Topic 7.6 Notes – Causes of World War II

How World War II Became Possible

World War II came from four connected causes. The Treaty of Versailles left anger and instability after World War I. The Great Depression wrecked economies and faith in democracy. Imperialist ambitions never disappeared. Fascist, totalitarian, and militarist regimes turned those problems into conquest.

This built through repeated crises, not one assassination like 1914. That matters on essays. You want to show that war was possible because of conditions, but it was not automatic. Leaders made choices, and Hitler’s Germany mattered most in Europe because Germany had the power to break the postwar balance.

The Four Main Causes

The Versailles Settlement and the Weak Peace

The Treaty of Versailles in 1919 punished Germany in ways nationalists never accepted.

• Article 231 blamed Germany for the war. That “war guilt” clause became a symbol of humiliation.
• Germany lost territory, had to pay reparations, faced military limits, and could not put troops in the Rhineland.
• Hitler and the Nazi Party used this resentment against the democratic Weimar Republic, claiming weak politicians had betrayed Germany.
• Self-determination was applied unevenly. New states were created, but many ethnic minorities were left inside them.
• Hitler later used Germans in Austria and the Sudetenland as excuses for expansion.
• Italy also felt cheated. Its “mutilated victory” helped Mussolini gain support.

The Great Depression and Political Radicalization

The global crash starting in 1929 shattered trade, loans, jobs, and production.

• Germany was hit especially hard because it depended on American loans.
• Moderate governments looked helpless. Extremists promised order, jobs, pride, and national revival.
• Hitler was appointed chancellor in 1933.
• Economic crisis pushed states toward protectionism and autarky, the idea of being self-sufficient. That made conquest look useful for raw materials and markets.

A common mistake is mixing up the Depression with German hyperinflation. Hyperinflation happened in 1923, earlier.

Fascism, Totalitarianism, and Militarism

These terms are related, but not identical.

Nazi Germany was fascist and strongly totalitarian. Stalin’s USSR was totalitarian, but not fascist. Japan is best described here as militarist and authoritarian.

Continued Imperialism

These powers did not reject empire. They wanted their own.

• Germany wanted empire in eastern Europe.
• Italy wanted empire in Africa and the Mediterranean.
• Japan wanted empire in East and Southeast Asia.

Imperialism tied together ideology, economics, and territorial expansion.

How Aggression Went Unchecked

The postwar system depended on the League of Nations, but the League had no army, no U.S. membership, and relied on Britain and France.

Japan’s expansion in East Asia is a good example of how weak that system turned out to be.

Japanese imperial expansion in East Asia

• Manchuria, 1931 to 1933
  Japan used the Mukden Incident as a pretext, seized Manchuria, and made Manchukuo. The map highlights that takeover within Japan’s broader regional empire. The League condemned it, but did nothing effective. Japan left the League.
• Ethiopia, 1935 to 1936
  Mussolini invaded Ethiopia. League sanctions were weak and failed.

This set up appeasement. Britain and France made concessions because they feared another war, felt weak, faced Depression problems, feared communism, and thought some German complaints were reasonable. The Munich Agreement in 1938 let Hitler take the Sudetenland. Chamberlain called it “peace for our time.” Appeasement enabled aggression, but it was a failed response, not the deepest cause.

The Road to War in Europe and Asia

Hitler’s Expansion

Germany’s moves from 1935 to 1939 show how quickly Hitler pushed past the postwar settlement and turned revision into open conquest.

German expansion in Europe, 1933 to 1939

1. 1935 Germany rearmed and brought back conscription.
2. 1936 Hitler remilitarized the Rhineland.
3. 1938 Germany annexed Austria in the Anschluss.
4. 1938 Hitler got the Sudetenland through Munich.
5. 1939 Germany occupied the rest of Czechoslovakia, proving this was about conquest, not just self-determination.
6. August 1939 Germany signed the Nazi-Soviet Nonaggression Pact, with a secret plan to divide eastern Europe.
7. September 1, 1939 Germany invaded Poland. Britain and France declared war on September 3.

Hitler’s goals included overturning Versailles, uniting Germans, gaining Lebensraum, destroying communism, and building a racial empire.

Italy and Japan as Parallel Expansionist Powers

Italy and Japan were following the same broader pattern of aggressive expansion.

• Italy invaded Ethiopia, helped Franco in the Spanish Civil War, and occupied Albania. Spain became a testing ground for weapons and ideologies.
• Japan seized Manchuria in 1931 and launched full-scale war against China in 1937 after the Marco Polo Bridge incident.
• Japan used the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere as propaganda for Japanese rule.

In Europe, 1939 marks the general war. In Asia, 1937 or even 1931 can be the more meaningful starting point.

What to Say in a Strong AP Answer

A strong answer connects the causes. Versailles created grievances, the Depression destabilized states, fascist and militarist leaders chose conquest, and League weakness plus appeasement let aggression succeed. If you rank causes, Hitler’s aggressive militarism is the most immediate cause of war in Europe.

Compared with World War I, both wars involved nationalism, militarism, imperialism, and diplomatic failure. World War II also had the Depression, fascism, totalitarian rule, racial empire, and the drive to revise the post-1919 order. The immediate consequence you need here is the outbreak of general war in 1939, which later merged with the Asian conflict into global World War II.