Background to World War II

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The Second World War is considered the most important war of the history of humanity, either because of the enormous number of deaths that were caused, or because of the important consequences it had for the time. All conflicts are born from a set of causes, which end up causing the start of confrontations, and therefore in this lesson from a PROFESSOR we are going to talk about World War II background.

Index

1. Importance of World War II
2. Economic background of World War II
3. The consequences of the First World War
4. The warlike confrontations between the First and Second World War
5. Ideological confrontation

The Second World War it was a warlike conflict that took place between 1939 and 1945, and in which most of the countries existing at the time faced. The large number of states in the confrontations makes it possible to count on the fingers of the hand the number of neutral countries, and even within these neutrals there are some that participated in a minor form.

It is considered the greatest war in history not only because of the enormous number of states that fought, but also because of the war that more deaths has generated in the history of humanity, almost 3% of the world's population died during these years. It is also very relevant for its great later influence, since the end of the war made the relations between powers will change forever, with the creation of institutions like the UN.

To begin to comment on the background we must talk about the pre-war economic situation, since as a general rule the economy is one of the most important factors when starting a conflict.

At the end of the 1920s, the Crack of 29, being a fall in market values ​​in the United States that caused the greatest economic crisis in history for the American country. In those years the American economy was already closely related to the European powers, so this situation also caused economic problems in countries like France or Germany. Important is the case of Germany, which was paying large taxes for its responsibility in the First World War and urgently needed higher income.

To get out of the crisis, the United States carried out a series of called reforms New Deal, which were imitated by the Germans, causing the Germans to start betting on the war industry.

World War I brought with it great consequences for the European states, especially for those who had lost the war. These consequences were so enormous that they can be considered as antecedents of the Second World War.

The treaties signed after the First World War had been very harsh for the Central Powers, especially for Germany that he considered that they were totally unfair, since he had to pay compensation for 100 years. This was joined by the signing of the Treaty of Versailles, according to which Germany had to greatly reduce her army, causing a sense of danger in the German people.

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Between the two great wars, a series of smaller conflicts took place, which can be said to have affected to a lesser or greater extent the emergence of the Second World War. Some of these confrontations are the following:

• Italy's attack on Ethiopia and Albania: Shortly before the start of World War II the Italian state attacked these two regions, due to the imperialist character that the Italian leader, Mussolini, was establishing in the Italic area.
• Spanish Civil War: A civil warfare that took place in Spain in which many states gave support to one side or the other, such as Germany, which supported Franco's side.
• Second Sino-Japanese War: A great military confrontation between China and Japan, whose beginning tends to be before the Second World War, but which ended at the same time.
• German invasions: In the years prior to the start of the war, the German state achieved a series of not too violent annexations, the most important being the Austria and Czechoslovakia.

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To conclude this lesson on the antecedents of World War II we must talk about one of the most important, that is, about the emergence of a series of ideologies facing each other.

The best known ideology of World War II is that of Germany, the so-called Nazism, but we must not forget about the Italian fascism and Japanese nationalism. These three ideologies considered that their states were more important than the rest, and that therefore they should demonstrate this supremacy by conquering and dominating other countries. They were ideologies led by charismatic leaders with great power, the best known being Hitler and Mussolini, the first being the leader of Germany and the second that of Italy.

On the other hand we find the ideology of communism, which had gained influence in the Soviet Union after the Russian Revolution. The emergence of this ideology was vital for World War II, since without Russian support the war it could have ended very differently, the Russian attack being one of the main reasons for the defeat German.

All these ideologies are vital to understand both sides that were formed during the war, with the Axis side being an especially clear case, since Italy, Germany and Japan had a series of very similar ideological similarities.

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