W W Ii Beginning To End Essay

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World War II

Before World War II broke out the world took a wild ride during Hitler s rise to power. The entire world didn t think that he would become as powerful as he became. Hitler achieved his power by relying on the nerviness of the world to sit back and allow him to do what he wanted. The world was too concerned about the political, economic and militant to busy worrying about the German s who where thinking about ruling the world.

Before and during the war, the world was concerned about the economic system. Ever since World War I, the world countries have been in and out of depressions, no one wanted another war. The United States, which was in the Greatest Depression of all, was it s a big problem itself. The US didn t want war, especially after the last one they fought with huge causalities and huge amounts of money spent. The citizens of the US didn t want another war because they knew that another war would cause another depression and that was something that the people didn t want. Even thought the war would create jobs, and put the economy back into a war boom, the American public didn t want to have to deal with the downsides of a war. The major downside being the huge economic toll it would take on the government, which would be fighting on two oceans on different sides of the world. It would become very costly to maintain war and win too.

The world also had enormous political concerns. The US was in a period of major and they wanted no part of anything else in the world, except the Western Hemisphere. With Germanys rise of Nazism, the world responded with fascist parties popping up in every nation across the world. Hitler has spread his beliefs into every county in the entire world, exactly what he wanted. These parties responded to every action that their leader took; they helped him scout out a specific country and infiltrate that country s government. These parties believe in Hitler and did whatever he told them to do, including in the United States. After the countries realized Hitler s power they all formed different alliances. The Germans allied with Italy and Japan. The US allied with Great Britain, France, and the Soviet Union. It seemed as though each day another country would sign up with either side. Sometimes, even, countries would agree not to fight each.

The pre-war and during the war, militaries from all countries fought a war with superior equipment than in the last war. With the invention of the plane, tank, machinegun spread war supplies all over the globe and allowed each country to empower itself. The US prepared for war by passing a series of congressional acts that enabled the war budget to increase dramatically. These acts also allowed for the US to help other countries without actually engaging in the war. The US supplied Great Britain with supplies and ships without ever declaring war on Germany. Germanys invention of the Blitzkrieg they attacked nations and conquered them in single days. No nation had ever seen tactics like this before, and they worked for Hitler. Hitler s air force was the best in the world; he had the most planes with the best pilots. They were unstoppable. Japans increase in military power proved itself with the bombing of Pearl Harbor in December. Japan showed off its massive air force that dominated and destroyed the majority of the United States Navy fleet.

World War II was a war that brought the world together. Their wasn t a place on the earth were this war wasn t fought. Their wasn t a place on this earth were people didn t take sides, whether with the Allies or the Axis powers. The war brought countries like the United States and the Soviet Union together. However, the war did bring mass destruction the Europe and the massive demise of the people hated by the Nazis. Hitler almost wiped out an entire race; however, he failed because the on dominance and perseverance of democracy upon the world.

World War Two was a terrible and destructive war. Although many dynamics led to the advent of World War Two, the catalyst of the Second World War was actually the aftermath of the First World War. The First World War's aftermath set the stage for the rise of Hitler.

On Nov. 11, 1918, an armistice was signed by the German commanders in the railcar of the French commander, Ferdinand Foch, ending the actual combat of World War One. The debacle of the First World War, which killed between 10 to 13 million people, demanded retribution. The Allies needed to draw up a treaty, which formally ended hostilities between the Allies and the Central Powers. This treaty, which was called the Treaty of Versailles, was signed on June 28, 1919 and came into effect January 10, 1920. The treaty, while providing a formal peace between the Central Powers and most of the Allies (China and America), was not well liked by the Germans. They were made to agree to it under the treat of invasion by the Allies. They called it a Diktat, or slave-treaty. The treaty was very harsh towards the Germans. The treaty affected borders, hurt Germany, and created international institutions.

