Germans Place in World War II after World War I

Germany though a superior nation, did not win World War One. It was allied to many nations but at the end of the war, most of them withdrew their support. Germany had the era of Bismarck and that of Hitler who both believed that they would conquer the wars. My argument is that the defeat of Germany in World War One made World War two inevitable because the Germans were proud and they could not accept this to be touched. Thus, they had to initiate another war to prove to the world that they were the most powerful nation.

The World wars of the 20th century have led to the change of the world’s configuration in terms of politics, economics, social structures, infrastructure, and governance. The countries involved in the war at that time were all bound by the treaty alliance systems. Upon the assassination of Austria-Hungary’s heir Archduke Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo, the Austrians blamed the Serbians and gave them an ultimatum to bring the perpetrators to justice, which did not bond well with the Serbians(Michael 2009, par 1-2). In consequence, several Serbian allies including British foreign secretary Sir Edward Grey commented on the interference of Austria-Hungary on Serbian sovereignty (Michael 2009, par. 3).

Serbia’s other ties led to Russia’s interest and, Austria-Hungary needed assurance from Germany to support her in the face of Russia’s involvement, so that when the Serbians failed to respond to the ultimatum given to them, Austria-Hungary was strong enough to declare war against them. Bound by the treaty to Serbians, Russia mobilized its troops to attack Austria-Hungary. France also allied with Russia, joined and declared war on both Germany and Austria-Hungary. As a sign of aggressiveness, Germany attacked neutral Belgium to have easy access to Paris. Britain, which was allied to France, also declared war on Germany, being allied to both Belgium and France.

Due to the military agreement with the Britons, Italy an ally of Germany and Australia-Hungary remained neutral until later. The United States had a policy of absolute neutrality and did not become involved until the Germans started a war policy of unrestricted submarine warfare, which threatened America’s commercial shipping process (Stanislao 1998, p.5).

In the issues that led to the First World War, Germany was the main cause of the inclusion of many nations because of its enormous power. As initially viewed, this looked like a small issue that was between only two countries, because of the centrality of Germany’s role and place on the world map. Bismarck as the first Prime Minister of Prussia and then the chancellor of Germany constructed the German empire in his pursuit of world domination. He created the empire out of the smaller German states by overriding the authority of Austria over these, eventually taking after the famous seven week’s war’.

After Germany gained the northern states, she now wanted to have the southern states. The only way to achieve this was to initiate a war with the French, which she eventually did by insulting them using the Ems Telegram. The Prussian army won the war and the southern states were captured by Bismarck where the French lost at the Battle of Sedan.

Bismarck also started to nurture some alliances for protection at this time and approached both Austria-Hungary and Italy, to form a triple alliance. This gave Germans a way of protecting themselves as well as more power (Bullitt 1996, p. 5).

World War One did not give Germans the power and popularity they hoped to achieve as most nations united against them including Germany’s allies. The aggressiveness of Germany forced even neutral nations to become involved. They made the treaty of Versailles, which had strict terms on Germany where she was made to pay the reparations, disarmament, and some territorial clauses where some land was taken away from Germany. Germany saw this as an insult to Bismarck’s legacy as he had spent much time building a powerful economy and therefore with the election of the National Socialist party Adolph Hitler took up where Bismarck left (Gordon 1999, p.38). Not all nations felt that the treaty of Versailles was fair to the Germans, not seeing any benefits in preventing Germans from reclaiming their rights. The policy of appeasement aided Hitler in his belief that nobody would interfere, undertaking his policies of rearming and acquiring whatever land he desired. The states involved in the treaty of Versailles were very weak and were therefore easily captured by Germany. Hitler started rebuilding Germany and after some time, had Germany in control of a wider region (Anthony 1977, p. 61).

In conclusion, the defeat of Germany in the First World War was a major cause of the Second World War. Germany had been a force to reckon with from the earlier times of Bismarck. Defeated in World War One, Germany was inclined to fight back (Kennedy 2009, p 15). After, treaty of Versailles was made as it affected the pride that Germany always had she could not have taken it. Adolf Hitler came into power with the perceived intention of bringing Germany back to its standards (David 1989, p. 7). Hitler believed that Germany did not lose World War One fairly and was determined to fight back, he even joked with his friends that there would be no power in the world that would get him out of his building alive. Germany’s pride was injured so much that World War Two was inevitable. In this light many of the factors that led to the start of world war two instigated Germany oriented thus war was inevitable (Kathleen 2008, pp. 6).

Reference

Anthony, P 1977, The making of the second world war, Routledge, New York.

Bullitt, L 1996, The causes and consequences of World War I: Volume 112 of Tamkang chair lecture series, Tamkang University, Taiwan.

David, I 1989, Hitler’s War: An introduction to the new edition, Institute of Historic Review, London.

Gordon, M 1999, The origins of the Second World War reconsidered, Routledge, New York.

Kathleen, 0 2008, ‘Germany’s role in World War I and World War II: causes and consequences’, Associated Content.

Kennedy, H 1999, ‘World War II Europe: The road to war: The Failure of appeasement’, Military History, p. 15.

Michael, D 2009, Causes of world war one, Web.

Stanislao, G 1998, ‘The first world war and its consequences’, Journal for Multimedia History, Vol. 1, no. 1, p.5.

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