What were the factors that caused the Second World War?
The necessary but insufficient factors include:
- Treaties such as the Versailles Treaty and the Munich Agreement, which either caused resentment among European countries or tried to unsuccessfully appease the aggressive powers.
- The failure of the League of Nations and the concept of ‘Collective Security’.
- The global economic crisis spurred by the Great Depression in America, as it led to the rise of Hitler and other Fascist powers.
The factors which proved to be the precipitating causes for the war included –
Hitler’s Role:
- He attacked Poland on all fronts, rather than just capturing the Polish corridor and Danzig, which were parts of his demands to Poland (Treaty of Versailles). Hitler wanted to destroy Russia and use its territory for his Lebensraum or ‘Living Space for the Germans’. He thought that Poland and Russia being weak, would be quickly defeated through the German Blitzkrieg i.e., a swift and violent military offensive with intensive aerial bombardment.
- Hitler went ahead with occupation of the Czechoslovakia (minus Sudetenland) in 1939 only because there existed an opportunity in form of poor law and order situation due to demand for semi-independence by Slovakia.
The Role of Appeasers:
- The Policy of Appeasement raised Hitler’s prestige at home. After Hitler was offered Sudetenland on a plate in Munich Conference (1938), Hitler was convinced of British and French inaction when he invaded Poland in 1939. The British justification for Munich Conference (1938)- that it chose to appease Hitler because it needed time for rearmament - is hard to digest since Czechoslovakia was militarily strong and had excellent fortifications in Sudetenland against a Germany invasion. Thus, Czechoslovakia would have formed a better ally when it had Sudetenland than Poland. Also, the inaction during annexation of the rest of Czechoslovakia is condemnable.
The Treaty of Versailles and the German People:
- Hitler did not do any coup to come to power and rather he came to power through a democratic process of elections. He headed the Nazi party that fought elections and won a good number of seats. It can be said that Hitler said those things, which the Germans wanted to hear. The German public thus approved of Hitler’s action (not atrocities). There was a Department of Propaganda, which continuously brainwashed the Germans and fed them with anti-Semitic views.
- The German capitalists contributed monetarily to the Nazi party as it helped restore law and order and because they were against communism in general.
Non-aggression Pact between USSR & Germany:
- It can be argued that USSR made world war inevitable by signing the Non-Aggression Pact of 1939 with Germany. Had this not happened, the German aggression would probably have been nipped in the bud.
Distrust between USSR and the would-be Allied Powers:
- The conservatives in France and Britain were more suspicious of communists in USSR than the Nazis. The right wingers in France were sympathetic to Hitler and in awe of his achievements. The conservatives in France prevented addition of a clause for Military cooperation in the agreement signed by France and USSR in 1935. This could have saved German expansion.
Hitler’s Lightning War
Using the sudden, mass attack called the blitzkrieg, Germany overran much of Europe and North Africa. Hitler’s actions set off World War II. The results of the war still affect the politics and economics of today’s world.
Germany Sparks a New War in Europe
After Rhineland (March 1936), Austria (March 1938), and Czechoslovakia (September 1938 and March 1939), the Führer turned his eyes to Poland. He demanded that the Polish Corridor and port city of Danzig, be returned to Germany. Germany and the Soviet Union promised not to attack each other. But secretly, they agreed that they would divide Poland between them. They also secretly agreed that the USSR could take over Finland and the Baltic countries (Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia).
Germany’s Lightning Attack on Poland
After Non-aggression pact with USSR, Hitler quickly moved ahead with plans to conquer Poland. His surprise attack took place at dawn on September 1, 1939. France and Great Britain declared war on Germany on September 3. But Poland fell three weeks before those nations could help.
The Soviets Make Their Move
On September 17, after his secret agreement with Hitler, Stalin sent Soviet troops to occupy the eastern half of Poland. Stalin then began annexing the regions in the second part of the agreement. Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia fell without a struggle, but Finland resisted. By March 1940, Stalin had forced the Finns to accept his surrender terms.
