Germany suffered greatly from the effects of the depression. Because of the reparations and the back payments of the Dawes plan they ended up with no money. There was starvation and to try and solve this. The government printed more money. This was a bad idea because the money became worthless, hyperinflation. Because there was no money in Germany, the public were desperate and the only way out that they could see was Hitler. He promised to tear up the Treaty of Versailles which meant that Germany wouldn’t have to pay any more reparations. He offered hope to them, in the form of food, jobs and freedom. This appealed to them because they were the basics that they did not have.
Hitler's foreign policies are another cause for the Second World War. He wanted lebensraum and to go against the Treaty of Versailles. He wanted more lebensraum because he was going towards the idea of making a greater Germany. He did this by rearming and introducing conscription. He reoccupied the Rhineland and he remilitarised it. Also he made an Anschluss with Austria and so there was, in effect, a wall through Europe. He then worked on taking over the Sudentenland so that he could easily take over Czechoslovakia. When Hitler signed the Nazi-soviet pact he did it so that he could take back the Polish Corridor and could then invade Poland. This was working towards the idea of a greater Germany. He used aggression to achieve his aims because he noticed that when other countries used aggression, nothing was said. His taking over of countries, using aggression is called aggressive expansion.
America is another cause of the Second World War. They didn’t sign the Treaty of Versailles, and they never joined the League of Nations. So the most powerful country, at the time, had no influence in European affairs. Also America wanted to be Isolationist and wanted nothing to do with Europe.
The League of Nations is another cause of the Second World War. America was not a member so Britain and France were depended on. The league didn’t have an army so army had to be ‘borrowed’ from all of the other countries so that the league could act upon things. There were only four permanent members of the league and each member had the power of veto which meant that if one person didn’t agree then the decision couldn’t go ahead. The decisions were slow because of this and also because of the fact that they only met a few times every year. They didn’t act upon aggressive countries when they attacked such as the Italian invasion of Abyssinia and the Japanese invasion of Manchuria. This showed Hitler that aggression was not acted on so he thought that he could try to take over countries and wouldn’t be stopped.
Russia was also a cause of the Second World War. They signed the Nazi soviet pact with Germany and this gave Germany the chance to attack Poland without being stopped by Russia. Germany decided to side with Russia because Hitler knew that the mistake from the last war was that they were fighting on both sides and Hitler didn’t want this to happen again.
Appeasement played a part in the start of the Second World War, for example the Munich agreement which stated that Hitler could have the Sudentenland and no one would try to stop him. This was seen by Russia to be a weakness in the British, and so Russia decided to side with Germany so that they were with the stronger country. Also the Munich agreement gave Hitler more confidence to take over other countries because he tried to take over a country and he, instead of being punished was given the thing he wanted. He thought that this was good because he was being rewarded for being aggressive. He now thought that aggression would be rewarded in the future.
In conclusion each of these causes intertwines to create a bigger cause. For example if it weren’t for the treaty being so harsh, Germany might not have been in so much trouble and so might not have needed to vote Hitler in to try to help them. And if Hitler hadn’t been voted in then maybe his foreign policies of lebensraum would not have been acted upon and he would not have tried to take over the countries. Also if America had signed the treaty of Versailles then it wouldn’t have been so harsh and Germany wouldn’t have wanted revenge. If America had been a member of the League of Nations then maybe it would have been stronger and gotten things done quicker. Overall none of these causes is solely to blame. Because without one the others would not have been as successive.