{/profile --

ramblings of three history girls

"There was nothing the League of Nations could have done to prevent World War II." Do you agree? Explain your answer.



I agree that there was nothing the League of Nation could have done to prevent World War II. The League of Nations was set up after World War I to promote international co-operation, peace and security by accepting an obligation not to go to war. However, the League of Nations was not able to prevent another war. It is often said that the weaknesses of the League of Nations is one of the main causes of World War II. By examining the factors that contributed to the failure of the League and also the causes of World War II, it will be shown that the view is true. The key factors of the League's failures and weaknesses are its membership, lack of acceptance by its members, lacking of military force and mandates. There were many factors that caused World War II that was beyond the League's controls, like the Treaty of Versailles, Adolf Hitler's action, Appeasement, The Great Depression and Competition for resources.



As a result of weak membership, not all nations were members of the League.US were the one who had suggested the League of Nations. However, US did not participate as the Republican majority in the American Congress voted against it. Russia was also not allowed to join because the ideals of communism were opposing to those of the League. Germany, Austria and Hungary were not allowed to join as a member until they had shown themselves to be peaceful nations. The absence of these nations meant that the League was not representative. Besides that, the membership was mainly made up of European countries. Although Japan was a permanent member of the Council, the League refused to declare that all races were equal. Therefore, this made people felt that the league was an organization run by the Europeans for the Europeans. Thus, it is not effective in dealing with international issues and ensuring international peace, which defeats the purpose of setting up the League of Nations and made the League of Nations a failure. Therefore, it could not do anything to prevent World War II from happening as it was unable to ensure and prevent conflicts between countries.






The League also failed to gain acceptance from the international community, the members who joined did not respect the League fully. Even countries that had agreed to the League did not always take it seriously. For example, both Britain and France saw the League as a place to discuss issues, but they conducted important business between themselves as they always had. The biggest factor in the negative views of the League was that that USA, which had insisted on the League, was not a member. The absence of US was a big blow to the organization to the reputation and credibility of the organization. Since the US did not take the League seriously, many nations felt that they also need not take the League seriously. On 28 September 1934 to 23 February 1935, the League already had 58 members. Thus, being an inter-governmental organization consisting of so many countries as its members, co-operations amongst are essential for the League to achieve its basic aim of settling international disputes and besides that, offering all countries support against attacks, reduce and control world armaments. So, when its members did not treat the League seriously, it was beyond the League's power to prevent another international war to spark off. When the League tried to prevent World War II from happening through collective security or imposing economic sanctions, they disregarded the League, thus allowing World War II to spark off.

The League failed to promote international peace and co-operation as it was lacking of military force. The League also did not have the strength to force major powers to accept its rulings. It did not have an independent military force, police force or an international peacekeeping force. If a country as found to have acted against the principles of the League, league members would apply economic sanctions. This means that they would stop trading with the offending state. However, most countries were unwilling to take this course of action because it harmed their economies. The League’s political successes were limited to situations where smaller countries were involved. In 1921, it resolved a dispute between Sweden and Finland over the Aaland Islands. In 1925, it halted a Greek invasion of Bulgaria. However, it was powerless, especially when it was challenged by stronger nations who would not hesitate to use force. When Germany stopped making reparations payments to the Allies in 1923, France and Belgium invaded the German industrial area of the Ruhr, while the League stood by passively. During the Corfu crisis of 1923, Mussolini also worked behind the League and made Greece pay compensation directly to Italy. In these failures, the League demonstrated an ability to settle international disputes other than war, such as World War II, and offer all countries support against attacks, or maintain peace. "In May 1933 the League was powerless to convince Hitler that Franz Bernheim, a Jew, was protected under the minority clauses established by the League in 1919 (that all minorities were fully human and held equal rights among all men). Hitler claimed these clauses violated Germany's sovereignty. Germany withdrew from the League soon to be followed by many other totalitarian and militaristic nations. The onset of World War II showed that the League had failed its primary purpose, which was to avoid any future world war. The United Nations replaced it after the end of the war and inherited a number of agencies and organizations founded by the League." These failures in the 1920s added to the instability of the interwar period, and made the League lose its credibility. As later events were to show, the League could not present the growth of aggressive nations who chose the road to war again leading to the outbreak of WWII eventually.

