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"In 1940, League members Denmark, Norway, Luxembourg, Belgium, the Netherlands and France all fell to Hitler. Switzerland became nervous about hosting an organization perceived as an Allied one, and the League began to dismantle its offices"  Editors, History. Com. “League Of Nations.” History.Com, A&E Television Networks, 12 Oct. 2017, www.history.com/topics/world-war-i/league-of-nations.

"The failures of the League in the 1930s were not only because of aggressor nations undermining its authority, but also down to its own members. Britain and France, the two most influential members, ignored the League in their efforts to appease Hitler - actions that arguably led to the outbreak of the Second World War" “Paris Peace Treaties and the League of Nations, to 1933.” BBC.Co.Uk, BBC.co.uk, 17 Mar. 2022, www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/guides/zbg4t39/revision/9.

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On History.com"The Treaty of Versailles, signed in June 1919 at the Palace of Versailles in Paris at the end of World War I, codified peace terms between the victorious Allies and Germany. The Treaty of Versailles held Germany responsible for starting the war and imposed harsh penalties in terms of loss of territory, massive reparations payments and demilitarization."
https://www.history.com/topics/world-war-i/treaty-of-versailles-1
On National geograpic.com "The Treaty of Versailles is one of the most controversial armistice treaties in history. The treaty’s so-called “war guilt” clause forced Germany and other Central Powers to take all the blame for World War I. This meant a loss of territories, reduction in military forces, and reparation payments to Allied powers".
https://www.nationalgeographic.org/thisday/jun28/treaty-versailles-ends-wwi/

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The Fourteen Points

In a speech to Congress in January 1918, Wilson laid out his idealistic vision for the world after World War I, which was at the time sometimes referred to as "the war to end all wars."

In addition to specific territorial settlements based on an Allied victory, Wilson's so-called Fourteen Points emphasized the need for national self-determination for Europe's different ethnic populations.

Wilson also proposed the founding of a "general association of nations" that would mediate international disputes and foster cooperation between different nations in the hopes of preventing war on such a large scale in the future. This organization eventually became known as the League of Nations.

When German leaders signed the armistice ending hostilities in World War I on November 11, 1918, they believed Wilson's vision would form the basis for any future peace treaty. This would not prove to be the case.

Paris Peace Conference

The Paris Peace Conference opened on January 18, 1919, a date that was significant in that it marked the anniversary of the coronation of German Emperor Wilhelm I, which took place in the Palace of Versailles at the end of the Franco-Prussian War in 1871.

Prussian victory in that conflict had resulted in Germany's unification and its seizure of Alsace and Lorraine provinces from France. In 1919, France and its prime minister, Georges Clemenceau, had not forgotten the humiliating loss and intended to avenge it in the new peace agreement.

Treaty of Versailles Terms

The " Big Four" leaders of the victorious Western nations-Wilson of the United States, David Lloyd George of Great Britain, Georges Clemenceau of France and, to a lesser extent, Vittorio Orlando of Italy-dominated the peace negotiations in Paris. Germany and the other defeated powers-Austria-Hungary, Bulgaria and Turkey-were not represented at the Paris Peace Conference. Also absent was Russia, which had fought as one of the Allied powers until 1917, when, following the Russian Revolution, the country's new Bolshevik government concluded a separate peace with Germany and withdrew from the conflict.

The Big Four themselves had competing objectives in Paris: Clemenceau's main goal was to protect France from yet another attack by Germany. He sought heavy reparations from Germany as a way of limiting German economic recovery after the war and minimizing this possibility.

Lloyd George, on the other hand, saw the rebuilding of Germany as a priority in order to reestablish the nation as a strong trading partner for Great Britain. For his part, Orlando wanted to expand Italy's influence and shape it into a major power that could hold its own alongside the other great nations.

Wilson opposed Italian territorial demands, as well as previously existing arrangements regarding territory between the other Allies; instead, he wanted to create a new world order along the lines of his Fourteen Points. The other leaders saw Wilson as too naive and idealistic, and his principles were difficult to translate into policy.

In the end, the European Allies imposed harsh peace terms on Germany, forcing the nation to surrender around 10 percent of its territory and all of its overseas possessions. Other key provisions of the Treaty of Versailles called for the demilitarization and occupation of the Rhineland, limited Germany's army and navy, forbade it to maintain an air force, and required it to conduct war crimes trials against Kaiser Wilhelm II and other leaders for their aggression.

Most importantly, Article 231 of the treaty, better known as the " war guilt clause," forced Germany to accept full responsibility for starting World War I and pay enormous reparations for Allied war losses.

How Did the Treaty of Versailles Lead to World War II?

The Treaty of Versailles was signed on June 28, 1919, exactly five years after the Serbian nationalist Gavrilo Princip assassinated Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife in Sarajevo, sparking the outbreak of the war. Though the treaty included a covenant creating the League of Nations, an international organization aimed at preserving peace, the harsh terms imposed on Germany helped ensure that peace would not last for long.

Germans were furious about the treaty, seeing it as a diktat, or dictated peace; they bitterly resented the sole blame of war being placed at their feet. The nation's burden of reparations eventually topped 132 billion gold Reichsmarks, the equivalent of some $33 billion, a sum so great that no one expected Germany to be able to pay in full; in fact, economists like John Maynard Keynes predicted the European economy would collapse if it did.

Keynes was not the only prominent critic of the Treaty of Versailles: The French military leader Ferdinand Foch refused to attend the signing ceremony, as he thought the treaty didn't do enough to secure against a future German threat, while the U.S. Congress failed to ratify the Treaty of Versailles, and later concluded a separate peace with Germany. The United States would never join the short-lived League of Nations.

November Criminals

In the years following the Treaty of Versailles, many ordinary Germans believed they had been betrayed by the "November Criminals," those leaders who signed the treaty and formed the post-war government.

Radical right-wing political forces-especially the National Socialist Workers' Party, or the Nazis-would gain support in the 1920s and '30s by promising to reverse the humiliation of the Versailles Treaty.

With the onset of the Great Depression after 1929, economic unrest destabilized the already vulnerable Weimar Republic government in Germany, setting the stage for Nazi leader Adolf Hitler's fateful rise to power in 1933.

Sources

The Paris Peace Conference and the Treaty of Versailles. U.S. Department of State: Office of the Historian.
"The Treaty of Versailles: An Uneasy Peace," WBUR.org (excerpt from Michael Neiberg, The Treaty of Versailles: A Concise History), August 13, 2017.
Treaty of Versailles. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.
The Treaty of Versailles, 1919. Chateau de Versailles.

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Treaty of Versailles: Definition, Terms, Dates & WWI - HISTORY

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The Treaty of Versailles was signed in 1919 and set harsh terms for Germany's surrender to Allied powers after World War I, setting the stage for World War II.

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"Japanese militarism led to the occupation of Indochina which resulted in the US oil embargo which the military in Japan viewed as a pretext for war." Alchin, Linda, Definition and Summary of Japanese Military, Japanese Militarism, 2014-07-01, https://www.american-historama.org/1929-1945-depression-ww2-era/japanese-militarism.htm#:~:text=Definition%20and%20Summary%20of%20the%20Japanese%20Militarism&text=Japan%20joined%20Germany%20and%20Italy,as%20a%20pretext%20for%20war.

