World War II Leaders

World War II Leaders — page 7
A POWDER KEG WORLD By 1939 global politics was chaotic It was akin to a powder keg with several slowly burning fuses attached At any moment one of these fuses could cause it to explode into war The leaders of the world's most powerful nations saw a new world war on the horizon One contributing factor to the war was the Treaty of Versailles which had ended World War I 1914-1918 This treaty had harshly punished Germany for its role in the war barring it from building up another strong military Historian A. J. P. Taylor later noted that the treaty's weakness was that it did not include any way for its provisions to be enforced Instead it relied on German cooperation Once Hitler became the leader of Germany in 1933 that cooperation stopped Hitler with his vision of Lebensraum or living space for Germany tried to build a massive German empire In March 1938 he annexed neighboring Austria TREATY OF VERSAILLES Some historians believe the Treaty of Versailles which ended World War I was a major contributing factor to World War II Among its provisions was the removal of German territories including the port city of Danzig and the area of Alsace Lorraine It also cut the German army to 100,000 soldiers reduced the German navy to 36 ships and no submarines and banned Germany from possessing an air force The treaty required Germany to accept total blame for the war and to pay large sums of money in reparations German public opinion was against the treaty Political groups including the fascist nationalist Nazis rose to prominence by denouncing the treaty 10