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World War II began on the last night of August, 1939, with a staged attack on a German radio station by German operatives wearing Polish uniforms. But there were numerous incidents that led to that act. Leonard Mosley does a superb job of recounting many of them in his book “On Borrowed Time“, going back to British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain’s “capitulation” at Munich a year before. He contends that, once Chamberlain turned his back on Czechoslavakia, Hitler’s path to armed conflict was wide open.
Others suggest the fuses were lit much earlier. They believe that world’s bloodiest conflict became an inevitability almost as soon as “the War to end all wars” had finished. On June 28, 1919, the Treaty of Versailles was signed, and the ink of those signatures was, in all probability, what watered the seeds of the next global bloodbath.
Woodrow Wilson arrived in France with Fourteen Points, the concept for a League of Nations, and a desire to create a lasting peace. Other countries, such as France, brought a desire for retribution, revenge, and territorial acquisition. And it’s easy to see why. The French countryside had been the primary theater of war throughtout, and it had become a wasteland. Nearly 1.5 million French soldiers…an entire generation…had been wiped from existence. France’s economy was a mess. As a victor in the war, they expected compensation, as did her allies, who had also paid dearly in blood.
And so, despite Wilson’s good intentions, he was pretty much helpless to stop the steamroller that ran over the Germans. The Treaty declared them solely responsible for World War I, it made them liable for billions of dollars in damages, it castrated their military, and carved up their country. I’m not necessarily trying to make Germany out to be the wronged party, nor to generate a bunch of sympathy for them…they were the primary belligerent in the war, and they lost. To some degree, they were going to pay.
But still, the Treaty did bring about the destruction of Germany’s economy, it caused intense bitterness in the German populace as well as incredible hardship, and it set up a bunch of very stiff restrictions, all of which begged for a brazen leader to come along and undo. Stir in a little Great Depression, sprinkle on some weak Weimar governments, add a dash of weakness from surrounding countries, and top with a heaping helping of Hitlerian ambition, and the recipe for war was complete.
It was the Treaty of Versailles that provided the conditions necessary for World War II.
Recommended Reading: A Shattered Peace – Versailles 1919 and the Price We Pay Today – It was pretty cool to have Andelman respond to Today’s History Lesson and recommend his book. It’s at least as cool that, after reading it, I can recommend it to you. In his work, you’ll discover that WWII was a “short-term” consequence of Versailles, and we’re still seeing the fallout of that Treaty today.
