A lot of people think that even without Hitler, there would have been a second world war anyway. Germany as a whole, was angry at the Allies due to the unfairness at the Treaty Of Versailles, and hated France in particular that goes back even further, at least as far as Germany's war against Napoleon.
As for Hitler himself, his biggest contribution was probably the idea of "lebensraum", or "living room". He didn't invent it, but he promoted it, and, after he attained power, was the one to put it into practice. Hitler was following this same plan when he invaded Poland, kicking off the Second World War in the West.
However, other historians argue the policy of appeasement was a major cause of war and think that it was a deliberate surrender to Hitler. For example, A.J.T. Taylor expressed in his “The Origins of Second World War” (1961) that the war broke out not because of Hitler’s plan, but because of Chamberlain’s blunders*. As I mentioned earlier, many other historians disagree with his views, since they used to think that Hitler’s plan had a contributing role in the origin of the War.
World leaders tried to appease Hitler. But in the end he lied to everyone, including his own people. But his people were in a feeding frenzy because of all the propaganda, so they let themselves be led into oblivion.
Historians say that Chamberlain appeased Hitler in order to avoid war; others say that he was propelling Europe into war by basically allowing Hitler to do as he pleased. As Hitler prepared for invasion of Poland, Chamberlain had no choice but to issue an ultimatum to Hitler over Poland- invade Poland and risk war with Britain or step back from Poland and reintroduce peace? Hitler did not think that Britain would go through with its 'ultimatum' so invaded Poland September 1939. Had Britain and France resisted German aggression World War II might not have broken out.
Another important factor leading to WW2 was the failure of the League of Nations. This organisation had been set up to try and prevent future wars by creating a international group that would be responsible for keeping peace in the world and solving arguments between countries. The league of Nation began on November 15, 1920 in Geneva. There were 42 countries at the meeting and ended April 8, 1946. It lasted for 26 years and 63 nations were members.
President Wilson quoted ‘It is not enough just to win the war. We must win it in such a way as to keep the future peace of war.’
The League of Nations had several goals: It would be to stop wars happening; help to improve people’s lives and try to persuade countries to give up their weapons.
It failed because there was a lack of unity between Britain and France. They often disagreed and they did not trust each other. With this and the fact decisions had to be unanimous made it almost impossible for the League to make a decision.
The League was also weakened by the Great Depression that hit the world in the years following the Wall Street Crash. At a time of economic crises it meant that the League had trouble imposing sanctions especially at that time. This meant that countries like Japan and Italy were able to attack other countries without effective punishment.
All these reasons did not fear the likes of Hitler and Mussolini; in fact they gained in confidence. Therefore the failure of the League was really a vicious circle as the basic problems led to other problems and encouraged the rise of powerful nationalist dictators and militaristic governments prepared to ignore the League and to use force.
The weakness of the League of Nations was a major cause of the Second World War because if it had worked, then there would have been peace within Europe, and there would not have been a Second World War. However, because it failed to keep its promise to protect member states, countries broke the rules to get what they wanted.
H.A.L Fisher said ‘If the nations want peace, the League gives them the way by which peace can be kept. League or no League, a country which is determined to have a war can always have it.
The failure of the League of Nations is connected to the American policy of isolationism because Woodrow Wilson thought of the idea of having meetings with all the nations which was called the ‘League of Nations‘ but sadly the Americans turned their backs on Wilson and on Europe. Many Americans believed that the sacrifices they had made in the Great War had been a waste of money and men. They were against to anything that might drag America into another European war. So the USA did not approve the Treaty of Versailles, nor did they join the League of Nations or the International Court of Justice. Many Americans simply wanted to enjoy the success that had developed in the previous decade and felt that foreign involvement would threaten it.
In October, 1935, Italy invaded Abyssinia using the modern weapon of tanks, planes and poisonous gas. Abyssinia appealed to the league as it was clear that it was an attack by the strong against weak. The league set up trading sanctions against Italy. Countries were banned from selling military arm and other goods to Italy. Oil wasn’t banned as the USA was the provider. The Suez Canal, which was controlled by Britain and was the route of majority of Italy’s trade, was kept open as Britain and France were too afraid with a full war with Italy.
However, this just led to Hitler thinking that when Britain and France were too afraid of war and did nothing to defend Abyssinia and gave large areas of Abyssinia to Italy In order to persuade them to withdraw, Hitler was probably thinking if he could get away with such a move like that.
A range of other factors also started World War 2 were Germany invasion in Poland, Treaty of Versailles, the Nazi-soviet pact, Great Depression, World War 1, lack of enforcement and humiliation and economic draft.
Germany’s invasion in Poland was the last straw they pulled which after World War 2 started. Treaty of Versailles was a peace settlement signed after World War 1. Nazi-soviet pact was the agreement of the Government of the German Reich and The Government of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, directed by the wish to strengthen the cause of peace between Germany and the USSR.
Overall, I think the most important factor behind the outbreak of World War 2 was World War 1 because at the end of the First World War, many of the arguments that caused it still needed to be settled. When surrendered, the German people still felt a huge amount of hatred for other countries interfering in the foundation of Germany itself. The level of bad feeling coming from Germany and other countries was so great that they weren't even invited to participate in the peace treaties that were put in place at the end of the war. The Treaty of that dealt specifically with the future of Germany left no room for discussion on the part of the German people. The result was that Germany was left was full of hatred for those who had wanted to humiliate them as a race - hatred that Hitler would achieve in the 1930s in his rise to power.
Hitler stood under the success of revenge against the other countries for Germany's defeat. His desire for power was to make lawful by claims that he wanted to get rid of the government that surrendered in the First World War, and replace it with his own organisation (the National Socialist German Workers' Party, which became known as the Nazi party) so that he could have full control of the European powers that had defeated Germany after 1918. It's fair to conclusion therefore that the First World War was the main cause of the Second World War because it was the first in the chain of events that ultimately led to the declaration of war in 1939.
