The reason for WWII

Submitted by Michael S (United States), Jan 2, 2015 at 18:54

Hi, Baron

I see that you posted over a month ago, but I just saw this. You said,

"To put it another way, what was the deeper cause of World War II, and will it ever end?"

I don't know what you mean by "deeper". Deeper than what? than the invasion of Poland? than the Versailles Treaty of 1919?

In September, 1939, when the war officially began, the world was ruled by about a dozen great powers:

1. The US Empire
2. The British Empire
3. The French Empire
4. The Japanese Empire
5. The German "Third Reich"
6. The Dutch Empire
7. The Italian Empire
8. The Belgian Empire
9. The Spanish Empire
10. The Portugese Empire
11. The Soviet Union
12. China

Today, the United Nations has nearly 200 members, who are treated as though they are all equal. That was not the case in 1939. In those days, there were the Great Powers, plus a few relatively unimportant countries like Poland and Thailand -- countries which which would shortly become roads for the powerful countries to trample underfoot. What was World War II about?

Power!

There were twelve great powers, each having a slice of the world "pie". Some of those powers, like Japan and Germany, thought they deserved a bigger piece of the pie. It's really that simple -- nothing deep about it.

Shalom shalom :-)

Note: Opinions expressed in comments are those of the authors alone and not necessarily those of Daniel Pipes. Original writing only, please. Comments are screened and in some cases edited before posting. Reasoned disagreement is welcome but not comments that are scurrilous, off-topic, commercial, disparaging religions, or otherwise inappropriate. For complete regulations, see the "Guidelines for Reader Comments".