Conclusion The lack of economic interdependence and the institutional void of the prewar years contributed to the forsaking of incentives of peaceful cooperation among states. Protectionism doomed global trade while powerlessness wrecked the League of Nations. A second image perspective suggests that the Great Depression and the subsequent social unrest instigated nationalist movements that paved the way for aggressive fascist regimes across Europe. Nonetheless, these arguments were not sufficient causes for the spark of the war, for the nationalist movements endorsed domestic reforms. On the other hand, the failure of institutions demonstrated that collective security stood not among the great powers’ vital interests – for instance, the League lost credibility after its inaction during crises in Manchuria and Ethiopia. In this way, the end of cooperation meant not the outbreak of war, but rather the first step of an escalating conflict. …show more content…
A first image argument could be made that certain leaders contributed to the further destabilization of the international system. For instance, Hitler was an unpredictable amalgamation of Kaiser Wilhelm’s hegemonic ambitions and Bismarck’s Machiavellian statesmanship. According to Mearshimer, “he not only played his adversaries off against each other, but he [convinced] them that Nazi Germany had benign intentions” (Mearshimer 2001, 216). Nonetheless, his concern for German security and consolidation as a powerful nation within the international system was no different from those of his predecessors. In line with this intent, Hitler alone was not the cause for World War II, in the same way that Wilhelm II could not declare war on the Triple Entente before the murder of Archduke
Hitler’s personal drive to expand Germany’s borders across Europe while putting dominance on what he determined to be ‘inferior people’ was the main contributing cause of World War II. In my opinion, All four parts of MAIN were very involved in contributing to the cause of World War II. Hitler used military might to conquer and divide Poland with the Soviet Union. This caused Western allied retaliation towards Germany. He also used military power and intimidation to accomplish his goal of Germany’s expansion. Hitler allied Germany with Italy and Japan by the sharing in the common goal of conquering other nations. Hitler’s imperialist drive continued further in the breaking of his alliance with Stalin. This resulted in sending German forces to conquer the Soviet Union to capture more land for Germany. With Germany, Italy, and Japan, Hitler created an intimidating alliance of imperialist powers that called for an immediate unity of western nations ready for military retaliation. German Imperialism on Europe is the main reason for allied retaliation. Hitler’s nationalist ideas were used as reasons by him to stretch out his land. Out of each part of MAIN, militarism is proven to be the most important contributing cause.
They say time is a great teacher. How true. History has taught us that peace must be kept at all costs. The tragic story of the League of Nations centers around the man who conceived it and offered it to the world. The man who developed its charter and who died from exhaustion after his own country, the United States, refused to ratify it in the senate . On November eleventh, 1918 an armistice was declared in Europe. The President of the United States, Woodrow Wilson, saw this as an opportunity to form an international organization of peace. The league was brought forth to provide security against future wars. However, the league did not fulfill the hopes of it's founders, it did not enforce the Versailles treaty, and did not protest injustices. The League took no steps to protect Ethiopia from the advancing Italians until it was too late. They did nothing to stop the German troops from rearming, even though the Versailles treaty was meant to keep Germany from rearming. Another example of the League of Nations failure is when they failed to act against the Japanese advance into Manchuria. At a time of such military aggression throughout Europe and Asia, the League had a chance to limit the activity of potentially harmful nations. With the United States not helping, the League of Nations not acting, the world was left vulnerable for another war and the eventual demise of the League of Nations.
“As a result of the world war and of a peace whose imperfections and risks are no longer denied by anyone, are we not even further away from the great aspirations and hopes for peace and fraternity than we were decades ago?” (Hjalmar Branting). After the industrial revolution, countries were in a rush to prove themselves. Each country built up its militaries in hopes of creating peace, but all their effort crashed to ruins when the heir to the Austrian-hungarian throne was assassinated. War broke out over the assassination of this man, and due to the complex web of alliances they had weaved, no country could escape it. The powers of Europe set their own trap, and it had been activated. Looking back on history, there were three main determining factors that caused World War I; one outshone the
After the First World War, most of the world suffered a deep economic depression. One of the countries kept a tight control over the German economy. German frustration and resentment steadily grew. The people were looking for three things. The first thing they sought was a leader-someone to put Germany back on its feet. The second thing they wanted was a scapegoat, someone to blame for Germany’s poverty and depression. The third thing the people wanted was revenge against a world that, in the eyes of the German people, had insulted and wronged their country with World War I’s restitution and occupation of Germany. They chose their leader in the form of Adolph Hitler and his Nazi party. The Nazi party also gave them a scapegoat with its strong anti-Semitic beliefs. Hitler’s plan for revenge began a campaign to take over large portions of Europe. As Michel states in his book World War II, "The world was still recovering from the economic strain of WWI, it was the opportune time for Hitler to strike." Hitler had a good understanding of this and devised his plan around it (Michel 2). The German public during this time was fed much propaganda and a false sense of nationalism. This gave Hitler and the Nazi party absolute control. Although muc...
The appeasement allowed fascist countries to take advantage of their pacifist intentions as demonstrated the failure of the League of Nations. The League of Nations was intended to resolve international disputes peacefully, however its concept of appeasement demonstrated its place as a ‘toothless tiger’ in events such as the invasion of Manchuria (1931.) Allied intervention in Russia in 1919 was ignored by the League, Italy ignored the League in 1923, the League failed to deal with issues outside of Europe and several issues were not allowed to be presented to the league such as: Allied debts, relations between Britain and Egypt, and between China and the great powers. Due to the appeasement policy, Germany and Italy now realised that the democracies were seeking to avoid confrontation, so both countries continued to ‘test the limits.’ As a result of the appeasement, the impact of Abyssinia proved the concept of collective security and the Stresa front had failed. Consquently, this motivated war as it encouraged Hitler that he could get away with acts of aggression, transformed Italy into Germany’s partner as furthermore the Hoare-Laval plan made it clear Britain and France preferred to seek peaceful resolutions rather than engage in conflict. Hence, the appeasement policy was responsible for
The Second World War was caused by Germany’s desire to revoke the Treaty of Versailles of 1919 and Hitler’s relentless quest for empire. This was considered a valid response to why the war began in 1939, until 1961 when A. J. P Taylor...