"World War II really began when the Japanese army seized Manchuria in 1931. But that was not the starting point of Japanese aggression. Japan started in business as a land-grabbing power in a small way. Moving cautiously, while its modern navy and army were still in the infant stage, Japan took over several groups of small islands not far from its homeland without having to fight for them" Why did Japan Choose War, What Shall be done about Japan after the war? https://www.historians.org/about-aha-and-membership/aha-history-and-archives/gi-roundtable-series/pamphlets/em-15-what-shall-be-done-about-japan-after-victory-(1945)/why-did-japan-choose-war

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The economic instability not only in Germany but all over the world caused dictators like Hitler to rise and take control.

"World War II, 1929 to 1945 Overview." Library of Congress, March 17 2022.https://www.loc.gov/classroom-materials/united-states-history-primary-source-timeline/great-depression-and-world-war-ii-1929-1945/overview/.

Hitler saw an opportunity to step up while German's and the German economy were vulnerable.

"The Rise of Adolf Hitler." The History Place, March 17 2022.https://www.historyplace.com/worldwar2/riseofhitler/begins.htm

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In the 1935 german military where public for the first time.and they where violating  the treaty of Versailles and expand their army to 550,000 troops.(timeline of the german military and the nazi regime,Dec 16, 2019,https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/timeline-of-the-german-military-and-the-nazi-regime)

In 1944 a small group of senior military officers decided that Hitler had to die. They blamed Hitler for losing the war and felt like germany would fall as a whole country.They tried to kill him but hitler survied the attack that was on him in 1944.(timeline of the german military and the nazi regime,Dec 16, 2019,https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/timeline-of-the-german-military-and-the-nazi-regime)

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In the aftermath of the Holocaust, Germany's military generals claimed they had fought honorably in World War II. They insisted it was the SS-the Nazi elite guard-and the SS leader, Heinrich Himmler, who were responsible for all crimes.

This myth of the German military's "clean hands" was largely accepted in the United States, where American military leaders, embroiled in the Cold War, looked to their German counterparts for information that would help them against the Soviet Union. And because the few available Soviet accounts of the war were deemed untrustworthy-and most of the crimes committed by the German military had taken place in Soviet territory-the myth remained unchallenged for decades.

This led to two long-lasting distortions of the historical record of World War II. First, German generals came to be seen as models of military skill rather than as war criminals complicit in the crimes of the Nazi regime. Second, the German military's role in the Holocaust was largely forgotten.

This timeline addresses these distortions by chronicling the relationship between the professional military elite and the Nazi state. It pays specific attention to the military leaders' acceptance of Nazi ideology and their role in perpetrating crimes against Jews, prisoners of war, and unarmed civilians in the name of that ideology.
World War I (1914-18)
World War I was one of the most destructive wars in modern history. Initial enthusiasm on all sides for a quick and decisive victory faded as the war devolved into a stalemate of costly battles and trench warfare, particularly on the western front. Over 9 million soldiers died, a figure which far exceeded the military deaths in all the wars of the previous hundred years combined. The enormous losses on all sides resulted in part from the introduction of new weapons, like the machine gun and gas warfare, as well as from the failure of military leaders to adjus t their tactics to the increasingly mechanized nature of warfare.

The Great War was a defining experience for the German military. Perceived failures on the battlefield and the homefront shaped its beliefs about war and informed its interpretation of the relationship between civilians and soldiers.
October 1916: The German Military's Jewish Census
During World War I, approximately 100,000 of the roughly 600,000 soldiers who served in the German military were Jewish. Many were German patriots who saw the war as an opportunity to prove their loyalty to their country. However, antisemitic newspapers and politicians claimed that Jews were cowards who were shirking their duty by staying away from combat. To prove this claim, the Minister of War began an investigation into the number of Jews serving in the front lines. For reasons that are not clear, the results were never published, which allowed antisemites to continue to question Jewish patriotism after the war.
November 11, 1918: The Armistice and the Stab-in-the-Back Legend
After more than four years of fighting, an armistice, or ceasefire, between defeated Germany and the Entente powers went into effect on November 11, 1918. For the German people, the defeat was an enormous shock; they had been told that victory was inevitable.

One way some Germans made sense of their sudden defeat was through the "stab-in-the-back" legend. The legend claimed that internal "enemies"-primarily Jews and communists-had sabotaged the German war effort. In truth, German military leaders convinced the German emperor to seek peace because they knew that Germany could not win the war, and they feared the country's imminent collapse. Many of these same military leaders then spread the stab-in-the-back legend to deflect blame for the defeat away from the military.
June 28, 1919: The Treaty of Versailles
The Treaty of Versailles, which ended World War I, was signed on June 28, 1919. Germany's newly formed democratic government saw the treaty as a "dictated peace" with harsh terms.

In addition to other provisions, the treaty artificially limited German military power. It restricted the German army to a 100,000-man volunteer force, with a maximum of 4,000 officers, who were each required to serve for 25 years. This was intended to prevent the German army from using rapid turnover to train more officers. The treaty forbade production of tanks, poisonous gas, armored cars, airplanes, and submarines and the import of weapons. It dissolved the elite planning section of the German army, known as the General Staff, and closed the military academies and other training institutions. The treaty demanded the demilitarization of the Rhineland, forbidding German military forces from being stationed along the border with France. These changes greatly limited the career prospects of German military officers. 1
January 1, 1921: The German Military is Reestablished
The new German republic, known as the Weimar Republic, faced many difficult tasks. One of the most challenging was the reorganization of the military, called the Reichswehr. The government reinstituted the Reichswehr on January 1, 1921 under the leadership of General Hans von Seeckt. The Reichswehr's small and homogenous officer corps was characterized by antidemocratic attitudes, opposition to the Weimar Republic, and attempts to undermine and circumvent the Treaty of Versailles.

Throughout the 1920s, the military repeatedly violated the treaty. For example, the disbanded General Staff simply transferred its planning to the newly established "Troop Office." The military also secretly imported weapons that had been banned by the Treaty of Versailles. It even signed an agreement with the Soviet Union, which allowed it to conduct prohibited tank exercises in Soviet territory. The Reichswehr's mid-level officers later became the leaders of the military under Hitler.
July 27, 1929: The Geneva Convention
On July 27, 1929, Germany and other leading countries signed the Convention Relative to the Treatment of Prisoners of War in Geneva. This international agreement built on the earlier Hague Conventions of 1899 and 1907 to increase protections for prisoners of war. The convention was one of several important international agreements regulating war in the 1920s. The Geneva Protocol (1925) updated restrictions relating to the use of poison gas. In 1928, the Kellogg-Briand Pact renounced war as a national policy.

These postwar agreements were an attempt to update international law in a way that would prevent another conflict as destructive as World War I. However, the dominant attitude within the German army was that military necessity always outweighed international la w. L ike many other nations, Germany bent or broke the rules when it found it advantageous to do so .
February 3, 1933: Hitler Meets with Top Military Leaders
Adolf Hitler was appointed Chancellor of Germany on January 30, 1933. Just four days later, he met privately with top military leaders to attempt to win their support. This was especially important because the military had historically played a very important role in German society and therefore had the ability to overthrow the new regime.

The military leadership did not fully trust or support Hitler because of his populism and radicalism. However, the Nazi Party and the German military had similar foreign policy goals. Both wanted to renounce t he Treaty of Versailles, to expand the German armed forces, and to destroy the communist threat. In this first meeting, Hitler tried to reassure the German officer corps. He talked openly about his plans to establish a dictatorship, reclaim lost land, and wage war. Almost two months later, Hitler showed his respect for the German military tradition by publicly bowing to President Hindenburg, a celebrated World War I general.
February 28, 1934: The "Aryan Paragraph"
Passed on April 7, 1933, the Law for the Restoration of the Professional Civil Service included the Aryan Paragraph. The paragraph called for all Germans of non-Aryan descent (i.e. Jews) to be forcibly retired from the civil service.

