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Causes of World War II

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There are many reasons why the world was plunged into World War II but the main reasons were aggressive actions by Japan, Italy and the German Nazis wanting to rule all of Europe. To deal with a weakened nation after the affects of World War I, The League of Nations was established to provide collective security for decision making and collective actions. Also British Prime Minister Chamberlain established a policy of appeasement to effectively respond to aggression which at the time was considered to be the best way to deal with Hitler as well as preventing any acts of war. Britain and France were big supporters of appeasement and collective security although through all of their efforts, war was inevitable. The world was plunged into World War II for trying to appease Hitler who tried to take over the world, the League of Nations, and the Munich Conference. "Also the appeasers feared that the defeat of Germany would be followed by a Russian domination over much of Europe" (Doc 8). This proves that although Hitler wanted all of Europe under his control other nations were to be watched as well. Since Russia (now the Soviet Union) was under the allies' power, Europe's domination wouldn't seem so bad but then civil wars broke out ending peace. Hitler did nothing big to start a European war, he just took nations one by one. According to author A.J.P. Taylor, appeasement was the logical policy during WWII because it was Britain and France's attempt to keep Hitler happy to prevent war at the same time undermining the League of Nations by not signing an alliance in 1939 against the Nazis. "In 1961 this view of appeasement as avoidable error and cowardice was set on its head by A.J.P. Taylor in his book The Origins of the Second World War. Taylor argued that Hitler did not have a blueprint for war and was behaving much as any other German leader might have done. Appeasement was an active policy, and not a passive one; allowing Hitler

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