Nationalism was also one of the underlying factors causing World War II. I know that Hitler was nationalistic because in his book Mein Kampf he conveyed his belief that “Aryans” (people of pure German ethnic origin) were racially superior to all other people. Hitler’s nationalism compelled him to desire greatness for his country, but the harsh terms of the Treaty of Versailles had humiliated Germany in its defeat in the First World War, greatly reducing its size and power. For example, it was forced to surrender the region of Alsace-Lorraine to France, West Prussia and Posen to Poland and the Sudetenland to Czechoslovakia. It also had to reduce its army to 100,000 men. As these territories were mainly inhabited by Germans, Hitler sought to make Germany great again by regaining them in order to unite all true Germans in “Volksgemeinschaft” (people’s community), forming a new national identity based on social solidarity. Another reason Hitler wanted to expand Germany’s territory into Eastern Europe was to provide “Lebensraum” (living space) for the growing German population. This is an excellent example of self-interest on his part. Hitler’s aggressive nationalism (for he was prepared to use force to regain these territories) was facilitated by Neville Chamberlain’s policy of appeasement, which involved giving territorial concessions to Hitler such as the Sudetenland in the hope that he would eventually stop making demands. However, I know that Chamberlain was fully aware of Hitler’s unrelenting ambition and his real aim was to buy time so that Britain could rearm in preparation for war with Hitler.
Imperialism was another major theme in the lead up to World War II. In 1930, Britain and France both controlled large empires and were preoccupied with protecting and maintaining them, so other countries were unopposed when they began forming their own empires. For instance, in 1931, Japan invaded the Chinese province of Manchuria. The motivations for this expansionism were actually economic; Japan sought to gain control of Manchuria’s resources (such as coal, iron and timber) in order to increase the competitiveness of its economy so that it could afford to export goods to America despite the tariffs that the USA had put in place to protect domestic industry during the Great Depression. The League of Nations condemned Japan’s imperialism, but neither Britain nor France were prepared to risk their navies in a war on the other side of the world that would leave their colonies exposed and Japan was too important to Britain as a trading partner, so the League could not force Japan to withdraw. Similarly, in 1935, Italy invaded Abyssinia and the League was once again prevented from discouraging aggression by Britain and France because they were self-interested and wanted Italy as an ally against Hitler who was becoming increasingly
powerful. This meant that they could not afford to harm their relationship with Italy, so they could not condemn Italy for creating an empire as it would be seen as hypocritical because they had their own empires. Hitler watched these developments around the world and was encouraged by the lack of international will to intervene due to nations being very self-interested to help them recover from the Great Depression. By 1939, Hitler had already succeeded in remilitarising the Rhineland, annexing Austria and invading Czechoslovakia, all of which were in breach of the Treaty of Versailles but had been made possible by Britain’s foreign policy of appeasement. Hitler’s new confidence that he would not be challenged if he invaded Poland had been increased by the German air force’s performance in the Spanish Civil War in 1937, in which he proved to the world that Germany had a powerful military.
Militarism was an essential factor in the outbreak of World War II because Hitler would not have been able to conquer Eastern Europe without a powerful army, as I know that both Czechoslovakia and Poland had well-equipped armed forces which were prepared to fight Germany. I know that Hitler was militaristic because in Mein Kampf, he wrote that Germany owed everything to its army. When he came to power, he secretly began rearming Germany in breach of the Treaty of Versailles, but as his confidence grew, he openly declared his increasing military strength, arguing legitimately that neighbouring countries had much larger armies than Germany and that this posed a threat to Germany’s national security. In 1932, Germany had 30 warships, 36 planes and 100,000 men. By 1939, it had 95 warships, 8,250 planes and 950,000 men. This provided Hitler with the capability as well as the motivation provided by other themes to invade Poland, then France and finally the USSR.
The influence that alliances had on the decisions of different nations also contributed towards World War II. For example, the Molotov-Ribbentrop Non-Aggression Pact between Germany and the USSR permitted both Hitler and Stalin to invade Poland without risking retaliation from the other. However, this was a biased alliance because it was much less important to Hitler than Stalin, so when it was no longer beneficial to Hitler he broke it, invading the USSR in 1941. The alliance between Britain and France is also interesting because although it was created to counter any threat posed by Germany through collective security, it was undermined by Britain’s policy of appeasement. France was less sympathetic towards Germany than Britain and it did not condone Hitler’s demands for more territory. However, it was unwilling to use force without the support of Britain which it lacked because of appeasement and it was also unwilling to go to war in 1936 to prevent Hitler remilitarising the Rhineland as there were upcoming elections in France. This encouraged Hitler to invade Czechoslovakia and Poland because he knew that France would not intervene.
In conclusion, economics and militarism had the greatest influence on Hitler’s capabilities as he would not have come to power without the desperation caused by the Great Depression, nor would he have been unable to conquer any of Europe without powerful armed forces. But in the end, Hitler was overall to blame because he had no limit to his ambition – the themes of economics and militarism were only the most important because they determined the extent to which Hitler was able to fulfil his ambition.
