Causes Of The World War 2

What were the causes of the Second World War?

World War II (September 1, 1939-September 2, 1945) was the largest, most destructive, and most widespread war in history. During the conflict, more than 50 million people died and hundreds of millions were wounded, physically and psychologically. The war, fought on land, sea, and air, was the epic struggle of the twentieth century and was central to the whole century and it was caused in large part by the unresolved issues of World War I (1914-1918)

This originally started out as two separate wars. The first of these wars began in Asia in 1937 as the Second Sino-Japanese War and the other began in Europe in 1939 when Germany invaded Poland. Four primary causes can be identified and they will be further discussed in this paper. These four causes are the rising of Adolf Hitler, the League of Nations that failed to keep peace, appeasement and the role of the Nazi Party in Germany.

From the first day that he "seized power," January 30, 1933, Hitler knew that only sudden death awaited him if he failed to restore pride and empire to post-Versailles Germany. His close friend and adjutant Julius Schaub recorded Hitler's jubilant boast to his staff on that evening, as the last celebrating guests left the Berlin Chancellery building: "No power on earth will get me out of this building alive!"

David Irving, Hitler's War: An introduction to the new edition (1989)

After Adolf Hitler was named chancellor of Germany in 1933, the German government stepped up efforts to expand its territory in Europe. In March 1938 the German army moved into Austria and united it with Germany.

When the treaties in Germany were assigned , Germany lose a lot of her territory and it was not permitted to participate in the process of self-determination and that made Hitler want to escape of the burdens and restrictions imposed by the treaties and to have a more powerful temptation of war.

Soon, Hitler began demanding the return of land that Germany had lost after World War I (1914-18). His first target was a German-speaking section of Czechoslovakia, called the Sudetenland. Czechoslovakia didn't have a strong enough military to stand alone against Germany and prevent it from taking the territory.

Czechoslovakia's allies, Britain and France, did not want to go to war over the territory, so they agreed to let Germany take over the Sudetenland. Hitler claimed that this would be his last territorial demand in Europe. In reality, he already had plans for conquering all of Europe.

By March 1939 Hitler's army had taken over all of Czechoslovakia. Soon after, Hitler made demands on Poland, specifically the port city of Danzig. Before World War I, Danzig was a German city. After World War I it became a "free city," which meant it didn't belong to Germany or to Poland, even though it now fell within Poland's borders.

Excerpt from "Hitler's Order of the Day to the German Troops on the Eastern Front" Issued October 2, 1941 Excerpt taken from Associated Press release reprinted in the New York Times, October 10, 1941, p. 2

Adolf Hitler said once: “If the nations want peace, the League gives them the way by which peace can be kept. League or no League, a country which is determined to have a war can always have it.

The 1930s historian H.A.L. Fisher sums up the failure of the League in his book, A History of Europe (1938).

The World War II invasion of Europe by British and American forces took place in mid-1944. The Allies, those nations fighting against the Germans during World War II, sought to free the German-occupied countries of Europe from German leader Adolf Hitler's grasp. Allied troops landed on the beaches of Normandy, France, on June 6, 1944—D-Day.

Voices of D-Day: The Story of the Allied Invasion Told by Those Who Were There, edited by Ronald J. Drez, is a collection of survivors' accounts of the Normandy landing.

From Normandy, the Allies began their march eastward through France and Belgium toward Germany. In December 1944 the Germans launched a counterattack in the Ardennes Forest of southeastern Belgium, entangling Allied forces in a costly conflict known as the Battle of the Bulge.

Excerpts from Citizen Soldiers: The U.S. Army from the Normandy Beaches to the Bulge to the Surrender of Germany, edited by Stephen Ambrose, reveal how American troops were taken by surprise in the Ardennes but managed to recover their strength, rally their forces,

The League of Nations was the first major attempt as an international organization of state to maintain peace and promote international co-operation. But sadly it failed.

While the League of Nations could celebrate its successes, the League had every reason to examine its failures and where it went wrong. These failures, especially in the 1930’s, cruelly exposed the weaknesses of the League of Nations and played a part in the outbreak of World War Two in 1939. During the 1920’s the failures of the League of Nations were essentially small-scale and did not threaten world peace. However they did set a marker – that the League of Nations could not solve problems if the protagonists did not ‘play the game’.

Article 11 of the League’s Covenant stated: "Any war or threat of war is a matter of concern to the whole League and the League shall take action that may safeguard peace."

Therefore, any conflict

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