The Treaty of Versailles changed many borders and created new countries. Out of parts of the former German, Austro-Hungarian, and Russian empires, Poland was formed. Out of the former Austro-Hungarian Empire, a multitude of smaller nations were formed. Germany's size was decreased, while the sizes of France and Italy were increased. The Poles were given a "corridor" to the sea, cutting the remainder of East Prussia off from the main part of the German state. Danzig, a city in the Corridor, was not put under German or Polish control, but under a Leagues of Nations administered republic nominally independent of Poland and Germany. These new borders, in the end, contributed to the genesis of the Second World War.

The Treaty of Versailles was detrimental to Germany in the extreme. The Germans were required to accept responsibility for the start of World War One. The Germans had to pay substantial war reparations to the victorious Allies for the damage caused by World War One. These reparations, if they had ever been paid in full, would have bothered the German economy until the year 1988 under the plan Germany adopted. These reparations angered the German people and broke the German economy.

The German government didn't have enough money to pay the reparations, so they had to print more. The German mark became almost worthless. In 3 months in 1923, the exchange rate of the German mark to the dollar went from 4.6 million marks to the dollars to 4.2 trillion marks to the dollar. Instead of the strong monarchy that Germany had known before the war, the Treaty of Versailles set up a weak republic in Germany. This republic, called the Weimar republic because it's capital was Weimar, was generally not well liked by the German people. The Germans had to drastically reduce the size of their army and eliminate their navy and air force entirely. The Treaty of Versailles was very harsh on the Germans and soured the German outlook on the rest of Europe and on the world in general.

The Treaty of Versailles created many new international organizations. Two of these were the League of Nations and the Permanent Court of International Justice. The Permanent Court of International Justice was a court where grievances of nations and by nations could be aired and adjudicated. The League of Nations was the forerunner of the United Nations but it did not have nearly as much power as that international organization. Only a few nations ever joined the League of Nations, and the United States of America was never a member. The USSR joined in 1934, but was discharged in 1939. In the end, these new international organizations could not stop initiation of the Second World War.

The First World War had many effects other then those directly attributable to the Treaty of Versailles. 10 to 13 million people were killed, one third of them civilians. In some parts of France, 1 out of 4 young men were lost in action due to the war. After the war, the Allies owed $10 billion for the voluminous financial aid given them. The Germans were hard-pressed to pay the considerable war-reparations forced on them and because of these debts, the world was in financial trouble. The governments who had to pay these debts just printed more money and it was because of this that inflation ran rampant. The world, after going through the carnage of the First World War, lost its optimism and became very pessimistic.

Adolph Hitler, a soldier in the German army who ended the war with the rank of corporal, was very bitter about the German defeat in the First World War. He shared the popular belief that the Germans had not been defeated in the field but had been "stabbed in the back" by traitors at home. He thought that the Jews had been among those traitors. He was extremely anti-Semitic. In the autumn of 1919 he joined the German Worker's Party. He eventually came to control it and rename it the NSDAP (German acronym for "National Socialist German Workers' Party" or Nazi Party). In 1923 he, along with the then small Nazi Party, tried to stage a revolt in the form of the Munich Beer Hall Putsch (German for revolt), which failed. After the Putsch failed, he was sentenced to 5 years in prison, of which he only served 9 months. He used these nine months well. During the time he was is prison, he wrote Mein Kampf (My Struggle), a book which outlined the brutal policies which he so coldly put into motion after he took power. He thought that democracy was evil and it only led to the advent of Communism as a form of government.

During the middle to late 1920's, Germany was beginning to recover economically. This hurt the NSDAP, which was preaching a solid Nazi party line of hatred, bigotry, anti-Semitism, blaming others for the ills of society, and intolerance. Luckily for the Nazis, the Great Depression started, triggered by the Great Crash of 1929. This threw Germany's fragile economy into a fit of depression and cleared the way for the Nazis to come to power. The Great Depression gave the Nazis the chance to tone down the bigotry and to say that they were going to help Germany out of the Depression. The German workingman still hated the Treaty of Versailles and the Allied victory and wanted to believe that people from within had stabbed Germany in the back. The Nazis promised revenge for the Diktat of Versailles. They promised to "throw off the shackles of Versailles" and punish those who were "responsible" for Germany's defeat and those who had "stabbed Germany in the back".

