World War 2 Origins
Origins of WWII
- understanding the outbreak of the Second World War requires keeping a perspective on interplay of and convergence of several factors…many historians are tempted to see WWII as a continuation of WWI, and call the period 1914-1945, the Thirty Years war
1) Legacy of WWI and its Peace Treaties - the “politics” of Versailles very nearly destroyed Weimar in the early 1920’s, contested territorial settlements and state power (especially for Germany and to a lesser extent for Italy) continued to be a weakness for regimes that lost the war or the peace, making for unstable peace foundations that undermined will for collective security (rather, ‘revising’ Versailles system was implicit foreign policy of those states)
2) International Economics During the Interwar Period – reparations and the “economic consequences” as Keynes warned in 1921, poisoned relations between states…the burden of reparations and maintaining debt payments developed into the “borrowed time” scenario of U.S financing the int’l system…also the 1920’s was marked by growing protectionism and barriers to trade and nations raised tariffs and Europe favoured trade within their Imperial blocs…the effects of the Great Depression were international and compromised the stability of U.S, then Germany, eventually Western Europe…nations were focused on national solutions to the economic collapse, catastrophic decline in production/buying and systemic unemployment
3) Rise of Fascism (Italy), Imperialism (Japan) and Nazism (Germany) – WWII was very much ideologically motivated…with the rise of Fascism in Italy in Oct. 1922, a Far Right/Militaristic regime in Japan in late 1920’s and Hitler’s Nazis in Jan. 1933, Totalitarianism served to a) combat spread of Communism b) extend national power as it removed weakness both “within and without” the country, through militarism and c) revolutionize society along principles of state power, race and national unity
- in the west, the
- understanding the outbreak of the Second World War requires keeping a perspective on interplay of and convergence of several factors…many historians are tempted to see WWII as a continuation of WWI, and call the period 1914-1945, the Thirty Years war
1) Legacy of WWI and its Peace Treaties - the “politics” of Versailles very nearly destroyed Weimar in the early 1920’s, contested territorial settlements and state power (especially for Germany and to a lesser extent for Italy) continued to be a weakness for regimes that lost the war or the peace, making for unstable peace foundations that undermined will for collective security (rather, ‘revising’ Versailles system was implicit foreign policy of those states)
2) International Economics During the Interwar Period – reparations and the “economic consequences” as Keynes warned in 1921, poisoned relations between states…the burden of reparations and maintaining debt payments developed into the “borrowed time” scenario of U.S financing the int’l system…also the 1920’s was marked by growing protectionism and barriers to trade and nations raised tariffs and Europe favoured trade within their Imperial blocs…the effects of the Great Depression were international and compromised the stability of U.S, then Germany, eventually Western Europe…nations were focused on national solutions to the economic collapse, catastrophic decline in production/buying and systemic unemployment
3) Rise of Fascism (Italy), Imperialism (Japan) and Nazism (Germany) – WWII was very much ideologically motivated…with the rise of Fascism in Italy in Oct. 1922, a Far Right/Militaristic regime in Japan in late 1920’s and Hitler’s Nazis in Jan. 1933, Totalitarianism served to a) combat spread of Communism b) extend national power as it removed weakness both “within and without” the country, through militarism and c) revolutionize society along principles of state power, race and national unity
- in the west, the