World War II:

Introduction:
World War II began in September 1939 when Britain and France declared war
on Germany following Germany’s invasion of Poland. The war ended in Europe
on 6th May 1945 when Germany surrendered. The war with Japan ended on 15 th
August 1945, following the dropping of two atomic bombs on the islands of
Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
Historians do agree that it is necessary to look beyond the immediate events
preceding a war when looking for an explanation of the causes of wars. The
events that contribute to the break out of war can be divided into long term
causes, short term causes and a trigger event. 1

Background and Causes of the Second World War

With regard to the outbreak of World War Two the following events are seen as
being contributing factors:
1. Treaty of Versailles – 1919;
2. Failure of collective security;
3. Failure of disarmament
4. World economic crisis;
5. The problem of national minorities
6. Appeasement by Britain and France – 1938;

7. German attack on Poland - September 1939;

8. Rome–Berlin - Tokyo Axis and the Anti- Comintern Pact
9. Hitler’s rise to power – 1933
10.The Global Depression
11.e-militarization of the Rhineland – 1936
12.Nazi-Soviet Pact;
13.The Spanish Civil War -1936
14.German invasion of Czechoslovakia – March 1939
15.Extreme nationalism on Germany, Italy and Japan;

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 16.Imperialist policy of Germany, Russia, Japan and Italy;
17.Conflict of ideologies;
18.Rise of two rival armed camps
19.A series of international crisis and failure of League of Nations;
20.Weakness of the League of Nations – established 1920;
21.The Munich agreement
22. Anschluss with Austria annexed – 1938
World War II started after these aggressive actions were met with an official
declaration of war and/or armed resistance.
The above pinpoints are shortly described.
Treaty of Versailles:
After the World War I, the victorious Allies powers met to decide Germany’s
future. It’s called Paris Peace Conferences. Germany would be forced to sign
the Treaty of Versailles. Germany had to accept guilt for the war and to pay
reparations. Germany was deprived of all her overseas colonies, and even in
Europe her size stood substantially reduced. Poland, France, Belgium had others
gained at her cost. Her army and navy were severely curtailed. She was told not
to have any air force. These are the reasons that the Versailles agreement can be
termed as a scandalous document.
Marshal Foch said, “This is not peace; it is an armistice for
twenty years.”
Germany was declared guilty of war crimes and made to promise to pay a
massive amount of reparation to the victors. Treaty of Versailles mutilated and
humiliated Germany. Twenty years later, it was the turn of Germany to take
revenge. Hitler had came on the centre stage, led his proud people to avenge
their humiliation and thus paved the way for the Second World War.
In fact, in the Versailles treaty, I thought that the seeds of war were thrown.
Rome–Berlin Axis and the Anti- Comintern Pact
A treaty of friendship between Germany and Italy was concluded in October
1936, and in November Mussolini first suggested the idea of a Rome–Berlin
Axis around which the other European countries would revolve. Hitler
broadened his alliance base when Germany signed the Anti-Comintern Pact
with Japan in November 1936. In 1937 Italy joined the pact. The Nazi Foreign
Minister, Joachim von Ribbentrop, believed Japan could be used as a force to
counter Britain and Russia in Asia. The intention was that, by using Japan to
apply pressure in Asia, Hitler would meet less resistance to his expansionist
aims in Europe
Hitler’s rise to power
As soon as he rose to power, he rebuild Germany’s army by creating a German
air force, increasing the size of the army, began building warships and created a
German air force.

The Global Depression

The Wall street Crash marked the start of a Global Depression. This helped
dictators come to power and other countries were too weak to stand against
them.
The Rhineland: reoccupied
The Rhineland was German land on the border with France. Under Versailles,
Germany was forbidden from putting troops there. Hitler took a gamble and
marched his army into this area.
The Nazi-Soviet Pact
The NSNAP was a surprising agreement between Hitler and Stalin. It opened
the way for Hitler to invade Poland without fear of Soviet attack. The Nazi
invasion of Poland was the trigger for WW2.
The Munich Agreement
As Hitler grew stronger he wanted more. Europe feared war over the
Sudetenland. After talks in Munich, Germany, the Sudetenland was given to
Hitler. In return, he promised this was his last territorial demand.
Anschluss: Austria annexed
Austria and Germany had been banned from joining together. Hitler (Austrian)
believed the two countries should be united. He ignored Versailles and arranged
a vote. The Austrians voted to join with Germany.
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 Course of the Second World War
Introduction: From the point of view of military importance, the course of the
Second World War may be divided into several phases.
First phase (September 3, 1939 – June 22, 1941): During this phase Germany
occupied Poland, Norway, Denmark, the Netherland, Belgium, Luxemburg,
France and Greece one after another.