The Aryan Paragraph did not initially apply to the armed forces. On February 28, 1934, however, Defense Minister Werner von Blomberg voluntarily put it in effect for the military as well. Because the Reichswehr discriminated against Jews and blocked their promotion, the policy affected fewer than 100 soldiers. 2 In a memorandum to high level military leaders, Colonel Erich von Manstein condemned the firings on the basis of the traditional values of the German military and its professional code, to little effect. Blomberg's decision to apply the Aryan Paragraph was one of many ways that senior military officials worked with the Nazi regime. They also added Nazi symbols to military uniforms and insignia and introduced political education based on Nazi ideals into military training.
June 30- July 2, 1934: "The Night of the Long Knives"
In 1933-1934, Hitler put an end to efforts by SA leader Ernst Röhm to replace the professional army with a people's militia centered on the SA. Military leaders demanded that Röhm be stopped. Hitler decided that a professionally trained and organized military better suited his expansionist aims. He intervened on the military's behalf in exchange for their future support.

Between June 30 and July 2, 1934, the Nazi Party leadership murdered the leadership of the SA, including (leader) of the German Reich in August 1934. The military leaders immediately wrote a new Röhm, and other opponents. The murders confirmed an agreement between the Nazi regime and the military that would remain intact, with rare exceptions, until the end of World War II. As part of this agreement, military leaders supported Hitler when he proclaimed himself Führer oath that swore their service to Hitler personally as the personification of the German Nation. 3
March 1935-March 1936: Creating the Wehrmacht
In early 1935, Germany took its first public steps to rearm, in violation of the Treaty of Versailles. On March 16, 1935, a new law reintroduced the draft and officially expanded the German army to 550,000 men.

In May, a secret Reich Defense Law transformed the Reichswehr into the Wehrmacht and made Hitler its Commander-in-Chief, with a "Minister of War and Commander of the Wehrmacht" under him. The name change was largely cosmetic, but the intent was to create a force capable of a war of aggression, rather than the defensive force created by the treaty. In addition, the conscription law excluded Jews, much to the disappointment of those Jewish men who wanted to prove their continuing loyalty to Germany. Military leaders worked with the Nazi regime to expand arms production. In March 1936, the new Wehrmacht remilitarized the Rhineland.
November 5, 1937: Hitler Meets with Top Military Leaders Again
On November 5, 1937, Hitler held a small meeting with the foreign minister, the war minister, and the heads of the army, navy and air force. Hitler discussed his vision for Germany's The Commander-in-Chief of the Army Werner Freiherr von Fritsch, Minister of War von Blomberg, and Foreign Minister foreign policy with them, including plans to absorb Austria and Czechoslovakia soon, by force if necessary, with further expansion to follow. Konstantin von Neurath objected, not on moral grounds, but because they believed Germany was not ready militarily, especially if Britain and France joined the war. In the days and weeks that followed, several other military leaders who learned of the meeting also expressed their disapproval. 4
January-February 1938: The Blomberg-Fritsch Affair
In early 1938, two scandals involving top Wehrmacht leaders allowed the Nazis to remove commanders who did not fully support Hitler's plans (as laid out in the November meeting). First, Minister of War Blomberg had recently married, and information came to light that his wife had "a past," involving, at the least, pornographic pictures. This was completely unacceptable for any army officer. Hitler (with the full support of the other senior generals) demanded Blomberg's resignation. Around the same time, Commander-in-Chief of the Army von Fritsch resigned after Himmler and Reichsmarshal Hermann Göring trumped up false charges of homosexuality against him.

The two resignations became known as the Blomberg-Fritsch Affair. They gave Hitler the opportunity to restructure the Wehrmacht under his control. The position of Minister of War was taken over by Hitler himself, and General Wilhelm Keitel was appointed as the military head of the armed forces. Fritsch was replaced with the much more pliable Colonel-General Walther von Brauchitsch. These changes were just the most public. Hitler also announced a series of forced resignations and transfers at a cabinet meeting in early February.
March 1938-March 1939: Foreign Policy and Expansion
From March 1938 to March 1939, Germany made a series of territorial moves that risked a European war. First, in March 1938, Germany Hitler then threatened war unless the Sudetenland, a border area of These events sparked tension within the military's annexed Austria. Czechoslovakia containing an ethnic German majority, was surrendered to Germany. The leaders of Britain, France, Italy, and Germany held a conference in Munich, Germany, on September 29-30, 1938. They agreed to the German annexation of the Sudetenland in exchange for a pledge of peace from Hitler. On March 15, 1939, Hitler violated the Munich Agreement and moved against the rest of the Czechoslovak state. High Command. General Ludwig Beck, Chief of the General Staff, had long protested the prospect of another unwinnable war. However, his colleagues refused to back him up-they were willing to hand over the reins of strategy to the Führer. Beck resigned, to no effect.
September 1, 1939: Germany Invades Poland
On September 1, 1939, Germany invaded and quickly defeated Poland, beginning World War II. The German occupation of Poland was exceptionally brutal. In a campaign of terror, German police and SS units shot thousands of Polish civilians and required all Polish males to perform forced labor. The Nazis sought to destroy Polish culture by eliminating the Polish political, religious, and intellectual leadership. These crimes were perpetrated mainly by the SS, although Wehrmacht leaders were in full support of the policies. Many German soldiers also participated in the violence and looting. Some in the Wehrmacht were unhappy with the involvement of their soldiers, shocked by the violence, and concerned about the lack of order among the soldiers. Generals Blaskowitz and Ulex even complained to their superiors about the violence. However, they were quickly silenced. 5

April 7-June 22, 1940: The Invasion of Western Europe March 30, 1941: Planning the Invasion of the Soviet Union
In the spring of 1940, Germany invaded, defeated, and occupied Denmark, Norway, Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, and France. This string of victories-especially the astoundingly quick defeat of France-greatly increased Hitler's popularity at home and within the military. The few military officers who had objected to his plans now found their credibility destroyed and the potential to organize opposition to the regime reduced. After the victory in Western Europe, Hitler and the Wehrmacht turned their attention to planning an invasion of the Soviet Union.

On March 30, 1941, Hitler spoke secretly to 250 of his principal commanders and staff officers on the nature of the upcoming war against the Soviet Union. His speech emphasized that the war in the East would be conducted with extreme brutality with the aim of destroying the communist threat. Hitler's audience knew he was calling for clear violations of the laws of war, but there were no serious objections. Instead, following Hitler's ideological position, the military issued a series of orders that made it clear they intended to wage a war of annihilation against the communist state. The most notorious of these orders include the Commissar Order and the Barbarossa Jurisdiction Decree. Together these and other orders established a clear working relationship between the Wehrmacht and the SS. In addition, the orders clarified that soldiers would not be punished for committing acts contrary to the internationally agreed upon rules of war.

April 6, 1941: The Invasion of Yugoslavia and Greece
June 22, 1941: The Invasion of the Soviet Union
The Axis powers invaded Yugoslavia on April 6, 1941, dismembering the country and exploiting ethnic tensions. In one region, Serbia, Germany established a military occupation administration that exercised extreme brutality against the local population. During the summer of that year, German military and police authorities interned most Jews and Roma (Gypsies) in detention camps. By the fall, a Serbian uprising had inflicted serious casualties upon German military and police personnel. In response, Hitler ordered German authorities to shoot 100 hostages for every German death. German military and police units used this order as a pretext to shoot virtually all male Serbian Jews (approximately 8,000 men), approximately 2,000 actual and perceived communists, Serb nationalists and democratic politicians of the interwar era, and approximately 1,000 Romani men.

