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    World War II

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    Sideka Resalsingh
    World War II began in 1939 after Germany invaded Poland. This caused Britain and France to declare war on Germany due to their alliance with Poland, plunging Europe into World War II. Key causes of the war included the rise of Hitler and his desire to restore German pride by violating the Treaty of Versailles, as well as the harsh effects of the treaty which fueled German resentment. While Britain and France failed to curb German aggression in the late 1930s, their declarations of war in support of Poland pulled the major powers into a second global war within two decades.

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    World War II

    Uploaded by

    Sideka Resalsingh
    24 views4 pages
    World War II began in 1939 after Germany invaded Poland. This caused Britain and France to declare war on Germany due to their alliance with Poland, plunging Europe into World War II. Key causes of the war included the rise of Hitler and his desire to restore German pride by violating the Treaty of Versailles, as well as the harsh effects of the treaty which fueled German resentment. While Britain and France failed to curb German aggression in the late 1930s, their declarations of war in support of Poland pulled the major powers into a second global war within two decades.

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    World War II began in 1939 after Germany invaded Poland. This caused Britain and France to declare war on Germany due to their alliance with Poland, plunging Europe into World War II. Key causes of the war included the rise of Hitler and his desire to restore German pride by violating the Treaty of Versailles, as well as the harsh effects of the treaty which fueled German resentment. While Britain and France failed to curb German aggression in the late 1930s, their declarations of war in support of Poland pulled the major powers into a second global war within two decades.

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    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
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    24 views4 pages

    World War II

    Uploaded by

    Sideka Resalsingh
    World War II began in 1939 after Germany invaded Poland. This caused Britain and France to declare war on Germany due to their alliance with Poland, plunging Europe into World War II. Key causes of the war included the rise of Hitler and his desire to restore German pride by violating the Treaty of Versailles, as well as the harsh effects of the treaty which fueled German resentment. While Britain and France failed to curb German aggression in the late 1930s, their declarations of war in support of Poland pulled the major powers into a second global war within two decades.

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    WORLD WAR II

    With the rise of Adolf Hitler in Germany and the desire to bring back German pride, the stage
    was set for a massive world war. By 1929, it was clear countries such as Japan, Italy, Germany
    and Russia (called the USSR were aggressive and demonstrating totalitarianism.

    In many ways, the Allies (Britain, France and the United States) ought to have taken steps to
    prevent World War II when it became clear that Hitler was transforming Germany back into a
    militaristic state and violating the Treaty of Versailles. However, they hardly did anything up to
    1938. France and Britain, who suffered greatly in World War I, wanted to avoid a war and with
    the Great Depression of the 1930s, they were more focused on their internal struggles than to
    focus on Germany.

    AGGRESSIVE POLICIES BY GERMANY UP TO 1939

    When Hitler took power in 1933, he eliminated all opposition in Germany and led a holocaust
    against Jews, blacks, gays, communists and all people he considered "ethnically inferior". He
    restarted the factories and banned women from working, which meant that there was more
    wealth among the German people. He also canceled all payments of reparations to the Allies,
    which was pleasing to the German people.

    By March 1936, Germany re-entered the Rhineland, which was to remain demilitarized pursuant
    to the Treaty of Versailles. Britain and France did nothing.

    In November 1936, worldwide attention fell on Germany and Japan when they signed the
    Anti-Comintern Pact. Attention was also drawn in November 1937, when Germany, Italy and
    Japan signed another pact, seemingly aimed against Communism which was the main form of
    ideology in the Soviet Union (USSR/Russia). Despite the suspicion of Britain and France, it
    provoked little response from them because they too were anti-communist and felt that this
    alliance, though ill-fated, might be able to keep the USSR (Russia) in check.

    In 1939, Germany and Italy also signed the Pact of Steel (Pact of Friendship and Alliance).
    Japan was supposed to join the Pact of Steel but declined.

    By 1939, Hitler looked outwards of Germany and moved to annexed Austria. In March 1939,
    Germany occupied Bohemia and Moravia which were lands in the Czech Republic. Despite
    taking Austria, Britain and France offered little response. However, they promised Poland, which
    was to the west of Germany and the next obvious play in Hitler's expansion, that if Germany
    attempted to occupy Polish lands, they would defend the Poles.
    On September 1, 1939, Germany invaded Poland. Honouring their assurance to Poland, on
    September 3, 1939, Great Britain and France declared war on Germany pushing Europe into
    World War II. In April 1940, Germany invaded
    Denmark and Norway.