Hitler promised to clear Germany of Communists and other "enemies of the people". Most German people of the time didn't want Hitler as chancellor, because they knew he'd turn himself into a dictator. But the often too influential "screaming minority" and many people including notable German industrialists and Oskar von Hinesburg (the German chancellor's son) wanted Hitler as chancellor. A deal was worked out by January 30, 1933 in which Hitler would become chancellor of Germany but the Nazis would only get two seats in the Cabinet. On February 27, 1933 a fire was started that destroyed the Reichstag building which housed the German Parliament. The Nazis quickly blamed the Communists and elections for a new Reichstag were held on March 5, 1933. Even after using terror to influence voters, the Nazis only got 43.9 percent of the vote. On the day that the new Reichstag convened, the Communist delegates were locked out. This gave the Nazis a majority and this majority declared Hitler dictator via the Enabling Act, a law which in essence suspended basic human and civil rights for 4 years. The Gestapo (secret police) hunted down enemies of the Nazis and shot them. By the time von Hinesburg died in August 1934, the Hitler ruled Germany completely. He gave himself the title Fuhrer und Reichskanzler (leader and empire chancellor).

Soon after Hitler had taken power, he started disobeying the Treaty of Versailles. In 1933 he started preparing Germany for war in violation of the treaty. In 1936 he sent German troops into the Rhineland, a flagrant violation of the Treaty of Versailles. In March of 1938 he annexed Austria. He annexed Czechoslovakia in March 1939. Hitler then wanted Poland. But on March 30, 1939 France and the United Kingdom issued guarantees of Polish independence. This guarantee alienated the Soviet Union, which swallowed up the eastern half of Poland in cooperation with Nazi Germany. Hitler wanted war and invaded Poland on September 1, 1939. This caused Britain and France to declare war on Germany soon after. "It was in virtue of this that we went to wa

r." said William Strang, British Foreign Office Official and later Permanent Under-Secretary regarding the guarantee France and Britain made of Polish independence on Mar. 30, 1939. A few days after Germany invaded Poland on September 1, 1939 Britain and France made formal declarations of war on Germany.

The aftermath of World War One was the real catalyst of the Second World War. The Treaty of Versailles left many loose threads and didn't completely satisfy any party involved. Hitler and Germany as a whole were bitter about Germany's defeat and Hitler capitalized on that bitterness to take the reins of power in Germany. Hitler then started annexing countries and expanding Germany's territories as an expression of his defiance of the Treaty of Versailles and desire for a return to German empire. Perhaps no better example of Hitler's bitterness exists than his making the French surrender in the same railcar where the Germans signed the armistice that ended the real combat of World War One. Although many dynamics instigated the Second World War, the real catalyst of the Second World War was the occurrence of the first.

Japan and China s Role in World War Two

Japan and China played a large role in World War II. Their roles were interesting and important. Japan caused the United States to enter World War Two by the bombing of Pearl Harbor. If that didn t occur, the United States may not have entered World War II. That was a very important step in this war. China was more in a war with itself and Japan rather than the rest of the world.

The Russo Japanese War made Japan a great power during the next quarter of a century. But, China was still an ancient empire. In the late 1920 s, most of China was united under political and military leadership of Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek. He was born in 1887. He led the Chinese opposition to the Japanese invaders throughout the war. When Japan invaded China in 1937, Chiang was head of the ruling Kusrintang Party. His capital was at Nanking. He continued war with Japan from his new capital Chucking. Chiang was made chairman of National Defense Council in 1939 and chief of state in 1943. Americans expected Chiang and China to be the fourth of the great powers after the war until the Nationalists took over the Communists in 1949. Japan overthrew Chiang and captured China. This is what started World War Two.