German forces invaded the Soviet Union on June 22, 1941. Three army groups, consisting of more than three million German soldiers, attacked the Soviet Union across a broad front, from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Black Sea in the south.

June 1941-January 1942: The Systematic Killing of the Soviet POWs
In accordance with their orders, German forces treated the population of the Soviet Union with extreme brutality. They burned entire villages and shot the rural population of whole districts in retaliation for partisan attacks. They sent millions of Soviet civilians to perform forced labor in Germany and the occupied territories. German planners called for the ruthless exploitation of Soviet resources, especially of agricultural produce. This was one of Germany's major war aims in the east.

From the beginning of the Eastern campaign, Nazi ideology drove German policy towards Soviet prisoners of war (POWs). German authorities viewed Soviet POWs as inferiors and as part of the "Bolshevik menace." They argued that because the Soviet Union was not a signatory to the 1929 Geneva Convention, its regulations requiring that POWs be given food, shelter, and medical care, and forbidding war work or corporal punishment, did not apply. This policy proved catastrophic for the millions of Soviet soldiers taken prisoner during the war.

By war's end, over 3 million Soviet prisoners (about 58 percent) died in German captivity (versus about 3 percent of British or American prisoners). This death toll was neither an accident nor an automatic result of the war, but rather deliberate policy. The army and the SS cooperated in the shooting of hundreds of thousands of Soviet POWs, because they were Jews, or communists, or looked "asiatic." The rest were subjected to long marches, systematic starvation, no medical care, little or no shelter, and forced labor . Time and again German forces were called upon to take "energetic and ruthless action" and "use their arms" unhesitatingly "to wipe out any trace of resistance" from Soviet POWs.
Summer-Fall 1941: Wehrmacht Participation in the Holocaust

Most German generals did not see themselves as Nazis. However, they shared many of the Nazis' goals. In their opinion, there were good military reasons to support Nazi policies. In the eyes of the generals, communism fed resistance. They also believed the Jews were the driving force behind communism.

When the SS offered to secure the rear areas and eliminate the Jewish threat, the army cooperated by providing logistical support to the units and coordinating their movements. Army units helped round up Jews for the shooting squads, cordoned off the killing sites, and sometimes took part in shootings themselves. They established ghettos for those whom the shooters left behind and relied on Jewish forced labor. When some troops showed signs of unease, the generals issued orders, justifying the killings and other harsh measures.

February 2, 1943 German 6 th Army Surrenders at Stalingrad

The Battle of Stalingrad, which lasted from October 1942 to February 1943, was a major turning point in the war. After months of fierce fighting and heavy casualties, and contrary to Hitler's direct order, the surviving German forces (about 91,000 men) surrendered on February 2, 1943. Two weeks later, Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels gave a speech in Berlin calling for radicalization of mobilization measures and total war. The speech acknowledged the difficulties the country was facing and marked the beginning of increased desperation on the part of the Nazi leadership.

Their defeat at Stalingrad forced German troops on the defensive and was the beginning of their long retreat back to Germany. This retreat was marked by widespread destruction as the military implemented a scorched earth policy on Hitler's orders. There was also an increased emphasis on maintaining military discipline, including ruthless arrests of soldiers who expressed doubts about Germany's final victory.

July 20, 1944: Operation Valkyrie

Although generally unconcerned about Nazi crimes-several of the conspirators had even taken part in the killing of Jews-a small group of senior military officers decided that Hitler had to die. They blamed Hitler for losing the war and felt that his continued leadership posed a serious threat to Germany's future. They attempted to assassinate Hitler on July 20, 1944, exploding a small but powerful bomb during a military briefing in his East Prussian headquarters at Rastenburg.

Hitler survived and the plot fell apart. He quickly took his revenge for this attempt on his life. Several generals were forced to commit suicide or face humiliating prosecution. Others were tried before the infamous People's Court in Berlin and executed. While Hitler remained suspicious of the remaining members of the German officer corps, most continued to fight for him and for Germany until the country's surrender in 1945.

1945-1948 Major War Crimes Trials

After the German surrender in May 1945, some military leaders were tried for war crimes and crimes against humanity. The highest ranking generals were included in the trial of 22 major war criminals before the International Military Tribunal (IMT) in Nuremberg, Germany beginning in October 1945. Wilhelm Keitel and Alfred Jodl, both of the German armed forces high command, were found guilty and executed. Both sought to blame Hitler. However, the IMT explicitly rejected the use of the superior orders as a defense.

Three subsequent IMT trials before an American military tribunal at Nuremberg also focused on the crimes of the German military. Many of those convicted were released early, under the pressure of the Cold War and the establishment of the Bundeswehr. Unfortunately, most perpetrators of crimes against humanity have never been tried or punished.

Last Edited: Dec 16, 2019

Author(s): United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Washington, DC

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Timeline of the German Military and the Nazi Regime

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Key dates illustrating the relationship between Germany's professional military elite and the Nazi state, and the German military's role in the Holocaust.

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"Reparations imposed on Germany following WWI left the country poorer, and economic woes caused resentment amongst its population. The Great Depression of the 1930's and a collapse in international trade also worsened the economic situation in Europe, allowing Hitler to rise to power on the promise of revitalization."
Johnston, Matthew "Economic Conditions That Helped Cause World War II" Investopedia, 17 March, https://www.investopedia.com/articles/markets/022516/economic-conditions-helped-cause-world-war-ii.asp#:~:text=Reparations%20imposed%20on%20Germany%20following,on%20the%20promise%20of%20revitalization.

"The economic troubles of the 1930's were worldwide in scope and effect. Economic instability led to political instability in many parts of the world. Political chaos, in turn, gave rise to dictatorial regimes such as Adolf Hitler's in Germany and the military's in Japan." Library of congress, "Americans React to the Great Depression" Library of Congress, 17 March, 2022, https://www.loc.gov/classroom-materials/united-states-history-primary-source-timeline/great-depression-and-world-war-ii-1929-1945/overview/

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Looking around at the magnitude of death and destruction that resulted from the World War I, leaders of the some of the world's major powers convened a conference in Paris, the outcome of which they hoped would ensure that no such devastation would ever happen again. Unfortunately, the combination of a poorly designed peace treaty and the most severe economic crisis the modern world had ever experienced brought about a deterioration of international relations that would culminate in a war even more calamitous than the one that preceded it.

Pretense of Peace

The unfortunate irony of the Paris Peace Conference that begat the Treaty of Versailles was that, despite its authors' best intentions to ensure a world of peace, the treaty contained a seed that when sown in the soil of economic crisis, would give rise not to peace, but to war. That seed was Article 231, which with its label "the war guilt clause" placed sole blame for the war on Germany and its need to make reparations payments as punishment. With such extensive reparations payments, Germany was forced to surrender of colonial territories and military disarmament, and Germans were naturally resentful of the treaty.

As early as 1923, the newly constituted Weimar Republic began delaying payments on war reparations, which initiated a retaliatory response by France and Belgium. Both countries would send troops to occupy the industrial center of the Ruhr River valley region effectively appropriating the coal and metal production that took place there. As much of German manufacturing was dependent on coal and metal, the loss of these industries created a negative economic shock leading to a severe contraction. This contraction, as well as the government's continued printing of money to pay internal war debts, generated spiraling hyperinflation.

