In 1933 Hitler began to secretly rearm Germany and in 1935 went public and announced conscription, an army 600,000 strong and the establishment of an air force. Britain, France and Italy did nothing to stop Hitler’s rearmament and Britain even signed a contract with Germany allowing them to build it’s navy to 35% the size of Britain’s.
In October 1935 Mussolini ordered the invasion of Abyssinia and by May had conquered it. Also in 1935 the League condemned Italy as an aggressor and imposed sanctions these ended with the invasion of Abyssinian. Britain and France did very little to stop Italy and Japan’s desires to build empires and the League’s failure to retrieve Manchurian from Japan and stop Italy’s invasion of Abyssinia gave Hitler the impression that force could succeed because the League could do little to stop it.
In 1936 Hitler ordered his army to invade the unarmed Rhineland, which was a term in the Treaty of Versailles to protect France. However as the people of the Saarland voted to rejoin Germany and because Britain and France were not prepared to resist German occupation of German territory it was allowed. Also the French army was not well placed to react quickly and it is thought that a French invasion might have been treated as a declaration of war and encourage Hitler to react, which would have led to a Franco-German war.
In Europe the League of Nations could do nothing as Hitler tore up the Treaty of Versailles. In Asia the League was a bystander as the Japanese invaded northern China and by 1937 Japan, Italy and Germany had all left the League of Nations. The idea of collective security disappeared.
In 1936 Germany had formed the Rome-Berlin Axis with Italy in which they agreed that while Italy expanded to the south they would not object to Germany taking over Austria. Hitler failed to unite the country by pressuring the Austrian Chancellor so in 1938 he invaded Austria and announced the Anschluss between Germany and Austria. This was again against the terms of The Treaty of Versailles but again the League of Nations failed to act because most Austrians openly welcomed Hitler.
After the Anschluss with Austria, the German speakers in the Sudetenland, the part of Czechoslovakia bordering Germany, insisted on a union with Germany. Hitler was delighted and aided them in their fight against the Czechoslovakian government. In his determination to stop another war, British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain visited Germany three times in 1938 to negotiate with Hitler. After agreeing that Germany should be united with the Sudetenland. Hitler’s aggressive nature encouraged him to make new demands. Neither Britain or France were ready to go to war and people were eager to avoid another war so they were lenient, but many believed that the rest of Czechoslovakia would be invaded within months.
1939 Hitler invaded the rest of Czechoslovakia. This changed people’s opinions about Hitler and he was seen as a cruel imperialist because hardly any Czechoslovakians wanted a country ruled by Germany and they hated Hitler for it. Although the League of Nations did nothing to stop this except object. Britain and France would not tolerate any further expansion and sign an agreement with Poland promising support if they were invaded.
In August of 1939 Hitler and Stalin agreed not to attack each and secretly between them divided up Poland and the Baltic states. This agreement meant that Hitler needn’t fight a war on two fronts and could invade Poland and then attack Western Europe.
On September 1st 1939 Hitler invaded Poland. Britain and France declared war.
These facts show that the aggressive nationalism of Germany, Italy and Japan, the weakness of the League of Nations and the policy of appeasement are all equally responsible for the outbreak of war because without Germany’s aggressive nationalism Hitler would not have succeeded in running the country and therefore could not have rearmed or invaded the Rhineland, Austria, Czechoslovakia and Poland and without the aggressive nationalism of Italy and Japan, Hitler might not have had the courage or ideas to pursue his foreign policy.
The weakness of the League of Nations to act to what Italy, Japan and Germany where doing just made it easier for them to caring on and expand there empires, and the policy of appeasement could have stopped Hitler long before he gained so much power but failed to therefore making war almost inevitable.