'No one factor can adequately explain the cause of world war two' Discuss

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‘No one factor can adequately explain the cause of world war two’ Discuss:

This statement is totally correct in that no one factor alone can sufficiently explain how the conditions needed for world war two were created. There are a great range of factors which we need to identify and show how they all link together or overlap. All these causes reinforce each other and can be split into short, medium or long term causes. These key causes are; the failure of the league, consequences of the treaty of Versailles, Hitler’s foreign policy, the great depression, appeasement, Nazi Soviet pact and the invasion of Poland.

The failure of the league in the 1930’s led to a number of consequences and could be described as a long term cause. The leagues main aim was peace through collective security but it became apparent that it could not uphold this during the Abyssinian/Manchurian crisis. The leagues weakness was exposed in that it could not stand up to aggressors leaving dire consequences for the victims of this aggression. These weaker nations were left defenceless and became preoccupied by other powers. These nations realised they could no longer look to the league for security. Aggressors, on the other hand, kept their stolen territory and faced no penalty and this encouraged them to take further aggressive actions. These leaders felt that they could escape punishment and get what they wanted. Nationalists like Hitler were encouraged to accelerate aggression. The greed of these leaders could have led to a war. The weaknesses of Britain and France were exposed as they were too consumed in their own affairs. Britain concentrated on building their British Empire and the French on guaranteeing protection from German attack. With Britain and France preoccupied with their own problems they were reluctant to help any other nations that didn’t concern them. The league was effectively destroyed as a peace keeping organisation and its credibility was destroyed. People knew peace had been destroyed and they could act without receiving punishment now the league was ignored. This could escalate towards a war if peace was no longer upheld.

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Another long term cause was the consequences of the treaty of Versailles. The harsh terms towards Germany that were laid out in the treaty created a bitterness and resentment amongst the German nation. A desire for revenge was generated and Germany wanted to upturn the terms set out by the treaty. Germany rejected the treaty and were dissatisfied so when a leader who opted to help them destroy the treaty asked for their vote he got it. Hitler’s rise to power revolved around destroying the treaty of Versailles. Hitler’s aggressive demands of ‘lebensraum’ (living space) signalled that Germany could ...

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