I believe this is the most important point as Hitler was the only one trying to cause the War. Everyone else was trying to stop it ever happening and whether or not these failed, if everyone had wanted peace then people could have talked things through and sorted things out. Hitler did not want this and because of his desire for War he mainly caused the war. He was so aggressive because he had a military strategy in mind. He wanted the rest of Europe to make mistakes and feel threatened as this was something that had been a cause of the First World War.
Another main reason but not, I believe as important as the aggression of Germany, was the failure of appeasement by Britain and France. It was the total wrong way to try and stop a War as you are giving in to a man who will stop at nothing to cause it.
Britain’s Prime Minister, Neville Chamberlain believed that appeasement was the best way to avoid another War. He decided to agree to many of Hitler’s demands to try and keep him from making too many other ones. He gave Hitler what he wanted but Hitler never stopped asking for more. When he demanded the Sudetenland Chamberlain and Hitler signed the Munich agreement stating that if Germany demanded no more territory they could have the Sudetenland.
Chamberlain came back a hero but he was giving Hitler more time to prepare for the War he so wanted and more land, which meant more power. The whole point of the Treaty of Versailles was to make Germany weak and unable to start another War. By giving Hitler what he wanted Chamberlain was undoing the work of the League of Nations and Germany was now even more powerful. Britain and France should have discovered that Treaties, promises and agreements meant nothing to Hitler and the only way to stop Hitler was with force.
The treaty of Versailles was meant to be a harsh peace. France had wanted Germany to be punished and kept down but now were letting Hitler build Germany back up. They were leading powers in the agreement but now were going back on their decisions. If they had not been “blinded” by the horror of the First World War would the conference have been different and the countries more united against War? If Germany hadn’t been so poor there is a good chance Hitler would have been unable to come to power and he was the driving force towards War.
When Hitler first came to power Germany was weak and Hitler wouldn’t have been able to start a War. The reason the First World War ended was because Germany were so poor. Instead of keeping it this way like they wanted in the Treaty of Versailles, Britain and France allowed Germany to get money which Hitler then used for his war efforts.
If when the first sign of rebellion against the treaty of Versailles came about with the matter of the Rhineland, Britain and France could have easily won any battle that needed to be fought. An American journalist in German even said that the German army had orders that if France or Britain prepared to fight them then they were to retreat.
Every time Britain and France allowed Hitler to keep on doing what he was or were trying to sign agreements, they were giving Hitler more time to think of a strategy and build up his armed forces. Every time Britain and France sympathised with Germany Hitler grew in confidence. There was no one powerful prepared to stand in his way.
Even after many failed attempts at appeasement Britain and France still thought this was the best way to go about getting peace. However they were soon just letting Hitler walk all over them and it should have been at this stage at the latest it should have been dropped. It wasn’t until Germany invaded Poland that they declared War and by this time Germany was a much stronger and more powerful country. Waiting meant the War was a much bigger one which a lot higher risk.
It is clear to see appeasement was the completely wrong way to get peace. If the leaders of other powerful countries had stopped Hitler sooner the war could have been avoided, or at least have been on a much lesser scale. Germany would have been very weak and no match for the rest of Europe’s armies but instead Hitler was allowed to quickly get closer to his goal of war and finally succeed.
The League of Nations was set up to stop another War breaking out and it is plain to see, therefore that it failed to do so but I believe that it isn’t as main a reason as the aggression of Germany or the failure of appeasement as it was these things that resulted in the league of Nation’s failure. It also did not completely fail like the appeasement of Britain and France as it helped solve minor disputes and organised the resettlement of refugees successfully after the First World War.
The league was also weakened at the start as powerful countries like the USA, the Soviet Union as well as Germany were not members. France and Britain were the leading members and they followed foreign policies based on their own interests rather than the leagues. This meant they had a loud voice to support the appeasement plan which of course failed and helped collapse the league.
At the Treaty of Versailles it was agreed the League of Nations would not have an army and this decision actually led to the downfall of the league though it was the key members of the league (Britain, France and the USA) that mainly decided on this. Without an army it could not enforce its decisions and so larger countries could ignore anything they disagreed about. It was too weak to stand up to Hitler or do anything about Mussolini when he invaded Abyssina. As they could not stop Mussolini, Hitler could easily see the strength or lack of strength of the League and copy Mussolini’s aggressive behaviour in Africa in Europe. It also posed no real threat to Hitler as one; Germany was in it and to the rest of Europe could not unite against him as one organised army. Hitler could see the league was designed to stop Wars but in a decision making, peaceful way and would be no real match to Hitler’s plan to create war. There was no actual powerful body that could intervene and prevent war and Hitler saw this. Without Hitler trying to make war and with him cooperating, the League of Nations could have stopped the war.
