Compare and Contrast Ww1 & Ww2 Essay

The World Wars were in some ways similar but also, different. The World Wars had similarities in the way the wars were caused, how the wars ended, in regards to who lost, and propaganda. The casualties, the cost, and the military tactics however, were some of their differences. World War I was caused by the assassination of Archduke Francis Ferdinand of Austria in June 1914. However, World War II was caused by the political and economic instability in Germany, along with the bad conditions of the Treaty of Versailles . When the treaty of Versailles was put into affect, Germany acknowledged responsibility for the war, which also meant agreeing to pay enormous amounts of money for war reparations and losing land/territory to those who won the war . However, Germany agreed to this with a lot of bitterness. During World War II, Germany, as a nation, grew to really dislike the Treaty of Versailles because they thought it was unfair and that they were unable to pay the reparations due to the time period, the Great Depression. In addition, Hitler’s Rise to Power and his alliances in opposition to the Soviet Union. World War I was based on imperialism while World War II was a result of a clash of ideologies . WWI fought mainly to try and acquire territory. A s for WWII, it was a battle between Fascism and Communism . Even though there were some different causes to the wars, a similar cause would be the fact that the two wars were caused by a country or more than one country would want more power. During World War I, Germany was trying to get a hold of more power than it already had . The idea of having Germany gain more power alarmed many of the other countries, specifically France, England, and Russia, and forced them to go to war with Germany to be able to keep the balance of power within the nations. By World War II, Germany and Japan both believed that they did not have the amount of power they actually deserved . Germany wanted to regain the power it lost after World War I. As for Japan, it wanted to have a larger empire and to be taken in as a major power. Of course, the Allies were against this because they were fond with how everything was balanced at this time period. In the end, Germany would be the country that suffers and is defeated in both World War I and World War II. The difference in the defeat was that during WWI, the defeat was acknowledged, while in WWII, Hitler chose to fight until the final ending, which ultimately led to mass destruction . The outcome of World War I was that German, Russia, Austro-Hungarian and Ottoman Empires were militarily and politically defeated. The Austro-Hungarian and Ottoman Empires ceased to exist and the League of Nations emerged. The League of Nations was created in the hope of preventing another conflict . However, it failed due to the emergence of World War II. World War II ended with the Allied powers rising with victory, specifically giving USA and the Soviet Union the reputation of being the two most powerful nations, while Germany and Japan lost . After the League of Nations failed, the United Nations was established so that future conflicts could be handled by â€Å"international cooperation† and by preventing conflicts that could lead up to war . World War II had, by far, the most amount of deaths ever before. World War I had an estimated amount of 10 million dead, 21 million wounded, and 7.7 million missing or imprisoned, while World War II had more than 55 million civilian and military deaths . WWII was fought at a much greater scale and there were 7 times more casualties than in WWI. Also, World War I was located mostly in Europe, while World War II had included nearly the entire world. In addition to the casualties, the costs of the wars were outstanding. It is estimated that the cost of World War I cost about 380 billion dollars, while World War II cost about 42,000 billion dollars . Just the cost alone shows the great difference between World War I and World War II. Warfare methods had been the altered in regards of weaponry. During World War I, soldiers would fight from trenches and would use artillery, machine guns, early airplanes, and poisonous gas . There was little mobility during that time period. On the contrary, World War II fought using nuclear power and missiles . During this time period, many special operations were put into affect. An example of a special operation would be Operation Foxley, where the British military planned to assassinate Adolf Hitler (which was not really put into affect). In addition, submarines and tanks were also more heavily used and secret communication, or â€Å"code,† became more difficult to figure out, which benefitted them so that others would not understand their plan of attack, their location, etc. Radios were invented which were heavily used during WWII, while there were only landline phones in WWI . Something similar between World War I and World War II would be the propaganda that would be used to each countries benefit. During World War I and World War II, propaganda was something that both wars relied heavily upon. The propaganda was so heavily relied on due to the use of creating nationalism and supporting the war efforts on both sides and wars . An example would be how, even though the United States were reluctant in entering the war, when it finally joined, propaganda showed men fighting for their country and having to persuade other men to enlist. In addition, there would be that same type of propaganda for World War II. The propaganda helped to have the nation pull together as a whole and to, more importantly, support the war . Even though WWI and WWII seem close, they have had some major differences between them. In regards to political purposes, they were different. Economically, they were outstandingly different. Militarily, they had some similarities but some differences as well. Germany was a big factor that was important in both World War I and World War II. Overall, there were some similar qualities between both wars. In addition, there were some differences that can be seen between Worlds War II and I.