belief that appeasing Germany would prevent war.

Hitler’s rise to power was the result of many factors, but Hitler’s ability to take advantage of Germany’s poor leadership and economical and political conditions was the most significant factor. His ability to manipulate the media and the German public whilst taking advantage of Germany’s poor leadership resulted in both the collapse of the Weimar Republic and the rise of Hitler and the nazi party. During the early 1920s, Germany was struggling with economic instability and political uncertainty. Germany, after being defeated in the Great War, was forced to sign the unforgiving treaty of Versailles, which the Weimar Republic was held responsible for. This brought forward feelings of fear, anger and

The Treaty of Versailles was a truly cruel document and expressed a large dislike for Germany. The document had a myriad of demands and if they weren 't met, then extortion was used to achieve goals. The treaty caused many hardships such as limiting the army down to almost nothing, stopped the building of large ships and took away submarines completely. Also, Great Britain and France collected money for all the damage the war had caused. To pay its war debts the country borrowed money from America, but soon after it stopped when the Great Depression began.2 In result, Germany had it 's very depression that was so severe the money ended up having almost little to no worth.

Germany also had been blamed for starting WW1 and this caused Germans to become enraged because they had many consequences from the treaty. Most Germans thought that the Treaty of Versailles is unfair and evil and they found it to be a humiliation. They did accept the responsibility but they did not really have a choice. Hitler was a German politician who disagreed with the Treaty of Versailles and many people were following his ideas and he wanted to fight back with violence. To the people that followed him he restored sense of pride and self-respect. (Document

The Treaty of Versailles left Germany extremely vulnerable to invasion, making them scared and searching for a leader. Many Germans disagreed with the treaty because it weakened their country. Hitler despised the Treaty of Versailles because he wanted Germany to be in power again. His anger towards the treaty motivated him to strive for power. In order to rise to power, he manipulated people by reminding them of propositions of the treaty that they disagreed with and promising to change

When Germany invaded Poland, Britain and France finally had to do something as they had signed an alliance with Poland on 25 August 1939. This time they couldn't back down in the face of Nazi aggression. Had they done so, this would have signalled to the rest of the world that they could no longer be regarded as world powers. The invasion of Poland became inevitable as soon as the Germans and Russians signed the Nazi-Soviet Pact as they had agreed to carve up Poland between themselves.

The signing of the 1939 Nazi-Soviet Non-Aggression Pact was extremely significant in regards to the outbreak of war in Europe. Both Germany and Russia possessed considerable motives for signing the pact.

In 1934, Germany and Poland signed a non-aggression pact, which was meant to exclude Poland from the French System of alliances.

Hitler wanted the land of the Polish Corridor back to Germany because it had cut Germany in two and many German people lived there. But Poland refused to give back the lands because it would mean that they would lose the only access they had to the sea. Hitler invaded Poland so he could have back that land and to expand its territories. More land meant more men in the army and more space to oppose the USSR.