The Failure of the League of Nations and the Outbreak of War in 1939

In addition, Hitler learnt that the League of Nations, itself a creation of the Treaty of Versailles failed to ensure collective security, and could possibly do nothing to impede his actions. The most crucial factor is that Woodrow Wilson himself, the creator of the League of Nations, was not allowed to join it by the Congress. Also, it proved to be ineffective at various occasions. It was first unsuccessful in 1931 during the Manchurian Crisis. The League of Nations sent a committee to investigate the situation and concluded that Japan had violated China’s security. Although they condemned Japan’s actions, there was not much Britain or

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

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 league of nations was created by the winners of WWI and was intended to prevent future world wars. The idea was created by the US president Woodrow Wilson. The League of Nations was supposed to be a council that included all the world nations to discuss topics and keep peace. This organization failed in stopping WWII. The League had multiple opportunities to stop the second world war, but failed miserably. The League of Nations had very limited authority on countries such as Japan, Italy, Germany and the USSR. “The main weapon of the League was to ask member countries to stop trading with aggressive countries”(Wheeler). The League of Nations was treated as a joke and could not enforce any of the rules that they set. The League had no authority because they had no army to threaten the aggressive countries. Additionally, countries such as Italy and Germany were not part of the League and therefore had no obligation to listen to them or make peace talks. If the League was set up in a better format and way to work it would not have failed and they could have been able to stop the second world

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.

In 1939 the world plunged into a state of depression and war, each country turning on one another. Diplomatic factors, Hitler's thirst for power, and the political and financial stand point are arrows that point directly to a future of destruction and war, all with the failure of appeasement. Collective security worked as a buffer between conflicts, and was the best response toward aggression. The weakening League of Nations failed to keep collective security intact from any wars. Hitler's leadership threatened the peace in Europe which caused Germany to stir up war around the world. The economic and political stand points were in danger and on the verge of collapsing.

Treaty of Versailles' Role in Hitler's Rise to Power The Treaty of Versailles was important to Hitler's rise to power because, it was the cause of Germany's downfall. Hitler felt very strongly about the Treaty of Versailles and thought the terms were unfair towards Germany. Many German people also despised the treaty, and wanted something done about it. Hitler was there to turn to. He wanted to abolish the treaty and all of it terms.

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.

There were other reasons that the Versailles treaty upset Germany and therefore contributes to World War II. For example, the territorial losses, the economic losses and the war guilt helped cause World War II. However the main underlying cause of the War was the War Guilt. In this the Germans felt humiliated and angry. Adolf Hitler was able to use this anger to to build German pride and strengthen the military. This evidently led to the formation of the Nazi party. The Germans were suffering from the losses the Treaty of Versailles and as a result Adolf Hitler took power which later he would help cause World War

How Did the Versailles Treaty Help Cause World War II? The Great War, or World War I, was a war that took the lives of 10 million soldiers, seven million civilians, and wounded more than 10 million men, finally came to an end on November 11, 1918. After the war, a conference was held at the Versailles Palace, just outside of Paris, to hammer out a treaty. The Prime Minister, Georges Clemenceau, of France, David Lloyd George of England, and the president, Woodrow Wilson, of the United States, were the victorious allied nations that came together and created the Versailles Treaty, where Germany was given no voice and Russia was not represented because they were pulled out of the war in 1917.

As it was built on the unrealistic premise that nations would overlook their own interests in order to look after other members, the League of Nations and Collective Security was destined to fail. Nations were required to turn over their right to make decisions and foreign policies over to an international body so as to establish ‘internationalism.’ The requirements of the league are described by historian E.H Carr as being, overly optimistic, ‘hollow and without substance.’ The invasion of Abyssinia by Mussolini was the embodiment of the failure of Collective Security. Upon hearing of Mussolini’s intent to invade the smaller country, Britain and France decided to refrain from intervening as they hoped to make an ally of Italy and did not want Mussolini to break the Stresa Front and side with Hitler. Of course Italy did side with Hitler and through their idleness, set a precedent of inaction that encouraged Hitler and the axis powers to act. Similar examples of the failure of the League can also be seen in its response to Italy and Germany’s involvement in the Spanish Civil War and Japan’s invasion of Manchuria.

When Germany received this treaty they were very surprised with the terms. The terms included, war guilt clause, which meant Germany accepted all the blame for World War One. Reparations, Germany had to pay millions in damage from the war. Disarmament, Germany could not have tanks or air force and land was taken away from them and given to other countries. The Germans were not happy with this treaty and thought of it as very harsh. However the Germans took responsibility and continued on in hope to get revenge later. In 1919, to help keep the world safe for democracy the League of Nations was set up. League of Nations would intend that if there were disagreements between countries they would negotiate rather than fight. The failure of the League of Nation can be summarized by points such as, not all countries joining in such as Germany as a punishment and Russia because of the spread of communism. The League of Nations had no power or any army. Countries were hesitant to get involved with an aggressive country and taking direct action against them. These things led to the fall of the League of Nations. People were angry because they did not want to cut off resources with other countries, even if they were aggressive because during the late 1920’s depression hit most of them. “The depression destroyed the market for imported silk from Japan, which had provided the country with two fifths of its export income’’ (The History on the Net Group). Economic problems played a

Like many Germans, Hitler believed that the Treaty of Versailles was unjust. He hated the Treaty and the German politicians were in his view, “November Criminals”. The worst aspect of the Treaty was that it was a reminder to the Germans of their defeat in the First World War and their humiliation by the Allies. His promise to the German people was that if he was the leader of Germany he would reverse this. By the time Hitler came to power, some of these terms had already been changed. The

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.

However, the League, once secure used its representatives' power and presence as a threat, but did not follow through with such threats when major opposition arose. For example, in the 1930s, the League of Nations "possessed neither the will nor the means to stop them [fascist dictators in Italy, Germany, and Japan]" (Patterson, UN, 14). Although this organization did little to prevent the Second World War in 1939, it did pave the way for humanitarian aid efforts to refugees and helped to resolve a number of border disputes before the war.