What are the main reasons of world war 2?

Question

i need to know for my investiagtions class!!!!!!!!!11

please help me!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Answer 1

~This won't help you unless you do the research you will need to support it. That is your teacher's intent, and mine.

The European theater was the product of the Treaty of Versailles, 1919. As to how and why, read what Woodrow Wilson was saying during the negotiations.

The rest of Europe in 1919 wanted to relegate Germany to permanent status as a second rate nation. At Versailles, they tried to do it. The Germans took offense. The Great Depression, also largely (but not solely) brought about by the Treaty set the stage for Hitler and the National Socialists to rise to power and to bring with them their ideas of restoration of German pride and power. As Germany rebuilt and rearmed, Britain and France failed to keep pace. Churchill knew - and told FDR - that the only nation that could beat Germany in a war on the continent was the Soviet Union. The Molotov-Ribbentrop Treaty of August, 1939, took the Soviets out of the equation and gave Hitler the green light to invade Poland from the west - while Stalin moved in from the east. The natural animosity between the Germans and Russians, as well as between the National Socialists and Communists, dictated that Molotov-Ribbentrop would be short-lived. Germany moved first, initially by convincing (though the brilliant plans and efforts of Heydrich, Goebbels and Himmler) Stalin that his generals were planning a coup and to purge his army and General Staff, then by launching Operation Barbarossa. The Germans miscalculated Soviet ability, capability and will and Churchill was proven correct. The war was effectively over when the Red Army repulsed Barbarossa and beat the Wehrmacht at Stalingrad.

Racial purification was a consequence of the war, not a cause of it. Protection of the Jews was not a consideration of the Allies, as they made clear at the Evian Conference in July 1938. Evian gave Hitler the go ahead to pursue the Final Solution and the larger aspects of his racial purification programs against the Slavs, Ukraines, Serbs, Romas and other forgotten victims of the holocaust, but the western democracies had no interest in going to war over that. (Why would they? The French had done much the same throughout their colonial period, the British were still carrying 'The White Man's Burden', especially in India and Asia, and the exploits of the US Bureau of Indian Affairs had given Himmler and Heydrich the blueprint for a campaign of genocide and the idea for the concentration camps, if not the extermination camps. The Germans were doing nothing that the other powers hadn't themselves done.) French and British treaty obligations to Poland brought about the declarations of war against Germany (but not the Soviets) by the British and French in September 1939, but those declarations had no practical effect (as evidenced by 'The Phoney War' of September, 1939, to April, 1940 (or, as Churchill dubbed it, the 'Sitzkrieg')). It was the obvious lack of resolve of the Allies and the failure of the peace negotiations that had been underway since the invasion of Poland that convinced Hitler to invade France and the Low Countries.

What one must remember is that the Teutonic tribes of Europe have written the history of the western world since the fall of Greece. It was Teutons who founded Rome. The Celtic, Gaul, Angle, Saxon, Breton and Frank Teutons who were displace from what is now Germany were the progenitors of the United Kingdom, France and the US. The Goths, Vandals and Visogoths were instrumental in the rise of Spain and Portugal. The Normans left Scandinavia and helped build France and England. The Rus were booted out of Norway and thus was born Russia. The infighting between the Teutons in Europe was as eternal and constant as was the continuous war between American Indians in the Western hemisphere and both World Wars were but a continuation of those conflicts.

Much the same was going on in the Pacific. The war did NOT start with Pearl Harbor. It started with the Second Sino-Japanese war in July, 1937 (or with the preliminary skirmishing from 1931 on). Japan was joining the 20th century. The Rising Sun has never had the resources on the home islands to feed her people or to be a modern, industrial nation. Japan and China had been natural enemies for centuries. The logical place for Japan to expand was into China. Through various treaties and trade agreements, Great Britain and the US (among others) were doing their best to curtail the growth of Japan as an industrial nation and as a military power. Great Britain, particularly, was deathly afraid of a modern Japanese Imperial navy and the Brits knew that they would not be able to hold British colonies against a modern Japanese army and navy. The US bases in the Philippines, on Midway, on Guam and at Pearl were guns pointed at Japan's heart and head. The trade embargoes against Japan put her in the same position that Germany was in in Europe.

The British, US, Soviets and Germans were sending supplies and troops to aid the Chinese. The Germans switched sides in September, 1940. There was growing sentiment in the US to take an active role in the Pacific and to stop pretending to be neutral. With the Tripartite Treaty, Japan had a little (very little) breathing room, but US and British trade and military policies continued to try to retain the subjugation and subservience of Japan. When the US beefed up facilities at Subic Bay and Manila Bay in 1940 and then parked 13,000 marines in the Philippines in November, 1941, it was pretty obvious to even a blind observer that (declared) war was on horizon and feigned US neutrality was coming to an end.

Pearl Harbor was intended to give Japan a sudden, stunning and complete victory over the US fleet that would bring Washington to the bargaining table in earnest (pre-Pearl negotiations had failed to produce results) and to get for Japan recognition that she was entitled to be able to exist as an equal in the community of nations. The Western hegemony that had been foisted on the East was anathema to the Japanese, rightly so, and was going to come to an end one way or another. The West, of course, was not going to stand idly by and watch the vivisection of the various western empires by the 'Yellow Peril'.

