What were the causes of the Second World War Essay

What were the causes of the Second World War - Essay Example Hitler desired the living space to be self-reliant. He wanted to overpower the world and Europe. The Treaty of Versailles had to be invoked if Hitler had his ways, paving the way to the Second World War. The aggression of Allied forces also led to the Second World War. In Italy, Mussolini propagated Fascism and wanted to establish a Roman Kingdom in the Mediterranean and Africa, to quote his attack on Abyssinia in 1935. Another Allied power Japan desired a Nipponese rule in the Pacific, leading to China and Australia, as is evident from Japan’s attack on Manchuria in 1931. All the three Allied nations, namely Germany, Italy, and France were against Communism of the USSR, thus, sowing the seeds of war among nations. Another cause of the Second World War was the passivity of the Democratic powers. USA was detached while France was not willing to stand in opposition to Germany. France could not depend on Britain and America for support. Britain had a soft corner for recuperation of Germany between 1934 and 1937 and pacified Germany between May 1937 and March 1939. The Democratic powers could have hindered the path of Fascism before 1939 but preferred to remain in low-profile. The League of Nations failed in distancing the warring nations. Not a single factor could be blamed for the Second World War, as stated above but Hitler’s expansionism was the sole reason to cause the Second World War. Fascism was also a leading reason, as bent on expanding and the inability of democratic countries to stop Mussolini from his beliefs in Fascism. There were 9 causes of the Second World War, which are discussed in detail below. 1. The Rearmament of Germany It happened during the Geneva Disarmament Conference held in 1932-4 wherein Hitler made it clear that because other countries were not reducing their military strength to that of Germany, Germany would increase its military power to their level. Till 1935 the process of rearmament of Germany was ongoing by establ ishing conscription and munitions factories. France reacted to the rearmament of Germany by strengthening the Maginot line built earlier between 1929 and 1934 because rearmament of Germany created insecurity in the region. The Maginot line was made of steel and concrete mixture for added strength from Belgium to Switzerland; it was known as ‘a gate without a fence’, which Germany would not crossover and attack France through Belgium. Without the support of Britain, France never appeared on the front foot. Britain, on the other hand, was friendlier towards Germany than it was with France to actively support it. The Anglo German naval Treaty (June 1935) was the result of the sympathetic behavior of Britain towards Germany, which permitted the German Navy to be 35% of the size of the British Royal Navy. Hitler supported Franco in the Spanish Civil War (1936-9) with the ammunition at its disposal. Hitler sent the Condor Legion of the Luftwaffe to attack Guernica on 26th Apr il, 1937. Guernica was eliminated and Franco marched ahead winning the Basque areas of Spain. Hitler had used Spain as a testing ground. 2. The Remilitarization of the Rhineland (1936) Hitler attempted breach of the Versailles Treaty once again after committing a breach once by marching to Cologne on 7th March 1936 with 30,000 soldiers. France could not gather the courage to come face-to-face with Germany militarily although amassing troop strength of 250,000 because Britain was not at its support. Britain expressed the opinion that Germany was ‘marching into her own back yard.’ Hitler held a plebiscite on remilitarization to prove the support of its people, which was vehement to 98.8% in favor of Hitler’s policy on militarization. This prompted Hitler to create his own defensive fortification, the Siegfried Line. 3. The