Social and Economic Causes of World War II

Introduction

Europe had been devastated by the carnage of World War I.

New technology and ways of war had made the war drag on for years, and resulted in a huge loss of life. Ultimately, Germany had been forced to accept the blame. Countries joined together under the League of Nations to stop such a conflict from ever occurring again.

They were unsuccessful. A mixture of economic hardship, German resentment over the Treaty of Versailles, growing disillusionment with democratic ideals, resulting in the rise of the fascist Nazi regime, as well as the inability of Europe’s major powers to take a strong stance against Hitler, would plunge Europe - and most of the world - into history's second total war.

For some historical reference: http://www.history.com/topics/great-depression/videos/1929-stock-market-crash#

Ideological Struggle

Summary of Social Causes

Rise of the Right

Internationally, there were several social factors that would help lead to World War II in Europe

Many in the West saw Germany as a force against Communist Russia, and didn’t object to Germany’s militarization after the war, because many believed it was the only thing standing in the way of communism spreading across Europe

Russia was excluded completely from the 1919 treaty deliberations for this reason.

Interestingly, Germany still had 90% of their resources in the Weimar Republic area

For a short while between 1924 and 1929, Germany became stable and incredibly liberal, if dependent on America.

Following 1929, far right-wing nationalists

and fascists began to gain power again.

The disaffected public no longer trusted

the left-wing government, democracy or

capitalism to fix Germany's economic and

social problems, and began to turn to

the fascists.

Crumbling Alliances

Hitler's Rise to Power

Rise of the Right

The fascists also:

1) Expanded military, social and political control

2) Denounced international organizations and cooperation, which many

Germans now had a deep mistrust of after the Treaty of Versailles.

3) Promoted war and expansion as a means for achieving national goals

Unfortunately, the National Socialist German Workers Party, also known as the Nazis, believed in racial purity, and targeted Jews, as well as other marginalised groups as scapegoats for Germany’s social problems

One of the reasons Hitler quickly rose to power was his promises to fix Germany’s failing economy and restore it to its’ former glory

Hitler appealed to many German nationalists’ resentment of the Treaty of Versailles, and disslaishomnet with life in Germany

Between 1918 and 1933, Germany

had many different leaders, no stable

leadership that helped resentment

and fascism grow, allowing Hitler to

gain power as a central figure.

Many of the alliances that had fought the World War I had disintegrated, making it for Germany to attack, and more difficult to prevent a unified front against fascism.

The US had also retreated back into diplomatic isolation, which could have been a deterrent in starting another World War.

Resentment

The toll of reparations deeply impacted Germany’s economy and people.

The high price of food and basic necessities, combined with a lack of jobs, created resentment among the impoverished German public.

The public also had deep mistrust and resentment towards the newly created Weimar Republic government, for agreeing to such harsh terms.

Many of the European countries- citizens and leaders alike - were desperate not to start a new war after the senseless carnage and scale of World War I

Politicians like Neville Chamberlain in England, and Edouard Daladier, Paul Reynaud, Georges Bonnet in France continued to remain neutral pacifists, even as Germany's aims became bigger and bolder

Out of reluctance to start another ward, neither country intervened when Germany marched into Austria in 1938.

Though, at this point, Germany’s military was still quite small due to Treaty of Versailles terms.

Appeasement

Many of the European leaders had began to feel the terms of the treaty were too harsh

Reparations were reduced, allies did little to stop when in 1933, Hitler said they would stop altogether

Countries such as France and England continued with a policy of appeasement, allowing Germany to annex Czechoslovakia in the Munich agreement of 1938.

Politicians such as Neville Chamberlain lobbied for “peace in our time” But the inactivity of Europe’s major powers made Germany even bolder.

Unfair Terms

The Germans were unsatisfied with the terms of the treaty, as they were forced to:

1) Accept the blame for starting WWI (War Guilt Clause).

