World War I: Causes and Consequences

World War I was widely seen as tragic and avoidable. British historian John Keegan describes it as “a tragic and unnecessary conflict” whose outbreak “might have been prevented.” More than seventeen million people died, and the war "set up the conflict that would result in World War II" [1]. Scholars emphasize the war’s root causes in intense imperial rivalries and alliance miscalculations. By 1914, Europe’s great powers had carved up nearly all global colonies, heightening tensions as each sought further advantage [2].

A tangled network of alliances turned a localized Balkan crisis into a general war: “a complex web of alliances, coupled with the miscalculations of numerous political and military leaders,” led to full-scale mobilization by August 1914 [3]. Diplomatic errors made things worse. Britain’s Foreign Secretary Edward Grey later admitted that his failure to clarify London’s stance may have led Germany to proceed in 1914 [4].

Prewar nationalism, imperial competition, and diplomatic breakdown made the Great War “unnecessary.” The resulting peace left deep resentments—laying groundwork for the next global conflict [1].

The Balfour Declaration and U.S. Involvement

The Balfour Declaration (Nov. 2, 1917) was a British government statement promising “a national home for the Jewish people” in Palestine [5]. British leaders hoped to rally pro-Zionist sentiment, especially in the United States. Foreign Secretary Arthur Balfour argued that the declaration would enlist “the earnestness and enthusiasm” of American Zionist groups, warning that “doing nothing was to risk a direct breach with them” [6].

Historians confirm that Britain viewed Jewish support as vital to Allied unity. Al Jazeera notes that Britain “sided with the Zionists to rally support among Jews in the United States and Russia,” hoping they would pressure their governments to remain in the war [7]. Balfour himself acknowledged that “the vast majority of Jews in … America” were favorable to Zionism [8].

Some revisionist scholars argue the declaration was effectively a “reward to the Zionists for their part in having brought the United States into the First World War” [9]. Regardless, U.S. entry in April 1917 tipped the balance decisively toward an Allied victory. In the postwar peace conference, Germany was forced to accept punishing terms.

Treaty of Versailles: Punitive Terms

The Treaty of Versailles (1919) imposed extremely harsh penalties on Germany. Article 231, the notorious “war-guilt” clause, forced Germany to “accept responsibility” for the war [10]. Reparations were immense—132 billion gold marks (around £6.6 billion), though only about 20 billion was ever paid [11].

Germany also suffered major territorial losses: about 1/8 of its land and 1/10 of its population, including Alsace-Lorraine, the Polish Corridor, and all colonies. It forfeited 15% of grain fields, 50% of iron ore, and 25% of coal production [12]. Economist John Maynard Keynes called the treaty a disaster, predicting economic collapse and warning of future instability [13]. Some contemporaries labeled Versailles a “thinly veiled Carthaginian Peace,” designed to permanently weaken Germany [14].

Indeed, historians now agree the harsh settlement “forbid any reasonable resolution,” and German resentment over the treaty “leads to the rise of Hitler” [15].

The Weimar Crisis and Hitler’s Rise

After the war, Germany’s Weimar Republic faced political chaos and economic disaster. The U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum notes that “after World War I ended, Germany experienced great political turmoil,” worsened by unemployment and hyperinflation [16].

These crises fueled extremism. The Nazi Party defined itself as “the antithesis of Marxist Socialism and Communism” [17]. After the 1929 Depression, Nazi anti-communism became more appealing. Historian accounts suggest that the economic collapse “left [Germans] vulnerable to arguments from the extreme right” [18].

In Mein Kampf, Hitler promised a racially “pure” Germany through conquest of Soviet territory and destruction of “Judeo-Bolshevism” [19]. His rise was rooted in both Weimar instability and popular fear of communism [20].

Allied Strategy: Churchill, Roosevelt, and the Soviet Union

Strategic decisions by Churchill and Roosevelt extended the war and empowered Stalin’s USSR. Both leaders postponed opening a second front in Western Europe. History.com notes that competing demands—especially in the Pacific—delayed D-Day [21]. Roosevelt admitted in 1942 that Pacific operations “reduced the opportunity for an invasion of Europe” [22].

Meanwhile, the Soviets bore the brunt of fighting on the Eastern Front. At the Tehran and Yalta Conferences, the Allies made significant concessions to Stalin. Roosevelt extended Lend-Lease to the USSR and agreed it should be treated as an equal postwar power [23]. In February 1945, FDR and Churchill agreed to Soviet control over part of Germany and influence in Eastern Europe [24].

These decisions—delaying D-Day and conceding Eastern Europe—strengthened Stalin's postwar position and arguably extended the war [25].

