In the 1930s there were two incidents that really tested the League of Nations were Manchurian crisis and Abyssinian crisis. In Manchurian crisis, Japan invaded Manchurian but League didn’t take any action. In Abyssinian crisis, Italy invaded Abyssinia but like as Manchurian crisis, League didn’t give a sanction against Italy. As a result from these 2 events, Hitler realized that the League is powerless and irrelevant.
In 1936 Hitler began his policy of reclaiming lost German territory. Britain signed agreement with Germany and for the next three years, Britain followed a policy and gave Hitler what he wanted. This policy became known as appeasement. The Appeasement allowed Germany to be in a position of strength. However, Hitler's demands were reasonable and Britain and France thought that the treaty was too harsh, so they followed an appeasement.
In 1939, Hitler made an agreement with Stalin. Before Hitler attacked Poland, Hitler was scared of war on 2 fronts. One is the Britain and France side and other is Russia side. They agreed not to attack each other and they also agreed to divide Poland. So Hitler’s worries disappeared.
When Hitler invaded Poland in 1939, France and Britain declared war on Germany. This happened only a week after from the Soviet Pact. The invasion of Poland marks the beginning of World War II. However, France and Britain didn’t attack Germany immediately. France attached importance to defense and Britain didn’t want to become an all-out war. This situation continued for a while, even after the invasion of Poland.
Although it was Hitler’s actions, which led to war, many other factors were important in making the war happen. I think the one factor is treaty. If treaty wasn’t so harshly, German might not think like we want strong Germany again. And German economy might grow, if we didn’t take industrial area. And I think the one of other factor that made the war happen is I think the failure of League of Nation. If the league was running properly and had enough power, I think the league could stop the Hitler’s action. If other countries cooperated more and tried hard to face the problem, I think they might stop the war in someway.
