What Were the Most Important Causes of WWII

What Were the Most Important Causes of WWII

What were the most important causes of WWII? Debates – 22nd March 2007

First Round

Proposition: Thabisyah & WhitingUnprotected central Europe/Sympathy with Germany

Opposition: Anwar & JennerNazi-Soviet Pact/ Rearmament

Proposition / Opposition
  1. Lebensraum blue print published in Mein Kampf threatened Central Europe from outset
/
  1. Rearmament was the most important reason why war started as late as 1939 as both sides were not ready in 1936

  1. Few countries had any strength or power and were like sitting ducks including Czech/Poland
/
  1. Arms technology and development happened in the late 1930s than ever before

  1. Hitler was greedy and after the painless Anschluss with Austria he wanted more
/
  1. Spending on Arms by GB was still around the £100m mark through the 1920s where it had been up to £870m in 1918

  1. TOV was too harsh on Germany and the agreements which happened after were to pacify Germany. (ie Anglo-German Naval Agreement)
/
  1. The Nazi-Soviet Pact was the most important reason why war was declared in 1939 as it showed how far USSR mistrusted the Allies

  1. Stresa Front showed that the allies were not prepared to take action over aggressive nations.
/
  1. GB hated Communism and allowed the Nazis their natural enemy to broker a treaty then leave open an ally on the other side of Germany.

  1. In terms of Rearmament there was little or no negotiation and the allies acknowledged it was taking place and did not protest
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  1. Stalin also gained time to rearm as he knew war was inevitable and it would be over how far Poland/E. Europe would be divided between them.

Result: P: 9 O:8 Abs:3Best Debaters: Thabisyah and Jenner

Second Round

Proposition: Shippey & ZabLebensraum/ Misjudgement of Aggressors

Opposition: Abbas & WinwardAlternative aggressors/ Failure of Munich Conference

Proposition / Opposition
  1. Lebensraum made all central European countries unsafe and war happened because of Hitler’s aggressive Foreign Policy
/
  1. Italy, Japan and USSR had already shown that they were eager for greater empires and would use force to get them

  1. Treaty of Versailles had forbidden Anschluss or Lebensraum but Nazis were convinced that Germany was too small to feed and support its ambitions
/
  1. Nazi-Soviet Pact showed the USSR were getting ready for a war of expansion and Poland would their first conquest

  1. Hitler idolised the British Empire and ever since Mein Kampf had argued for Germany to have its own space, even to share the world with GB
/
  1. Mussolini had grown greedy after Abyssinia and angry over Germany’s Anschluss. If they were allowed then Italy could expand in the Mediterranean.

  1. Crucial mistake of the Allies was to misjudge Hitler and aggressive nations and treat their claims as reasonable and their statesmen honourable
/
  1. Munich failed to stop Hitler and failed to prevent war and if anything brought it closer

  1. By conceding to a tyrant showed a sign of weakness that a ruthless dictator was all too eager to exploit
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  1. Even small countries like Poland and Hungary seized land after Munich and so it showed how big a failure the 4 power conference was

  1. LON had been as weak with the aggressors in the early 1930s and Britain and France continued this into Munich and in 1939
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  1. Munich encouraged Hitler to keep on asking for more and taking more than agreed without being stopped

Result: P:11 O:10 Abs:2Best Debaters: Winward & Shippey & Zab

Third Round

Proposition: McCleod & HillelArms Race/ Guarantee to Poland

Opposition: Gillen & DuncombeWeakness of LON/Czechoslovakia never going to be cause

Proposition / Opposition
  1. Ever since the TOV Germany had been the only nation secretly arming while the rest of the world were at the surface at least disarming
/
  1. If the LON had been strong from the start it would have prevented an arms race by putting each nation in its place and solving disputes thoroughly

  1. Due to all their secret treaties with the USSR they were far better equipped than the allies and threatened every state surrounding them
/
  1. By not allowing defeated nations to join the LON its status was undermined and it ended up being too big and ineffective

