Steps Leading to the Second World War

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Steps Leading to the Second World War The Treaty of Versailles, signed between the big three, on June 28th, 1919 solved nothing and it made the first step in leading to the Second World War. It either wasn’t harsh enough to cripple German and preventing it from standing up to its feet ever again; or it was too harsh that had outraged the German people. It had striped German of its land, army, power and dignity. It is unfair that many Germans were forced to live in new countries under new rule while it should be self determinations for all countries. The loss of lands put a huge cut in German’s economy and having to pay a sum of £6,600 million reparation let to Germany suffer from economic crises and hyperinflation. The German army was limited to a mere 100,000 men without any armored vehicles, submarines or aircraft which was a major blow to Germany’s pride. The Germany which once was a great nation now faces the humiliation of defeat and it was just biting its time for revenge. The League of Nation which was created after the First World War, by the Treaty of Versailles to keep peace and prevent wars by the principle of collective security. The one big problem was that the USA which was most needed did not join, and this seriously weakened the League. The only force the League depended on was Britain and France who were unwilling to fight and were still recovering from the First World War. This let aggressors to get their own ways without the League stopping them. When Japan invaded Manchuria in 1931, the first test for the League and it did nothing as it did not want to send its army to the other side of the world and risk a war o... ... middle of paper ... ...f US loans which were not renewed. The economic problems in Germany made it unstable and led to the polarization of politics. Hitler grabbed this opportunity and came to power by convincing Germans that he will make Germany a great nation once again. He blamed all of the problems in Germany on the Treaty of Versailles which they had been forced to sign, and also on other races (especially Jews); his solution was to wipe out all but his “master race”. So the people voted for the Nazis (National Socialist German Workers Party) as it was the only alternative people believed they had. Japan invaded China as its own industry collapsed and Mussolini tried to build an oversea empire. It was the Great Depression that let to aggressive nationalism in Germany, Italy, Japan and the democratic powers failed to stop the aggression.

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