Compare and Contrast the causes of WWI and WWII.

Another political factor that contributes to the outbreak of both world wars is the role of Britain and France in preventing war. In the First World War, it was believed that if Britain clearly conveyed the message to Germany that she would go to war to defend Belgian neutrality, the Great War might have been avoided due to the consideration of a long-term two-front war against Britain, France and Russia.

In the Second World War, Britain made the same mistake again by not emphasizing strong enough to Hitler that Britain had abandoned the policy of appeasement and would go to war if his troops invade Poland.

Another similarity in the political cause of the outbreak of the war is militarism and armament. In pre-1914 period, Kaiser Wilhelm adopted an aggressive foreign policy. The Naval Law in 1898 was seen as an aggression against the supremacy of the Royal Navy. The arms race provoked by Kaiser Wilhelm fanned the flame of tension amongst many of the major states. This increased the international tension, which eventually led to the outbreak of the war.

In Second World War, there is a strong undertone of rearmament even before Hitler became the Chancellor in 1933. The evidence is to be found in Mein Kampf and Hitler’s second book, in which he envisaged that under his leadership Germany would restore national pride through reversing the Treaty of Versailles and rearmament. His step-by-step rearmament program alerted Britain and France in the Spanish Civil War when Hitler deployed his forces in supporting Franco’s fascist force. Hitler’s rearmament program was then considered as a threat to Britain and France, where they began to realize that the policy of appeasement would not work in the long term and it was the time that they decided to choose the right time to confront Hitler’s expansionist aspirations.

The urge for a war to solve internal affairs is one of the most obvious similarities between the First World War and the Second World War. In the pre-1914 period, some historians believe that Kaiser’s pursuit of Weltpolitik was associated to the decline of autocracy leadership due to the rise of middle class. An immediate warfare was needed to direct the public attention from the fight for democracy and liberalization to warfare.

Hitler had much of a similar situation where the hasty pace of rearmament was a bloom to the economy. To sustain the growth in economy, it was necessary for Germany to expand since the full employment led to the increase in living cost, and a increasingly demoralizing work force. The shortage of industrial raw materials was one of the major economic causes that justifies German’s need for expansion.  

Some historians suggest that Germany was driven to war due to economic reasons. They believed that armament manufacturers such as Krupp or Vicker-Armstrong actually lobbied the government to wage war so that their can gain profit from the warfare. This argument has substantial support for partially leading to the outbreak of the Second World War since Krupp’s was in close partnership with Hitler and the Nazi Party. The armaments manufacturer had funded Hitler in launching his election campaigns.

In conclusion, there are many similarities between the causes of the First World War and Second World War. However, we can hardly find any similarities culturally and socially since there are major differences in the concept in the role of culture between autocracy and a single party state. In a single party state, the government sees culture and education as essential tools to instill the next generation with politically correct beliefs; whereas autocracy does not have an established system of cultural censorship. It relies largely on the loyalty of the people and the existing system of classes to generate common ideals.