September 3, 1939 was when the world plunged into World War II. The main reason for the cause of this war was the policy of appeasement. Before the war started, In October 1935, Mussolini ordered a massive invasion of Ethiopia. After Italy attacked, Haile Selassie, leader of Ethiopia, asked the League of Nations for help. In document 2, Haile Selassie, requested the League of Nations help stop the invasion and when the League’s response was ineffective he said, “ God and history will remember your judgement…It is us today. It will be you tomorrow.” By now, Hitler came to power and was leading the Nazi’s in the Third Reich. They had also became the largest political party. In March 1935, the Fuhrer (Hitler) announced that Germany would not obey the restrictions of the Versailles Treaty. The League of Nations only issued a mild warning for the rebuilding of Germany’s a...
Europe in the early 20th century was a cesspool of jingoistic nationalism, industrial development, and imperialistic conquests, but this fusion of new concepts in the era arose seemingly distinct from previous thoughts; however, this amalgamation of ideals acted as a natural development of the beliefs of previous generations, if seemingly split from prior thinking. Beginning starkly with industrialization of Europe, past philosophies were overlooked for more realistic ideologies stemming from the competition arising from military and economic intimidation. The novel thinking emerging on the self, the state, and the world climaxed with the outbreak of the Great War. From industrialization, the velocity and volume of violence increased dramatically with numerous military advancements that spawned a war the likes of which was never seen on Earth prior, and from nationalism, the production and logistics to create violence allowed for the upkeep of colossal conflicts. Total war, a new form of complete mobilization, was only made possible through the principles and relationships developed in the century prior.
The League of Nations was an Intergovernmental Organisation which persisted from 1919 up until 1946 where it was formally replaced with the United Nations towards the end of the Second World War. Many consider the League as one of the International Systems greatest failures due to it being widely regarded as an ‘ineffective instrument to tackle aggressors’ (Catterall, 1999, p. 52) and its inherent failure to prevent international conflict. However,
The League of Nations sounds like a superhero team and in a sense, the goal that The League was trying to achieve could have been something straight out of a comic book. Originally proposed by President Woodrow Wilson during World War I, The League was born after some alterations. The League of Nations’ main intention was to bring an end to the war and prevent another one of the same atrocious proportions from happening in the future. Forty zealous countries joined this fight, but the most powerful country of all was not among them: The United States of America. While many Americans agreed with the goal of The League, many did not and those that did not were ones in power. The portion of the “mission statement” for The League that caused
Heinrich von Treitschke is a cause of World War II because of his idea that imperialism is a viable and practical way to further the common good, and strengthen a nation. This appeared in the writings of leaders, such as Mussolini and Hitler, just before World War II, focusing on the idea that, “Only the truly great and powerful states ought to exist” (Treitschke 293). Mussolini believed that war was the greatest measure of the greatness of a country and its people (399). Mein Kampf written by Hitler, echoes Treitschke in the line, “The stronger must dominate and must not blend with the weaker orders and sacrifice their powers” (401).
World War Two was the most devastating conflict in the history of humanity. It crippled many nations and caused millions of people to die. One of the major causes of this disastrous war was the Treaty of Versailles which ended the First World War. This treaty was destructive towards the Germans. Germany had to pay large amounts of reparations to the Allied nations at the end of World War One resulting in a Great Depression in Germany. Additionally, the Treaty of Versailles’ war guilt clause forced Germans to admit full responsibility for starting the war. Furthermore, to gain the support of the German populace, Adolf Hitler adopted an effective propaganda campaign. Adolf Hitler employed a successful propaganda campaign to gain the support of the German people combined with the Treaty of Versailles harsh economic and political sanctions ignited World War Two.
With a combination of poor leadership on the Weimar Government’s behalf, the signing of the hated Treaty of Versailles and an unattractive economic situation, Hitler, using his charismatic personality, was able to convince the majority of the public to resort to the extremist nazi party. There are many other factors that influenced the collapse of the Weimar Republic and the rise of Nazism; In every case, however, Hitler’s manipulative skills and sophisticated behavior towards circumstances lead to the success of the Nazi Party. By successfully manipulating the above set of circumstances, Hitler was able to cause to the collapse of the Weimar Republic and the rise of the Nazi Party.
Assessment of the Success of the League of Nations In 1914 war broke out in Europe. The war ended in 1918 and Germany solely blamed. The end of the war was signed with the treaty of Versailles. From the war was born the League of Nations; who helped nations resolve disputes peacefully without going to war. When the League was formed, the defeated nations were not invited to join.
With World War One coming to an end, all of the major world power leaders met for the first big peace meeting. President Wilson had come up with the idea that he thought would become the start of everlasting peace throughout the world. He called it his Fourteen Points, and believed that they were brilliant. Others, however, thought otherwise and were skeptical of these Fourteen Points. Much so that a lot of these points were never even put into use. Wilson surrendered many of his points in order to pass what he thought was the best shot for world peace: his fourteenth point, or better known as the League of Nations. The League of Nations was a committee of nations that promoted worldwide peace and cooperation with one another. It was intended to be an international group discussion designed to talk about diplomatic crises like the ones that provoked the First World War. The League of Nations was indeed one of the best options for maintaining peace and preventing war at the time. It was a must for the United States to join.