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Reasons for the outbreak of world war I
The main causes of World War One
The effects of the German treaty of Versailles
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World War II wasn’t a continuation of World War I. However, World War I was a cause of World War II. The Treaty of Versailles conditions, The Great Depression, and the election of Hitler all began to put World War II in motion. This is different from World War I where alliances, the Kaiser, imperialism, and the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand were the events that stirred the pot. The event that officially started World War II was Germany invading Poland, prompting allies of Poland to declare war on Germany. However, the reasons for invasion are not the same as they were in World War I. One of the causes of this war was the very same treaty that ended the First World War
The Treaty of Versailles was drafted by the “Big Four” leaders, David
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Lloyd George, Georges Clemenceau, Vittorio Orlando, and Woodrow Wilson. It stated that Germany had to accept the guilt of the war and pay the allied nations reparations. This Treaty made the German public very unhappy. The Treaty’s effects in both World Wars can be described in the words of J.K Rowling, “I open at the close.” The Treaty caused good things to happen at the end of World War I, while also causing some of the turmoil that would begin World War II. The massive amount of money Germany had to pay is also why The Great Depression in Germany was one of the worst in the world. Money came to be worth nearly nothing and unemployment was skyrocketing. In Germany, the Great Depression brought huge amounts of inflation. The inflation occurred because Germany did not have the money to pay the allied countries, so they began to print more. This inflation was so terrible that in a loaf of bread that would have cost 163 marks in 1922 cost 200,000,000,000 marks by November 1923 (Truman, 2015). There was also mass unemployment, a whopping thirty percent (Simkin, 2016). This is different from World War I, where many of the countries were in good financial standing. These issues caused many to look to their leaders for an answer. Adolf Hitler gave them the answer they were looking for and was put into office as the Chancellor of Germany on January 30th, 1933. Hitler found supporters by saying he was going to restore the country.
He also used anti-Semitism to earn more supporters, blaming Germany’s issues on the Jews. Hitler was looking to start a war from the beginning, not cooperating in Munich Conference. His reasoning for starting the war was the dispute over the port of Danzig (German)/ Gdansk (Polish). Once he had invaded the allies came into the war under an agreement to protect Poland. The goals of Hitler in World War II are different from the goals in World War I. In World War I, Germany’s goal was to annex territory in France and build a German colonial empire (Thomson, 2014). In World War II, Germany’s goal was to acquire “living space”, Lebensraum, and to have a final settlement with the Jews (Hitler Reveals, 2013). The goals to build and empire and acquire Lebensraum seem very similar, but in reality are different. The empire would be just like the other colonial powers in the world, letting the people stay and live their lives. In the Lebensraum, the people of the country would have been cast aside to make room for more Germans to live in the area and populate it. The difference in goals of Germany is what makes me believe that World War II was not a continuation of World War
I. Germany was one of the main instigators in both these wars. They felt that war was necessary so they brought it to the table. World War II was not a continuation of World War I, but World War I effects are the main cause of World War II causing them to be very connected. The people of Germany felt that they were treated unfairly with the Treaty of Versailles, their money was worth virtually nothing, and many were unemployed. The pressure valve had to open somewhere and in this case the valve being opened was the election of Hitler and the start of World War II. World War I and II are different wars with different battles, different alliances, and different warfare. The one thing that is similar in these two wars and many others are the atrocities and horrors that were committed by both sides of the war.