Top 10 Main Causes Of World War II?
World War II, which took place between September 1939 and September 1945, was the bloodiest conflict in human history. Although there is no exact count of war casualties, it is believed that as many as 85 million people died as a direct or indirect result of the conflict. The war involved all the great powers of the world and touched almost every corner of the globe. On one side was the Axis, led by Germany, Italy, and Japan. On the other side were the Allies, led by the United States, the United Kingdom, France, and the Soviet Union. There were numerous reasons for the outbreak of World War II, from the megalomaniacal ambitions of ruthless dictators to unprovoked attacks on countries that precipitated their entry into the war. These are the main causes of the outbreak of World War II, the most destructive conflict of humanity. Here are Top 10 Main Causes Of World War II.
Top 10 Main Causes Of World War II:
The rise of dictators and their imperialist ambitions
Before World War II began, two men took power in the countries of Germany and Italy. One was Benito Mussolini, who became Prime Minister of Italy in 1922. The other was Adolf Hitler, who became Chancellor of Germany in 1933. Before long, the two men turned their countries into tyrannical dictatorships. Mussolini sought the resurrection of the Roman Empire, while Hitler sought the formation of a new German empire, the Third Reich, which he wanted to stretch from the Ural Mountains in the east to the west coast of Europe.
The Treaty of Versailles and the desire for revenge
Hitler was able to rise to power in Germany in part because he was able to harness the anger of the German people in response to the terms of his surrender in World War I. The Treaty of Versailles forced Germany to cede large tracts of territory and pay war reparations, which significantly damaged the German economy. Hitler promised his people revenge against the Allied powers and the expansion of German power and territory.
The great Depression
The economic ruin brought about by the Great Depression of the 1930s helped spark the rise of many extremist movements in Europe, of which Nazism and fascism were just two. During the Depression, the Nazis and Fascists fought against the Communists, but it was the earlier movements that were ultimately victorious.
Pre-World War II conquests
Before World War II officially began, the powers that would merge to form the Axis had already launched campaigns of conquest. Shortly after Hitler came to power, he managed to take control of Austria and part of what was then Czechoslovakia without any major combat operations. Italy had already conquered Ethiopia and Albania, and Japan was expanding its imperial kingdom decades before World War II began, conquering the Korean Peninsula, Taiwan, and the southern half of the Soviet Far Eastern island of Sakhalin. In 1931, Japan began its attempt to conquer China by invading Manchuria. The fact that the Axis powers were able to expand their territory with little or no resistance from the rest of the international community only encouraged them to make more conquests.
The failure of appeasement
A leader of the Western powers, British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain, believed that he could placate Adolf Hitler by appeasing him, thus allowing the Nazi dictator to take a small piece of territory in Czechoslovakia without provoking a war, and getting Hitler to promise that future territory. . disputes would be resolved by non-violent means. But just a few months later, Hitler broke his promise and seized all of Czechoslovakia.
Unprovoked attacks against uninvolved powers
The Nazi invasion of Poland, which began on September 1, 1939, was the catalyst for the outbreak of World War II, when the Allied powers finally abandoned diplomacy and appeasement, deciding that only force could stop the Axis powers from destroying Poland. make new conquests. But even after the Nazi invasion of Poland, the war remained very much a European conflict. The Soviet Union and the United States had not yet begun to fight the Axis powers. However, the unprovoked attacks on them changed that. In the summer of 1941, the Nazis invaded the Soviet Union, dragging the communist dictatorship into the conflict. Just six months later, another unprovoked attack brought the US into the war on the side of the Allies, when on December 7, 1941, Japanese forces bombed the US naval base at Pearl Harbour.
Top 10 Main Causes Of World War II