Causes of World War II - Essay Example

Despite the harsh conditions imposed by the Treaty of Versailles, Germany went ahead and signed the treaty which resulted in acute poverty in the 1920s as the country suffered serious setbacks and could not pay the money. It was at this juncture that the German people voted Adolf Hitler to power as he promised them that he would put an end to all their suffering. Once in power, Hitler began to build the German army and also stationed troops in the Rhineland area. Though France and Britain kept track of Hitler’s moves they were unwilling to begin another war and instead believed that a stronger Germany would prevent the spread of Communism to the west. Hitler also entered into an alliance with Italy and Japan in 1936. Hitler wanted to expand his territory by acquiring Austria and with about 99% of the Austrian people favoring a union with Germany; Hitler acquired Austria but promised that this would be the end of his expansion plans. However, about 6 months later Hitler eyed the Sudetenland region of Czechoslovakia. At this juncture, British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain entered into the Munich Agreement in 1938 with Hitler which was a part of the Appeasement policy adopted by the British government to support reasonable demands made by Hitler. And according to this agreement, Hitler would be granted control over the Sudetenland region of Czechoslovakia provided he did not disturb the rest of Czechoslovakia. Hitler, however, never kept his word and invaded Czechoslovakia in 1939. Though Britain and France did not venture into military action against the Hitler army, they, however, decided to attack Germany if Poland was invaded by Hitler (History on the Net, 2011; Rpfuller, 2010).

By the end of 1989, Hitler decided to invade Poland and despite knowing the fact that Britain would call a war on Germany if he progressed, German troops invaded West Prussia and Posen. Hitler quickly entered into a pact with Russia fearing an attack from them, with the Nazi-Soviet Pact which stated that if one of the two countries went to war the other would remain neutral. As Hitler did not head to the ultimatum set by Chamberlain, Britain, and France were forced to declare war on Germany on the 3rd of September 1989 (Rpfuller, 2010). Another contributing factor to the war was the failure of the League of Nations which was established in 1919 with the intent to settle disputes between nations through negotiations rather than war. However, the economic depression that hit the world in the 1920s forced countries such as Japan and Italy to invade nations that were rich in resources, and such invasions were opposed by the League, it could not control the invasions made by these countries. With the weakening power of the League and as many countries withdrew their support, the League of Nations lost its authority and this further paved the way for World War II (History on the Net, 2011).

Thus World War II could have been averted in the absence of the harsh treatment meted out to Germany by the Treaty of Versailles, Hitler’s aggression, and the growing restlessness within Italy, Japan, and Russia, who later became Hitler’s allies, to safeguard their interests. Hence all these factors contributed to the start of the most devastating war in history