How far was HItler to blame for the second world war?
How far was Hitler blamed for the Second World War?
The Second World War was a war that lasted for 6 years, in which Hitler is mainly blamed for, but does he have to take all the blame sure he didn't exactly help the situation but could this war have been avoided? In this essay I will outline the short term and long term causes to the war. One of the short term causes are in 1935 Hitler announced that he is building up an army, and he has been in secret since 1933. The point is that the alliance should have done something about this and not left it. And a long cause would be that because of the unfair treaty of Versailles in 1918 for example Germany were left responsible for world war 1 and paying for all the damage it caused (leaving Germany bankrupt)so there are two examples of short and & long term causes on the second world war.
The First World War and the treaty of Versailles was argued to be the reason for which World War 2 broke out. The reason why they argued over this is because, World War 1 was lost for Germany and they wanted another chance to fight for it back. And the Treaty of Versailles was very unfair treaty in which they had to own up that it was there fault for the war, in doing so they owned up to paying all the war debts. And they lost huge amounts of their army and land that was valuable to them, they couldn't take in troops into the Rhineland (Germanys side of the Frankogermanborder).I think this very important because if the Treaty had been made as harsh as it was there would be no Germans wanting revenge for Germany Hence starting Nazism.
The alliances and the political situation in Europe was Germany was unable to march any of their armies in to Austria their old allies in World War 1.But in 1938 they broke another rule out of the treaty by marching Nazi troops into Austria. At the time France and Britain and America are still all allies but only France and Britain have agreed to go to war if it breaks out. And although Russia was in the alliance aswell, last time in World War 1 but came out due to casualties, are not in the alliance because the ...
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The alliances and the political situation in Europe was Germany was unable to march any of their armies in to Austria their old allies in World War 1.But in 1938 they broke another rule out of the treaty by marching Nazi troops into Austria. At the time France and Britain and America are still all allies but only France and Britain have agreed to go to war if it breaks out. And although Russia was in the alliance aswell, last time in World War 1 but came out due to casualties, are not in the alliance because the country had turned communised. And Italy was fascist aswell at the time.
Hitler and the rise of the Nazi's starts when he Hitler was born in April 20th 1889 in a small Austrian town of Braunau near to the German border. Hitler went to school being unpopular and lazy, but dreamed of becoming an artist, but the only thing was he could only draw buildings not people. And this is why he was never accepted into an art academy. Without work and without any means to support himself, Hitler, short of money lived in a doss house with tramps. He spent his time painting post cards which he hoped to sell and clearing pathways of snow. It was at this stage in his life about 1908 that he developed a hatred of the Jews. In February 1914, in an attempt to escape his misery, Hitler tried to join the Austrian Army. He failed his medical. Years of poor food and sleeping rough had taken their toll on him, his medical report stated that he was too weak to actually carry weapons aswell. In 1914 world war one was declared and he crossed the border in hope to join the German army this time he got in. But he was very unpopular with soldiers, even though he won the highest award the iron cross for bravery. After the war had finished in 1918 it ended badly for Hitler he had been convinced the Germans where winning the war, and he was so convinced the reason why they lost the war was because of the Jews. In 1923 he tried to overthrow the German government and failed and was jailed for 9 months, and he gave a speech to the German people and impressed them so much they elected him chancellor in 1933 and he started the Nazi party. He soon became a dictator, a person with complete control, they outlawed all political party's and any one who spoke out was murdered. They also tried to teach the teens on Hitler's beliefs, they chanted Nazi slogans and told them they had the power to control Germany. In 1935 Hitler announces to the world he has been building an army since 1933, and the British just let this go and do nothing. In 1936 he sends his troops into the Rhineland, still Britain does nothing about this. And in 1938 Neville chamberlain agrees to let Germany have the Sudetenland. Hitler signs a piece of paper saying he is satisfied and does not want anything else. And still Hitler takes Czechoslakia, Britain and France make an agreement with Poland, saying if they are invaded they will help them out. Hitler takes Poland, Britain and France declare war.
Britain and France tried the policy of appeasement with Germany because the last thing they wanted was another world war. By letting them have more troops, and being able to have there troops in the Rhineland, and letting them march into Austria (past allies) wasn't enough. So Neville chamberlain , made the decision by saying to Germany you can have Sudetenland but you cant have anything else after that, so Hitler signs a piece of paper saying he is satisfied. But he still takes Czechoslovakia so the policy of appeasement didn't work and they plan for war.
Germany invaded Poland, but in a few weeks the polish army was defeated. They broke through their defences with 2000 tanks and 1000 aeroplanes and moved into Warsaw, The city surrendered after a heavy bombing and shelling. While Britain and France declared war for breaking Poland's defences on September 3rd 1939.
I conclude, I think the most important cause of the second world was mainly the treaty of Versailles. Because it caused a lot of problems in Germany, one being that made the country bankrupt because they accepted it was there fault for the war hence they have to pay for all the damage that was caused. They also had to give away land they owned. Including the land that was once owned by France to begin with in passed wars . It was this harsh treatment that they was very angry at, because Britain said get rid of the Kaiser and we will talk to you. So in getting rid of the Kaiser they wanted a fair treaty but they never got one . I think the least important cause of the second world war would be the political situation and the alliances in Europe, because Hitler wanted to make Germany supreme he thought the Germans where a super race so it didn't matter if a country was communised or Fascist they where better than everyone, the second world war would have gone on. Overall I think Hitler was an Important reason for the second world war, we still would have had one but it would have later on. But he did make a big difference in it because there wouldn't be Nazi's or death camps.
Alan Ashworth