A serious weakness of the League was the mandates. The League of Nations took over most of Germany’s old colonies and allowed different members to govern them under mandates. The governing countries were not to treat Germany’s old colonies as their own colonies. They were to move towards self-government as soon as possible and the League was supposed to make sure this was done. However, throughout the 1920s, and as late as 1939, none of the areas governed under mandates were self-governing. This added to the sense of disillusionment. Countries that had been in favor of the League earlier now turned against it because they felt the League had let them down. As a result, the countries lost faith in the League and the League loses the support of the countries. Besides that, the League did not attain any real political achievements at all. This proved that the League of Nation was weak and useless. Hence, it was powerless to prevent WWII from happening. Simply put, the members of the League lacked the will and commitment necessary to take collective action against aggressor nations.

The failure of the League of Nations also emboldened Hitler. In 1931, the League failed in its first big test when the Japanese invaded Manchuria. The League was unable to do anything except protest. Subsequently, Japan withdrew from the League and occupied the whole of Manchuria. In 1935, the ineffectiveness of the League of Nations was revealed again when Italy led by Mussolini invaded Abyssinia to increase her territory and seize resources. The League could do little except impose economic sanctions. Britain and France also did not interfere as they wanted Italy’s friendship. These failures led to the League losing total credibility as a peacekeeping organization. More importantly, as Hitler saw Mussolini getting away with aggression in Africa, he might have been encouraged to do the same.



The League could not prevent the resentment of Treaty of Versailles as it cannot control the growth of extremists in Germany. The Treaty of Versailles was neither lenient enough to settle Germany, nor harsh enough to prevent it from becoming the dominant continental power again. The Treaty humiliated and embittered many Germans, thereby creating the conditions for the growth of extremism in Germany. The Germans resented the treaty, and felt that they had been unfairly treated. The treaty put the blame on Germany and Austria-Hungary, and made them responsible for the war rather than working out an agreement that would assure peace in the long-term future. The treaty resulted in harsh reparations, territorial loss, and military-disarmament. The treaty created bitter resentment towards the winning nations of World War I, For example, they resented the fact that the Germans in Austria, Czechoslovakia and Poland were not allowed to join Germany. Second, while disarmament was stressed, the only state that was disarmed after the war was Germany. The French and the British kept the size of their armies and navies. Worst, the Germans resented the fact that they were blamed for the war and had to pay an unrealistic amount to the Allies as reparations. Many Germans believed that paying the unrealistic reparations had led to great hardship in Germany. During her recovery years, the resentment was buried. However, once the hard times came, extremists such as Hitler could also play on such grievances to rise to power. The people also became willing to support Hitler’s calls for revenge, rearmament not and expansion. . The League was simply not strong enough to take actions against dictators such as Hitler and Mussolini who were determined on expansion.
Besides that, the treaty also failed to prevent the growth of Germany. Although Germany was defeated and weakened, she remained a very large nation. For example, she had the biggest population in Europe. To make things worse, she was surrounded by the new states of Czechoslovakia, Romania and Yugoslavia which were weak, disunited and racially divided. The new states around Germany were to act as safeguards to prevent Germany from expanding. However, by preserving Germany intact, while surrounding her with these weak and vulnerable states, the Treaty of Versailles had created a potential imbalance in power. As Hitler grew stronger in the 1930s, they were ineffective as a defense line. Thus, one by one, they fell under Germany’s control. With these circumstances, the League of Nation could not prevent Germany from starting war and conquer her neighbouring nations.
League of Nation could not prevent World War II due to Hitler’s action. One of Hitler’s foreign policy aims was to expand Germany territorially. Hitler felt that Germany’s growing population needed more room to live and grow food. Thus, the colonization of the territories east of Germany would provide the living space, also known as 'lebensraum' for Germany’s growing population.He also wanted the land so that all German-speaking people would live together in an area called ‘Greater Germany’. This ‘Greater Germany’ would be made up of Germany, Austria and countries in Central and Eastern Europe such as Poland, Czechoslovakia and Russia. In addition, Hitler also wanted to destroy the Soviet Union in order to destroy the Communist threat, and obtain Soviet Union’s rich resources. Clearly, Hitler’s aim brought Germany into conflict with the people already living in the lands east of Germany. League of Nation could not stop Hitler from expanding his authorities, this lack of an obvious military defeat was one of the pillars that held together the Dolchstosslegende and gave the Nazis another tool at their disposal. It would mean the acquisition of these territories by force, and make the prospect of war likely.




