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The relationship between the First World War and the Second World War In my essay I will examine the relationship between the First World War and the Second World War. To achieve this purpose, I will compare the causes of the wars and determine their difference. Also, I will analyze how the First World War led directly to the Second World War. Additionally, I will investigate the purposes of each of the wars, find their differences and similarities, and observe their method and techniques used to fulfill them.
Finally, in my conclusion, I will reflect on the consequences of the Second World War and in particular, on the possibility of the World War Three. The First World War resulted from the conflicts in the capitalistic world economy. At the turn of the century the growth of Germany turned it into a strong competitor to the British Empire, which was dominating in Europe. First, this tension between the two nations was rooted in trade competition. And later, English and German rivalry overshadowed the old conflicts between the powers on the continent.
The British declared war on Germany after the local conflict of Balkan state in Serbia in 1914 had grown into the conflict of European scale. Unlike the period before the First World War, in 1930 ies Germany faced economic depression and mass unemployment. In this way, the causes of the Second World War are differed from those of the First World War because of the absence of the economic rivalry. Also, in contrast with the World War I, World War II had a nationalist background. It was created when Hitler came to power and together with the nationalist party established an autocratic regime. Thus, the second war was intended against Hitler, German nationalists and German nation in general.
It suggests an idea that this war bore more political and national character that an economic one. The immediate origins of the Second World War were in the following: breaking of the preliminary agreement committed by the Allied Powers; the refusal of equality of rights and of the right of the national self-determination for Germans; the creation of the frontier in the east and the "Polish Corridor; the paragraphs of the treaty on war criminals and war guilt; unrealizable economic and financial claims. In 1939 the outbreak of war was caused by the conflict between Germany and Poland over Danzig and Corridor problems. The USA and Great Britain did not grant the fulfillment of German rights to national self-determination. In addition, in 1939 a significant shift of the powers on the continent occurred due to unification of Sudeten region and Austria with the German Reich. This shift was in favor of Germany and such event provoked nothing but hostility and pro-war intentions in the circles of American and British policy.
It becomes evident that World War I led directly to the Second World War. The first war ended with capitulation of the German Empire. Germany, as an unsuccessful party was delivered to the mercy of its victors. The conditions of peace (the Versailles treaty, 1920) were inhuman and impossible. First, Germany had to claim its sole responsibility for the war.
Second, it had to cede the area of 73, 485 square kilometers to the neighboring states. Third, Germany was disarmed and prohibited to have all heavy arms, air forces, and general draft. Fourth, this country was deprived of all her foreign accounts and lost all its colonies. More than that, Germany has to supply Belgium, France, Italy and Luxembourg with 40 million tons of coal per year, to deliver factory furnishings, machines, and other materials and to pay unlimited sums of money to its victors on their demands.
Naturally, such a strong pressure on the German nation produced nothing but a heavy opposition among the German people. As a result of pest-war devastation, economic crisis, revolution, and hunger, the German nation found itself in the position of a slave. The peace agreement signed in 1921 between America and Germany withdrew the last into isolation and secured the advantages of the Versailles treaty. The leader of the Soviet Union, Lenin characterized this treaty as an inability of the international community to reach a compromise peace: An atrocious peace, making slaves out of millions of highly civilized people. That is no peace; those are conditions dictated to a helpless victim by robbers with knives in their hands. (Lenin, v. I, p. 569, p. 650. ) The next sequence of events that took place in Germany, - in particular, its political changes, Hitlers rise to power, nationalism - were the preparatory acts of German revenge, initiating by this the new stage in European Civil War.
The common purpose of the both wars was world domination. American president Roosevelt and British politician Winston Churchill realized the main objective of the war as total destruction of the German Reich and the extermination of the German people. (Georg Franz-Willing, 1986, pp. 95 - 114). The means used to attain this goal were similar to those of the World War I: military force. Additionally, American administration directed anti-German propaganda. Thus, in 1941 the book Germany Must Perish by the Jewish author -Theodore Kaufman, was published. This book proposed a plan for the biological eradication of the German people through the forced sterilization of the whole adult population. (Georg Franz-Willing, 1986, pp. 95 - 114).
As a result of Kaufman's book and anti-German, and then following anti-Jewish propaganda, among the disasters of the Second World War were numerous war crimes, genocide, internment, and atrocities. In comparison with World War II, the previous war was intended only for political and economic goals, not national ones. During World War I the aims of enemy's destruction, conquest and occupation of the territory were fulfilled by using huge military forces. Also, at the beginning of the twentieth century such innovations as chemical warfare, submarines, and strategic bombing aircraft were introduced.
Both the wars were fought by political alliances and the economic purposes were obtained by economic blockage and post-war devastation. Among other things, the declaration of war against Germany furthered the ambitions of two political leaders - Roosevelt and Stalin, who wanted to achieve world rule, but for all that they had totally different views and aims. Thus Washington and Moscow favored European self-mutilation and in this way attempting to replace the European order of the world with two super-powers. This tendency further revealed itself in cold war, where America lost its position of arbiter, which the political leaders of this county tried to exercise in 1919.
Finally, World War II from the opposition to German nationalism turned into the defensive against an aggressive and expansionist Communism striving for exclusive world domination. (Georg Franz-Willing, 1986, pp. 95 - 114). Nevertheless, World War II did not result into World War III. There were made a number of steps to prevent warlike conflicts by international community. First, in 1945 with the foundation of the United Nations a new order was constructed in the world. The previous organization - the League of Nations had failed its antiwar function. Obviously, Europe needed consolidation and to devote more efforts to establish a lasting peace and to prevent terror and devastation of war.
Therefore, in 1951 the European Coal and Steel Community was founded, which became the predecessor of the European Union today. Additionally, new democratic governments were established in the countries occupied by Western Allied troops. Germany was divided into four zones which were governed and supervised by America, France, Britain and the Soviet Union. In this way, these efforts eliminated any kind of danger coming from Germany, neutralized Germany as a potential initiator of a new war, and by the example of such sad German experiences, anti-war ideas were propagandized among the countries of the whole world. Bibliography: Georg Franz-Willing, The Origins of the Second World War. The Journal of Historical Review, Spring 1986 (Vol. 7, No. 1), pages 95 - 114, June 2, 2005 < web JHR/ 7 / 1 /Franz-Willing 95 - 114.
html> Karl Otto Braun. German and American Foreign Policy, 1933 - 1945. Journal of Historical Review Vol. 6, No. 1 Spring 1985 The West and the World: A History of Civilization. Second Edition. Volume 2. Harper & Row, 1989.
V. I. Lenin, Uber Krieg, Armee and Militarwissenschaft. Eine Auswahlaus Lenin's Schriften in zwei Band (East Berlin, 1958), Vol. I, p. 455.
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Research essay sample on The Relationship Between First World War And Second
