Causes of World War 2

Path to War

• Benito Mussolini and the National Fascist Party came to power in 1922 Italy. They promoted economic reform (not successful), which made fascism spread to Germany who was in a deep states of depression, through Adolf Hitler and the Nazis

• The Treaty of Versailles’ military limits on the Wiemar Republic made Germans see the government as weak and looked to right wing parties to take control.

• Anti-Semitism: Discrimination against Jewish people.

• Mein Kampf: Adolf Hitler’s book expressing his extreme anti-Semitic views.

• Nazis: The National Socialist German Workers party who came to power in 1932.

• When the President of Germany (Hindenburg) died in 1933, Hitler declared himself as leader.

• Burning of Reichburg was staged by the Nazis and blamed on radical parties, in order for Hitler to outlaw opposing political parties.

• Scientific Racism: Nazi promoted theory, stating that some races are superior to others.

• Hitler proposed that the ethnic cleansing, mainly Jews, of Germany was necessary.

• Nuremberg Laws: Hitler designed laws to limit natural rights of Jews, such as careers and marriage.

• Axis Powers: Nazi military pacts/alliances

  • Rome-Berlin Axis: Formed between Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy, driven by political and economic shared interests.

  • Anti-Comintern Pact: Formed between Nazi Germany and Japan, driven by hate towards communism.

• Kristallnacht: November 1938, anti-Semitic riots broke out and led to the death of a German diplomat by a Jewish teen. The “spark” of the holocaust.

Aggressive Militarism of Nazi Germany

• Hitler broke the Treaty of Versailles when he expanded the size of the German army.

• German troops were sent into French German buffer territory in March 1936, breaking an agreement.

• British Appeasement: Britain gave into German demands in the hope of keeping peace.

• Some British politicians though Germany’s anti-communism movements were good for the peace of Europe.

• Munich Agreement: Britain, Italy, and France agreed to the German annexation of Sudetenland, in return for German expansion to stop.

• Hitler invaded Czechoslovakia in 1939, with no fear of the British involvement.

• German-Soviet Nonaggression Pact: Hitler and Stalin agreed to the Soviet aid of Germany’s invasion on Poland, in return for Eastern Poland and Slavic states.

• France and Britain protected Poland as promised, starting World War II in Europe.

Japanese Expansion

• In 1931, Japan invaded Manchuria

• Created state of Manchukuo

• With Japanese and Chinese troops fighting, Japan invaded China, starting World War II in Asia.