The Causes of World War 2

THE CAUSES OF WORLD WAR TWO:

INTRODUCTION: This has been the centre of a vigorous and continuing debate that shows no sign of abating. It is not just historians having an argument: we are looking at people, factors and themes that caused the death of some 30 million people. Looming behind it all, is still the central question of our age - How to Avoid Another World War (especially now that we have nuclear weapons to play with; a chilling thought, Hitler with an Atomic Bomb!).

HITLER: The war was caused by Hitler has its attractions. What I might call the Professor Wagner theory of WW2. Professor Wagner (no relation to the composer) was the head of the Vienna Art Academy, who turned Hitler down not once but twice for that institution. If only he had admitted Hitler, so the theory goes, no WW2. Hitler was certainly an extremely unpleasant man with a very unpleasant ideology. He was conveniently dead. Germans could claim that they had lost their minds to this evil man. Those accused of war crimes could say they were only obeying orders. He was the leader of a totalitarian state: what he said carried a unique weight. Disobeying his orders carried unique penalties. Obeying his every whim was the way to promotion. He often ignored the advice of generals and civil servants.

In Mein Kampf, he laid out a plan of what he wanted to do - Lebensraum, the overturning of the T of V, the creation of a large Germany (Hitler spoke all his life with a strong Austrian accent; his father was a minor official in the Hapsburg regime), his militant anti Communism and his undying hatred of Jews and Slavs. He seemed to set out these ideas in a military sense in the Hossbach Memoranda (1937). He repeated this in Table Talk and his speeches. Hitler seems to be that rare thing - a politician who was consistent and believed what he said. This theory had its attractions also to the Allies. Germany at the end of WW2 was divided and was one of the central areas of the Cold War. Hitler could be a convenient scapegoat, allowing West Germany to be readmitted to the international community and become part of the world economic recovery of the 1950s. This explanation underpins what is seen as the Great Man Theory of History (now renamed the Great Person Theory of History).

THE THIRTY YEARS WAR THESIS: This is the very opposite of above. It argues that the causes of WW2 lay in the T of V. It did not solve the German question. It left disgruntled German minorities in several countries. It created new states that were unstable. The League of Nations - to use student political rhetoric of the 60s/70s - was a paper tiger. USA sat the next two decades largely out. Britain and France, although they were meant to be allies, found it very difficult to cooperate (so what's new?). The Germans were able to exploit the many contradiction in the Treaty (example, Danzig at

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