Was World War II Inevitable

The largest and most immediate cause of World War Two was the forceful invasion of Poland by Adolf Hitler in 1939. Poland was a predominantly Slavic nation situated between Germany and the USSR, however, it was a part of a mutual defence treaty with Britain. This delayed the invasion a little bit, however eventually on August 31st, Hitler ordered the invasion of Poland. At this time the mutual defence treaty with Britain went into effect. Almost simultaneously Britain, Australia, India, and New Zealand declared war on Germany, with France and Canada following shortly.

Canada’s Main Contribution to the war was mainly to provide supplemental forces to larger assaults. Canadian Forces were involved in Dieppe, Hong Kong, Italy, Belgium and Germany, however, their greatest impact was the liberation of the Netherlands. In 1944, the Canadian army was given the task of liberation the whole of The Netherlands. The Canadian Forces first were given the task of liberating the Scheldt river leading to the city of Antwerp as to allow allied access to the port. Spearheaded by Lieutenant-General Guy Simonds the army fought a series of amphibious battles throughout October and Early November. After taking the Scheldt, the Canadian army was responsible for taking back the Rhineland, as well as facilitate the removal of German forces and the delivery of food in the rest of the Netherlands. The Canadian liberation of the Netherlands is remembered and Celebrated to this day and thousands of tulips are sent to Canada yearly to remember this.

During the period of the Great Depression, Canada changed most in the spending habits of the government and its citizens as well as the distribution of wealth among the people. Once the depression hit, massive amounts of people were laid off due to the lack of demand for products, which resulted in them not being able to buy any more products thus continuing the cycle. Eventually, the government had to invest in aid camps for Canadians to live and work in. Farmers were hit the worst by this as the drought prevented them from growing crops. As bad as this was, however, the fewer people who did Have work were able to live more comfortably, as wages went down slower than prices. Another large change was the increased investment in infrastructure by the government. This was the approach that The US president took to stop the depression, and Canada had no other ideas. Every party in power during the 1930s used infrastructure to attempt to stimulate economic development. This approach was successful in lowering unemployment but the country didn’t fully recover until they joined the war against Germany*.

The Canadian Reaction to the Great Depression was filled with lacklustre policy and ineffective leaders. When the depression hit in 1929 Liberal Prime Minister Mackenzie King was in power. King Believed that the depression was a temporary problem that would fix itself. He also refused to give federal aid to any provincial government run by conservatives. This made him very unpopular with voters and as a result, conservative Prime minister R. B. Bennett was swept into power in 1930. Bennett’s Chief Concern was dealing with the depression. The plan he campaigned on was to put tariffs on non-canadian products to increase the number of Canadian products bought, as well as to increase spending on welfare programs to help people earn money. These policies failed spectacularly. Increased tariffs only effect was to raise the cost to export goods, and the Canadian market was producing more products that could possibly be bought. Welfare programs had the potential to do good, but one year into their creation the government ran a deficit and they were terminated. This led to the proposal of the “New Deal”, Under Bennett there would be a minimum wage, increased social programs and unemployment insurance. This was seen as an effort to buy votes before an election and as a result. King and the liberal party were back in power after 1935. The 1935 Run of the liberal government was the most successful at limiting the effects of the depression. Less than a year into their reign, they signed a trade agreement with the US that increased Canadian exports. He also introduced subsidies for affordable housing, programs to help the unemployed, and general tax cuts for consumers. These policies had the greatest success limiting the depression until…

The Invasion of Poland was the principal cause of WW2. On the day it was enacted Britain and France both declared war on Germany, Canada, however, remained neutral. On the day of the invasion, Prime Minister Mackenzie King Summoned Parliament to decide whether or not to declare war as well. Parliament deliberated for a week and eventually decided to declare war on Germany, and send a division of the army was sent to fight in Europe.

An Economic Depression is an extended period of negative economic growth. The only one that’s ever happened in modern history took place in the 1930s after a prolonged economic boom. It was caused because of high interest rates in the 1920s. This caused huge levels of investment that the market couldnt handle. When the market went into a recession as a result, people began selling their stocks at breakneck speed. This caused a domino effect that eventually became the words first and only economic depression.

British Response: Initially in England the Government thought that the depression wouldn’t have much impact on day to day life in the country. They were wrong. The depression wreaked havoc on communities in Britain, In response, the prime minister created the national government, which would govern as a coalition of all parties regardless of vote. The National Government decided to implement cuts in public sector pay, as well as a tax raise of 3.75%. Overall Britain fared better than other countries because they did not have as large an economic boom after the first world war. This meant that they did not fall as hard as other nations, and recovered largely before the second world war.

