Question

What were the economic, political and social causes for WWII in Europe?

Answer 1

Hint: The Treaty of Versailles seemed unfair to the Germans. The Germans broke their promise about not invading other countries.

Complete answer:
There were a variety of social, political and economic factors that helped in bringing about World War II.
i) Social causes: Harsh reparations demanded from the Germans by the Treaty of Versailles caused resentment against both the allies and the Weimar Republic government. Around 1929, disillusionment and support for fascism among the German public was created. The Germans no longer believed that a democratic government could solve their problems.

ii) Economic causes: As a consequence of the Treaty of Versailles, Germany had to resign most of its gold reserves. Therefore, its currency became useless, as it basically represented nothing. Because of the loss of gold, Germany began to print money that was no longer linked to the gold standard and therefore it was devoid of any real value. This led to the hyper-inflation a few years before World War II.

This in turn led to the Great Depression, when the Stock markets crashed. Germany’s inability to pay loans led to its bankruptcy. That was when Hitler and the Nazis came into the picture and gave vague promises to the citizens about strong government, jobs, German power, end reparations etc. Hence, Hitler was elected as the chancellor in 1933.

iii) Political causes - Politicians in England and France thought that the Treaty of Versailles was unfair to Germany and that Hitler’s actions were understandable. Therefore, they brought the Munich Agreement of September 1938, in which England and France allowed Germany to annex certain regions of Czechoslovakia where German-speaking people resided. Germany agreed not to annex the rest of Czechoslovakia or any other nation. But they broke their promise and invaded the whole of Czechoslovakia and even invaded Poland.

This agitated England and France and thus, the Second World War started in 1939.

Note:
- The Second World War is the deadliest international conflict till date and around 60 to 80 million people were killed during this time.
- The Nazis had also execute more than 6 million Jews under Hitler’s command, during the Holocaust.
- The War lasted for 6 long years and ended on 1st September 1945.