The Reasons for the War

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.