WHAT WERE THE CAUSES OF THE 2ND WORLD WAR?
There were eight causes caused the 2nd world war. They were the bitterness of Treaty of Versailles, failure of the League of Nations, the Depression, the rise of Hitler and the Nazi Party; the policy of Appeasement, isolationism of the USA, Nazi-Soviet Pact and European war becomes World War.
Firstly, Treaty of Versailles was too harsh for Germany. The British accepted that Germany had a right to be treated more fairly and to be accepted as a great power . Germany wanted revision of the treaty and spent the 1920’s and 30’s trying to released herself from the terms of the treaty. There were Treaty of Rappel in 1923, occupation of the Ruhr ,Dawes Plan 1924 and Young Plan 1929,Britain and Germany were happy to make the Anglo-German Naval agreement which allowed the Germans to build a navy 35% of Britain’s. Later Hitler defied the Treaty of Versailles to sent the troops to the Rhineland .On 11 March 1938 the German army invaded Austria and wanted to take over Austria, also on 1 October in 1938 German troops marched into the Sudetenland, and the Czech President was forced to go into exile. The bitterness of the Treaty of Versailles may caused the German to upset the peace of Europe in 1930’s.
Secondly, the failure of the League of Nation. As the League was greatly weakened by the refusal of the USA to join. It made the League became less power & authority. The rest powerful countries were Britain & France ,but they did not trusted each other and often disagreed about how the League should work. In addition, the Depression undermined the League after 1929. At the time of economic crisis governments were less interested in what happened in faraway places. Japan and Italy were able to invaded Manchuria and Ethiopia without being punished. Collective security was totally failed. By the time that Hitler started revenging for the way they were treated by Versailles settlement, as the League no longer had any authority.
Thirdly, the Depression. In Britain the Depression wrecked traditional manufacturing industries, the production of textile fell by two thirds, shipbuilding collapsed. Between 1929 and 1932 iron & steel production halved. In 1931 the value of pound was reduced and it was no longer linked to the price of gold. At the time of the Wall Street Crash the crisis undermined the position of the government and led to a split in the Labour Party. The government became convinced that they could not afford to fight two war to Japan & Italy at the same time. Empire was the first priority, but Britain was faced the financial crisis, so it had to be made a very carefully decision. A dramatic reduction in spending on defence in the early 1930’s until 1936 Britain spending on defence began to rise. But this further weakened Britain’s ability to stand up to Hitler. The Depression also influenced France which took longer to have an impact, as the French economy depended less on international trade. After 1933 French industry went though a great crisis. As late as 1938 the national income of France had failed to that of the 1920’s. With a huge debt for money borrowed during the First World War and war pension the government could not give its armed force adequate weapons. The economic problems added to the bitter social division which between left & right between 1933 and 1936. It stopped the French government from standing up to Hitler. USA was also suffering from the Depression at that time. American factories that had become so successful, suddenly fell silent. Farmers were also badly hit: wheat exports fell from $200 million to a mere $5 million in 1932.American foreign policy had been isolationist before the Depression, the US government became even more isolationist after 1929. As politicians were more interested in rebuilding the American economy. Under a new president Roosevelt US became more isolationist. In Germany, the pact of the Depression was at its greatest. By 1932 German factories were only producing about 60% of output of 1928, and a large number of working population were unemployed. The income of German farmers fell by about half between 1928 and 1932. There was a massive discontent with the Democratic government. In addition, some German politicians had been unhappy for years with democracy and many senior army officers and civil servants disliked the rule of parliament. This led to s massive rise in support for Nazi Party, in the elections of July 1932 they won 230 seats and became the largest party in the Reichstag. Most of Hitler’s supporters were impressed by his propaganda called for ‘Work & Bread’.
