Rise of Dictators

The first thing you might ask is why? Why would any citizen agree to and even echo the words of evil dictators? Let's put ourselves into the perspectives of them: they have just come out of a war where many of their family members have died and they are now living in poverty. They struggle for basic supplies and are now in debt for the reparations. Now, when some figure is coming and saying that they will come take you out of this depression (which was impacting the victorious powers, except the US who became the largest economy selling weapons), they don't really have much to lose. Link on the German Economy after WWI

An important point to make is that not everybody agreed with what they were saying, they just wanted a change for the better. However, for those that it did resonate with them, they were motivated by nationality. As both Mussolini and Hitler wanted to restore their country into the Roman Empire for Italy and a Germanic one for Germany, they wanted to unite nationalities together. Link on Hitler's goal for the war

What is appeasement?

Appeasement was a practice employed by the French and British. It essentially was saying to let Germany and Hitler take whatever lands he wanted, even if it broke the Treaty of Versailles. Also, Hitler broke parts 1, 2, 3, and 5 of the treaty, making it essentially ineffective. While in the present day lens we can criticize the UK and France, we have to be reminded that the British and French citizens really did not want another war and would have done anything to prevent one. Link on a British perspective of Appeasement

What about when the war actually started?

Even as both the France and UK declared war on Germany, for about 8 months, they did absolutely nothing. This was an appeasementesque policy as the only thing they did was prepare for war. It was known as the Phoney War. Now what ended this war you may ask. Well, it was not even the Allied powers but Germany that ended it with the invasion of France. Their period of indecision came to bite them back as France fell in only a month and a half. This victorious power who had fended off Germany in the last war was brutally defeated (with having similar amounts of troops: 3 million). In fact, a whole million were taken within the span of a week, leading to the Paris and France falling.Link on the actual fall of France