...Nationalism and WWII Germany Alex Grausnick Charles de Gaulle, the French general and statesman who led the Free French Forces during World War II, once said; “Patriotism is when love of your own people comes first; nationalism is when hate for people other than your own comes first.” After the German nation was first formed and nationalism began to grow in Germany in the late 19th centuryas, they could have no idea that it would come to be one of the focal points behind the world’s deadliest and most disturbing war almost 30 years later. Nationalism was an extremely strong and popular idea in the 1920s and 30s because Germany was simply looking for something to believe in after its defeat in WWI and the problems in the Treaty of Versailles. But how did the idea of nationalism come to be behind the Germans in WWII? There were countless reasons, but it mainly came down to one individual; a man named Adolf Hitler. The nationalist idea came about, at least in part, due to Hitler’s now infamous hate for the Jewish people that ended in the slaughtering of more than 6 million of them when he was in charge of the country, which became more important than the love of their own people, just as de Gaulle said. Let us begin with the one who exploited the nationalist German citizens the most during the 1930s; a man named Adolf Hitler. What movements did he represent? He became an extreme German nationalist and he despised the Austrian Empire which he thought was dominated by anti-German...
Words: 1795 - Pages: 8
...Causes of World War ll After World War l, the world was trying to recover from the harsh effects of the war. In the 1920’s, twenty years after World War 1, the world was able to maintain world peace within. Everyone had the mindset of avoiding another war at all costs. Then ironically, in the 1930’s, new threats to the world peace arose, and another war seemed to be inevitable. No actions taken to stop the war from happening proved to be effective. A convergence of events contributed to the beginning of World War 11; including the failure of the League of Nations, Hitler’s actions, and the declaration of war on Germany by Great Britain and France. The League of Nations proved to be ineffective, and failed to tale appropriate actions toward countries when problems arose. a. The League of Nations basically allowed Japan to take Manchuria and other parts of China from China i. Textbook p. 712 ( Japan blew up their own railroad and blamed China) ii. Textbook p. 712 (The League of Nations failed to thoroughly investigate, and Japan got away with little chastisement) iii. Textbook p.712 ( China lost Manchuria, Japan admitted to blowing up their own railroad, and the countries went to war with each other) iv. Textbook p. 712 (Japan occupied ¼ of China) b. The League of Nations didn’t take much action when Italy expanded to Ethiopia i. Textbook p. 712 ( only placed economic sanctions on Italy) ii. Textbook p. 712 (Mussolini still declared Ethiopia...
Words: 734 - Pages: 3
...To a certain extent, Hitler was to blame to the outbreak of World War II. The fact that he strongly believed he could reclaim the German losses under the Treaty of Versailles without any interference from the League of Nations, and the signing of the Nazi-Soviet Pact show that Hitler was determined, and wouldn’t settle for anything less than what he wanted. Hitler wasn’t the only one who was to be blamed for the second world war – the failures of the League of Nations and Treaty of Versailles, the practice of isolationism in countries such as the US, Britain and France, and appeasement were also to blame. The fact that Germany was limited to an extremely small army, 6 naval ships, and no air force, submarines or tanks at all was something that encouraged Hitler to build up an army, regardless of what the Treaty of Versailles stated. By 1936, the Germans had a total air force consisting of 5,116 planes, and were extremely close to overtaking the size of the British air force. This was eventually accomplished, as the Germans ended up with 5,606 planes in 1937. One of the main reasons for the outbreak of the war was that Hitler was certain he could regain everything that Germany lost as a result of the Treaty of Versailles. His certainty was appealing to the German people, as they felt they needed a strong leader who would provide them with ‘lebensraum’, or living space. With the growing amount of aircraft in possession of the Germans, Hitler, an extremely aggressive...
