What were the causes of World War Two?

Question

Can anyone tell me the causes of World War Two in a list and how they caused it.

Thankyou

Answer 1

World War Two came about partly because of World War One. At the end of World War one, Germany was weak and small, and squalor was overwhelming, as was homelessness. They were in a desperate situation. On top of it, there were new restrictions in place that made Germany's army so small, it was considered useless.

In this time, the Germans wanted a leader, someone to give them jobs and tell them that the Germans really are a great people, because for the last fifteen years, everyone had been shunning them. Adolf Hitler was that leader. He rose to power using the party name the Nazis, and held great rallies, telling the German people how wonderful they were, and how they were the master-race of the world. They loved this. Eventually, Hitles became Chancellor of Germany, and began breaking the rules set down by the Versailles Agreement.

First, he broke the military law - Germany's Army skyrocketed, become huge and very modern. The lastest tanks and armor and military tactics were put into play, making Germany a very powerful military nation. All the other countries in Europe weren't ready for war, and thus, when war began, they were crushed. Germany had started a war.

Part of the reason why Adolf wanted to make Germany the best nation the world had ever seen was because he had his own insecurities. He didn't feel good about himself, and so he brought himself power, and degraded others. And by degrading I mean that he killed about 8 million people total by extermination, 6 million of those Jews. IT was such a horrendous thing to do, the world can barely comprehend it today. Indeed, many Germans have convinced themselves that it never happened, they are so appalled.

In my opinion, World War Two was caused by coincidence. Just when a nation is most weak, a power-thirsty leader comes to the helm and leads them into ruin, taking many nations down with them.

Answer 2

For Britain it has always been in her best interest to not let any one country dominate Europe politically or militarily. Hence, the British went to war with France for well over a century, then later Britain went to war Germany in 1914 -1918 and again in 1939 -1945. The German violation of Belgium's neutrality was the reason why Britain joined the First World War, and when Germany declared war and occupied Poland in 1939 Britain joined the Second World War. There is a method to what only seems to be "madness" here.

Answer 3

I've been looking at the answers you've been given and barring one they don't go far enough back. Also, they are viewed from an Amercian vs Japanese perspective instead of German imperialism vs most of the rest of the world. You've got answers on the Japanese issue but look more to Europe (which is where things kicked off) and Hitler's rise to power.

The seeds of the Second World War were in the dubious end of the First World War. An armistice was declared, i.e. there was no victory for one side or the other, and yet Germany was forced to concede a defeat of sorts and pay reparations for WW1.

Hitler, a poor match seller on the streets of Munich at the time, had to deal with severe economic depression where inflation spiralled completely out of control. If you wanted to buy something you'd have to take stacks of Deutschmark notes in a shopping basket and if you left it unattended for even a moment someone would steal the basket and leave the cash. Things were that desperate.

Hitler looked for someone to blame and then told everyone he could who it was. Germany's enemies of WW1 were naturally culprits but within Germany the Jews of the Weimar Republic of the early 1920s became his target. In his opinion they'd sold Germany out and Hitler's suffering and that of everyone else in his country was their fault.

It's so easy to get people on your side when you clearly define who is to blame for something, and that's exactly what Hitler did. He and his henchmen started the process of demonising the Jews and used their increasing popularity to then take power as opposed to winning it.

On the international stage other world leaders either failed to understand where Hitler was heading or tried to appease him. This didn't work and soon after Germany took land outside their borders, WW2 broke out.

So, to sum up, look to Europe and Hitler. He was angry at the end of WW1 and he found the German people an excuse or their misery in the Jews. He gave them exactly what they wanted.

Think it can't happen now? 1994, Rwanda. The Tootsies vs the Hootoos. 100,000 dead in a matter of DAYS, because one side found the other to blame for their ills and broadcast the message by radio.

Answer 4

1.Europe fell into blind nationalism caused by Darwinism and growth of bureaucracy

2.Great Depression destroyed world economics, especially Germany that lost colonies to back up their country

3.Rise of communists threatened commons and capitalists, therefore nationalism like Nazis were the choice they made.

4.Germany, Italy, Japan wanted colonies France/Britain have.
Soviet Union wanted to grow, too

5.Treat after WW1 couldnt avoid Germany from becoming a powerful nation seeking vengence

Answer 5

A redistribution of wealth, followed by a mass frenzy to find it, Fostered by a dehumanizing image of others.
Executed systematicly by bots.
Stopped by humans.

Answer 6

beacause the french forced humiliating terms in the treaty of versailles at the end of WW1, league of Nations was ineffective

Answer 7

Some power crazy painter decided he wanted to rule the world

Answer 8

Invasion
resistance
alliance
nationalism
agression
madmen

Answer 9

Market realignment of the super powers...

Answer 10

World War II (abbreviated WWII), or the Second World War, was a worldwide conflict fought between the Allied Powers and the Axis Powers, from 1939 until 1945. Armed forces from over seventy nations engaged in aerial, naval and ground-based combat. Spanning much of the globe, World War II resulted in the deaths of over 62 million people, making it the deadliest conflict in human history. The war ended with an Allied victory.