Soviet Repression and Nazi Atrocities

Stalin's regime committed mass crimes on a scale exceeding those of the Nazis. Historian Norman Naimark reports that nearly a million Soviet citizens were executed in the 1930s, with millions more dying from famine, forced labor, and mass deportation [26]. The Gulag system imprisoned roughly 18 million people between 1929–1953 [27].

Alexander Solzhenitsyn’s The Gulag Archipelago exposed the extent of Soviet atrocities, previously hidden by secrecy [28]. Naimark calls both Hitler and Stalin “genocidaires,” but notes that Soviet crimes were excluded from the UN Genocide Convention due to Soviet influence [29].

In sum, Soviet atrocities—purges, famine, the Katyn Massacre, and the Gulag—were vast in scale but underacknowledged for decades.

Nazi Anti-Communism and War Aims

Hitler’s foreign policy was deeply shaped by anti-Bolshevik ideology. From the beginning, the Nazi Party opposed communism [17]. Hitler vowed to defeat the USSR to gain Lebensraum for Germans and eliminate “Judeo‑Bolshevism” [19]. He presented policy options as a stark choice between “a Bolshevist Germany and a National‑Socialist Germany” [30].

This ideological mission explains why the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact was only a short-term tactic and why the 1941 invasion of the USSR was framed as a war for “the destruction of Bolshevism.” While Nazi atrocities had other motives, anti-communism remained a central ideological force.

---

References

1. Keegan, John. Causes of the First World War: A Literature Review. Explaining History, February 26, 2025. https://explaininghistory.org/2025/02/26/causes-of-the-first-world-war-a-literature-review/
2. “Community of Christ Archives.” Dialogue Journal. https://www.dialoguejournal.com/curated-topics/community-of-christ/
3. Ibid. (Dialogue Journal)
4. Ibid. (Explaining History)
5. The Balfour Declaration: November 2, 1917. The Avalon Project. Yale Law School. https://avalon.law.yale.edu/20th_century/balfour.asp
6. Troen, S. Ilan. “When American Jews Fought Over the Balfour Declaration.” Mosaic Magazine, September 2018. https://mosaicmagazine.com/observation/israel-zionism/2018/09/when-american-jews-fought-over-the-balfour-declaration/
7. “More than a Century On: The Balfour Declaration Explained.” Al Jazeera, November 2, 2018. https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2018/11/2/more-than-a-century-on-the-balfour-declaration-explained
8. “Balfour Declaration.” Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Balfour_Declaration
9. “The Balfour Declaration and the Zimmermann Note.” Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, August–September 1997. https://www.wrmea.org/1997-august-september/the-balfour-declaration-and-the-zimmermann-note.html
10. “Versailles, Treaty of.” 1914-1918 Online Encyclopedia. https://encyclopedia.1914-1918-online.net/article/versailles_treaty_of
11. “Historical Documents: Treaty of Versailles Reparations.” Office of the Historian, U.S. State Department. https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1919Parisv13/ch17subch1
12. Ibid.
13. “John Maynard Keynes Predicts Economic Chaos from the Treaty of Versailles.” HISTORY, December 8, 1919. https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/december-8/keynes-predicts-economic-chaos
14. Dialogue Journal. (See Reference 2)
15. Ibid.
16. “The Nazi Party.” Holocaust Encyclopedia, U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum. https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/the-nazi-party-1
17. Ibid.
18. Dialogue Journal. (See Reference 2)
19. “Document on National Socialism and Bolshevism.” German History in Documents and Images (GHDI). https://ghdi.ghi-dc.org/sub_document.cfm?document_id=4656
20. Explaining History. (See Reference 1)
21. “Churchill and Roosevelt Spent Years Planning D-Day.” HISTORY. https://www.history.com/articles/d-day-roosevelt-churchill-doubts-planning
22. Ibid.
23. “FDR, Churchill and Stalin: Inside Their Uneasy WWII Alliance.” HISTORY. https://www.history.com/articles/big-three-allies-wwii-roosevelt-churchill-stalin
24. “The Yalta Conference at Seventy-Five: Lessons from History.” Atlantic Council. https://www.atlanticcouncil.org/blogs/new-atlanticist/the-yalta-conference-at-seventy-five-lessons-from-history/
25. Ibid.
26. Naimark, Norman. “Stalin Killed Millions: Was It Genocide?” Stanford Report, September 23, 2010. https://news.stanford.edu/stories/2010/09/naimark-stalin-genocide-092310
27. “Faces from the Gulag: Photos of Soviet Labour Camps and Their Prisoners.” History Hit. https://www.historyhit.com/faces-from-the-gulag/
28. Dialogue Journal. (See Reference 2)
29. Naimark, Norman. (See Reference 26)
30. Dialogue Journal. (See Reference 2)