The failure of appeasement was one important cause of WWII. Other countries had also contributed to the factors that led to WWII. If the leaders of other powerful countries had stopped Hitler sooner, perhaps the war could have been avoided. However, other countries, like Britain and France failed to stand up to Hitler during the 1930s. This had important consequences. Appeasement gave Hitler an important advantage which is providing Hitler with the time to re-arm. In 1935, Hitler started re-arming Germany, re-introduced conscription and increased the German forces to 600 000. Britain and France did not stop Hitler. The British even signed the Anglo-German Naval Agreement, accepting that the Nazis were building a navy and was limiting its size to no more than 35% of the British Royal navy. Anschluss and Austria, which was unopposed by Britain and France, also led to Germany gaining control over Austria’s soldiers, weapons and its rich deposits of gold and iron ore. These significantly strengthened Germany’s increasingly strong army and war industry. Evidently, appeasement was a serious mistake. It gave Hitler time to rebuild its army until it was sufficiently strong enough to challenge the status quo, become stronger than Britain or France, and launch the war in Europe. Appeasement also emboldened Hitler. Hitler was a gambler, rather than a planner. With each success, he simply took the next logical step to see what he could achieve. For example, when Hitler sent his troops into the Rhineland, his generals had orders to pull out if the French acted against the Nazis – as the German army was still no match for the French army despite the re-armament. His success over the Rhineland led to his subsequent intervention in the Spanish Civil War (1936-39), and the Anschluss (Union) with Austria in 1939. During the Sudetenland crisis, Hitler had also gambled on the British not risking war. He even spoke of the Munich agreement as ‘an undreamed of triumph’. The point is, as other countries appeased him, and allowed him to get away with each gamble, he became bolder and riskier. This encouraged his expansionist goals. Moreover, the League could have stopped Hitler from rearming. However, due to the League's lack of military force and power, it failed to prevent the sliding to war.



The Great Depression, which was a significant event that contributed to World War II, was beyond the control of the League of Nations. The fallout from the collapse of the United States economy following the 1929 Stock Market Crash echoed throughout the world. European countries, especially Germany, were hit hard by the Great Depression, which led to high rates of unemployment, poverty, civil unrest, and an overall feeling of despair. The Great Depression resulted in a 25% unemployment rate in the United States and a 33% unemployment rate in Germany. The lure of a steady job and adequate food led many people to support dictatorships like those established by Adolf Hitler, Benito Mussolini, Joseph Stalin, and other totalitarians. The Great Depression hit Germany second only to the United States. Severe unemployment prompted the Nazi Party, which had been losing favor, to experience a surge in membership. This more than anything contributed to the rise of Hitler in Germany, and therefore World War II in Europe. After the end` World War I many American industries and banks invested their money in rebuilding Europe. This happened in many European countries, but especially in Germany. After the 1929 crash, many American investors fearing that they would lose their money, or having lost all their capital, stopped investing as heavily in Europe. When people feel that their livelihood was threatened, they will seek help from the Nazi Party. Hitler made use of this opportunity to maneuver himself into power, enabling him to start another war.



With the Competition for resources, it triggered off World War II. Japan was lacking of true natural resources. It is the only Asian country with a growing industrial economy at that time, was afraid that a lack of raw materials might hinder its ability to fight a total war against a reinvigorated Soviet Union. Hoping to expand its resources, Japan invaded Manchuria in 1931 and set about to consolidate its resources and develop its economy. The nationalists south of Manchuria compelled the Japanese leaders to argue for a brief, three month war to knock out Chinese power from the north. When it became clear that this time estimate was out of the question, plans for obtaining more resources began. The Imperial Navy eventually began to feel that it did not have enough fuel reserves. To solve this problem and ensure a safe supply of oil and other critical resources, Japan would have to challenge the European colonial powers over the control of oil rich areas such as the Dutch East Indies. It was expected that it would lead to open conflict also with the United States. On August 1941, the crisis broke out, which at the time supplied 80% of Japanese oil imports, set off a complete oil embargo. This threatened to cripple both the Japanese economy and military strength once the strategic reserves would run dry. Faced with the choice of either trying to appease the U.S., negotiate a compromise, find other sources of supply or go to war over resources. Hoping to knock out the U.S. for long enough to be able to achieve and consolidate their war-aims, the Japanese Navy attacked the U.S. Navy at Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. They mistakenly believed they would have about two year to secure their conquests before the United States was able to respond and also compromise long before they could get anywhere near Japan. As nations like Japan were desperate to expand their industries, this subsequently escalated war.

