TO WHAT EXTENT WAS HITLER TO BLAME FOR WORLD WAR II?
In my opinion, Hitler was ultimately to blame for the outbreak of World War II because
he was committed to conquering Europe and his aggression would only be permitted to
go so far by other nations. Nevertheless, Hitler’s actions were motivated and facilitated
by the decisions of other nations and organisations in accordance with a number of
themes which underpinned international relations from 1919 to 1939.
Economics was the fundamental force driving the foreign policy of European nations
from 1919 because they wanted their economies to recover from the First World War
so that they could pay off loans which they had taken from America to fund their war
efforts. I know that France in particular was heav ily indebted and had been obliterated
in the war, so it could not afford to pay off its loans or repair the damage. This
predicament, along with strong anti -German public sentiment in France after the war,
propelled France to demand 132 billion German Mark s in war reparations from
Germany in the Treaty of Versailles in 1919. This amount was unreasonably high, but
France was self-interested so it cared nothing for the prosperity of Germany.
However, the Treaty of Versailles was one of the initial causes of W orld War II because
it sparked outrage among ordinary Germans which fed bitterness and a latent desire
for revenge, which was eventually fulfilled by Hitler when he invaded France in 1940,
escalating World War II by opening a Western Front . The significance of economics in
contributing towards World War II only increased in the 1930s, as the Great
Depression caused huge unemployment and economic decline in Germany. The
significance of this was that Hitler used these problems as an excuse to rearm Germany
an d reintroduce conscription into the army on the pretext that it would boost German
manufacturing and solve unemployment, but in fact he was preparing Germany for
war.
Nationalism was also one of the underlying factors causing World War II. I know that Hit
ler was nationalistic because in his book Mein Kampf he conveyed his belief that
“Aryans” (people of pure German ethnic origin) were racially superior to all other people.
Hitler’s nationalism compelled him to desire greatness for his country, but the hars h
terms of the Treaty of Versailles had humiliated Germany in its defeat in the First World
War, greatly reducing its size and power. For example, it was forced to surrender the
region of Alsace -Lorraine to France , West Prussia and Posen to Poland and the
Sudetenland to Czechoslovakia. It also had to reduce its army to 100,000 men. As these
territories were mainly inhabited by Germans, Hitler sought to make Germany great again
by regaining them in order to unite all true Germans in “Volksgemeinschaft” (peop le’s
community), forming a new national identity based on social solidarity. Another reason
Hitler wanted to expand Germany’s territory into Eastern Europe was to provide
“Lebensraum” (living space) for the growing German population. This is an excellent e
xample of self-interest on his part. Hitler’s aggressive nationalism (for he was prepared
to use force to regain these territories) w as facilitated by Neville Chamberlain’s policy of
appeasement, which involved giving territorial concessions to Hitler such as the
Sudetenland in the hope that he would eventually stop making demands. However, I
know that Chamberlain was fully aware of Hitler’s unrelenting ambition and his real aim
was to buy time so that Britain could rearm in preparation for war with Hitler.
Imperialism was another major theme in the lead up to World War II . In 1930, Britain
and France both controlled large empires and were preoccupied with protecting and
maintaining them, so other countries were unopposed when they began forming their
own e mpires. For instance, in 1931, Japan invaded the Chinese province of Manchuria.
The motivations for this expansionism were actually economic; Japan sought to gain
control of Manchuria’s resources (such as coal, iron and timber) in order to increase the
com petitiveness of its economy so that it could afford to export goods to America
despite the tariffs that the USA had put in place to protect domestic industry during the
Great Depression. The League of Nations condemned Japan’s imperialism, but neither
Britain nor France were prepared to risk their navies in a war on the other side of the
world that would leave their colonies exposed and Japan was too important to Britain as a
trading partner , so the League could not force Japan to withdraw. Similarly, in 19 35,
Italy invaded Abyssinia and the League was once again prevented from discouraging
aggression by Britain and France because they were self-interested and wanted Italy as
an ally against Hitler who was becoming increasingly powerful. This meant that th ey
could not afford to harm their relationship with Italy, so they could not condemn Italy
for creating an empire as it would be seen as hypocritical because they had their own
empires. Hitler watched these developments around the world and was encouraged by
the lack of international will to intervene due to nations being very self -interested to help
them recover from the Great Depression. By 1939, Hitler had already succeeded in
remilitarising the Rhineland, annexing Austria and invading Czechoslovakia, al l of which
were in breach of the Treaty of Versailles but had been made possible by Britain’s
foreign policy of appeasement. Hitler’s new confidence that he would not be challenged
if he invaded Pol and had been increased by the German air force’s performan ce in the
Spanish Civil War in 1937, in which he proved to the world that Germany had a powerful
military.
Militarism was an essential factor in the outbreak of World War II because Hitler would
not have been able to conquer Eastern Europe without a power ful army, as I know that
both Czechoslovakia and Poland had well -equipped armed forces which were prepared
to fight Germany. I know that Hitler was militaristic because in Mein Kampf, he wrote
that Germany owed everything to its army. When he came to power , he secretly began
rearming Germany in breach of the Treaty of Versailles, but as his confidence grew, he
openly declared his increasing military strength, arguing legitimately that neighbouring
countries had much larger armies than Germany and that this posed a threat to
Germany’s national security. In 1932, Germany had 30 warships, 36 planes and
100,000 men. By 1939, it had 95 warships, 8,250 planes and 950,000 men. This provided
Hitler with the capability as well as the motivation provided by other them es to invade
Poland, then France and finally the USSR.
The influence that alliances had on the decisions of different nations also contributed
towards World War II. For example, the Molotov -Ribbentrop Non-Aggression Pact
between Germany and the USSR permitted both Hitler and Stalin to invade Poland
without risking retaliation from the other. However, this was a biased alliance because it
was much less important to Hitler than Stalin, so when it was no longer beneficial to Hitler
he broke it, invading the U SSR in 1941. The alliance between Britain and France is also
interesting because although it was created to counter any threat posed by Germany
through collective security, it was undermined by Britain’s policy of appeasement.
France was less sympathetic towards Germany than Britain and it did not condone Hitler’s
demands for more territory. However, it was unwilling to use force without the support
of Britain which it lacked because of appeasement and it was also unwilling to go to war
in 1936 to prevent Hitler remilitarizing the Rhineland as there were upcoming elections
in France. This encouraged Hitler to invade Czechoslovakia and Poland because he knew
that France would not intervene.
In conclusion, economics and militarism had the greatest influence o n Hitler’s
capabilities as he would not have come to power without the desperation cause d by the
Great Depression, nor would he have been unable to conquer any of Europe without
powerful armed forces. But in the end, Hitler was overall to blame because he had no
limit to his ambition – the themes of economics and militarism were only the most
important because they determined the extent to which Hitler was able to fulfil his
ambition.