2) Pay 6.6 billion pounds in reparations, in coal, steel,agricultural products, and even intellectual property such as the patent for aspirin.

3) Demilitarize the Rhineland area, have an army smaller than 100,000 men with only 6 ships. The Germans

were also prohibited from having

tanks, submarines and an air force.

The Germans also lost 25,000 square

miles that had 7 million inhabitants,

and a union with Austria (Anschluss)

was forbidden.

Territorial Losses

Treaty of Versailles

Germany lost Alsace-Lorraine to France, Upper Silesia, areas of East and West Prussia, Memelland, and the city of Danzig.

This was a devastating blow and a source of resentment to the Germans, who had expected a much more lenient outcome.

In many ways, the war was a continuation of disputes left unsettled by World War I.

In 1919, David Lloyd George (England), Vittorio Orlando (Italy), Georges Clemenceau (France) and Woodrow Wilson met to arrange the terms of the treaty of Versailles.

The German public hoped for a treaty

based on Wilson’s more lenient 14-

point plan.

The terms of the treaty placed most

of the blame for the war on Germany

and Austria-Hungary, split up some

of their territory and forced them to

pay harsh financial reparations.

In summary, there was a variety of social and economic factors that helped bring about World War II

Harsh reparations demanded from the Germans by the Treaty of Versailles causes resentment against both the allies and the Weimar Republic government

An economic downturn after 1929, created disillusionment and support for fascism among the German public, who no longer believed a democratic, leftist government would solve their problems.

The reluctance of other countries to intervene or start a war after the carnage of World War I emboldened the German fascists and allowed them to prepare for war

The League of Nations proved to have no political or economic power in settling disputes and wars, despite it being founded for exactly that

WWII technically began in September 1939. Britain and France declared war on Germany following Germany's invasion of Poland.

League of Nations

Effect of WWI / Change in Currency

• A consequence of the Treaty of Versailles, Germany had to resign most of her gold reserves.
• Therefore, her currency became useless, as it's currency represented basically nothing.
• Because of the loss of gold, Germany began to print money that was no longer linked to the gold standard, and therefore devoid of any real value.
• This led to a devastating hyper-inflation from 1922-23.
• Useless "Papiermark" was replaced by the Rentenmark in 1923, which gained it's value by being tied to mortgaged land and finished industrial goods rather than gold.
• In 1924, the Rentenmark was replaced with the gold-backed Reichsmark.
• In 1933 the Reichsmark was removed from the gold standard.
• Value of land, industrial goods, and gold

were greatly increased as a result of all

of these changes, and to keep a stable

economy, aggressive military and economic

policies had to be taken...

Great Depression

The Axis Powers

On a social and economic level, the League of Nations was essentially powerless.

The League only met 4 times a year, and the administrative process was painfully slow

Many major countries, such as the US, Germany and Russia weren’t a part of the League

The League had no army. Its only power was to call trading restrictions on a country that had invaded another.

• Stock market crashes October 29, 1929.
• Post-WWI German economy built on loans from foreign powers, notably US, and with crash, inability to pay back loans results in wide-spread bankruptcy.
• Demand for German export goods drops, and production grinds to a halt.
• Because of crash, political parties split up, fight amongst themselves, rather than work together.
• Democratic ideals weaken as a result, German people become disillusioned with democracy.
• Hitler and Nazis see opportunity, give people vague promises about strong government, jobs, German return to power, to defy treaty of Versailles and end reparations, etc etc.
• Hitler elected as chancellor in 1933.

• An alliance between Germany, Japan and Italy.
• All late-blooming world powers looking to expand their empires.
• Looked to take advantage of weaker neighboring states and get on closer level with older colonial powers (Great Britain, France, Belgium etc.)

Appeasement

League of Nations

• Older colonial powers had long-established colonies in other continents, and monopolies on raw resources, thus making it very difficult for Axis powers to find somewhere to claim for their own without military force.
• Major world powers became split into two divisions; those who had colonies, resources, and gold, and those who didn't.
• To combat this, Germany, Japan and Italy created their Axis alliance and thus began to expand very aggressively both commercially and militarily.