  1. Britain’s aim to take the moral highground in disarmament made them vulnerable, as did French fixation on the Maginot line, USA/USSR isolationism and the weak LON
/
  1. All aggressive nations could have been properly checked by a strong, empowered hellohi LON and any possibility of future conflict could have been prevented

  1. Poland represented the last bit of land that could be conceivably taken by Germany without violence – GB sympathetic to German claims over Danzig
/
  1. GB had sympathies with Germany over a harsh TOV and Sudeten Germans should be allowed to return to their Fatherland so war was never going to start in 1938

  1. War was inevitable because Germany had taken too much too easily before and had to be stopped by a world policeman like GB as no one else willing to react
/
  1. Poland was the last buffer in central Europe to the threat of Communism and its sovereignty needed to be preserved by the Allies

  1. Czechoslovakia being landlocked was more difficult to defend than Poland which was strategically important to the Balance of Power in Europe
/
  1. By giving into Hitler over Munich he now had the upper hand in aggressive Foreign Policy and if he wanted Poland that’s where he would have to be stopped

Result: P:3 O:14 Abs:3Best Debaters: HillelDuncombe

Fourth Round

Opposition: Nissenbaum & TunwellFrench Insecurity/ Fear of War before 1939

Proposition:Finder & LoomesAppeasement was morally wrong/ Balance of Power upset

Proposition / Opposition
  1. Appeasement was morally wrong as any concession was a sign of weakness to aggressors
/
  1. France’s demand for revenge ruined any chance for peaceful negotiations with Germany and their rivalry precipitated the early onset of war

  1. Treaty of Versaillesmay have been too harsh but it had been internationally agreed and a few allies could not take it into their hands to revise it at the expense of small nations
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  1. Germany had always hated the French and wanted to crush them as soon as they had cut Poland up and split it with Stalin

  1. Appeasement was the wrong policy throughout the 1930s as many countries were being aggressive and they were all preparing for war of conquests that could not be prevented
/
  1. France’s build up of the Maginot Line antagonised the Germans in the 1920s and they were not prepared to confer with the threatening stance of France

  1. After WW1 the Balance of Power had shifted away from strong opposing power blocks to rogue nations building empires which were never checked
/
  1. Before 1939 there were strong feelings from all combatants in WWI that it should never be repeated due to the devastation it had caused

  1. Strength now lay in the resources each nation was building and those who would suffer most would be the nations not rearming like GB and the LON
/
  1. The Wall St Crash and Depression had postponed aggressive actions from right wing states but wars of conquest was the only way they thought they could use to alleviate impoverishment at home

  1. Any new treaty that was signed encouraged Hitler and other aggressors to take more than was offered and no power block prevented that
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  1. War boosts economic strength and Germany after the TOV and Depression needed it more than most. After each aggressive action the call to arms in GB grew even stronger especially from the likes of Churchill.

Result: P:2 O:8 Abs:7Debate ruined by nasty criticism of opponents characters

Fifth Round

Proposition: Harris & SaundersGBs Foreign Policy/Death of Stresemann

Opposition: Chapaneri & SharmanFear of Communism/Isolation of USA

Proposition / Opposition
  1. GB’s Foreign Policy was more concerned with colonial ambition rather than protecting other countries
/
  1. The Red Threat was the biggest single cause of WWII as it caused many democratic nations to cease negotiations with USSR which could have provided Germany with a deterrent to pursuing Lebensraum

  1. Germany and Japan were allowed to leave the LON and Disarmament conferences and openly rearm rather than be threatened by GB
/
  1. If USSR had been included in the LON from the beginning and negotiated with the West then they would never have had secret treaties with Germany or helped Hitler rearm

  1. Allies missed opportunities to contain and control aggressive nations as Churchill argued: Anglo-German Naval Agreement was one example of GBs FP encouraging aggressive nations
/
  1. Fear and mistrust of Communism forced Stalin to turn to Hitler to prevent an earlier war breaking out in Europe. It also caused Stalin to strive for his own sphere of influence in central Europe including Poland

