Evaluating the Factors that Contributed to Outbreak of World War II

World War II
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World War II
World War II was a global conflict that broke out in 1939 and lasted until 1945. Although the war spanned across the globe, the most notable culprits in the historic conflict were Germany, Japan, and Italy, dubbed the Axis power and France, Great Britain, the United States, Soviet Union, and partiallyNChina nicknamed Allied nations. World War I was the first most tragic global conflict that led to a massive loss of lives and also set the stage for the future occurrence of the second global conflict. Several issues were left unresolved at the end of World War I, and the punitive actions taken against the Germans proved unbearable for the incoming Nazi regime. Numerous events succeeded the end of World War I that portrayed the imminence of the Second World War. Germany and Japan are often seen as the primary triggers of the Second World War, and even though the United States under President Franklin Roosevelt had vowed not to engage in international conflict (Shi & Tindall, 2015), the massive attack on the country and its allies left it with no choice but to delve into the war. This paper’s purpose is to assess the actions that triggered the outbreak of the Second World War, with the actions of the Germans and Japanese being of immense focus.
The Versailles Treaty at the end of World War I intended to disarm the losers of the first global conflict. However, the move to disarm Germany and other hostile countries that had been entitled to the League of Nations became an ultimate failure as Germany, and other nations continued to arm themselves and continued their military aggression (Webster, 2019). Distrust and suspicion among the participants of the 1932 Disarmament Conference in Geneva led to a failed negotiation and subsequent withdrawal of Germany from the conference and the League of Nations. Germany’s withdrawal signified to the Nazi regime that it was no longer bound to the provisions of the Treaty of Versailles and was therefore going to continue building arms and form the military. Besides, the other countries had already disregarded the treaty’s clauses and owned deadly arms and large military. Thus, the failure of disarmament as per the Treaty of Versailles contributed immensely to the outbreak of the Second World War as nations like Germany had vast enough army and military-grade weapons to threaten and overpower any weak nation.
Although the United States had delved into the First World War with a primary objective to enhance democratization, some European countries, particularly the Italians, Soviets, and Germans, were not willing to let go of the previous ideologies characteristic of totalitarianism. Throughout the 1920s and 30s, the form of totalitarianism, better known as fascism thrived, in Italy and Germany, mainly propagated through propaganda and cruelty (Shi & Tindall, 2015). Benito Mussolini of Italy and Adolf Hitler of Germany were the sole perpetrators of fascism in their respective territories. The latter turned out to be more aggressive and later turned Germany into a police state (Shi & Tindall, 2015). Mussolini mainly relied on propaganda to spread fascist rule across Europe. In contrast, his German count...