Failure of the Treaty of Versailles
Failure of the Treaty of Versailles
The treaty signed after World War I treated Germany very harshly and was greatly resented by the German people.
* Germany was not allowed to have a military.
* German ships used for trading were given to the Allies.
* Germany was forced to give up territories in Africa, Pacific, and Europe.
* Germany was ordered to pay $33 billion in war damages.
This started a chain of events. It helped put Germany into a huge depression. Unemployment was at terrible levels. Hitler made it his responsibility to defy all of the charges made on Germany through the treaty. He re-armed his nation, re-occupied the Rhineland, threatened neighboring states, and built up a massive army. It was obvious he was preparing for war.
Appeasement, Isolationism, and the Failure of the League of Nations
* The Treaty of Versailles was not as unjust as some would see it. The lands taken from Germany were lands that were conquered (Alsace-Lorraine) or partitioned (Lower Silesia, the Polish Corridor) by Germany, Russia, and Austria in the late 1700's. The treaty itself wasn't unfair, rather was seen as such in Germany. This is because of the great myth that Gerrmany was never defeated on the battlefield in WWI (propagated by Field Marshals Hindenburg and Luddendorf, even though they were the two who told the government to seek an armistice) also contributed to mightily to the treaties as been seen as unfair andf contributed greatly to revisionists such as Hitler coming to power. Yet the treaty itself is not what started WWII (though it didn't stop it from happening). Rather it was the unwillingness of Great Powers such as Great Britain, and France along with the The League of Nations, to uphold the treaty doctrine and its provisions. When Germany announced that it had an air force, that they were re-introducing military conscription, that they were re-occuping the demilitarized Rhineland, that they had reached a naval agreement with Great Britain that allowed them to build a navy thirty-five percent the size of Great Britain's (roughly the size of France's) the League of Nations only provided paper protests and the Versailles treaty became as dead as a door-nail. WWII was started not only by Hitler's aspirations, but by an enfeebled West which did not comprehend the magnitude of its inactions.
* Leading up to the war, some European countries had weakened their own militaries (Denmark had basically disarmed itself, which made it the almost ideal trampoline for German forces into Norway) or had grown wary of enforcing the Treaty of Versailles despite the fact that a known madman had come to the helm in Germany.
* At the end of World War I, the victorious nations formed the League of Nations for the purpose of airing international disputes, and of mobilizing its members for a collective effort to keep the peace in the event of aggression ...
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* Leading up to the war, some European countries had weakened their own militaries (Denmark had basically disarmed itself, which made it the almost ideal trampoline for German forces into Norway) or had grown wary of enforcing the Treaty of Versailles despite the fact that a known madman had come to the helm in Germany.
* At the end of World War I, the victorious nations formed the League of Nations for the purpose of airing international disputes, and of mobilizing its members for a collective effort to keep the peace in the event of aggression by any nation against another or of a breach of the peace treaties. The United States, imbued with isolationism, did not become a member. The League failed in its first test. In 1931, the Japanese, using as an excuse the explosion of a small bomb under a section of track of the South Manchuria Railroad (over which they had virtual control), initiated military operations designed to conquer all of Manchuria. After receiving the report of its commission of inquiry, the League adopted a resolution in 1933 calling on the Japanese to withdraw. Thereupon, Japan resigned from the League. Meanwhile, Manchuria had been overrun and transformed into a Japanese puppet state under the name of Manchukuo. Beset by friction and dissension among its members, the League took no further action. Also in 1933, Adolf Hitler came to power as dictator of Germany and began to rearm the country in contravention of the provisions of the Treaty of Versailles. He denounced the provisions of that treaty that limited German armament and in 1935 reinstituted compulsory military service. That same year the Italian dictator Benito Mussolini began his long-contemplated invasion of Ethiopia, which he desired as an economic colony. The League voted minor sanctions against Italy, but these had slight practical effect. British and French efforts to effect a compromise settlement failed, and Ethiopia was completely occupied by the Italians in 1936.
* Alarmed by German rearmament, France sought an alliance with the USSR. Under the pretext that this endangered Germany, Hitler remilitarized the Rhineland in 1936. It was a dangerous venture, for Britain and France could have overwhelmed Germany, but, resolved to keep the peace, they took no action. Emboldened by this success, Hitler intensified his campaign for Lebensraum (space for living) for the German people. He forcibly annexed Austria in March 1938, and then, charging abuse of German minorities, threatened Czechoslovakia.
