Imperialism Was The Main Cause Of World War II

Decent Essays
Many issues involving imperialism and unresolved problems resulting from WWI caused the devastating World War II. Since Germany was blamed for the start of WWI, the Treaty of Versailles was dictated that Germany should admit guilt and pay billions in reparations. People felt the treaty was unfair and they couldn't recover from the effects of war. With all these conflicts, Adolph Hitler emerged as a leader to arouse ideas of nationalism. He wanted to "purify" the Aryan race in Germany. On the other side of the world, Japan was in the effort of expanding its territory. There weren't enough natural resources, so Japan invaded countries like Korea and China. Also, the United States restricted oil shipments to Japan. Japanese aircraft attacked Pearl

Related Documents

  • Improved Essays

    In addition, England was enraged the Germans sank passenger and merchant ships killing innocent people. WWI was fought by 30 countries and resulted in millions of deaths. Consequently, the Germans were forced to sign the Treaty of Versailles in 1919 which led to multiple effects on the German nation and its…

    • 550 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    World War Two broke out in 1939, it started in Europe and ended six years later in 1945. In the late 1930’s, Japanese Imperial Army aggression in South East Asia and the ultimate bombing of Pearl Harbour led to war erupting across the Pacific. The war was between Japan and the American and their Allies. When the war in Europe ended the Americans knew that the Japanese weren't going to surrender and had to do something so dramatic that would force them to. They had already dropped fire bombs on Tokyo and even though thousands of people died they still not surrender.…

    • 662 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Japan was in conflict over many colonies and expansionism in Asia before America as by 1941, Japan controlled large parts of China and other parts of Asia. The United States, Britain, and The Netherlands responded to this by freezing Japanese assests in their countries, which included most of Japan's access to their oil supply. Once the situation took place, it was natural for Japan to head into war, as they had a highly efficent army and navy that was well trained over the years. Japan didn't want to back down on the situation as, "the militaristic Japan of the 1930s viewed colonism as a way out of the economic woes of the Great Depression." Because of this, the attack on Pearl Harbor was not only a war on the United States, but also to the colonies and expansionism in Asia.…

    • 444 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    The horrific World War II began with a simple unprovoked attack from the Germans against the people of Poland, which eventually lead to Britain and France declaring war. The nations, and others, were not fully prepared for the catastrophes and casualties that would take place during this deadly war. For example, the American people were at a loss of words after the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor and innocent lives were taken. When this event, and others like it, panic ran rapidly through every single country involved with the war. When panic begins, people have the tendency to want to “dispose” of the problem as fast as they can.…

    • 1480 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    American Homefront Causes

    • 597 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Arguing leads to fights. Fights lead to battles. Battles lead to war. One of the most discussed wars in history would be World War II. The goal today is to decide how significant the impact of the war, World War II, was on the American homefront.…

    • 597 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Decent Essays

    Nationalism contributed to the start of the war because nationalists believed that their nation was better and stronger than any other nation. This made them think that if they were in a war, they would win it. The alliances contributed to the war by bringing Europe into it. Without the alliances, World War II would have been a lot smaller. Imperialism contributed to the war by searching for a central European empire because that built up a lot of tension on the Triple Entente.…

    • 168 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Superior Essays

    On December 7, 1941 Japan attacked Pearl Harbor. There were three-hundred fifty-three Japanese planes. Japan’s attack was a surprise. The Japanese’s main target where the aircraft carriers, but they were not at base. They only attacked the ships and planes, but left places like oil storages unharmed.…

    • 898 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Nationalism is the love for one’s country and the devotion to defend it at any cost. It’s complete loyalty and belief that their country is more important and better than any other. To many people it means the to stand by their leaders and fight against whoever it maybe that is threatening them. There have been many instances where nationalism is the focus of the conflict. Major conflicts where nationalism is heavily followed is the genocide of the Jews, the Holocaust, as well as World War II.…

    • 570 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Imperialism During Ww2