Words: 674 - Pages: 3
...THE CAUSE OF WORLD WAR II PODER VANG HIS/125 CHRISTOPHER PRICE MARCH 15,2015 The cause of World War II have been said that there were many causes of the war but the one that was the most significant reason was the Great Depression (CHAPTER 24 World War II; HIST2, Volume 2, Kevin M. Schultz - © Cengage Learning; All rights reserved; Causes of War; pg. 407). During 1929 and 1932 the stock markets were collapsing which ended American investment in Europe. It caused the economic to slow down and without American dollar, Europe face industrial decline, unemployment, and widespread homelessness for workers. During all of these problems, it caused some political tension between France and Spain. Fights broke out between Communists and Nationalist over who had the best plan to the disrupted economy. With all the fight going on, the crash had a devastating effect on Germany who reparations payments for World War I, which were funded by the American lenders. Half way between 1929 and 1933, Germany had a withdraw from their invests, which caused Germany to have a production withdraw. Now during this time in the year of 1933, Adolf Hitler’s National Socialist Party gained power of Germany and took control of the whole state. Driven by delusions of grandeur and by racist and anti-Semitic ideologies, Hitler and Mussolini did not stopper their economic reform. Hitler even defied World War I’s Treaty of Versailles by occupying the industrialized Rhineland in 1936 and annexing German-speaking...
Words: 615 - Pages: 3
...late 1930s wanted to stay out of the European conflict that became World War II. 4. Explain the role that women played to help win World War II. 5. Describe at least two civil rights breakthroughs after World War II that moved the cause of African-Americans forward. 6. Describe at least two (2) ways in which the Vietnam War brought political awareness to a new generation of young Americans. 7. Describe at least two (2) programs of President Johnson’s “Great Society” agenda that are still with us today. 8. Include at least two (2) references other than the textbook. At least one (1) of your sources must be obtained from the collection of databases accessible from the Learning Resources Center Web page. Generic encyclopedic Internet resources such as Wikipedia or Answers.com will not be considered acceptable. Your assignment must: Be typed, double spaced, using Times New Roman font (size 12), with one-inch margins on all sides; references must follow APA or school-specific format. Check with your professor for any additional instructions. Include a cover page containing the title of the assignment, the student’s name, the professor’s name, the course title, and the date. The cover page and the reference page are not included in the required page length. The specific course learning outcomes associated with this assignment are: Recognize the major turning points in American history since the Civil War. Analyze how historical events shape America’s current society...
Words: 1534 - Pages: 7
...Was the Treaty of Versailles Responsible for World War II? I don't think that the Treaty of Versailles was responsible for World War II. The treaty did cause some disruptions, but I don't think that it was the singular cause of the war. It left Germany with nothing, and Hitler promised the Germans that everything would get better. The treaty definitely lead to a rise in fascism, and I think that allowed Hitler to start “rebuilding” Germany. There were a lot of flaws, and not everyone was happy with the treaty, but the ideal was to bring peace to the countries. It was hard to satisfy everyone, so the Treaty of Versailles was made to at least stop the fighting. Germany was treated unfairly and was blamed for the war, but the treaty didn’t cause...
Words: 362 - Pages: 2
...was very significant in the cause of World War II, Mussolini, the Abyssinia crisis, Spanish civil war, and its influence on Nazism aided Fascism in causing World War II. Fascism did not start from nothing. Benito Mussolini...
Words: 1133 - Pages: 5
...World War II Research Report The Soviet Union Danny Buck History 114 Dr. Murphy November 24, 2014 World War II Research Report The Soviet Union Totalitarianism came about in Russia during the time of Stalin. Before doing research I had thought that it would have started with Lenin, but it did not. “Why did Russia, in its enlarged incarnation as the Soviet Union under Stalin, become one of the three most repressive and brutal totalitarian states of the 20th century (the other two being Nazi Germany and China under Mao)? The urge to modernize rapidly is often put forward to explain the character of the Soviet Union. But what equally needs to be explained is the very backwardness that created such an urge. And the Russian intelligentsia had long been preoccupied both with modernization and resistance to it.” (Hollander, 2006). It was a brutal way of life where the people existed to serve the state. The Rise of Totalitarianism In the late 1910’s the czar was over thrown and he and his family were murdered. Lenin came to power and communism took over the country, but it was not totally repressive until Stalin came into power. Stalin’s goal was to modernize the Soviet Union. He wanted to industrialize the Soviet Union and increase the production of products. He thought that if he could make the Soviet Union a manufacturing giant that it could be a super power. He also wanted to maintain complete and absolute control and to not allow any interference from anyone...