While price and economic stabilization would eventually be achieved - partly through the help of the American Dawes plan of 1924 - the hyperinflation wiped out much of the life savings of the middle class. The political consequences would be devastating as many people became distrustful of the Weimar government, a government that had been founded on liberal-democratic principles. This distrust, along with resentment over the Treaty of Versailles, lent itself to the increasing popularity of more left and right-wing radical political parties.

Deterioration of International Trade

The onset of the Great Depression would serve to undermine any attempts at creating a more open, cooperative and peaceful post-war world. The American stock market crash in 1929 caused not just a cessation of loans provided to Germany under the Dawes Plan, but a complete recall of previous loans. The tightening of money and credit eventually led to the collapse of Austria's largest bank in 1931, the Kreditanstalt, which kicked off a wave of bank failures throughout Central Europe, including the complete disintegration of Germany's banking system.

Deteriorating economic conditions in Germany helped the Nazi party grow from being a relatively small fringe group to being the nation's largest political party. Nazi propaganda that put blame on the Treaty of Versailles for much of Germany's economic hardships fueled Hitler's rise in popularity with voters, who would make him German chancellor in 1933.

More globally, the Great Depression would have the effect of motivating individual nations to adopt more beggar-thy-neighbor trade policies in order to protect domestic industries from foreign competition. While such trade policies can be beneficial on an individual level, if every country turns to protectionism it serves to reduce international trade and the economic benefits that come with it. Indeed, countries without access to important raw materials will be especially burdened by the lack of free trade.

From Imperialism to World War

While the British, French, Soviets, and Americans had large colonial empires to which they could turn turn for access to much needed raw materials, countries such as Germany, Italy and Japan did not. The deterioration of international trade led to the formation of more regional trade blocs with the 'have' nations forming blocs along colonial lines, like Great Britain's Imperial Preference system.

While "have-not" nations looked to form their own regional trade blocs, they found it increasingly necessary to use military force to annex territories with the much-needed resources. Such military force required extensive rearmament and thus, in the case of Germany, meant a direct violation of the Versailles Treaty. But, rearmament also reinforced the need for more raw materials and consequently the need for territorial expansion.

Such imperialist conquests like Japan's invasion of Manchuria in the early 1930s, Italy's invasion of Ethiopia in 1935 and Germany's annexation of most of Austria and parts of Czechoslovakia in 1938, were all manifestations of the need to expand territories. But these conquests would soon draw the ire of two of Europe's major powers, and following Germany's invasion of Poland, both Britain and France would declare war on Germany on September 3rd, 1939, thus commencing the Second World War.

The Bottom Line

Despite noble aspirations for peace, the outcome of the Paris Peace Conference did more to reinforce hostility by singling out Germany as the sole instigator of the First World War. The Great Depression and the economic protectionism it engendered would then serve as the catalyst for the hostility to manifest itself in the rise of the Nazi Party and increasing imperialist ambitions among world nations. It was then only a matter of time before small imperialist conquests would lead to the breakout of World War II.

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Economic Conditions That Helped Cause World War II

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Looking around at the magnitude of death and destruction that resulted from the World War I, leaders of the some of the world's major powers convened a conference in Paris, the outcome of which they hoped would ensure that no such devastation would ever happen again.

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"Instead of lasting peace, the Treaty of Versailles contributed greatly to the cause of World War II as it caused humiliation and anger within Germany. … The treaty discriminated strongly against Germany, with the loss of territories, military restrictions, economic reparations, and the War Guilt Clause"
"How did the treaty of Versailles help cause WW2"
12-6-21
https://lisbdnet.com/how-did-the-treaty-of-versailles-help-cause-ww2/#:~:text=Instead%20of%20lasting%20peace%2C%20the,and%20the%20War%20Guilt%20Clause.

"The Versailles Treaty forced Germany to give up territory to Belgium, Czechoslovakia and Poland, return Alsace and Lorraine to France and cede all of its overseas colonies in China, Pacific and Africa to the Allied nations. In addition, it had to drastically reduce its armed forces and accept the demilitarization and Allied occupation of the region around the Rhine River"

"How did the treaty of versiallies and germen guilt lead to world war II"
6-29-18
https://www.history.com/news/treaty-of-versailles-world-war-ii-german-guilt-effects#:~:text=Most%20importantly%2C%20Article%20231%20of,reparations%20to%20the%20Allied%20nations.

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William Keller. In the article Hirohito on History.com it says, "However, a plunging economy, rising militarism and a series of political assassinations soon caused a crisis for the pro-democracy movement."HIstory.Com Authors. “Hirohito.” History, 17 Mar. 2022, www.history.com/topics/world-war-ii/hirohito-1.

"By 1928, Japan’s militarist prime minister, Tanaka, sent troops to China. To him and his followers, expanding into Manchuria made sense politically,"
Japanese Imperialism And The Road To War. " Japanese Imperialism and the Road to War, 17 Mar. 2022, www.facinghistory.org/resource-library/teaching-nanjing-atrocities/japanese-imperialism-and-road-war.

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1- "It was hoped that the League of Nations would bring stability to global affairs by allowing disputes between countries to be settled through negotiation rather than conflict...Unfortunately, the League of Nations failed to stop the growing crisis of Nazi aggression in the years before World War II.  The organization lacked the ability to respond to aggression and was viewed as too weak against dictators such as Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini"(CAUSES OF WORLD WAR II, History Crunch, March 17, https://www.historycrunch.com/causes-of-world-war-ii.html#/).
2- "The League was premised on the idea that security threats to one member demanded responses from all members. But when it came time to respond to those threats, the organization largely failed...Though the League ultimately failed to prevent World War II, the organization made critical inroads on issues such as global health and arms control"(Why Did World War II Happen, World 101, March 17, https://world101.cfr.org/historical-context/world-war/why-did-world-war-ii-happen).

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"Appeasement emboldened Hitler's Germany, essentially leading to WWII"(Arrington, Phillip, Causes of WW11, March 17, 2022, https://www.enotes.com/homework-help/how-did-appeasement-cause-world-war-ii-723521).

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https://www.thebalance.com/what-is-an-economic-depression-3306013

The Balance “Economic Depression, Its Causes, and How to Prevent It.” The Balance, 17 Mar. 2022, www.thebalance.com

https://corporatefinanceinstitute.com/resources/knowledge/economics/economic-depression/#:~:text=An%20economic%20depression%20is%20an,rate.

CFI “Economic Depression, A State of Financial Turmoil.” CFI, 17 Mar. 2022, corporatefinanceinstitute.com

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Definition: An economic depression is a severe downturn that lasts several years.

Fortunately, the U.S. economy has only experienced one economic depression. That's the Great Depression of 1929. It lasted ten years. The decline in the GDP growth rates were of a magnitude not seen since:

1930 -8.6 percent

1931 -6.5 percent

1932 -13.1 percent

1933 -1.3 percent

1938 -3.4 percent

During the Depression, the unemployment rate was 25 percent.

Wages fell 42 percent. Total U.S. economic output fell from $103 billion to $55 billion. World trade plummeted 65 percent as measured in dollars. For more, see Effects of the Great Depression.

How does that compare to recessions since then? During the financial crisis of 2008, economic growth plummeted. But it never came close to the severity of the Great Depression. Although there were some steep downturns during a few quarters, the were no years where the economy contracted as severely as in the Great Depression. In 2008, the economy contracted 0.3 percent. In 2009 it shrank 3.5 percent. (For details, see GDP Statistics.)