In conclusion, there was nothing the League of Nation could do to stop World War II from happening. The onset of World War II demonstrated that the League had failed in its primary purpose, which was to avoid any future world war. There were a variety of reasons for this failure, many connected to general weaknesses within the organization. Although the League of Nations was successful when dealing with social issues such as improving living and working conditions worldwide. This was one part of the League of Nations that the USA did join. The League was also very successful in dealing with health issues. It set up commissions that improved living conditions in poorer countries and also targeted the treatment of specific diseases. It managed, for example, to significantly reduce outbreaks of leprosy worldwide. However, when examining the political successes, it was weakest when dealing with issues those nations saw as a threat to their security. Despite embracing the idea of collective security, most nations were unwilling to put the security of their particular nation at risk to achieve this. The gap between what nations hoped to achieve, and what they were prepared to do was bound to cause trouble. Overall, it was hopeless and could not do anything to help.

























WHAT ABOUT THE LEAGUE?----




* One of the main aims of the peace settlements was to create a new international order,, that is new ways countries could relate to each other.
o Some people believed that the war was fought to protect the weaker nations from the stronger ones.
o Others believed that the war was fought for selfish reasons.
o They were determined to ensure that such a war would never occur again.
* A belief in an international organisation to keep pace had sprung up in all the major countries involved in World War 1 (although the movement in Germany was suppressed).
* In the 1916 US presidential election, both candidates had supported the setting up of an international peacekeeping body.
* The idea was one of President Wilson’s Fourteen Points.
* When the Allies met at Versailles, they quickly agreed on setting up the League of Nations. A committee chaired by President Wilson agreed on the constitution of the League in only ten days.



League of Nation!












---------------------------
"There was nothing the League of Nations could have done to prevent World War II." Do you agree? Explain your answer.



I agree that there was nothing the League of Nation could have done to prevent World War II. The League of Nations was set up after World War I to promote international co-operation, peace and security by accepting an obligation not to go to war. However, the League of Nations was not able to prevent another war. It is often said that the weaknesses of the League of Nations is one of the main causes of World War II. By examining the factors that contributed to the failure of the League and also the causes of World War II, it will be shown that the view is true. The key factors of the League's failures and weaknesses are its membership, lack of acceptance by its members, lacking of military force and mandates. There were many factors that caused World War II that was beyond the League's controls, like the Treaty of Versailles, Adolf Hitler's action, Appeasement, The Great Depression and Competition for resources.



As a result of weak membership, not all nations were members of the League.US were the one who had suggested the League of Nations. However, US did not participate as the Republican majority in the American Congress voted against it. Russia was also not allowed to join because the ideals of communism were opposing to those of the League. Germany, Austria and Hungary were not allowed to join as a member until they had shown themselves to be peaceful nations. The absence of these nations meant that the League was not representative. Besides that, the membership was mainly made up of European countries. Although Japan was a permanent member of the Council, the League refused to declare that all races were equal. Therefore, this made people felt that the league was an organization run by the Europeans for the Europeans. Thus, it is not effective in dealing with international issues and ensuring international peace, which defeats the purpose of setting up the League of Nations and made the League of Nations a failure. Therefore, it could not do anything to prevent World War II from happening as it was unable to ensure and prevent conflicts between countries.






