what actions taken by national leaders contributed to the outbreak of the second world war??

Question

Yep grade 12 essay question and I have noooooooo clue..
Any help would be greatly appreciated thanks :)

Answer 1

Sigh ... and you're Grade 12?

Cause of War in Europe:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_war_2#Cause_of_war_in_Europe

Cause of War in Asia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_war_2#Cause_of_war_in_Asia

Enjoy.

Answer 2

and oneday you're going to vote? Oh my.... Quick.... before taking another breath, research the word 'appeasement" and "peace in our time". Read everything you find carefully, and rethink your views on Iraq and 9-11.

Sorry friend, but it's 1938 all over again.

Answer 3

I'll give you the worst one. Neville Chamberlin going to Munich to appease Hitler by giving another country to Hitler and didn't care what they thought as long as war was avoided.

Answer 4

Making it impossible for Germany to escape the ravages they brought on themselves for starting WW -1.

Answer 5

*sigh* Is THIS a loaded question!!! Where in the timeline of events would you REALLY like to begin?
Woodrow Wilson's signing of the Versaille Treaty ending WW I -- set up the Germans to fail miserably with heavily burdened reparation payments for a war they did not start.
The allied forces of WW I just up and dropped everything to return home from France leaving the countryside littered with artillary shells with gas in them, unexploded ordinance everywhere. -- Meaning that a nation heavily dependent on agriculture, had no place to plant crops. Germany, Belgium, Austria and Russia, same basic story. With the sudden demobilization of troops back to civilian life, the economy was completely inundated with unemployment.
The newly formed German government (Weinmar Repulic) proved itself to be extremely weak and ineffective. The German economy soon collapsed. This cleared the way for just about anyone offering hope to come in and seize power.
Italy and Russia had essentially the same problems.
Great Britain, allowed in the closing days of the war, a disident living in London to pass out of their country and into Russia, his name was Vladmir Lenin. Lenin then started a revolution that brought the communists to power.
In Japan, the story was wildly different. Japan had been for a very long time, an isolationist country with a closed border. Japan had recently opened its borders (ports) to foreign ships. It was the end of the era of the Samurai and the feudal system. United under one supreme emperor, he held a god like status. The people practiced the religion of Shinto -- which allowed them to view other peoples and societies as inferior to their own. They began a campaign of expansionism.
By the time of the late 1930s, England's mentality of Pax Britanica (All things English, forever the Crown and Colonialism) was coming to an end. Winston Chuchill had been run out of government and the people embraced a liberal minded society
Adolf Hitler had seized power in Germany, had blown off the Versaille Treaty agreements and began a program of rearmorment. Hitler had brought the country out of a great depression and rallied the people around a party of extreme national pride. He too began a program of expansionism. Germany began invading surrounding countries just as Japan was doing.
England sent their Prime Minister -- Neville Chamberlain to try and negotiate a peace agreement with Hitler. England, France and several other countries all agreed to let Germany have the Sudatenland (now Czechoslovakia) in return for the promise of no more fighting. The promise was quickly broken.
Hitler had also made deals with Russia which he broke there as well.
Chamberlain was summoned to a meeting with the King in the spring of 1940. France was on the verge of falling to German troops and the English Expeditionary Force deployed there was threatened with total defeat. When asked for a recommendation for his replacement, Chamberlain said only one name, "Churchill." It was May and within four days of his taking over as Prime Minister, France fell. Churchill was not only capable of assembling a war cabinet, but he also managed to save the troops by getting them out of France.
In the United States, Roosevelt was in office and he too was busy trying to turn a depressed economy back around. Seeing Japan as an agressor, he got a very isolationist minded Congress to take a stand and placed an embargo against Japan, depriving them of raw steel and oil. The two most precious commodiies (other than manpower) to conduct a war.
Churchill had contacted Roosevelt, England too was in need of was materiel. England, with no time to try and produce more weaponry was pleading for Amercan weapons as Germny was now some 30 short miles away from invading. Roosevelt agreed and signed The Lend/Lease Act.
China too was contacting Roosevelt, Japan had invaded and China stood largely without a military. The U.S. agreed to help and sent U.S. warplanes, pilots and crews who were listed as the American Volunteer Group and was later known as The Flying Tigers.
Germany, suspicious about so many freighter ships going to England announce that they would begin torpedoing any ships bound for an English harbor. They sank a number of U.S. flagged civilian ships and a Naval escort. America went to war with Germany. Japan, desparate for the materials needed attempted to negotiate with the U.S., but had a plan B set and ready for execution should the negotiations fail. They failed and Japan struck at both the Philippines and Pearl Harbor. With an incredibly moving speech that ignored some key facts, Roosevelt played the victim and got Congress to declare war.

So, this if for a 12th grade history class? And you have no clue?!! What in the world were you doing? Sleeping? I'm assuming that the teacher wouldn't have asked if he'd not covered it either in class or in assigned reading... Pray you never end up in my class... I'd say "Best of Luck," but another historical book (the Bible) never once mentions that word "Luck."

Answer 6

Chamberlins folly...Ingoring Hitler for what he wrote.