To uncover the origins of the Second World War is a difficult task and to summarize it, even more so, but this is exactly what historian P.M.H. Bell does in his astounding book The Origins of the Second World War in Europe. Although Bell does a great job of providing accounts on both sides of the debate on the origins of the Second World War, he does have his own mindset about it. In his eyes, Bell sees the Second World War as being a thirty year war, driven by the ideology and economics of Germany, which was not preplanned by blueprint. He outlines this very clearly in the conclusion of his book, basing it on knowledge that he interlaid throughout.
Bell begins this read by illustrating the theory of the thirty years war. This,
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While Hitler wasn 't interested in conquering the mighty USSR from the start, he did for see an eventual war with her for her abundant resources16. Thus, the clash that the two countries had in 1941 was long coming, but not a surprise.
Living space then, was a necessary objective in Hitler 's eyes, but in order to achieve this space he needed to develop Germany 's army first. So he did. Between 1933 and 1939 the Treaty of Versailles was secretly avoided to massively increase the size of the German army, from 100,000 to 300,00017. The Luftwaffe, German air force, also rapidly increased and by 1940 it was the strongest among all the European powers. The German war machine was impressive, in just six years it went from being the weakest army to one of the strongest18. However, this created a vicious circle in terms of foreign policy for Germany: Hitler wanted living space, so he built up the army. However, in order to pay for this rapid rearmament, he had to conquer territories. Thus, Hitler made war profitable and a key part of the foreign policy of Germany19.
To sum up, Hitler 's Germany lived on a balanced diet of economics and ideology. On the one hand, Hitler 's ideology called for living space for his great Aryan race. However, on the other hand, economics were the backbone of building an army large enough to acquire it. This resulted in Hitler conquering many new lands for his cause. First there was
The causes of World War II are the Great Depression, the Treaty of Versailles, the Japanese Expansion, fascism, appeasement, and hitler and the nazi party.
While in Germany, Hitler served in the German forces in World War I. After the war, he was awarded two crosses for bravery in the war. Soon, he joined a group called the German Worker’s Party. He soon rose to leadership of the group and created their symbol which included the swastika. This is how he gained complete power of Germany. This is just personal accomplishments, Hitler also made some successful changes for Germany. Hitler broke free of the international banking cartels. When Hitler became chancellor of Germany, the people had no money, no job, and no food. People were struggling until Hitler completely left the international banking system and started his own currency known as Reich
From Hitler's perspective, the German empire demanded more territories. Hitler stated that all the German people should be in one nation (Document 1). Thus, the idea of expanding colonies became the central goal of Hitler's government. As a result, the best way for Germany to get the its needs was to start a
Changes were happening all over Europe between World War I and World War II, and the book Europe in the Era of Two World Wars highlights a lot of them. Volker Berghahn, the author, discusses how violence escalated all across Europe during this time frame. The book digs into the desires and upsets of countries like Germany, Britain, France, and Russia, during war times more than others I have read do. Economies of each country and the escalading violence are the main focuses of the book. In the following review of Berghahn’s work, Europe in the Era of Two World Wars, I will highlight why the author is qualified to write the book, and survey the strengths and weakness of the information he provided.
Hitler wanted his country’s population to grow. The German land mass was small and if Hitler wanted a growth in population he would need more land. Hitler was quoted saying, “The
Superficially, Hitler's economic policies were extremely successful. He appeared to have virtually eradicated unemployment, something no democratic Western power was able to achieve in the 1930s and within three years of gaining office. Yet beneath the "economic miracle", as Ian Kershaw points out, Hitler was pursuing economic policies in those early years which could only lead to war or a loss of power. The reality was that Hitler understood little about economics and seemed to care even less. His aims were to create full employment without inflation, to make Germany self-sufficient and to create Wehrwirtschaft, a defence economy, but in pursuing these policies he created
Hitler cultivated his own army to destroy selective demographics, he wanted to create a world where his concept of ideal was the only one that existed. As a dictator he was able to constitute laws, anyone who chose to disobey these laws would be executed. The laws that are put into place can define success through evil acts. The Holocaust is a direct example; Hitler knew he would be able to brainwash human beings to obey his commands contributing to the success of his dehumanizing scheme.
