Question

With reference to the Two Major World Wars in the 20th century, answer the following questions:
State any four causes that led to the Second World War.

Answer 1

World War Two began in September 1939 when Britain and France declared war on Germany following Germany’s invasion of Poland. Some of the causes that led to the war were as follows:-

• The inability of the League of Nations to deal with major international issues and failure as an international peacekeeping organization.
• Fascism was on the rise in Italy. The people of Italy found fascism a very attractive ideology because it promised to them a glorious future. Italy under Mussolini began making attempts to expand its power and secure new territories.
• A large number of defence and security pacts, secret as well as public, were concluded by most of the European states. Such security pacts, however, proved to be counterproductive in as much as these strengthened the sense of insecurity and mutual distrust among the nations.
• The peace settlement made by Treaty of Versailles (1919) was faulty and contained the germs of the Second World War. Both the manner in which the treaty was concluded as well as the specific provisions that it contained led the defeated nations, particularly Germany, to feel humiliated as a forcibly suppressed nation.