All wars throughout human history have resulted in nothing but destruction and mayhem. However, there is one war that stands out among the rest as being the most destructive, disparaging, vicious war that has ever occurred. This war was responsible for more human loss than any other war in history. This war was World War II. To understand why World War II was so destructive, one must understand the underlining causes of the conflict. There were three major underlining causes for the commencement of World War II. First we have the lack of sustaining a stable peace in Europe after World War I. The rise of Fascism especially in Germany and Italy played a very important role in laying the foundation for the commencement of World War II. Finally, German aggression in Europe (especially Poland) led to a state of emergency in Europe, which made the already tense situation more volatile.
The inability to sustain a stable peace in Europe after World War II played an important role in the commencement of WW2. During the nineteen twenty�s many attempts were made to maintain a stable peace. The first was the establishment of the League of Nations. However the presence of the League of Nations did little to maintain the peace because it�s membership and abidance were strictly voluntary. At the Washington Conference the principle naval powers agreed to limit their navies by a predetermined ratio. In the Paris Peace Pact, 63 countries agreed to renounce war and to resolve all conflicts by pacific means. However, Germany�s compliance with the peace treaties would be short-lived because it would soon become an �aggressor� nation in Europe.
The rise of Fascism in Europe especially in Germany inspired a nationalistic movement there, which called for vengeance and for the unity of the pre-WW1 Germany. German leader Adolf Hitler called for �the rearmament of Germany.� Adolf Hitler was made bitter by the �bad hand� Germany was dealt by the rest of the world after WW1. He helped form a totalitarian state, which would focus on armament and retribution. Adolf Hitler�s militaristic policy�s put all of Europe on the defensive because no country knew whether their sovereignty would become in jeopardy.
Finally, German aggression led to a state of emergency in Europe, which would inevitably lead to conflict. In September 1938 Hitler threatened war to annex the western border area of Czechoslovakia, the Sudetenland and its 3.5 million ethnic Germans. The British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain initiated talks that culminated at the end of the month in the Munich Pact, by which the Czechs, on British and French urging, relinquished the Sudetenland in return for Hitler's promise not to take any more Czech territory. Chamberlain believed he had achieved �peace for our time,� but the word Munich soon implied abject and futile appeasement. Germany�s military aggression and the loads of treaties and pacts that had been sign in Europe after World War I combined catalyzed the beginning of a global war. In the early morning hours of September 1, 1939, the German armies marched into Poland. On September 3 the British and French surprised Hitler by declaring war on Germany, but they had no plans for rendering active assistance to the Poles.
World War II took its place in history as the most dreadful and terrible conflict in Human History. The amount of lives lost could in no way justify the means of any party participating in the war. The end result of World War II was the rise of two lingering world powers: The United States, and The Soviet Union. These two powers would then undergo a diplomatic war, which would last for about half a century.