  1. Death of Stresemann caused Germany to divert from a conciliatory strengthening of its nation towards aggression to get out of economic problems
/
  1. If the USA had entered the LON as the keystone member it would have had much more credibility and status in terms of pressuring countries to use peaceful means to revise the TOV

  1. Stresemann had solved many of the most pressing problems in the 1920s by agreement with the USA and LON rather than aggression – Dawes, Young Plans had mitigated against Reparations and LON gave Germany a platform to air their grievances
/
  1. The USA was the major creditor of Germany and they would have been less likely to “bite the hand that fed them” their prosperity. Even Hitler would not have been so determined to revise the TOV if USA looking over their actions.

  1. Stresemann would never have let a Far-Right dictator destroy all he built up and ruin the chances of peace in Europe – Hitler destroyed all Stresemann tried to achieve rather than build on his negotiations
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  1. USA’s influence would have been much further than the LON and given a basis for proper peace negotiations at Munich and over the Polish guarantee. War came in 1939 because they had removed themselves from world politics for the most crucial period : post-WWI problems

Result: Prop: 2 Opp:7 Abst:8Best Debaters: Saunders & Sharman

Sixth Round

Proposition: Groves & EliadWall St Crash/ Rise of Dictators

Opposition: Nazari & QuereshiGuilty Men Theory/ Anti-Comintern Pact

Proposition / Opposition
  1. The WSC destroyed the US economy which was bankrolling the rest of the world. If it had not happened countries wouldn’t have used aggressive colonisation to get out of their Depression
/
  1. Leading Politicians and statesmen of the 1930s were attacked by a group of left-wing writers who called themselves CATO who argued that the problems of the 1920s would not have occurred if WWI had not killed off the best statesmen

  1. Extremist parties came to the front of politics as they offered better solutions than the wishy washy politicians they replaced. 6 million unemployed people searched for better parties offering what they wanted
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  1. Hitler and Right Wing politicians would not have been so aggressive if the right men had made a much fairer Treaty at Versailles and not held Germany solely accountable and liable for damages

  1. GB and France had no time to prevent this as their economies were also shattered.They feared Nazism but not enough to interfere in its rise even when it started becoming too aggressive.
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  1. WWII was a result of poor political management by Chamberlain and the other members of the cabinet/Foreign Office who could not control the way in which aggressive countries were acting and all in the name of preventing war.

  1. Depression caused extremists to rise to power without being checked by the rest of the world. Open rearmament was pursued and aggressors could do this without interference from either the LON or GB.
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  1. The Anti-Comintern Pact was signed because of the fear of Communism. It was the major cause of WWII because it incited the USSR to react and have aggressive policies and provoked Nazi Germany to take a lead in defeating them. International peace was endangered as a whole.

  1. Foreign Policy was used to distract the populations of each of these countries from domestic issues and it was the perfect remedy as it provided food and jobs for the most impoverished
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  1. The great international rivalry between Communism and Fascism was a longstanding struggle that could only end in a war as both sdes rearmed and prepared their economies for war. Japan in the Far East, Italy in North Africa and Spain and Germany in Spain Eastern Europe started the aggression against Communism which lead to war.

  1. There was a logical correlation between aggressive FP and the rise of the dictators that would eventually lead to war when their empire building overlapped as it did in Poland between Hitler and Stalin and GB/France.
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  1. Ideological differences had been long held and were raised by Hitler in Mein Kampf when he called it an eternal struggle against Bolshevism. Japan invaded Left leaning China and Italy helped Right wing Franco defeat Socialist Republicans in Spain

Result: Prop: 6 Opp:8 Abst:2Best Debaters: Groves & Eliad

Seventh Round Arguments

Proposition:

Opposition:

Proposition / Opposition

Result: Prop: Opp: Abst:Best Debaters: