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The Cause of World War 2

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HIST 102

The Real Cause of War was Peace
What drives a country to war? This is a great question to ponder when thinking about history. Most of history revolves around wars. Most countries would prefer peace, but there are times when war is unavoidable. This was true for World War I, but why after this war ended did another world war break out only twenty years later. To understand this one must examine how the first war ended, and what happened between the end of World War I and the start of World War II around the world. World War I was a long fought war between the Allied Powers—United States, Great Britain, France, Russia and Italy—and the Central Powers—Germany, Austro Hungary, Ottoman Empire, and Bulgaria. The war began in 1914 and the United States entered the war in 1917. The war ended in 1919 with the Treaty of Versailles. When President Woodrow Wilson spoke about the war he stressed how important it would be to have peace without a victor and that the only peace that could last is “peace among equals” (A., H.J. Rebecca, 2012). Peace among equals would mean that at the end of the war everyone was treated as equals with an equal say in the terms of peace. This is not how World War I ended. The Allied Powers were victorious and since England and France had fought so hard at such a great cost they wanted to punish the Central Powers and especially Germany. They imposed harsh sanctions on Germany and demanded they pay $33 billion in reparations. This angered the Germans and caused great economic hardship in Germany that made the Great Depression seem like small potatoes. Historians have said that these terms “over the following two decades they helped lead to World War II” (A., H.J. Rebecca, 2012). Germany was not the only nation to be snubbed at the Treaty of Versailles. Other nations were not going to be given a fair shake by the Allies

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