Question by …: What responsibility did France, Britain, Russia and Italy have to starting World War Two?
What responsibility did France, Britain, Russia and Italy have to starting World War Two?
Answers and Views:
Answer by Verity M
Well, the short answer (except for Italy) is none. However, the consequences of WW I and the Treaty of Versailles leave room for interpretations that shift some responsibility to all of the above.
France was instrumental in urging punitive reparations against Germany that crippled her economy and led to widespread poverty, inflation and civil unrest. Those conditions fostered the rise of extremists like Hitler.
Britain’s Neville Chamberlain was so afraid of confrontation that he failed to put the boot down on Hitler when he had the opportunity regarding Czechoslovakia. This let Hitler assume (correctly) that the Brits would not oppose his expansionist program actively until it was too late to halt.
The Soviet Non-Aggression Pact with Germany set the stage for the invasion of Poland and triggered WW II while Italian desired to recreate the ancient Roman Empire and expand in Africa, added to their alliance with Germany surely means they acquire a generous share of blame too.
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Emma says
Do you mean in what ways was it their fault?
Well, Britain and France adopted policies of appeasement and basically let Hitler do what he wanted so long as it prevented another massive conflict. France had a very unstable government and, to stop a civil conflict chose to go for a defensive tactic. Most of Britain was pacifist and had no desire to fight. Both countries had serious economic and military shortages for a war due to the Wall Street Crash in 1929 and the "Great" War. They barely paid attention to Hitler's invasion of the Rhineland and the majority took the Anschluss as inevitable and a sort of make up with Germany after the harsh Treaty of Versailles terms.
Italy was just as Fascist as Germany; they were led by Mussolini. In fact, Mussolini was all for helping Hitler after they joined forces around the time of the Spanish Civil War with the Rome-Berlin axis.
In August 1939 Stalin's Communist Russia signed a non-aggression pact with Hitler's Nazi Germany in order to keep the aggressive Hitler away from Russia. The two dictatorships' mighty armies then attacked and occupied Poland from West and East and divided it between them. While Hitler occupied half of Europe from Norway to Greece, Russia occupied the Baltic states and parts of Finland and Romania. To keep Hitler appeased all this time, Stalin's Russia provided Germany, as agreed, with large quantities of war materials and even operational support services to assist the German war effort.
Basically all of the countries wanted to kiss Hitler's ass to prevent another war. This, however, allowed Hitler to build his army to great strengths and adopt a very aggressive strategy which meant the countries had to fight a war to stop him taking over all of bloody Europe.
Rubym says
France and Britain had not stopped Hitler from taking Austria or Czechoslovakia. They stepped in when Hitler and the Nazis attacked Poland in September 1939. Italy, under Benito Mussolini was an ally of Hitler. France and Britain's response to the invasion of Poland in a way started the war, but Hitler had to be stopped.
Italy had already invaded the African country of Ethiopia in the early to mid 30's (look up the exact date) and in a way the war was 'starting' then.
Russia, or the Soviet Union under Stalin tried to stay out of the war, thinking somehow he and Hitler could divide up Hitler's conquests. But Hitler invaded the Soviet Union in 1941 and drew Stalin's USSR into the war.
You did not mention Japan, in the 1930's, Japan starting taking lands, including much of China, some islands in the Pacific and then French Indochina (Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos) and the Dutch East Indies (Indonesia) while their colonial powers, France and the Netherlands were busy against the Germans or occupied by the Germans.