Prior to the First World War, Europe was the world center of industry and capital. Massive death, destruction, and resentment after World War I left most countries unable to recover to a normal existence and damaged the world economy. The economic collapse and the political instability caused by World War I eventually led to the rise of fascism in Europe. Forceful dictators in Italy, Germany, and Japan took advantage of these problems to seize power by territorial expansion. These events caused a major repositioning of world power and influence. This paper traces a variety of significant factors and forces that contributed to the outbreak of World War II.
On the other hand, the army was a symbol of pride, therefore, to have such a small army was humiliating for them and after the Treaty, Hitler managed to use this into his favour as he kept reminding Germans of this humiliation and consequently, he gained more support. Hitler came into power because he wanted to overthrow the Treaty of Versailles and restore German pride and consequently gain more support. Hitler succeeded to make the Germans believe that the Jews and the leaders who signed the treaty were to be blamed and eventually called them November Criminals. He clearly portrayed those ideas in his book, Mein Kampf, which he wrote when he was in prison following a disastrous outcome of the Munich putsch. He had realised that he could take control of Germany by force, so, he managed to increase his support by displaying how the Treaty of Versailles was impacting Germany. He particularly wanted to rearm Germany following its disarmament as per the Treaty. German citizens hated the fact that they had to disarm and Hitler managed to use this hatred to convince them and gain
On February 3, 1933 during a meeting with German military leaders Hitler said his foreign policy was the conquest of Eastern Europe (Weinberg, 1970), also in 1933 Germany withdrew from the League of Nations, which should have been a warning sign that they were planning something big. This along with the increase of the Wehrmacht (German Army) to 600,000 should have thrown up some red flags to Britain and France that Hitler was up to no go. This was another of Hitler’s direct violations of the Versailles Treaty, yet no one stopped him, instead they let him continue untouched. Then in March of 1936
Hitler was a Totalitarian ruler and he used the military to enforce his power. He controlled education and economic policies; he even used propaganda to get his point around of how he was a good person before he changed everything. Before Hitler ruled over Germany, he had
To consider the inevitability of allied victory in Europe during World War Two requires a more in depth analysis of Germany’s position rather than just looking at the pure ability for the allies to produce war materials and incalculable streams of soldiers. Ultimately ‘quantity of men and arms tells us little about quality’. Obviously Allied victory was final and decisive but this essay will argue that even though this war was won on economic power it did not mean that victory for the nations that were to be industrial superpowers was inevitable. However Allied victory eventually did become inevitable after certain turning points in the war, this essay will demonstrate how the two most important turning points, the Battle for Stalingrad
The start of war in Europe is marked by a series of events that made Hitler feel very confident in himself and his choices. I think that this is an important part of the chapter because in order to fully understand an issue (WWII) you have to first look at its roots. The first key factor was the fact that France, Great Britain, and Italy chose not to do much when Hitler broke the Treaty of Versailles by increasing its army more than five times it had been allowed as well as creating an air force, even though he could only have a small navy. The second mistake was again a lack of action on the part of countries that were part of the treaty when Hitler chose to invade Rhineland (which didn’t even have military). France had the right to fight
Once in power Hitler quickly established himself as dictator. He started hauling off thousands of anti-Nazis to concentration camps. The economy, the media, and all cultural activities were brought under Nazi authority by making an individual’s livelihood dependent on their political loyalty. His desire was to establish German rule over Europe and other parts of the world. He realized that this would lead to a European conflict and so he started his plan to conquer Europe by invading Poland in 1939 and started World War ll . The war started off good for the Germans but once the United States entered the war they started to lose. As time passed, defeat became more certain, but Hitler refused to give up. Finally with all of Germany overrun by Allied
He saw Britain as well as Russia to gain power and wealth. He expanded the army and left the League of Nations to start off the war (History). Britain was the only power left after Poland, Denmark, Norway, Holland, Belgium, Luxemburg, and France (Biography). Because they were the only power left Hitler tried to overcome them right away through air but that was postponed (Biography). Through all this America was brought into the war (History). In History, “Hitler was now at war against a coalition that included the world's largest Empire (Britain), the world’s largest financial power (US) and the world's largest army (Soviet Union). He didn’t end there but his inner black hole longed for more. Hitler wanted Russia too which lead to the sending of 3 million troops to the Soviet Union (History). His decision to attack Russia may have lead to their defeat in WW2. Although He overran all countries at first, Russia came back through their urgency and warred against Germany along with the cold war helping them win (History). Hitler got too far in what lands and what power that he wanted crushing the country through war. He was never satisfied and could not stop until the greedy beast inside was fed, but that didn't end the way he may have