Other influences include the League of Nations which failed the principle of collective security and the enforcements of demilitarisation. The failure to enforce the conditions of the Treaty of Versailles and Locarno Treaty assisted the Germans and Italians to continue their aggressive policies. Even though the Allies showed little resistance, the resistance would not be required if the two dictators did not have the intensions of launching aggressive foreign policies. War resulted because of Nazi aggression. “Hitler coming to power showed his clear primary objective which was to tear up the Treaty of Versailles.” Hitler totally disregarded the policies and introduced conscription, built a massive army, created an air force, built heavy guns and submarines.
Italy soon joined after because Germany was mainland Europe’s most powerful country, so Italy wanted to join with them. The triple alliance promised on the ground that they had to help the other country if they were being attacked. The triple entente was formed with Britain, France and Russia in 1907. The triple entente was less structured than the triple alliance. Entente meaning “a friendly understanding or informal alliance between states.” This meant that they didn’t need to promise to help the other two countries but the understanding that they would support the other country.
When Hitler came to power within Germany in the 1930s he aimed to bring all German speaking people under one great empire and that Germans were the master race who were superior to Jews and Slavs this showed the aggressive nature of Germans foreign policy because for Hitler to bring all German speaking people into one great empire it would mean having to invade territory she had lost from ww1. Mussolini also looked to recreate an empire as powerful as the roman empire and he believed that conquering foreign territory was a sign of a great nation and great power. Italy and Germany both believed in ideology that glorified the military and believed that war was an acceptable way of accomplishing their goals. This caused both Hitler and Mussolini to create aggressive foreign policies to distract the citizens living in the countries of the terrible
(Document 6) As written in The Origins of the Second World War, by A.J.P. Taylor, if more countries kept getting involved with the issue of the Munich Agreement, Czechoslovakia would have been safe. Taylor also thought that German people were the only ones in the world who can “turn Hitler out” This was to be thought because the Germans were the ones who put him into power in the first place. “The appeasers” feared that the loss of Germany would result in the domination of Europe” (Doc
Furthermore, it can be argued that propaganda was crucial to the maintenance of power by the Nazis as they portrayed Hitler as powerful and showed him to be good for the country, making sure people continued to show support for the Nazis and it portrayed Hitler as above all party politicking and as a figure for national focus and loyalty. This would have made sure people continued to support Hitler even after he was voted in as they would feel a kind of loyalty towards him. However, Propaganda cannot be described as the only crucial factor in the maintenance of power by the Nazis as propaganda alone cannot change an entire countries views. The introduction of new social controls further aided in the Nazi’s maintenance of power. Anti-Nazi judges were removed and replaced by those
Tony Judt argues that Stalin ruled with ‘uncompromising rigidity and confrontational tactics’, this is somewhat supported by source 8 as it highlights that the ‘personality of Stalin’ was a significant internal factor in the USSR. Stalin’s persistent drive to achieve security by creating a buffer zone meant that agreements between the two powers were difficult. However, his policy on Poland, 1945, and the Stalinisation of Eastern Europe, 1945-48, reflected a genuine desire to protect the USSR from any future Western attack. Stalin was also ‘uncompromising’ over the reparations for Germany, he was determined to strip the Soviet zone of raw materials, and this worsened relations with the West at
The smaller countries did not want to be taken over, and so, they did their best in fighting back.The conflict between the nations trying to over-ride one another with their nations and the conflict aroused between countries wanting to escape from a nation's ruling led up to the outburst in war. Alliances are promises or agreements to help and defend another country. During this time, the two evident alliances were the Triple Alliance consisting of Germany, Austria-Hungary and Italy; and the Triple Entente bringing together France, Russia and Britain. Alliances play a part in the outbreak of the war because it one country from each alliance were at conflict, the remaining countries in their alliance would be quick to join them, thus, making it a bigger conflict and war. If there were no alliances at this time, world war 1 would not have been as big as it was.
In many ways, Stalin transformed himself to replicate Lenin by adopting his ideas and goals, although the way in which he met these goals are highly controversial by historians. Stalin was quickly acknowledged as a murderous dictator while he used a tactic of systematic killing of political opponents and innocent civilians on a massive scale. The objectives that Stalin was able to accomplish during his political career were truly outstanding and beneficial, however; the way in which he met these goals was truly unethical. Joseph Stalin was an
Hitler became affiliated with the National Socialist German Workers Party. The party felt capitalism and democracy were failing and worked to secure a strong working middle class. In Mein Kampf, however, Hitler seemed less interested in the socialist aspect of the party. His focus aimed more at German nationalist expansionism and Anti-Semitism: “Hence, if we propound on the question of how the state which we Germans need should be constituted, we must first clearly understand what kind of people it is to contain and what purpose it is to serve” (207). According to Hitler, a blending of cultures changes the goal of the state.
Adolf Hitler, from Germany, took his chance at creating an empire with his own type of government. He had very anti-Semitic views. He felt the German main race was far superior to others and slowly built up his army. They started to move outside of Germany taking over the surrounding areas. Americans were not too eager to jump into the battle that ensued overseas.