The 2001 recession had some bad quarters, but no years that were negative. In 1991, the economy contracted 0.2 percent. The 1980-82 recession saw two negative years: 1980 was down 0.3 percent, and 1982 was down 1.2 percent. During the 1973-75 recession, the economy contracted 0.6 percent in 1974 and 0.2 percent in 1975.

In fact, the closest the country has come to a depression was right after World War II, when economic engines struggled to readjust to peacetime production:

1945 -1.1 percent

1946 -10.9 percent

1947 -0.9 percent

1949 -0.5 percent

Causes

An economic depression is so cataclysmic, it almost takes a perfect storm of events to create one.

In fact, many experts say that the Depression was aggravated by contractionary monetary policy. The Federal Reserve rightly sought to slow down the stock market bubble in the late 1920s. But once the stock market crashed, the Fed kept raising interest rates to defend the gold standard. Instead of pumping money into the economy and increasing the money supply, the Fed allowed the money supply to fall 30 percent. This created massive deflation, where prices dropped 10 percent each year. As people expected lower prices, they delayed purchases. Real estate prices plummeted 25 percent. People lost their homes. For more, see Great Depression Timeline.

Once the downward spiral of an economic depression takes hold, it is hard to stop. The "New Deal" created many government programs to end the Depression, but government programs alone couldn't do the trick. Unemployment remained in the double-digits until 1941, when the U.S. entry into World War II created defense-related jobs. Production capacity had declined during the Depression decade. Rebuilding for the war effort meant lots of job creation. That's because new capacity had to be built.

Prevention

Many people worry that the world could experience another economic depression.

As long as you understand the severity of a real depression, you will see we have come nowhere close in recent years.

First, a depression on the scale of 1929 could not happen exactly the way it did before. Many laws and government agencies were put in place because of the Great Depression. Their express purpose was to prevent any more of that type of cataclysmic economic pain.

Second, central banks around the world, including the Federal Reserve, are so much more aware of the importance of stimulating the economy with expansive monetary policy. In fact, central banks did act in a coordinated fashion to prevent a depression in October 2008 by bailing out banks. They lowered interest rates, pumping credit and liquidity into the global financial system. This also restored confidence among panicked bankers, who were unwilling to lend to each other for fear of taking on each other's subprime mortgages as collateral.

Third, the Fed has adopted a policy of inflation rate targeting to prevent the deflation associated with a global depression. As a result, the Fed will continue expansive monetary policy to keep the core inflation rate at 2 percent.

There is only so much monetary policy can do without fiscal policy. In 2009, the economic stimulus bill helped prevent a depression by stimulating the economy. But the incredible size of the national debt limits further government spending. Working together, monetary and fiscal policy can prevent another global depression. For more, see Could the Great Depression Happen Again?

FAQ

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What Caused the Depression, and Why It Won't Happen Again

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Definition: An economic depression is a severe downturn that lasts several years. Fortunately, the U.S. economy has only experienced one economic depression. That's the Great Depression of 1929. It lasted ten years.

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The German militarism was the Nazis were determined that the Germany be a militarist state, where the country was prepared for war at any time .  "the Nazis launched an ambitious rearmament programme. They also relied on the education system to prepare young men for military service, both physically and mentally." “Nazi Social and Economic Policies.” BBC, BBC, 10 Jan. 2022 .

How did German Militarism lead to WWll ? Adolf Hitler used Germany pride in their army to extend Nazi power, which helped set the stage for the invasion "Militarism contributed to the origin of World War II to a great extent. Adolf Hitler used Germany’s pride in their army to acquire and extend Nazi power, which set the stage for the invasion of Poland and the start of World War II.. " “How Did Militarism Lead to WWll ?” How Did Militarism Lead to WWll ?, Lisbdnet.com, 20 Dec. 2018 .

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"The Munich Conference was an embarrassment for Neville Chamberlin, who returned to Britain and announced that he had helped ensure “Peace in our time” while holding up the agreement signed by Hitler.  For Hitler, the conference furthered his belief that the Western democracies were weak and that they would not act in the face of Nazi aggression.  Germany soon took control over the remainder of Czechoslovakia through a series of invasions."

"APPEASEMENT BEFORE WORLD WAR II"   https://www.historycrunch.com/appeasement-before-world-war-ii.html#/

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"The Great Depression affected Japan by a great amount, and led to a rise in militarism. As Japan exported luxury goods, such as silks, to other countries such as America which, because they were now affected by the depression, could not afford them anymore. This led to a feeling in Japan that they should become much more self-sufficient, through gaining more territory." Japanese History/The Rise of Militarism, March 17, 2022
https://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Japanese_History/The_Rise_of_Militarism#The_Great_Depression

"On September 18, 1931, came the Mukden (or Manchurian) Incident, which launched Japanese aggression in East Asia. A Kwantung Army charge that Chinese soldiers had tried to bomb a South Manchurian Railway train (which arrived at its destination safely) resulted in a speedy and unauthorized capture of Mukden (now Shen-yang), followed by the occupation of all Manchuria. The civilian government in Tokyo could not stop the army, and even army headquarters were not always in full control of the field commanders." Japan- The rise of the militarists, March 17, 2022
https://www.britannica.com/place/Japan/The-rise-of-the-militarists

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In the article Cause and Effect: The Outbreak of World War II it says,"Hitler’s account of the German defeat not only offered a clear set of villains but a distinct path back to national honor by pursuing its former military glory.
During the 1930s, Hitler’s Germany embarked on a program of rearmament, in direct violation of the terms of the Versailles Treaty. German industry produced military vehicles and weapons; German men joined “flying clubs” that served as a thin pretense for training military pilots. Rearmament and militarization provided appealing avenues for Germans seeking some means to reassert their national pride".
In Causes of World War II it says,"Japanese militarism spread rapidly throughout Japan, being it is that Japan has an emperor but at this time the military had more of a say than the crowned emperor."

In the article, "Militarism - nazi social and economic policies.". It says,'The Nazis were determined that Germany be a militarist state, whereby the country was prepared for war at any time. For this to become a reality, the Nazis launched an ambitious rearmament programme. They also relied on the education system to prepare young men for military service, both physically and mentally...Rearmament involved increasing the amount of weapons for the army, air force and navy as well as stockpiles of munitions. German businesses received huge orders for tanks, aeroplanes and ships, as well as guns, bombs and bullets... The size of the army was increased from 100,000 men to 1,400,000."

Works Cited
Weinberg, Gerhard. "The Outbreak of World War II." Teaching History, www.teachinghistory.org/history-content/ask-a-historian/25268
BBC."Militarism - nazi social and economic policies."BBC, www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/guides/zsdfr82/revision/3

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Question

What were the causes of the Second World War?

Answer

Pinpointing the causes of a vast, global event like the Second World War is a challenging task for the historian. Events-especially enormous, multifaceted events-have multiple causes and multiple inputs.

A proximate cause is an incident that appears to directly trigger an event...

To help analyze the effects of those different inputs, historians often classify an event's causes into different categories. A proximate cause is an incident that appears to directly trigger an event, as the election of Abraham Lincoln in November 1860 and the shelling of Fort Sumter led to the outbreak of the Civil War. Such dramatic incidents are often the ones we think of as "causing" an event, since the connection between the trigger and the outcome appears both direct and obvious.

In their attempts to explore cause and effect, however, historians often probe more deeply beyond the "triggers" to locate trends, developments, and circumstances that contributed equally, if not more, to events. In the case of the Civil War, for example, historians often point to the growing sectional polarization that divided the nation in the 1840s and 1850s, the national debate over the future of slavery, and the divergent economic paths that distinguished North and South during the antebellum period. Those factors created the backdrop against which Lincoln's election and the shelling of Fort Sumter led to full-blown armed conflict in the spring of 1861; those conditions contributed to a state of affairs in which a triggering event could exert such enormous influence and touch off a four-year war.

