Learning from World War II Submitted on November 15th, 2004 World War I was a war to end all wars. Before World War I, the commonattitude towards war was that of adventure and excitement. Four months into the Great War, the term “war” brought fear, dismay and a sense of loss. In this war, most people were killed, most property destroyed and the mostlives disrupted in comparison to other wars fought before 1914. A lessonwas learned from this war.
Wars are disruptive, dangerous and unnecessary. To ensure that conflicts do not arise to a full-scale war, Western leadersat the Paris Peace Conference established an organization called the Leagueof Nations as a part of the infamous Treaty of Versailles in 1919. OnSeptember 1st, 1939, a war greater, more terrible and the most destructivethan the War of 1914 to 1918 started. If World War I was a war to end allwars, why did a second world war many times worse occur? The more importantquestion is how can we subdue conflicts and avoid wars altogether? In thefollowing essay, I will explore the lessons that could be learned fromWorld War II. To do so, I will first investigate roots and causes of thewar.
Second, I will critically analyze the causes to understand if and howthey may have been overcome. Finally, I will state what lessons, in myopinion, are to be learned from the second war to end all wars. According to Keith Eubank, the roots of World War II start from theend of World War I and the Treaty of Versailles. Relations between theAllies themselves and the Allies and their defeated enemies deterioratedfurthermore as a consequence of the negotiations and attempts to implementthe Treaty (Bottom). The Treaty of Versailles constitutes of 440 articlesoutlining the creation of the League of Nations; political clauses forEurope; German rights, military; naval and air clauses, prisoners of wars;penalties; reparations; financial and economic clauses and land andpopulation distributions.
The Treaty of Versailles was also a slap toGermany’s ‘face’. The Treaty demanded key economic areas from Germany,place severe military conditions on the German Army, asked the country topay war reparations for the entire war and take blame for the cause andhorrible results of the war. This treaty left Germany not only in economicshambles and vulnerable to future military intrusions from neighbouringcountries from the lack of a strong army, but also in emotional dismay,which played a major role in the coming of the Nazi Party and Hitler. Hitler exploited the popular dissatisfaction stemming from the Germandefeat in World War I and more significantly from the disgrace arising fromthe terms imposed in German by the treaty of Versailles. Germany waseconomical broken at the end of World War I and even more so after thepassing of the Treaty. During the Great Depression, Germany hit rockbottom.
Hitler also exploited this situation and the emotions that arosefrom it. It was thus, possible for Hitler to organize his own politicalmovement, National Socialism, and to build the largest and strongestpolitical party in Germany in 1933. Hitler’s well published agenda to thedissatisfied German population was to reverse the verdict of the Treaty andbreak bonds imposed on Germany by this Treaty. Hitler promised Germans thathe would restore Germany to predominance in European affairs. In myopinion, the events that led to Hitler’s coming of power are the utmost tipof the root of World War II.
At this point of the essay, it is important towrite on Adolph Hitler’s and the Nazi Party’s foreign policy to criticallyanalyse this major root of World War II. According to Eubank, Hitler’s ultimate goal was to dominate Europe,which started with Czechoslovakia and then Poland on September 1, 1939. Eubank states that Hitler’s objective to expand the third Reich cannot beargued. In Hossbach memorandum, Hitler states, “We demand. .
. . therevocation of peace treaties. We demand land and territory to feed ourpeople and settle our surplus population. ” Wright and Stafford, author of”A Blueprint for World War?”, write that there can be no argument thatHitler and the Nazi Party were primarily seeking land.
Hitler and the NaziParty always had the premise objectives to expand German territory byprincipally demolishing the rearmament restrictions. ” For us it is amatter of expanding our living space in the East and making food .