    World War II was fought between two military alliances - the Axis and the Allied. The Axis
    included Germany, Italy and Japan. The Allied included Britain, France, Russia and the United
    States of America.

    CAUSES OF WORLD WAR II


    1. The immediate cause of World War II was Germany's invasion of Poland which caused
    the web of alliances to come to play. At that time, Germany was in an alliance with Italy
    and Japan. Poland was in an alliance with Britain and France. Consequently, all the major
    countries were again caught in a position of honouring their alliances. The United States
    joined after the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbour in 1941.
    2. The rise of Hitler to power and his desire to bring pride to Germany. He realized that to
    do this was to violate the terms of the treaty of Versailles and restage a world war.
    3. The harsh effects of the Treaty of Versailles:
    ● The treaty stripped the people of Germany of their pride.
    ● It caused the German people to be resentful of Britain and France and fuel their desire to
    seek revenge.
    ● It fuelled the rise of Nazism because Germans wanted strong leaders to reclaim German
    pride.
    ● Hitler said that the treaty was just a piece of paper and took several aggressive steps that
    ignored it. Despite this, Britain, France and the United States did not sanction Germany
    ● Russia, Italy and Japan felt betrayed by the treaty. Russia was excluded from joining the
    Nation of Leagues, Italy was not given any lands despite being promised lands for their
    help in World War I, and Japan hated that the treaty seemingly increased the influence of
    the United States in the Pacific. The Japanese also felt that they were not being treated
    equally alongside France and Britain on the international stage as they were not invited to
    fight alongside them during World War I. They were also not given control of any
    German lands in China as they had desired.
    4. The League of Nations that was created after World War I to promote peace was weak
    and ineffective. It has no army, no power of sanctions and could not intervene to stop
    German aggression. All policies of appeasement failed.
    5. The rise of fascism and totalitarianism in Germany, Italy and Japan meant that these
    countries wanted to demonstrate their strength on a world stage. They transformed their
    countries into highly militaristic states and were willing to flex their muscles.
    6. Nationalism played a significant role because the aggressive countries that started the war
    all wanted to exert superiority. Italy wanted to rebuild the Holy Roman Empire; Japan
    wanted to be the main country in the Pacific and wanted to benefit from all oil and raw
    material in the region; Germany wanted to rebuild German pride.
    7. Britain and France ignored German aggression despite the evidence that another world
    war was destined to occur. When Hitler violated the terms of the treaty of Versailles, they
    refused to intervene.
    8. The effects of the Great Depression on the major world countries. The harsh effect of an
    economic stagnation is that people wanted strong governments to lead. It led to the rise of
    fascism, communism and militarism across Europe.
    9. The emergence of a silent arms race in Europe. After World War I, the countries in
    Europe started to silently built up their armament under a belief of "security first,
    disarmament second." Germany, Italy and Japan spearheaded this silent arms race and
    felt that disarmament was a hindrance to national security and development.

    EFFECTS OF WORLD WAR II

    World War II was one of the most extensive wars in human history and it transformed warfare
    with the introduction of new arms, weapons, vehicles, and technologies. The war ended in
    August 1945 with the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan.

    ● Overall, over 25 million people were killed in the war and twice as many became
    permanently disabled. The war was proven to be the "moral degradation of mankind."
    The Americans were criticized deeply for the use of atomic bonds although they had
    allowed over 6 million people to evade the cities before they did the bombing.
    ● The standard of living in Europe depleted significantly due to the infrastructural damages
    caused by the war. Schools, hospitals, government buildings and roads were destroyed.
    ● Economically, the USSR and United States of America became the world's superpowers
    overnight with the economic downfall of Britain and France. The United States, in
    particular, suffered little war damage. Other than the bombing of Pearl Harbour, almost
    all of the war was found in Europe, Africa and the Pacific. This meant that the Americas
    remained relatively peaceful during the War.
    ● The USSR and the United States of America entered a new phase of warfare called the
    Cold War, which was tense because of the looming fear of a nuclear war between the two
    superpowers. The Cold War continued until the 1990s when the USSR was dissolved.
    ● The United States surpassed Britain as the policeman of the world and argued that it had
    to make the world "safe for democracy". It also became the "banker of the world" and
    provide significant loans to countries in Europe to rebuild.
    ● Britain, which was once the major colonizing force across the globe, had no more wealth
    to maintain its empire and this led to the independence of several countries across the
    world including Pakistan, India and several countries in Africa and the Caribbean.
    ● The League of Nation was dismantled and replaced with the United Nations. The UN was
    more responsible to international issues and up to this day have been able to create
    agencies, committees and organizations to promote and maintain world peace.

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