* In September, as Hitler increased his demands on the Czechs and war seemed imminent, the British and French arranged a conference with Hitler and Mussolini. At the Munich Conference they agreed to German occupation of the Sudetenland, Hitler's asserted last claim, in the hope of maintaining peace. This hope was short lived, for in March 1939, Hitler took over the rest of Czechoslovakia and seized the former German port of Memel from Lithuania. There followed demands on Poland with regard to Danzig (Gdansk) and the Polish Corridor. The Poles remained adamant, and it became clear to Hitler that he could attain his objectives only by force. After surprising the world with the announcement of a nonaggression pact with his sworn foe, the Soviet Union, he sent his armies across the Polish border on Sept. 1, 1939.
* When Hitler invaded Austria (what they called Anschluss, the uniting of Germany and Austria) he was violating one of the laws stated in the Treaty of Versailles, but yet the Allies did nothing. When Hitler took the Czech's main defensive wall, along with all of its factories, etc, the Allies still did nothing. For good reason, Hitler believed that France and Britain would not come to the aid of Poland.
* The US policy of isolationism. Leading up to World War II, the United States of America maintained a policy of isolation. The United States focused little attention on any conflicts occurring outside of their borders.
Fascism, Nationalism, Totalitarianism, and Collectivist Ideology
* Fascists fully support the military and feel war is acceptable in achieving national goals. Because of this, Italy and Germany were prepared to follow this policy and expand and form empires of their own. Germany wanted to unite the dominant Aryan (Germanic) race. This lead to the Czech crisis.
* An increase in German nationalism since Bismark helped unify the country.
* There was a rise in collectivist sentiments in Germany such as notions of self-sacrifice and altruism towards those with similar blood. Meanwhile, there was an extreme fear of Bolshevism.
* In the opinion of some, the European war was a culmination of different branches of Marxist-inspired thought butting heads.
Expansionism
* The war was caused by the expansionist desires of Hitler, Mussolini and the Japanese imperialists.
* Germany, Italy and Japan wanted to conquer new territiries and enslave or exterminate the peoples living there.
Economic Depression and Instability
* The Great World Depression in 1929 became a very important cause of the war. It sent the German economy into a great disaster, causing a humungous number of unemployed people. In the book "Causes and Consequences of World War Two" it states that, to the Germans, Hitler was know as a strong determined, and efficient leader who knew exactly where he was going. But did the people actually know where he was leading them? No, the people believed that Hitler was leading them out of the depression but, in actuality Hitler motives were different from what the people thought they were. He used the Great Depression to connive his way into an authority. His real motives were to abolish the Treaty of Versailles, expand German territory, and dominate Europe and the whole world. In order to achieve these goals he first wanted to conquer France, and Russia while he was still on the same side as Italy and Britain. He confidently knew that Italy and Britain would stay to his side until he began full the destruction of the Jews.
* The Weimar Republic was unable to tackle important issues, form a stable government, or control runaway inflation. Germany was in total economic chaos.
* If there was no Great Depression, do you think World War 2 would still have happened? The political climate created by this depression allowed dictators such as Hitler to rise to power.
* One of the main reasons other countries didn't intervene earlier was because they had huge debts and couldn't afford to.
* Japan was trying to gain natural resources to feed its industry. Japan has almost no natural resources itself. It attacked the US to "clear the way" for its conquest of American, Dutch, British, and Australian colonies and gain their resources.
Entangling Alliances
* England and France's treaty with Poland had a great deal to do with the war in Europe. I suggest that if England and France had instead decided to not fulfill their obligations under the treaty that instead the war in Europe might very well have ended up with just a war between Germany and Russia. Communism was already being considered a major threat to Western nations and the threat of communism in Germany helped to propel Hitler to power. Only after great reluctance did the Allies accept and aid Russia in her fight with Germany and the primary reason for that was that they were very concerned that Germany would defeat Russia and then become too powerful to stop. Keep in mind that Russia also invaded Poland in 1939 as part of their treaty with Germany and later in November of 1939 Russia invaded Finland. At the outbreak of the European element of the war Russia was on the Axis side as far as the Allies were concerned. It was only Germany's alarming early success in the invasion of Russia that compelled the Allies to take Russia into the Allied fold.