French Response: The Great Depression hit France Uniquely because it was a country that many thought could manage to avoid the effects of the depression. They were wrong. The Great Depression in France gave rise to a number of radical parties in the parliament, ranging from communism to authoritarianism and downright fascism. This meant that the first 7 years of depression in France was dominated by political squabbling. In 1936 however the first real steps were taken to reducing the effects of the depression. This is when taxes were raised substantially and social program funding was cut. People didn’t like these changes however and the people elected a new government the same year. This government was largely left wing and implemented changes like a 40 hour work week, and paid holidays. There was then a third government that gave more power to employers in order to stimulate economic growth. All these policies meant that france was in an ok position and gaining jobs when world war two hit.

German Response: The Great Depression Decimated Germany. The payments that they had to make to allied countries had already crippled the German economy, and so when the Depression hit, it made things even harder for german companies. Despite this however, Germany was the first major country to get out of the Great depression. Hitler oversaw the building of massive infrastructure projects, like dams, railroads, and the Autobahn. The largest reason Germany got out however, was the massive expansion and rearmament of its military. As a result of this, the average work week for a german was around 50 hours per week. This all allowed Germany to launch massive attacks in the second world war.

American Response: The American response to the great depression was the most well know and the most successful given that there was no increased militarization. FDR’s policies were called the “New Deal”. Rather than decrease the size of government like other countries did, Roosevelt decided to drastically expand government in order to create jobs, while fulfilling a liberal agenda. In his first 100 days he created the AAA, CCC, PWA, TVA, FDIC, and the SEC. These departments created jobs for the American Public. In 1936 he then created social security to provide benefits to the elderly. He then allowed Britain and France to buy weapons from the US in order to increase production jobs. Overall the US positioned itself very well to recover from the depression and was able to leap into world war two and help push back germany and japan.

Liberal Policies: When the depression hit in 1929 Mackenzie king didn’t think much about it. His opinion was that the stock market would fix itself and the crisis would be over. He was Wrong. The depression only got worse and king was voted out in 1930, only to be relected in 1936. During this time King reduced Federal Spending, reduced taxed on the middle class, and subsidised the housing market.

Conservative Policies: The conservative government was elected in 1930 and decided to increase government involvement in the economy. He expanded social programs in 1931, but scaled them back in 1932 when the government budget ran a deficit. He then tried to implement worker reforms but was unsuccessful due to multiple lawsuits. He was kicked out of office in 1935.

The Lead up to world war two involved the escape of the great depression and the invasion of other countries by germany. Canada was originally in support of appeasing Germany by letting them take over countries like czechoslovakia but eventually the world had enough and went to war following an invasion of Poland.

World War 2 started because of the Nazi Invasion of Poland. Germany then drafted plans for an invasion of Norway, which were enacted on april 1st 1940, and invaded the Netherlands and Belgium. German armies then marched through the Ardennes forest to invade France in the same year. During this time, Prime Minister Winston Churchill was elected by parliament and formed a coalition government. The Invasion of France caught the allies by surprise and pushed them back to the french city of dunkirk. Hitler decided to gloat in this victory and waited to kill the forces at dunkirk. During this time however all allied forces were evacuated from the beach and not a single soldier was killed in dunkirk. A little after this Mussolini also declared war on Britain and France. The beginning of the end for Germany however was when they decided in june 1941 to invade the USSR.

The invasion of the USSR initially caught Soviet leadership by surprise and the German Armies progressed to within 40 km of the Soviet capital. However Germany made a crucial mistake in under preparing their soldiers for the Russian Winter. Come spring Stalin and his armies pushed forward against the Nazi Force and began to make progress into western Europe. Another Big Break for the allies was the bombing of pearl harbour in hawaii by Japan. This incident brought the US into the war and added a new contender to the war that would support the allies directly instead of indirectly. The allies then invaded sicily which resulted in the overthrow of mussolini and the joining of Italy to the allies. Then in 1944 “D-Day” Occured, during which 150,000 troops landed on the beaches of normandy and managed to give an allied foothold in the region.

The end of world war two was caused by three major mistakes on the part of the axis powers against their three main foes. The first mistake was dunkirk. Hitler’s Hesitation to kill the troops at Dunkirk allowed Britain to evacuate their forces before british attack. This later comprised a large part of the invasion of Normandy on D-Day. The Second Mistake, was not equipping his soldiers with winter provisions in russia. While fighting continued through the winter many german soldiers died of hypothermia rather than bullets. This allowed Stalin’s armies to regroup and push into nazi territory. The Third and most devastating mistake was Japan’s Bombing of Pearl Harbor. The Bombing of Pearl Harbour pushed America into the war and arguably is the reason it ended. The invasion of Normandy would not have been nearly as effective without US troops and would have put less strain. On German forces that could have been used to defend against russia. And finally the US not being in the war would have let japan continue expanding and would have prevented the dropping of atomic bombs.

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