The Versailles Agreement put Germany in an extremely humiliating position. The country lost all its colonies, and about 15% of the European territories, which according to the agreement were transferred to France, Belgium, Poland. Germany was supposed to pay multi-billion reparations. But, most humiliatingly, the country had to lose its army. Its number should not exceed 100 thousand people, the General Staff and most other military departments were dissolved. The country did not have the right to develop any kind of weapon, except for the needs of the police. Naturally, such conditions became an excellent basis for strengthening opposition nationalist movements led by Adolf Hitler. The final result of this treaty was World War II, the reasons for which should not be sought in the 30s of the last century, but two decades earlier.
Throughout its long history, Germany has been one of the leading countries in Europe. The heiress of the
Holy Roman Empire could not be brought to her knees. Hitler's slogans, calling nationalist movements in citizens, led to the strengthening of the NSDAP, and as a result, led to the fall of the
Weimar Republic. The birth of the Third Reich was met with great enthusiasm by the people. Hitler developed vigorous activity in concluding treaties with other countries; military alliances were concluded with Italy and Japan. First, secretly, hiding behind the development of agricultural machinery, and then the development of more
modern tanks had clearly begun
. Under the pretext of developing aircraft for the lagging countries of that period, the Germans improved their own aircraft.
Thus, by 1936, the German army was already a very impressive force, which was simply impossible to ignore. The Second World War, the reasons and reasons for which were accumulating faster, was just around the corner. The interaction of units and formations of various branches of the army was perfected in battles on Spanish territory. The Nazis supported General Franco. It was in Spain that the first test combat clash between the forces of Germany and the USSR was carried out. Despite the fact that the Bolshevik movement was defeated, the Germans appreciated the military power of the USSR.
The Germans appreciated the situation well and were aware of the equipment of the Red Army with modern weapons. The Great Patriotic War was delayed for several more years. Hitler understood that without the industrial capacities of Europe he could not defeat the USSR. But on the whole, the country was ready, and the Second World War began. The causes of the conflict can be found in the treacherous behavior of England and France. Their leaders were so carried away by the attempt to pit Hitler and Stalin between themselves that they ignored their allied obligations to Czechoslovakia, which they simply “gave” to the Nazis in 1938, in the hope that Germany would continue its advance to the east. It is the annexation of the Third Reich of Czechoslovakia that begins the main dates of the Second World War.
So, the Second World War, the reasons for its beginning should not be sought only in Hitler’s desire to establish the dominance of the Aryan nation over everyone else. The humiliating Treaty of Versailles, which led to the strengthening of the nationalist movement, the connivance of England and France and their desire to weaken the USSR at the expense of Germany, led to the buildup of the military potential of the Nazis, respectively, the country faced a choice: either to start a war or to find itself in a deep economic crisis.