In the case of the Second World War, historians generally point to a series of conditions that helped contribute to its outbreak.

In the case of the Second World War, historians generally point to a series of conditions that helped contribute to its outbreak. The unbalanced Treaty of Versailles (which forced a crippling peace on Germany to end the First World War) and the global depression that enveloped the world during the 1930s (which led to particularly desperate conditions in many European nations as well as the United States) usually emerge as two of the most crucial. Those conditions formed the background against which Adolf Hitler could ascend to the position of German Chancellor in the 1930s.

Virtually all historians of the Second World War agree that Hitler's rise to power was the proximate cause of the cataclysmic war that gripped the globe between 1939 and 1945. Without Hitler, a megalomaniacal leader bent on establishing a 1,000-year German empire through military conquest, it becomes extremely difficult to imagine the outbreak of such a lengthy and devastating war.

At the same time, Hitler's rise to power did not occur in a vacuum. Much of his appeal to the German citizenry had to do with his promises to restore German honor, believed by many Germans to have been mortgaged via the Treaty of Versailles. The peace agreement forced Germany to accept full responsibility for the Great War, and levied a massive system of reparation payments to help restore areas in Belgium and France devastated during the fighting. The Treaty of Versailles also required Germany to disarm its military, restricting it to a skeleton force intended only to operate on the defensive. Many Germans viewed the lopsided terms of the treaty as unnecessarily punitive and profoundly shameful.

Hitler offered the German people an alternative explanation for their humiliating defeat in the Great War. German armies had not been defeated in the field, he held; rather, they had been betrayed by an assortment of corrupt politicians, Bolsheviks, and Jewish interests who sabotaged the war effort for their own gain. To a German people saddled with a weak and ineffective democratic government, a hyperinflated currency, and an enfeebled military, this "stab in the back" mythology proved an enormously seductive explanation that essentially absolved them of the blame for the war and their loss in it. Hitler's account of the German defeat not only offered a clear set of villains but a distinct path back to national honor by pursuing its former military glory.

During the 1930s, Hitler's Germany embarked on a program of rearmament, in direct violation of the terms of the Versailles Treaty. German industry produced military vehicles and weapons; German men joined "flying clubs" that served as a thin pretense for training military pilots. Rearmament and militarization provided appealing avenues for Germans seeking some means to reassert their national pride.

Politicians in Britain, France, and the United States...were reluctant to act to check Hitler's expansionism without irrefutable evidence of his ultimate intentions.

Hitler's racial theories provided more context, both for his explanation of defeat in the First World War and for his plans for a 1,000-year German empire. In Hitler's account, Communists and Jews-whom Hitler depicted as stateless parasites who exploited European nations for their own gain-had conspired to stab Germany in the back in 1918. Creating the 1,000-year Reich required the creation of a racially pure cohort of blond-haired, blue-eyed "Aryans" and the simultaneous liquidation of ethnic undesirables. Hitler's vision of a racially pure German nation expanding across Europe, combined with his aggressive rearmament programs, proved a powerful enticement for the German people in the 1930s. Politicians in Britain, France, and the United States, encumbered with their own economic troubles during the global depression, were reluctant to act to check Hitler's expansionism without irrefutable evidence of his ultimate intentions.

Only later would the world learn that those intentions revolved around the methodical military conquest of Europe from the center outward, a process one historian of the Second World War has likened to eating an artichoke leaf by leaf from the inside out. That conquest began with the German invasion of Poland in 1939 and the attack on France and the Low Countries six months later. Hitler's quest for more "living-space" for his empire led to the invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941. By March of 1942, Hitler's fanatical desire to conquer Europe-along with Japan's concurrent push across East Asia and the Pacific-had plunged the world into a war that would last nearly six years and cost the lives of more than 50 million soldiers and civilians: by far the largest catastrophe in human history.

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Question What were the causes of the Second World War? Answer Pinpointing the causes of a vast, global event like the Second World War is a challenging task for the historian. Events-especially enormous, multifaceted events-have multiple causes and multiple inputs. A proximate cause is an incident that appears to directly trigger an event...

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1. "The League of Nations was formed to prevent a repetition of the First World War, but within two decades this effort failed. Economic depression, renewed nationalism, weakened successor states, and feelings of humiliation (particularly in Germany) eventually contributed to World War II" courses.lumenlearning.com was first indexed by Google in March 2016

https://courses.lumenlearning.com/suny-hccc-worldhistory2/chapter/the-league-of-nations/

2. "Unfortunately, the League of Nations failed to stop the growing crisis of Nazi aggression in the years before World War II.  The organization lacked the ability to respond to aggression and was viewed as too weak against dictators such as Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolino" historycrunch.com was first indexed by Google in February 2016 https://www.historycrunch.com/causes-of-world-war-ii.html

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"Appeasement reached its climax in September 1938 with the Munich Agreement. Chamberlain hoped to avoid a war over Czechoslovakia by conceding to Adolf Hitler’s demands. The Agreement allowed Nazi Germany to annex the Sudetenland, the German-speaking parts of Czechoslovakia.
Chamberlain promised it would bring “peace in our time”, but Churchill scolded him for “throwing a small state to the wolves” in exchange for a promise of peace.
Speaking after Chamberlain signed the Munich Agreement, Winston Churchill said: “You were given the choice between war and dishonour. You chose dishonour and you will have war.”

"Did appeasement cause the Second World War?" https://www.historyextra.com/period/second-world-war/did-appeasement-cause-second-world-war-policy-how-why/

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Appeasement: Did Chamberlain’s Appeasement Policy Cause WW2? | HistoryExtra

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When Hitler came to power, British prime minister Neville Chamberlain did all he could to appease him. But had he listened to another voice; that of Conservative backbencher Winston Churchill, might history have taken a very different course?

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"The Versailles Treaty forced Germany to give up territory to Belgium, Czechoslovakia and Poland, return Alsace and Lorraine to France and cede all of its overseas colonies in China, Pacific and Africa to the Allied nations. In addition, it had to drastically reduce its armed forces and accept the demilitarization and Allied occupation of the region around the Rhine River. Most importantly, Article 231 of the treaty placed all blame for inciting the war squarely on Germany, and forced it to pay several billion in reparations to the Allied nations."

Pruitt, Sarah, "How the Treaty of Versailles and German Guilt Led to World War II." History.com, June 3, 2019, https://www.history.com/news/treaty-of-versailles-world-war-ii-german-guilt-effects

"Though there was a real desire for peace in the wake of the disastrous war, the treaty did not achieve its intended effects. Furious at what they saw as a harsh “diktat” (a dictated peace), right-wing German politicians used the treaty as a nationalist rallying point. The staggering reparations payments reduced the country’s industrial output, and other forces thrust Germany into hyperinflation in the 1920s, which played into the economic instability of the Great Depression."

Blakemore, Erin, "How the Treaty of Versailles ended WWI and started WWII." National Geographic, May 31, 2019, https://www.nationalgeographic.com/culture/article/treaty-versailles-ended-wwi-started-wwii

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When Germany signed the armistice ending hostilities in the First World War on November 11, 1918, its leaders believed they were accepting a "peace without victory," as outlined by U.S. President Woodrow Wilson in his famous Fourteen Points. But from the moment the leaders of the victorious Allied nations arrived in France for the peace conference in early 1919, the post-war reality began to diverge sharply from Wilson's idealistic vision.