Second Phase (June 22 - December 8, 1941): During this phase expeditions of

the Axis powers and Japan continued in Africa and the far East respectively and
the American naval base of Pearl Harbour in the Pacific was attacked by Japan.
Third Phase (December 8, 1941-November 8, 1942): In this time, Japan,
Germany and her allied powers had completed their conquests of the
Netherlands, the East-Indies, and North – Caucasus.
Fourth Phase (November 8, 1942 – May 8, 1945): During this period the United
States attacked French, North Africa and Germany after repeated reverses
surrendered to the allies unconditionally.
Last Phase (May 8 – October 10, 1945): During this period atom bombs for the
first time were dropped on Nagasaki and Hiroshima, the two cities of Japan and
Japan unconditionally surrendered to America.2

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Consequences of World War II
1. Heavy loss of lives: about 12 million soldiers were killed and 25 million
civilians were killed because of hunger, diseases etc. about 24 million
people became injured and handicapped in the battle. The atomic bombs
dropped by US in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. As a whole, Second World
War was a very bad tragedy to mankind.
2. Loss of property: the Second World War destroyed huge amount of
properties. It was estimated that 1000 billion dollars was spent in the war.
The war had completely destroyed building, roads, infrastructures,
warships and fighter planes.
3. Division of World into Two Blocks and Beginning of the Cold War:
the Second World War resulted the division of world into two blocks:
capitalist and communist. The capitalist block was led by the USA where
as the communist block was led by Russia. They started criticizing each
other and resulted the cold war.
4. Wave of Democratic changes in the world: Most of the countries got
freedom and democracy after the Second World War. Imperialism was
ended.
5. End of colonialism: the imperialist countries became very weak after the
Second World War. National movements against colonialism started in
Asia and Africa due to which countries like India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka got
independence from British Empire.

6. The U.S. and USSR both became world superpower: Before the US and USSR
became superpowers it was the European powers like Britain and France that were the
heavy hitters in the world. But after the Second World War the U.S and USSR became
world superpower.3

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Consequences of Second World War
 End of colonialism and imperialism.

 End of dictatorship in Germany and Italy.

 Germany was divided into West Germany and East Germany. West Germany was
controlled by Britain, France and USA. East Germany by USSR. (Read more about
the re-union of Germany in 1989 when you check our post about the fall of the Berlin
wall).

 Strengthening of nationalist movements in Africa and Asia. (From Britain – India,

Myanmar, Egypt, Sri Lanka; From America – Philippines; From France – Indo-
China; From Dutch – Indonesia)

 5 crore deaths (2.2 crore soldiers and 2.8 crore civilians)

 Economics problems – Unemployment, low growth etc.

 Emergence of two power blocks – USA and USSR. This resulted in cold war.

 Emergence of third world Countries.

 UNO was set up in 1945.

Background of Second World War
World War II is one of the most studied events in history in terms of
understanding the origins of such a disastrous global conflict. Understanding the
causes of such a drastic event will lead to further comprehension of how the
global political climate evolved in the 20th century. Analyzing the links between
the post-World War I era and this time period is crucial for learning how future
conflicts arise, especially as to understanding the origins of the Cold War in
later years. In addition, understanding the methods of analysis is very beneficial
to understanding the arguments behind historiographical claims for every later
event.
It is difficult to isolate a specific origin for World War Two, because of the
intensely interlocked and complex environment that such a conflict originated
in. Using methods of historiographical analysis, this paper will argue that
economic factors drove the formation of disastrous treaties which directly led to
World War II, while ideology only marginally drove war claims. This paper
compares different orthodox and revisionist viewpoints in order to make
arguments for how while poor treaties directly escalated tensions in Europe, it
was predominately other economic factors that created the basis for conflict on
a global scale.
Treaties and the policies of appeasement caused an opportunistic Hitler to
implement an expansionistic foreign policy. Although the orthodox view is that
Hitler was an all controlling dictator with incredible charisma, the revisionist
view states that he was more likely spontaneously responding to internal and
external conflicts. In other words, he did not have a defined foreign policy aim
to control Europe, but rather had a brief outline of what he wished to
accomplish. All of the subsequent invasions and purges were rather the result of
opportunities