Causes of Wwii

There were a multitude of causes of World War Two. Many causes had to do with the after effects of World War One, which left numerous countries in economic distress. Soon, totalitarianism was on the rise, a system where the government controls the citizen’s lives. People around the world were in economic crisis and needed someone to believe in. They needed hope, and many found that hope in totalitarian leaders. Germany was an economic mess. They were in debt after being fined in the Treaty of Versailles after losing World War One. They couldn’t pay off the debt and they needed a powerful leader to help them through the difficult times. Adolf Hitler took advantage of the fact that Germany was weak, and quickly rose to power. He turned Germany into a militaristic and fascist state. Hitler wanted to bring Germany back to its former glory and to do that he began to take over other countries with his newly built up military, which he created . He militarized the Rhinelands first, then annexed Austria. That same year he took over the Sudetenland. Hitler also formed a pact with the Soviets, an agreement not to attack each other. He later attacked the Soviet Union, breaking the pact. Hitler also blamed all of Germany’s problems on Jews, intellectuals, gypsies, and many other groups of people. He made them scapegoats, people everyone could blame for their issues. While Germany’s actions were a main cause of World War Two, they are not fully to blame. Like Germany, the United States had their own financial problems. The US was going through the Great Depression, a result of the stock market crash. Since the United States had their own problems they wanted to stay out of the issues in Europe, doing so they became isolationists. They did not want to get involved in another war, especially one that was not posing a direct threat. In the 1930s the US started passing Neutrality Acts to ensure that they stayed neutral in the war. The acts prohibited arms shipping, being on