Had the carriers been in port and had Yamamoto taken out Midway on his way home, the plan may have worked. No invasion of the US was ever planned or intended by Japan. Yamamoto and Tojo knew that only a full and complete victory over the fleet and denial to the US of her Pacific bases in one fell swoop could have a chance to bring about the desired treaty. They were not optimistic, but they knew they had nothing to lose since if they didn't attack first, they would be fighting a defensive war or Japan would once again kow-tow to Western will just as Matthew Perry and his Black Ships had made Shogun Tokugawa Ieyoshi do in 1854. Yamamoto and Togo were correct, and the attack, while an initial success, failed. Then Halsey got his rash and Nimitz had real admirals, Fletcher and Spruance, at Midway to take out Yamamoto's best capital ships and seal the victory in the Pacific. None of it would have been necessary if Japan had simply been allowed to feed herself, to have access to the raw materials she needed to industrialize and to be granted the right to protect her sphere of influence. (Given the conflicting interests of the British in the region, that simply was not going to happen.) Given free reign, Japan may have made inroads in Indonesia, China and Manchuria but the US borders were never, and would never have been, threatened. As it turns out, by losing the war Japan got what she was after since the great US ally of WWII, China, is now the bad guy and Japan is an industrial giant. Fancy that - we created the monster we were trying to kill in the womb.

In short, both theaters of war came about by reason of the national hubris of the 'have' nations and their desire to maintain their supremacy on the world stage, and by the national pride and chauvinism of the 'have not' nations and their demand to be treated as equals and to be allowed to survive and grow. Shorter still, greed and money, national pride, political ideology and ignorance. Same as all wars. It's the human condition. So it goes

Answer 2

The political status quo in Europe established by The Treaty of Versailles 1920 and the world economic state at that time are two essential reasons. Also consider Germany’s wounded pride (which is an aspect of the Versailles point).

Answer 3

Wow!
after seeing the others i have to respond.
the austro-hungarian war caused ww2.
it is too simplistic and uninformed to say nationalism or the nazis were the sole cause, though it is the most common politically correct answer.
however it doesnt stand up to serious impartial historical fact or investigation.
who caused the nazis?
the punitive socialistic league of nations with their attempt to destroy Germany at the end of ww1
did the Germans start ww1?- NO
the serbians ( a communist faction thereof) assassinated the arch duke of hungry (Ferdinand)
Germany was bound by treaty to protect the austro-hungarians, just as the western countries were bound by treaty to oppose them and support their friends.
thus started ww1
all of the principal countries were eager for war.
all of the principal countries were nationalist (both the left and right wing varieties)
austro-hung controlled Serbia after the a-h war and the communists there used this as a point of incitement for their 'world wide workers revolution', which should be even more insidious to anti-nationalists if they were to think about it seriously because it was a supra-nationalistic idea that wanted to subjugate all people on earth. this is pure pan-nationalistic hysteria at its height.

there really is too much to put in such a small post. you need to understand European history to understand ww2.
the biggest mistake you can make is to think of the world wars as separate and unique events.
they were just a continuation of the previous ones, and a way to settle old scores and get revenge.
go to a university library and research it. you'll not get descent answers this way unless you want over simplistic answers that have more to do with politics and political correctness than with real history and fact.
hope this helped.

the previous poster said
".we decided enough is enough and came to the aid of those countries Hitler had attempted to take over and turn communist."
Hitler and the Nazis were OPPOSED to the communists not for them! and the reds killed 3 times the people the Nazis did. they were both evil, but the reds were FAR MORE evil! IMHO.

Answer 4

Germany was in ruin after ww1, and the great depression just made things worse. During harsh times harsh leaders get voice. Hitler did turn Germany around but he did so by instilling hate and fear into the population, mostly tword the Jews, but they were told that Germans were the purest form of humanity. By 1939, Germany built up the most advanced army in the world, and launched attacks against most of his neighbors. France, Poland, and Belgium got the worst of it. Spain and Finland both had their government replaced with the Nazi Regime, but they didn't contribute much to Hitler's war due to internal conflict. Italy and Japan, having common enemies, allied with Germany, and the Soviet Union signed a truce with Germany out of fear. The UK managed to slow Germany, but only with help from American supplies brought over. This caused Germany to start sinking American transports with their submarines and then they declared war against the US soon after.

In December of 1941, Japan launched an attack against the United States at the main US naval base of Pearl Harbor. The reason why is because America placed an embargo on Japan due to their war of conquest in China, and that hurt Japan's industry badly, as about half of their materials came from America. At the time of Pearl Harbor, the Japanese Navy was far better than the American, and they planed to "cut the head off the beast" strait away, but they underestimated the American industry.
"I fear all we have done is to awaken a sleeping giant and fill him with a terrible resolve." - Admiral Yamamoto, Fleet Commander of the Imperial Japanese Navy after the attack on Pearl Harbor.

Brief story of the start of WW2

Answer 5

Nazi Germany and communist Russia signed the Nazi/Stalin pact and both Germany and Russian invaded Poland in 1939; Great Britain honored her treaty with Poland and WWII was underway.

Then the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor on December 7th, 1941 and Hitler declared war against the USA on December 12th, 1941.

The Nazis and the commies started WWII.

Answer 6

The close relationship of Britain and American ties. The lend lease of war aid and when Germany invaded Poland brought the necessity of the U.S. to enter the war. This background policy started the real beginning of ww2.
Spartawo...

Answer 7

Germany invaded Poland...England, France, Holland, etc...Hitler felt the Germans were a superior race and anyone who failed to fit into the ideal "Aryan" look...he hated Jews, or anyone who did not look or act like HE thought they should...
His way was to exterminate people like bugs...treating them as they were less than human...since Hitler decided to invade other countries, and continued with his atrocities against his "fellow man:"...we decided enough is enough and came to the aid of those countries Hitler had attempted to take over and turn communist..he was an EVIL, SICK person...

Answer 8

Germany invading Poland.

Answer 9

oil and steel

Answer 10

nationalism.....German and Japanese