To what extent did world war one lead to world war two?
‘Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few.’ Churchill
What happened in the First World War?
World war one began on the 28th July 1914. War was declared between Austria and Serbia after Franz Ferdinand, a Yugoslavian nationalist, Gavrillo Princip, assassinated heir to the Austrian throne. Austria was part of an alliance with Germany and Hungary, which was called the central powers. The Russians mobilised their troops and Germany issued an order to stand down, Russia refused so war was declared on Russia. Russia urged France to get evolved and to protect its borders so France joined the war. Great Britain joined forces with France and Russia after Germany invaded Belgium and Luxembourg because of Belgium’s neutrality. The Russians were defeated after the German attack on the western front. However the allies drove back the Germans In the summer of 1918. An armistice was declared in November ending the war, which was won by the allies. After the war borders were re drown and some new nations were created.
It is believed a total of eighteen million people died during world war one. The allies lost six million soldiers, most of which are buried in northern France or in mass graves dug by the German soldiers. Many towns across the UK have memorials in honour of their fallen and these lives are honoured on Remembrance Day.
Many soldiers and civilians lived through the war and were able to tell their stories. Moving and tragic accounts that tell us what happened to those involved. The war ended in the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month in 1918.
Whilst the men were fighting on the front line, large numbers of women took their places in factories or worked as nurses. Some made ammunitions to help the war effort and some laboured and worked the farms.
The first ever used tank in the world war was titled ‘the mark’ this tank had a code name for the purpose to maintain secrecy and disguise its true purpose which is to break the statement of trench warfare. This tank could survive the machine guns fired from anywhere.
The Political system in the First World War
During The First World War there was a federal monarchy under the leadership of Kaiser Wilhelm II. The federal monarchy was an emperor who was a head of state and also the president of the federal monarchs. The political system begun with Wilhelm the first, who held the title, German emperor, this was done to avoid conflict with the emperor of Germany who was entitled to authority within the federate monarchies territories.
The federal Monarchy turned Germany to the empire through the states of confederation. Finally the federal monarchy ended with Kaiser Wilhelm II who supported Austria-Hungary lead to conflict in 1914 when the First World War eventually culminated and he became unpopular because of the fact that he had poor leadership.
At the end of the War when Germany had lost, the Kaiser fled to a new democratic government, which was located in Germany.
In February 1919, the town of Weimar announced that it was extremely dangerous to create a declaration in Berlin where there had recently been a revolt by the communist group called the spartacists. The republic of Weimer was genuinely attempting to create a great democratic country. The great democratic country unfortunately had two weaknesses, which were proportional representation because Weimer Germans voted for a party (unlike us they vote for a party instead of an MP). Each party that they had voted for then allocated seats in Reichstag which is proportional to the amount of who had voted for it although this sounds fair it turned out to be a disaster because it resulted in dozens of small party’s which weren’t strong enough to get a majority, It resulted in no government getting its laws passed in the Reichstag. This was the first major weakness in the republic. The second law that was flawed is article 48 because the president didn’t need the agreement of Reichstag’s and could issue decrees. The problem, which escalated from that is, it was a back door for Hitler to take power legally in 1933.
What happened in the second war?
World war two begun in 1939 and lasted until 1945, although the conflicts begun earlier. It involved the vast majority of the great powers, military alliances, the allies and the axis. This war involved more than a hundred million people from over thirty countries in a total state war the major participants threw entire economic, industrial and scientific capability’s behind the war effort, clearing the distinction between civilian and military resources. The empire of Japan aimed to dominant the pacific and Asia. The Republic of China were already at war with the pacific and Asia by 1937 Although it is said that world war 2 actually begun on 1st September 1939 as the invasion of Poland by the Nazi Germany as well as the declarations of the war on Germany by the French and the UK, which contributed the soviet Union from the late 1939 to the beginnings of 1941, in a sequence of campaigns, which Germany ruled or controlled. Much of Europe had formed the Axis alliance with Italy and Japan.
Conclusion notes. Was there any similarity’s between the two wars?
The similarities between the two world wars are the causes of both of the wars, which are nationalism, militarism and imperialism, which followed to the outbreak of war. Countries like Japan, Germany and Italy desired more recourses and land that had already been owned. So to get their own way they had to become aggressive with their actions and to go to war. These countries believed in their way of life.
So to what extent did world war one lead to world war two? Hitler joined the German Workers Party in 1919 following his service in WW1. He rose to leader in 1921; he tried to seize power of Germany in 1923 but failed and was imprisoned. Hitler was released in 1924 and again became a politician. The Nazi Party elected in 1933 chose Hitler as its Chancellor. He believed that pro German, anti Semitism and anti communism were the way forward. He removed Jews from Germany and gave territories to ethnic Germans, which resulted in popular support but moved east to gain more land, which is thought to have been the main cause of the outbreak of war.