Leading Up To World War II
After World War I came to an end, it was inevitable that the world would be thrown into another world war soon due to the treatment of Germany. The French being the most adamant about punishing Germany for their part in WWI was the most aggressive in determining their fate. Part of this animosity stems also from the way Germany treated France after the end of the Franco-Prussian war in 1870. France, the losing party, was essentially devastated. Germany gained control of the territories Alsace and Lorraine as part of the settlement, something that turned the French into bitter enemies to the Germans. One of the first things decided after WWI was the negotiation of returning these two territories to France. France was also obligated to repay an exorbitant amount of money to Germany to be paid in full in a very short period of time. All of these, as stated before, essentially cause France to take revenge upon Germany following the end of WWI. Germany was devastated and forced to repay their own lump sum of money. If Europe, more specifically France and Great Britain, had taken a less aggressive punishment to Germany and instead followed the essential guidelines of the Hoover Moratorium and treating Germany with a semblance of mercy, perhaps WWII could have been prevented. This in itself is doubtful, however. The animosity between the major European powers was so tangible, either way, there was going to be another war.
Read more about this topic: Hoover Moratorium
Famous quotes containing the words leading, world and/or war:
“There are people who are so presumptuous that they know no other way to praise a greatness that they publicly admire than by representing it as a preliminary stage and bridge leading to themselves.”
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900)
“However backwards the world has been in former ages in the discovery of such points as GOD never meant us to know,—we have been more successful in our own days:Mthousands can trace out now the impressions of this divine intercourse in themselves, from the first moment they received it, and with such distinct intelligence of its progress and workings, as to require no evidence of its truth.”
—Laurence Sterne (1713–1768)
“That is what war is and dancing it is forward and back, when one is out walking one wants not to go back the way they came but in dancing and in war it is forward and back.”
—Gertrude Stein (1874–1946)