To what extent did the failings of Nazi economic policy contribute to the defeat of Germany in the Second World War? There were several different factors that all had an impact on the defeat of Germany during the Second World War and the extent of which the failings of the Nazi economic policy contributed can be argued. The meagre state of the economy, through insufficient planning, did put strains on the government and this limited the full potential of the army, the production of weapons and high demand for labour. No doubt, the economy did hinder the progression of the war however I believe that there were more significant factors that contributed to the defeat of Germany. Hitler’s strategy incompetence, the Allied bombings and losing the Battle of The Atlantic were all also important factors in the defeat of Germany.
From the start there was economic instability because of the cost of World War One and there was widespread disillusion within the German people. The public did not support the Weimar, and the administrative branch of the government, including the Judiciary, also teachers did not back it up either. Mass unemployment, damages to the infrastructure also from World War One, and the demand for reparation payments put lots of pressure on the inexperienced democracy. Not only in Germany, but all over Europe, fundamental and anti-democratic movements gained support. 2.
Were the big three of Versailles very stupid men? Introduction After the First World War, many countries were left behind as losers. And you can’t just leave the losing countries behind and ignore them. You have to decide if they have to be punished or do they have to give away land or colonies that they own? For sure it is hard to decide something like this smoothly, after all the damage and death that happened during the war.
There long term causes were the Treaty of Versailles, The American policy of isolation etc. The mid term causes were the failure of the League of Nations and Hitler’s nationalism. The short term causes that led to war erupting in 1939 were Hitler’s imperialism and militarism. All these causes had a significant contribution to why war erupted in 1939. The Treaty of Versailles was signed on 28th June 1919 and played a very significant part to the eruption of war in 1939.
What was not present pre-1914 which, during the July Crisis, led to war was the closeness between nations and build up of tensions that meant that the powers would follow each other into war. This change in the dynamic of the Alliance System can be blamed on Germany. For example, in creating a
Therefore, it led to militarism because many countries did not know what to do in response, other than to focus on expansion as a solution to their problems. This happened in Japan, where they were hit by the Depression badly. Due to the Depression, both the USA and China put up tariffs against Japanese goods and the collapse of the American market put the Japanese economy in crisis. Without this trade, Japan could not feed its people and were in crisis, which then led to the Manchurian Crisis, because building a Japanese empire by force by invading Manchuria, was seen as the solution to Japan’s problems the Great Depression brought. Therefore, the Great Depression is said to be the cause of the Manchurian Crisis because they attacked Manchuria,
! After the First World War, unlike some other nations that were prepared to fight another major war, Britain had an aftermath of the war. Britain was struggling with economy as they met the economic depression; they were still on the stage of recovering. Also as the Americans were insisting on maintaining their isolationism, which they were willing to be isolated from the European countries’ conflicts, this eliminated any other possibilities and chance for the British to earn loans. Moreover, as Britain was one of the major power of the WWI, the effects on both of their men and arms were not recovered from the WWI.
Hitler used propaganda, elimination of the opposition, and a cult of personality to gain the support and trust of the German people in a time of economic crisis to his benefit and the rest of the world's loss. Single party states arise from a crisis, and Germany was suffering from a very large one at that time. The end of World War I in 1918 had left the economic state in shambles, and the loss struck the German people hard. Furthermore, the Treaty of Versailles the following year resulted in the demilitarisation and many cuts from German land and territory. Hitler criticized the carving up of Europe by the "Big Four" (the US, UK, France and Italy), stating that the Germans were the "master race".
The Weimar Republic looked to be collapsing from the beginning. All the events that finally led to the ending of democracy in Germany were seemed to be caused by the Treaty of Versailles. The loss of the war for the Germans was a huge turning point as it was seem that the Allies wanted to crush Germany. They were unable to pay the reparations, as extremists from both the right and left wing found the war guilt clause unacceptable. When the Germans had lost World War I, had a huge impact back in Germany.
They were losing to a nation very few had heard of and it was humiliating. However, many of the defeats to the Russian military occurred after the Revolution had started, not causing its outbreak, but merely adding to the opposition to autocratic rule by the Tsar and prolonging the Revolution. The Russo-Japanese War brought economic problems for Russia, and this therefore meant there was a significant lack of money to solve any other problems present Russia, hence partly being responsible for the outbreak of the 1905 Revolution. The war costed an extreme amount of money. As it resulted in failure no money could be gained from the invaded territories.