Cause of World War Two

The Causes of the Second World War when looked has many places from which it was caused from. Such causes could be Adolf Hitler and Joseph Staling and their part in the Nazi-Soviet Pact, the impact of the depression, the sudden aggression from nations, and the policy of appeasement. To begin with the Nazi-Soviet Pact was a non-aggression pact between the Soviet Union and the Germans. But before the Nazi-Soviet Pact was signed other events happened that would lead up to the signing of the Nazi-Soviet Pact. One of the first events occurred on March of 1939 when Germany decided to invade what remained of Czechoslovakia and as this occurred the British and the French did not do anything what so ever to stop Hitler and Germany from invading what was left of Czechoslovakia. As a result of that Hitler took Czechoslovakia without any resistance what so ever. After Czechoslovakia had been invaded Hitler set his sights on Poland because Hitler felt the city of Danzig had to be returned back to Germany and the Polish Territory was the only way to accesses Danzig. As a result of the invasion of Czechoslovakia and its later fall the British and French were convinced that the policy of appeasement had failed and as a result the British Government stated that they would stand by Poland in case of war. It was at this time that both the French and the British realized that Hitler had to be stopped and the only way to stop Hitler would be war. Then it was on August 23 of 1939 when the Nazi-Soviet Pact non-aggression pact was signed between the Soviet Union and Germany. The Nazi-Soviet Pact itself was part of Hitler’s plan for the conquest of Poland as he thought that without the Soviet Union’s support the British and French would not feel strong enough to go to war with Germany, but Hitler was mistaken. And as soon as Hitler attacked Poland, the British and French declared war on Germany. Another cause of the Second World War besides the Nazi-Soviet Pact was that of the economic depression that was occurring at the time. The depression was caused by the Wall Street Crash of October 1929 and as a result of the depression many investors in America were ruined, which lead to an economic crisis worldwide. The governments did not make anything better as they would put taxes on imports, which was known as protectionism. The economic depression as well had many political consequences. One being that because of the depression the United States became more isolationists and when FDR was elected president he focused more on rebuilding the American Economy as opposed to international affairs. Extreme politics were another consequence and in Germany specifically as they were encouraged and Hitler would go on to be elected Chancellor of Germany in 1933. Italy and Japan during this time wanted to win new territory to offset the effect the depression had on their economy. Lastly as a result of the depression both Britain and France were less able to take a firm stance against aggressive nationalism because of the political turmoil they went through at this time. Aggression as well was another cause of the Second World War as more countries became aggressive and the three major ones were: Germany, Italy, and Japan. The aggression began in 1931 as Japan seized Manchuria, which at the time was a Chinese province. There was no action taken by the League of Nations to stop Japan. Then in the years of 1935 to 1936 Italy conquered the African State of Abyssinia. There had been a ban on trade on Italy, but it had no effect on its conquering over Abyssinia. The next act of aggression would be the marching of the German troops onto the Rhineland, which was forbidden by the Treaty of Versailles. There was consideration from the French to stop the Germans, but no so action occurred. Then two years later the Germans would go onto unify Germany and Austria, which was known as the Anschluss. As well the Germans would go on to annex the Sudetenland with consent of the British and French. Lastly the Germans in 1939 invaded the remaining land of Czechoslovakia and would go on to threat to invade Poland. The last cause of the Second World War would be that of the policy of appeasement. Between the years of 1931 to 1938 Britain and France, when it came to international affairs would not resort to force and instead they would try to negotiate a deal with the aggressor states. It was then in the Munich Conference where the climax of appeasement occurred as Britain and France agreed to hand over the Sudetenland to Hitler. The abandonment of appeasement would come when Hitler captured the rest of Czechoslovakia as Britain and France were preparing for war with Germany, as two days after Poland was attacked, Britain and France declared war on Germany on September 3, 1939.

            The war began on September 1, 1939 and there was nothing the British and French could do nothing as Poland was easily beaten by Germany and by the end of the month Polish Forces had collapsed and on September 17 Soviet troops had crossed the Polish Frontier. From that moment and on Hitler’s methods would become to be known as Blitzkrieg or lightning war, which was the use of overwhelming force, in as short as time as possible to crush the enemy. Having had success in the east, Hitler focused on the west and more specifically an attack on France. The British and French tried to weaken Germany by stopping German Trade by sea. During the years of 1939-1940 the so called phony war was fought by Germany, Britain and France as there was little fighting. In attempt to start Germany in 1940, Britain and France started mining Norwegian Waters to halt the iron ore trade Germany had and as a result Germany invaded Norway and Denmark in 1940. The fall of these two nations caused a change of prime ministers in both Britain and France. After waiting months Hitler finally struck in the west in May of 1940. Hitler invaded and quickly defeated Belgium, Netherlands and France. Hitler had now controlled most of France and south and south-east France was left to what was known as Vichy France. After invading France, came Britain which Hitler was preparing to invade. The Luftwaffe, better known as the German Air Force was set out to win control of the air over Britain. The air force was the first part of the invasion, as during August and September of 1940 the Luftwaffe bombed Britain and the Royal Air Force fought back and this would become to be known as the Battle of Britain. The Royal Air Force got the upper hand in the battle and this caused Hitler to put off his plans of invading Britain. In the 1941 there was a major turning point in the war as Operation Barbarossa took place. Operation Barbarossa was the German Forces invading the Soviet Union, a move that caught Stalin off guard. The German troops began with Blitzkrieg and the German forces were getting deeper and deeper into the Soviet Union and by October German Forces were moving in on Moscow. Once German troops reached Moscow they were met with resistance and failed to capture Moscow. The campaign at this point started to go wrong for Hitler as German troops could not cope with the freezing weather that the Soviet Union had. It was then on December of 1941 that the United Stated joined the war as a result of the Japanese bombing Pearl Harbor. The United States would join forces with Britain and the Soviet Union to take on Germany, Japan and Italy. In 1942 the German forces focused their attack on Stalingrad which ended in when the German forces surrendered. Stalingrad was a major point as it showed that the Soviet Army could beat the German Army and as well the German Army was now on the defensive and the war was going bad for Hitler. Another major battle was the Battle of Midway in which the US defeated the Japanese and began to capture islands of the Pacific from the Japanese. Then on June 6, 1944 France was invaded and Germany launched a counter attack, but it was useless as they would go on to retreat. It was in 1945 when Germany power in Europe collapsed and it was then when Hitler committed suicide. Germany surrendered on May 8, 1945, but war with Japan was still occurring and it was in August of 1945 when the atomic bombs were dropped in Japan, which caused Japan to surrender on August 14, 1945.

            As a result of World War Two Poland received parts of Germany and the rest of Germany was divided into four parts, which would be occupied by the Americans, French, British, and the Soviets. After the war the Soviet Union and the United States emerged as the two most powerful nations on earth. Also the fear of communism caused the policy of containment from communism in the United States and this would cause a fear of communism in the US. Lastly the Cold War would be a result of the World War Two.