The League also failed to gain acceptance from the international community, the members who joined did not respect the League fully. Even countries that had agreed to the League did not always take it seriously. For example, both Britain and France saw the League as a place to discuss issues, but they conducted important business between themselves as they always had. The biggest factor in the negative views of the League was that that USA, which had insisted on the League, was not a member. The absence of US was a big blow to the organization to the reputation and credibility of the organization. Since the US did not take the League seriously, many nations felt that they also need not take the League seriously. On 28 September 1934 to 23 February 1935, the League already had 58 members. Thus, being an inter-governmental organization consisting of so many countries as its members, co-operations amongst are essential for the League to achieve its basic aim of settling international disputes and besides that, offering all countries support against attacks, reduce and control world armaments. So, when its members did not treat the League seriously, it was beyond the League's power to prevent another international war to spark off. When the League tried to prevent World War II from happening through collective security or imposing economic sanctions, they disregarded the League, thus allowing World War II to spark off.

The League failed to promote international peace and co-operation as it was lacking of military force. The League also did not have the strength to force major powers to accept its rulings. It did not have an independent military force, police force or an international peacekeeping force. If a country as found to have acted against the principles of the League, league members would apply economic sanctions. This means that they would stop trading with the offending state. However, most countries were unwilling to take this course of action because it harmed their economies. The League’s political successes were limited to situations where smaller countries were involved. In 1921, it resolved a dispute between Sweden and Finland over the Aaland Islands. In 1925, it halted a Greek invasion of Bulgaria. However, it was powerless, especially when it was challenged by stronger nations who would not hesitate to use force. When Germany stopped making reparations payments to the Allies in 1923, France and Belgium invaded the German industrial area of the Ruhr, while the League stood by passively. During the Corfu crisis of 1923, Mussolini also worked behind the League and made Greece pay compensation directly to Italy. In these failures, the League demonstrated an ability to settle international disputes other than war, such as World War II, and offer all countries support against attacks, or maintain peace. "In May 1933 the League was powerless to convince Hitler that Franz Bernheim, a Jew, was protected under the minority clauses established by the League in 1919 (that all minorities were fully human and held equal rights among all men). Hitler claimed these clauses violated Germany's sovereignty. Germany withdrew from the League soon to be followed by many other totalitarian and militaristic nations. The onset of World War II showed that the League had failed its primary purpose, which was to avoid any future world war. The United Nations replaced it after the end of the war and inherited a number of agencies and organizations founded by the League." These failures in the 1920s added to the instability of the interwar period, and made the League lose its credibility. As later events were to show, the League could not present the growth of aggressive nations who chose the road to war again leading to the outbreak of WWII eventually.

A serious weakness of the League was the mandates. The League of Nations took over most of Germany’s old colonies and allowed different members to govern them under mandates. The governing countries were not to treat Germany’s old colonies as their own colonies. They were to move towards self-government as soon as possible and the League was supposed to make sure this was done. However, throughout the 1920s, and as late as 1939, none of the areas governed under mandates were self-governing. This added to the sense of disillusionment. Countries that had been in favor of the League earlier now turned against it because they felt the League had let them down. As a result, the countries lost faith in the League and the League loses the support of the countries. Besides that, the League did not attain any real political achievements at all. This proved that the League of Nation was weak and useless. Hence, it was powerless to prevent WWII from happening. Simply put, the members of the League lacked the will and commitment necessary to take collective action against aggressor nations.

The failure of the League of Nations also emboldened Hitler. In 1931, the League failed in its first big test when the Japanese invaded Manchuria. The League was unable to do anything except protest. Subsequently, Japan withdrew from the League and occupied the whole of Manchuria. In 1935, the ineffectiveness of the League of Nations was revealed again when Italy led by Mussolini invaded Abyssinia to increase her territory and seize resources. The League could do little except impose economic sanctions. Britain and France also did not interfere as they wanted Italy’s friendship. These failures led to the League losing total credibility as a peacekeeping organization. More importantly, as Hitler saw Mussolini getting away with aggression in Africa, he might have been encouraged to do the same.



