Who Is Responsible for World War 2? Could It Have Been Avoided?

[Delta228]

It may be a bit of a stretch but it is fact and people can't say that its wrong.

My actual opinion is that the true cause of WW2 is the Wall Street Crash as it destroyed Germany and created the nessesscary political conditions for Hitler to get into power.

Bingo

So therefore, we can blame over 100 million deaths on: Herbert Hoover , or as I call him, Hoobert Heaver

[tonymurphy1888]

yes youll notice that my motto is if in doubt blame america or france (you can never go wrong)lol

thanks man appreciated

[Comrade the Colonel]

Bingo

So therefore, we can blame over 100 million deaths on: Herbert Hoover , or as I call him, Hoobert Heaver

no, becasue the French and British still allowed him to violate the Treaty of Versailles, and if they didnt, Hitler would have had so much power, especially in his military. SO no, its actually France, and mostly Britains PM Neville Chamberlain and his appeasement policy's fault for the war.

[UnitedIreland]

no, becasue the French and British still allowed him to violate the Treaty of Versailles, and if they didnt, Hitler would have had so much power, especially in his military. SO no, its actually France, and mostly Britains PM Neville Chamberlain and his appeasement policy's fault for the war.

You can't blame the Brits of the French either. Without Hitler there would have been no one to appease! They certainly didn't help the situation but they aren't solely responsible.

[SonOfOdin]

usa is to blame if it wasent for wilson and his 14 points at versailles the french would have hurt germany so hard they would have never recoverd ever

on the other hand tho you could blame fance and clemenceau for wanting to crucify germany causing bitterness

or britain for its policy of appeasment

so i guess what im saying is it was bad luck everyones to blame who was involved in ww1 and versailles

we screwd up and hitler capitilised

ww2 was gonnae happen wether it be in the 40s or later but the 40s was the best time for it to happen if it happend later more lives would have been lost

it could have been prevented but it would just have been worst when it eventually happend

Wait a second mate...Wilson's points were generous to to germans and the central powers
The French were the ones that punished the Germans severly(Germany had invaded France twice in less than 50 years(Bismarck and then in WW1))
The British weren't keen to punish the Germans but agreed with the French(for once...but at the wrong time)

[Delta228]

Wait a second mate...Wilson's points were generous to to germans and the central powers
The French were the ones that punished the Germans severly(Germany had invaded France twice in less than 50 years(Bismarck and then in WW1))
The British weren't keen to punish the Germans but agreed with the French(for once...but at the wrong time)

he wasn't trying to say the 14 points caused the war because they were bad towards Germany, rather, the 14 points caused a rift between the victorious allies that made the Treaty of Versailles into more of a compromise that neither gutted Germany, thereby preventing further armament, nor made Europe into a modern EU type of area.

(i think that's what he's saying....)

[Marcellvs Orellivs]

I think Neville Chamberlain is the biggest cause of WWII. He was the one who adopted the policy of appesement with Hitler; he went over to Germany and conceded the Sudetenland to Hitler. After he returned to Britain he said: "My good friends, for the second time in our history, a British Prime Minister has returned from Germany bringing peace with honour. I believe it is peace for our time." Look how wrong he was.

[Delta228]

APPEASEMENT IS NOT A CAUSE OF WWII! That is a ridiculous claim. Using my earlier example, it's like blaming a guy who got his car stolen because he didn't lock it. Regardless of how stupid it was to NOT lock his car, it's not his fault: it's the thief's.

You cannot blame the war on Britain, or France, or especially (dear god) on Neville Chamberlain! They did NOT cause the situation that pushed Europe to war. Had France and Britain provoked Hitler, it would be a different story.

Could they have prevented the war: in all likelihood, yes. But are they to blame for Hitler's actions: Hell NO.

[Barry Goldwater]

The policy of appeasement, the Great Depression that wrecked Weimar Germany and of course the idealistic Wilson's Fourteen Points, which were not enough to castrate and dismember Germany to make sure it never became a threat again.

APPEASEMENT IS NOT A CAUSE OF WWII! That is a ridiculous claim. Using my earlier example, it's like blaming a guy who got his car stolen because he didn't lock it. Regardless of how stupid it was to NOT lock his car, it's not his fault: it's the thief's.

You cannot blame the war on Britain, or France, or especially (dear god) on Neville Chamberlain! They did NOT cause the situation that pushed Europe to war. Had France and Britain provoked Hitler, it would be a different story.

Could they have prevented the war: in all likelihood, yes. But are they to blame for Hitler's actions: Hell NO.

Appeasement made Hitler confident enough to keep pulling crazy . Could the French have kindly told him to off and out of the Rhineland? Yes. Could they have put their foot down at the Ausgleich and kept Italy on their side? Yes. Could they have stopped Hitler at Munich? Yes.

