Читать реферат по английскому: "The Versailles ConnectionWW1 CausingWW2 Essay Research Paper" Страница 2

(Назад) (Cкачать работу)

During the middle to late 1920’s, Germany was beginning to recover economically. This hurt the NSDAP, which was preaching a solid Nazi party line of hatred, bigotry, anti-Semitism, blaming others for the ills of society, and intolerance. Luckily for the Nazis, the Great Depression started, triggered by the Great Crash of 1929. This threw Germany’s fragile economy into a fit of depression and cleared the

way for the Nazis to come to power. The Great Depression gave the Nazis the chance to tone down the bigotry and to say that they were going to help Germany out of the Depression. The German workingman still hated the Treaty of Versailles and the Allied victory and wanted to believe that Germany had been stabbed in the back by people from within. The Nazis promised revenge for the Diktat of Versailles. They promised to “throw off the shackles of Versailles” and punish those who were “responsible” for Germany’s defeat and those who had “stabbed Germany in the back”.

Hitler promised to clear Germany of Communists and other “enemies of the people”. Most German people of the time didn’t want Hitler as chancellor, because they knew he’d turn himself into a dictator. But the often too influential “screaming minority” and many people including notable German industrialists and Oskar von Hindenburg (the German chancellor’s son) wanted Hitler as chancellor. A deal was worked out by January 30, 1933 in which Hitler would become chancellor of Germany but the Nazis would only get two seats in the Cabinet. On February 27, 1933 a fire was started that destroyed the Reichstag building which housed the German Parliament. The Nazis quickly blamed the Communists and elections for a new Reichstag were held on March 5, 1933. Even after using terror to influence voters, the Nazis only got 43.9 percent of the vote. On the day that the new Reichstag convened, the Communist delegates were locked out. This gave the Nazis a majority and this majority declared Hitler dictator via the Enabling Act, a law which in essence suspended basic human and civil rights for 4 years. The Gestapo (secret police) hunted down enemies of the Nazis and shot them. By the time von Hindenburg died in August 1934, the Hitler ruled Germany completely. He gave himself the title Fuhrer und Reichskanzler (leader and empire chancellor).

Soon after Hitler had taken power, he started disobeying the Treaty of Versailles. In 1933 he started preparing Germany for war in violation of the treaty. In 1936 he sent German troops into the Rhineland, a flagrant violation of the Treaty of Versailles. In March of 1938 he annexed Austria. He annexed Czechoslovakia in March 1939. Hitler then wanted Poland. But on March 30, 1939 France and the United Kingdom issued guarantees of Polish independence. This guarantee alienated the Soviet Union, which swallowed up the eastern half of Poland in cooperation with Nazi Germany. Hitler wanted war and invaded Poland on September 1, 1939. This caused Britain and France to declare war on Germany soon after. “It was in virtue of this that we went to war.” said William Strang, British Foreign Office Official and later Permanent Under-Secretaty regarding the guarantee France and Britain made of Polish independence on Mar. 30, 1939. A few days after Germany invaded Poland on September 1, 1939 Britain and France made formal declarations of war on Germany.

The aftermath of World War One was the real catalyst of the Second World War. The Treaty of Versailles left many loose threads and didn’t completely satisfy any party involved. Hitler and Germany as a whole were bitter about Germany’s defeat and Hitler capitalized on that bitterness to take the reins of power in Germany. Hitler then started annexing countries and expanding Germany’s territories as an expression of his defiance of the Treaty of Versailles and desire for a return to German empire. Perhaps no better example of Hitler’s bitterness exists than his making the French surrender in the same railcar where the Germans signed the armistice that ended the real combat of World War One. Although many dynamics instigated the Second World War, the real catalyst of the Second World War was the occurrence of the first.

Bibliography:

1. Gelfand, Lawrence E. “Versailles, Treaty of.” World Book 1998 Multimedia Encyclopedia. IBM Corp., 1998

2. Silva, Brett, “Effects of World War I.” 26 Mar. 1997. Online. Internet. http://kanga.pvhs.k12.ca.us/~bsilva/projects/effects.htm. Feb. 26, 1998

3. Henderson, Nicholas. “A fatal guarantee: Poland, 1939.” History Today. Oct. ‘97: p.19-26

4. Hoffman, Peter. “Hitler, Adolf.” World Book Encyclopedia 1997 USA: World Book Inc., 1997

5. Deighton, Len. Blood, Tears, and Folly. New York City: Harper-Collins, 1993

6. Taylor, A.J.P. The Origins of the Second World War. New York: Fawcett Crest Books, 1961

Похожие работы