Causes of the Second World War

Though the German invasion of Poland was the immediate

cause for the outbreak of the war, the real cause were much
deeper and varied in character. These were as follows:

Expansionism[edit]
Expansionism is the doctrine of expanding the territorial base (or
economic influence) of a country, usually by means of military
aggression. In Europe, Italy under Benito Mussolini sought to create
a New Roman Empire based around the Mediterranean. It
invaded Albania in early 1938, at the start of the war, and later
invaded Greece. Italy had also invaded Ethiopia as early as 1935. This
provoked angry words and an oil embargo from the League of Nations,
which failed.
Under the Nazi regime, Germany began its own program of expansion,
seeking to restore the "rightful" boundaries of historic Germany. As a
prelude toward these goals the Rhineland was remilitarized in March
1936.[1]
Also, of importance was the idea of a Greater Germany, supporters
hoped to unite the German people under one nation state, which
included all territories where Germans lived, regardless of whether they
happened to be a minority in a particular territory. After the Treaty of
Versailles, a unification between Germany and a newly formed German-
Austria, a successor rump state of Austria-Hungary, was prohibited by
the Allies despite the majority of Austrian Germans supporting such a
union.
In Asia, the Empire of Japan harbored expansionist desires
towards Manchuria and the Republic of China.

Militarism[edit]
Further information: Militarism, Italian irredentism, Weimar
Republic, Statism in Shōwa Japan, and Japanese militarism

Militarism is the principle or policy of maintaining a

strong military capability to use it aggressively to expand national
interests and/or values, with the view that military efficiency is the
supreme ideal of a state.[2] A highly militaristic and aggressive national
ideology prevailed in Germany, Japan and Italy.[3] This attitude fueled
advancements in military technology, subversive propaganda, and
ultimately territorial expansion as well. The leaders of countries that have
been militarized often feel a need to prove that their armies are important
and formidable, and this was often a contributing factor in the start of
conflicts in the interwar period such as the Second Italo-Abyssinian
War and the Second Sino-Japanese War.[4]
During the period of the Weimar Republic (1919–1933), the Kapp
Putsch, an attempted coup d'état against the republican government,
was launched by disaffected members of the armed forces. After this
event, some of the more radical militarists and nationalists were
submerged in grief and despair into the NSDAP, while more moderate
elements of militarism declined. The result was an influx of militarily-
inclined men into the Nazi Party which, when combined with their racial
theories, fueled irredentist sentiments and put Germany on a collision
course for war with its immediate neighbors.
Two contemporaneous factors in Japan contributed both to the growing
power of its military and chaos within its ranks leading up to the Second
World War. One was the Cabinet Law, which required the Imperial
Japanese Army (IJA) and Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) to nominate
cabinet members before changes could be formed. This essentially gave
the military veto power over the formation of any Cabinet in the
ostensibly parliamentary country. Another factor was gekokujō, or
institutionalized disobedience by junior officers. It was not uncommon for
radical junior officers to press their goals, to the extent of assassinating
their seniors. In 1936, this phenomenon resulted in the February 26
Incident, in which junior officers attempted a coup d'état and killed
leading members of the Japanese government. In the 1930s, the Great
Depression wrecked Japan's economy and gave radical elements within
the Japanese military the chance to force the entire military into working
towards the conquest of all of Asia. For example, in 1931 the Kwantung
Army (a Japanese military force stationed in Manchuria) staged
the Mukden Incident, which sparked the Invasion of Manchuria and its
transformation into the Japanese puppet state of Manchukuo.

