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What Caused The Two World Wars?
When the major powers become involved in armed conflict, whether Operation Restore Hope or
Operation Desert Storm, these conflicts are presented as a temporary measure, necessary to restore
'peace.' Each time political leaders expect support for their wars it is always with the subtly implied
promise that all will be well eventually. It was the same in the nineteenth century as it is now. Yet, at
the start of this century, they never requested working class support for another hundred years of
'temporary' conflicts that have since caused so much destruction. For who would possibly have
supported Operation Twentieth Century?
The twentieth century has been the era of truly world wars that have been the most destructive
unnatural events this planet has ever seen. But were they, and the dozens of conflicts that have
followed, necessary? The socialist answer is no, not even the Second World War, a war above all
others allegedly fought to bring lasting peace and democracy to the world but which left death,
tyranny and fresh antagonisms in its wake.
The Economic Causes of World War II
The basic cause of modern war is the international rivalries inseparable from capitalism and the
capitalist class's domination of the world's resources. World War Two was no exception.
The particular background to this, the most destructive war ever, was the formation of the GermanItalian-Japanese alliance in the 1930s and their concerted effort to expand at the expense of weaker
neighbours and the older colonial powers, notably Britain, France and Holland. Italy and Germany
had long before 1914 entered into the colonial scramble but they developed late and found all the
best territories, strategic positions and trade routes already dominated by the 'older and fatter'
bandits. The line-up before 1914 was, on the one side, the 'Triple Alliance' of Germany, Italy and the
Austro-Hungarian Empire, and arrayed against their expansionist ambitions the 'Triple Entente' of
Britain, France and Russia.
The First and Second world wars were directly linked in that the settlement imposed on the defeated
states after the former succeeded in deepening the antagonisms which led to the latter. The
background to the First World War was the clash in the Balkans. Germany aimed to move through
the Balkans across the Dardanelles and onwards, taking in the Middle East with its oil resources and
strategic importance. It was given dramatic expression in the planned Berlin-Baghdad railway. Such
a thrust meant cutting off Russia from its Balkan proteges and an outlet to the Mediterranean, and
meant severing the British Empire life-line through the Suez Canal to India and beyond. France with
its African interests was as vitally concerned as Britain to stop this German dream of world power.
When the war came in 1914 Italy deserted the Triple Alliance while Turkey joined it. Part of the Allied
bribe to Italy was the secret promise of a rich share in the spoils of victory—a promise which Italy
claimed was never kept. Later on, in the early 1920s, with Germany prostrate and Russia weakened
by the civil war and Allied intervention, Europe was dominated by France and the French system of
alliances with Poland, Czechoslovakia and Romania, a system aimed both against the revival of
Germany and against Russia. The British Government, following its traditional European balance of
power policy, saw the need—in the interest of British capitalism—of helping Germany recover to
offset French preponderance. A new factor, however, came into being after the world slump which
followed on from the Wall Street Crash of 1929: the coming to power in Germany of the Hitler
dictatorship.
The slump led in 1931 to a major breakdown in the system of international payments. Production fell
in country after country and trade plummeted. Gold became concentrated in the hands of the
dominant capitalists in the USA, Britain, France and the countries associated with them. These states
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also had a monopoly of access to most of the sources and raw materials in the world. The world thus
became divided into two groups; those countries which had the gold and raw materials and those
which lacked them. Germany, Japan and Italy were in the second group and in a bid to solve the
problems this presented, the governing parties organised on an aggressive totalitarian basis and
resorted to policies which challenged the other, dominant group.
To get gold and currencies to buy essential raw materials the totalitarian states tried 'dumping', i.e.
selling their products below cost. In their trade with other countries they used devices which avoided
gold, such as barter and bilateral trade agreements and credits which had to be used to buy their
goods. All these devices tended to tie their trading partners to them and thus take them out of the
world market.
This decline in the use of gold threatened the financial centres of London and New York. London was
also threatened as the centre of dealings in raw materials. Pursuing these aggressive economic
policies Germany had considerable success in Southern Europe and Latin America, while Japan made
headway in the markets of Southern Asia. In 1931 Japan used armed force in Manchuria to set up a
trading monopoly there. In the past the imperialist powers had decided on an open door policy for
trade with China as none of them was strong enough to exclude all the others. Now Japan was trying
to do just this, a policy which inevitably led to conflict with America and Britain. Italy similarly used
force to get an overseas market in Abyssinia in 1935.
By way of response, the dominant powers decided on a determined campaign to regain the markets
lost to the totalitarian countries. German, Japanese and Italian goods were boycotted. Credits were
offered to the countries of Southern Europe to win them away from dependence on Germany. The
more successful these policies were the more desperate became the economic position of German
capitalism. Without the funds to give credits, force appeared to be the only way. Hence the
annexation of Austria in 1938, the breaking up of Czechoslovakia in 1939.
At this point the conflict of economic interests was coming to a head. Germany was trying to keep its
gains in Southern Europe by all means, including force, and Britain and France were using credits to
undermine German influence. There was no backing down on either side. War would break out as
soon as Britain and France decided to resist force with force. This was delayed as long as possible,
particularly because of the vague anti-war feelings of British and French workers; but in September
1939 when Germany invaded Poland the Second World War began. In a few years Russia and the
USA were drawn in also. It was a war which blazed over all Europe and Asia and parts of Africa. It
was a war fought between rival groups of capitalist states over markets, trade routes and sources of
raw materials. It was not about democracy or fascism.
Nothing illustrated this more than the resultant carve-up between the victorious capitalist states in
1945 which left the totalitarian regimes in Spain and Portugal intact while delivering half of Europe
into the hands of Stalin and Russian imperialism.
Saturday, 17 July 2004
Source URL: http://www.worldsocialism.org/spgb/education/depth-articles/history/what-caused-twoworld-wars
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