To what extent was Germany responsible for the World War 2?

Question

This one is tricky......can anyone help me on this questions?

Answer 1

100%

In 1933, Adolf Hitler of the Nazi Party became leader of Germany. Under the Nazis, Germany began to rearm and to pursue a more jingoistic nationalist foreign policy. By 1937, Hitler also began demanding the cession of territories which had historically been part of Germany.

In Europe, Germany, and to a lesser extent Italy, asserted increasingly hostile and aggressive foreign policies and demands, which the United Kingdom and France initially attempted to diffuse primarily through diplomacy.

In September, 1931, Japan invaded Manchuria under false pretexts and captured it from the Chinese. In 1937, Japan again attacked China, starting the Second Sino-Japanese War.

In September 1939, Germany invaded Poland and war in Europe followed. The United Kingdom and France declared war. During the winter of 1939/1940 there was little indication of hostilities since neither side was willing to engage the other directly.

Answer 2

Germany Was Pretty Much Entirely Innocent As A Matter Of Fact. The Only Reason School's Today Brainwash Us That Germany Was The Big 'Baddy' Who Was Always Greedy For Power And Expansion, Thus Starting A War Was Because A). The 'Allies' Won And Could Make Up Whatever They Wanted, And B). The Real Reason Was Because The Serbian's And Austrian's Had Been Neck To Neck For Centuries Back, So When Serbia Boldly Assasinated Austria's Leader There Was Bound To Be A Consiquence. Thus Austria Soon After Declared War On Serbia, Pulling In Germany Because It Was Austria's Brotherly Friend And Sworn Ally - Just Like Britain And America. Serbia Was Allied With Russia And France At The Time And Britain Didn't Really Have Much Of A Reason To Join Except For Wanting To Stay The Supreme Power (Which The Germans 'Threatened' When They Started Up A Navy). Thus When The War Was Won To The 'Allies' Simply For Having More Manpower Really, Germany Was Immidiately The One Held Responsible Because They Were The Only Ones Who Were Of Any Influence In Europe Apart From Britain. To Ensure Germany Remained Down In The Mud The 'Treaty Of Versailles' Was Implemented, In Which The Loser's Countries Were; Greatly Reduced In Size (Obviously The Richest And Most Fertile Land Was Taken), Almost No Army Was Allowed, And Staggeringly High War Debts Were Demanded To Rebuild All The Damage "They" Had Done. The Real Fact Is It Was Actually The 'Allies' Who Started WW1 For The Sake Of Power, And Later Blamed It All On Germany Beause They Could, And Because Obviously Didn't Want People To Learn The Actual Truth Behind The Whole War (Infact To This Day It's Still Lied About In School's etc To Ensure The Truth Doesn't Get Revealed To The Public). Life Is Unfair!!

Answer 3

I would have to say that they are 1/3 responsible for World War 2. The part that they are responsible for is that they really started and/or accelerated military action through the annexation of Austria, the Sudetenland, Alcase-Lourraine (sic) and then the invasion of Poland. There's no other way to view this as being 100% Germanys fault.

The portion that they are NOT to be considered responsible for it and 33% goes to the 'victorious powers' from World War 1. If the treaty ending the war was not so harsh on Germany then the economic and political conditions would not have existed to allow Hitler (an Austrian) to come to power. For this I would lay 33% of the blame on Britain and France.

MANY of the worlds problems actually point back to this treaty as the underlying root-cause.

Finally, 34% of the blame has to be laid on Japan. They are actually the first ones to start any war during this period with their invasion of Manchuria in 1931.

Answer 4

The fact that other nations might have had the power to prevent the war is a completely different thing from them being responsible for it. The war in Africa began because Mussolini was ambitious to take Ethiopia into his empire. The war in Europe began when Hitler invaded Poland, whose defense had been pledged by France and the United Kingdom. The war in Asia began when Japan occupied large portions of China, and it grew even larger with the bombing of Pearl Harbor. All of these things happened before World War II had quite started. What made it a worldwide conflagration were two actions by Hitler: First, invading Poland and honoring his alliance with Mussolini - creating a major European, Near Eastern and North African war; Secondly, honoring his alliance with Japan by declaring war on the United States after a state of war existed between Japan and the USA - creating a world-spanning war in Africa/Eurasia/Oceania - virtually everywhere but the Americas and Antarctica.

