THE Second World War it was the biggest conflict in the history of mankind and lasted from 1939 to 1945, leaving the tenebrous balance of, approximately, 60 million dead. This conflict is understood as a direct consequence of the First World War and it is explained in terms of the geopolitical tension that existed in Europe in the 1930s.
This tension on the European continent was almost entirely caused by the Germans. Nazis, led by hitler. The Nazis did not accept the outcome of World War I and sought revenge against the nations that had fought in it. Historians consider that the expansionismGermanicwent todirect cause that started the Second World War.
Accessalso: The story of the first battle tank!
Interwar period
World War II is the result of what was unresolved in World War I, a conflict that took place between 1914 and 1918. The relationship is so direct that there are historians who consider the two conflicts as a great war that was only 30 years apart, although this view is not shared by most of these professionals.
O interwars it is the period between the end of World War I and the beginning of World War II. This period was marked by deep geopolitical transformations, a strong economic crisis, the weakening of liberal democracy and the strengthening of authoritarian regimes.
After World War I, the European map was redefined and a number of nations, such as Poland, emerged. O Poland case was symbolic because this one emerged in territories that were previously of theRussians and Germans. Hatred for that country made the two nations cooperate with each other in the invasion and division of it later. This invasion was still the trigger of World War II, as we will see later.
The strengthening of self-determination movements in Europe has also begun to increase the threat to minority groups such as Jews and Roma. The destruction caused by World War I boosted the number of miserable people in the conflict and brought economic crisis to many countries, especially Germany.
That poverty and destruction scenario it has made socialist movements considerably stronger across the European continent. Fear about socialism made many people support authoritarian movements in several countries. As a result, European nations progressively fell into authoritarian regimes: Poland, Germany, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Austria, etc.
These authoritarian movements had their growth reinforced when the 1929 crisis it exploded and made thousands of people go bankrupt and unemployment soar. In Germany, for example, unemployment, at the height of the economic crisis, reached an alarming 44% of the country's working class, according to a survey by historian Eric Hobsbawm|1|.
It was in this scenerychaotic that the Second World War was born, but to fully understand the reasons that led to the beginning of the conflict, it is essential to follow the political process that Germany lived in that period and that led the Nazis to the power.
Accessalso: Find out who Francisco Franco was, direct dictator who ruled Spain
rise of nazism
Nazism is the result of defeatgerman in World War I. In 1918, Germany was on the verge of collapse, and so the Social Democrats seized power in the country and negotiated German surrender. A considerable part of the nation never accepted defeat and, after the war, began to adopt conspiracy theories to justify surrender.
These theories, which circulated heavily in groups in the far right, they argued that the German surrender was part of a plot by Bolsheviks and Jews to humiliate the country. The harsh terms imposed by Treaty of Versailles and all the disorganization in the country in the period 1919-1933 contributed to authoritarian discourses, such as the Nazi one, gaining strength in the country.
When the Nazis took power in Germany in 1933, they immediately began to carry out measures to silence your opponents. Once established with absolute powers, they began to strengthen the country and then began to impose their goals across Europe. The first step was to challenge the Treaty of Versailles.
This treaty was called by the Nazis diktat, expression that conveyed the idea of something that was imposed by force. The Nazis' first step in defying this treaty was reorganize the armyGerman. Until then, the Germans could not have more than 100,000 soldiers and were prohibited from having a navy and war aviation.
The Germans gave the second demonstration that they would not respect the treaty when remilitarized the Rhineland, in 1936. This was a French-German border region that was supposed to remain demilitarized, but the Germans defied the British and French by sending troops there.
The collusion of the British and French in these situations encouraged Hitler to take another important step towards his goals: territorial expansion. This was the direct factor that started theworld conflict, however, to understand how this step led Europe to war, it is necessary to look at the context of the 1930s.
Also access: Understand what was Italian fascism
German expansionism
Expansionism and war were central elements of Nazi ideology. Once the country was fortified militarily, the Germans set out to conquer territories, and the first two targets were Austria and Czechoslovakia. The first was annexed to the German nation in 1938 in an episode known as Anschluss.
The situation in Czechoslovakia, in turn, created some tension between the Germans, the British and the French. The recurrent expansionism of the Germans bothered the latter two when both showed interest in a region of Czechoslovakia called the Sudetenland. To solve this, the Munich Conference, in 1938.
At this conference, Chamberlain and Daladier, prime ministers of the United Kingdom and France, respectively, imposed the call politicsinappeasement. In it, they allowed the annexation of Czechoslovakia by the Germans in exchange for a commitment signed by Adolf Hitler that he would have no new territorial demands.
Why did the British and French maintain this measured and conniving stance with Adolf Hitler, even though he had challenged the two nations many times? This is explained by the fact that the experience of World War I had been very traumatic for these two nations, who began to do whatever was necessary to avoid a new conflict against the Germans.
hitler bluffed at the Munich Conference, and, as early as 1939, Poland became the target of choice. The German dictator's idea was to form the “spacevital” — territory he thought was necessary for the Germans (called Aryans by him) to live. This space, in general, was located in territories of Central and Eastern Europe.
Beginning of World War II
In 1939, the Nazis' ball of choice was Poland. German rhetoric against the Poles hardened and made Nazi goals clear. To protect themselves, the Poles reached agreements with the British and the French so that their country would be defended by both, should Germany attack them.
Hitler, however, did not expect the British and French to fulfill their promises to declare war if Poland were invaded. The Germans then forged a Polish attack on a German radio in the border region and, on September 1, 1939, they invaded Poland. On the 3rd, British and French declared war against Germany and, thus, World War II began.
Accessalso: Lateran Treaty: the agreement responsible for securing the foundation of the Vatican
other conflicts
Although World War II was largely a consequence of German expansionism, others events of the time make it clear that the climate in the world was one of tension and that the possibility of war it was real. Only in the 1930s, in different parts of the world, happened:
Invasion of Ethiopia by Italian troops in 1935;
Invasion of China by Japan in 1931;
Second Sino-Japanese War, from 1937;
Spanish Civil War, between 1936 and 1939;
Invasion of Albania by the Italians in 1939;
Conflicts between Soviets and Japanese in Mongolia, 1939.
Note
|1| HOBSBAWM, Eric. era of extremes: the brief 20th century 1914-1991. São Paulo: Companhia das Letras, 1995, p. 97.
Image credits
[1]Everett Historical and Shutterstock
Take the opportunity to check out our video classes related to the subject:
