Thirdly, the Treaty of Versailles was one of the main if not the most important long term cause of the war. After surrendering in World War I, Germany was at the mercy of the leaders of the four big leaders of the time; Lloyd George of Britain, Orlando of Italy, Georges Clemenceau of France and Woodrow Wilson of America. After a meeting which excluded Germany, even though Germany was the subject, these four leaders of the time decided to go along with Frances requests to severely damage Germany’s reputation, power, colonies, financial debuts and military forces. In the end the main terms stated by the treaty were:
- The war guilt clause – Germany had to accept full responsibility for starting World War I. This greatly humiliated Germany as it probably wasn’t the sole cause of the First World War.
- Reparations – Germany was fined with a massive debt that totalled £6,600 million pounds. This was well beyond Germany’s financial abilities and this huge debt eventually drove Germany over the edge and into a state of hyper-inflation rendering it financially unstable and giving German currency basically no value. This destroyed the morale of every citizen of Germany. The Wall Street crash in the 1930’s had its effects ripple across every county in the globe. One of the worst affected was Germany as it was already in a state of hyper-inflation. This meant that what would seemingly have been intolerable living conditions in Germany had just become double the times worse rendering hundreds of thousands un-employed and millions more left in poverty, abandoned by a hopeless government. This left every German citizen in a vengeful state, fuelling their anger and desperation for any way out of the current situation that they were in.
- Disarmament – Germany was only allowed to have six small naval ships. No tanks, air-force, or submarines (U-boats) were allowed. Their army was also reduced to a mere amount of 100,000 men. Not only did Disarmament destroy what Germany had been working so hard for, it left Germany completely undefended and humiliated. Germany was now truly ruined. In one letter a rebellious German official quoted this in a letter to a friend; “The Germany we used to know was strong and did not take orders from others. We never bowed down to others; we used to be proud, leading people my friend. Those pastimes are fading legends now Augustus but the twenty years we endured felt like one hundred years of never ending pain. Now we are vulnerable, weak and we are the worlds’ laughing stock. As much as this government is corrupt so are the others. For God have mercy on us because the world does not.” This shows the sheer soul-diminishing way of life people were enduring while living in Germany. The way the German official describes Germany as ‘weak and vulnerable’ proves how helpless people felt in Germany at the time.
- Territorial Clauses – Germany was forced to hand over the land of Alsace Lorraine back over to France and had to give up countless other plots of land all over the world especially in Africa. This would have left Germany in a bitter but determined state to regain the lands that German people thought was rightfully theirs.
Overall it seems clear that whatever happens, the one of the main but not the most important cause of the Second World War was the Treaty of Versailles, which stemmed from the First World War. This is because the severe and punishing clauses which were forced onto Germany were the only reason why Germany ended up in such a mess. If it were not for the harshness of the treaty of Versailles, financial instability and poverty wouldn’t have flourished throughout Germany at such high levels. Without the treaty of Versailles, people like Hitler would maybe have felt no need for revenge and hatred to other countries meaning there may have been no need or reason for a war to take place in the first place.