Five long months later, on June 28-exactly five years after the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife in Sarajevo-the leaders of the Allied and associated powers, as well as representatives from Germany, gathered in the Hall of Mirrors at the Palace of Versailles to sign the final treaty. By placing the burden of war guilt entirely on Germany, imposing harsh reparations payments and creating an increasingly unstable collection of smaller nations in Europe, the treaty would ultimately fail to resolve the underlying issues that caused war to break out in 1914, and help pave the way for another massive global conflict 20 years later.

None of the defeated nations at the Paris Peace Conference weighed in

Formal peace negotiations opened in Paris on January 18, 1919, the anniversary of the coronation of German Emperor Wilhelm I at the end of the Franco-Prussian War in 1871. World War I had brought up painful memories of that conflict-which ended in German unification and its seizure of the provinces of Alsace and Lorraine from France-and now France intended to make Germany pay.

The "Big Four" leaders of the victorious Allied nations (Woodrow Wilson of the United States, David Lloyd George of Great Britain, Georges Clemenceau of France and, to a lesser extent, Vittorio Orlando of Italy) dominated the peace negotiations. None of the defeated nations were invited to weigh in, and even the smaller Allied powers had little say. Though the Versailles Treaty, signed with Germany in June 1919, was the most famous outcome of the Paris Peace Conference, the Allies also had separate treaties with Austria, Bulgaria, Hungary and Turkey, and the formal peacemaking process wasn't concluded until the signing of the Treaty of Lausanne in July 1923.

The treaty was lengthy and ultimately did not satisfy any nation.

The Versailles Treaty forced Germany to give up territory to Belgium, Czechoslovakia and Poland, return Alsace and Lorraine to France and cede all of its overseas colonies in China, Pacific and Africa to the Allied nations. In addition, it had to drastically reduce its armed forces and accept the demilitarization and Allied occupation of the region around the Rhine River. Most importantly, Article 231 of the treaty placed all blame for inciting the war squarely on Germany and forced it to pay several billion in reparations to the Allied nations.

Faced with the seemingly impossible task of balancing many competing priorities, the treaty ended up as a lengthy and confusing document that satisfied no one. "It literally is an attempt to remake Europe," says Michael Neiberg, professor of history at U.S. Army War College and author of The Treaty of Versailles: A Concise History (2017). "I'm not one of those people who believes the treaty made the Second World War inevitable, but I think you could argue that it made Europe a less stable place."

In Wilson's vision of the post-war world, all nations (not just the losers) would reduce their armed forces, preserve the freedom of the seas and join an international peacekeeping organization called the League of Nations. But his fellow Allied leaders rejected much of his plan as naive and too idealistic. The French, in particular, wanted Germany to pay a heavy price for the war, including loss of territory, disarmament and payment of reparations, while the British saw Wilson's plan as a threat to their supremacy in Europe.

Black Thursday brings the roaring twenties to a screaming halt, ushering in a worldwide economic depression.

Aside from affecting Germany, the Treaty of Versailles might have caused the Great Depression.

Many people, even at the time, agreed with the British economist John Maynard Keynes that Germany could not possibly pay so much in reparations without severe risks to the entire European economy. In his later memoir, U.S. President Herbert Hoover went so far as to blame reparations for causing the Great Depression.

But though most Germans were furious about the Treaty of Versailles, calling it a Diktat (dictated peace) and condemning the German representatives who signed it as "November criminals" who had stabbed them in the back, in hindsight it seems clear that the treaty turned out to be far more lenient than its authors might have intended. "Germany ended up not paying anywhere near what the treaty said Germany should pay," Neiberg says, adding that hardly anyone had expected Germany to be able to pay the entire amount.

And despite the loss of German territory, "there were plenty of people who understood as early as 1919 that the map actually gave Germany some advantages," Neiberg points out. "It put small states on Germany's borders, in eastern and central Europe. It eliminated Russia as a direct enemy of Germany, at least in the 1920s, and it removed Russia as an ally of France. So while the treaty looked really harsh to some people, it actually opened up opportunities for others."

The war guilt clause was more problematic. "You have to go back to 1914, when most Germans believed they had entered the war because Russia had mobilized its army," explains Neiberg. "To most Germans in 1919, and not just those on the right, blaming Germany specifically for the war made no sense. Especially when they did not put a war guilt clause on Austria-Hungary, which you could reasonably argue were the people that actually started this."

New European borders, the League of Nations and Germany reparations.

Taken as a whole, the treaties concluded after World War I redrew the borders of Europe, carving up the former Austro-Hungarian Empire into states like Yugoslavia, Poland and Czechoslovakia. As Neiberg puts it: "Whereas in 1914, you had a small number of great powers, after 1919 you have a larger number of smaller powers. That meant that the balance of power was less stable."

The Versailles Treaty also included a covenant for the League of Nations, the international organization that Woodrow Wilson had envisioned would preserve peace among the nations of Europe and the world. But the U.S. Senate ultimately refused to ratify the Versailles Treaty due to its opposition to the League, which left the organization seriously weakened without U.S. participation or military backing.

Meanwhile, Germany's economic woes, exacerbated by the burden of reparations and general European inflation, destabilized the Weimar Republic, the government established at the end of the war. Due to lasting resentment of the Versailles Treaty, the National Socialist (Nazi) Party and other radical right-wing parties were able to gain support in the 1920s and early '30s by promising to overturn its harsh provisions and make Germany into a major European power once again.

The Versailles Treaty made World War II possible, not inevitable.

In 1945, when the leaders of the United States, Great Britain and Soviet Union met at Potsdam, they blamed the failures of the Versailles Treaty for making another great conflict necessary and vowed to right the wrongs of their peacekeeping predecessors. But Neiberg, like many historians, takes a more nuanced view, pointing to events other than the treaty-including the United States not joining the League of Nations and the rise of the Stalinist regime in the Soviet Union-as necessary elements in understanding the path to the Second World War.

"In my own personal view as a historian, you need to be really careful directly connecting events that happened 20 years apart," he says. "A different treaty produces a different outcome, yes. But you shouldn't draw inevitability. It's part of the recipe, but it's not the only ingredient."

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How the Treaty of Versailles and German Guilt Led to World War II | HISTORY

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From the moment the leaders of the victorious Allied nations arrived in France for the peace conference in early 1919, the post-war reality began to diverge sharply from Wilson's idealistic vision.

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Although Britain and France knew of Hitler's actions, they thought a stronger Germany would stop the spread of Communism from Russia. In 1936 Hitler ordered German troops to enter the German-speaking areas of the Rhineland, Austria, and Czechoslovakia. At this point Britain or France was prepared for war.

"WW2 causes(1919-1939)
https://www.lcps.org/cms/lib/VA01000195/Centricity/Domain/10599/Causes%20of%20WWII.pdf

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¨Reparations imposed on Germany following WWI left the country poorer, and economic woes caused resentment amongst its population. The Great Depression of the 1930s and a collapse in international trade also worsened the economic situation in Europe, allowing Hitler to rise to power on the promise of revitalization.¨ https://www.investopedia.com/articles/markets/022516/economic-conditions-helped-cause-world-war-ii.asp

¨In 1932, Franklin Delano Roosevelt was elected president and he promised a "New Deal" for the American people. Congress created The Works Progress Administration (WPA) which offered work relief for thousands of people.

The end to the Great Depression came about in 1941 with America's entry into World War II.¨

https://www.americaslibrary.gov/jb/wwii/jb_wwii_subj.html