    • 1233 Words
    • 5 Pages

    World War II was a very deadly and chaotic time, sparked by a single act of invasion and ended by multiple nations. Two of the nations that participated during the war was the United States and Great Britain, fighting as allies on the side of the Allied powers. As it follows these two major powers, this report shall follow the course of the war, outline the significance behind the wartime conferences, and then I shall review the imperialist connections that were present during the war. During the war, each of them outline a particular part of imperialism through their actions, which had not yet disappeared from the war, despite its devastating effects that were present during the previous world war. Although indirectly, the policy of imperialism…

    • 1233 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    Japan Paper: The Bombing of Pearl Harbor From the Japanese Perspective World War II was the result of many countries attempting to obtain what did not belong to them. Germany, led by Adolf Hitler and the Nazi political party, was attempting to forge a massive German empire out of the German homeland and surrounding territories. The Japanese were attempting to create a massive empire that fanned out in all directions from the mainland islands. With these attempts at gain, massive amounts of death and destruction occurred, with smaller, weaker countries being thrown under the control of an abusive, dictatorial regime.…

    • 1720 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The war brought upon a desire for repentance from God and a want to achieve 'German greatness '. The Hitler Myth uses the pre-world war one attitudes in order to create this idea that under his control, he will rise Germany out of…

    • 1157 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Becki Wittman Dbq Essay

    • 726 Words
    • 3 Pages

    He convinced them to turn their humiliation into revenge. This new sense of nationalism was the start of the tensions that would inspire World War II. Once Germany took back Poland, they were seemingly unstoppable. The Treaty of Versailles destroyed Germany, but gave them enough reason to build themselves back up, with help from the Nazi party.…

    • 726 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Power Transition Theory in Relation to World War II In the early twentieth century, Germany paved the road that would soon be one of the main causes of World War II. Due to the instability in Europe the First World War created, it allowed for a leader, by the name of Adolf Hitler and his National Socialist German Workers’ Party or Nazi Party, to come into power. His party represented a combination of extreme hatred for those politicians who they viewed had dishonored Germany by signing the Treaty of Versailles that blamed the war on Germany and forced the country to pay billions of dollars as a result for damages and oppressed the local complaints against the weak federal government. (Open.edu) The hope of the German people was that he could…

    • 1473 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The nineteenth century is marked as a time of universal imperialism and a rise in Asian power. The outbreak and causes of the Second World War are quite numerous and are all different based on the many opinions of historians and their own understanding of the war in general. There are many leading factors to the war such as the rise of Italian Fascism, Japanese invasion and aggression towards China in the 1930s, and, primarily, the political takeover of Germany by Hitler with the establishment of the Nazi Party. Though beyond these, imperialism still remains an underlying factor that caused involvement in the Second World War, especially in regards to Japan. In order to become a competing member in this world stage, compared to other westernized…

    • 1031 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    This closely links to Hitler’s policies, he wanted “lebensraum “(living space for German people) this therefore indicates that Hitler was responsible for the outbreak of war, because he was very determined to regain all lost territories, to unite all German speaking people and to provide them with lebensraum. However, it is easier to just blame a single man for the devastating results of the war, for millions of people’s deaths, but in reality everyone’s actions direct or indirect still contributed to Hitler’s actions. The Treaty of Versailles wanted huge reparations from Germany and they wanted demilitarisation and they took away some of their lands such as the Rhineland and the Ruhr, the treaty was being rather harsh as they forgot that the German’s did too suffer from the First World War and was demolished. This lead to the German government being ineffective, they were not doing what the German people wanted them to do which was to fight against the Treaty of Versailles, and these vulnerable people simply just wanted to stop being punished for what was the Governments choices, this made it significantly easier for Hitler to come Into power, the German people were vulnerable and weak they just wanted a strong leader. Therefore arguably the Treaty of Versailles was to blame for the Second World War, due to the harsh reparations and the guilt clause, they almost pushed the German people into the arms of…

    • 1133 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays