Changes

The Treaty of Versailles, that ended the first world war, is perhaps the most controversial peace treaty in history; ‘many have judged it to be too harsh and others have judged it to be not harsh enough.’<ref>Bell, p.77.</ref> Germany and the other defeated Central powers lost territory, had their military forces limited and were obliged to pay reparations. Germany was especially treated harshly. The German public was outraged when the Treaty’s terms were publicized because they believed that Germany had neither started the war nor been decisively defeated on the battlefield. The Treaty was treated Germany as if had been conquered and they felt that was both their country unfairly and inaccurate. Germany lost about one-fifth of its territory as a result of the Treaty. Overnight millions of Germans became citizens of other countries, such as Poland. The Treaty legally limited the size and scope of the German armed forces which was intended to prevent that the country from starting another war. The Nazis National Socialists benefitted from the harsh terms of the Treaty of Versailles helped the rise of the Nazis and it Party . It allowed them to not only justify their aggressive policies but portray Germany as the true victim of the Great War.<ref>Bell, p. 144.</ref>

In the 1930s, Europe was a divided continent. There were still bitter disputes over borders. The Treaty of Versailles had redrawn the border of Europe but it seemed to have satisfied no one.<ref> Finney, Patrick. ''The Origins of the Second World War''. Penguin Books: Hamondsworth, p. 48.</ref> These ongoing disputes meant that the political class still regularly used nationalism to retain power. There were almost no functioning democracies in Europe at this time and there were many military dictatorships. The continent was also divided between the left and the right. Almost every society was internally divided between communists and socialists and those who opposed them.<ref>Finney, p. 57.</ref> Then in many countries fascism had made great strides often because of a fear of communism. Europe was unstable and it seemed likely that the continent would descend into another conflict. This was to occur in 1939 and it was caused by the ambitions of the Nazi National Socialist government in Germany and its extreme ideology.

The National Socialist ideology was premised on the idea that the German people were ‘the master race’ and they were biologically superior to other people. It was genuinely believed that Germans were physically mentally and morally superior to races such as the Slavs in Eastern Europe. This led to the belief that the German people should dominate the other races in Europe. The party’s leader preached that other races such as the Jews were determined to prevent the German people from achieving their destiny.<ref> Paxton, Robert (2005). ''The Anatomy of Fascism''. London: Penguin Books Ltd., p 123</ref>  Their ideology also demanded that all Germans live in a German state and they wanted all non-Germans expelled from Germany. The Nazi National Socialists believed that the German people had the right to ‘living space’ in order to create a great nation. The Nazi’s saw international relations as a struggle for power and that only the strongest nations would survive. As a result, they rejected all forms of international law and ignored the League of Nations, the precursor of the United Nations. Their ideology, under reflecting a perverse and distorted version of the influence of beliefs advanced by the German philosopher Nietzsche, developed a moral code where strength was admirable and that might was always right. Because the National Socialist Party leaders’ worshiped power and strength they admired war and believed is was necessary for the good of the nation.<ref>Paxton, p. 117.</ref> Hitler firmly believed that his nation’s greatness would be determined by its military strength.