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CAUSES OF THE SECOND WORLD WAR
- Versailles Peace Treaty (1919):
- Harsh punishment on Germany (territorial losses, reparations, disarmament).
- Germany, Italy sought revenge and expansion.
- Weakness of the League of Nations:
- Failed to prevent aggression (Japan in Manchuria 1931, Italy in Abyssinia 1935, Germany’s rearmament).
- Lacked authority and key members like the USA.
- Rise of Dictators and Aggressive Alliances:
- Hitler (Germany) and Mussolini (Italy) formed the Rome-Berlin Axis (1936) and Pact of Steel (1939).
- Appeasement Policy by Britain and France:
- Allowed aggression to avoid war (e.g., rearmament, Rhineland, Anschluss with Austria, Sudetenland, Czechoslovakia).
- Failed to stop Hitler’s ambitions.
- Failure of the Disarmament Conference (1933):
- Germany left and began rearming.
- Britain and France failed to ally with Russia:
- Distrust of Communism led Stalin to sign the Nazi-Soviet Pact (1939), which enabled the invasion of Poland.
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