Germany history essay

Following World War One, France was reluctant to get into another fight.

They had a severe drop in population due to the loss of so many solders, and France did not want to have to pay for another War. Slowly, Hitler organized his army and the country for a chance at revenge. There were many times when the French could have stepped in and stopped Germany, but they chose to show appeasement until Germany became too powerful for them to control.

World War Two took place because Germany had a strong leader, built their army up, and France and England did not step in to stop Germany until it was too late. When Germany was defeated in WWI, they needed a new leader to help get them back on their feet. The country was divided into many parties and though most Germans did not support the Nazis, they still had the majority of the minorities” votes; reigning over 30 – 33% of all the votes. In 1933, Adolf Hitler was elected Fuhrer of Germany. After becoming leader, Hitler started to imprison or murder the leaders of the other parties in Germany, and suspended all further elections. Being an Austrian native, Hitler felt that the land that was taken away from Germany and given to other countries, including the country he grew up in, still belonged to Germany. A great strategy of Hitler’s was to slowly build the army up and take back land a little at a time. Instead of forcing all of this to happen within a year or two, Hitler patiently did one task at a time, so France would not think much of the changes.

The Treaty of Versailles said that Germany was to reduce their army to 100, 000 men and no more. This gave a great advantage to France, because they had the largest army in the world up to 1938, when Germany surpassed them. After Hitler was elected, he started to build up his army. France could have easily stepped in and forced Germany’s army to reduce, but they chose to show appeasement and allow Germany to break the treaty. They continued to stay out of the conflict for fear of another war. After building up the army, Hitler started to use them to conquer land that was taken away from Germany in the Treaty of Versailles. Such land was in France, Austria, Czechoslovakia, and Poland.

Germany took control of Austria in 1938, and once again, France chose to do nothing to stop them. When Germany marched into France to reclaim the land as their own, France could not put up much of a fight because they had allowed Germany to become too strong. France was beaten in only six weeks. They surrendered before Paris was invaded and destroyed. England, France, and Italy decided that if it was land that Germany wanted, they would give it to them to make them happy, and perhaps, Germany would want nothing more than the land the once owned. The three countries surrendered the rest of Czechoslovakia to Germany as an attempt for peace.

On September 1, 1939, though enemies, Germany and the Soviet Union joined forces and invaded Poland. They had the agreement that they would split the country 50-50. After Poland’s invasion, France and England declared war on Germany, but Germany had already become too strong, and impossible for them to beat with out help.