Germans vs Slavs[edit]
Further information: Racial policy of Nazi Germany, Lebensraum,
and Drang nach Osten

Twentieth-century events marked the culmination of a millennium-long

process of intermingling between Germans and Slavs. The rise of
nationalism in the 19th century made race a centerpiece of political
loyalty. The rise of the nation-state had given way to the politics of
identity, including Pan-Germanism and Pan-Slavism.
Furthermore, Social-Darwinist theories framed the coexistence as a
"Teuton vs. Slav" struggle for domination, land and limited resources.
[5]
 Integrating these ideas into their own world-view, the Nazis believed
that the Germans, the "Aryan race", were the master race and that the
Slavs were inferior.[6]

Dissatisfaction with the Treaty of Versailles

 The treaty by which the First World War came to an end,
created more problems than it had solved. Germany had to
cede many of its territories and many new nations were
created. The treaty was based on the spirit of revenge and
was forced on Germany.
 German colonies were forcibly taken away and divided
among the victors. Germany, so that Poland could reap
benefits, was divided into two parts. Germany was burdened
with huge war indemnities, her military power also got
reduced.
 This humiliation gave rise to the spirit of revenge and
Germany started looking for an opportunity to do away with
the harsh treaty. Hence, the war became inevitable.
 The Treaty of Versailles was neither lenient enough to
appease Germany, nor harsh enough to prevent it from becoming
the dominant continental power again.[7] Germans largely saw the
treaty place the blame, or "war guilt", on Germany and Austria-
Hungary and punish them for their "responsibility" rather than
working out an agreement that would assure long-term peace. The
treaty provided for harsh monetary reparations, separated millions
of ethnic Germans into neighboring countries, territorial
dismemberment, and caused mass ethnic resettlement. In an effort
to pay war reparations to Britain and France, the Weimar
Republic printed trillions of marks, causing extremely
high inflation of the German currency (see Hyperinflation in the
Weimar Republic).
 The treaty created bitter resentment towards the victors of World
War I, who had promised the people of Germany that U.S.
President Woodrow Wilson's Fourteen Points would be a guideline
for peace; however, the US played a minor role in World War I and
Wilson could not convince the Allies to agree to adopt his Fourteen
Points. Many Germans felt that the German government had
agreed to an armistice based on this understanding, while others
 felt that the German Revolution of 1918–1919 had been
orchestrated by the "November criminals" who later assumed
office in the new Weimar Republic.
 The German colonies were taken during the war, and Italy took
the southern half of Tyrol after an armistice had been agreed upon.
The war in the east ended with the defeat and collapse of Russian
Empire, and German troops occupied large parts of Eastern and
Central Europe (with varying degree of control), establishing
various client states such as a kingdom of Poland and the United
Baltic Duchy. After the destructive and indecisive battle of
Jutland (1916) and the mutiny of its sailors in 1917, the Kaiserliche
Marine spent most of the war in port, only to be turned over to the
allies and scuttled at surrender by its own officers. The lack of an
obvious military defeat was one of the pillars that held together
the Dolchstosslegende ("Stab-in-the-back myth") and gave the
Nazis another propaganda tool at their disposal.
Japan's seizure of resources and markets[edit]

Other than a few coal and iron deposits, and a small oil field
on Sakhalin Island, Japan lacked strategic mineral resources. At the
start of the 20th century in the Russo-Japanese War, Japan had
succeeded in pushing back the East Asian expansion of the Russian
Empire in competition for Korea and Manchuria.
Japan's goal after 1931 was economic dominance of most of East Asia,
often expressed in Pan-Asian terms of "Asia for the Asians.".[18] Japan
was determined to dominate the China market, which the U.S. and other
European powers had been dominating. On October 19, 1939, the
American Ambassador to Japan, Joseph C. Grew, in a formal address to
the America-Japan Society stated:
the new order in East Asia has appeared to include, among other things,
depriving Americans of their long established rights in China, and to this
the American people are opposed ... American rights and interests in
China are being impaired or destroyed by the policies and actions of the
Japanese authorities in China.[19]
In 1937 Japan invaded Manchuria and China proper. Under the guise of
the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere, with slogans as "Asia for
the Asians!" Japan sought to remove the Western powers' influence in
China and replace it with Japanese domination.[20][21]
The ongoing conflict in China led to a deepening conflict with the U.S.,
where public opinion was alarmed by events such as the Nanking
Massacre and growing Japanese power. Lengthy talks were held
between the U.S. and Japan. When Japan moved into the southern
part of French Indochina, President Roosevelt chose to freeze all
Japanese assets in the U.S. The intended consequence of this was the
halt of oil shipments from the U.S. to Japan, which had supplied 80
percent of Japanese oil imports. The Netherlands and Britain followed
suit. With oil reserves that would last only a year and a half during
peacetime (much less during wartime), this ABCD line left Japan two
choices: comply with the U.S.-led demand to pull out of China, or seize
the oilfields in the East Indies from the Netherlands. The Japan
government deemed it unacceptable to retreat from China.

