ESSAY

World War Two was the bloodiest war in recent history, but how did the
international community back then reach this far in the extremes? We will
assess in this paper the underlying causes of World War Two. This means
going further than describing which country attacked which and understanding
that the start of World War Two was not an independent set of causes but
instead an interlinked snowball effect.
In the 20s, speculation on Wall Street led to the creation of an economic
bubble, that crashed in 1929. This crash had unspeakable consequences on the
USA economy, that are very well displayed in the novel “Of Mice and Men”, by
John Steinbeck. Families were pushed on the road to find work, as they could
not afford to house any more. After World War One, one of the few countries
that were spared from the trench war on their territory was the United States of
America. This, and the fact that they joined the war late compared to other
great powers, means that they actually had resources at the end of the war,
making them the creditors of the entire Europe for reconstruction. However,
because of the 1929 crash, the USA withdrew all of their funds to their country
to fuel their economy. This meant that other countries like France who
functioned on these funds were left with nothing, importing the 1929 crash in
Europe. This led to tighter restrictions on the Weimar Republic, who was
already suffering from the 1929 crash and the Treaty of Versailles, called diktat
by the German because they considered it as unfair since they had not even
started the war. To compensate for the lack of money, the Weimar Republic
began to print more money, wishing to create wealth from thin air. This idea
failed miserably, and worsened the state of the economy by creating further
inflation. To address these issues, many parties proposed ideas but ultimately,
in 1933, Adolph Hitler, the leader of the NSDAP, was appointed as Chancellor.
One of the major ideas of the NSDAP's campaign was “Arbeit und Brot” which
translates into English by “Work and Bread”. This populism was fundamentally
promoting a fix for the economy, whilst playing on the fear of the other. After he
was elected, Adolph Hitler effectively gave work and bread to his country: by
ignoring the Versailles Treaty and producing armament, by creating a network
of highways etc. However, this came at the cost of a certain part of the German
population. A similar situation was achieved by Mussolini in fascist Italy: by
controlling the means of production, he could provide jobs to his population.

ESSAY 1
 The political instability that characterized the period 1929-1939 manifested
differently across countries. In Germany, the Reichstag fire in 1933 was
exploited to legitimize a state of crisis, enabling the passage of discriminatory
laws and the persecution of political opponents. Through the Nuremberg Laws,
the NSDAP and Hitler implemented their antisemitic ideology. Presented as
racial purity and general safety measures, these laws criminalized the Jewish
community, confining them to ghettos and encouraging their discrimination.
Jewish families were stripped of their possessions, which were redistributed to
"true German families," causing a massive exodus to neighboring countries. In
Italy, Mussolini consolidated his power by gradually eliminating all opposition.
The fascist regime implemented a strict corporatist system, controlling all
aspects of Italian society.
The compliance of major democratic powers with totalitarian regimes
between 1929 and 1939 was shown in their handling of smaller nations. The
Munich Agreement of 1938 stands as a prime example, where Britain and
France effectively sacrificed Czechoslovakia to Nazi Germany in an attempt to
maintain peace. This policy of appeasement, promoted by British Prime
Minister Chamberlain, demonstrated how larger democracies were willing to
sacrifice the sovereignty of smaller nations to avoid direct confrontation with
aggressive totalitarian states and thus the beginning of a new war. In the same
idea, the way the democratic powers handled Italy’s invasion of Ethiopia further
illustrated the pattern. The League of Nations' ineffective sanctions against Italy
and the general nonchalance of democratic powers to intervene demonstrated
this idea of sacrifice. These actions made totalitarian regimes limitless, showing
them that aggressive expansion would face limited resistance from democratic
powers. The annexation of Austria in 1938 finalized this pattern. Despite the
clear violation of the Treaty of Versailles, democratic powers chose not to
intervene, effectively abandoning another smaller nation to totalitarian
expansion. This series of concessions to totalitarian regimes created a
dangerous precedent, suggesting that aggressive territorial expansion would
be met with diplomatic negotiations rather than firm resistance, effectively
starting the war.
Therefore, the 1929 crash and the Treaty of Versailles created the perfect
situation for the far right and the populism to grow, giving them a legitimacy.
From this legitimacy, the far right began to expand their power, and when they
reached all the power they could attain within their country, they began to
reach out for more countries to control, regardless of the consequences. So
while it is true that the 1929 crash was one of the causes of World War Two, it

ESSAY 2
 is what the crash caused that caused World War Two. Furthermore, the
democratic powers, by complying with the expansionism ideals of the different
totalitarianism, created a proper atmosphere for the War to begin.

ESSAY 3