Words: 3575 - Pages: 15
...to dissect creation and find some sort of semblance of meaning that might justify our existence. The list of our accomplishments is immeasurably vast. However, man might have proved that he can reach for ideals, but he has not proved that he can maintain them. We may have climbed mountains, but we have not been able to live for long in such high places. Despite our accomplishments, humanity’s failings have been just as extensive. Our history is also scarred with a long list of wars, injustices, unnecessary deaths, prejudices, hatreds, and disappointments. The pinnacle of our shortcomings, the end-point to our intellectual development as a species, can best be understood in the context of our World Wars. Although humanity has always lived side-by-side with war, never before in our history has so much widespread violence destroyed so many idyllic hopes and dreams. Never before was there such an example of our ignorance as a species, and blatant disregard for our intellectual successes. Both World Wars demonstrate...
Words: 2315 - Pages: 10
...There are a lot of causes and ways World War II got started. A lot of tension and turmoil from World War I and also from Hitler is what really led up to the world having its second world war. Some causes of the war is Hitler not going by the orders of other countries. Another is the Great Depression that was around the world and led to a bunch of turmoil and bad blood and led up the second World War. One big cause that led up to WWII was the turmoil left behind from WWI. According to the article “The causes of World War II” on sunysuffolk.edu there was an economic collapse and Germany started getting a strong military and disobeying the Treaty of Versailles. Germany was not happy and felt they were being treated harsh and unfair because of...
Words: 836 - Pages: 4
...Wars of the World World War I began in 1914 after the assassination of the Archduke Francis Ferdinand the heir to the Austrian throne. The war was fought by the Allies (Great Britain, France, Russia, Italy, Japan and the United States in 1917) and the Central Powers (Austria-Hungary, Germany, and the Ottoman Empire). Although, the assassination of the heir to the throne might have triggered the war the state of the countries had been moving towards a war for a long time. There were many causes to World War I two of them were nationalism and militarism. A patriotic feeling is what nationalism is all about. This was one of the major causes of World War I. Not all of the ethnic groups had their goals realized in their state. Some wanted to have their own national state but could not achieve this goal. Some rivalries over colonies made the alliances of Europe’s great powers uneasy and added tension to the states. After Napoleon’s exile the Congress of Vienna tried to sort out problems in Europe. A new Europe was decided by delegates from Britain, Austria, Prussia and Russia that left Germany and Italy as divided states. Some strong nationalism elements led to the unification of Germany and Italy. France was angry at the settlement of the Franco-Prussian war as they lost Alsace-Loraine to Germany. Another major cause of World War I was militarism. After 1900, the growth of many armies made tensions worse. Many of the armies had doubled in size in a few...
Words: 725 - Pages: 3
...POST CONFLICTS – WORLD WAR III HOW WORLD WAR III BECAME POSSIBLE World War III (WWIII, WW3 or the Third World War) is a hypothetical worldwide military conflict following World War II. Because of the development and use of nuclear weapons near the end of World War II and their subsequent acquisition and deployment by several countries, it is feared that a third world war could cause massive global destruction and could even cause the end of human civilization and most or all human life on Earth. Another major concern is that biological warfare could cause a very large number of casualties, either intentionally or inadvertently by an accidental release of a biological agent or the unexpected mutation of an agent or its adaptation to other species after use. One of the first imagined scenarios, hypothesized shortly after or even during World War II, is a nuclear war between the United States and the Soviet Union, which emerged as superpowers following World War II. This has been widely used as a premise or plot device in books, films, television productions, and video games. However, a few writers have applied the term instead to the Cold War, arguing that it met the definition of a world war even though there was no direct armed conflict between the superpowers. World War I (1914–18) was regarded at the time as the "war to end all wars" as it was believed there could never be another global conflict of such magnitude. World War II (1939–45) proved that to be false, and with the...