Rise of Fascism and Nazism

 The rise of extreme nationalism in Italy and Germany in
the form of Fascism and Nazism, respectively contributed to
the causes which led to the Second World War.
 Italy wanted to revive the glory of the old Roam Empire
and joined Anti-Comintern Pact in 1937 and formed a 10
years alliance with Germany in 1939.
 Mussolini established Dictatorship in Italy and
demonstrated nation’s imperialistic designs by attacking
Abyssinia. Hitler wanted to re-establish the prestige of
Germany. He flouted the military causes of the Treaty of
Versailles and declared re-armament in 1936 and started
regaining its lost territories on all frontiers.
 In 1938, Hitler annexed Austria and dismembered
Czechoslovakia. Thus, both the leaders through their acts,
furthered the war.
 Hitler and his Nazis took full control of Germany in 1933–34
(Machtergreifung), turning it into a dictatorship with a highly hostile
outlook toward the Treaty of Versailles and Jews.[37] It solved its
unemployment crisis by heavy military spending.[38]
 Hitler's diplomatic tactics were to make seemingly reasonable
demands, then threatening war if they were not met; concessions
were made, he accepted them and moved onto a new demand.
[39]
 When opponents tried to appease him, he accepted the gains
that were offered, then went to the next target. That aggressive
strategy worked as Germany pulled out of the League of Nations
(1933), rejected the Versailles Treaty and began to re-arm with
the Anglo-German Naval Agreement (1935), won back the Saar
(1935), re-militarized the Rhineland (1936), formed an alliance
 ("axis") with Mussolini's Italy (1936), sent massive military aid to
Franco in the Spanish Civil War (1936–39), seized Austria (1938),
took over Czechoslovakia after the British and French
appeasement of the Munich Agreement of 1938, formed a peace
pact with Stalin's Russia in August 1939 – and finally invaded
Poland in September 1939.

Policy of Appeasement
 Britain and France followed the Policy of Appeasement i.e.,
the policy of conciliating an aggressive power at the
expense of some other country towards Germany and Italy.
 They decided to accept the hostile demands of the
aggressive nations to gain peace. They knew that for both
Germany and Italy, the Treaty of Versailles was too harsh
and humiliating and if the grievances of Germany were
removed, it would not disturb the world peace.
 They also wanted to check the rising tide of Communism
and Russian Bolshevism and therefore, allowed Germany to
rearm and to re-militarise the Rhineland and capture Austria
and Czechoslovakia.
 Due to this policy, Fascism and Nazism survived for long
and thus, were able to unleash the Second World War.
 American isolationism was a direct response to the
European events of 1914-18 that the US had ultimately
become embroiled in. This left Britain and France, already
terrified by the prospect of another war, without a key ally
in world diplomacy during the tense interwar period.
 This is most commonly highlighted in relation to the
toothless League of Nations, another product of Versailles,
which patently failed in its mandate to prevent a second
global conflict.
 Through the mid-1930s the Nazis re-armed Germany in
spite of the Treaty of Versailles and without sanction or
protest from Britain or France. The Luftwaffe was founded,
Naval forces were expanded and conscription was
introduced.
 With continuing disregard for the Treaty, German troops
reoccupied the Rhineland in March 1936. Simultaneously,
these developments added to Hitler’s legend within
Germany and provided much-needed employment, whilst
 encouraging the Führer to push foreign appeasement to
the limit.
 Neville Chamberlain, the British Prime Minister from 1937-
40, is the man most closely associated with the
appeasement of Nazi Germany. The retributive conditions
placed on Germany at Versailles meant that many other
potential challengers to Hitler chose to concede the
German right to claim the Sudetenland and complete the
Anschluss of Austria rather than confront him and risk
antagonising war.
 This attitude resulted in the signing of the Munich
Agreement without question of Hitler’s demands, much to
his surprise, which Chamberlain infamously celebrated on
his return to Britain.
 An overwhelming preference for peace amongst British
and French citizens had continued to prevail in the years
prior to 1939. This is highlighted by the brandishing
of Churchill, and others who warned of Hitler’s threat, as a
warmonger.
 There was a sea-change in public opinion following Hitler’s
appropriation of the remainder of Czechoslovakia in March
1939, which contemptuously disregarded the Munich
treaty. Chamberlain then guaranteed Polish sovereignty, a
line in the sand that was forced by the prospect of German
domination in Europe.