The Chinese National Government s Army numbered two million poorly trained and equipped troops. The Chinese communist army, comprising 150,000 guerilla troops in Northwest China, at first, they supported Chiang against the Japanese. There were no trained reserves, no navy, and only a few aircraft with inexperienced Chinese and foreign mercenary pilots. In 1937, the Chinese government invited United States Army Corps Captain Claire Chennault to become its aeronautics advisor. He accepted and was appointed Colonel in the Chinese Air Force. He spent the next three years training Chinese and foreign mercenary pilots. This, he found difficult to achieve decisive results while Japanese had air superiority. He built up a reliable early warning system during this time by distributing radio sets to patriotic peasants so that details of Japanese planes to get off the ground before they could be attacked. Raw materials were there but factories capable of turning into weapons did not. China s population was 500,000,000; but agriculture could barely produce enough food for all those people. On November 8, Shanghai was captured. Throughout World War II, the main problem of transporting supplies into China became large. China was dependent on supplies from abroad to enable to continue in the war against Japan.

When Japan went to War in 1941, it was one of the best-prepared belligerents. At that time, eight percent of their national product went on war materials. Since Japan is an island, it was not rich in raw materials; it had to import its raw materials. Oil, Iron Ore, and their most strategic metals were imported. From 1941 to 1944, its industry expanded. Truck production reached its peak in 1941. Tanks and artillery peaked in 1942. Also, small arms were at their highest peak in 1943 throughout 1944. Japan s ship and tank building ceased because of the lack of steel available to industry.

In late 1929, the American stock market crashed. Countries around the world felt the impact including Japan.

To start their economy moving, the government decided to use military industries to get out of depression. In the early 1930 s, the military leaders of Japan decided to take control of China. In 1931, the Japanese army invaded China in the Manchuria region. Soon, Japan took over Manchuria. Japan was later condemned for the take over Manchuria by the United States and by the rest of the world. In 1932, Japan withdrew its membership in the League of Nations. The take over of Chinese land lead to hostility between Japan and China. The hostility finally erupted at a bridge outside of Beijing. The name of the bridge was the Marco Polo Bridge. The Japanese and Chinese soldier met and started to fight. This started the second Sino-Japanese War. The war lasted from 1937 to the end of World War II at 1945.

It was a beautiful Sunday morning on December 7, 1941, on the Hawaiian Island of Oahu. The Japanese had been planning the attack of Pearl Harbor since September of that year. The plans were told to the pilots on October 5 and the order to begin; the attack was given December 5. They dispatched 214 machines. Some were 50 conventional bombers, 51 dive-bombers, and 70 torpedo planes.

At 7:02 A.M., large fleets of planes were spotted near the Hawaiian Islands. The planes were thought to be a fleet of United States B-17 s that were due back to land that day. At 8:10 A.M., Japanese planes swarmed the island of Oahu. The planes destroyed warships, airfields, barracks, hangars, and houses. At 8:10 A.M., the Japanese planes were running low on ammo and left. The United States feared that they were going to return after reloading, the United States army brought out anti-aircraft guns. At 9:00 A.M., 175 more Japanese bomber and fighting planes attacked Pearl Harbor. Several United States ships were destroyed and more people died.

The anti-aircraft guns had little effect on the planes, at 10:00 A.M., the second attack ended. All together, 18 ships were sunk or badly damaged and 308 United States planes were destroyed. There were 2,343 deaths, 1,272 wounded, and 1,000 Americans were missing. The Japanese lost 29 planes and their crews. The United States were outraged and shocked, the Japanese were happy for their success in the attack.

The Chinese and Japanese both played important roles in World War Two. If not for them, the war could not be the same. Although China was busy with their own problems, it was still considered being a part of the war. Without Japan the bombing of Pearl Harbor would not have taken place. Therefore, the United States might not have entered the war and helped the other countries win the war.

The conditions of Germany post WWI, and pre, during, and post WWII changed drastically because of influences of the League of Nations, the Treaty of Versailles, and Adolf Hitler. These views will be analyzed and compared, to see how the role of these factors changed history the way they did.

The League of Nations, a former international organization, was formed after World War I to promote international peace and security. The basis of the League, also called the Covenant, was written into the Treaty of Versailles and other peace treaties and provided for an assembly, a council, and a secretariat. A system of colonial commands was also set up. Based in Geneva, the League proved useful in settling minor international disputes, but they had a hard time stopping aggression involving major powers such as, Japan's occupation of Manchuria in 1931, Italy's invasion of Ethiopia in 1935-36, and Germany's seizure of Austria in 1938. It collapsed early in World War II and ended in 1946. The League of Nations was also considered incomplete because they could not get support from the US nor Germany.