Answer 5

Well, there is actually quite a bit of blame to go around. Sure Germany started the war by invading Poland, but there is much more. Looking at the history one can also say that England and France also bear some responsibility for the war. The appeasement of Hitler gave a weak man courage to go forth with war. In a strange way those who wanted diplomacy and peace, encouraged war. There is a fine line between pushing for peace, and a fighting war.

Answer 6

Hello,

In most history exams I have seen in my life, one of the most favourite questions is, " What was the most significanr result of World War I? The correct answer was of course, World War II.

The Versailles Settlement imposed on Germany by the Allied powers after the Armistice; not unconditional surrender was so punitive and demoralizing to Germany doing things like seizing territory to givining her a 33 billion dollar debt that would not have been paid out till 2010, through to arms and industrial restricitons, brought Germany right to her kneees economically with the Great Depression added to bring insult to injury. Her pride and dignity was hurt, people needed their bread so a great messiah type was needed.President Wilson, smarter than many was very much against this settlement. Utimately it made conditions such that the road for the rise of the Nazis was paved in gold.

On the Asian end the American and European attitudes (about those slant eyred rice farting saki peeing yellow men)
along with stiff immigration regulations and oil and other embargos only encouraged the Japanese to expand out militarily and brutally to show they were equal to the white boys, could establish that Asian Co-Prosperity Sphere and ultimately boot out the European colonial powers there.

Based on the above observations, I give the responsibility of WWII 50/50.

Cheers,

Michael Kelly

Answer 7

I think to the extent that they had a history and attitude and belief that war was a solution to their problems and felt mentally and physically superior because of their logic and reasoning powers. The West, however, squeezed them so harshly after WWI, that they balked and elected right wing politicians to get back the lands and manufacturing that had caused them to sink into economic depression and starvation. They went too far through bad leadership and not controlling their leaders by resisting Hitler. That's how I was led to believe it happened. They say WW I caused WW II because of the repressive measure the Allies used after the first World War. It may be that we all have some responsibility. Life is not all that simple as the good guys and the bad guys. Even today world attitudes are caused by individual attitudes multiplied by six and a half billion, so watch your attitudes. What goes around comes around just like a good joke or a virus can go around the world. You can best change things when you take personal responsiblity to change them. I always find I have enough to take care of inside myself. Doesn't anyone else find that to be so?

Answer 8

1/2

Japan caused the other 1/2.

I guess the creators and signers of Versaille treaty deserve some blame for weakening Germany and then sitting by idly as Hitler broke the treaty and began acting aggresivly. WW2, in Europe at least, was one of the most preventable wars in history. If England and/or France had acted strongly and used military force nazi Germany would have collapsed after only a few years.

Answer 9

Not bad you had your homework up on yahoo.answers. ok.
Germany is just a spark for the explosion.

At that point of time, Japan, America, UK are already having the intention to go to war. Japan was already prepared to fight China, planning to take over their land. China was having a revolution by the founding fathers of the republic of China now. So China was high on civil war and thus Japan planned to step in.

On the other hand, the UK which is the Colonial powers of Great Britain, are having control of many territories in the middle-east and the european countries. Germany happened to be within their unfair ownership. And at that time, germany had a very very unstable government and this allowed powerful influencers like Hitler to stand up and form NAZI.

So Germany was like the "Grand opener for the big event". Its not solely Germany's fault to cause the war, its rather Britain's fault that straggled the world that turned it into a fight for power, ownership and THE MOST IMPORTANT THING.

FREEDOM AND INDEPENDENCE!!!

Answer 10

To the extent of the nations that Germany invaded; Japan is responsible for its transgressions, and so forth.
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