Words: 799 - Pages: 4
...Total war refers to war that affects all aspects of society, not just the people involved. World War I and World War II are often recognized as “total wars” because both birthed a new era of warfare. In previous eras, wars only affected the armies involved and had no impact of the lives of people outside the war. With respect to World War I and II, everyone was involved and everybody provided as much help as possible to ensure the victory of their country. Gender nor race, skilled or unskilled, young or old everyone gathered together to fight as one. World War I was fought mainly in Europe from the year 1914 to the year 1918 and lasted 4 years. World War I was fought between the Allied Powers composed of France, Britain, Russia, Japan, Italy, and the United States. The Central Powers was composed of Germany, Austria-Hungary, Bulgaria, and Turkey. What ignited World War I among other things, was the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand. Soon to follow, Austria-Hungary invaded their enemies and created one of the most brutal wars in the world. It eventually ended with the Treaty of Versailles in 1919 where Germany took full blame for the war. What categorizes World War I as a total war is the effects it had on people outside the battlefield. In order to compensate for the poor economy, many government agencies were created in order to conserve and generate revenue during the war. Specifically, one of the major agencies was known as the War Industries Board, or the WIB. The...
Words: 943 - Pages: 4
...Causes of World War II World War II resulted from a series of issues, many of which were caused by World War I (previously called “The Great War”). While the roots of World War I stemmed from the move towards nationalism during the late Nineteenth Century, the roots of WWII came from the way countries dealt with each other at the end of the Great War. This paper will discuss the causes of World War II. A significant cause of the war was the treaty that ended it. The Treaty of Versailles was signed in 1919; it discussed the terms for the defeat of Germany. However, the treaty was both too strong and not strong enough. The treaty was too strong because it placed all blame for the war on the Axis nations, of which Germany was dominant. The harshness of the treaty led to a strong level of revanchism in parts of Germany. Revanchism refers to the movement among individuals in a country in which they display unusually strong feelings towards “lost” sections of their country. As is obvious to anyone who has examined the changing maps of Europe during history, the borders of the various countries have changed significantly over the centuries. Countries that existed (such as Prussia) no longer do. The country was dissolved and absorbed into other countries. These various regions that are “lost” may create a sense of nationalism in others. Germans began to desire the provinces and regions that they had lost as a result of their defeat. The Treaty led to Germany losing...
Words: 680 - Pages: 3
...Causes and Effects of World War II Perhaps known to mankind as the most devastating war of all time, the Second World War was declared in 1939 and lasted for 6 years until 1945. There were many contributing factors as to why the Second World War came to be. The most obviously instigating action was that of Hitler’s conquering of Poland, which provoked Great Britain and France into declaring war on Germany; but there were many happenings before this that led to such a tragic conclusion. After the devastating effects of World War 1, government officials from the US, France, and England wanted to take matters into their own hands. They wanted to ensure that Germany would never start another war again, so together they constructed a treaty that practically rendered Germany powerless, and that contract was the ‘treaty of Versailles’. The treaty, which the Germans had but no choice to sign, held them accountable for World War 1, and the nation was to pay an excruciating fee of 6,600 million pounds in previous damages, in addition to this, the German army was to be shriveled to a small amount of men and only 6 navel ships (“World War Two – Causes”). The people of Germany were clearly unhappy by these decisions and Hitler quickly rose to power in response to the “abuse”. Ironically, the treaty would but only instigate yet another screeching war, initiated by the exact same people. When Hitler travelled from Austria to Germany as a young student he aspired to become an artist. Despite...
Words: 1247 - Pages: 5
