SECOND WORLD WAR1939-1945

CAUSES OF THE 2nd WORLD WAR

The Great Depression The Great Depression of 1929 started with the crash of the Wall Street

Market on 29 0ctober 1929. Speculative trading by American investors resulted in the depreciation

of the value of the shares on the Wall Street stock market. When the value of the shares fell many people lost lifetime investments

many became bankrupt and some committed suicides. These events in the USA affected many European countries who were

now linked to the American economy. One of these countries was Germany which had been given loans by

American Banks to help in rebuilding its economy through the Dawes Plan.

The Dawes Plan was an American initiative to assist Germany to be able to rebuild its economy so that it could pay the war reparations. However , its real motive was to get business for American banks and investors.

Following the Wall Street crash many American banks recalled their loans from Germany.

This resulted in the closure of many Germany factories which left the majority of people unemployed.

Images of the stock market

The inflation in Germany rose to levels never seen before, people became hopeless and on the verge of starvation.

Many ex-servicemen who had fought in the First World War were equally affected.

The situation was very ripe for the rise of popular mass movement and Hitler made use of this opportunity.

Many of the unemployed and ex-servicemen became members of his movement known as storm troopers (SA).

The Storm Trooper were used to intimidate opponents to Hitler.

Thus, it can be argued that it was the Great Depression which created a conducive atmosphere for the rise of Hitler.

From the onset Hitler had expansionist ideas which were bound to plunge Europe into another conflict.

France’s insecurityFrance had gained most territories it had lost to

Germany as well as getting reparations.However, France was still not satisfied by this, it

preferred a much harsher treatment of Germany.Furthermore, France wanted vengeance for its

defeat in the Franco-Prussian war of 1871.France took more actions to ensure its safety.As a result France entered into agreements with

several countries in Eastern Europe such as Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Yugoslavia and Romania.

This also saw the Maginot line being built. The Maginot line was a line of fortifications and weapons installations put by France on its borders with Switzerland, Germany and Luxembourg.

In 1935, the Stresa Front was signed between France, Britain and Italy with the aim of placing a defensive net around Germany.

It was signed at the  Palazzo Borromeo, a Renaissance villa on a small island near the town of Stresa situated on the banks of the Lake Maggiore in Italy.

The Stresa Front was formally called the Final Declaration of the Stresa conference.

It was an agreement between French Prime Minister Pierrie Laval, British Prime Minister Ramsay Macdonald and Italian Prime Minister Benito Mussolini on 14 April 1935.

The Stresa Front was an agreement to reaffirm the Locarno treatises and to ensure that Austria remained independent and to resist any attempts by Germany to reverse the terms of the Versailles.

The Locarno Treaties were seven agreements negotiated at Locarno,Switzerland, on 5–16 October 1925 and formally signed in London on 1 December, in which the First World War Western European Allied powers and the new states of Central and Eastern Europe sought to secure the post-war territorial settlement, and return normalizing relations with defeated Germany (which was, by this time, the Weimar Republic). 

From left to right, Gustav Stresemann, Austen Chamberlain and Aristide Briand during the Locarno negotiations

However, the Stresa Front began to breakdown when Britain signed the Anglo-German Naval Agreement in June 1935, in which Germany was given permission to increase the size of its navy.

It collapsed completely in the aftermath of Italy's invasion of Abyssinia in October 1935.

This system of agreements had an effect similar to the alliance system of the years before the First World War of providing a false sense of security.

The Fear of the Red ScareThe Red Scare was a term used to refer to the fear of

the spread of communism by those in the capitalist countries in Europe such as Britain, France, Germany and in the USA.

By the 1930s Russia had undergone a communist revolution and intended to extend its ideological influence to other countries.

In the view of most European countries Hitler was a better evil since he resented communists and would help in avoiding its spread.

This attitude led European leaders to tolerate Hitler until it was too late.

The Policy of AppeasementSentiments around Europe after 1930 were that Germany

had been harshly treated by the Versailles Treaty.Therefore, many felt Germany’s demands were morally

justified as result felt their governments must yield to Germany’s demands.

However, Hitler was more ambitious than the people of Europe had expected.

Some Historians feel that by conceding to his demands the European leaders actually wetted his appetite for more.

As a result when Hitler was making more demands he felt Europe would give in.

While they had been conceding to his demands he had also used the opportunity to embark on a massive rearmament programme.

Hitler had rebuilt Germany’s military capacity to a level where he felt confident to fight again hence his invasion of Poland in September 1939 which sparked the Second World War.