Hitler’s actions and rise to power is a fourth reason why the Second World War had broken out. After having a fairly stable, although sometimes troubling childhood, Adolf Hitler went on to become a soldier fighting for Germany in World War One. He had to watch all his friends die in the War and upon finding out that Germany had surrendered and had lost war, became emotionally devastated. He blamed this on the current monarchy and on the Jewish people for ruining and corrupting the German government, both morally and financially. Some argued that he needed scapegoats, excuses for Germany’s loss, anything to avoid the thought that Germany may have been responsible for losing the war or too weak to win the war. This clearly shows that extreme patriotic and nationalistic views he had towards Germany. He was later employed by the current German government to spy on a new political group that was founded to see if they posed any threat to overthrowing the German government. At that time Hitler felt great disdain towards the current government as he thought they were bowing down to the ‘Big Four’ and were doing anything to stay in power regardless if Germany lost all power and dignity. So Adolf Hitler went to spy on this new party. They were merely a group of 8 people but Hitler was fascinated by the ideas and policies they put forward that he ended up joining then and eventually became their leader. The leader of the newly powerful Nazi party. He portrayed such challenging and strong ideas throughout the media and through propaganda that the German government would not tolerate it, had him arrested and put him in prison for around 2-3years. In his time in prison he subsequently wrote the famous book; “Mein Kampf”. The book was very interesting as it portrays Hitler’s mind set, his extreme beliefs and how sensitive and unsure he was of himself deep down within. He explained his nationalistic pride and how he though only the ‘Aryan’ race was superior to all of humanity. Meanwhile, the remaining Nazi supporters campaigned for Hitler’s release. He was released after about 3 years and instead of being looked upon badly for being imprisoned, German people thought he was a hero as a result of propaganda. Hitler was subsequently voted into government as Chancellor in 1933 and then later took over to be the official leader of Germany due to popular vote. He gained popularity with German people because he was what they considered as ‘a way out’. Many people saw Hitler as the saviour of their time, the hero that would lead Germany to unstoppable victory. This later was proven not be the case. Although Hitler’s actions were what put World War II into motion, he is not the actual cause of World War II. In fact, it could be argued that Hitler was just a person carrying out a certain movement that he believed in, one that he learnt from others. If Hitler had never been there, then another member of the Nazi party or one of its many supporters could just have taken the same roles as Hitler carry out the same movements with the same beliefs, but just have a different identity. However this may not be completely true as some Historians say that the Nazi party may never have been recognized in the first place if it wasn’t for Hitler and his unique skills in speaking and manipulating the media. Despite this the fact remains that it was his nationalistic and racial beliefs that he learnt from others that caused him to act the way he did.
A fifth reason why World War II broke out is the Re-armament and Re-militarisation of Germany under the rule of Hitler. During the time of Hitler’s power, one of his primary aims was to re-arm Germany and make it as powerful as possible for him to achieve his aims. However there were two main problems standing in Hitler’s way. The first was Treaty of Versailles and the second was The League of Nations. The League of Nations consisted of Britain, France and various other European countries. It was set up in order to force peaceful negotiations between countries around the world and as a result abolish war. However The League of Nations lacked two necessary things which it needed to be successful. It needed America to back it up in stature and legitimacy, and it also needed an army so its decisions could be taken seriously by other countries. Because the League of Nations lacked these two features Hitler played on its weaknesses and thought of it as a type of joke. In a way he was right. When he started building German submarines and tanks, all the League of Nations did was ‘stare disapprovingly’. It had no physical force with which to act with and Hitler used this to his advantage. However the real test for Hitler was to see if he could push the boundaries of the Treaty of Versailles and if any of the opposing European countries would react. Hitler wanted to see if the Treaty of Versailles was actually a serious enforcement, no matter how harsh the punishments the Treaty itself could actually be hollow. After some time of re-taking lost land and colonies, strengthening his army and updating his army technologies, Hitler saw how reluctant the other European countries were to act, if they even decided to act at all. So as a result Hitler had made himself a very formidable foe and nobody had stopped him. This is a fairly important factor as to why the Second World War broke out but it is not as relevant as others. The fact that Germany was allowed to re-arm is the soul act that allows Germany to even consider having another war. This is why some people say that the fact that Germany was allowed to re-arm was the sole reason for the war breaking out as it gave Germany everything it needed to become powerful again. Although this can be agreed with, it doesn’t mean that re-armament was the most important cause of the war because it was caused by the moral values of Hitler and his beliefs and desires that caused him to want to start a war in the first place.
