Nobody was happy with it and Italy and Germany wanted revenge. The Treaty of Versailles made the country lose all colonies (it was under the control of the League of Nations) and also some territories that used to be part of Germany. Many citizens that used to live in Germany were now living in other countries, new ones, created by the peace settlement. This made Hitler make promises that he would use any means to reunite all Germans and that empire was desirable. It was obviously a threat to surrounding nations.
In this essay I will discuss the title question and come to a conclusion on whether or not I agree. For me, one of the main causes of ww2 was the fact that The Treaty of Versailles was extremely harsh on Germany; this created a build up of anger and resentment from Germans, and also put them in a financial depression. Although Hitler had no control over this, he played on their poverty to receive votes and gain power. He also built up Germany’s resentment against the United Nations, which made his people pro war. Many people believe another fault of the League of Nations that contributed to war was; how they appeased Hitler by letting him have Czechoslovakia.
Historians such as Fischer have the view that Germany was actively seeking a war and this is shown by his theory in Source 1. Another theory is the shared guilt idea which both Source 2 and 3 have evidence to support. Source 2 also points towards the Fischer theory but also that events spiralled out of control, a ‘War by Timetable’ as A.J.P. Taylor said. It is fair to say however that Germany, in any of these scenarios, was very much responsible which is why their aggression points towards the outbreak of a general European war.
Fascist ideology can be seen as a key feature to the outbreak of world war two at the end of the 1930s however fascist foreign policy was developed within Germany and Italy for other reasons. Germany and Italy were both defeated during world war one and were not invited into the league of nations also both countries suffered from the treaty of Versailles and wanted revenge and to re look the points of the treaty. Germany felt humiliated by the terms of the treaty her once great and powerful military was now minimum and she could not defend her borders if invaded. Italy felt betrayed by the allied forces who had promised her lands in the Adriatic for her support within the war. 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.
Why war broke out in 1939 In 1939, Germany, after signing the German-Soviet Pact, attacked Poland. Much to Hitler’s surprise, Britain and France, who had both seemed unwilling to go to war responded to his actions by declaring war against Germany on the 3rd of September. The events leading to this war can be traced back to the end of World War I, or more specifically, the Treaty of Versailles. The treaty was famous for it’s harshness and cruelty against Germany, forcing them to pay huge amounts of reparations and took away some of Germany lands, while demilitarizing some. It also severely restricted Germany’s military power.
After seeing the successes of the British Empire, Kaiser Wilhelm decided that he too wanted an empire and wished for one that could match and outstrip Britain. This called for a more aggressive stance on foreign policy. “German actions going back to the 1890s had done much to create international tension”. Source W states that Germany was more likely to enter conflict with neighbouring countries to gain land and territory increasing German status and strength, due to extreme desire to expand and dominate Central Europe. This is clear in German interest in Morocco.
The extreme nationalism was driven the emergence of war, it elevate each of the conflicts before W.W.1. No matter in impersonal or my own opinion, nationalism is the most important reasons to trigger W.W1. Nationalism was begun to develop in Europe during the French Revolution. Some European people tried to build up their nation states in order to free themselves from foreign control. By the 19th century, nationalism went to extreme.
Germany interpreted Russia’s mobilization as virtual equivalent to declaring war, and that meant that in order for the Schlieffen plan to succeed, Germanys army had to attack and defeat France before moving eastwards to fight Russian forces. Germanys plan of taking out France quickly meant that they had to go through neutral Belgium to avoid France’s heavily fortified border defenses. Germany’s decision of going through Belgium led to Britain going in to the war. Historian, Gordon Martell, said that Germany made a bid for power by supporting Austria-Hungary and that Russia and her allies resolved to stop them. Many factors contributed to World War 1 and every country had a share of responsibility.
The reparations imposed on the country under the Weimar Republic caused many political problems within the nation. The Weimar Republic was associated with failure in WW1 since it had signed the Treaty of Versailles that had ended the war, this in turn caused a strong sense of unpopularity towards the government from the people of Germany, as it was believed that the Republic had ended the war too early and that Germany could have fought on. This left the Germans feeling humiliated, along with the harsh limitations on the German armed forces and also the concept that Germany and it's allies was to blame for starting the war, known as the War Guilt Clause.In addition, when the German people discovered that the Weimar Republic failed in making the Treaty fair towards them, the government became even more unpopular. They people were outraged at the fact that the government had accepted these conditions, despite the fact that there was not a lot else the Republic could do. This added to the already high level of unpopularity of the government, after signing the armistice to the end the war, consequently resulting in the government being named the 'November Criminals'.
Economically, Germany’s desire to build a central European customs association was at odds with France, Russia and Britain’s economic aspirations. The rise of Hindenburg and Ludendorff as leaders of the third Supreme Command placed huge power with the military in Germany and further prevented diplomatic negotiation. Chancellor Theobald von Bethmann Hollweg’s programme of 9 September 1914 defined Germany’s general aim of the war as ‘security for the German Reich in west and east for all imaginable time.’[2] Essential to this aim was the weakening of France so ‘as to make her revival as a Great Power impossible for all time.’[3] Bethmann’s programme had unpalatable territorial, economic and political implications for France. Such a direct, provocative aim forced France’s hand. Prolonged warfare with Germany was more appealing than surrender and facing being controlled by a German state.