Portugal's world and colonial-empire for example was connected with Spain in peoples-union in the year 1580, with which Portugal replaces herself as the first power of Europe. England begins to attack Spain's trade routes already in 1577. Spain loses its precisely secured supremacy-role in the Sea war against England through the downfall of the fleet in 1588. Now England rises and adopts the supremacy on the globe as Great Britain for three-and a half centuries. Since Holland arose as a Merchantile Power, England began attacking Holland and in two Naval Wars between 1652 and 1674 defeated Holland which put her Economy and as a Merchandise power to the bottom. Since then, England had to confront once more a serious conflict, as France under Nepoleon I tried to diminish England as the First Sea power.

Since then, England kept her Eyes always open to watch so that no other power in the continent and even around her colonies be more powerfull which could turn to be her competitor. England's "balance of power" strategy was to interfere in the matter of other two fighting countries against each other in which she supported the weaker one so that the stronger one could not remain strong any more. This british "balance of power" strategy was always applied by the british Emperium untill the beginning of "Second World War". In the 18th and 19th Century England startet wars several times in which her intention was to take away the colonies of the other colonial powers, sometimes to protect her own supporters in the colonies where freedom fight took place, or to weaken the power of her competitor.

 

General Cause (Situation in Germany)

The National Socialist German Workers Party came to power in Germany by democratic means. The reasons for their popularity included their renouncement of the Treaty of Versailles, which had placed many restrictions on Germany since the end of the First World War, staunch anti-communism, and promises of stability and economic reconstruction. They also appealed to a sense of Germanic identity, and entitlement, which would play an important role in starting the war, as they demanded the integration of lands to be rightfully German. Hitler was also portrayed by himself, his party, and his book Mein Kampf as a traditional savior for the German people, an idea whose popularity was boosted in the 1930s because of Germany's loss of World War One and of common discontent towards Kaiser Wilhelm II, the hereditary leader of Germany.

 

Ideological causes (Communism)

The Russian Revolution created a new fear in many Germans of communist insurrection in their own country. Shortly after World War I, there had been an attempted revolt by the communists to seize power in the country, which had been put down by ex-soldiers operating under former commanders. Such forces made up an important part of the early NSGWP Party. Most conservative and right wing sections within the Western Allies, including Neville Chamberlain were venomously anti-communist; though they had failed to win support for their war against the Soviet Union from their war weary countries in the 1919-20 interventions.

 

Germany’s Lost Territories

After World War I, the German State had lost land to Lithuania, France, Poland, and Denmark. Notable losses included the Polish Corridor, the Memel Territory (to Lithuania), the Province of Posen and the most economically valuable eastern portion of Upper Silesia. The economically valuable regions of the Saarland and the Rhineland were placed under the authority (but not jurisdiction) of France.

The result of this loss of land was relocation, bitterness among Germans for the loss, and also difficult relations with those in these neighboring countries, contributing to feelings of French revanchism.

Under the Nationalist regime, Germany began its own program, seeking to restore the "rightful" boundaries of pre-World War I Germany, resulting in the regaining of the Rhineland and Polish Corridor, leading to an inevitable war with Poland.

However, due to Allied appeasement and prior inaction, Hitler estimated that he could invade Poland without provoking a general war and, at the worst, only spark Allied intervention after the war was already decided.

Also of importance was the idea of a Greater Germany, where supporters hoped to unite the German people under one nation.

After the Treaty of Versailles, an Anschluss, or union, between Germany and a newly reformed Austria was prohibited by the Allies. Such a plan of unification, predating the creation of the German State of 1871, had been discarded due to the Austro-Hungarian Empire's multiethnic composition as well as competition between Prussia and Austria for hegemony. At the end of World War I, the majority of Austria's population supported such a union.

Hungary, an ally of Germany had also been stripped of enormous territories after the partition of Austria-Hungary and hoped to regain those rightful lands by allying with Germany.

