World War II was the inevitable outcome of the aftermath of World War I. Explain why you agree or disagree with this statement.
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It is hard to know for sure if things could have happened differently than they actually did. However, if forced to take a side on this, I would argue that WWII was not inevitable, even after the Treaty of Versailles was created with all its clauses that were so punitive towards Germany.
The major way that WWII could have been prevented would have been through more forceful action by Britain and France to hold Germany to the terms of the treaty. Starting as early as 1935, Hitler did various things in violation of the treaty. He believed the French and British would not do anything to stop him and he was right where his generals were wrong. If the French and British had stepped in, for example, when Hitler put troops in the Rhineland, Hitler would have looked very foolish and might have been put out of power.
When looked at in this way, the war was not inevitable and could have been prevented by more forceful actions on the part of France and Britain.
I think we can look at the abject failure of the League of Nations as one aspect that foreshadowed WWII. The truth is that nation states were just not willing to prevent aggressive acts until it was too late, and Germany, smarting from its defeat but with a new charismatic leader who promised a strengthened Reich was able to identify this weakness and exploit it. WWII may not have been inevitable, but countries such as France and the UK did not help prevent it.
I would tend to agree that World War II was inevitable. As mentioned above the Treaty of Versailles left Germany very bitter. Hitler was able to take this and turn it into a reason for war.
Even the incompetent prime minister of England at the time, Neville Chamberlain, who had little or no experience in foreign affairs, was able to foresee that World War II would inevitably occur after the tremendous humiliation of Germany with the Treaty of Versailles.
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