by Jake Morrison

Created on: November 07, 2009

There are many causes of WWII, such as Germany's desire to seek vengeance on the world for the results of the first Great War, allies with Hitler such as Mussoliini, those who chose to appease rather than resist him such as France and early on, Britain, and Japan's decision to take advantage of the US being spread so thin that they start ed domination in their own part of the world. Each of these have complex origins and were aggrivated by ensuing events in the war.

GERMANY AND HITLER'S RISE TO POWER

There are few names more associated with WWII than Adolf Hitller. After Germany started WWI and was defeated, the Treaty of Versailles was signed to prevent German remilitarization and hamper them economically. This was a treaty that was initially unpopular in Germany and its opponents grew, especially as the memory of the reasons for it faded.

This made it very easy for Hitler to gather sympathetic support, especially considering his public speaking talent and arguments that won him large numbers of supporters. In his youth he was briefly emprisoned for rioting against the government, which only succeeded in mating him a martyr-like figure to his followers, and gave him a chance to write Mine Kampf, what many SS officers would take as a bible of sorts in the years to come.

The political structure of Germany was such that multi-party elections could allow even those with far less than majorities to win the chancelorship, which started his rise to the national scene in the 1930's. He then started deliberately violating provisions of the Versailles Treaty by militarizing the Rhineland. Interestingly (much like Saddam Hussein more recently) much of this was for show and to make him seem as too great of a threat to be taken on without just cause - meaning just for violating a treaty of war, which is supposed to result in war or treaties are in theory useless. He put out rows of useless planes and paper tanks to make himself look like a formidable foe while he set about to acquire the real capabilities he needed.

The British and French leaders in the 1930's, again, much like some of today's politicians, argue that diplomacy and appeasement are much better solutions for problems like this and would year after year come home from Germany with meaningless peace treaties that Hitler never meant to keep. The US stayed out of it for a long while because they considered it a European squabble and had a president whose main supporters detested millitary aggression. The US didn't

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