Germany was not the only country that was very badly affected by the Depression. Japan and Italy also suffered due to the decrease in world trade and unemployment and acted on their own. This showed a huge weakness in the League of Nations, an organization set up to settle international issues, which then led to problems contributing to the start of World War 2. When Japan invaded the Chinese province of Manchuria and when Italy invaded Abyssinia, the League failed to take any proper action which also ended in both countries leaving the League.
Another major problem was Britain and France. The League could not have any effect without the unconditional support of it’s members and both countries felt they had too many problems at home to deal with countries on the other side of the world. They, in turn, started to implement what went on to named ‘Policies of Appeasement’. The League didn’t have an army of its own so could not take any military action to enforce any decisions. Britain did not want to go to war as the general public did not want it and France did not want to start a war without the support of Britain. That meant that Hitler got whatever he wanted. The fact that the USA did not get involved in any way whatsoever reinforced the idea to Hitler that he could get away with whatever he liked.
Hitler decided to send troops back into the demilitarized Rhineland, in blatant contravention of the Treaty of Versailles and, consequently, the League of Nations. Both Britain and France let Hitler get away with it which meant that the League was powerless to do anything.
After seeing how he had been allowed to remilitarize the Rhineland, Hitler looked towards Austria, and rebuilding Germany’s link with it. Anschluss (union) with Austria was expressly forbidden by the Treaty of Versailles, but one of Hitler’s main aims was to unite all German speakers. Many people in Britain thought that it was completely fair that Germany took back Austria and that the Treaty of Versailles was too harsh. Hitler had also decided to form an alliance with Italy (the Rome-Berlin Axis) which was signed in 1936. Hitler also signed the Anti-Comintern (Anti-Communist) pact with Japan on the 25 of November 1936. This pact stated that in the event of an attack on either country by the USSR (communist/Soviet Russia), they would consult each other on what measures to take in order to ‘protect their mutual interests’.
Feeling even more confident, Hitler set his sights on the Sudetenland in Czechoslovakia (in late 1938). Hoping to solve the crisis, Neville Chamberlain, the Prime Minister of Great Britain again tried to appease Hitler and gave him the Sudetenland. This was agreed at the Munich Conference, but by 1939 Hitler had invaded most of Czechoslovakia, and neither France nor Britain stopped him. The policy of appeasement was probably one of the major factors in the outbreak of war, because it gave Hitler whatever he demanded and gave him more confidence, until he eventually invaded Poland on the 1 of September 1939, which then started World War 2 when Britain and France declared war 2 days later.
One final reason though that contributed to the War, was the growing fear of communism in the East (USSR). Stalin signed the Nazi-Soviet Pact in 1939, promising not to attack Germany, and it also kept communism, of which Hitler was very afraid of, from spreading. This meant that, until the time was right, Hitler would not have to fight a two-front war and would have an ally to protect him, if necessary. Stalin made this decision for many reasons. First of all, he was a communist and was under the impression that both France and Britain did not like him. One more reason was that he was not invited to the Munich Conference. This resulted in mistrust between Britain and France, and Russia. The final reason was that the USSR had no choice; they were not prepared for war and only joined Hitler to buy some time to rearm, but with a very correct suspicion that Germany would turn on them eventually.
Taking all of this into account, I believe that World War 2 broke out not only because of Hitler’s actions and foreign policy, but because of many other reasons, including resentment towards Britain, France and the USA due to the Treaty of Versailles, the many weaknesses of the League of Nations, fear of Communism, The Great Depression, and the policy of appeasement. I personally believe that if Britain and France had taken immediate action against Hitler when he first moved troops into the Rhineland, and had also enforced the Treaty of Versailles, then the devastation and the 60 million deaths may have been averted.