Causes
The immediate causes of World War II are generally held to be the German invasion of Poland, as well as the Japanese attacks on China, the United States, and the British and Dutch colonies. All of the attacks resulted from the leadership of authoritarian ruling elites in Germany and Japan. World War II began after these acts of aggression were met with an official declaration of war or armed resistance.

Cause of war in Europe
Germany and France had been struggling for dominance in Continental Europe for fifty years, and fought two previous wars, the Franco-Prussian War, and World War I. Meanwhile the power of the Soviet Union threatened to eclipse them both as industrialization spread to this massive country. World War I had been a preemptive war by Germany against the precursor to the Soviet Union, the Russian Empire,[1] but it ended in catastrophe for the Germans, with millions dead, the loss of some peripheral territory, and economic hardships.

In the six years preceding World War II, Adolf Hitler, leading the Nazi Party, took power in Germany and eliminated its democratic government, the Weimar Republic. As stated in Mein Kampf, an autobiographical book outlining his plans for the future, Hitler's goal was to invade and conquer lands around Germany, and to make them German. He railed against Communists and ethnic minorities, such as Jews. After taking power, he prepared Germany for another war with large political rallies and speeches.

During the late 1930s Hitler abrogated the Treaty of Versailles, which had brought peace after WWI. He remilitarized the Rhineland, and increased the size of the German army, navy, and air force.

The British and French governments followed a policy of appeasement in order to avoid a new European war, out of concern for perceived war-weariness of their populations due to the huge death tolls of the first World War. This policy culminated in the Munich Agreement in 1938, in which the seemingly inevitable outbreak of the war was averted when the United Kingdom and France agreed to Germany's annexation and immediate occupation of the German-speaking regions of Czechoslovakia. In exchange for this, Hitler gave his word that Germany would make no further territorial claims in Europe.[2][3] Chamberlain declared that the agreement represented "peace in our time." In March 1939, Germany invaded the rest of Czechoslovakia, effectively killing any notions of appeasement.

The failure of the Munich Agreement showed that negotiations with Hitler could not be trusted, as his aspirations for dominance in Europe went beyond anything that the United Kingdom and France would tolerate. Poland and France pledged on May 19, 1939 to provide each other with military assistance in the event either was attacked. The British had already offered support to Poland in March.

On August 23, 1939, Germany and the Soviet Union signed the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact. The Pact included a secret protocol that would divide Central Europe into German and Soviet areas of interest, including a provision to partition Poland. Each country agreed to allow the other a free hand in its area of influence, including military occupation. The deal provided for sales of oil and food from the Soviets to Germany, thus reducing the danger of a British blockade such as the one that had nearly starved Germany in World War I. Hitler was then ready to go to war with Poland and, if necessary, with the United Kingdom and France. He claimed there were German grievances relating to the issues of the Free City of Danzig and the Polish Corridor, but he planned to conquer all Polish territory to incorporate it into the German Reich. The signing of a new alliance between the United Kingdom and Poland on August 25 did not significantly alter his plans.

On September 1, 1939, Germany invaded Poland, causing France and the United Kingdom to declare war. The United Kingdom brought with it the huge British Empire, and most members of the British Commonwealth joined the war soon after.

Cause of war in Asia
Imperial Japan in the 1930s was largely ruled by a militarist clique of Army and Navy leaders intending to make Japan a great colonial power. Japan invaded Manchuria in 1931 and China in 1937 to bolster its meager stock of natural resources, to relieve Japan from population pressures and to extend its colonial realm to a wider area. The United States and the United Kingdom reacted by making loans to China, providing covert military assistance, pilots and fighter aircraft to the Chinese Kuomintang and instituting progressively broad natural resource embargoes against Japan. The embargoes could have ultimately forced Japan to give up its newly conquered possessions in China or find new sources of oil and other resources.

Japan was faced with the choice of withdrawing from China, negotiating some compromise, developing new sources of supply, buying what they needed somewhere else, or going to war to conquer the territories that contained oil, bauxite and other resources in the Dutch East Indies, Malay and the Philippines. Japan's leaders believed that the French, Dutch, Soviet and British governments were preoccupied with the war in Europe, and that the United States could not be war-ready for years and would compromise before waging full-scale war. Japan thus proceeded with its plans for the war in the Pacific, and invaded and conquered nations and colonial possessions throughout Asia and the Pacific.[4]

For propaganda purposes, Japan's leaders stated that the goal of its military campaigns was to create the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere. This, they claimed, would be a co-operative league of Asian nations, freed by Japan from European imperialist domination, and liberated to achieve autonomy and self-determination. In practice, occupied countries and peoples were completely subordinate to Japanese authority.

The direct cause of the United States' entry into the war with Japan was the attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. Germany declared war on the United States on December 11, 1941.