Japanese Invasion of China

 Japan’s ambitions rose after the First World War and she
was determined to dominate the far East. In 1931, Japan
invaded Manchuria and occupied it, despite the League’s
opposition. Japan also started an undeclared war against
China in the same year.
 Japan joined the Berlin-Rome axis to form the Berlin-
Rome-Tokyo axis to further its policy of expansion and
conquest. In 1933, Japan left the League of Nations and
started occupying the British and American properties in
China.
 Britain and France felt that this appeasement policy could
be used to weaken China and thus, started following the
same. Thus, a war was inevitable under these
circumstances.
Failure of the League of Nations
 The League of Nations was created to prevent future wars.
However, the USA did not join the League, which proved to
be a blow to the League. Even those, who joined the League
were not interested in the principle of collective security.
 The League succeeded in allying the threat of war in
cases, where the parties involved were small nations, but
did nothing when Poland, with the backing of France seized
a part of Lithuania in 1920.
 In 1923, Italy refused to submit to the League’s
intervention and settled the dispute with Greece by direct
mediation of Great Britain and France. Thereafter in every
crisis, the League was either defied or ignored..
 League’s authority was flouted by Japan, when it seized
Manchuria in 1931 and by Italy, when it conquered Ethiopia
in 1936.
 Countries of Europe lost faith in League’s usefulness as it
failed to maintain International peace. Therefore, they
themselves entered into mutual political and military
alliances.
Hitler’s Invasion of Poland
Germany lost its port city of Danzing, which was given to
Poland as a part of the Treaty of Versailles. The city was mainly
inhabited by Germans. Poland was accused of committing
atrocities against Germans living there.

On 1st September, 1939, the German armies marched into

Poland. France and Britain gave an ultimatum to Germany. In
reply, Germany attacked France. On 3rd September, Britain and
France declared war against Germany. Thus, the invasion of
Poland marked the beginning of the Second World War.

Events of the Second World War

German armies marched into Poland on 1st September, 1939.
Germany after receiving an ultimatum from Britain and France,
attacked France as a response. This led to both Britain and
France declaring a war on Germany on 3rd September, 1939.

Formation of Alliances
Germany’s attack on France was referred to
as blitzkrieg meaning a ‘lightning war’. Germany annexed
Norway, Denmark, Holland, Belgium and France.  Hitler invaded
Russia in June, 1941. But the Germans failed, when the Soviets
launched a counter attack.
Japanese bombing of the Pearl Harbor made the US join the
war. Battle of Berlin made the Germans blocked between the
Britain and the Americans on one hand and the Soviets on
other. Hitler, after the allied forces closed in on Berlin,
committed suicide.

Germans surrendered on 7th May, 1945. Japan’s refusal to

surrender led the US dropping atom bombs on Hiroshima and
Nagasaki. Japan finally surrendered on 2nd September, 1945,
which marked an end to the war.