World War II

World War II

World War II was a very devastating war that stretched around the world. The

Treaty of Versailles, tension between other countries, and Hitler's politics were some of

the sparks that triggered the beginning of everything. How could those things start such

a massive war? A lot of people lost their lives throughout this time, many of them were

just innocent people. This was only the beginning of what was to come.

President Wilson, who was the president of the United States at the time,

stated some of his opinions in his Fourteen Point Address. He wanted to punish

Germany economically, but not harshly, and he wanted to leave enough for them to pay

their debt. Premier George Clemenceau of France wanted to take almost all of

Germany's money, land, military, and weapons. He also wanted Germany to join the

League of Nations to prevent future wars. The Allies weren't very supportive of the

president's ideas. President Wilson knew he had to compromise.

At the end of World War I, the Treaty of Versailles was forced upon Germany

and went into affect. This treaty required Germany to change the boundaries of their

country and some places that were acquired during that period of time. Germany also

had to pay countries that they attacked for all of the damage. Germany also ended up

giving the Allies coal, livestock, timber, ships, and other things that were a huge part of

Germany's main economic support. Everything went downhill from there. Germany was

thrown into a deep depression, and their economy almost collapsed several times.

Millions of people lost their jobs and became very angry with the treaty. They looked for

anyone who could help them out, all the people needed to hear was that they could

regain land and money. Surprisingly, Germany wasn't the only country opposed to the

Treaty of Versailles.

Italy and Japan weren't too fond of this treaty either! Japan went into a

Depression just like Germany, that forced them to get aggressive, especially with China

at first, and take land. Italy thought they didn't get enough from the treaty, and were very

unhappy. Benito Mussolini came to power by appealing to the resentment of the Italians

who thought they didn't gain enough in the Treaty of Versailles. Mussolini's power was

then heightened, and he was pretty much in control at the time. He also made fascism,

extreme racism, popular. All girls and boys were enrolled in military organizations to

teach loyalty. He was so cruel to other countries later on into the war that he made

Ethiopian emperor Haile Selassie go to the League of Nations, and plead help: "God

and history will remember your judgement. It is us today. It will be you tomorrow."

A number of ruthless men rose to power during this time, it was so simple! You

only had to be a great public speaker who knew how to say things that people wanted to

hear! Adolf Hitler was that type of man, and that is how his popularity started to rise.

People started to rally around him, he was a shrewd politician and a spellbinding

speaker. Hitler gained popularity by exploiting concern about inflation and

unemployment. Adolf also spoke to people about the bitterness towards the Treaty of

Versailles. In 1921, Hitler became chairman of the National Socialist German Workers'

Party, or the Nazi Party. He was a very openly racist man, and he portrayed German

people as superior to all other people. The Nazis, along with Hitler, directed much of

their anger towards the Jews, and blamed them for all of their problems. Nazis

boycotted all Jewish shops. His extreme anti-Semitism, or hatred of Jews, later led to

unspeakable tragedies. Soon after he became the chancellor of Germany in 1933, he

established a totalitarian rule, that means that a single party and its leader suppress all

opposition and control everything in people's lives. Hitler claimed that Germany had the

right to expand their territory. The country needed more living space, or "lebensraum" as

he would say. Germany's neighbors watched in horror as Hitler swiftly built up military

strength and rebellion towards the Treat of Versailles. He also withdraws from the

League of Nations. To gain support of his plans to expand Germany's land, he joined an

alliance with Italy. Japan later joined forces with them to form the Axis powers.

In the late 1920s, Joseph Stalin rose to power as the Communist leader of the

Soviet Union. He demanded complete obedience from everybody, no exceptions, he

obtained most of his obedience through force. Stalin executed his rivals, ordered death

of thousands of people that were suspected to be, or supporting rivals, and he sent

millions of Russian's to cruel labor camps. Stalin also reorganized the nation's