Compare And Contrast World War One Problem And One War Essay

One Problem, One War

“War does not determine who is right–only who is left” - Bertrand Russell. Spoken truthfully, Russell explains that wars are unnecessary when it comes to solving major problems. Wars often end with many lives lost, vast destruction, and no true winner. When WW1 came to an end, the Treaty of Versailles claimed to be a solution. Resultantly, this treaty sparked Germany's anger leading into WW2. World War 1 and World War 2 should be viewed as one World War instead of two separate wars due to the same causes–imperialism, nationalism, and alliances– that forced a domino effect from one war to the other.

Imperialism was present in both world wars which caused intense competition amongst each country to have power over colonies

The problem with alliances is they could make a single event into a much greater than need be. Countries become obligated to aid their allies creating a more impactful fight. A prime example of this situation occurring was when Serbia knew they couldn't meet all the demands of Austria-Hungary, but they knew they had support from Russia. In response, Austria-Hungary knew Germany would back them up if they started a war, so instead of preventing a war, the first World War just began. Forgarty simplifies that into, “most of the people involved either thought or hoped that by saying and knowing that they had the support of their allies they could actually avoid war”. That obviously wasn’t the case identifying the flaws of alliances. After the Treaty of Versailles, allies still remained because of suspicions revolving around Germany. Germany during this time was recruiting its allies: Soviet Union, Italy, and later Japan. Right away, Germany invaded Poland, “without the fear of Soviet intervention”, because of their alliance (United States Holocaust Memorial Museum). This invasion caused Poland’s allies, France and Great Britain, to declare war which was the start of WW2. Once again, the goal was to prevent any war from happening, except alliances are meant to protect against any attack. Even one small problem can result in a big reaction because of all the promises made within countries. Admittedly, without alliances there would be less trade, fewer advancements, and weaker militaries. They also provide compromise and trust between countries. Nevertheless, Germany did betray Russia because they wanted more power. Therefore, countries should neve fully be dependent on their alliance because that causes more countries to get involved creating bigger conflict. Both these wars experienced the same outcome from forming alliances. Infact, the alliances in WW1 influenced the