Why the Second War Came
Four ingredients of a catastrophe
- In the interwar period, fascism, extreme nationalism, racist ideologies, and the failure of appeasement resulted in the catastrophe of World War II, presenting a grave challenge to European civilisation.
- Four named factors, and the fourth — the failure of appeasement — is a policy, not an ideology.
- A grave challenge to European civilisation is the CED's own assessment, and it is unusually strong language.
Select all four factors the CED says resulted in World War II.
The fourth is a policy, not an ideology.
Three things that allowed rearmament
- French and British fears of another war, American isolationism, and deep distrust between Western democratic, capitalist nations and the authoritarian, communist Soviet Union allowed fascist states to rearm and expand their territory.
- Allowed is the verb — these are not causes of aggression but removals of obstacles to it.
- So the account has two halves: what drove the aggressors, and what failed to stop them.
'Allowed fascist states to rearm' means those three things...
An account needs both halves.
Why each obstacle failed
- Fears of another war is 8.2's cost recorded honestly: a generation that had seen total war did not want a second.
- American isolationism withdraws the power 8.2 had just named as emerging.
- Deep distrust between the democracies and the USSR is 8.1's three-way ideological battle preventing a two-way alliance.
A driver, an obstacle that failed, or the CED's assessment?
Sort each element of the road to 1939.
Select all three things that allowed rearmament and expansion.
The Depression is 8.5, a condition for fascism rather than an obstacle.
'Allowed' is not the same as 'caused'. French and British fears, American isolationism and deep distrust allowed fascist states to rearm and expand their territory — they removed obstacles rather than supplying motives, so an answer needs both halves: what drove the aggressors and what failed to stop them.
Match each failed obstacle to why it failed.
Each traces back to 8.1 or 8.2.
Ideological factors, and how to weigh them
- The objective asks how political and ideological factors resulted in catastrophe — both adjectives.
- Ideological: fascism, extreme nationalism, racist ideologies. Political: appeasement, isolationism, distrust.
- A balanced answer names at least one of each and says how they interacted.
The CED calls the war a grave challenge to European ____.
Unusually strong language for the CED.
Writing the interwar failure
- The structure that works: an aggressor's motive, an obstacle that failed, and the connection between them.
- The connection is usually that the obstacle failed because of something the first war had done.
- That makes 8.7 a continuation of 8.2 and 8.4, which is exactly how the CED has arranged the unit.
A door is unlocked and a room is robbed. The unlocked door explains how the theft was possible, not why anyone wanted what was inside. An account with only one of those is not an account.
In the interwar period, fascism, extreme nationalism, racist ideologies, and the failure of appeasement resulted in the catastrophe of World War II, presenting a grave challenge to European civilisation. Separately, French and British fears of another war, American isolationism, and deep distrust between Western democratic, capitalist nations and the authoritarian, communist Soviet Union allowed fascist states to rearm and expand their territory — obstacles removed, not motives supplied.