TO WHAT EXTENT IS THE FIRST WORLD WAR THE CAUSE OF THE SECOND WORLD WAR?

To what extent is the first world war the cause of the second world war?

To what extent the First World War is the cause of the Second World War?

Introduction

Many of the seeds of World War II in Europe were sown by the Treaty of Versailles that completed World War I. In its final pattern, the treaty put full accuse for the war on Germany and Austria-Hungary, as well as exacted harsh financial reparations and directed to territorial dismemberment. For the German persons, who had accepted that the armistice had been acquiesced to founded on US President Woodrow Wilson's lenient Fourteen Points, the treaty initiated resentment and a deep mistrust of their new government, the Weimar Republic. The require to yield war reparations, connected with the volatility of the government, assisted to huge hyperinflation which crippled the German economy. This position was made poorer by the onset of the Great Depression. (Andrew 2001)

In supplement to the economic ramifications of the treaty, Germany was needed to demilitarize the Rhineland and had severe limitations put on the dimensions of its infantry, encompassing the abolishment of its air force. Territorially, Germany was stripped of its colonies and forfeited land for the formation the homeland of Poland. To double-check that Germany would not elaborate, the treaty forbade the annexation of Austria, Poland, and Czechoslovakia.

 

Rise of Fascism & the Nazi Party

In 1922, Benito Mussolini and the Fascist Party increased to power in Italy. Believing in a powerful centered government and strict command of commerce and the persons, Fascism was a answer to the seen malfunction of free market economics and a deep worry of communism. Highly militaristic, Fascism furthermore was propelled by a sense of belligerent nationalism that boosted confrontation as a entails of communal improvement. By 1935, Mussolini was adept to make himself the dictator of Italy and changed the homeland into a policeman state.

To the north in Germany, Fascism was adopted by the National Socialist German Workers Party, furthermore renowned as the Nazis. Swiftly increasing to power in the late 1920s, the Nazis and their charismatic foremost, Adolf Hitler, pursued the centered tenets of Fascism while furthermore supporting for the racial purity of the German persons and added German Lebensraum (living space). Playing on the economic anguish in Weimar Germany and endorsed by their "Brown Shirts" militia, the Nazis became a political force. On January 30, 1933, Hitler was put in place to take power when he was nominated Reich Chancellor by President Paul von Hindenburg(Deletant 2002)

The Nazis Assume Power

A month after Hitler presumed the Chancellorship, the Reichstag construction burned. Blaming the blaze on the Communist Party of Germany, Hitler utilised the occurrence as an apologise to ostracise those political parties that are against Nazi policies. On March 23, 1933, the Nazis vitally took command of the government by transient the Enabling Acts. Meant to be an crisis assess, the actions provided the cabinet (and Hitler) the power to overtake ...