Give an account of the causes of the Second World War under the following headings:

(a) Policy of Appeasement adopted by England and France.

(b) Japan's invasion of China.

(c) Failure of the League of Nations.

(a) Policy of Appeasement by England and France — England and France adopted a policy of appeasement towards Germany due to the following reasons:

1. They believed that the Treaty of Versailles had been too serve to the defeated powers, especially Germany.
2. They thought that if genuine grievances of Germany were removed, she would be satisfied and would do nothing to disturb the peace of the world.
3. The Western powers wanted to check the rising tide of Communism and the Russian power. They wished the Communist and the Nazis to fight each other. Hence they did nothing when Hitler began to rearm Germany in complete violation of the terms of the Treaty of Versailles.

(b) Japan's invasion of China — An important act of aggression after the First World War was the invasion of China by Japan in 1931. China appealed to league of nations to declare sanctions against Japan. Britian and France, the leading members of the league did not give any attention to the appeal. Thus Japan occupied Manchuria and setup a government there. In 1933 Japan left the League of Nations and started occupying the British and American properties in China. Britian and France followed the policy of appeasement thinking that Japanese could be used to weaken China.

(c) Failure of the League of Nations — Failure of the League of Nations led to Second World War, as when the weaker nations appealed to the League to take actions against the aggressors, the only weapon that was available with the League was the economic sanctions. But it proved ineffective against determined aggressors. The league did not take any collective action against Italy's aggression in Ethiopia or Japan's invasion of Manchuria. This led to the failure of the league as no actions were taken against the aggressors. This led Germany to occupy Austria and attack Poland, which ultimately led to the Second World War.