When World War I ended on November 11, 1918, peace talks went on for months because the Allied leaders wanted to punish the enemy and "divide the spoils of war."

A formal agreement to end the war was made and called the Treaty of Versailles. The part that took the most time to decide were the territorial changes because powers like Russia, Austria-Hungary, the Ottoman, and Germany had collapsed. These fallen empires had to be divided up and America s President Woodrow Wilson, Georges Clemenceau of France, Vittorio Orlando of Italy, and David Lloyd George of Great Britain, were the main men of this deal. During 1918, Russia was knocked out of the war because of military defeats and the Bolshevik Revolution.

Even though Russia had not been part of the Central Powers, Germany seized much of western Russia. After many months of arguing, the four men had made western Russia into the nations of Finland, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, and Poland.

The Treaty of Versailles was a treaty of peace and vengeance for the Germans. When the treaty was first introduced to the Germans, they didn t want to sign it. It forced the Germans to accept responsibility for the war and give over its colonies to the League of Nations, coalfields, and the provinces of Alsace and Lorraine. Danzig was to become a free city, and the Saar Basin was to be occupied by the French for 15 years. It also made them pay big reparations to the Allies, limit their army to 100,000 soldiers, of which none could be drafted, and the amount of war apparatus they could have .

It also supported the "war guilt" clause, that Germany was held responsible for the entire war. Even though Germany absolutely was against the clause they had no other choice but to agree with it, they signed on June 28, 1919, because if they didn t they would be faced with the problem of dealing with an Allied occupation in Germany.

The war guilt clause soon led to the demand that Germany would be held responsible for paying for the cost of the war. A reparations committee was set up because German objections that the economy would be left devastated arose. In 1921 the committee proclaimed that Germany would be forced to pay France and Belgium $33 billion dollars a year over the next 66 years.

That announcement upset the German government and caused them to resign in protest. But they had to pay because of fear that they would be attacked by the allies, knowing they could not compare to them with their limited army.

Out of the $33 billion dollars the Germans had to pay for damages, the country could only pay $4.5 billion of it. The first installment was paid on time, by the German government, but by the end of 1922 they when they still did not give France the 140,000 telegraph poles as required, (at least that was only the excuse given by Poincar , the French prime minister at the time) the French-Belgian force invaded the Ruhr Valley, attacking the industries that were there. The German government then made a policy of passive resistance, which the Germans in the Ruhr could not be involved in. Those who went against, or did not agree with the treaty were killed or injured.

The occupation of the Ruhr was soon ended when the new German chancellor, Gustav Stresemann, called off the passive resistance movement and negotiated with Belgium and France to set new reparation payments.

The Treaty of Versailles contributed to weakening the German economy not only because of the British naval blockade but because of the large amount of overseas colonies taken away, and the large reparation payments they were forced to pay. Prices in Germany rose because the imports became more expensive, by 1919 high inflation was a major problem for Germany. The economy soon collapsed, in 1923, because of the unstable inflation.

The invasion of Ruhr was also the cause of the collapse. It reduced the amount of goods that Germany produced, drastically. The German government printed more money to make up for it, and that was called hyperinflation. The prices only rose more because of this since there was way too much money in circulation and too little products to get with it. Soon 80 million marks, which once meant something, became the retail price for one egg. Starvation and unemployment became very major issues also. The rich and the poor all went through the same tribulations, because every cent they have earned turned worthless before them.

The Ruhr invasion, and economic crisis caused another Putsch, a secretly plotted and suddenly executed attempt to overthrow a government, to be run. Munich, Bavaria is where everything took place. Adolf Hitler, and the rest of the national Socialist German Worker party, the NAZI Party for short, organized it. They were against many groups, including the Weimar Republic. Hitler and his many German supporters went into a private meeting that was held by the Weimar Republic announcing their plans to overthrow the German government and take control of Berlin. They searched for help from fellow conspirators but the next day, November 9th 1923, Bavarian soldiers halted armies. While marching through Munich,...

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