The First World War barely solved any problems which led to its outbreak and therefore the Second World War was fought and was termed as ‘the war to end all wars’. World War II is considered to be the deadliest war in human history as it involved mass murders such as the Hiroshima and Nagasaki atomic bombings and the Holocaust which were responsible for millions of deaths. The war began in 1939 and lasted through 1945 and the nations participating were mainly in two conflicting military alliances; allied powers bound with a political ideology and axis powers characterized by a totalitarian demeanor. One factor alone could not have led to the outbreak of the World War II as there were several other underlying unresolved issues which will be discussed below.
The first major cause of the Second World War is undoubtedly the failure to hold world peace by the League of Nations. After the First World War, nations came together to make a body which would foster peace among them and where international disputes would be solved. The League of Nations, therefore, was formed with this main goal however it failed miserably. It had several limitations since its formation as it was mostly limited to persuasion. Aggressive nations could still carry out detrimental activities to their neighbors with little or no fear of facing the consequences. Having no military of its own, the League of Nations failed to stop Germany’s invasion of Poland which contributed majorly to the outbreak of the war.
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The appeasement policy applied by France and Britain totally backfired and contributed majorly to the outbreak of the Second World War. After World War I, France and Britain resulted in appeasement policy which entailed making concessions when dealing with Germany in order to avoid conflict. They tried to keep away from interfering in aggressive Germany’s plans and this gave Hitler time to regroup and rebuild Germany. Had France and Britain not used this policy, then they could have easily attacked Nazi Germany while it was still weak but instead acted when it was already too late as Hitler’s military strength had grown leap and bounds. On March 1938 Hitler annexed Austria and appointed a Nazi government in Austria yet the Treaty of Versailles forbade the unification of Germany and Austria. France and Germany were opposed to this yet they still did very little to stop it (Spielvogel, 2014).
In addition to this, militarism and expansionism ideas led to the outbreak of World War II. Militarism was the great desire by nations to gain more power by use of military force which led to massive rearmament and spending in terms of military activity. The military was greatly glorified by leaders such as Adolf Hitler who always appeared in public wearing military clothes. In 1935 for instance, Hitler rearmed Germany and around 300,000 men recruited in the army, Navy, and Air Force. Germany further broke the treaty of Versailles which had limited them to having no submarines and few warships. Expansionism by countries such as Italy and Japan also triggered the Second World War. Italy desired to have Ethiopia as a colony and therefore invaded it in 1935. Mussolini, the Italian dictator got an excuse to invade Ethiopia after there was a border incident between Italian Somaliland and Ethiopia. Mussolini went against the Treaty of Versailles and invaded despite threats of economic sanctions. Japan also had expansionist ideas as it invaded China in order to set up puppet leaders who would protect their interests in key areas and such aggressions sparked the world war.
Lastly, the formation of the axis alliance had a remarkable impact on the outbreak of the Second World War. Nations which were led by dictators and totalitarian leaders decided to come together to form an unstoppable fierce coalition to spearhead their aggressive policies. Hitler and Mussolini both supported the Spanish revolt and therefore decided to form an alliance. Japan, on the other hand, attacked US naval base at the Pearl Harbor and joined the alliance made between Germany and Italy. The Rome-Berlin-Tokyo axis was formed and this was trouble for any nation that tried to oppose one of them.
Herbert Hoover’s statement that ‘older men declare war but it is the youth that fight and die’ is true as was seen in the Second World War. Hitler was at the center stage as the antagonist of the World War II as his ideas and desire to make Germany great again ruffled more than just a few feathers. However, it was not only Nazi Germany that contributed to the start of the war as there were several other background causes. France and Britain played a huge role in causing the war thanks to their appeasement policy and countries such as Italy and Japan were also very aggressive and sparked the war.
Reference
Spielvogel, J. (2014). Western civilization (1st ed., pp. 557-564, 584-590). Belmont, Calif.: Wadsworth.
