Why Did Wwii Break Out in 1939?

Last Updated: 21 Apr 2020
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The Second World War started for many reasons but the most important were: the treaty of Versailles and the negative impact it had upon Germany, the foreign policy of Adolf Hitler and what did the other countries do to stop Hitler’s actions. The treaty of Versailles was a very important factor for the break out of war. The treaty took away land from Germany and gave it to Poland, France and Britain. This land included the colonies that Germany had in Africa that was given to France and Britain.

It made Germany pay huge reparations that left them in a crisis, and Germany was already in a crisis due to the war which made the germans felt it would stop them from recovering. There were a lot of unemployment and whole families suffered from constant hunger. They had to take blame for starting the war and they did not feel it was fair because it was Serbian terrorist groups that trigger it by killing the Archduke Franz Ferdinand. The treaty also ordered the reduction of the German army to only 100,000 men and it limited its navy to six battleships.

The Germans didn’t feel this was fair because it meant that they were nearly helpless if someone tried to conquer them and they felt bitter as the other countries didn’t had to disarm. They also had to demilitarize the Rhineland. The Rhineland was the border between France and Germany and it was demilitarized in order to protect Alsace-Lorraine. The big three had different opinions on whether how to punish Germany. Woodrow Wilson (America) thought that Germany should be treated fairly because if it was punished too harshly they would want revenge.

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America did not suffer as much because of the war due to the fact that the war was not fought in America and they joined the war in 1917 so they did not had such many casualties as the other countries. Lloyd George wanted also a fair settlement but the British people, as Georges Clemenceau (France), wanted revenge because all of the soldiers killed in battle and all of the harm they had done to their country. The Germans became vengeful because overall they did not see fair the treaty of Versailles and the sate it had left the country and they had their revenge with the war.

The second factor was Adolf Hitler’s foreign policy. Hitler wanted to make Germany a big and powerful country so he could have revenge of the other countries because of the treaty. He started to get back all of the things that the treaty had took from Germany, starting with the joining of Germany and Austria. Hitler sent his troops and made the Austrians hold a vote to join Germany to Austria. The Nazis rigged the vote so that 99% of the Austrians voted for unification.

I think that he wanted to unite with Austria because Austrians had German blood so they were part of the Master race, he also wanted Germany to be big and powerful and with Austria he would have more territory and there would be more people working for Germany and it’s army. Then he demanded the Sudetenland region of Austria back to Germany because there were 3 million German people living there and also the Sudetenland had good farming areas and also a lot of raw materials and industries.

This meant that there would be more food for German people and its army, the raw materials and the industries could be used for the air force and navy for the German army. After invading the Sudetenland, the German troops invaded the rest of Czechoslovakia. I think Hitler invaded the rest of Czechoslovakia to have a better chance against the USSR and also to make easier the invasion of Poland by having more land around it. Hitler then made a non-aggression pact with Stalin, they agreed not to fight each other and to share Poland between them.

Hitler wanted the land of the Polish Corridor back to Germany because it had cut Germany in two and many German people lived there. But Poland refused to give back the lands because it would mean that they would lose the only access they had to the sea. Hitler invaded Poland so he could have back that land and to expand its territories. More land meant more men in the army and more space to oppose the USSR. And the last of the most important factors of the breakout of the war was the fact that other countries only reacted and decided to fight back when Hitler conquered Poland.

When Hitler began to rearm Germany they didn’t do nothing because they were more worried of the communist invasion and they thought that a stronger Germany could protect Europe from the USSR. Then, when Hitler rearmed the Rhineland they did not do anything because they thought that it was reasonable for Germany to have troops in their own territories, I think that the other countries weren’t as bothered with the treaty as they were in 1919. When Hitler United with Austria and the Austrian leader asked for help Britain, France and Italy didn’t do wanted was peace.

In 1938, Britain and France made an agreement with Hitler saying that he could have the Sudetenland back if he didn’t took the rest of Czechoslovakia. They were so centered on maintaining peace that they didn’t even talked to the Czechs of this. But when Hitler broke this agreement they didn’t help Czechoslovakia because they wanted to evade war by any means and they promised Poland that if they were attacked by Hitler’s army they would help them. They began to prepare for war because they knew that if Hitler continued his invasions then Poland would go next.

When Hitler invaded Poland, England and France declared war on Germany but they did not send any troops to help Poland as they had promised because they thought it was too late for Poland. On my opinion, if the other countries had decided to act earlier when Hitler was beginning to expand they would have been able to evade war because he was not powerful enough. I think that if they had actually tried to stop war they would have actually done something because it was very obvious that Hitler wanted revenge and he would do more than reversing the treaty of Versailles.

If they had done something things could have been very different to what they are now. There wouldn’t have been so many deaths from soldiers and citizens from the cities, and also whole cities would not have been devastated by the bombs. Also there would not have been as many victims from the holocaust were thousands of Jews died in the concentration camps. In conclusion, the other countries could have prevented the WWII from happening easily by acting when Hitler was weaker.

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Why Did Wwii Break Out in 1939?. (2017, Feb 24). Retrieved from https://phdessay.com/why-did-wwii-break-out-in-1939/

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