In many of these cases, national slights resulting from previous involvement in WW1 or nationalistic goals of re-unification of former territories can be found.

 

Treaty of Versailles

The Treaty can be said to be the single most important, cause of the war. It placed the blame, or "war guilt" on Germany and Austria-Hungary, and punished them from their "responsibility" rather than work out an agreement that would assure peace in the long-term future. The Treaty resulted in harsh reparations, territorial dismemberment, mass ethnic resettlements and hampered the German economy by causing rapid hyperinflation. The Weimar Republic printed trillions to help pay off its debts, and borrowed heavily from the United States (only to default later) to pay war reparations to Britain and France, who still carried war debt from World War I.

Another important aspect of the Treaty was that it created bitter resentment towards the victors of the First World War, who had promised the people of Germany that Wilson's Fourteen Points would be a guideline for peace; many Germans felt that the German government had agreed to an armistice based on this understanding, while others felt that the German Revolution itself had been orchestrated by the "November criminals" who later assumed office in the new Weimar Republic.

Contributing to this, the Allies had failed to step foot on German soil, and the war in the East against Russia had already been won by Germany. These were the pillars that held together the Dolchstosslegende, and gave the NSDP another tool at their disposal.

more about.... Treaty of Versailles

 

Competition for resources

At that time, Indonesia (Dutch West Indies) one of the oil rich areas in Asia were controlled by the European colonial powers. Japan, the only Asian country with a fast developing industrial economy at that time, feared that a lack of raw materials might lead to an inability to grow. To remedy this deficiency and ensure a safe supply of oil and other critical resources Japan would have to challenge the European colonial powers over the control of oil rich areas. Such a move against the colonial powers was however expected to lead to open conflict also with the United States.
On August, 1941 the crisis came to a head as the United States, which at the time supplied 80% of Japanese oil imports, initiated a complete oil embargo. This threatened to cripple both the Japanese economy and once the strategic reserves would run dry. Faced with the choice of either trying to appease the U.S. or go to war over resources, Japan had to chose the latter. Hoping to knock out the U.S., the Japanese Navy attacked the U.S. Navy at Pearl Harbor in December, 1941.

For a variety of reasons, Japan and the United States relations were very suspicious. Japan did not like American power in the region and the US did not want Japanese presence there. The two were often in competition for resources in the region. Any time one of the sides gained power or resources, the other country felt the need to gain something as well.

Japan felt threatened by the US in the Pacific region. At the same time some Americans began to develop racist feelings towards Japanese and other Asian Americans. Several laws were also passed in America and Canada which were more or less prejudiced against the Japanese and other Asians.

League of Nations

1920 Assembly of the League of Nations (The first assembly)

The League of Nations was an international organization founded after World War I to prevent future wars. The League's methods included disarmament; preventing war through collective security; settling disputes between countries through negotiation diplomacy; and improving global welfare. The diplomatic philosophy behind the League represented a fundamental shift in thought from the preceding hundred years. The old philosophy, growing out of the Congress of Vienna (1815), saw Europe as a shifting map of alliances among nation-states, creating a balance of power maintained by strong armies and secret agreements. Under the new philosophy, the League was a government of governments, with the role of settling disputes between individual nations in an open and legalist forum. The impetus for the founding of the League came from U.S. President Woodrow Wilson, though the United States never joined the League of Nations.

This also lessened the power of the League - the addition of a burgeoning industrial and military world power would have added more force behind the League's demands and requests.
The League lacked an armed force of its own and so depended on the Great Powers to enforce its resolutions, keep to economic sanctions which the League ordered, or provide an army, when needed, for the League to use. However, they were often very reluctant to do so.
After a number of notable successes and some early failures in the 1920's, the League ultimately proved incapable of preventing aggression by the Axis Powers in the 1930's. The absence of the USA, the reliance upon unanimous decisions, the lack of an armed force and the continued self-interest of its leading members meant that this failure was arguably inevitable.