he 20’s and 30’s can be explained by the underlying ideological, economic, and military forces, which had profound impacts of the policies of nations. In France and Britain, all the ideological, economic and strategic forces were opposed to war, whereas in Germany and Italy, all these forces were for war. The rift between the two groups created by the underlying forces made war almost inevitable. (Bell, Origins, 296-300)In Richard Overy’s argument, each country had complex motives for their actions before the war, but the final decision was made by some overriding principle or aim unique to each country. Hitler wanted a war, but not the one his gamble created in 1939. Britain went to war to try to save her Empire and the crumbling world order she had created. The reason the revived France went to war in 1939 was to save her honor and status as a great power. Mussolini took Italy into war on the side of Hitler because he believed Hitler offered more that Britain, and that Germany had a better chance of winning. Japan’s main consideration when deciding to attack Pearl Harbor was not power politics, but honor. The U.S. went to war to protect her own interests, but also to save democracy. A very different view from this is PMH Bell’s, who states that Europe moved towards war during the 30’s because of the underlying ideological, economic, and strategic forces influencing foreign policy. Besides the interpretations discussed here, there are many other wide-ranging views on the origins of WWII. Some of these place the blame on one country like Britain, while still others look at it as a planned war, or an ideological war. There are many difficulties with any interpretation since historians only have a limited view of all the incidents created by forces and people. Despite this, new interpretations are constantly being formed from new evidence, and this will likely continue for many more years t...
