Written work about World War II

1. World War II
We can take into account five main causes that led European countries to another World War:
 Failure of the Treaty of Versailles: this treatment that was signed after World War I, treated Germany very
harshly and was greatly resented by the German people. In the Treaty was treated
fourteen main points but the four worst of them for German people were:
They weren’t allowed to have a military.
Their ships used for trading were given to the Allies.
Germany was forced to give up territories in Africa, Pacific and Europe.
And she was ordered to pay an amount of Us$ 33 billion in war damages.
 Economic Depression and Instability:
- The Great World Depression in 1929 threw German economy into a great disaster, many workers
became unemployed. Hitler managed himself to convince German people that he was leading them
out of the depression. But, he just wanted to abolish the Treaty of Versailles, expand Germany and rule
the whole world.
 Appeasement:
- When Hitler began to break the Treaty of Versailles, the League of Nations appeased him.
Hitler broke more and more rules. Germany gained lots of land, soldiers and technology
were a powerful force in Europe.
 Expansionist desires:
- Hitler’s expansionist desires was one of the main cause. Germany, Italy and Japan wanted to conquer
new territories and enslave or exterminate the people living there.
 Isolationism:
- The United States followed the policy of isolationism and didn’t become a member
of the League. She was the most powerful country.

2. League of Nations
In 1920 the Allies had created the League of Nations which would enable nations to cooperate with each other.
Its members agreed to respect and preserve the borders and terri tory of all members.
But in 1935, Abyssinia (Ethiopia), a fellow member of the League was invaded by Italy. Britain and France were
anxious to win Italy’s co-operation against Hitler, who was illegally rearming Germany and decided against taking
action against Italy. This has shown the failure of the League of Nation’s authority and produced serious results.
Benito Mussolini (Italy’s fascist leader) and Hitler realised that Britain and France lacked the will to make sure the
standards the League demanded of its members were followed.
Are you sure he won’t invade?
For the next four years, Germany, Italy and Japan took advantage of this weakness to seize
territory of interest to them. British Prime Minister, Neville Chamberlain, in order to avoid war in
1938, he joined Hitler in Munich and accepted and co-operated in the takeover of German-speaking
parts of Czechoslovakia by Germany. Chamberlain returned from the
meeting reassuring Britain that he had Hitler’s written promise that Germany had
no more terriorial ambitions, in his own words “peace for our time”. I t didn’t last…
Six months later Germany occupied the rest of Czechoslovakia. Britain realizing
that war was inevitable, gave a guarantee support to Poland if Germany invaded as
she did with Belgium during the WWI.
And the War began…
In September 1939 Germany invaded Poland, and Britain entered the war, as it happened in
World War I, British people thought that they were protecting the weaker nations and fighting for
democracy. They also heard about the cruelty over Jews from the Nazis.
In May 1940, Germany attacked, defeating the French in a few days, and driving the British army into the sea.
Besides the dark panorama seen by everyone, Britain’s new Prime Minister, Winston Churchill, persuaded the
nation to face the war with an emotional speech:
“We shall defend our island, whatever the cost may be, we shall fight on the
beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in
the streets, we shall fight on the hills, we shall never surrender… until in God’s
good time the New World, with all its power and might, sets forth to the
liberation and rescue of the Old…” – He offered his countrymen nothing but
“blood, toil, tears and sweat”.

3. The British air force won an important battle against German planes in the air over Britain. Nevertheless, one
and a half million people in London became homeless by German bombing during the next few months.
Turning worldwide…
Both confronted sides wanted to control the oil in the Middle East, and the Suez Canal,
Britain’s route to India. In 1941 Japan attacked British colonial possessions, including Malaya
(Malaysia), Burma and India. Besides Britain had soldiers from all her colonies, her weakness
became even more obvious when her army surrendered Singapore to Japan (the worst
surrender in British history claimed Churchill).
In 1941, Germany and Japan committed two huge mistakes that cost them the war.
Germany hasn’t had a better idea than attack the Soviet Union (Russia), whereas Japan decided to attack United
States, the two most powerful countries. So the Axis (Germany, Italy and Japan) had no option but face the two
biggest nations in the world.
Britain would have been unable to defeat Germany without the help of its stronger allies, the Soviet Union and
the United States. Italy surrendered in July 1943. The following year, Britain and the U.S.A. invaded German
occupied France. They caused a great destruction while bombing German towns.
Putting War an end…
In May 1945, Germany finally surrendered. In order to save further casualties among their own
troops, Britain and the United States then used their bombing power to defeat Japan. They
used the new atomic bombs to destroy most of Nagasaki and Hiroshima, two large Japanese
cities. Over 110,000 people died immediately and may thousands more died later from the
after-effects.
This war lasted longer than the first one. The Soviet Union, Germany and Japan paid a fair more
terrible price, as did ethnic groups like the Jewish and gypsy peoples, several million of whom
were deliberately killed.