Another factor in causing World War II was the Wall Street Crash of 1929 resulting in a 2-year economic depression all over the world. Not only did these cause countries such as Britain and France to take a less active foreign policy, but also it destroyed the newly found prosperity in Germany and made many people jobless. This led to Hitler quickly taking power as he promised a new strong Germany.
Germany was not the only country that was badly affected by the Depression, Japan and Italy also suffered due to the decrease in World trade and unemployment and eventually took action into their own hands. This showed the weakness in the League of Nations, a body set up to settle international disputes, and eventually had a role in the start of World War II. When Japan invaded the Chinese province of Manchuria and when Italy invaded Abyssinia and later when Franco led a rebellion in Spain, the League failed to take any decisive action leading to the termination of both Japan’s and Italy’s membership.
But what is essential in remembering is that the League could not take action without the support of its members, such as Britain and France. Both countries felt they had too many problems at home to deal with countries on the other side of the world so resorted to policies of appeasement such as the Hoare-Laval pact, which gave Italy most of Abyssinia. The League had no army of its own so could not take any military action, but Britain at this time feared a public uprising if they went to war and feared for the safety of its own colonies whilst France poured all its resources in to build the Maginot Line and defending itself from future German aggression. The USA’s absence from the League only furthered the image that it was weak because it did no have the World’s greatest power backing it. This isolationist policy and the lack of British and French involvement in Europe only furthered the idea that Hitler could get away with what ever he wanted.
With all this in mind Hitler began his new foreign policy by marching troops back into the demilitarised Rhineland, in defiance of the League of Nations and the Treaty of Versailles. Both Britain and France allowed Germany to do so and the League was powerless to do anything. And possibly one of the greatest factors in causing the outbreak of War in 1939 began, Britain’s Policy of Appeasement.
After seeing how he had got away with remilitarising the Rhineland, Hitler focused his attentions on Austria, and rebuilding Germany’s link with it. Anschluss, the joining of Austria and Germany, was forbidden by Versailles, but Hitler wanted to unite all German speakers. The view of many in Britain was that it was only fair that Germany took back Austria and that the Treaty of Versailles was too harsh. Hitler later gained support from Italy, as both he and Mussolini supported the Fascist General Franco, who had started a civil war in Spain, and thus the Rome-Berlin Axis was signed in 1936 and in 1938 Hitler annexed Austria.
Feeling even more confident, Hitler targeted the Sudetenland in Czechoslovakia later in 1938. Hoping to resolve the crisis, Chamberlain the British Prime minister made an attempt to appease Hitler and gave him the Sudetenland at the Munich Conference. But by 1939 Hitler had taken over most of Czechoslovakia, and neither France nor Britain stopped him. The policy of appeasement was probably one of the major factors in the outbreak of war, as it gave Hitler what he wanted and made him become more confident, until he invaded Poland in 1939, starting World War II.
One final reason though that contributed to the War, was the growing fear of communism in the West. If Britain and France had accepted Stalin as a friend, Stalin would not have made the Nazi-Soviet Pact in 1939, promising not to attack Germany. There were several reasons why he made this decision. Firstly he was a communist and felt that both France and Britain disliked him. Another reason was because he was not invited to the Munich Conference. This created a great deal of mistrust and anger between the USSR and the Allied powers. The final reason was because the USSR had no alternative, they were not ready for war and only joined Hitler to get time to rearm, knowing full well that Germany would turn on them eventually.
So it is my conclusion that World War broke out in 1939, not just because of the actions of Hitler, but because of a whole host of other reasons; resentment of the Treaty of Versailles, the weakness of the League of Nations, fear of Communism, isolationist policies of the West, the Depression, and of course one of the major factors, the policy of appeasement. My personal view is that if Britain, France and the USA had taken a more active role in World disputes, the atrocities of World War II could all have been avoided.
