Chapter 20
Is it more useful to view the two world wars as separate and
distinct conflicts or as a single briefly interrupted phenomenon?
I believe the two world wars were a single briefly interrupted
phenomenon. World War I was a continuation of the conflict between European
Nation States over dominance in Europe and the fight over colonies abroad. It
resulted in Revolution in Russia and near revolution in Germany and Hungary.
The Germans never accepted their defeat. There was an armistice in 1918 which
the allies turn in to a defeat for Germany. In his book Economic Consequences
of the Peace, John Maynard Keynes argued that the sanctions imposed on Germany
by the Treaty of Versailles were so onerous that Germany could never pay them,
and they would lead to another war. John Maynard Keynes was proven right even
though the Great Depression was a major cause for Hitler’s rise to power.
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