The League called on its member countries to stop trading with Japan after the invasion of Manchuria, and Italy after the invasion of Abyssinia, but this was unsuccessful

The member countries continued to trade with each other, and the countries with trading restrictions could always trade with a nation that wasn't a member of the League, such as the US

The League was powerless, socially and economically, to stop Germany;s invasion of other countries despite that being its objective.

Many European countries continued with a policy of appeasement, even when Austria was attacked by Germany, and Italy invaded Albania.

This embolden Germany and their allies to further continue. Hitler exploited the nation’s fear of war, and false sense of security in the League of Nations to continue to expand Germany’s military and land during the 1930’s.

Global Territories

World Map 1933

Global Market

• Second group of nations formed very aggressive trade policies which challenged the first group of nations' dominance in the world.
• Began to "dump" their products, (Sell them below cost) to get gold to buy needed resources and raw materials.
• Began bypassing use of gold through trade with other nations. This included:
• Bilateral Trade Agreements - Trade exclusively between two nations, often consisting of barter trade, and using goods instead of hard currency (like gold)
• Barter - When goods are directly exchanged for other goods
• Credit system - Trade partners paid in credits redeemable only with original country's goods.
• Policies tied Germany's trading partners to her and took them out of the world market.
• Decline in use of gold threatened financial centres of London and New York.
• Axis powers used aggressive economic policies and military forces to set up trading monopolies. Such as:
• Germany in Southern Europe and Latin America.
• Japan in Southern Asia, and invasion of Manchuria in 1931.
• Italy invades Abyssinia in 1935.
• In response, dominant powers campaign to regain losses by boycotting Axis powers, swaying their trading partners with credits and "sweeter deals".
• Axis powers become increasingly desperate, and Germany annexes Austria in 1938 and conquers Czechoslovakia in 1939 to compensate for losses.
• Tensions rose, and neither side backed down, culminating in the breakout of war.

Conclusion

• Faulty, unbalanced global economic system.
• Poor nations stay poor, rich nations get richer.
• Poor nations don't want to be poor, so push hard (maybe too hard) to escape pattern of poverty.

Economic Causes of WWII

Who's to blame?

Works Cited

http://causesofww2.blogspot.ca/p/spe.html

http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/231186/Germany/58011/Economy

http://books.google.ca/books?id=bv8Q149oiyUC&pg=PT9&lpg=PT9&dq=Crash+of+the+german+mark+wwii&source=bl&ots=tclNYIlWcd&sig=euaYrHDpg54bcXxNbfHmYRZqhWs&hl=en&sa=X&ei=2N8uVJ3hLdGnyAT-loDoAg&ved=0CDoQ6AEwAw#v=onepage&q=Crash%20of%20the%20german%20mark%20wwii&f=false

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reichsmark#World_War_II

http://www.history.ucsb.edu/faculty/marcuse/classes/33d/projects/1920s/Econ20s.htm

http://www.city-data.com/forum/history/917176-did-reichsmark-retain-its-value-crash-2.html

http://www.city-data.com/forum/history/917176-did-reichsmark-retain-its-value-crash-2.html#ixzz3F6aUt7sE

http://www.historyplace.com/worldwar2/riseofhitler/begins.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bilateral_trade

http://www.doctorhousingbubble.com/worst-housing-crash-gets-worse-real-estate-new-home-sales-dip-82-percent-bubble-areas-will-pop/

http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/worldwars/wwone/war_end_01.shtml

http://www.historyonthenet.com/ww2/causes.htm

http://www.worldology.com/Europe/Europe_Articles/causes_world_war_ii.htm

http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/causes_world_war_two.htm

http://worldwar2.org.uk/causes-world-war-2

Social and Economic Causes of World War II

Ellice Evans and Nick Scott