How could World War 2 have been prevented?

Answer 1

During the 1930s, Hitler acted belligerently, violating the treaty of Versailles and seizing various pieces of territory. Britain and France, rather than opposing him at the risk of war, kept giving him what he wanted in the hopes of appeasing him. If they had ever stood up to him and gone to war if necessary (while Germany was still weak), they could have stopped him once and for all. Instead they waited until Germany was too strong to beat easily, and World War II was the result. I will say, however, that it is my opinion that even if Hitler had been stopped in the 1930s, there still would have been a second world war sometime in the 1940s against Stalin's Russia. Stalin was just as interested in world conquest as Hitler was; Hitler just beat him to the punch.

Essentially, to stop World War II, all the allies needed to do was stand up to Hitler and say no. If they had stopped the re-occupation of the Rhineland, or the Anschluss of Austria, or the Sudetenland crises, the German generals would have deposed of Hitler. If the Allies had objected strongly enough with the threat of military action against the trashing of the Versailles treaty, Hitler would have been stopped. Any of these actions would have led to the probable loss of face by Hitler and possibly see him ousted by the generals. This would have led to a potential coup and a Germany led by the military, which may still have involved World War II happening. The root causes for WWII lay way back in WWI and the Versailles treaty. If this treaty had been not so harsh, or if the Allies had indeed wanted to help Germany instead of blaming her, then the underlying causes for World War II might have been avoided.

Answer 2

Perhaps not prevented, but certainly many lives could have been saved. Hitler was using that which he stole from the Jews to fund his war. He needed to find a reason to destroy them and make it acceptable to the citizens of Germany. His death camps and the secrecy of his extermination orders made his efforts successful. The news media in this country refused to allow any credible information to be printed which may have caused support to stop the killing.

Isolationists wanted to avoid fighting a war on foreign soil, so they did whatever they could to convince everyone that the Jews and others in the death camps were being treated well. Unfortunately, you can't always believe everything in the news.

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Only if they had entered early enough to prevent the invasion of the Soviet Union.

Answer 3

'Alternative histories' are fascinating but rather futile.

It could be argued that had the victors of WW1 stopped Hitler's repossession of the Rhineland, then WW2 might have been prevented.

Answer 4

These are some thoughts of historians on the matter of preventing World War 2.

• The Treaty of Versailles would be written differently and not been so harsh on Germany.
• Adolf Hitler not being born or come into power would have helped.
• The Japanese would have needed to accept the fact that they could not rule the world and they should continue buying their raw materials an oil from other nations.
• The US would have lifted the oil embargo.

Answer 5

WWII was a direct result of Nazi Germany's invasion of Poland. From there it took its own course, with Britain and France declaring war (france was overrun eventually, while Britain held its own.) Then the USSR was invaded (did they regret that later!) and then the US. Actually the US fought in a proxy war known as the Pacific War with Japan, though minor fighting in Europe was done by US.

Anway, you could say that if you stopped Hitler from coming to power, someone would still eventually come up and say that Germany had to get back for its defeat in WWI (which is what Hitler did) and find a scapegoat (as Hitler found in the Jews). So I guess though, the war was the result of the fact that the Allies of WWI did not effectively enforce the Treaty of Versailles which ended WWI. Nazi Germany actually was able to get tanks past inspectors by taking off the guns and calling them tractors; that's how little they expected another German attack. So if the Allies had been more alert and had the ability to tell a tank from a tractor, yes, World War II could have been prevented in Europe.

If you refer to the Pacific War (the war between US and Japan, not a world war at all), here's my op. The only reason Japan attacked was because the only thing standing between it and further expansion into the Pacific was the US Navy, who were constantly attempting to prevent the Japanese navy from expanding. Finally fed up with this, Prime Minister Tojo was talked into giving the order to attack Pearl Harbour.

So you could have prevented the Pacific War by a) having the US navy stop getting in Japan's way, fat chance or b) fight Japan earlier. Japan's expansion into the Pacific was unstoppable, its hunger for new territory unsatiable. Japan would have not stopped until it had expanded as far as possible.

Answer 6

Nothing

The USA could do nothing to prevent the war in Europe and despite efforts to deal with the Japanese they sneak attacked us.

Answer 7

If the US wasn't bombed, probably. WWI began in 1914, and ended in 1918. The US entered WWI in 1917; only fought for one year! That kind of record could have been repeated for WWII.

Answer 8

The US did participate in the Second World War.

Answer 9

If Hitler got into art school.