WarsUsuallyBeginTenYearsBeforeTheFirstShotIsFired

A volcanic eruption is no sudden phenomenon. For months and years lava goes on accumulating and then spurts out of the crater. Likewise wars do not erupt as if by a magic wand. A number of causes, conflict of political ideologies, trade rivalries, territorial disputes and expansionist ambitions exercise their cumulative effect and prepare the powder-magazine. Then there is the immediate cause which ignites the magazine. The first World War broke out in 1914 over the assassination of Arch-Duke Ferdinand of Austria but as a matter of fact the fires had been smouldering over the years. The phenomenal rise of Germany as an industrial nation had posed a threat to England and France and any stick was considered good enough to beat the German dog. If not the assassination, some other pretext could have been fabricated. So also in the second World War. It came in 1939 with Hitler’s invasion of Poland. But long before this Hitler had been itching for a confrontation with the Allied Powers, England and France, who had imposed such humiliating terms on Germany at the end of the first World War. Hitler tore all treaties and pacts to shreds. England tried to appease Hitler, but there is a limit. England had to jump into the fray. No war but has its roots in the past.