Did they? No.

By the time the Western Allies actually did something, it was too late - Hitler had rearmed and strengthened Germany. And even then...could the Brits & French have swept into Western Germany while he was fighting the Poles, ending the war swiftly and decisively? Yes. Did they? Not really, the French made a token offensive (The Saar Offensive) and then pulled back without having done anything important.

Using your analogy, it'd be like that guy driving his car into a wretched hive of sin & villainy, getting it robbed and then paying the gang who stole it over and over again (and also failing to lock the door, every time, although he should have learned the first time) before finally realizing he ran out of money, then finally getting his friends and starting an epic gang war.

[uos_spo6]

This factual information is all tip toeing around the fact that Germany acted in a war mongering fashion, as it seemingly always has since the Teutonic Knights and subsequently Prussia. This concern is reflected in the conditions of the Treaty of Versailles to prevent Germany from having a military capable of conducting any sort of offensive war.

History is written by the victors yes, but I think you are making too much of it by trying to divy up the blame for what could have remained a regional conflict for exploding in to World War I. I think some of that war was definitely inevitable and with the intricate web of Alliances, Von Bismarck acted and manipulated in a way to have the war he obviously wanted.

On to WWII. If the German cause for WWII was retribution for the humiliation of defeat and subsequent restrictions from the Versailles Treaty, why the land grab of the Blitzkreig? Hitler WANTED war and he got it. He, like Von Bismarck, like so many other Prussians before them, craved the glory of armed conflict.

When a particular individual or nation acts in such a way that they are asking for war, they are war mongering. They were not acting in defense when they invaded Poland, Czech, Belgium, Holland or France.

If Hitler had only built up his armed forces, and then was attacked, then went in to the land grab offensive you might have a leg to stand upon in vindicating Germany from ultimate blame, but as it is, the responsibility for WWII rests upon Adolf Hitler, and the German peoples naivete towards him.



Serious Question - Do you think that if Hitler had died in the trenches in WWI, there would have ever been a WWII? If Hitler did not rise to power, was the sentiment amongst the German people that of a will that could have carried them in to war without Hitler? Is there any other german politician of the time that would have also brought Germany to war again, had they risen to power and not Hitler?

[UnitedIreland]

Well Hitler was only one in a very long line of Germans that desired a 'Greater Germany'. The idea of a greater Germany stretches all the way back to 1848. If Hitler had of died in the trenches of WW1 I believe that there would have been a Second World War but not in 1939 and odviously without Hitler. The Germans are a very proud people and there was alot of people within Germany that felt as though they deserved better.

[Markas]

Austrian.

You can argue that Hitler could have been stopped during his early political career when the cause of National Socialism was looking increasingly moribund with the recovering German economy. The loan repayments and resulting economic decline caused people to do what they always do when they panic- vote for the guy with the biggest promises and most convincing lies.

[Yorkshireman]

People talk about appeasement as if it was cowardly, but then none of us witnessed/lived/ or fought through the Great War which most of the politicians of that period had.

[Delta228]

People talk about appeasement as if it was cowardly, but then none of us witnessed/lived/ or fought through the Great War which most of the politicians of that period had.

exactly. people simply blame appeasement for the war when at the time, they had a damn good reason for it.

[UnitedIreland]

exactly. people simply blame appeasement for the war when at the time, they had a damn good reason for it.

And that reason is Communism. Britain and France both feared Communism more than Facism/Nazism and they believed a strong Germany could act as a bufferzone.

[uos_spo6]

exactly. people simply blame appeasement for the war when at the time, they had a damn good reason for it.

I find it amazing that a mere twenty years after WWI, the German people even had the stomach to consider war again. I'm not sure exactly what it says about them and their mentality for war. . . to many I'm sure it seemed as if the First War never ended.

I blame it all on mans hunger for glory. What else could lead men that once sat in the trenches as the Earth shook beneath them, not knowing if the next wailing incoming shell would land directly atop their position striking out twenty years later to lead a new generation to war again. . . .

Craziness.

[UnitedIreland]

I find it amazing that a mere twenty years after WWI, the German people even had the stomach to consider war again.

Actually, whenever Hitler announced that they were going to war, the public didn't show any real support for it but they didn't oppose it either.

[uos_spo6]

Actually, whenever Hitler announced that they were going to war, the public didn't show any real support for it but they didn't oppose it either.

Complacency. Bah.

[Comrade the Colonel]

hes right

[Banzai!]

Albert Einstein: for not inventing the atom bomb soon enough, and also for being a Jew (aka one of the motivations for WWII).