The League could not prevent the resentment of Treaty of Versailles as it cannot control the growth of extremists in Germany. The Treaty of Versailles was neither lenient enough to settle Germany, nor harsh enough to prevent it from becoming the dominant continental power again. The Treaty humiliated and embittered many Germans, thereby creating the conditions for the growth of extremism in Germany. The Germans resented the treaty, and felt that they had been unfairly treated. The treaty put the blame on Germany and Austria-Hungary, and made them responsible for the war rather than working out an agreement that would assure peace in the long-term future. The treaty resulted in harsh reparations, territorial loss, and military-disarmament. The treaty created bitter resentment towards the winning nations of World War I, For example, they resented the fact that the Germans in Austria, Czechoslovakia and Poland were not allowed to join Germany. Second, while disarmament was stressed, the only state that was disarmed after the war was Germany. The French and the British kept the size of their armies and navies. Worst, the Germans resented the fact that they were blamed for the war and had to pay an unrealistic amount to the Allies as reparations. Many Germans believed that paying the unrealistic reparations had led to great hardship in Germany. During her recovery years, the resentment was buried. However, once the hard times came, extremists such as Hitler could also play on such grievances to rise to power. The people also became willing to support Hitler’s calls for revenge, rearmament not and expansion. . The League was simply not strong enough to take actions against dictators such as Hitler and Mussolini who were determined on expansion.
Besides that, the treaty also failed to prevent the growth of Germany. Although Germany was defeated and weakened, she remained a very large nation. For example, she had the biggest population in Europe. To make things worse, she was surrounded by the new states of Czechoslovakia, Romania and Yugoslavia which were weak, disunited and racially divided. The new states around Germany were to act as safeguards to prevent Germany from expanding. However, by preserving Germany intact, while surrounding her with these weak and vulnerable states, the Treaty of Versailles had created a potential imbalance in power. As Hitler grew stronger in the 1930s, they were ineffective as a defense line. Thus, one by one, they fell under Germany’s control. With these circumstances, the League of Nation could not prevent Germany from starting war and conquer her neighbouring nations.
League of Nation could not prevent World War II due to Hitler’s action. One of Hitler’s foreign policy aims was to expand Germany territorially. Hitler felt that Germany’s growing population needed more room to live and grow food. Thus, the colonization of the territories east of Germany would provide the living space, also known as 'lebensraum' for Germany’s growing population.He also wanted the land so that all German-speaking people would live together in an area called ‘Greater Germany’. This ‘Greater Germany’ would be made up of Germany, Austria and countries in Central and Eastern Europe such as Poland, Czechoslovakia and Russia. In addition, Hitler also wanted to destroy the Soviet Union in order to destroy the Communist threat, and obtain Soviet Union’s rich resources. Clearly, Hitler’s aim brought Germany into conflict with the people already living in the lands east of Germany. League of Nation could not stop Hitler from expanding his authorities, this lack of an obvious military defeat was one of the pillars that held together the Dolchstosslegende and gave the Nazis another tool at their disposal. It would mean the acquisition of these territories by force, and make the prospect of war likely.




The failure of appeasement was one important cause of WWII. Other countries had also contributed to the factors that led to WWII. If the leaders of other powerful countries had stopped Hitler sooner, perhaps the war could have been avoided. However, other countries, like Britain and France failed to stand up to Hitler during the 1930s. This had important consequences. Appeasement gave Hitler an important advantage which is providing Hitler with the time to re-arm. In 1935, Hitler started re-arming Germany, re-introduced conscription and increased the German forces to 600 000. Britain and France did not stop Hitler. The British even signed the Anglo-German Naval Agreement, accepting that the Nazis were building a navy and was limiting its size to no more than 35% of the British Royal navy. Anschluss and Austria, which was unopposed by Britain and France, also led to Germany gaining control over Austria’s soldiers, weapons and its rich deposits of gold and iron ore. These significantly strengthened Germany’s increasingly strong army and war industry. Evidently, appeasement was a serious mistake. It gave Hitler time to rebuild its army until it was sufficiently strong enough to challenge the status quo, become stronger than Britain or France, and launch the war in Europe. Appeasement also emboldened Hitler. Hitler was a gambler, rather than a planner. With each success, he simply took the next logical step to see what he could achieve. For example, when Hitler sent his troops into the Rhineland, his generals had orders to pull out if the French acted against the Nazis – as the German army was still no match for the French army despite the re-armament. His success over the Rhineland led to his subsequent intervention in the Spanish Civil War (1936-39), and the Anschluss (Union) with Austria in 1939. During the Sudetenland crisis, Hitler had also gambled on the British not risking war. He even spoke of the Munich agreement as ‘an undreamed of triumph’. The point is, as other countries appeased him, and allowed him to get away with each gamble, he became bolder and riskier. This encouraged his expansionist goals. Moreover, the League could have stopped Hitler from rearming. However, due to the League's lack of military force and power, it failed to prevent the sliding to war.