The Phony War
French and British stationed their troops along the Maginot Line, a system of fortifications along France’s border with Germany. There they waited for Germans to attack—but nothing happened. Germans jokingly called it the sitzkrieg, or “sitting war.” Some newspapers referred to it simply as “the phony war”. Suddenly, on April 9, 1940, Hitler launched a surprise invasion of Denmark and Norway. In just four hours after the attack, Denmark fell. Two months later, Norway surrendered as well.
The Battle for France and Great Britain
To strike at France, Hitler began a dramatic sweep through Holland, Belgium, and Luxembourg.
France Battles Back
By May 1940 Belgium surrendered. Outnumbered, outgunned, and pounded from the air, the Allies escaped to the beaches of Dunkirk, a French port city on the English Channel. Great Britain set out to rescue the army and send 338,000 battle-weary soldiers to safety. Italy joined forces with Hitler and declared war on both Great Britain and France. By June 14, Paris had fallen to the Germans. On June 22, 1940, France surrendered.
The Germans took control of the northern part of the country. They left the southern part to a puppet government headed by Pétain. However, France was liberated in 1944.
Germany Attacks Great Britain
Hitler now turned to an invasion of Great Britain. His plan—Operation Sea Lion—was first to knock out the Royal Air Force (RAF). One thing that helped was a Radaranda German code-making machine named Enigma. With Enigma in their possession, the British had German secret messages open to them. Hitler decided to call off his attacks and focused his attention on Eastern Europe and the Mediterranean.
Germany and Italy Attack North Africa
Mussolini’s and Hitler’s goal was to seize British-controlled Egypt because of the Suez Canal. Within a week, Italian troops forced British units back. Then both sides dug in and waited. Finally, in December, the British decided to strike back. The result was a disaster for the Italians.
The War in the Balkans
As early as the summer of 1940, Hitler had begun planning to attack his ally, the USSR. He wanted to build bases in south-eastern Europe for the attack on the Soviet Union. Hitler moved to expand his influence in the Balkans. In the face of overwhelming German strength, Bulgaria, Romania, and Hungary cooperated by joining the Axis powers in early 1941. Yugoslavia and Greece, which had pro-British governments, resisted. On Sunday, April 6, 1941, Hitler invaded both countries. Yugoslavia fell in 11 days. Greece surrendered in 17.
Hitler Invades the Soviet Union –
With the Balkans firmly in control, Hitler could move ahead with his plan to invade the Soviet Union. He called that plan Operation Barbarossa. The Soviet Union was not prepared for this attack. Germans pushed 500 miles inside the Soviet Union. Germans had surrounded Leningrad and later advanced to the outskirts of Moscow. Soviet had Siberian divisions and the harsh Soviet winter on their side. Nonetheless, Moscow had been saved and had cost the Germans 500,000 lives.
Battle of Stalingrad
It is the bitterest conflicts of the 20th century. In the spring of 1942, he launched a two-pronged attack in what he believed would be his final offensive in the East. One set of troops headed towards Baku and it's rich oil resources, while a second group pushed towards Stalingrad and the Volga. After more than a year of bitter defeats, the Soviet army was exhausted and demoralized. By the end of the siege, one million Soviet soldiers had died on the Stalingrad front.
In the USSR, meantime, Stalin's ruthless approach to punishing ethnic collaborator (supporting Nazis) in the Soviet Union meant that whole ethnic nations were forcibly exiled to Siberia as punishment for the small number of collaborators in their midst. Officially, 93,000 Kalmyks, 68,000 Karachai people, 500,000 Chechens, 340,000 Balkars and 180,000 Tartars were deported. Many of them died during the transition.
In the summer of 1944, Stalin's Operation Bagration in Belorussia eliminated three times more German army divisions than the Allies did in Normandy. Defeat for Germany was only months away. Final victory came for Russia when Soviet soldiers hoisted the red flag over the Berlin Reichstag in April 1945.