causes of WW2 - help needed please

Hi,

have i missed anything out:

- Hitler
- Versailles
- failings of league of nations
- Appeasement
- war of ideologies
- the great depression

do i need to include, hitler's steps to war, i.e. annexation of terrirtories in cezh, etc.. ? Just a brief summary of his breaches - as the cause of the war?

Please let me know if i've missed anything out that ought to be in there.

thank you

Reply 1

kw10

that's a pretty good list. Here's a few to add:
-Chamberlain (b/c he constantly insisted on appeasement - so i guess you sort of already said this one)
-trying to avoid the mistakes that caused WWI - for example: Britain wanted to avoid continental commitments & big continental army, etc
-dearming after WWI, and fear of rearming (b/c that would help lead to another war)

Reply 2

Excalibur

Yup, that pretty much sums it up. You probably don't need to mention the steps to war in depth, although you could perhaps mention Abyssinia/Manchuria as an example of the League's failure. Perhaps you could also include the Nazi Soviet Pact, because it made it easier for Germany to invade Poland etc., and the US policy of isolationism.

Reply 3

Ferrus

snob_uk

Please let me know if i've missed anything out that ought to be in there.

thank you

As a general point, don't forget to mention the shift in British public opinion. Basically after the Munich conference public opinion shifted decisively against Germany, especially after Kristallnacht and the annexation of Czechslovakia.

The key here is that it forced the British in to a series of promises and allainces that were to lead to war.

Reply 4

snob_uk

Thanks guys!! :yy:

i think im going to have to include the steps to war, if anyone's to understand what appeasement and the nazi-soviet nonagression pact etc were all about.

thanks for the tips. im gonna make sure i have all the points in there.

Reply 5

halloweenjack

You might want to mention the general feeling of pacifism that erupted after the 'great war' that led to a decline in the militaries of France and Britain. You could link this as part of the reasons appeasment become so attractive to both Britain and France.

Reply 6

mmuazr

I reckon the depression that was caused by the wall street crash also plays a main part why world war happened as without the great depression Hitler and nazi would never gain support and won majority seats in the reichstag....

Reply 7

liamb

'The Dark Valley' 's introduction is worth reading.

Also Chamberlain was a politican who only listened to what he wanted to hear.
Daladier (France) largely reduced France's foreign policy to meekly following Chamberlain, and his foreign minister - Bonnet was even worse than Chamberlain.

As far as the Nazi-Soviet Pact goes, it might be worth pointing out that Molotov replaced Litvinov as Soviet Foreign Minister in early (March, I think) 1939, signalling Stalin was moving away from Collective Security and the League. Also the Anglo-French mission to ther Soviets was a poor effort. (Especially when compared to the one Hitler sent).

As a final thought, you might want to mention the effect of 'bandwagoning' - i.e. smaller countries trying to align themselves more closely with whichever power seems to be on top. Thanks to Appeasement, German influence grew in central/eastern Europe.

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