The Great Depression, which was a significant event that contributed to World War II, was beyond the control of the League of Nations. The fallout from the collapse of the United States economy following the 1929 Stock Market Crash echoed throughout the world. European countries, especially Germany, were hit hard by the Great Depression, which led to high rates of unemployment, poverty, civil unrest, and an overall feeling of despair. The Great Depression resulted in a 25% unemployment rate in the United States and a 33% unemployment rate in Germany. The lure of a steady job and adequate food led many people to support dictatorships like those established by Adolf Hitler, Benito Mussolini, Joseph Stalin, and other totalitarians. The Great Depression hit Germany second only to the United States. Severe unemployment prompted the Nazi Party, which had been losing favor, to experience a surge in membership. This more than anything contributed to the rise of Hitler in Germany, and therefore World War II in Europe. After the end` World War I many American industries and banks invested their money in rebuilding Europe. This happened in many European countries, but especially in Germany. After the 1929 crash, many American investors fearing that they would lose their money, or having lost all their capital, stopped investing as heavily in Europe. When people feel that their livelihood was threatened, they will seek help from the Nazi Party. Hitler made use of this opportunity to maneuver himself into power, enabling him to start another war.



With the Competition for resources, it triggered off World War II. Japan was lacking of true natural resources. It is the only Asian country with a growing industrial economy at that time, was afraid that a lack of raw materials might hinder its ability to fight a total war against a reinvigorated Soviet Union. Hoping to expand its resources, Japan invaded Manchuria in 1931 and set about to consolidate its resources and develop its economy. The nationalists south of Manchuria compelled the Japanese leaders to argue for a brief, three month war to knock out Chinese power from the north. When it became clear that this time estimate was out of the question, plans for obtaining more resources began. The Imperial Navy eventually began to feel that it did not have enough fuel reserves. To solve this problem and ensure a safe supply of oil and other critical resources, Japan would have to challenge the European colonial powers over the control of oil rich areas such as the Dutch East Indies. It was expected that it would lead to open conflict also with the United States. On August 1941, the crisis broke out, which at the time supplied 80% of Japanese oil imports, set off a complete oil embargo. This threatened to cripple both the Japanese economy and military strength once the strategic reserves would run dry. Faced with the choice of either trying to appease the U.S., negotiate a compromise, find other sources of supply or go to war over resources. Hoping to knock out the U.S. for long enough to be able to achieve and consolidate their war-aims, the Japanese Navy attacked the U.S. Navy at Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. They mistakenly believed they would have about two year to secure their conquests before the United States was able to respond and also compromise long before they could get anywhere near Japan. As nations like Japan were desperate to expand their industries, this subsequently escalated war.

In conclusion, there was nothing the League of Nation could do to stop World War II from happening. The onset of World War II demonstrated that the League had failed in its primary purpose, which was to avoid any future world war. There were a variety of reasons for this failure, many connected to general weaknesses within the organization. Although the League of Nations was successful when dealing with social issues such as improving living and working conditions worldwide. This was one part of the League of Nations that the USA did join. The League was also very successful in dealing with health issues. It set up commissions that improved living conditions in poorer countries and also targeted the treatment of specific diseases. It managed, for example, to significantly reduce outbreaks of leprosy worldwide. However, when examining the political successes, it was weakest when dealing with issues those nations saw as a threat to their security. Despite embracing the idea of collective security, most nations were unwilling to put the security of their particular nation at risk to achieve this. The gap between what nations hoped to achieve, and what they were prepared to do was bound to cause trouble. Overall, it was hopeless and could not do anything to help.

{/HYPERLINKS --

Acknowledgement of Sources

{/tagboard --

i think they call it freedom of speech

{/links --

GOODBYE!

{/archives --

World War II times, 1933-1939

{/credits --

{/music --

Please don't stop the music