Essay on The Causes of World War II

The Treaty of Versailles had prohibited Anschluss with Austria and excluded 750,000 Germans from Germany. There was a large German community in Austria as well as the area of the Sudetenland in Czechoslovakia and the Polish Corridor. Hitler had promised the German people to incorporate all the Germans into the Third Reich and according to Churchill, Hitler “made it clear that the path to power lay through aggression and violence” (Churchill, 1948, pg.43). He promised the Germans that he would do anything necessary to achieve his goal.

The Treaty of Versailles provoked WWII by demanding the obliteration of Germany’s army, huge sums of reparations, and total mortification of Germany. All of these factors drove Germany to get their own revenge, and show the world they were not

As stated in the New York Times, "...Germany today cast off the last shackles fastened upon her by the Treaty of Versailles when Adolf Hitler, as commander-in-chief of the Reich defense forces, sent his new battalions into the Rhineland’s demilitarized zone. . . ." (Document3). Hitler had challenged every condition in the Treaty of Versailles and violated every negotiation made. Territorial aggression and pushed every limit he was given, that disrupted peace. Hitler himself expresses his idea as stated "Oppressed territories are led back to the bosom of a common Reich, not by flaming protests, but by a mighty sword" (Document1). He also, rebuilt the German military and used extreme nationalism to unite Germany. A British historian, A.J.P Taylor expressed, " ...Hitler when he had come to power by constitutional means and was apparently supported by a large majority of the German people?"(Document8). Hitler had gathers supporters through his ideas and his speeches of hope. Hitler's leadership threatened the whole continent of Europe's peace. If his leadership was the ignition to the fire then state or the economy kept the fire running through the

The last term that was placed on Germany during the treaty of Versailles was that Germany had to accept full responsibility for starting WWI (Doc D). Most of the German people thought this was outrageous because it demeaned their self worth. In turn this helped Hitler rise in power, because he restored a sense of self respect. Helping the world look at Germany as a better

World War II was fought between two main opposing forces, the Allies and the Axis forces. The Axis powers consisted of Germany, Italy, and Japan being the most dominant. On the other hand, some of the countries in the Allied powers were Great Britain, the United States, France, Australia, New Zealand, India, the Soviet Union, Canada, and Greece.

There were many different interpretations and perspectives of the origins of World War II. Some underlying factors consisted of the failure of the peace without victory speech made by Woodrow Wilson, the Treaty of Versailles where negotiations were made by George Clemenceau, Woodrow Wilson and David Lloyd George, the League of Nations which was founded after the Paris Peace conference and the big four. Due to these factors Germany dealt with major impacts, limitations and economic consequences. The treaty of Versailles and peace-making decisions paved the way to WWII by leaving Germany isolated and betrayed. After World War I, the treaty of Versailles and League of Nations were made as an attempt to create peace which failed.

From Hitler's perspective, the German empire demanded more territories. Hitler stated that all the German people should be in one nation (Document 1). Thus, the idea of expanding colonies became the central goal of Hitler's government. As a result, the best way for Germany to get the its needs was to start a

Living space then, was a necessary objective in Hitler 's eyes, but in order to achieve this space he needed to develop Germany 's army first. So he did. Between 1933 and 1939 the Treaty of Versailles was secretly avoided to massively increase the size of the German army, from 100,000 to 300,00017. The Luftwaffe, German air force, also rapidly increased and by 1940 it was the strongest among all the European powers. The German war machine was impressive, in just six years it went from being the weakest army to one of the strongest18. However, this created a vicious circle in terms of foreign policy for Germany: Hitler wanted living space, so he built up the army. However, in order to pay for this rapid rearmament, he had to conquer territories. Thus, Hitler made war profitable and a key part of the foreign policy of Germany19.

Hitler’s actions (remilitarization): Adolf Hitler became Chancellor of Germany in January 1933.and began to build up the German army. In 1934 he increased the size of the army and the military service became obligatory. Although France and Britain were aware of these actions, they did not behave against it because they were concerned about the spread of communism in Europe and they thought that if Germany became strong. It will be able to prevent the spread of communism. Hitler also made two major alliances during 1936. The first was called the Rome-Berlin Axis Pact and with Mussolini’s Italy. The second was called the Anti-Comitern Pact with Japan. Hitler’s plan was to take back all the territories that had been taken away from Germany. In March 1938, German forces occupied Austria. The Austrian leader hold a referendum asking the people whether they

Hitler wanted his country’s population to grow. The German land mass was small and if Hitler wanted a growth in population he would need more land. Hitler was quoted saying, “The

Germany had very low employment rates in this time and it made it even harder to get back to a stable economy. In this time a lot of people had no jobs so this also did not help Germany because companies were going out of business. This directly led to the decline of Germany's economy. When having no business’s running the country as no money coming in and can not send anything out.

“Hitler began building weapons, training pilots for war, and allied with Austria. He also left an International Disarmament Conference and the League of Nations.” (Chomsky, 2009) Racial theories and goals were at the center of Hitler’s thoughts. He wanted to make Germany a formidable military power.

backed out without much question! It was far too casual for it to be a

The Treaty of Versailles is what fueled the power of Aldof Hitler and his Nazi party. Hitler obsessed with power had promised

In order to fully understand the role the Treaty of Versailles played in the initial upcoming of Adolf Hitler, we must first delve into the reasoning behind German involvement in World War One. Since the late 1800s, Germany was intent on expanding its borders, by any means necessary. Otto von Bismarck, Chancellor of Germany, was obsessed with his desire to “create a German Empire out of the group of smaller German states” mainly under Austria-Hungary’s authority (Schmidt, 2006). In order to expel Austria as the primary influence over these smaller German states, war was inevitable. Subsequently following the war, also known as the Seven Weeks War, Bismarck extorted the small German states of “Schleswig, Holstein, Hanover, Hesse, Nassau, and Frankfurt, which created the North German Federation” (Schmidt, 2006). Even more importantly, Austria was successfully displaced as the major influence over those small German states. Bismarck’s next calculated move was to achieve the same unification in the southern parts of Germany.