The Second World War broke out due to various issues. The first and foremost of
these was the treaty of Versailles. The treaty was described by many as way to
harsh, one French general commented that it wasn't a peace treaty but a twenty
year armistice. Germany was made give up land to Denmark, Poland and France.
They also had their army limited in size, were made accept that they had caused
the war and were made pay 132 billion marks (the equivalent of £284 in today’s
money). The other members of the Central powers received even worse peace
deals. The Ottomans and Austro-Hungarian empires fell apart as a result of the
war. However the Entente powers also weren't satisfied with the treaty. The USA
wanted all countries to receive independence, Italy wanted to build their own
empire in the Balkans and stormed out of the peace negotiations when it became
apparent they weren't going to get the land they were promised, France wanted
to cripple Germany so bad that they wouldn't be able to threaten France again
while Britain wanted to keep the balance of power and were in favor of being
lenient.
The second major cause was political ideologies. In
Russia Communism had taken hold and many people in other countries were
intrigued by the idles and sought to bring the revolution to their lands. The
upper class and the clergy were scared of Communism as it would strip them of
their wealth. This led to the rise of Fascism which soon took hold in one shade
or another in the Balkans, Spain, Portugal, Italy and Germany. Fascism and in
particular German Fascism were very anti Communist. Hitler’s and his government
thought communism was the source of all evil and sought to eradicate it from
the earth.
Imperialism was the third major cause. Italy sought
to build an empire like their ancestors the Romans had. Japan thought it
was their right to conquer all of Asia. While Hitler thought that the German
race was superior to others and that he should invade the USSR to give the
German people the lebensraum they required. Germany also sought to require all
the territory they had lost in the first war.
