What caused WW2

Hi, there I was just wondering what peoples views were on what was the main cause of world war 2. In my opinion the war was caused by the Germans invading Poland which brought Britain and France into the equation.

Just wanted to get some opinions of some others on here.

 

There are probably as many answers as there were people killed during World War II. It really depends on how you look at it - you can point back to around 1900, the unification of Germany, World War I, the Versailles Treaty, etc. Really depends on what level you look at it.

 

I think the answer you are looking for is that Hitler and his parties views of the world caused WWII. They were the driving force behind the militarization and the invasions of other countries. Then you also had the Japanese imperialistic view and their arrogance in attacking the U.S. following the oil embargo.

But it can easily be said if it wasn't Hitler then it may have been another dictator or party. The underlying "causes" of the war are economic. The reparations owed to European nations under the Versailles treaty nearly broke Germany's back in the 1920s, then combine this with a global economic depression. The average German was looking for strong leadership that would put food in his belly.They were ready and willing to accept just about anyone and just about any agenda. And that agenda became quite literally the conquering of the world. It is hard to not listen to someone who promises you that a greater Germany in command of the globe is going to happen.

Then of course there was the old wound that many believed the German troops were never defeated in WWI, which was prevalent in the aristocracy and military elite.

What made it a WORLD war is similar to WWI's system of entangling alliances. Britain and France were dragged in because of their polish alliance. Before 1941 it was just a European war. Germany invades Russia in June and expands it dramatically. Then the axis pact with Japan compels Germany to declare war on the U.S. after pearl harbor (though the U.S. likely would have done so anyway).

It is too easy in our American complacency to believe that the moment the U.S. became involved the war really started. When Germans spoke of "The War" they referred to the Eastern Front with Russia. That was the majority of the fighting and death in WWII. But that is for another topic.

During this time period we had the rise of fascism in Europe and the general explosion of militaristic regimes. It is almost a bizarre period of history in which all these empire-seeking nations rose up together all over the world starting conflict. For most of them the seeds were sown very far in the past and instigated by the hard times of the Great Depression. In the end, imo, THAT is the cause of WW2 on a global scale.

 

Beyond the obvious, a war of that scale had many tipping points.

I would say the race for the A bomb was also a huge factor in America's part of the war.

Sure we hated Hitler, and Imperial Japan, but damn...we sure wanted to have the nukes before any of those wackos did. The war with Germany was also a strategic part of draining resources and hindering the very smart German scientist from any expansion of their A-bomb capabilities. They had the rockets and the buzz bombs and were also very close to developing a nuke.

There are a lot of contributing factors, but it is no coincidence that the war ended with Germany shortly after our first successful A-bomb test.
It is also rumored that Japan was attempting to surrender, but we A-bombed them anyway.
There are books on the subject, and if you watch movies like "The Good Shepard" and "the Manhattan Project", you can see that intelligence was a huge part of the American victory.

Its a scary thought to think what the world would look like if Nazi Germany had one that race.



Bill

 

In a nutshell, World war 2 was a continuation of World War 1 that never really ended. In the Pacific, the Japanese were led by a military government who knew japan needed resources that it lacked (just about everything you can name). They could choose to get these resources either by trade or by military conquest, they chose to get them by conquest. The decision by Roosevelt to cut off Japan's oil to punish them for invading China was decisive, the Japanese either had to attack the US or give up all their conquests. Pearl Harbor and the ensuing US declaration of war was the result.

In Europe its safe to say that WW2 was caused by the results of WW1. Hitler above all people was very resentful and angry about the humiliating reparations and loss of territory the allies had inflicted on the Germans via the Versailles treaty. He also had grand designs for conquering lebensraum for his german "master race. Such a concept is not new in Germany the concept has been around for centuries (drang nocht osten or march towards the east.) Hitler was a masterful speaker and basically dragged the majority of German people in with him (remember Hitler was voted into power after all). By the time they realized they had a monster on their hands it was too late for anyone to do anything about it until Germany, and Hitler, were destroyed.

 

I would recomend you to purchase a copy of "Europe at War" No simple Victory by Norman Davies ( Macmillan 2006 ). As it says on the cover
Davies has the ability to make us rethink the past. I can assure you
it will open your eyes to a few truths about WW2.
Jmalc.

 

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