Conflicts of the Twentieth Century Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Conflicts of the Twentieth degree Celsius - Essay ExampleThrough dry land fight I, World War II, and the Cold War, the nations of Germany and Japan compete critical roles.In the years before World War I, Germanys nationalism reached full tilt. The Germans were proud of their conglomerate, military, and industry. They were edged to defend their empire against others, especially the British, who were shocked to find Germanys industrial output topping their own. In 1905 and 1911, tilt for colonies brought France and Germany to the brink of war. Diplomacy prevented the outbreak of war then, but Germany did gain some territory in cardinal Africa (Blum, Cameron, and Barnes, 1970, 320).Militarism in Germany also helped drive the world closer to war. The public viewed war with romantic eyes, and the notion of accessible Darwinism suggested that, if a nation could become powerful enough to take what it wanted, then it ought to have it. As nations spent more and more money to create grand fighting machines, it must have seemed almost a shame to them to have no excuse to use them - much like a new color belt in a Tae Kwon Do class who is eagerly waiting for the school bully to buckle under him an excuse to practice his martial arts. Germanys army and navy swelled in size to protect its empire and homeland, and other nations reacted accordingly. Germanys military leadership encouraged aggression. Helmuth von Moltke, a high-ranking strategist, declared, The German people must be made to see that we have to attack because of enemies provocation. . . . War must seem like a deliverance from the not bad(p) armaments, the financial burdens, the political tensions. . . . (Snyder, 1960, 377)Germanys participation in the alliance system also helped create the conflict of World War I. Kaiser William II encouraged Francis Joseph to take a firm stand against Serbia. The alliance system touch the nations of Europe and the States, too. What should have been a small, locali zed conflict turned into a deadly contest betwixt Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Italy on one side, and France and Britain (and eventually the US) on the other side (Unger and Unger, 1990, 257).Germanys role in World War I had direct effects on Americans. Unrestricted submarine warfare by the Germans helped draw America into the war. Americans on European vessels such as the Sussex and Lusitania would be killed while crossing the Atlantic. (They had been warned not to cross on those European ships, but this detail is often omitted in our national memory). America would be threatened from the southeasterly as German leaders encouraged Mexico to launch an attack against the US to regain its land missed in the Mexican-American War. The Zimmerman note sought to bring Mexico into the war. Germany forced America to decide between isolationism and a abnegation of democracy (Unger and Unger, 1990, 145).Likewise, Germanys role in World War II is hard to overstate. They were well-equipped for war, with plenty of material resources and a new leadership that captured public attention. Taking advantage of political instability and a fear of communism, Hitler speeded the work up of the Nazi Party. Concentrating on the unfairness of the Treaty of Versailles, the Jewish problem, and a bad