Hitler's aggression and Europe's appeasement: How the Second World War began

Every historical event occurs because of a series of events that happened beforehand.

Things that directly lead to another event are called ‘causes’. Some causes occurred immediately before the event began, while others existed for several years before they caused the event.

• Causes that occurred only a few hours, days or weeks before the event are called 'short-term causes'
• Causes that existed for years, decades or centuries before the event are called 'long-term causes'. 

When World War One ended in 1918, the various countries involved had to decide how to punish Germany for starting the war.

To do this, leaders from countries across the world met at the Palace of Versailles in France in 1919 to create an official document to outline the specific punishments. This document was called the Treaty of Versailles.

Each of the leaders had different desires for what to do to Germany. Prime Minister Lloyd George of Britain wanted the punishment to be severe enough so that Germany would not have the strength or resources to start another war, but strong enough to act as a buffer against the spread of communism from Russia.

On the other hand, the President of America, Woodrow Wilson, had a 14-point strategy that he believed would create world peace in a way that wasn't too harsh to Germany. 

However, the final treaty was particularly harsh. There were five things in the document that enraged a lot of Germans:

• Germany had to accept significant blame for starting World War One
• Germany had to pay 6,600 million pounds for starting the war
• Germany was not allowed an army larger than 100,000 men, nor tanks, air force or submarines
• Germany wasn't allowed to station troops in a region called the Rhineland, which was an important industrial centre
• Various parts of Germany were handed over to other countries and Germany was banned from ever joining with Austria (called the Anschluss).

These terms sent Germany into a deep economic crisis in the 1920s, with many people losing jobs and struggling to feed their families.

Just when Germany was recovering at the end of the decade, the Great Depression hit, which sent Germans into poverty again.

The German people were outraged and blamed the Treaty of Versailles for their suffering.

In the hope of finding a solution to their problems, the German people voted for Adolf Hitler, who promised to undo the terms of the treaty.

After Hitler became Chancellor of Germany in January 1933, he immediately began ignoring the terms of the Treaty of Versailles.

He began increasing the size of the German army beyond the 100,000 limit and investing in the latest military equipment and strategies. He also created a German air force.

The rest of the world was fully aware that these things were occurring, but they didn't intervene to enforce the terms of the treaty, because many people in other countries had come to believe that the treaty was too harsh, and they were willing to give Germany some flexibility.

Then, on the 7th of March, 1936, Hitler marched 20,000 German troops back into the Rhineland, which violated both the Treaty of Versailles and Locarno.

This was a clear moment of military aggression, and it may have been a test to see what the rest of the world would do.

Even though the rest of Europe was alarmed and voiced concern, no punishments were handed to Germany, and they were allowed to occupy the region again.

Also, the League of Nations failed to prevent Hitler's territorial expansion, as its ability to enforce collective security was weakened by the absence of key powers like the United States.

To secure his position further, Hitler signed the Anti-Comintern Pact with Imperial Japan on November 25, 1936, which Mussolini's fascist Italy also joined in 1937.

Hitler was now more confident that he could expand further and aimed to take back former German lands that had been taken away after World War One.

In March 1938, he marched into Austria, where Hitler forced the Austrian people to vote on whether they would like to join with Germany into a single country.

The results of the vote indicated that 99% of Austrians wanted the political union of Anschluss, which Hitler then promised to create.

However, it's worth noting that the overwhelming support for the Anschluss in the Austrian referendum was likely significantly influenced by Nazi propaganda and intimidation.

Alarmed, Austrian leaders called on Britain and France to intervene. When these countries sent their concerns to Hitler, he simply promised that the Anschluss was the end of his military invasions. 

The European leaders said that they believed him and did nothing.

However, Hitler had no intention of stopping there and, six months later, he sent a demand to the neighbouring country of Czechoslovakia to hand back the former German region of the Sudetenland or face invasion.

The Prime Minister of Britain, Neville Chamberlain, thought that Hitler's threat was too much of a warning to ignore.

As a result, he met with Hitler three times during September of 1938 to try and find a way of preventing any future war: on September 15 at Berchtesgaden, September 22-23 at Bad Godesberg, and September 29-30 in Munich.

Most of Europe still remembered the horror of the First World War, and Chamberlain believed that the world should do anything they could to avoid a repeat of that.

Chamberlain believed that he could 'appease' Hitler, which meant that Chamberlain wanted to find a way to make Hitler happy enough that he wouldn't start another war. 

Following their meetings, Hitler and Chamberlain signed the 'Munich Agreement', which stated that Hitler would be given the Sudetenland if he promised no further territorial demands.

This agreement was also signed by Édouard Daladier of France, and Benito Mussolini of Italy.

Chamberlain was pleased that Hitler had signed a promise to do no further military conquests, while Hitler was pleased that he had been able to take back a former German region.

However, things quickly became tense when, in October 1938, Hitler demanded that the Free City of Danzig and the Polish Corridor be returned to Germany.

It appeared that Hitler would not stay true to his word.

Unfortunately, this turned out to be the case. In March 1939, he invaded the remaining parts of Czechoslovakia anyway.

Despite the promise made to Chamberlain, no European country stepped in to stop Germany.

Hitler came to believe that Europe was so afraid of war that he could continue to invade other countries and there would be no punishments.

However, the rest of Europe started to recognize that the fear of war was merely enabling one nation to act as it pleased, and that action was necessary.

When information began circulating that Hitler was now preparing to invade Poland, a number of European countries realised that war might be a real option.

In the same month, March 1939, both Britain and France made defensive guarantees that if Hitler invaded Poland, that they would declare war on him.

Chamberlain was convinced that the clear threat of war would be enough to scare Hitler.

Hitler, by contrast, was convinced that Britain and France were bluffing. He thought that his recent experience with these countries showed that they were too afraid of another world war to follow through on their threats. 

Then, in a shocking turn of events, Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union signed the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact on August 23, 1939, a non-aggression treaty that included secret protocols to divide Poland and Eastern Europe between them.

So, on the 1st of September 1939, German troops invaded Poland. Upon receiving word of this attack, two days later, Britain declared war on Germany and the Second World War began.