Cause and Effect
Where there are extreme politics, extreme conditions and circumstances are normally to blame. Fascism came into the forefront in the twentieth century because it rejected the democratic principles that were to blame for Europe’s economic and political decline after World War I. In Germany specifically, the harsh conditions of the Treaty of Versailles, which demanded heavy reparations from Germany because of World War I, caused hyper-inflation of German currency in the early 1920s and, later, as a result of the Great Depression, deflation. This economic instability ultimately gave Hitler his political power.
This series of economic issues led to Germany becoming renowned for its decadence. Prostitution, gambling, drug addiction, and homosexuality festered underground, and Berlin, specifically, became a notable place for thrill-seekers to come and visit erotic venues. Sexually transmitted viruses like syphilis and gonorrhea became so widespread, they warranted government attention.
Nazi ideology was as much of a reactionary force to economic instability as it was to Germany’s moral decline.
The Treaty of Versailles
The peace treaty that ended World War I was the Treaty of Versailles. The Allied powers (Britain, France, Italy, Japan, and others) punished Germany for its role in World War I, by stripping Germany of previously Polish, French, and Danish territory it had come to own, and demanding 132 billion marks (worth about $33 billion at the time) in reparations. These reparations led to the German hyper-inflation of the 1920s. The Treaty of Versailles also restricted Germany's military capabilities: it was forbidden for the military to have submarines or an airforce, the navy was limited to only six battleships, and the army could have no more than 100,000 men.
The Treaty of Versailles was a hard blow to German pride and effectively crippled the nation economically, leading to the rise of nationalism in Nazi Germany. Adolf Hitler was able to capitalize on the German hatred of the Treaty of Versailles, calling it "the greatest villainy of the century" and the German politicians who reluctantly signed it "miserable and degenerate criminals" in his book Mein Kampf.
And so it had all been in vain. In vain all the sacrifices and privations; in vain the hours in which, with mortal fear clutching at our hearts, we nevertheless did our duty; and in vain the death of two millions who died. Each point of that Treaty could have been engraved on the minds and hearts of the German people and burned into them until sixty million men and women would find their souls aflame with a feeling of rage and shame... The Versailles Treaty is worthless. 60 million German hearts and minds are on fire with anger and shame. They will cry out 'We want war!'
— Adolf Hitler, Mein Kampf
The Cause of Pearl Harbor
Tensions between the United States and Japan grew seriously with the Japanese invasion of China in 1931. In response to the invasion, the US economically crippled Japan with trade embargoes and other economic sanctions. Most debilitating for Japan's economy was the oil embargo the US organized with Great Britain and the Netherlands, as 90% of Japan's oil was imported. Japan attempted negotiations with the United States for months concerning these embargoes but, with no solution, Japan decided to attack the US naval base in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii and declare war.
After the Japanese invasion of Chinese Manchuria, the United States feared Japan would expand even further and, along with Great Britain and France, provided loan assistance for war supply contracts in China. After France fell to Nazi Germany, Japan invaded French Indochina (French territory that now consists of parts of Cambodia, China, Laos, and Vietnam). In response, America halted shipment of airplanes, parts, machine tools, and gasoline to Japan. The Japanese viewed this act as an unfriendly provocation, paving the path to war.
The Japanese high military command believed that any attack on the UK's island colonies in the Pacific would bring the US into the war, so the military began planning for a preventive strike that would cripple the United States' navy. They chose to attack Pearl Harbor, the naval base that President Roosevelt moved the Pacific Fleet to in early 1941. Such an attack, the Japanese believed, would allow them to invade the Dutch East Indies, the Phillipines, and Malaysia all while the US attempted to recover.
The Munich Agreement
Tensions between Germany, Britain, and France escalated at the hands of appeasement, and were responsible for violations of the Treaty of Versailles that increased Hitler's power and, consequently, Nazi Germany's appetite for expansion.
The Munich Agreement was an accord that allowed Nazi Germany to annex areas of German-inhabitated Czechoslovakia that came to be known as the Sudetenland, and this tacit allowance of expansion was called appeasement. By 1936, Hitler had expanded the navy to 95 warships, airforce to 8,250 planes, and army to one million people. All of these actions were blatant breaches of the terms of the Treaty of Versailles, but Britain and France attempted to maintain peace through appeasement. In the end, however, appeasement actively played a role in escalating tensions between Britain, France, and Germany, and led to World War II.
The Consequences of World War II
World War II was the deadliest war in human history. It's estimated that up to 15 million people died in combat, and 45 million civilians died caught in the midst of war. Nearly 3% of the entire world's population were killed over a span of six years. Much of the world, specifically Europe and Japan, was economically, morally, and physically destroyed beyond recognition.
Following the defeat of the Nazis, Germany was divided into British, American, French, and Soviet occupation zones. Germany would remain divided between East and West until the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1989. Disagreements between American and Soviet occupied zones would spark conflict in Korea and Vietnam later.
With the economic and physical destruction of Europe and Japan, the world saw two sole superpowers emerge: the United States and the Soviet Union. Soon, tensions would escalate again, between the US and the Soviet Union, but all-out nuclear war would be avoided because of the doctrine of mutually assured destruction (MAD).
Replacing the ineffective League of Nations, the United Nations was formed in 1945 in the aftermath of World War II, in order to prevent another catastrophic war.
On May 14, 1948, the state of Israel was created. Israel was to serve as a Jewish state in order to provide a homeland for the Jewish people, to prevent another genocide from ever happening again.