Causes and Consequences of World War 1

Conflict and Peace

Causes and Consequences of WWII

In many ways, World War 2 was a direct result of the turmoil left behind by World War 1. The Treaty of Versailles finished World War I between Germany and the Allied Powers. Germany was enforced to "accept the accountability" of the war indemnity and pay a vast sum of money called reparations. The trouble with the treaty is that it left the German economy in wreck. People were ravenous and the government was in turmoil. With the economic chaos lingering over the world by the great depression, some countries were taken over by dictators who created dominant fascist governments. Adolf Hitler offered the frantic Germans, who longed to turn around their economy and restore their national pride, hope and became "Fuhrer" (leader) of Germany. He associated Germany with Mussolini and Italy. Subsequently Hitler looked to refurbish Germany to supremacy by expanding his empire. When the League of Nations did nothing to prevent him, countries such as Britain and France hoped to keep peace through "appeasement." Unfortunately, the policy of appeasement backfired causing the war.

 The Second World War saw the most influential transformation of world politics to date. As a result of the war, the dreadful outcomes became known of the Final Solution, Over 6 million Jews (nearly two-thirds of prewar Europe’s Jewish population) were eliminated along with an estimated 5-6 million gypsies, Catholics, homosexuals, political prisoners, and the mentally ill. Destruction of human life somewhere between 50-70 million people, both military and civilian and massive destruction of European cities and industrial centers. Germany was divided into occupation zones and an "iron curtain" was drawn dividing Europe into western and eastern spheres. Two visions of the post war world, Russia and America emerged the Cold War began. Creation of the United Nations and introduction of worldwide collective security and introduction of nuclear weaponry and escalation of arms race also took place as a result.

Hitler’s Psychological Profile influence on his Leadership and Final Solution

The name Adolf Hitler is related with an icon of madman in power; a man of unfathomable “evil” who was directly to blame for the inconceivable suffering and death of millions of innocent people, the slaughter committed by the Third Reich, and the Final Solution. Psychological theories elucidate developmental factors that likely contributed to the development of severe psychopathology hoping to present profile of Adolf Hitler's personality helpful in understanding motivation his horrific acts. The report by psychoanalyst Walter C. Langer, the psychology of Adolf Hitler from the available information in 1943 and 1944, believed Hitler to be an anxious personality boarding with a strong messiah complex, exhibited significant masochistic tendencies and sexual perversions, and was very likely a homosexual. Furthermore, Langer believed Hitler displayed many schizophrenic symptoms and proposed at that time that the most likely outcome would be suicide. According to Langer He loved his mother deeply, but he feared his father. Such an authoritarian parenting style is closely related to the development of aggressive personality and antisocial behavior which can be clearly observed in Hitler’s later life.