What Caused WWII?
by Bhuvana on June 28, 2009
Hey guys!
So we heard the Norman Leach presentation today, and he talked about how the Treaty of Versailles was considered to be ‘the first shot fired’ in WWII. To recap, basically, according to the terms of the Treaty of Versailles, which was the peace agreement signed to end WWI, Germany was forced to make harsh reparation payments to Britain and France. This happened largely because there was an intent during the signing of the Treaty to crush Germany, particularly on the part of France, so that it could never be a great power to threaten them militarily. The roots of this resentment stretched all the way back to the Franco-Prussian War in the 19th century, where France lost the province of Alsace-Lorraine, and the states of Prussia (which would later unify to become Germany) won this war and asserted their military might against France. So, France had a vested interest in ensuring that Germany would never again be able to attack them as it had done previously – especially since France shared a border with Germany. So, all in all, the Treaty of Versailles forced some pretty hefty burdens on the Germans through the “War Guilt Clause”, where the Germans were blamed for starting WWI (which they found unfair, since the conflict had itself started with Austria-Hungary and Serbia).
John Maynard Keynes was a famous economist who accompanied Woodrow Wilson, the American president of the day, to the meeting that discussed the terms of the Treaty of Versailles. He said – unheededly, of course – that if the Allies pushed this crippling economic burden upon the Germans, then there would certainly be a second world war. He was correct – or was he?
The work of a (relatively obscure) French economist, Etienne Mantoux, suggests that Keynes was actually incorrect – that he had anticipated some economic downturns in the prices of commodities that never actually happened. In fact, reasoned Mantoux, Germany was able to make the reparation payments – it just ended up not wanting to. English historian A. J. P. Taylor brought Mantoux’s work into more mainstream historiography, and used it for his theories. He suggested that the poor economic conditions in Germany were partially manufactured by the government in the case of, for example, the Ruhr Valley strike, during which German workers were paid without doing any work, as the government attempted to passively resist France and the terms of the Treaty of Versailles. As well, the printing of additional money led to runaway inflation, which was also used by Taylor as evidence. His conclusion? The Treaty of Versailles did contribute to WWII. But not because it crippled Germany too much – because it crippled Germany without making it totally unable to reemerge as a military power.
Sorry guys, I know that this has a lot of random details, and you may be confused. Drop a comment, and I’d love to answer your questions, or comment upon your ideas! =)
P.S. My mother was getting angry that I’d stayed up so late, but I had another post planned for tonight that I may or may not get to…
P.P.S. I forgot about listing sources. Hm. This is tough, because I gathered most of the stuff previously, and I’m using my notes about interesting details to come up with it. Most of this is from A. J. P. Taylor’s book The Origins of the Second World War, which was written in the early 1960s.
P.P.P.S. A. J. P. Taylor had a famous feud with a fellow historian, Hugh Trevor-Roper. The following story is entirely from Wikipedia, so trust it with discretion … Taylor’s books contained many radical ideas that made him quite controversial as a historian. In one exchange, Trevor-Roper told him, “I’m afraid that your book The Origins of the Second World War may damage your reputation as a historian.” Taylor replied, “Your criticism of me would damage your reputation as a historian, if you had one.”