The government was extremely unsettled and the people began to support a new leader of a new party, Adolf Hitler of the Nazis. The German public loved Hitler because he promised them everything they wanted, a better economy, to abolish the treaty of Versailles, to make Germany great again. It was said that one of Hitler’s main drives was to remove the treaty of Versailles as he believed that if they could overcome the circumscription’s enforced by the Treaty of Versailles then Germany could become a world superpower once again. Because of this we can say that the treaty of Versailles was to blame for the Second World War because all of Hitler’s actions were in an attempt to undermine and remove the treaty of Versailles therefore if the treaty of Versailles had not been put in place Hitler may never have rose to power and so may not have had a chance to start the Second World War.
The allies’ policy of appeasement can also be blamed for the Second World War. For instance if the allies had put their foot down at an earlier stage and, for example, prevented Hitler from remilitarizing the Rhineland the Hitler would have been hugely setback and this may have prevented the second world war. Also by continually giving in and providing Hitler with everything he wanted they encouraged Hitler to act more aggressively and thus allowed him to conquer more central European land and to gain more power up to the point that; Hitler did not care what the allies did or threatened to do as they had backed down and caved in to him so many times.
The allies had several opportunities while Hitler and Germany were still weak to crush the threat, but they did not. Britain and France were too scared of sparking another world war they were not ready for and thus had too give in to Hitler on several occasions and so he became to believe that their word meant nothing and thus when they delivered their ultimatum Hitler treated it as nothing more than another false promise and thus when he invaded Poland he was not expecting war. The allies’ policy of appeasement can be blamed for the Second World War because they encouraged Hitler to act aggressively and to be more warlike thus pushing Europe to the brink of war and eventually causing it to tumble; and fall into the abyss.
Hitler can be described as responsible for the war as much of the build up was centered on him and Germany. For instance the remilitarization of the Rhineland was a breach of the Treaty of Versailles however England and France did nothing and this is due to the policy of appeasement that had been undertaken by the British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain. As Britain and France did nothing this encouraged Hitler to be more aggressive and so he began to break other more serious conditions of the treaty. For instance he then began to look towards Austria. Austria had previously been protected by Italy and its troops, however Italy withdrew it troops in favor of supporting Germany and so left Austria open to invasion. However Hitler knew that if he invaded Austria then the allies might attack him so he used political pressure to force the Austrian government to hold a vote to see if they wanted to unify with Germany. Hitler then fixed the vote so that he would win and so strode into Austria and took control. Even after this blatant breach of the treaty of Versailles, Britain and France still did nothing. At this point Czechoslovakia, the newly formed country, was having problems. In an area that used to be part of Germany known as Sudetenland. This part of Czechoslovakia having seen Austria unify with Germany began to rebel and riot in an attempt to reunite themselves with Germany, Hitler noticing this invaded and took control of the Sudetenland. At this point the allies had finally had enough and so put their foot down. However still not wanting to risk another war Neville Chamberlain came to an agreement which became known as the ‘Munich agreement’. This treaty stated that Germany were permitted to keep the lands that they currently occupied on the condition that they did not invade the rest of Czechoslovakia. However Hitler having seen no threat from the allies, as they had done nothing up to that point, decided to invade the rest of Czechoslovakia. Britain and France still not ready for war but seeing no other way to stop Germany delivered an ultimatum saying: if you invade Poland we are at war. At this point Poland was under the protection of the USSR and Germany did not want to risk a war on two fronts and so Hitler made an agreement with Stalin (the Russian dictator) that they would split Poland between them. However some parts of Poland reused to join with Germany and so Hitler was forced to send troops in to secure the parts of Poland that did not wish to unify. Britain and France saw this as a breach as a breach of their ultimatum and so the Second World War began.
Hitler is mainly to blame for the war because he pushed Europe to the brink of war by constantly acting more aggressively and taking over countries despite it being against the treaty of Versailles and other agreements made with the allies. Also Europe was on the brink of war when Hitler invaded Poland and that is what crossed the line and began the Second World War once and for all.
In conclusion there can never truly be a single event or person that was truly solely responsible for the Second World War as there are too many links between each instigator. However it is my opinion that despite the fact that all three are very closely related I feel that the main provocative was the treaty of Versailles which, without it being put into place, may have resulted in Hitler never becoming Dictator of Germany which would completely annulled the need for the policy of appeasement; and so would have prevented the war.
