Causes of WW1 and WW2

[Ivan]

To what extent is the rise of socialism a cause of World War 1 and 2? 

 

I am asked to make a presentation about this and right now I have no idea on how to answer this question. 

[Vioh]

To what extent is the rise of socialism a cause of World War 1 and 2? 

 

I am asked to make a presentation about this and right now I have no idea on how to answer this question. 

 

If you don't know an answer to the question, then you need to do some research. Read through the chapters about the causes of the world wars in your textbook or any history books that you have. You can't just do a presentation on something that you have no knowledge about!

Here are some of the points (from my old essay) that might help you to get on the right track:

• Rise of communism didn't cause the WWI, because the first communist regime (i.e. communist Russia) didn't emerge until 1917.
• Hostility of Western democracies (like Great Britain, France, etc.) against the rise of the communism in the East destroyed the diplomacy between the West and Stalin's USSR. This led to the exclusion of USSR from the Munich Conference. The exclusion was interpreted by Stalin as a movement to cut USSR off from the rest of European politics. This later encouraged Stalin to be 'friendlier' with Germany by signing the Treaty of Rapallo in 1922 & the Non-Aggression Pact with Hitler in 1939.
• Some historians regarded totalitarianism as a main cause of WWII, because totalitarianism (which consists of both Fascism & Communism) was a new political phenomenon, thus creating confusions among the politicians in the West. However, communism wasn't the direct cause of WWII, because unlike fascism, Stalin's foreign policies didn't favor any military aggressions at all. His policies (such as the Non-Aggression Pact) were primarily defensive which aimed to get the greatest security for USSR. In other words, communism only indirectly caused the WWII because Stalin was just following the "Marriage-for-convenience" principle (i.e. "the enemy of my enemy is my friend")
• WWII can also be seen as an ideological war between Communism & Fascism. This was illustrated by Hitler's attack on USSR in 1941 (which aimed to destroy the "corrupted" communists)
• Here, you might even discuss the revisionist view for the causes of the WWII, which blamed the war on Stalin's USSR rather than on Germany/Japan/Italy. This view said that it was entirely Stalin's faults because he wanted a European War & he encouraged Hitler to start the war (as seen by Stalin's signing the Non-Aggression Pact)

So what you need to do now is to expand all the points I have listed above. Make an assessment by yourself to answer the main RQ of the presentation. Do you think that the rise of communism caused WWII to a large or only to some extent?