World War I When The Treaty Of Versailles - 1888 Words

After the conclusion of World War I when the Treaty of Versailles was signed, the seeds were planted that led to the beginning of World War II. The immediate cause for the beginning of the second war was popularly considered to be the German army’s invasion of Poland. As the leader of the Nazi party, one of Hitler’s key goals was to be the domination of Europe, which he aimed to take by force. France and Britain had warned Germany in 1939 that invading Poland would lead to a declaration of war, so when Hitler invaded Poland in September 1939, war broke out in Europe. This resulted in a violent war that lasted for several years and resulted in the loss of several soldier as well as civilian lives. The Second World War was a devastating war†¦show more content†¦The intention when the plan was introduced was that all countries would join the League and thus all international disputes would be settled by negotiation as opposed to being settled by war (Breuer, 286). If this plan were to fail then the other nations would have to stop trading with the country breaking the agreement and if that failed, the other countries would be forced to then use their armies to fight. The diplomatic philosophy behind the League of Nations represented a shift in thought from the preceding century, where an agreement such as this one would be unlikely to be agreed upon. The older philosophy, coming from the Congress of Vienna, had led to the continent of Europe being a shifting map of alliances among several nation-states, creating a balance of power that was maintained by aligned armies and secret treaties. Under this newly introduced philosophy, the League was to be a government of governments, with the established role of settling disputes between individual nations. Although the idea for the founding of the League came from U.S. President Wilson, the United States never joined (Breuer, 288). This lessened the power and credibility of the League, although t he addition of an industrial and military world power would have added more, later necessary, force behind the League s demands and requests. Also, because the League lacked an armed force of it depended on the members to