As Germany was in the League of Nations Hitler was also informed of any decisions that the league made and therefore could develop his plan in a way to weaken the League of Nations and the powerful members involved.
The weakness of the League of Nations gave Hitler many opportunities to gain more power and get closer to his goal of War but the league’s failure was affected by other things. Germany were against peace and therefore the league from the very beginning so would not help the league at all and Germany was also very aggressive which was something that Hitler knew would bring about the failure of the league. As well as this two of the main countries in the league had encouraged the appeasement plan which had been a major failure. The League went about things the wrong way as they did not think that anyone would want a repeat of World War 1. They thought that treaties and agreements would be able to sort things but paper over force could not stop someone who is very powerful. Instead of gaining an extra force to stop Wars after the First World War, people turned completely away from protection thinking that no one would want to stop peace in Europe. It is not as much to blame as the aggression of Germany or the failure of Britain’s and France’s appeasement plan as it was a victim to these two things.
The last point that someone people believe, is that the war was inevitable and there was no way anyone’s actions could have stopped it. I do not believe this to be true but others argue that firstly the whole of Europe was full of mistrust and expected to be stabbed in the back at any minute. Countries, except for Germany who was forced, were not at all keen to disarm so many countries were equipped to go to War even in the peace times. Other countries would feel threatened by this as the country, definitely if it was a powerful one, could invade at any time.
Germany was very sore after losing the First World War and being so cruelly punished for something they believed wasn’t their fault. The Treaty of Versailles was very harsh on Germany and even those who wanted the punishment of Germany at the time, like France felt it was harsh. This meant that France and Britain were more prepared to be lenient to Germany when Hitler issued his demands.
Germany was also made even poorer by the treaty as she had to pay the other winning countries reparations after having to admit to starting the War. Seeing that the reason that the First World War ended because Germany was going bankrupted this seems very harsh. The people of Germany were of course heavily affected by the lack of money in their country and this is probably why they listened to Hitler as readily as they did. Hitler was promising them what the wanted and more importantly needed so it was easier for Hitler to become a dictator.
Germany had also lost a lot of land in the treaty and it was unlikely that any German leader would not want to reclaim at least some of it. Hitler wanted to not only reclaim all the land lost he wanted to gain more and he could not do so without causing war.
However I do not believe that it was inevitable. In fact there were a lot of ways in which it could have been stopped. If the leader countries involved in the treaty of Versailles had thought about what their harsh punishments may cause for Germany the war may have been stopped. If the League of Nations had had at least a small army, Hitler may have faced a bigger threat. If France and Britain had thought through properly the plan of appeasement against a man that wanted war Hitler could have faced a bigger threat. If Britain and France had abandoned appeasement earlier Germany may not have gotten so powerful to be able to start a war and finally if Hitler hadn’t wanted war so much would it have happened?
Overall I think that the most important reason why the Second World War broke out was that Germany under Hitler was very aggressive. If Hitler had wanted peace then it would have been much easier to get it. Germany’s behaviour also threatened the peace efforts of the rest of Europe as well as the countries themselves. It caused mistrust and tension and people panicked.
Then I would say the failure of appeasement from Britain and France was next to blame. This plan allowed Hitler to get more money, military, time and land for his war campaign. As two of the powerful members of the League of Nations they had an important say on what to do about Hitler. When others wanted to stand up and fight, Britain and France would have two powerful votes against. They also went off on their own to try and solve the problem by appeasement like the Munich agreement and were not quick enough to stop appeasement when it was clearly failing. However I believe that Germany being so aggressive was more to blame as without this aggression the British and French would not have had to think of ways to keep the peace.
The third important reason why the Second World War broke out is the failure of the League of Nations however it was affected by the aggression of Germany and the failure of appeasement. It was not well equipped to deal with a military threat and not completely united or used in the right way. E.g. the leading members were more concerned with their country’s need rather than Europe’s. It would have been more successful it Germany hadn’t had such a military strategy or some of the members been so unsuccessful in their own plans.
I believe the least important point is that the War was inevitable. Without the aggression of Germany, the failures of appeasement and the League of Nations there is a large chance the War would have been avoided. Although the Treaty of Versailles was very harsh and people regretted it, if countries had stuck to it the situation could have been different. It is unlikely that after the First World War that there were not going to be people fighting against it with all their might. If they had all wanted what Hitler wanted it may have been a different story. It was the failed attempts to stop the aggression of Germany that caused the War, things that could have been stopped if events had been different.