Why did France and Britain let Germany violate the Treaty of Versailles after WWI?
There was very, very little appetite for war in France and Great Britain following the First World War. Although the First World War has generally been overshadowed by the Second World War in the public imagination, WWI was a massive conflict. The British lost roughly 890,000 soldiers, the French lost about 1.4 million soldiers - by contrast, the French saw 218,000 soldiers killed in WWII and the British lost 384,000. The fight also tore up massive sections of northern France, doing considerable damage to France's industrial capacity, to the point where at the end of WWI, the victory memorabilia sold in Paris had been made in Germany.Additionally, by the 1930's, the terms of the Versailles Treaty were increasingly coming under scrutiny. The hyperinflation of the Papiermark in the Weimar Republic had led to restructuring of the reparations payments, which opened the door to renegotiating other sections of Versailles.Having said that, in general, France did oppose the German violations of the treaty, albeit in pretty toothless ways. The remilitarization of the Rhineland caused a firestorm of protest from France and the French had initially not been of a mind to allow the German annexation of the Sudetenland. However, the French were not willing to engage in military operations without the backing of the British. In the case of the former incident, the British mostly thought it was perfectly acceptable for the German army to go anywhere in Germany it liked, in the case of the latter, the ethnic German majority in the Sudetenland made it seem like a matter of ethnic self-determination.It's also worth keeping in mind that France and the UK were still very much in the grips of the Great Depression at the time, and were more concerned with getting out of it than in what happened in central Europe. Voters in the two countries wanted jobs, not foreign policy exercises.Last, Nazi Germany was viewed as a potential bulwark against the expansion of communism from the Soviet Union. The West had backed the Whites in the Russian Civil War, and that was something of a high point for relations between the West and the Bolsheviks until Operation Barbarossa. The Soviet Union had proven to have expansionist goals - the Polish-Soviet War of 1919-1921 had done that - and the French and British wanted an ally for when the crap hit the fan. Germany was potentially a credible (edit) bulwark, so some leeway was given.
Why didn't countries stop Hitler sooner?
I’m going to get a lot of downvotes for this since it doesn’t conform to what people think they know, but here I go anyway.By the mid-1930s, it was clear that there was going to be another war. Stalin attempted to assemble an anti-fascist coalition consisting of the USSR, France and Great Britain but all to no avail. He moderated the Soviet Union’s military support for the Republicans in the Spanish Civil War and later signed up to the pact of non-intervention in the Spanish Civil War all in the vain hopes that Britain and France could be persuaded. The British and French were, however, not at all convinced - the ruling elites in both countries viewed Soviet socialism as a greater evil than fascism since it abolished private capital and cared very little about Hitler’s anti-Semitic rhetoric. Neither Britain, nor France nor indeed the US viewed anti-Semitism as morally wrong - the US ambassador to Germany famously told Hitler that the US had similar problems with too many Jews in universities and public life and he ought to seek to limit their influence without going too far. In the end, once it became clear there would be no united front against the Germany-Italy axis, Stalin was forced to play for time and signed the Molotov-Ribentropp pact.If you’re curious, this is all verifiable to the extent that a counterfactual can be. I’m sure the Dodd comments to Hitler are cited somewhere on Wikipedia and Setanta once made a great documentary about the Spanish Civil War that’s available on youtube and goes into a lot of detail on the interplay between foreign powers and their reasons for action and inaction in the conflict.
Does Germany deserve all of the blame for world war?
Most answers so far are unbalanced. At the least, one must distinguish between WWI and WWII, and within WWII between Japan and Germany.Germany does not deserve principal blame for WWI. There is good consensus among historians that WWI was ignited by a relatively small incident (the assassination in Sarajevo) but grew into a major conflagration because the major powers were drawn in by their alliances. It is also true that nationalism and militarism had been on the rise for a couple of decades, and there were contested regions including Alsace-Lorraine (France-Germany) and the Balkans (Russia-Austria) .Japan started WWII in 1937 with their second wave of aggression against China after invading Manchuria in 1931. That was independent of Germany. Hitler would have preferred an alliance with Great Britain than with Japan.On the other hand, it is absurd or naive to think that Hitler would not have attacked Poland had the other Europeans not appeased him when he conquered and annexed Czechoslovakia, and it is also a lie — a clever Nazi lie with a germ of truth — that Hitler attacked Poland and previously the Sudetenland for the purpose of liberating ethnic Germans who lived there. Among other things, Poland had more Jews than any other European country, and Hitler was determined to get rid of all the Jews.Hence, the Nazis deserve principal blame for WWII in Europe. However, if you go deeper and ask why the Nazis took control of Germany, you must put considerable blame on the Versailles treaty. Germany’s economy was devastated by WWI and the resulting treaty’s reparations and other conditions. I have postage stamps from the 1920s that are overprinted from 10 German marks to a million German marks. Can you imagine a country where almost everyone’s savings have been completely wiped out? Americans have never experienced such desperation. The crash and bank failures in the U.S. that started the Great Depression were minor problems in comparison.
You are the leader of France, 1939. How do you end the war by 1941?
France, contrary to what the other answers say, could have easily stomped on Germany in 1939. Specifically, in September of 1939, when Germany invaded Poland.Germany had roughly 100 divisions in 1939. Of these 100, 60 were involved in the attack on Poland - and these were the more modern, better equipped divisions. Germany did not expect Britain or France to declare war, and for good reason - Germany had spent the last 6 years trampling over the provisions of the Versailles treaty with absolutely no repercussions. They had re-militarized the Rhineland, re-armed, and had annexed two countries - the modern day Czech Republic, and Austria. Hitler was in fact stunned after receiving the news of the Anglo-French declaration of war.France also had around 100 divisions, but by September of 1939, they weren’t mobilized. Start mobilizing for war a few weeks earlier and that problem is solved. Even discounting 40 divisions for various purposes (Maginot line, some divisions did not have arms etc) that leaves 60 divisions to attack Germany. In contrast to France’s downright pathetic invasion of the Saar in early September, this French assault would have, if not defeated Germany, severely crippled it. Even merely seizing the Saarland and other industrial areas, and then proceeding to dig in, would have huge repercussions for Germany - their war production would be too crippled for even the Soviets to make up (through aid shipments) and Germany would have been stagnant from there.Sure, France was rigid in subscribing to WW1 era tactics, but they could have quickly adapted if you put someone like De Gaulle in charge. Not to mention, I have not discussed the mighty British Empire. English divisions would help even more. Lastly, Germany’s defense in the west was weak - 20 or so divisions of relatively low quality.To conclude, just be more aggressive. Get out of the lethargic mindset that French leaders were in by 1939 and realize the threat Hitler poses. Exploiting the opening in the west would have gone a long way for ending the war by 1941.
What was the main cause of world War II? see details?
World War II had six major causes: anger over the Versailles Treaty, the failure of the peace efforts after World War I, the rise of Fascism, the goals of Hitler, the isolationism by America and Britian, and the re-armament of Europe.