Ww2 Introduction

Introduction World War II began on September 3rd, 1939, two days after Germany invaded Poland. Britain and France declared war on Germany because they promised to help Poland if anything happened. From the end of the First World War, the Germans carried hate in their hearts for all Allied country leaders. This was because of a peace treaty called, “The Versailles Treaty”. The Versailles Treaty blamed Germany for everything. It allowed them not to have submarines or an air force.
Land was taken away from them, and they were only allowed to have a small army. On top of it all, the Germans had to pay for all damages the war had caused and take full responsibility for causing it. The Germans thought this was really unfair, and never forgave their government for this. Most of them joined new parties that promised to get revenge. One of the party leaders was an ex-soldier in the German army who swore to destroy both Weimar Republic and the Versailles Treaty. His name was Adolf Hitler. A HISTORY OF THE TWENTIETH CENTURY-BRYN O’ CALLAGHAN) When Hitler came into power, he started with creating a stronger, new and improved German army. Although the Versailles Treaty said that Germany should refrain from all of this, he still went on. He made weapons, build warships and even a German air force. The treaty also said that the Rhineland should be ‘demilitarized’ by the Germans. But in 1936, they marched into the Rhineland expecting a fight from either Britain or France. But to Hitler’s surprise no one tried to stop them.
This gave Germany a boost of confidence that lasted throughout World War II. The League of Nations tried to prevent World War Two from happening but couldn’t, only made matters worse. Firstly, they couldn’t prevent a country from doing what they wanted. Secondly, if countries fought, the league could not do anything about it. Thirdly, Germany never liked them from the beginning. So if the Versailles Treaty made up the League of Nations, it was destined to fail. The treaty couldn’t keep tabs on one country, so how was it going to on many countries?