A seventh reason why the World War II broke out is appeasement- During 1933 and 1939, before war was declared, Hitler made sure he could regain as much land as he possibly could. He forcefully re-militarised and took over the Rhineland and the Sudetenland, knowing that he would not be stopped. He yet again betrayed the Treaty of Versailles by making an Achluss with Austria (allying with Austria) and Italy. After this he was aware that the British Prime Minister, Chamberlain was watching his actions. So Hitler daringly set off to Czechoslovakia to invade it, using the excuse; “Czechoslovakia was annoying its neighbour Serbia”. He also wanted to unite all German speaking people and make sure that the ‘superior’ German race expanded constantly. He believed that he needed to invade Czechoslovakia and the rest of Eastern Europe, especially Russia. This was philosophy was called; ‘Lebensraum’ (living space). The concept of lebensraum was coined by the German geographer Friedrich Ratzel. He stated that in order to be successful all species on earth, including humans had to migrate and expand in numbers and area of land owned. In fact one of Hitler’s main priorities was to gain more land and unite all German speaking people for lebensraum. As a result he set about retaking and re-militarising the Rhineland and the Sudetenland. His did this with almost no opposition at all and by taking over the Sudetenland, he had a very good strategic area in which to take over Czechoslovakia. The Munich agreement that was made in 1938 made sure of this. It was certain by this time that Hitler was going to take over Czechoslovakia, and nobody was willing to do anything about it. When Hitler clearly was going to use force to take over Czechoslovakia, France and Britain pressurized Czechoslovakia to appease to Hitler and hand over its land. The Czechoslovakian president knew that he didn’t really have much choice except to hand over the country. So in 1938 Czechoslovakia handed over its land to Germany in appeasement, bowing down to Germany’s requests hoping that Germany would do it no harm. Hitler saw such golden opportunities unfold. Chamberlain of Britain had continuously agreed with giving Hitler land in the policy of appeasement when the Sudetenland and the Rhineland were taken over by Hitler. Clearly when Czechoslovakia was finally taken over by Hitler Chamberlain was no longer seen as a good leader of Britain anymore. He had allowed Hitler to barge his way through and take over an entire country. Now Britain looked for a new leader, Winston Churchill. Churchill ridiculed Chamberlains policies and then put forward the ultimate question that worried the whole of Europe ‘Where would Hitler go next?’ This shows just how easily Hitler gained power he rapidly took over lands through the policy of appeasement, meaning that appeasement was a relatively important short term or trigger cause of the war as it provided him with land for lebensraum and proved to him that lebensraum was achievable at a fairly easier pace than he thought. Appeasement would strengthen his beliefs, widen the reach of the German empire in both area of land taken over and resources taken from them. Ultimately it would give rapidly growing determination to Hitler, edging him on to take even more land through appeasement or force, especially the two countries he had his eyes on most; Russia and Poland.
Finally, in conclusion and in my opinion the most important cause of all is nationalism. Hitler was the leader of Germany who put the whole of World War II into motion. He forcibly took over lands and countries throughout the process of appeasement and lebensraum which were a result of wanting Germany to be a great country again, to regain its pride and power after losing them through the Treaty of Versailles and continue, as he thought, the disrupted World War I. However before the Treaty of Versailles was signed, Hitler and many Germans had extreme nationalistic pride and believed that their country was superior to all others in the world. Even if the Treaty of Versailles never existed I believe that World War II would have taken place anyway because of Hitler’s and many people before him, beliefs. All the Treaty of Versailles would have consequently done is just fuel their anger and desire for revenge on the world and give greater urge for German dominance. Even if Hitler had never existed, many people who shared his ideas and had even stronger beliefs of German dominance would have taken his place anyway. It could almost be compared to the consuming thoughts of nationalistic pride and superiority using German people as vessels spreading to more and more people. Overall it seems clear that the concepts and beliefs brought on by nationalism led to the concepts of lebensraum and Nazism which were the foundational beliefs of Hitler and many other Germans of the time meaning that nationalism and extreme patriotism were at the core of the causes of World War II and led to a long chain of events that together ultimately put World War II into motion.