Causes of World War II: To what extent was World War II caused by factors that could be described as unanticipated or individual agency?



Causes of World War II

Introduction

This paper would provide the overview of World War II and determine the causes and reasons as a result of which World War II took place. Most of the factors related to world war could be described as unanticipated because the events which took place at that time the situation had deteriorated and there was a no option left except war. Furthermore, the after effects of World War 1 also resulted in the creation of events as a result of which World War 2 took place.

Discussion

World War II was an enormous conflict that had great impact on the global role of the United States and on the American home front. It has inevitably given rise to an abundance of interpretations of its events and meaning. Some of the important interpretations and debates involve specific events and developments. Most scholars find little credible evidence for that view. Most scholars agree that it was for the primary purpose of bringing the war to an end as quickly as possible, though with the secondary purpose of impressing the Soviet Union and making it more cooperative after the war(Maurin, Julie, 2009). The conventional view has been yes, but a number of scholars suggest that there were other alternatives to invasion and that the estimate of so many American deaths is greatly inflated.

Factors responsible for World War II

There are economic, political, nationalist, racial, and mythological forces that contributed to the outbreak of the war. One of the key causal dimension was historical. Most historians view the period between WorldWar I and WorldWar II not as a peace but as a cease-fire and an uneasy one.

Economic factors

There are also two overriding interpretations about the meaning and significance of World War II for the United States that have come to shape general understandings of the war and that have also provoked debate among historians. One is that it was the Good War that defeated the Axis, saved democracy, and brought unity, prosperity, and social advance in the United States(Olivetti, 2006). The other is that World War II was a watershed in history that changed the world, transformed American foreign policy, and in numerous ways made the United States a far different place from what it had been before the war.

Political factor

The interpretation of World War II as the Good War fought and won by America's greatest generation has taken firm hold as the prevailing public view of the war. Shaping the 50-year celebrations of the war from 1989 to 1995(Crafts, Mills, 1996). The idea of the Good War focuses partly on the global significance of World War II partly on the benefits it evidently brought the United States. In this analysis, the Grand Alliance against the Axis vanquished Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan, liberated conquered areas from their control and saved democracy.

At home, the Good War unified the nation, ...